Rendon Group, cheney/bush Lackies, Gone!

More of the scum from the previous 'blood money' administration, these the propagandist, and the corrections of that, watch, more comin!!

Military terminates Rendon contract

This leads off the breaking report at S&S:

RELATED STORIES:

* Army used profiles to reject reporters
* Pentagon: Reporter profiling under review
* Files prove Pentagon is profiling reporters
* Journalists' recent work examined before embeds
* In the newsroom: Military puts its spin on PR story

Visit the report, the above are backlinked to in the follow up to.

The U.S. military is canceling its contract with a controversial private firm that was producing background profiles of journalists seeking to cover the war that graded their past work as “positive,” “negative” or “neutral,” Stars and Stripes has learned.

“The Bagram Regional Contracting Center intends to execute a termination of the Media Analyst contract,” belonging to The Rendon Group, said Col. Wayne Shanks, chief of public affairs for International Security Assistance Forces–Afghanistan.

The announcement follows a week of revelations by Stars and Stripes in which military public affairs officers who served in Afghanistan said that as recently as 2008 they had used reporter profiles compiled by The Rendon Group, a private public relations firm in Washington, D.C., to decide whether to grant permission to embed with troops on the battlefield..........

"Capture the Flag"

‘Capture the Flag: A Political History of American Patriotism’

The flag is not powerful in spite of its ambiguity; it is powerful because of its ambiguity. It has stood, at different times, for radical democracy, opposition to immigration, the abolition of slavery, unregulated capitalism, segregation, integration, and a hawkish war policy, among many other things.

Read a selection from the introduction of "Capture the Flag: A Political History of American Patriotism" by Woden Teachout

A winter wind swept across New York Harbor on a late after noon the day after Christmas in 1971. Tourists riding the last two ferries from Manhattan to the Statue of Liberty huddled against the bulkheads, sheltering themselves from the gusts. Among the passengers were clusters of long-haired adults in well used army-surplus clothing, looking for all the world like hippies taking in the world-famous landmark. The mission of these fifteen men, however, went far beyond tourism.

Immediately upon docking at the island, the men performed a quick reconnaissance. They wedged open a few doors and then took refuge from sight; some crouched behind the massive supporting columns in the base of the statue. Some found storage closets and tucked themselves away......................Read Rest Here

Description

Americans honor the flag with a fervor seen in few other countries: The Stars and Stripes decorate American homes and businesses; wave over sports events and funerals; and embellish everything from politicians’ lapels to the surface of the moon.

But what does the flag mean? In Capture the Flag, historian Woden Teachout reveals that it has held vastly different meanings over time. It has been claimed by both the right and left; by racists and revolutionaries; by immigrants and nativists. In tracing the political history of the flag from its origins in the American Revolution through the present day, Teachout demonstrates that the shifting symbolism of the flag reveals a broader shift in the definition of American patriotism.

A story of a nation in search of itself, Capture the Flag offers a probing account of the flag that has become America’s icon.

James Patterson, author of "Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy"
“Displaying a fine eye and narrative skill in recounting key episodes—among them the Revolution, nativist riots, the bombardment of Fort Sumter, civil rights activism, and the New York City hard hat riot of 1970—Woden Teachout reminds us of how important the American flag has been as a symbol for a wide variety of patriotic causes.”

Back in December 2006 I posted about this and than again in December 2008 a repost with some added material Distress: December 26th 1971 and December 26th 2008

In that one I started it out with some words and this repost part:

December 26, 1971
Two dozen members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War "liberated" the Statue of Liberty with a sit-in to protest resumed U.S. aerial bombings in Vietnam. They flew an inverted U.S. flag from the crown as a signal of distress.


We've now had many years of not one but two Invasions and Occupations better known as Wars of Choice, though soldiers and those occupied are still dying in one it has become a stagnant theater on a hair trigger, the other rapidly ramping up in deaths and destruction, both are and have been recruiting actions for what we now call 'International Terrorism', Criminal Terrorism that will rear it's head, with no boundries, over and over for decades, as the number of those who will carry out these acts have greatly increased due to own terror forced on others!


