the johnson city drinking game

having spent most of the holiday weekend in JC, john and i developed a new drinking game.

everytime you get depressed -- DRINK!

(can't take credit. so many have done it so much better before.)

From Bush remarks at Vandy yesterday:

Refering to Bill Frist's (the only US Senator trained to perform an abortion) wife at Vanderbilt yesterday George Bush said:

" Karyn is with us. A West Texas girl, just like me."

Ya know, maybe that explains why he looks grumpy sometimes...

context. history. unconsciousness

i found the following while reading a book about snake handling christians in north east alabama.
it seems to me to provide perspective and context for plenty of the current shit. It's too bad that Ronnie Raygun can't chime in. I know Ollie North is doing his best two-step, but he hopefully will implode or be taken away in the rapture soon. And isnt that a strange thought? If the rapture happens, will FOX pundits be allowed to go to heaven or will rupert murdock HOLD THEM TO THEIR CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATIONS?!!

but alas, seriously...
I really understood Nick Berg's father on a deeper level after this:


"The Philadelphia Daily News
Friday, May 2, 1997
Section: EDITORIAL OPINION
Page: 030
By Jack McKinney

In my own reporting from Central America, I don't think I ever came across a major atrocity that didn't bear the prints of School of the America's graduates, including the slaying of those six Jesuit priests in El Salvador.

I remember the case of John Sullivan, a free-lance journalist from New
Jersey who was kidnapped by security forces the night he arrived in San Salvador. I became close to his family and I was outraged to learn a man from the U.S. State Department had told them their Johnny was ``probably up in the mountains with the guerrillas, gathering material for a book.'' (In other words, his kin were expected to believe the journalist had drawn on the vast array of local contacts that a man with limited command of Spanish could develop in his first two hours in a strange country!)

In fact, Sullivan was mistaken for a Belgian missionary priest who was thought to be aiding the guerrillas and he was subjected to torture
techniques taught at the School of the Americas.

By the time his interrogators realized no man could endure such agony
without imparting some information, the journalist was too disfigured to be set free. So they staked him out with a stick of dynamite tied to each ankle and each wrist, and jammed another stick of dynamite into his mouth, thinking they would blow away John Sullivan's identity forever.

With no assistance from the State Department, the family was reduced to pleading for information via paid ads in Salvadoran newspapers.

A troubled policeman finally disclosed where the body had been discarded, X-rays of an old football injury confirmed the identity, and at least Sullivan could be brought home to rest in the family plot."

We need a Defense of Marriage Ammendment Now!

In today's news, I see the Bush commanded military has attacked an Iraqi wedding. Would this have happened if we had an ammendment defending marriage??

Also in today, a recent poll asked respondants if they saw Bush as a divider or a uniter. The results were split 50/50.

Thou art damned

Hey, I just talked to Lisa the other day and if it makes anyone feel any better, she has been consigned to a high ranking level of hell.

Be judged at Dante's Inferno Test.

Video Creates a UFO Stir

Wed May 12, 2004 11:07 AM ET


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The Mexican Air Force has released footage of what a UFO expert said were 11 invisible unidentified flying objects picked up by an infrared camera as they whizzed around a surveillance plane.
A long-time believer in flying saucers, journalist Jaime Maussan told a news conference on Tuesday the objects were real and seemed "intelligent" after they at one point changed direction and surrounded the plane chasing them.

"They were invisible to the eye but they were there, there is no doubt about it. They had mass, they had energy and they were moving about," he said, after showing a 15-minute video he said the Defense Ministry gave him permission to publicize.

The ministry confirmed to Reuters it had provided the video, filmed by the Air Force on March 5 over the eastern coastal state of Campeche.

"We are not alone! This is so weird," one of the pilots can be heard yelling, after the plane's crew switched on an infrared camera to track the objects, first picked up by radar.

