lluggg459

request was doomed to

IEDs get in the way of my plan to reach Canada

troops continue to fight in this country, dying at a rate of about one a day.

Still, the war itself, now in its 11th year, commands little attention in the Western media and even less in the ongoing presidential campaigns.

At home in the United States, public opinion about the war effort is not favourable, with 66% opposed to it, and just 27% in support, according to a May AP GfK poll published by the Associated Press.

It makes the stories all that more important. Hopefully I get some soon.

When I showed up at the heliport Tuesday, there was the usual group of men standing around. No way to tell who they were, nor where they were going. The fashion seems to be to look as much like a special forces soldier as possible. This involves shaving one's head, sporting a thick ZZ Top mini beard, and a variety of tattoos, along with adopting a casual "It's just another day facing death" demeanour. I fit in perfectly apart from the missing beard, lack of tattoos, and the frightened look on my face. Of course it is also possible that they are all special forces.

One day after being bounced because there was no room in the helicopter, things were looking much more promising. The list said there were 30 spots available. All I had to do was set my alarm and get myself in the line up the next morning.

To fly on a helicopter you have to wear the full kit of helmet, Kevlar vest, long sleeves, gloves, ballistic goggles and closed toed shoes. It says so on the wall. I am by far the least fashionable guy around when it comes to body armour. I originally got mine in 2002 and it is a delightful orangey yellow desert colour. It is starting to show its age. But as far as I know body armour doesn't lose its potency no matter how old, and we have a bit of a shared history so I am sticking with it like it sticks to me from time to time. And 'so what' if it is not this year beige, or sage green.

I showed up on time with the same group of gentlemen from the night before and tried to look calm. I hate flying. I hate flying in helicopters even more. Then there are the Chinooks with the rotating intersecting blades. I try not to think about distracted helicopter mechanics.

I am there plenty early so I sketch one of the passengers reading his Kindle. After an hour or so, after roll call, we are all told to gear up. The Chinook is idling on the runway. As we exit the office onto the runway, everyone gets a free set of earplugs. Boarding the helicopter means forming a line like in primary school and walking in a 200 metre semi circle till we are directly behind the bird. In single file you march toward the back doors directly into the backwash from the rotors and the twin jet engines. There is a point where you actually feel like you might be Nike NFL Jerseys lifted off your feet before you enter the lea at the back doors.

I had planned ahead and written a note to the crew chief to ask if I could sit at the back doors. I was hoping to sketch and perhaps do a little filming. There would be no point trying to talk. I got the thumbs up from the chief.

The flight went smoothly. I concentrated on the sketching and the 40 minutes to FOB Qalat Lagman in Zabul Province went by very quickly. The sketches are a little wobbly.

At FOB Qalat Lagman, I Authentic Russell Wilson Jersey was met by First Lieutenant Christine Rosalin, the public affairs officer on the base. She gave me a quick tour and got me billeted. I dumped my gear and picked up my sketchpad and pencils. I was itching to do something. My previous day spent idle was weighing on me.

FOB Qalat Lagman has tightened security following a so called green on blue attack earlier this week. It was the latest in a string of such violence in which an Afghan police or soldiers have shot dead their NATO comrades. There have been dozens of these attacks this year, far exceeding any previous year.

After lunch I went and visited the soldiers in the maintenance wing. This is always an area I like to go and hang out. These guys don't see a lot of journalists, and fewer artists. When I arrived repair shed was empty and a basketball game was in full swing, using a very oily looking basketball. They were happy to let me hang out and draw some stuff while they played.

A couple of hours later, I had a couple of them come and pretend to be working on one of the vehicles I had drawn. Just so I could give them a shout out. I sketched them in from the photo afterwards. Years from now they won't care that we faked it.

So I am now in Zabul Province. It was never a home to any Canadian soldiers although it was part of Regional Command South when Canada had control. Zabul is not where I had hoped to be. It is nowhere I have been before. But I am out of Kandahar Air Field. Army Captain Troy Frey, who is in Forward Operating Base Ma'Sum Ghar a base previously home to a Canadian contingent. I had been pressing the PAO folks to get me back into some of the Forward Operating Bases, Combat Outposts (COP) Patrol Bases (PB) previously occupied by Canada. Firstly, most of the smaller bases were turned over to the ANA. This included the two at Chalgowr and Salavat, where the Canadians had worked hard to open schools. forces have no immediate presence in the area, nor contact with the ANA there. (For me, that means this particular avenue is closed. The last thing I need is to have a convoy veering off on some errand of mine unless there is a base there already). Secondly, apparently things are not at all well in the Horn of Panjwaii since the Canadians left. Captain Frey described them as "quite kinetic," soldier speak for lots of bad guys, and Improvised Explosive Devices.

