Hank and His Rowdy Mouth

The marriage between Hank Williams Jr. and Monday Night Football came to end last Thursday when ESPN decided to permanently pull the “Are you ready for some football?” intro from its MNF telecast. The move came on the heels of comments that Williams made on Fox n’ Friends in which he made an analogy that President Barack Obama and House Speaker Rep. John Boehner golfing together was like Nazi leader Adolph Hitler and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu playing a round.

Understandably, ESPN decided to discontinue its association with Williams and on Thursday made it official. Williams' theme song has been part of "MNF" since 1989. The song was a version of his hit "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" that he altered to match each week's game. He owns the song and all the rights to it, so ESPN will not be able to use it in any way.

Many commentators and comedians have come to William’s defense, claiming ESPN was infringing on his right to free speech. His defenders included the left-leaning Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar of "The View" and Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" and on the other side of the political landscape Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh.

Luckily for the world of music and mass media, Williams has cut a new song “I'll Keep My ..." calling out "Fox & Friends" and ESPN. Early in the song Williams says the U.S. is "going down the drain" and says it's becoming "The United Socialist States of America." He mentions keeping "Fox & Friends" and ESPN out of your home toward the end of the song.

Cool lyrics…I see a Grammy coming out of this.

For the record, the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.

Despite claims by Williams and his defenders, ESPN did not trample his first amendment rights and (I cant believe I am going to say this) Fox n’ Friends did not engage in “gotcha journalism.”

On the contrary, Williams got to exercise his first amendment right and shot off his rowdy mouth. Fox n’ Friends did not twist his words, and they provided him with the opportunity to clarify his statements. The Federal Government did not in any way violate his constitutional rights, he was not detained or arrested, nor was he beaten, tortured or coerced into making any false or misleading statements.

So in conclusion, Hank got to speak his mind, and because of the inflammatory nature of his comments, ESPN decided to no longer do business with him. This is within their rights as a “for-profit” private enterprise. One other point, private companies (which are now considered “people” thanks to the Supreme Court) are NOT constrained by the 1^st Amendment.

Many people do not understand free speech.

Yes, Hank Williams, Jr. has the right to free speech. But that right comes with strings attached; specifically a private citizen is not afforded 1^st amendment protections as an employee of a corporation. The employer has the right to stifle the speech or terminate the employee if the employee in question hurts the corporation’s image or bottom line. When one takes a job they agree to the conditions specified by the employer. The courts have ruled that one may either refuse the employment or quit the job.

 Williams spoke his mind (such as it is) and ESPN didn’t like the negative publicity that came their way as a result. In this country, private citizens, even wacky guys like Hank have to take responsibility for what they say. When you compare the President of United States to a psychopath who murdered millions of innocent people, you will find that most intelligent people will find that offensive. ESPN has every right to make sure their highest rated show does not start off every week with someone who offends people. That is their right.

Hank is still free to speak his mind just not on ESPN’s dime.

We're Mad As Hell part duh

Some politicians and mass media political pundits have gone on the record and have said that the Occupy Wall Street protests are staged events. According to people like Republican Presidential candidate Herman Cane, the demonstrations are political theater designed to deflect attention away from President Obama’s failed policies. Wishful thinking to be sure, but unfortunately, that is not the case.

The Occupy Wall Street demonstrations are a real organic movement that has put a spotlight on the dysfunctional nature of our government and the gross economic disparity among the have’s and have’s not. The recession and social problems that currently affect our nation are not a new phenomena born into existence in the last three years. The issues that currently confront our nation have been looming in the background for the last four decades, and hoping that the problems will magical disappear or the next generation will deal with them is no longer a sustainable policy.

We have two choices before us; we can have a hard decade or a miserable century.

The problems that confront our nation are complex and daunting but not impossible to fix. But everyone, and that means, rich, poor, and middle class have to equally sacrifice in order to turn things around for generations of Americans unborn. Admittedly fixing what is broken wont be easy, but in order to gain some insight into how to proceed, we first need to examine the past…

The stock market crash and the resulting great depression came about in 1929. President Hoover and his administration were more concerned with fly fishing and putting Al Capone behind bars rather than helping reducing the 25 percent unemployment rate in the country. So FDR was elected and probation (18th amendment) was repealed and the country muddled along until 1933 when the American people demanded that the President and Congress do something. This resulted in the much-vaunted New Deal…

Fast-forward to 2011 … massive unemployment, foreclosures, rising poverty rates, out-of-touch-do-nothing Congress, well meaning but impotent President, crisis of confidence, protesters demanding, “do something.”

