This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

  • Those non-partisan folks at IAVA

    You probably remember TSO’s well researched and documented article last week entitled “Criticisms of the New IAVA Scorecard (Actually, ALL Scorecards)“. Well Veterans Today decided that Michael Farrell would do an article on the IAVA scorecard, too, but apparently they wanted to the complete opposite – just cut and paste without a moment’s research.

    The part that got me was this line;

    It’s hard to be an upstart organization for Vets and be totally nonpartisan but IAVA tries.

    Are you serious, numbnuts? March 6th last year, I wrote about how “nonpartisan” are IAVA and it’s Executive Director, Paul Reickhoff. Reickhoff is as non partisan as I am – the difference is that I’ll admit it. That’s probably why I got an email from Reickhoff a few weeks ago asking me to attend some piece of shit IAVA event. Funny how that came just before the scorecard was released, huh? Probably because Reickoff was still smarting from the first spanking TSO gave him over the 2008 scorecard.

    The Veterans Today article is entitled “Maybe someday we’ll wake up as a group …” From what I can tell, the crew at Veterans Today is in a deep coma with no chance of waking up if they think Paul Reickoff, the founder of OpTruth, the Army lieutenant who gave the Democrat response to one of President Bush’s Saturday Radio Addresses, is trying to be nonpartisan.

    Take this one that Farrel takes at face value;

    A couple of other interesting trends: one Democrat in a tough race went from an A+ rating to an A (Barbara Boxer) while another went from an A to an A+ (Blanche Lincoln).

    Yeah, poor anti-war Barbara Boxer, who berated a general for calling her “Ma’am” instead of “Senator” fell from an A+ to an regular old “A”. Poor thing. I guess that’ll teach her. Farrell takes the “fuckstick” title I bestowed on Reickhoff once.

    Thanks to TSO for the link.

  • Privatize the VA?

    From the CATO Institute:

    If you listen to Democratic campaign ads in Colorado, Nevada, or Delaware, among other places, you will discover yet another perfidious plot by evil Republicans — they want to “privatize the VA.”

    Which makes one respond, “This is a horrible thing because … why?”

    I know that even the mention of privatizing certain functions of the VA causes heads to explode at VoteVets and IAVA, which means the idea must have some merit. Personally, I am open to the idea. Jonn, myself, and others frequently post horror stories about the VA healthcare system in addition to using VA benefits ourselves. Despite a 11 percent increase in demand as a result of the GWOT and 95 percent budget increase, wait times are actually getting longer, quality of care isn’t improving, and almost every veteran I know who is attending college has to battle with the GI Bill office over something every semester. At least trying a pilot program where certain health benefits are paid for using debit cards like the ones they use for Health Savings Account is worth a shot.

    For those of you who use VA benefits, what are your thoughts about this?

  • Criticisms of the New IAVA Scorecard (Actually, ALL Scorecards)

    [Look folks, I realize this shit is dry enough to light on fire and use for heating, so you don’t need to read it all, but IAVA put a lot of effort into it, and so I want to give it an equal amount. Read until you fall asleep, and when you wake up, wipe the drool off your chin with a readily accessible wet nap and scan down to the divider line and read the conclusion.]

    Prior to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Duke Power Company had a policy whereby African-Americans were only allowed to serve in the manual labor branches, and could not be selected for managerial or upper level positions. Clearly the CRA was intended to end this, and so Duke changed their policy to one where any candidate for selection to a higher position had to demonstrate that they had a High School Diploma, and meet a minimum score on a standardized IQ test. The Court in this case held that while the “intent” of the promotional scheme was not racially motivated, the “disparate impact” on various ethnicities was.

    In pertinent part, the Court held that:

    The Company’s lack of discriminatory intent is suggested by special efforts to help the undereducated employees through Company financing of two-thirds the cost of tuition for high school training. But Congress directed the thrust of the Act to the consequences of employment practices, not simply the motivation.