He couldn't immediately see sending me in there and had been told by his commanders in the field that I was the last thing they needed.

The last "reporters" there were a group of filmmakers from Animal Planet. (You can't make this up). They were doing a very worthwhile piece on explosive sniffing dogs. I love those animals. They apparently struck an IED while in a vehicle convoy, leaving one of them with a torn up leg and one with a ruptured eardrum.

So my request was doomed to failure. I might still try and wholesale jerseys get to Ma'Sum Ghar or to Mushan to continue this story later in the trip.

The blog should be slightly more frequent from now on. Hopefully it will be about something else other than just me.

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talking about yesterd

Does Kap struggle with progressions

How do you explain what's happened, as far as the passing game goes, last ranked in the league coming into this game and just really not ever being able to Russell Wilson Jersey Super Bowl get anything going against the Panthers?

"Well, if you look at the last four quarters of this game, offensively, not getting into a rhythm there, moving the ball, picking up consecutive first downs enough. We didn't play well enough. Came up short there."

There's been a lot of chatter since the game about QB Colin Kaepernick's ability, or inability, to go through his progressions in the passing game. Where is he in that regard as far as his, the evolution of Colin Kaepernick?

"The way we look at it is as a unit. The unit, offensively, we didn't play well enough to win the game. Now, across the board, we think about accountability for that we've got fingerprints on it. I'm not going to go through, dissect, position by position, raking anybody over the coals. Don't think that's the best thing for us. We've got a tough game coming up and we're not going to wallow in it. We're going to move onto New Orleans."

Not Super Bowl Russell Wilson Jersey to rake him over the coals, but is that something that a young quarterback is always working on, always improving upon? That seems to be one of the toughest parts about playing quarterback is that something that naturally a young guy has to continue to get better at.

"I understand. I understand what you're doing, what you're trying to do and glomming onto somebody's opinion, but I think it's whatever they think. The main thing is that we'll look at it and talk about it with our players and see the areas that we can improve. Just dissecting it as a unit, we had too many negative plays in te game, too many negative plays, loss of yardage plays, penalties, sack, turnover, that we've got to get better at. We didn't do a good enough job.

Not to use it as an excuse, but it seemed like when TE Vernon Davis was out against the Colts and when Vernon left yesterday, the offense really stagnated. How vital is he to the offense, particularly with his ability to kind of stretch the field with his speed?

"I think that definitely contributed to, one of the things that contributed to the rhythm of the offense and no I'm not going to use any excuses or is anybody going to alibi. But, we did lose two tight ends in the game, [TE Garrett] Celek before Vernon and that contributed."

How encouraged were you by WR Mario Manningham's season debut almost 11 months after he'd played?

"It was very encouraging being back in the fray, being back in the fire and had some opportunities to contribute and I think it's a positive."

Carolina Panthers LB Luke Kuechly made a nice play on that ball. Was that something that you'd expect TE Vance McDonald to come down with?

"Again, we could go through this really across the unit. Our staff, everybody involved that touches the offense, up and down the line. We've all got plays in there and when it's all said and done you look back and say, 'that was the winning edge.' We could have made plays offensively. We could have eliminated the error, the negative plays and it would've been a better outcome for us. It would've been a winning edge outcome for our team. We didn't get that done and I'll take responsibility for it, but can't wallow in it because we play too good of a team this week. I think any time spent there isn't going to be productive. Outside of the fact, I think it was a good game to learn from and we'll do that."

S Eric Reid suffered his second concussion in two months. What extra precautions does he need to go through maybe to get cleared? Are there extra, is there anything extra in the protocol having two in a season and how's he doing?

"He seemed to be doing good after the game. To answer your question, I don't know the answer to that in terms of extra protocols."

Did he have to go to the hospital or anything like that after the game?

You might just say this is glomming on, but just generally, how do you think Colin has played this season? Last year, he drops right in the middle of the season and the numbers are fantastic. This season has been not the same. Do you think he's been as good as he was last year or is this just what happens to a quarterback sometimes?

