Publicity
JoshCarples.com, "the news according to joshcarples", has been linked on the Capital City Free Press' web site. Their link has been added to the News/Politics link section to the right of this page. Be sure to check them out. Thanks to Joseph O. Patton, Montgomery has a progressive voice beyond the corporate media.
A New Voice For the Right that's Wrong
Just what America needed - a new ultra-right-wing, liberal-hating, and much of the time illogical personality on the radio. We really didn't have enough of those already.
Enter Rusty Humphries, a person who could very well become the next Sean Hannity in my opinion - and the two are a lot alike, really. They're both loud and obnoxious and rarely make a believable argument.
Now, I admit, I'm not an avid listener of Rusty. I'm usually at work during his show (unlike many other Americans - "Thank you, Mr. President"). The few times so far that I have heard at least a segment or two of the show, I notice an angry person who is...well...wrong - a lot.
During his show a couple of weeks ago, there were people calling in, talking about the Iraq War ("Gulf War II") and John Kerry. Rusty, with his oh-so-angry tone said, "John Kerry killed my dad." No, really. Are you still laughing? Rusty really said that John Kerry killed his dad. Apparently, Rusty's dad was killed during Vietnam, and because John Kerry (who fought in Vietnam, instead of jumping in front of the rich-kid line to be a Texas Air National Guardsman like our current commander-in-chief) returned from Vietnam and protested the war, Rusty's dad died.
First of all, I'm not attempting to show any disrespect to Rusty's dad. There are many brave soldiers who fought in Vietnam, and died in Vietnam, and I respect them and their sacrifice. What's disrespectful is his blaming John Kerry for his dad's death.
...and of course, Rusty ends his show that day yelling, "Am I the only one who remembers 9-11?!"
No, Rusty, you're not. You just remember it in a different way than what happened.
I remember everyone saying that Osama bin Laden and his terror network, al Qaeda, orchestrated and carried out the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Rusty's memory apparently consists of the 9-11 attacks with flashing images of an Arab in them, and he's just not sure whether that Arab is Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein. See, Rusty's a bit confused, as was our President a little over a year ago.
I remember watching Bill Maher's hour-long special that was based on his book, "When You Ride Alone, You Ride With Bin Laden." Bill mentioned the toppling of the Saddam statue in Iraq, and how someone said that we should melt the Saddam statue, and use it in a new World Trade Center building. The person said something to the effect of, "That'll show the rest of the world..." Bill said, "Yeah, that'll show the world that we can't tell one Arab from another."
Well, Rusty, no one's disputing that Saddam was a bad guy. Really, even the people who are against Gulf War II are glad that Saddam is out of power. We just believe that we went about it the wrong way.
...and at this point, we would hear arguments...
Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.
Where?
Saddam gassed his own people.
Yes, and we should have been pissed enough to do something about that when it happened in the 80's.
Saddam violated 17 UN Sanctions. If the UN does't enforce them, we have to.
Israel has violated at least 30, Turkey has more than 20, Morocco has more than 15. When are we going to enforce them?
We went over there to liberate people.
Good, because we have a history of liberating people, right? Was that was the first and second World Wars were about? What about Vietnam? Korea? It's all about the people, huh?
Here are some questions for you:
Saddam was accused of having nuclear weapons. North Korea admitted having a nuclear program with nuclear weapons. Why are we in Iraq instead of North Korea?
(My guess is that there's no oil in North Korea.)
Was Bush planning to attack Iraq before 9-11 even occurred?
(According to a new book by Bob Woodward, "Plan of Attack", maybe so.)
Is this war, at least partly, Bush's personal vendetta?
(This is from a 2002 speech found on CNN.com in which Bush said of Saddam, "After all, this is the guy who tried to kill my dad.")
Hey, at least the President isn't blaming John Kerry for trying to kill his dad. Take notes, Rusty.
More info:
Capital City Free Press
Rusty Humphries
(***If you go to Rusty's web site, he has a link on there of the actual video of Nick Berg being decapitated. Do not download that video unless you are prepared to be sickened. Honestly, he wasn't decapitated, his head was sawed off. It's horrible and brutal, and one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen. I can't even imagine what the Berg family is going through right now, and I truly hope that people reach out to them and give them support in these times.***)
"After all, this is the guy who tried to kill my dad."
Bill Maher - "When You Ride Alone, You Ride With Bin Laden"
Bob Woodward - "Plan of Attack"
5.09.2004
Montgomery, Alabama, Can Be a Scary Place When You Think About It
When you think about it, Montgomery can be a scary place sometimes, although it can seem rather subtle. Here's the story:
What is probably Montgomery, Alabama's most popular source for local television news, WSFA channel 12, regularly has a poll on their web site (wsfa.com) in which people can vote on whatever question they ask at the time.
Currently, as of this article, the question is:
"Do you believe allegations of abuse by U.S. military personnel in Iraq are overblown?"
