Monthly Archives: December 2011

‘The Piano Has Been Drinking,’ not me

Posted on December 12, 2011 by oddmanout215

Tom Waits performs, then jokes with Martin Mull and Fred Willard on Fernwood Tonight. The mock-talk show ran for a few months in 1977, and was re-formatted and telecast as America 2-Night for a few months in 1978. I had … Continue reading →

Posted in arts, humor, pop music | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Happy Xmas — or is it Groundhog Day?

Posted on December 11, 2011 by oddmanout215

I run past Dan’s store on Passyunk Avenue, I see his Christmas trees for sale at curbside, breathe the scent of pine and hear “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” skipping from the speakers above his storefront. Each time … Continue reading →

Posted in arts, fiction, humor, Philadelphia, pop music | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Correction, Paul — Mitt is a villain

Posted on December 10, 2011 by oddmanout215

I’m glad Paul Krugman took a moment Friday to link Oliver Stone’s 1987 movie Wall Street to Mitt Romney’s presidential candidacy, but I’m wondering why the columnist pulled his punches rather than go for the KO. The record shows that … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Rove’s ads are from the Goebbels playbook

Posted on December 9, 2011 by oddmanout215

Karl Rove, shown here on Stephen Colbert’s TV show, has taken aim at Elizabeth Warren, perhaps to prove his filthy mind is still as nimble as in 2004, when he destroyed John Kerry’s presidential hopes by portraying him in campaign … Continue reading →

Posted in CFPB, economic collapse, history, liar, mainstream media, Occupy Wall Street, Politics, Wall Street | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Obama is on our side… when he’s campaigning

Posted on December 7, 2011 by oddmanout215

This is from President Obama’s much-praised speech Tuesday in Osawatomie, Kansas, where Teddy Roosevelt gave his “New Nationalism” speech in 1910. The setting was chosen so that the corporate media would link Obama to the resurgence of progressive sentiments among … Continue reading →

Posted in economic collapse, Great Recession, mainstream media, Obama, Occupy Wall Street, Politics, taxes, The New Depression, Uncategorized, unemployment, Wall Street | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

‘I Wanted To Tell You’

Posted on December 7, 2011 by oddmanout215

From Matthew Sweet’s third and best album, Girlfriend, which appeared 20 years ago this Fall and proved that the age of hard-driving, well-crafted pop songs wasn’t quite over. It’s a catchy batch of rockers and ballads about crazy love and … Continue reading →

Posted in arts, pop music | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Banksters spooked by ‘Occupy Our Homes’

Posted on December 7, 2011 by oddmanout215

Not surprisingly, the corporate news media hasn’t made much of the human drama taking place as foreclosures and evictions by the big banks continue across the country. As Michael Moore wrote yesterday, “You need a Kardashian in your home as … Continue reading →

Posted in economic collapse, Great Recession, mainstream media, Occupy Wall Street, Politics, The New Depression, Wall Street | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Police armed to the teeth to fight — protesters?

Posted on December 6, 2011 by oddmanout215

We all know that police departments across the country are becoming more and more militarized, as if expecting attacks from a domestic version of the Taliban. But the amount of hardware moving from the Pentagon to the police is even … Continue reading →

Posted in Congress, Occupy Wall Street, Politics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

A peculiar way to measure jobs growth

Posted on December 5, 2011 by oddmanout215

Robert Reich is a commonsensical guy, and so what if he sometimes injects false optimism into his commentaries? You can tell he’s merely trying not to be a gloom merchant, that the jobs picture looks as bleak to him as … Continue reading →

Posted in economic collapse, Great Recession, mainstream media, Politics, The New Depression, unemployment | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Victoria loved them all, including Iran

Posted on December 4, 2011 by oddmanout215

People who follow the news in a superficial way may have read about the storming of the British Embassy in Tehran and said “There they go again, those wild-eyed Islamic radicals. Something should be done about them.” So it was … Continue reading →

Posted in arts, history, mainstream media, Politics, world-wide economy | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment