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Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Be a traveling stable for those who can’t find room at the inn.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

“They not like us!” (that’s for sure!)

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

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There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

You are here: Home / Popular Culture / Red, White, And Pink-Slip Blues

Red, White, And Pink-Slip Blues

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Looks like Hank Williams Jr.’s job at Monday Night Football is long gone lonesome on a permanent basis after he compared President Obama’s Israel policy to Hitler.

On Thursday morning, ESPN said it had made the decision to bench Williams for good.

“We have decided to part ways with Hank Williams, Jr,” a statement on the network’s website announced. “We appreciate his contributions over the past years. The success of Monday Night Football has always been about the games and that will continue.”

On his website, Williams claimed the decision had been his idea.

So Herman Cain will be the first person to say that Bocephus being unemployed by ESPN is his own fault, right?

If you’re dissatisfied with the economy, or unemployed, Herman Cain thinks you should take a long, hard look in the mirror.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal posted Wednesday, the up-and-coming GOP 2012 contender and former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza summed up his bewilderment about recent demonstrations on Wall Street.

“Don’t blame Wall Street,” Cain said. “Don’t blame the big banks. If you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself.”

I’m sure Herm will get right on that phone call to Hank.

Maybe they should start a band or something.  They’d need a name.  Cow Pies? Insane Clown Pizza?  Delivery and Deliverance?  Death Panel For Cutie? Arcade Fired? An Offer You Can Refuse? They Might Be Employable? The Herman Cain Experience Featuring Bocephus?  9-9-9 Doors Down? C’mon, this is fun.

Reader Interactions

86Comments

  1. 1.

    chopper

    “After reading hundreds of e-mails, I have made MY decision,” Williams said in a statement to The Associated Press. “By pulling my opening Oct 3rd, You (ESPN) stepped on the Toes of The First Amendment Freedom of Speech, so therefore Me, My Song, and All My Rowdy Friends are OUT OF HERE. It’s been a great run.”

    he’s about as good a constitutional scholar as he is a musician.

  6. 6.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    Feeding into the “stupid fucking racist rednecks are victims” line.

  7. 7.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    “Looks like Hank Williams Jr.’s job at Monday Night Football is long gone lonesome on a permanent basis after he compared President Obama’s Israel policy to Hitler.”

    I don’t think this is accurate. Williams wasn’t comparing Obama’s Israel policy to Hitler, Williams was saying that Obama and Boehner getting together to negotiate while playing golf was like Netanyahu meeting with Hitler. I don’t think Obama’s Israel policy had anything to do with Williams’ comment.

  12. 12.

    MattF

    I dunno, but somehow “If you’re not rich, you have only yourself to blame” doesn’t strike me as a super-duper campaign slogan. Or, for that matter, a country-music title, either– so, if a partnership between Herm and Hank comes to pass, I predict it’ll be brief and undignified.

  15. 15.

    Persia

    @bluehill: Seriously, I’m just happy his ugly face is off my TV for Monday Night Football. Isn’t the commentary painful enough?

  17. 17.

    ACS

    Kudos to the Raw Story for actually pointing out that Williams has no idea what he’s talking about re: the First Amendment. Most places probably would have ignored it.

  18. 18.

    The Other Chuck

    For all we know, he was calling Boehner Hitler. Probably not, but maybe the obnoxious, disheveled, and drunken delivery had a scooch to do with the whole kerfuffle.

  19. 19.

    Lightwave

    I see the newbie’s learning to change the subject around here when Cole has a cogent enough moment to realize some very uncomfortable truths about the myriad reasons liberals are leaving Obama.

    Good call giving him the keys, I guess.

  22. 22.

    TenguPhule

    And a Secret Committee to decide whether or not fiery death rains down on Herman Cain is a bad idea because?

  24. 24.

    MattR

    @The Other Chuck:

    For all we know, he was calling Boehner Hitler.

    Actually, we know he was not talking about Boehner because Gretchen Carlson made the comment to him that he just compared the President to one of the most hated people in world history and Williams agreed.

  27. 27.

    MikeJ

    I seem to remember republicans arguing that *of course* employers should be able to fire employees because they don’t like the bumper stickers on their cars.

  28. 28.

    Morzer

    “After reading hundreds of e-mails, I have made MY decision,” Williams said in a statement to The Associated Press.

    Guess he’s not running for president either. How the grifter dominos are toppling these days.

  30. 30.

    Violet

    “After reading hundreds of e-mails, I have made MY decision,” Williams said in a statement to The Associated Press. “By pulling my opening Oct 3rd, You (ESPN) stepped on the Toes of The First Amendment Freedom of Speech,

    These people really have no idea what the first amendment is about, do they? He’s totally free to say what he wants. ESPN is also just as free to employ or not employ who they want when they they want. He should be celebrating the free market at work. Free market FTW!