Sounds familiar? Of course instead of repealing probation, we hear vows to repeal and abolish Obamacare from the face of the Earth, but the similarities are pretty uncanny.

So what to do? Here are a few ideas…

We need to get the big money out of our political process. Super-pacs need to be outlawed. Corporations should not be allowed to pay for political outcomes. Our democracy should not be for sale.

We need to honest with our selves. Tell the truth about the state of our economy, and the plight of the 99 percent. Corporations are not people. Taxing the rich so they pay their fair share wont kill them. 

Close tax loopholes for corporations and over haul the tax system.

Arrest and prosecute the robber barons in Wall Street and the banking institutions that caused our economic meltdown. No individual or corporation should have free reign to destroy our economy and the American Dream.

Lastly, stop electing people who are unfit or unqualified to hold office. The crazies should not be running the asylum.

Our political leaders should care about protecting and advancing the interest of our nation rather than lining their pockets with donor money. They should be willing to compromise to serve a greater propose. But most of all they should have some damn empathy.

We have the democracy we deserve, and right now we have grid-lock because we are too easily distracted by the things that separate us rather than focusing on things that we share in common.

We're As Mad As Hell

It was bound to happen, the disenfranchised and marginalized in our country taking to the streets and screaming for the world to hear, “We’re as mad as hell and we are  not going to take this anymore!”

The Occupy Wall Street protests and all the other spontaneous demonstrations that have taken place in several cities is the American version of the Arab spring!

Many politicians like Rep. Eric Cantor, and mass media political pundits have proposed that the protesters that call themselves the 99 percent are nothing more than shiftless, unruly mobs. According to Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, the plight of the unemployed is their own fault. "Don't blame Wall Street, don't blame the big banks, if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself. It is not someone's fault if they succeeded, it is someone's fault if they failed."

Mr. Cain like Rep. Cantor and the rest of the naysayers and political pundits all seem to conveniently forget that wall street and the banking industry played a significant role in the 2008 economic meltdown. The recession that has gripped our nation and played havoc with the global finical markets is not a natural economic phenomenon. The ugly truth is our nation was robbed and the banks and people responsible got away it…. and worse yet, the robber barons and their cronies have gotten richer on the dime of the American taxpayer.

The numbers as they stand -- 14 to 20 million unemployed in our country, the nation's poverty rate rose to 15.1% in 2010, about 46.2 million people are now considered in poverty, 2.6 million more than last year.

And the guys responsible are sitting on trillions of taxpayer dollars bemoaning their lot in life and the anger directed their way. In case anyone who reads this blog is keeping count, a measly six finical institutions control over 60 percent of the assets of the United States of America! After “we the people” bailed them out because they were to “big-to-fail,” 3 out of the 4 of the largest finical institutions in question actually became bigger.

Another point that politicians and mass media political pundits have a problem grasping is the notion that every man, woman and child on the face of the planet have an inalienable human right, to peacefully gather and petition their representative governments for political redress.

Nothing in our collective human history has ever been changed for the better without somebody starting the process by saying,“This is wrong. I don’t know how to fix it, but this is wrong.” Then other likeminded people gather and say “this is wrong” and then a social movement develops which in turn demands that the government in question addresses their grievances, and passes legislation to correct the problem. Government “for the people, by the people.”

Admittedly this is a hard concept for some politicians and media intellectuals to understand, but it’s the nature of democratic governance.

The problems that face our nation are not insurmountable. We have been through worse times; slavery, the civil war, Jim Crow, segregation, the great depression, WW II, and we have always come out on top. Our nation doesn’t lack courage, ingenuity, education, or vision. We have all those things in abundance…what we lack is leaders that have the political courage to do what is right for our country rather than what is in their best interest.

It has become increasingly obvious to the Occupy Wall Street protesters and most like-minded Americans, that our political leaders, on both the left and right are incapable of fixing what is broken, of getting our nation back to work, and breathing life back into the American Dream.

We the people are going to have to hold their feet to the fire, force them, all of them, Democrats, Republicans and the President to do their jobs, or lose them.

Yet again …we're as mad as hell.

To Be Continued.