"Just talk about this offensively. There's been tremendous play by our quarterback. There's been tremendous play by our line. There's been tremendous play by our backs, tight ends, receivers. That's all taken place. That's occurred. There's been great play http://www.nflseahawksofficialstore.com/3+Russell+Wilson+Jersey+Cheap.html calling. There's been exceptional work and everybody involved with it is working harder than you can imagine to get it to be the kind of winning edge that we need to it to be championship type of football. We didn't get that done this week. We didn't play championship football offensively. That's always what our aim is. That's what we strive for."

The offense ran one screen. It was a pass to WR Kyle Williams in the second quarter on a 3rd and 20 something. Why not call screens more often in this game and in general?

"That's not a bad point. Point well taken."

What were you saying in particular, if anything, on the third downs and that lack of consecutive first downs that you mentioned was a big hole for you guys yesterday?

"What did I say? What would I say?"

What were you saying, looking back on tape that maybe they were doing or maybe you guys weren't doing on third downs to not get those consecutive first downs that you pointed to?

"Well, we were in some third down and long yardage situations due to some negative plays early in the down and we didn't convert also on some short yardage third downs. And we didn't convert on some second downs, second down and ones that resulted in negative plays and then a longer third down play. So, there's quite a bit of circumstance and situation to each and every one of those. Not going to go through them specifically."

Not just talking about yesterday's game, is there a reason Colin is not running as much this year, not using his legs as much? He's had some games where he we've covered it in plenty of press conferences where we talked about how well he's used his legs, how well he's run the ball. And that's back to the earlier point."

If Vernon and Celek can't playSunday, is TE Derek Carrier ready to be elevated from the practice squad?

"We're looking at some options right now and there's some decisions to be made. You wait until you get the medical results back and then have more evidence to make those decisions."

oethlisberger will hav

Quarterback pay leads to talent drain for Steelers

When Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh shouted, "It's Steelers week," to his players early last week, the declaration probably didn't carry as much meaning as it might have in the past. The same could be said if Mike Tomlin declared it "Ravens week" to any of his players.

Used to be, the mere mention of a Steelers Ravens meeting was enough to get the juices flowing and tempers roiling. It would conjure memories of Joey Porter going to the Ravens team bus after the game and challenging Ray Lewis to get off; cornerback James Trapp stomping on Plaxico Burress' facemask; Hines Ward decleating Ed Reed with a block so vicious that the All Pro safety called him "a dirty player." Even the coaches, Bill Cowher and Brian Billick, didn't like each other.

But all those players are gone, and so is the nastiness, so is the dislike. When the teams get together at 4:25 Super Bowl Doug Baldwin Jersey today at Heinz Field, a large portion of each roster doesn't even know what a Steelers Ravens game really means, let alone feels like.

That's because the Steelers have 19 players on their roster who have never played in one of these AFC North battles. The Ravens have 18 players who have never worn a purple uniform against the Steelers. That's 35 percent of the players at Heinz Field who have never participated in a Steelers Ravens game.

That's quite a roster upheaval for two teams who meet twice annually on the field.

"There's enough guys who have been around here to know, and it's carrying over," http://www.nflseahawksofficialstore.com/89+Doug+Baldwin+Jersey+Cheap.html said injured linebacker Larry Foote, who has been around the rivalry since 2002. "Hopefully those young guys will get in line and know what type of battle this is."

The Steelers and Ravens spent a large portion of the past decade paralleling each other, battling for the division title, meeting in the postseason, trying to win with aggressive defenses that tortured quarterbacks and suffocated running backs.

And now they're doing it again, though for a much different reason.

The Steelers and Ravens are not unlike a lot of teams who have had to pillage their roster because of age and salary cap limitations. The Steelers parted with seven starters after the 2012 season, including five who helped them win two Super Bowls. The Ravens lost eight starters from last year's Super Bowl winning team, including two of their all time great players, Ray Lewis and Ed Reed.

And it might not stop there. More longtime starters and key contributors could depart after this season, all because of what has become a disturbing trend in the National Football League quarterback inflation.

Teams have to commit so much money to pay a franchise quarterback that they don't have enough room under the salary cap to keep their other top players. As such, they have to resort to filling their rosters with rookies and low priced free agents, creating constant turnover.

Roethlisberger and Flacco are among the 16 NFL players who are part of the $100 million club. It's a fraternity that includes 13 quarterbacks, with Flacco ($120.6 million), Dallas' Tony Romo ($119.5 million), Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers ($110 Doug Baldwin Jersey Super Bowl million) and Atlanta's Matt Ryan ($103.75 million) as the newest members after signing lucrative contacts during the offseason.

The teams who seem to have plenty of talented depth San Francisco, Seattle, Cincinnati are able to do so because they haven't had to pay their quarterbacks the $100 million contracts that are increasingly becoming the norm in the NFL.