Below is the '06 post with little change, to remember that shoutout of Distress on it's Anniversary, and as a call for Thought of what we now are facing. Still two occupations of others, this time those serving are doing so over and over and over.............., and to eight years of extremely failed policies and total incompetence as well as multiple corruptions and crimes, in and out of government, but also to the crimes against humanity this country has allowed and seems unwilling to face nor call accountability for!

If you visit this you will find the rest of the 2006 post as well as a few more clips with links and a bigger photo, of the one directly above, of the Distress Flag flying from the crown of the Statue.

While wrapping ourselves in 'Old Glory' we as a Nation are moving further apart under the manipulation of changing political ideologies or the twisting of their meanings, in fear by the voices of the few.

"It's gonna be a bloodbath," {Updated}

Stars and Stripes


Sgt. Jacob Walker and Spc. Tyler Stafford talk about the attack

Soldiers recount deadly attack on Afghanistan outpost

Everything was on fire. The trucks. The bazaar. The grass.

It looked surreal. It looked like a movie.

That was July 13. That was when Stafford was blown out of a fighting position by an RPG, survived a grenade blast and had the tail of an RPG strike his helmet.

That was the day nine Chosen Company soldiers died.

It was just days before the unit was scheduled to leave the base.

"It was some of the bravest stuff I’ve ever seen in my life, and I will never see it again because those guys," Stafford said, then paused. "Normal humans wouldn’t do that. You’re not supposed to do that — getting up and firing back when everything around you is popping and whizzing and trees, branches coming down and sandbags exploding and RPGs coming in over your head … It was a fistfight then, and those guys held ’ em off."

Stafford offered a guess as to why his fellow soldiers fought so hard.

"Just hardcoreness I guess," he said. "Just guys kicking ass, basically. Just making sure that we look scary enough that you don’t want to come in and try to get us."

CNN


"It's gonna be a bloodbath," fallen soldier told father

Cpl. Gunnar Zwilling suspected that his days were numbered last week, while he and his band of brothers in the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team prepared for a mission near Wanat, Afghanistan.

Cpl. Gunnar Zwilling had a bad feeling about his final mission in Afghanistan, said his father, Kurt.

"It's gonna be a bloodbath," he told his father, Kurt Zwilling, on the phone in what would be their last conversation.

The Defense Department on Wednesday identified the U.S. soldiers killed Sunday when their outpost was overrun in Afghanistan.

• 1st Lt. Jonathan P. Brostrom, 24, of Aiea, Hawaii.

• Sgt. Israel Garcia, 24, of Long Beach, California.

• Cpl. Jonathan R. Ayers, 24, of Snellville, Georgia.

• Cpl. Jason M. Bogar, 25, of Seattle, Washington.

• Cpl. Jason D. Hovater, 24, of Clinton, Tennessee.

• Cpl. Matthew B. Phillips, 27, of Jasper, Georgia.

• Cpl. Pruitt A. Rainey, 22, of Haw River, North Carolina.

• Cpl. Gunnar W. Zwilling, 20, of Florissant, Missouri.

• Pfc. Sergio S. Abad, 21, of Morganfield, Kentucky.



There's nothing I really can add to the above, nor do I feel I should.

The interviews at the links and the video, by the soldiers, are the reality.

RIP Young Brothers

The First From 2days Ago

Military looking at intelligence before deadly Afghan clash

A formal investigation into an attack on a U.S. Army unit by about 200 Taliban insurgents will examine whether the Army had intelligence about a possible assault and whether the troops had access to it.

This one from today:

Misunderstanding leaves 9 dead in Afghan airstrike

A misunderstanding between local police and coalition forces led to an airstrike in southwestern Afghanistan Sunday that left nine police officers dead, a defense ministry official said.

I leave it up to your own thoughts to see the picture of what is and has been going on!