Also I could not help but notice that the signs say SocialistWorker on the bottom.
I get that grammar errors happen but if your going to protest about increased tuition for college education, perhaps you should double check it first before becoming your own worst argument. I mean you are on FailBlog, the mother of the Epic Fail. Sucks to be you.
Fixed
I say this after reading this quote from the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.
The high death toll from Pro-Government Forces (PGF) operations in Marjah, Helmand, a PGF airstrike targeting what appear to be civilian vehicles in Daikondi, and a suicide attacks and mine placement by Anti-Government Forces (AGF) suggest neither side to the conflict is taking sufficient precautions to prevent civilian deaths, as required under international law.
So after all our Rules of Engagements that do everything possible to stop civilian deaths and despite all of this we are still seen on the same level as the Taliban and friends.
Pro-Government Forces must exert greater care to distinguish between civilians and combatants in their offensive in Marjah.
Except that I think that the only people even wearing any type of uniforms so this would not be a issue is us. Plus when they pose as civilians or Afghanistan police or Army that makes this challangeing to enforce is a understatement.
But this is one just seems purely naive.
The AIHRC also calls on Anti-Government Elements to observe their responsibilities to civilians by not using civilians as human shields, and not planting mines or other explosive devices in residential areas.
Or this one.
The AIHRC calls on the parties to the conflict to respect the laws of war. Warring parties must not use tactics that unduly endanger civilian lives and property.
So do these guys really think that anyone in the Taliban would even consider any of this. Terror and fear keep these people in power and anything that challenges that they kill. But some people seem to not understand that still.
We have a ID on our John Doe that I wrote about in my last post thanks the efforts of IronKnight. The person in question is Staff Sergeant José Pequeño.
When an insurgent pitched a grenade into his Humvee while he was reporting a suicide bomber, the explosion killed the driver and took the lower left two lobes from his brain. In the more than three years since he’s undergone a dozen and a half surgeries, his mother and sister have given up home, job, college, friends and all else to stay with him — and he has lived, despite his doctors’ predictions and expectations.
And why did he volunteer to go back again?
A US Marine Corps veteran and Army National Guardsman, Staff Sergeant José Pequeño returned to Iraq because he felt that would help some of his young Guardsmembers return home safely.
Also it should be noted the difference in writing between the two authors.
Tomorrow, take a moment to remember those who came home far from whole.
Whether you believe in the war or not, the men and women who wear the uniforms of the US Armed Forces — and especially those whose service has marked them as irrevocably physically as it has spiritually and psychically — deserve a moment’s remembrance.
Thank for that.
Every once in a while I read the Rag Blog but stopped doing so as much because they just seem to copy whole articles and nothing else. But this one caught my eye. Here is the photo.
I want you to look very closely at this picture and try and keep it in your minds eye. This was a perfectly healthy 22-year-old young man who in the service of his country got half of his head blown off. I think that’s important, I think that’s newsworthy. Let me tell you how newsworthy I think it is. I think that it’s more important than chocolate cake recipes and far more important than comic book reviews. It is more important than who fell and who’s swell at the winter Olympic games.
It is far more important than any self-serving load of crap banged out by pseudo doctor Amy. It is more important than American Idol or Lost or any other mindless goat droppings the public chooses to chew on. This is some American mother’s son, her little boy, he may be gay or straight or transgender but his life is screwed forever.
I was agreeing with this and most people here have said through words and actions over the past years. So I thought maybe that this was going to be one of few post that I agreed with. But that was quick to change.
How did this come to happen to this poor mother’s son? It came to happen because the people in the media who are supposed to foster a public debate on such public issues as war instead used their franchise to promote articles about chocolate cake and comic book reviews. They see their free press as free to choose not to look when bad things happen. They feel no need to explain to his parents or to anyone that the war that blew off half of this poor boy’s head was based on out and out lies.
It goes in to the usual statements on why everything we do and have done is beyond pardonable. But the thing that me upset is what is not being said. Like who is this person? What is his name? This author spend the first two paragraphs about how we are forgetting out those that are injured in this war. But seems to be perfectly happy letting this be a John Doe that to me seems is being used as just another prompt in his article. There is nothing about any of the issues or challenges that this Vet is facing or even if people can find was to help. Oh and there was the standard death count at the bottom of the article. Classy, just another way to show faceless death of our service members.
Or unverifiable claims about civilian deaths. in a article that is suppose to be about why the media is ignoring our wounded Vets. Yes this is all in the same article.
Because not content to ignore the current victims they support more crimes and call for more wars. Several years ago in Iraq parents waited for their children at a bus stop. An errant coalition missile struck the bus stop and blew the elementary school age children to pieces. Needless to say this wasn’t widely reported but the parents in a frenzy began fighting over the body parts of their children.
You really think that things like that would not be noticed much less ignored the Press. Also because of the dateless event you can be ambiguous as you want to be leaving your detractors trying to prove a negative.
So once again another service member gets used as a media prompt.
Ok it should be noted that I have mixed feelings about this issue. So with that in mind lets get stated.
Homeschooling: German Family Gets Political Asylum in U.S.
“It’s our fundamental right to decide how we want to teach our children,” says Uwe Romeike, an Evangelical Christian and a concert pianist who sold his treasured Steinway to help pay for the move.