  31. 31.

    slag

    @chopper: Wait. So you’re suggesting that Mr. Williams Jr. doesn’t have a constitutionally guaranteed right to go on the teevee and ask me if I’m ready for some football? If I know my US history, John Q. Adams and the rest of our forefathers would beg to differ.

  34. 34.

    pragmatism

    Ah, push it
    Ah, push it

    Oooh, baby, baby
    Baby, baby
    Oooh, baby, baby
    Baby, baby

    Get up on this!

    Ow! Baby!
    Meth n Pizza’s here!

    (Now wait a minute, y’all
    This dance ain’t for everybody
    Only the sexy wealthy people
    So all you fly mothers, get on out there and dance
    Dance, I said!)

  35. 35.

    fasteddie9318

    Goddamnit, all this time ESPN (and before that ABC) has been trampling my First Amendment rights by not permitting me to sing some dumbass song before Monday Night Football! DAMN THEM ALL TO HELL!

  37. 37.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Herman Cain made his position very clear on Monday when he quietly mumbled “yes, Massa Rush” after his comments on the entire Perry hunting lodge thing over the weekend.

  38. 38.

    RossinDetroit

    I have to say, when you’re too disreputable for televised football, you’ve really accomplished something. Must have taken a lot of digging to find that bar and get under it.

  39. 39.

    jwest

    It’s only fair.

    Think of all the people in the entertainment business that lost their jobs comparing Bush to Hitler.

  40. 40.

    KG

    “Don’t blame Wall Street,” Cain said. “Don’t blame the big banks. If you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself.”

    As much as I’d like to point and laugh at a musician who got where he was because of his name and his father’s untimely passing… This quote from Cain just blows my mind.

  41. 41.

    Brian S

    @chopper: My favorite part of that statement is the bit at the end where he says he wrote it himself, that it wasn’t a publicist. The capitalization reminds me a ton of many of my Facebook friends from high school, some of whom are no doubt organizing a boycott of MNF in order to show their displeasure.

  43. 43.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @chopper: Yeah, I love the “I have the right to say anything I want, but you don’t have any rights to react to it” argument.

  45. 45.

    trollhattan

    After seeing the initial Fox vid (on TDS) I agree with the theory HWJr. was baked five ways to Sunday. That meant he wasn’t able to fully articulate his distain for the mooselum Kenyan, not that the distain ain’t there.

    But yeah, he’s another scalp on the librul media bulletin board. Funny thing is, I’d completely lost any awareness of his existence for probably fifteen years.

  46. 46.

    Gilles de Rais

    Free market, Hank. Free fucking market.

    Long past time somebody cut this redneck yokel tumor out of the body politic.

    And kudos to ESPN for having the slight amount of courage needed to fire someone for calling the president “Hitler”. Even the miniscule amount of guts needed to do this, in the face of certain feces-throwing by the lower mouth-breathing primates who make up the vast majority of football fans, is to be lauded because displaying any backbone in the face of the subnormal 27% these days is lacking.

  47. 47.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    And while they are at it they can shit-can the idiots on ESPN Game Day

    PANAMA CITY, Fla. — “Can I get a yee-haw?”

    With that, country music star John Rich launched into a spirited “Country First” concert on behalf Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) tonight featuring his number-one hit “Lost in This Moment with You” and the debut of a song he had written especially for the presumptive GOP nominee, “Raising McCain.”

    The free concert, sponsored by the Florida Republican Party, attracted several hundred people including a fan sporting a homemade T-shirt saying, “Don’t let the USA become an Obama-Nation.”

  48. 48.

    Origuy

    So Wikipedia says that Hank, Sr. gave him the name Bocephus; was he thinking of Bucephalus, the name of Alexander the Great’s horse? Because if he was, he was half right.

  50. 50.

    Pangloss

    “Don’t blame Wall Street. Don’t blame the big banks. If you got back from your third tour in Iraq and can’t find a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself.”

  51. 51.

    Morzer

    It’s strangely appropriate that Hank Williams is just a re-arrangement of “I Am Wank Shill”

  52. 52.

    KG

    @Gilles de Rais: ESPN will throw anyone out that says something that can be perceived as even slightly offensive. They dropped Rush in a New York Minute because he said McNabb was overrated because he was black after one of their writers called it racist (McNabb was overrated, but Rush’s reason was stupid). They’ve suspended plenty of other employees for saying stupid shit (Jackie McMullin and I believe Tony Kornheiser among them).

  53. 53.

    jibeaux

    Hank 3 is a fucking lunatic, but unlike his old man he can actually sing. They outta give him a go, that would probably be entertaining for however long it lasted.

  54. 54.

    slag

    @trollhattan:

    But yeah, he’s another scalp on the librul media bulletin board. Funny thing is, I’d completely lost any awareness of his existence for probably fifteen years.

    Me too. But now we get to add him to the eternal list of Saints Wingnut. Hymns. Hymns with twang will be forthcoming. This is a holy day!

  57. 57.

