Showing posts with label photo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photo. Show all posts

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Palin talks and talks and talks and talks

Sarah Palin told CNN's Wolf Blitzer....









Sarah Palin is still the star!
Will she get her own Republican show now she is the party?







Sarah Palin, the main celebrity attraction at Republican Governors Association Annual Conference in Miami

She will work for Obama




Tuesday, August 28, 2007

GET RICH OR DIE TRYING


Struggling to meet enlistment rates and secure troop levels for the twin American debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. Army recruiters have upped the ante for patriots and poor people alike in a scheme offering new recruits a $20,000 bonus for a quick departure. Uncle Sam is using this "quick-ship bonus" as a way to meet quotas for the country's "volunteer" military at a time when American casualties are surging. The new scheme allowed quotas to be met in July, but experts warn that recruiters are banking too much on troop quantity over troop quality. Are the lives of poor Americans really only worth $20,000?


Sunday, August 12, 2007

UK officer calls for US special forces to quit Afghan hotspot

August 12, 2007

"Sir,
Recently I read an article(Im having difficulty finding it again to post) about a change in mindset in US Special Forces while Rumsfeld was the boss. The gist of the article was that during Rumsfeld's tenure as Sec Def Special Forces started to place emphasis on the direct action role to the detriment of their other traditional roles. Could this be a result of that change? The comment made by one British Officer that, "sensitivity is not their strong suit" is especially disturbing. As Special Forces sensitivity should be exactly their strong suit." HKDan

UK officer calls for US special forces to quit Afghan hotspot
High civilian toll as teams rely on air strikes to provide cover
Declan Walsh in Islamabad and Richard Norton-Taylor
Friday August 10, 2007

Twelve-man teams of US special forces had been criticised for relying on air strikes for cover when they believed they were confronted by large groups of Taliban fighters and their supporters.

British officers say US special forces are cavalier in their approach
to the civilian population. The tensions were illustrated by an
incident the Guardian witnessed in Sangin earlier this summer.

A British patrol was abandoned by its American special forces escort
in the town for several hours. Stranded in central Sangin, British
officers tried to establish radio contact with the Americans, who had
disappeared without warning, and swore impatiently when they could
not.

The British criticisms intensified after the Americans led them to
their proposed site for a new Afghan patrol base in the town - beside
a graveyard and a religious shrine. "Sensitivity is not their strong
suit," said one British officer.

Most British soldiers work well with regular American troops and some
speak admiringly of them. But US special forces units are a different
matter.

They operate under a different chain of command, with their own rules
on everything from dress code to the use of weapons. Whereas the
British troops operate under Nato command, the American special forces
are commanded from the US-led coalition in Bagram airbase outside
Kabul. That means the Americans can call on a wider range of
airstrikes, and also that British officers have little control over
which munitions are dropped in populated areas. .

EXCERPTS:
"The American troops’ training, in contrast, seemed ad hoc, usually carried out by each unit on its own, rather than by a dedicated training staff. And it involved very few civilians, despite the crucial humanitarian and political aspects of the mission here." SARAH CHAYES

"I was trained and trained well to sacrifice myself to war and I was also training others to make the same sacrifice. But what is it all for? Money for the power elite? A chance to prove my manhood? No, in the end all you get if you kill someone is a dead human being, or you are dead. That is all there is. There is no glory. There is no honor." Sgt. Kevin Benderman

My Space: *"Yes . . . F---ING Yes!!!" said one blog entry on the Schlessinger site. "I LOVE MY JOB, it takes
everything reckless and deviant and heathenistic and just overall bad
about me and hyper focuses these traits into my job of running around
this horrid place doing nasty things to people that deserve it . . .
and some that don't."* KingOf*Hearts. Deryk Schlessinger is the son of Laura Schlessinger who writes a bi-weekly column for the Santa Barbara News-Press.

Movie: KingOf*Hearts


* * * * * * * *
EXTREME EXHAUSTION

Thursday, July 26, 2007

7/26/07 Pat Tillman: photo of scene

Pat Tillman investigation-
photo of scene

SAN FRANCISCO — Army medical examiners were suspicious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman's forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player's death amounted to a crime, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

"The medical evidence did not match up with the, with the scenario as described," a doctor who examined Tillman's body after he was killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2004 told investigators.

The doctors _ whose names were blacked out _ said that the bullet holes were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.

Ultimately, the Pentagon did conduct a criminal investigation, and asked Tillman's comrades whether he was disliked by his men and whether they had any reason to believe he was deliberately killed. The Pentagon eventually ruled that Tillman's death at the hands of his comrades was a friendly-fire accident.

The medical examiners' suspicions were outlined in 2,300 pages of testimony released to the AP this week by the Defense Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

Among other information contained in the documents:

_ In his last words moments before he was killed, Tillman snapped at a panicky comrade under fire to shut up and stop "sniveling."