But when they do, when the contracts of Colin Kaepernick, Russell Wilson and even Andy Dalton come due, those teams will suffer the same fate of all the others: paring their rosters and trying to maintain a winning team with a very expensive franchise quarterback and a few other core players.

"The thing about it is, if the guy is Peyton or Tom or Drew, how good is their team without them?" Roethlisberger said. "It's a franchise guy. If you prove it and won playoff games and Super Bowls, then you deserve it."

That is the position in which the Steelers find themselves with Roethlisberger, whose eight year $102 million contract comes due in 2016. And that is the position into which the Ravens have been thrust after signing Flacco to his monster contract the highest in NFL history after winning the Super Bowl.

"You've got two issues, and the first one is a happy one, that you've got a great quarterback that can win the big one and be the top flight quarterback at playoff time," former NFL general manager Bill Polian said in an interview with the Baltimore Sun. "The other side of the coin is now they have to pay him whatever amount of money they have to pay him, and that's going to take up a lot of cap room.

"You've got to understand that the cap is designed to hurt the Baltimores of the world. It's designed to make them disgorge talent, just as it did with the Colts and all the good teams. That's a very tough stumbling block to be in their situation."

Polian would know. During his years in Indianapolis, the Colts devoted a large portion of their salary cap space to Peyton Manning but were still able to keep several other key players in place, such as receiver Marvin Harrison and defensive ends Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis. The rest of the team was filled in with low cost role players, yet the Colts were able to make it work, putting together nine consecutive playoff seasons and winning the Super Bowl in 2006.

"Indy was a classic example where they became an offensive dominated team with pass rushers, and they kept it going that way," said former Washington Redskins general manager Charley Casserly, a studio analyst for the NFL Network. "You're going to have to be dominant on one side of the ball, whether you like it or not. On the other side, you got to make a decision who you want to pay. I never saw a team so dominant with one player as Indy was with Manning."

In 2000, Manning's third season, his $6.7 million cap number accounted for 10.8 percent of Indy's cap space. When the Colts won the Super Bowl in 2006, he counted $10.5 million against the cap, or 10.2 percent of Indy's cap space. The percentage of the cap space was slightly lower six years later, even though Manning was making more money proof that the rise in the salary cap was keeping up with his escalating salary.

But the problem for most teams is only going to get worse.

When the salary cap was implemented in 1994, it began at $34.6 million and rose steadily each year, reaching $123 million in 2013. The biggest increase in the cap has been $17 million, which occurred from 2005 to 2006.

But, given the number and staggering size of recent quarterback contracts, it is largely debatable if the increases in the salary cap can keep up with the growth of quarterback salaries.

This year, the three quarterbacks with the highest cap numbers Eli Manning of the New York Giants ($20.8 million), Detroit's Matthew Stafford ($20.8 million) and Peyton Manning ($20 million) take up between 16.2 percent to 16.8 percent of their team's cap space.

In 2014, it will get worse. Romo's new deal means he will count $21.14 million against the Cowboys' cap. And that doesn't count what might happen with three quarterbacks who are coming off their rookie contracts Kaepernick, Dalton and Carolina's Cam Newton. Also, New England's Tom Brady will be in the last year of his deal, and Roethlisberger will have two years remaining, typically the time the Steelers would talk contract extension with their two time Super Bowl winning quarterback.

Roethlisberger counts $13.6 million against the cap this season, but his number will rise to $17.9 million in 2014.

When Flacco's exorbitant contract kicks in and he is to be paid $28.5 million in 2016 and $31 million in 2017, the Ravens are counting on the salary cap increasing enough to keep up with the rate of quarterback inflation. Right now, it's not happening. If the cap maintains its pace of increasing $3 million each season the amount since the inception of the new collective bargaining agreement Flacco will account for nearly a quarter (24.8 percent) of his team's cap space when his contract hits its peak.

"That's the biggest problem quarterback salaries," said one NFL team executive who did not want to be identified. "Something has to give."

he Raiders faced both particip

2007 Oakland Raiders season

The 2007 Oakland Raiders season was the team's forty eight season overall. The http://www.nflseahawksofficialstore.com/87+Kellen+Davis+Jersey+Cheap.html team finished the season with a 4 12 record. It began with the team's fourth head coach in six seasons.

By virtue of the team's 2 14 finish in 2006 (the Super Bowl Kellen Davis Jersey worst in the NFL for that year), they acquired the first overall pick in the 2007 NFL Draft. With that first pick, the Raiders selected LSU quarterback , who went on to be one of the greatest busts in NFL history.