Here are the results as of May 9, around 1pm central time:
Yes: 65%
No: 31%
Undecided: 4%
After seeing part of the 10 o'clock news on Friday, May 7, I probably could have predicted these results. During the story regarding Abu Ghraib prison and Secretary of Defense Donald "Rummy" Rumsfeld, they got a "local reaction" to the story. Of course, being in Montgomery, nothing makes for better television than finding a redneck who continues to sport the infamous mullet haircut, and asking him serious questions about politics.
When asked the poll question, the unknown redneck, which we'll refer to as "Billy Bob", answered (and I paraphrase), "They'd be doing a lot worse to us if we was [sic] in the same situation."
(His answer isn't the only thing that's sad here. I find it sad and insulting that the national news media looks at Alabama and thinks we are all like "Billy Bob", but that could have a lot to do with the fact that "Billy Bob" is always the one who ends up on the news giving his opinion on world politics, unless his wife, "Billie Jo" ends up on there with her curlers and mumu instead.)
I find it sad that 65% of people who voted in that poll say that the allegations are "overblown". Do they really know what the allegations are? Or do they think it stops where the pictures on Fox News stops? (Because you know that here in the USA, we always get the whole story from our corporate-owned media conglomerates, right?)
According to a May 3, 2004 story on the WSFA web site, entitled "Torture Report Details Coming Out":
"A 53-page Army report includes allegations (among others) of the punching, slapping, and kicking of detainees; videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees; forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing; placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee’s neck and having a female Soldier pose for a picture. "
And that's not all that happened. According to articles by BBC News and Alternet.org, they quote a report by The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in which the ICRC's investigations found that the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib were "widespread, and in some cases 'tantamount to torture'."
Apparently, some people here in Montgomery don't constitute what happened as "torture" because they think it's just "overblown."
The BBC News article, "Red Cross saw 'widespread abuse'", said that "The Red Cross mentions a number of 'serious violations of humanitarian law', including beatings and prolonged solitary confinement. "
The Nation magazine had this to say in an article titled, "The Horror of Abu Ghraib":
"The appalling images--seven naked Iraqis piled on top of one another as two grinning GIs look on; a kneeling detainee posing as if he is performing oral sex on another naked, hooded male inmate; the battered body of a dead prisoner packed in ice--have led to criminal charges against six US soldiers and administrative penalties for seven officers. "
There have been many allegations of prisoners being sodomized by Coalition forces, and the military personnel who are being charged with these crimes are blaming a lack of training, or even "an unclear chain of command or responsibility", according to the Charlotte Observer. The Charlotte Observer's "Becoming a Monster" article says something I think we can all agree with:
"No training is needed to know not to sodomize a man with a broomstick. No one at any point in a military chain of command should have permitted it. This is not merely a mistake. It is an exercise in inhumanity, and a costly defeat for the American effort in Iraq."
The Irony:
In The Nation's article, Saudi commentator Dawud al-Shiryan said on Al Jazeera's English version web site, "Abu Ghraib prison was used for torture in Saddam's time. People will ask now: 'What's the difference between Saddam and Bush?' Nothing!"
The Charlotte Observer published a quote by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche from "Beyond Good and Evil" (1886):
"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster."
According to "Billy Bob", it would have been worse if the situation was reversed, but don't we as Americans put ourselves at a higher standard? "Americans are different." said Senator Joe Lieberman during Rumsfeld's testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, "That's why we're outraged by this. That's why the apologies were due."
Rumsfeld has mentioned other pictures and videos of abuse that have not made it to the media yet, so we should expect more of this to come. Many questions will be answered. Will Rumsfeld lose his job? Will this create more violence in Iraq? Is this war really another Vietnam?
But don't worry, Montgomerians, according to "Billy Bob", it's all just "overblown."
More Info:
Torture Report Details Coming Out (WSFA)
Hard to Say You're Sorry (Alternet)
The Horror of Abu Ghraib (The Nation)
Rumsfeld Testifies Before Senate Armed Services Committee (complete transcript - Washington Post)
Red Cross saw 'widespread abuse' (BBC News)
Becoming a monster (Charlotte Observer)
What is probably Montgomery, Alabama's most popular source for local television news, WSFA channel 12, regularly has a poll on their web site (wsfa.com) in which people can vote on whatever question they ask at the time.
Currently, as of this article, the question is:
"Do you believe allegations of abuse by U.S. military personnel in Iraq are overblown?"
Here are the results as of May 9, around 1pm central time:
Yes: 65%
No: 31%
Undecided: 4%
After seeing part of the 10 o'clock news on Friday, May 7, I probably could have predicted these results. During the story regarding Abu Ghraib prison and Secretary of Defense Donald "Rummy" Rumsfeld, they got a "local reaction" to the story. Of course, being in Montgomery, nothing makes for better television than finding a redneck who continues to sport the infamous mullet haircut, and asking him serious questions about politics.
When asked the poll question, the unknown redneck, which we'll refer to as "Billy Bob", answered (and I paraphrase), "They'd be doing a lot worse to us if we was [sic] in the same situation."