    Monkey Business

    I consider Hank Williams Jr.’s claiming that ESPN violated his First Amendment rights to be a damning implication of the state of public education in this country. There is no reason, in this day and age, for an adult American Citizen to not understand that the First Amendment only prevents the government from censoring whatever it wants, and does nothing to protect an individual from a corporation.

  58. 58.

    RossinDetroit

    @pragmatism:

    he did suffer a major head injury some time back.

    So did I but it didn’t make me say racist shit on TV.
    (So far as you know.)

  59. 59.

    RossinDetroit

    @pragmatism:

    he did suffer a major head injury some time back.

    So did I but it didn’t make me say racist shit on TV.
    (So far as you know.)

  61. 61.

    Davebo

    Seeing as how Hank sells about a dozen albums a year I guess we’ll finally see if A Country Boy Can Survive.

  62. 62.

    Davebo

    Sports bar owners are rejoicing. A friend who owned one was threatened with a lawsuit for playing Hank’s intro on his TV’s without paying royalties.

    He learned to just mute the volume during the intro.

  63. 63.

    slag

    @Monkey Business:

    I consider Hank Williams Jr.’s claiming that ESPN violated his First Amendment rights to be a damning implication of the state of public education in this country.

    That’s funny. I’ve long considered the entire wingnut population to be a damning implication of the state of public education in this country. It’s how I avoid despising them. Between the schools and their parents not giving them the tools to comprehend the world as it is, they’ve been severely let down by the system. The only benefit of such a tragedy is the comedy that invariably ekes out of it.

  68. 68.

    Satanicpanic

    @Monkey Business: It doesn’t help that dimwit rightwing media people are always bringing it up every time they get called out for saying something stupid. But to believe otherwise would be to admit that corporations are sometimes mean to people.

  70. 70.

    RossinDetroit

    @pragmatism:

    Introduces an interesting hierarchy of mental capacity, with ‘able to speak on live TV’ being somewhere above ‘Country Music performer’.

  71. 71.

    chopper

    @jwest:

    the dixie chicks ate a lot more shit for saying something much more benign about el busho. but do carry on.

  74. 74.

    MattR

    I think I get it. Hank Williams Jr had his First Ammendment rights violated by a company deciding they no longer wanted to do business with him, but the OWS protestors had no First Ammendment rights when they were marching in a roadway without a permit.

    @jwest:

    Think of all the people in the entertainment business that lost their jobs comparing Bush to Hitler.

    Can you provide a list of those who made comments like that so we can see what happened to them?

  75. 75.

    Admiral_Komack

    “They’ve suspended plenty of other employees for saying stupid shit (Jackie McMullin and I believe Tony Kornheiser among them).”

    What did Jackie McMullin say?

  76. 76.

    pragmatism

    @RossinDetroit: i never thought hank jr could do either of those.

    saw this yesterday (maybe here?):
    “Hank Williams was the greatest country singer ever. Hank Williams Jr. ruined Monday Night Football.” Hank Hill

  77. 77.

    Svensker

    @jwest:

    Think of all the people in the entertainment business that lost their jobs comparing Bush to Hitler.

    Phil Donahue, for saying he didn’t approve of the Iraq War. Ashleigh Banfield, ditto. Dixie Chicks boycotted and threatened for saying Bush was a doofus.

    After the Donahue and Banfield examples, most folks in the mainstream media shut their mouths and toed the pro-war line.

  78. 78.

    slag

    @Svensker:

    After the Donahue and Banfield examples, most folks in the mainstream media shut their mouths and toed the pro-war line.

    Yeah. But you know who else toed the pro-war line, don’t you?

  79. 79.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Davebo:

    Sports bar owners are rejoicing. A friend who owned one was threatened with a lawsuit for playing Hank’s intro on his TV’s without paying royalties.

    You have got to be kidding me.

    William’s lawyers (or his record label’s, or the RIAA’s) can’t possibly be THAT stupid.

  80. 80.

    Kilkee

    Per Wikipedia, Hank Senior named the boy “Bocephus” after Grand Old Oprey star Rod Brerfield’s ventriloguist dummy. Given that Hank died while Junior was still a small child, I suspect he did not have great expectations for him.

    And this was well before the famed head injury.

  81. 81.

    Culture of Truth

    Think of all the people in the entertainment business that lost their jobs comparing Bush to Hitler.

    There aren’t many people in entertainment who are also Neo Nazis.

    Think about it.

  82. 82.

    cckids

    @chopper: True. And they actually HAD a career, fans & hits at the time. Unlike Junior, whose entire career is based on his name.

  83. 83.

    KG

    @Admiral_Komack: shit, I might be misremembering when it comes to MacMullan. I vaguely remember her having a prolonged absence from the network, but I might have gotten the wrong Around the Horn talking head.

  84. 84.

    Yutsano

    Zandar is now officially initiated as a BJ front pager. JC just posted over him. Next is the secret handshake.

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