As in 2005 and 2006, the Raiders faced both participants from the previous season's Super Bowl. In 2007, they had home games scheduled against the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts from Super Bowl XLI. They lost to both teams.[1]The first casualty of the Raiders' disastrous 2006 season was head coach Art Shell, who was fired on January 4, 2007.[2] His career record as head coach of the Raiders (including playoffs) was 58 56. The team has interviewed a number of candidates since Shell's firing, including San Diego Chargers assistant coach Kellen Davis Jersey Super Bowl James Lofton, former New York Giants head coach Jim Fassel, and current Raiders defensive coordinator Rob Ryan. USC assistant head coach Steve Sarkisian, considered to be the front runner for the position, withdrew his name from consideration on January 19.[3] On January 22, the team announced the hiring of 31 year old USC offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin, the youngest coach in franchise history and the youngest coach in the NFL.[4]

Kiffin's first staffing hire was former Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Greg Knapp, who accepted the same position in Oakland on January 28.[5]

Oakland signed Super Bowl winning running back Dominic Rhodes away from the Indianapolis Colts on March 9, 2007. The next day, the Raiders brought in Justin Griffith from the Atlanta Falcons to help the blocking game.

evidence introduced by t

Carruth Sentence Near the Maximum Possible

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Former NFL player Rae Carruth was sentenced Monday to 24 years, four months, in prison, without possibility of parole, on three charges related to the shooting death of his pregnant girlfriend. Carruth will receive credit for the 14 months he was jailed awaiting trial and can shave off about five years through good behavior, making his minimum term 18 years, 11 months.

Carruth was acquitted Friday of first degree murder punishable by death in the shooting of Cherica Adams in November 1999, but was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, discharging a firearm into occupied property and use of an instrument to kill an unborn child.

Adams' child, Chancellor Lee Adams, was delivered by Caesarean section six weeks before full Super Bowl Chris Clemons Jersey term and survived.

Cherica's mother, Saundra Adams, testified during the 90 minute sentencing hearing that Chancellor is developmentally disabled and suffers from cerebral palsy as a result of his early delivery.

"He is fighting for his life every day," she said. "Chancellor at 14 months old is not doing things a 4 month old can do. Chancellor can't hold his bottle. He has trouble holding a rattle. He's not sitting up."

Adams and Jeffrey Moonie, Chris Clemons Jersey Super Bowl Cherica's father, both testified that Carruth has displayed no remorse for the death of their daughter or concern for Chancellor.

"Don't let this be a little smack on the wrist like, 'Oh, you are a bad boy and you http://www.nflseahawksofficialstore.com/91+Chris+Clemons+Jersey+Cheap.html should be sent to a little timeout.' " Saundra Adams told the judge. "Have him take a punishment not like a little boy, but as a man for one time. Let him be held responsible."

As Lamm pronounced the sentence, Carruth, a 1997 first round draft pick of the Carolina Panthers, showed no emotion. Adams' family exchanged embraces.

Defense attorney David Rudolf called only one witness, a forensic psychologist who testified that Carruth had a calm demeanor and normally resolved conflict in a nonviolent and reasonable manner.

Carruth's mother, Theodry, said she wanted to testify, but Rudolf did not call her.

"In my heart, my son did not do this," she said.

Lamm denied a motion by Rudolf to vacate the guilty verdicts because they were inconsistent with the murder acquittal.

Rudolf filed notice of an appeal, which will be heard in eight to 12 months. Among listed grounds for appeal was the absence of black males on the jury. The panel comprised seven white males, three black females and two white females.

Lamm ruled that aggravating circumstances of the crime outweighed mitigating evidence introduced by the defense. Prosecutor Gentry Caudill pointed out that Carruth abused a position of trust to lure Adams into an ambush. Rudolf noted that Carruth had no prior criminal record.

Carruth, 27, is guilty of conspiring with three co defendants to kill Adams because he did not want to pay child support. Adams, 24, was shot four times while driving home after going to a movie with Carruth and died a month later.

Gunman Van Brett Watkins, 40, pleaded guilty to second degree murder in exchange for testimony and faces up to 50 years in prison. Michael Eugene Kennedy, 25, the driver of the car from which the shots were fired, and passenger Stanley Drew Abraham, 20, still face murder charges.

The defense argued that Carruth was being pressured by Kennedy and Watkins for drug money and that Watkins shot Adams in an act of rage.