(His answer isn't the only thing that's sad here. I find it sad and insulting that the national news media looks at Alabama and thinks we are all like "Billy Bob", but that could have a lot to do with the fact that "Billy Bob" is always the one who ends up on the news giving his opinion on world politics, unless his wife, "Billie Jo" ends up on there with her curlers and mumu instead.)
I find it sad that 65% of people who voted in that poll say that the allegations are "overblown". Do they really know what the allegations are? Or do they think it stops where the pictures on Fox News stops? (Because you know that here in the USA, we always get the whole story from our corporate-owned media conglomerates, right?)
According to a May 3, 2004 story on the WSFA web site, entitled "Torture Report Details Coming Out":
"A 53-page Army report includes allegations (among others) of the punching, slapping, and kicking of detainees; videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees; forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing; placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee’s neck and having a female Soldier pose for a picture. "
And that's not all that happened. According to articles by BBC News and Alternet.org, they quote a report by The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in which the ICRC's investigations found that the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib were "widespread, and in some cases 'tantamount to torture'."
Apparently, some people here in Montgomery don't constitute what happened as "torture" because they think it's just "overblown."
The BBC News article, "Red Cross saw 'widespread abuse'", said that "The Red Cross mentions a number of 'serious violations of humanitarian law', including beatings and prolonged solitary confinement. "
The Nation magazine had this to say in an article titled, "The Horror of Abu Ghraib":
"The appalling images--seven naked Iraqis piled on top of one another as two grinning GIs look on; a kneeling detainee posing as if he is performing oral sex on another naked, hooded male inmate; the battered body of a dead prisoner packed in ice--have led to criminal charges against six US soldiers and administrative penalties for seven officers. "
There have been many allegations of prisoners being sodomized by Coalition forces, and the military personnel who are being charged with these crimes are blaming a lack of training, or even "an unclear chain of command or responsibility", according to the Charlotte Observer. The Charlotte Observer's "Becoming a Monster" article says something I think we can all agree with:
"No training is needed to know not to sodomize a man with a broomstick. No one at any point in a military chain of command should have permitted it. This is not merely a mistake. It is an exercise in inhumanity, and a costly defeat for the American effort in Iraq."
The Irony:
In The Nation's article, Saudi commentator Dawud al-Shiryan said on Al Jazeera's English version web site, "Abu Ghraib prison was used for torture in Saddam's time. People will ask now: 'What's the difference between Saddam and Bush?' Nothing!"
The Charlotte Observer published a quote by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche from "Beyond Good and Evil" (1886):
"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster."
According to "Billy Bob", it would have been worse if the situation was reversed, but don't we as Americans put ourselves at a higher standard? "Americans are different." said Senator Joe Lieberman during Rumsfeld's testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, "That's why we're outraged by this. That's why the apologies were due."
Rumsfeld has mentioned other pictures and videos of abuse that have not made it to the media yet, so we should expect more of this to come. Many questions will be answered. Will Rumsfeld lose his job? Will this create more violence in Iraq? Is this war really another Vietnam?
But don't worry, Montgomerians, according to "Billy Bob", it's all just "overblown."
More Info:
Torture Report Details Coming Out (WSFA)
Hard to Say You're Sorry (Alternet)
The Horror of Abu Ghraib (The Nation)
Rumsfeld Testifies Before Senate Armed Services Committee (complete transcript - Washington Post)
Red Cross saw 'widespread abuse' (BBC News)
Becoming a monster (Charlotte Observer)
5.02.2004
Just what Montgomery, Alabama needed....
In the heartland of pickup trucks, rebel flags, rednecks, and Roy Moore, Montgomery, Alabama, now has another country music radio station.
This reminds me of the famous line from "The Blues Brothers" when they were going to perform at a country bar. When asked what type of music is normally performed there, the bar tender replied, "We got both kinds - Country and Western."
WBAM in Montgomery, which is found on the FM dial at 98.9, has changed from a Top-40 station to become the new country station. The word "progression" wouldn't really be the best term here - going from Top-40 to Country seems to be more of a lateral move.
Montgomerians, you now have a choice: Country or Western....
...and as for the State of Alabama.....well, at least we're not in Mississippi.
more info:
WBAM the new kid country radio's block
(The link above is the actual title of an article in the Montgomery Advertiser. It seems like a word or two has been left out, like maybe "is" or "on", but that's how they worded it, or should I say: "that how worded it?")
This reminds me of the famous line from "The Blues Brothers" when they were going to perform at a country bar. When asked what type of music is normally performed there, the bar tender replied, "We got both kinds - Country and Western."
WBAM in Montgomery, which is found on the FM dial at 98.9, has changed from a Top-40 station to become the new country station. The word "progression" wouldn't really be the best term here - going from Top-40 to Country seems to be more of a lateral move.
Montgomerians, you now have a choice: Country or Western....
...and as for the State of Alabama.....well, at least we're not in Mississippi.
more info:
WBAM the new kid country radio's block
(The link above is the actual title of an article in the Montgomery Advertiser. It seems like a word or two has been left out, like maybe "is" or "on", but that's how they worded it, or should I say: "that how worded it?")
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