The film, recorded by a plane looking for drugs trafficking near the Gulf of Mexico, shows 11 objects as blobs of light that hover in formation or dart about, sometimes disappearing into cloud.

Mexico's most popular nightly news broadcast showed the video on Monday night.

Interviewed by Mausson on another section of the video, the pilots said they grew nervous when the objects, still invisible, turned back during a chase and surrounded the plane.

"There was a moment when ... the screens showed they were behind us, to the left and in front of us. It was at that point that I felt a bit tense," said Maj. Magdaleno Castanon.

To the Johnson City Forum

I never thought anything like this would happen to me, but,,,,,, I attend a small college in the southeast. One day last week while I was studying in the library, and thought I was all alone, this girl from class showed up and sat across from me. I tried my best to concentrate on my work, but she made it difficult,,,,,

huh? what???? It's not that kind of forum??? damn, I sure feel stupid now,,,,

nevermind,, go back to what you were doing.

not so fast on the Berg video

On the same day Rummy tours Abu Ghraib, the CIA is saying the ax-man in the Berg video is known terrorist, Abu Masub al-Zarqawi -- who is supposed to be dead. But even if he were still alive; Zarqawi had a prosthetic leg. the guy in the video doesn't seem to be teetering on a peg leg.

And, maybe it's the lighting, but Zarqawi's hands look pretty white for a desert-dwelling bomb-thrower -- as do everyone's hands.

And, why would the terrorists go to all the trouble of making a video, ostensibly to terrorize the US, and then hide their identity behind ski masks? Why would they even have ski masks? One would think finding a ski shop in the Middle East would be like trying to find a Burkka boutique in Miami. It seems to me that if this was indeed the dreaded terrorist al-Zaqawi, that it would be a much more successful recruiting/terrorist tool showing the perps in all their Middle Eastern glory.

Another interesting thing. Note the body shape and stance of the perps. These are some well-fed boys. Chunky. Beefy. Are these the bodies of squirrely iraqi insurgents? what about the way they are standing. they seem to have modelled their on-camera stance on what is called Parade Rest in our military.

Why is Berg wearing an American-issue orange prison jumpsuit?

Why is he totally still while the knife is coming down?

How come blood isn't spurting out of his jugular vein?

It has been said that the guy in the video doesn't so much look like Nick.
Here is a recent picture of Nick Berg:


Finally, we know Berg had been taken in by the FBI -- and that's really the last anyone had heard.

damn

I've changed my name and turned green... one more sign of the end times,,, well that and the fact that no one that regularly posts on here is actually in JC anymore....

remove panties from wad

whatever the image was that Milhorn posted was corrupt. it wouldn't load and was hosing up the rest of the site.

i have no idea what it was and you are welcome to repost it.

you might make sure it's not a super large file.

having said that, everyone who posts here is a GUEST. not just of me and Lisa -- but of everyone who reads or joins. it's as if we are sitting around a table in a restaurant. try to have some manners.

no one here has an obligation to put up antisocial behavior.

this one is for........

Whom ever edited my last post.......

Whatever you say Rush....

Rush Limbaugh's morning update 5/11/04:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, let me ask you a question: Have you noticed, since these prisoners [pictures?] of torture and abuse and misery and whatever you want to say--since these pictures came out, have you noticed that there are fewer attacks against Americans by Iraqi insurgents? Have you noticed that the death toll and the injury count is [sic] severely down--drastically down--since these pictures were made public? Now, the question is this: Do we dare a draw a connection? Do we say that these pictures have so shocked the insurgents and the other members of the enemy in Iraq that they don't want to get anywhere near this prison--anywhere near these female American prison guards and so they have reduced their activity and instances of violence against us? Well, let's say it's true: can anyone get away with saying this? I mean, right now the mentality is: this is so horrible; this is bad: this is disgusting; this is mean: this the worse America has ever been. Can there be any good derived from the release of these pictures? Can anybody make this connection and survive? Who would do it? I don't think it can be done, folks. But' I'll try. I'll do it."