Romeike decided to uproot his family in 2008 after he and his wife had accrued about $10,000 in fines for homeschooling their three oldest children and police had turned up at their doorstep and escorted them to school. “My kids were crying, but nobody seemed to care,”
It would seem like a straight forward issue except that can homes schooling be as effective as standard schooling be it public or private? It the parents are quoted that it would cost too much to send too to private schools. But I have to ask if they cannot afford the money of sending to a private school, then how can they afford only one working parent? Not to mention of keeping the teacher parent certified that anything taught will be taken seriously. Also there is the social issue
“No parental couple can offer a breadth of education [that can] replace experienced teachers,” says Kraus, of the German Teachers’ Association. “Kids also lose contact with their peers.”
I noticed that about one person that was being home schooled back in the 90s. Acted like he was in elementary school and we where both suppose to be at Freshmen level of High school. Just a lot of concepts and language that was totally different.
One of the Romeikes’ concerns was about their kids getting bullied. But their main objection involved what was being taught in the classroom. “The curriculum goes against our Christian values,” Uwe says. “German schools use textbooks that force inappropriate subject matter onto young children and tell stories with characters that promote profanity and disrespect.”
Ok, so what happens when they have to face it in the workplace or outside of school, not to mention if they ever have to be in charge of people. Also the article does not go into what specific they opposite in the classroom.
Then I read this and it caught my eye. Sounded like something right out of a IVAW play book.
So why did he seek asylum in the U.S. rather than relocate to nearby Austria or another European country that allows homeschooling? Romeike’s wife Hannelore tells TIME the family was contacted by the Virginia-based Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), which suggested they go to the U.S. and settle in Morristown, Tenn. The nonprofit organization, which defends the rights of the U.S. homeschooling community
Except that I am sure that this will cause the same issues and problems that our favorate Asylum seeking IVAW member Andre Shepard
“It’s very unusual for people from Western countries to be granted asylum in the U.S.,” says David Piver, an immigration attorney with offices in a Philadelphia suburb and Flagstaff, Ariz. In 2008, the most recent year for which data are available, only five Germans received asylum in the U.S. (The Justice Department declined to comment on specific cases.) Piver, who is not involved in the Romeike case, predicted the U.S. government would appeal the decision “so as not to offend a close ally.”
So rather then trying for a place where they have a better chance of being granted asylum but now because they are going to do this by a group that I am willing to bet sees this as more of a political move then of a concern of the children and parents. Not to mention that that diplomatic issues between Germany and our government are going to slow things down to a crawl. Andre’s hearing was in early 2009 and still no ruling on his case. Even then it will be in a constant cycle of appeals. I imagine the same thing for this German couple to the point where that they will be off in college before the ruling is decided.
There could be other issues here that have not be brought up but just because it is banned does not mean that it is the right choice automatically.
I thought the video where Al Jareea was showing the insurgents arresting people who voted in the Afghanistan election to a quite possibly a painful death was bad enough. One guy wanted to take it further.
Late last summer, while reporting a story for FRONTLINE, veteran Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi through channels put out word that he would like to interview one of the new Taliban commanders leading a growing insurgency in the country’s northern provinces.
Yep for those who where in Afghanistan out on patrols this guy was chatting it up with those that wanted to kill you.
In this excerpt from Behind Taliban Lines, the militants — members of an extremist group called Hezb-i-Islami, which fights alongside the Taliban throughout the country — have holed up in a safe-house near their target and are beginning to build the bombs that they hope will stop an American supply truck and a jeep filled with Afghan police, both of which they plan to subsequently attack with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
The excuse that the writer gives is that he is helping the West better understand these groups. In his own words:
At the time he filmed this scene, Quraishi did not know the target of the attack, but it was clear to him — as it was throughout his time with the militants — that it was critical for a Western audience to see for themselves what was taking place here, deepening our understanding of the tactics, training, and mind-set of the insurgents who control vast regions of the country beyond the reach of the central government.
There are so many lines in this story to quote it was hard not to just post the entire story but one thing that should be noted is that even with the obvious free publicity and propaganda, they had no issues about having though of beheading him.
“Mirwais took my hand; he took me aside,” Quraishi says. “He said: ‘Brother, I invited you here as a guest. I know your plan is to be here for 14 days, but I’m really sorry.’” Two men had arrived from Pakistan—likely from Hezb-i-Islami and Al Qaeda—and they demanded to know why an outsider had been allowed in to film among the fighters. “‘They keep telling me that you are a spy and we have to behead you.’”
But he found out that once again the overall truth with these groups.
Indeed, as the men of Central Group proceed toward their target, Quraishi meets a young bomb maker from Uzbekistan who says he was trained by Al Qaeda.
“America started this war in Afghanistan so that European countries like England and America would be safe,” he tells Quraishi. “But they should know that once the mujahideen conquer Afghanistan, … we’ll aim for the Middle East and Europe.”
Their words now ours.
Seems that the people over at Rethink Afghanistan are upset that Brig. Gen. Nicholson said that civilian casualties are going to be unavoidable. Yet by their reaction you would think that the is a open statement that civilian casualties are being viewed as unimportant. Hardly the case that I have seen.
So of course these people jump over it when it does happen. Of course our sources our always wrong and children seem to be be involved. Does not do well since half of the footage used is from Al Jazeera does not make me want to watch anything they say. Also not to mention the fact this news group is the only news group that video taped a Insurgent group in Afghanistan pulling people over at a illegal checkpoint looking for people who voted in the election. Now they want to come off with any sense of concern for the people of Afghanistan.
But that seems not to bother some people.
U.S. forces just fired a “precision munition” that landed 300 yards away from its target, butchering 10 civilians, including 5 children. Stop this war.
DC I respect you but you and your group are dead wrong on this.