_ Army attorneys sent each other congratulatory e-mails for keeping criminal investigators at bay as the Army conducted an internal friendly-fire investigation that resulted in administrative, or non-criminal, punishments.

_ The three-star general who kept the truth about Tillman's death from his family and the public told investigators some 70 times that he had a bad memory and couldn't recall details of his actions.

_ No evidence at all of enemy fire was found at the scene _ no one was hit by enemy fire, nor was any government equipment struck.

The Pentagon and the Bush administration have been criticized in recent months for lying about the circumstances of Tillman's death. The military initially told the public and the Tillman family that he had been killed by enemy fire. Only weeks later did the Pentagon acknowledge he was gunned down by fellow Rangers.

With questions lingering about how high in the Bush administration the deception reached, Congress is preparing for yet another hearing next week.

The Pentagon is separately preparing a new round of punishments, including a stinging demotion of retired Lt. Gen. Philip R. Kensinger Jr., 60, according to military officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the punishments under consideration have not been made public.

In more than four hours of questioning by the Pentagon inspector general's office in December 2006, Kensinger repeatedly contradicted other officers' testimony, and sometimes his own. He said on some 70 occasions that he did not recall something.

At one point, he said: "You've got me really scared about my brain right now. I'm really having a problem."

Tillman's mother, Mary Tillman, who has long suggested that her son was deliberately killed by his comrades, said she is still looking for answers and looks forward to the congressional hearings next week.

"Nothing is going to bring Pat back. It's about justice for Pat and justice for other soldiers. The nation has been deceived," she said.

The documents show that a doctor who autopsied Tillman's body was suspicious of the three gunshot wounds to the forehead. The doctor said he took the unusual step of calling the Army's Human Resources Command and was rebuffed. He then asked an official at the Army's Criminal Investigation Division if the CID would consider opening a criminal case.

"He said he talked to his higher headquarters and they had said no," the doctor testified.

Also according to the documents, investigators pressed officers and soldiers on a question Mrs. Tillman has been asking all along.

"Have you, at any time since this incident occurred back on April 22, 2004, have you ever received any information even rumor that Cpl. Tillman was killed by anybody within his own unit intentionally?" an investigator asked then-Capt. Richard Scott.

Scott, and others who were asked, said they were certain the shooting was accidental.

Investigators also asked soldiers and commanders whether Tillman was disliked, whether anyone was jealous of his celebrity, or if he was considered arrogant. They said Tillman was respected, admired and well-liked.

The documents also shed new light on Tillman's last moments.

It has been widely reported by the AP and others that Spc. Bryan O'Neal, who was at Tillman's side as he was killed, told investigators that Tillman was waving his arms shouting "Cease fire, friendlies, I am Pat (expletive) Tillman, damn it!" again and again.

But the latest documents give a different account from a chaplain who debriefed the entire unit days after Tillman was killed.

The chaplain said that O'Neal told him he was hugging the ground at Tillman's side, "crying out to God, help us. And Tillman says to him, `Would you shut your (expletive) mouth? God's not going to help you; you need to do something for yourself, you sniveling ..."

Saturday, July 21, 2007

"Sick, Vile, Barbaric"

"It is a brutal, sadistic event motivated by barbarism of the worst sort and cruelty of the worst, worst, worst, sadistic kind. One is left wondering: Who are the real animals? Who are the real animals, who are the real animals?
.......the training of these poor creatures to turn themselves into fighting machines is simply barbaric. Barbaric! Barbaric! Barbaric!
Let that word resound from hill to hill and from mountain to mountain, from valley to valley across this broad land. Barbaric, barbaric!"
Senator Robert C Byrd 7/19/07


DERYK:
CARTOON RENDITIONS


"Who in God's name is teaching these kids this
skewed and blury rendition of reality?"
Santa Barbara New-Press, Laura Schlessinger 7/1/07



Schlessinger commented on the honor students, Leah Anthony Libresco and Mari Oye, letter to the President. She failed to mention other kids being taught "skewed and blury rendition of reality". Senator Byrd was speaking of the horrendous dog training situation. Unfortunately, I've not heard anyone advocate with such passion for young people being prepared for horrendous training. Schlessinger is outraged when kids learn about the downside of torture, like it doesn't work and does train barbarians. More important then anything she says, is all she doesn't say.










"I am the proud mother of an American paratrooper*"
Dr. Laura
*More accurate would be infantry or artillery. Her own use of title is also embellished, 30 plus years ago she got a PhD in physiology. I've not found any legitimate authority as to the radio and writing shtick portrayal. No indication her religious flukes had much sincerity. Ethics and morals? She appears to be acting.


Schlessinger doesn't merely effect her son, Deryk Schlessinger. She sells a "family values" product, in a family business, Deryk and Lewis Bishop also benefit. They target other families to support their personal lavish lifestyle, estates, sports cars, sailing and whatever catches her fancy. Charity work is business, hopefully many others do benefit. As for her style, she's not hands on and she's questionable at best.