Nice try, of course the right wing won't hold you to these words.....

dang at least they didnt rape him first

American civilian contractor Nick Berg, of Philadelphia PA, was apparently executed in Iraq by a group claiming to be affiliated with Al Qaeda. He has been missing since April 9th. The video is being shown on the radical Islamic website Muntada al-Ansar and is reported to show top Al Qaeda lieutenant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi carrying out the beheading.


The video showed five men wearing headscarves and black ski masks, standing over a bound man in an orange jumpsuit who identified himself as an American from Philadelphia.

After reading a statement, the men were seen pulling the man to his side and cutting off his head with a large knife. They then held the head out before the camera.

The statement read, "For the mothers and wives of American soldiers, we tell you that we offered the U.S. administration to exchange this hostage with some of the detainees in Abu Ghraib and they refused. So we tell you that the dignity of the Muslim men and women in Abu Ghraib and others is not redeemed except by blood and souls. You will not receive anything from us but coffins after coffins ... slaughtered in this way."

After reading the statement, the masked men pushed Berg to the ground, held him down, and executed him, shouting "Allahu Akbar" over the man's screams. The action took nearly a full minute. The hooded figure used a knife of some sort that had been tucked in his belt, and made many passes with it before the beheading was complete. They then held his head up to the camera.

Berg was 26 years old. His decapitated body was found Saturday in Baghdad.


Where's the liberal outcry over this? There won't be any, they don't care about Americans getting killed, just terrorist getting nude and having underwear on their head.

Further military news

As a result of the scandal involving the Iraqi prison, several members of the unit involved, who apparently had nothing to do with the abuses there, will not be receiving commendations earned in the service of thier nation, including several that were to be presented the Bronze Star.

No word from Dick Chenney if they will not be receiving medals, or not be receiving ribbons for these commendations. Given his prior insistence on the distiction between the two, I would hope that someone in the mainstream media would find out for us....

The Good News is:

It would be illegal for these "soldiers" to pose these photos in Rhea County, Tennessee, and if given his way, Bush would not let any of them marry........

Just for tnt....

now i see why geo 43 said no to overseas duty. he knew, even then, that being in the guard could be dangerous to his career. if he had to go half way around the world and torture people and possibly butt raping female prisoners in general, the photos might damage his future as
oil-grubbing-asswipe-in-chief.

note to rick: rush looks like he's put away a few snickers bars, and had a few snickers while making millions of dollars off of right wingers, but seriously, a candy bar FULL OF NUTS fucks up your atkins diet for at least two or three days. get real.

the style of bullshit humor in your previous post reminds me of the old photos from the 40's and 50's of lynchings where white people would dress up in their sunday best and go look at the strange fruit .dangling from the trees...so are you going to frame this one hang it over your dining room table with pride so your kids grow up right?

I mean, hey, you and toby keith are young enough to enlist and go over to iraq, i know a 50 something woman who just left for bagdad yesterday. instead of smarmy fake ads and sucky songs to bilk money out of patriototic home folk...PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS. book your passage to the land of bush, inc. etc... Then maybe this shit will get funny...

Woohoo!! Brook's back!

And she is apparently pissed off!! This bodes well for our humble little blog me thinks....

Love the snickers pic by the way Ric,,,

Rumsfield says there are worse images to come (although he hasnt read the report?!?!?!), makes me fear for what could be worse, and what dark heart it crawled from.....

better pic

Meet your Military Intelligence

Keeping in mind the torture in as been perpetrated by intelligence services (both military and private) it is instructive to remember who is running our "Military Intelligence."

William G. "Jerry" Boykin, whose bizarre religious comments last year sparked a (brief) controversy -- is the deputy undersecretary of Defense for intelligence, the man charged with tracking down terrorist leaders and cracking down on insurgents in Iraq.

