Joe Strummer: 'Black 47 is the only band that matters'
That's what The Clash's main man said in the 1990s, according to a wonderful valedictory story about the unique Irish-American band Black 47 in the New York Times on Friday.Why would Joe Strummer say...
View ArticleMike Nichols: We are all Willy Loman now
Not exactly Willy Loman, and not exactly now, Nichols was interviewed by the NPR business show Marketplace in 2012, when he directed a Broadway revival of "Death of a Salesman" starring Philip Seymour...
View ArticleThe real story of ISIS
The corporate media went gaga about the "new" jihadi militia group ISIS a few months ago, largely because they had overrun the Sunni Triangle part of Iraq that had been the main battleground of the...
View ArticleChris Gibson for NY governor or US senator in 2018?
New York Republicans have not won a statewide race (governor, attorney general, comptroller, US senator) in 12 years, mostly because NY is a solidly blue state by registration, but also because they...
View ArticleA Koch hack tells the Pope to 'back off' on climate change
Pope Francis will be issuing a rare encyclical on the environment and climate change next year, and it's pretty clear that his message will not be "Drill, baby, drill."According to the Guardian story,...
View ArticleScott Walker hates public higher education for two reasons
Hunter's diary today about Scott Walker's proposed $300M in budget cuts for the University of Wisconsin system is, of course, great. But Hunter does not explore the real motive for these savage cuts.It...
View ArticleNY-Gov: Gibson begins campaign
When GOP Rep. Chris Gibson, NY-19, announced last month that he would not run for a fourth term in 2016, many people (myself included) opined that he was setting his eyes on running statewide (probably...
View ArticleThe teabagger response to the first state seat belt law
Some teabagger pols in Maine want to repeal the state's seat belt law, because of the ficticious freedom to seriously injure yourself on public highways.yingyang had a diary today about this, that...
View ArticleOther Bloody Sundays
The 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma has occasioned a wonderful movie and moving tributes yesterday by President Obama and Rep. John Lewis on the bridge named for a notorious racist where...
View ArticleAlbany charters stumble while founder pockets $400K-plus/year
Former Pataki hack Tom Carroll used to be the very public voice of the Brighter Choice charter school system in Albany. But since the charters for his two middle schools were not renewed by the state...
View ArticleA job 'Americans' apparently won't do -- digging ditches for Verizon for...
Verizon is a telecom behemoth, with revenues of $32 billion and profits of $4.3 billion in the first three months of this year.But like most corporations these days, Verizon employs as few workers as...
View ArticleNOM's pathetic response to the Irish vote
The Irish people's brilliant affirmation of marriage equality yesterday has naturally caused some gnashing of teeth among the ever-fewer Catholics who are devoted to their idea of "traditional...
View ArticleThe remarkable endurance of the weird POW/MIA flag
There was a brief tabloid media kerfluffle in NYC last week about a relic of the Vietnam War -- the POW/MIA flag.It seems the flag had not been flown in front of City Hall for almost a year, until...
View ArticleUsing 'entitlement reform' is always wrong and misleading
since what is really meant is "reducing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits."Yet it is misused all the time, and not just because two words are shorter than seven.The corporate media and...
View Article'Vanity Fair' piece on Chris Hughes and Sean Eldridge barely mentions NY-19 race
A long Vanity Fair feature by Sarah Ellison entitled "The Complex Power Coupledom of Chris Hughes and Sean Eldridge" has a lot of detail about their backgrounds, how Hughes became a Facebook...
View ArticleHow Scott Walker talks to the base, when there are no cameras around
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is a top-tier candidate for the Republican presidential nomination next year.Not because he's been a great success as governor, not because he's reliably wingnut on social...
View ArticleWalker lies again, like it's second nature
All politicians gild the lily when talking about themselves and their accomplishments, but they usually try to avoid outright lies.Not Scott Walker -- he lies so often and so casually that it must be...
View ArticleJoy on Broadway with the World Champions
I have been a fervent TV fan of the US Women's National Team since just 2011 (occasional before that), because of the latest and most dramatic World Cup goal, men or women -- Allie Krieger to Carli...
View ArticleTrump elbows Walker in Iowa, says 'Wisconsin's doing terribly'
Short-fingered vulgarian Donald Trump is clearly not afraid of "going too far," by Village media standards, in criticizing anyone, from Mexican immigrants to President Obama.As a direct result, he is...
View ArticleMy email to Schumer and Gillibrand re: Iran
Evidently, how my NY Senators, Chuck Schumer moreso than Kirsten Gillibrand, will vote on the Iran nuclear agreement is a big thing.The story linked above is relatively balanced, compared to the...
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