In other words, he's the guy holding the camera:



In his own words:

“George Bush was not elected by a majority of the voters in the United States,” Boykin told an Oregon congregation. “He was appointed by God.”

Here's another:

"Then enemy will only be defeated if we come against them in the name of Jesus." Adding that our enemy was, “a spiritual enemy ... called Satan.”

So, here's the manifestation of Bush's Christianity hard at work in Iraq. His Christianity is so offensive, it makes the worst Catholic mainstream bullshit, er, dogma that I am familiar with, look like Unitarian Nambipambisim.

If corporatism + militarism = fascism
then,

corporatism + militarism + fundamentalist evangelicalism = ARMEGEDDON

(am i the only one noticing this?)

Are we fascist yet?

Are we not supposed to be morally outraged by the photos of torture in Iraq? Aren't we supposed to be decreasing torture and terror by Americans in the Middle East?

Then why (fucking tell me WHY) did the Senate overwhelmingly approve John "Honduran Death Squad" Negroponte (95 to 3) to be the new ambassador to Iraq? on Thursday no less! We had seen the pictures. We knew the story and yet the Senate overwhelmingly votes for a man whose claim to fame is his use of private military contractors (mercenaries), to terrorize the people Honduras, lest they think they might desire a government by the people, for the people, and not American corporate interests.

as Mussolini said, "Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism as it is a merging of state and corporate power."

The only thing scarier than the merging of state and corporate power, is the merging of church and state and corporate power, which is indeed what we have now.

As an aside -- Nader is polling at 7 percent with Kerry at 43 and Bush at 45. He will throw this election proving once AGAIN the hippies' relevance in the political process.

According to Rush

The alleged torture and humiliation of Iraqi POW's was no more harsh than a fraternity hazing.
Makes me kinda wonder which homoerotic frat he was in.....

Denial and Deception

whitehouse.gov has a page from march 17, 2003 and it's title is "Iraq: Denial and Deception", now that stands as comedy all it's own, but in the speech the prez gave he says toward the end:

"Many Iraqis can hear me tonight in a translated radio broadcast, and I have a message for them. If we must begin a military campaign, it will be directed against the lawless men who rule your country and not against you. As our coalition takes away their power, we will deliver the food and medicine you need. We will tear down the apparatus of terror and we will help you to build a new Iraq that is prosperous and free. In a free Iraq, there will be no more wars of aggression against your neighbors, no more poison factories, no more executions of dissidents, no more torture chambers and rape rooms. The tyrant will soon be gone. The day of your liberation is near.

And all Iraqi military and civilian personnel should listen carefully to this warning. In any conflict, your fate will depend on your action. Do not destroy oil wells, a source of wealth that belongs to the Iraqi people. Do not obey any command to use weapons of mass destruction against anyone, including the Iraqi people. War crimes will be prosecuted. War criminals will be punished. And it will be no defense to say, "I was just following orders."


(note: bold type added for text skimmers.)
(and yes, i know, already, i know, big fucking deal...)

How did the right wingers miss this in the Village Voice???

From April 13th edition:

"WASHINGTON, D.C.—Like most of the Bush cabinet, Attorney General John Ashcroft took commercial jets when he traveled. But on July 24, 2001, he changed that practice and began flying in chartered government jets. Asked by CBS News at the time about the change, the Justice Department cited a "threat assessment" by the FBI and said Ashcroft had been advised to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term. "There was a threat assessment, and there are guidelines. He is acting under the guidelines," an FBI spokesman said. But as CBS went on to report, "Neither the FBI nor the Justice Department, however, would identify what the threat was, when it was detected, or who made it." A "senior official" at the CIA said he wasn't aware of specific threats against any cabinet member, and Ashcroft himself declared, "I don't do threat assessments myself, and I rely on those whose responsibility it is in the law enforcement community, particularly the FBI."

Wouldn't it be great if we all had gotten threat assessments???