    As I read through IAVA’s second annual Report Card, I kept coming back to that case. I’m willing to concede for the sake of argument that IAVA never intended for their scorecard to lean left. (Or, just plain fall over to the left.) Let me be precise on this, because I am likely to get beat up by both sides. I think it is demonstrably true that Paul Rieckhoff and many others high up in IAVA are Democrat Leaning. Fine. One can certainly counter that VFF leans to the Republicans. All of that is fair. However, for whatever one might hold against Paul, I’ve never heard it suggested or even intimated that the dude wasn’t sharp, and that he didn’t want to help veterans. Some might take issue with that here, but I mean among veterans advocates, he’s generally seen as a straight shooter. Additionally, if IAVA has a weakness, it is that it is perceived to be left of center. Paul, more than anything I am sure, wants more veterans in his group. And so, it would stand to reason that he wants to appear as non-partisan as he can.

    This is why I wonder what he thought when he looked at the results of his Report Card. For clarity’s sake I am sticking to the Senate votes in this, Part I of what will either be a one or two part post. I’m not sure I can add much on the House side once I show the infirmities of the Senate one.

    The rest is after the jump.
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  • The VFW PAC issue revisited

    My friends have weighed in on the VFW PAC issue, which I started last week. Mr Wolf from Blackfive has a post at Breitbart’s Big Peace and he’s still advocating that you to burn your VFW membership card. Well, I can’t do that – mine is aluminum. Yes, I’ve been a member that long – nearly twenty years as a Life Member.

    That guy who calls himself Mothax, has a really well-written post up at The Burn Pit about the pitfalls of a VSO trying to remain non-partisan in a political environment. He approaches the subject from an historical perspective without dick-punching the VFW.

    Me? I’m sticking it out for reform of the VFW PAC. I don’t know what their procedure is for endorsing a candidate, but obviously it’s wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. But, I don’t think that the answer is to disband a hundred-year-old organization. I’m also sure that organizations like VoteVets and IAVA are salivating at the thought of of the 2.1 million members of VFW, and their dues, in the wind.

    And, admit it, all of those guys who wrote that THIS is the reason they won’t join the VFW now, were never going to join anyway. I’ve seen the power of blogs in relation to certain organizations, and I’m putting my money on the folks who stick rather than the folks who bail on the VFW.

    Mr. Wolf says the VFW has kicked the can down the road by putting off for the next convention what they should be doing today. It’s only kicking the can down the road if that’s what we let them do. Mr. Wolf has a point, and I’ll admit that resigning my membership was my first reaction – but then I realized that it would probably do more damage than good.

    It also worries me that some of the leftists have joined in the feeding frenzy.

    But I’ll tell you what, as a twenty-year Life Member of the VFW, when a receptionist at the VFW PAC takes my name and number, and I’m like the VFW’s last ally on the internet…they’d better call me back. They’ve already called Bev Perlson back and she’s not even a member.

  • Overseas troops to be screwed by largely Blue States

    Mr Wolf sent us a link to a story out of Colorado this morning that some states, mostly Democrat-leaning states, are planning to screw absentee voters (read that: active duty soldiers serving overseas) out of their right to have a voice in the government that sends them to war;

    Spokesman Rich Coolidge said the ballots will still be mailed, but some soldiers in remote battlefields might not have enough time to mail them back, even though the state will give them an extra seven days after the election. He said they can also send them by e-mail or fax.

    Coolidge blamed late primaries and petition deadlines. He said ballots for the Aug. 10 primary also went out under short notice, but the 45-day deadline doesn’t apply to those elections.

    Bob Carey, federal voting assistance program director for the Department of Defense, said waiver requests have been received from Washington, New York, Hawaii, Alaska, the Virgin Islands, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.

    Of course the waiver they’re talking about is to the law that Obama signed last year – but there were enough loopholes in the law, states are allowed to apply for exceptions to the rule. yet another excuse for ballots to arrive late to the troops.

    You’d think that VoteVets, IAVA and IVAW would be jumping all over this, but, sadly, no they’re not. I’m sure TSO will have something to add since this is one of his principal issues.

  • IVAW Losing focus

    If you go to the IVAW website and go to the “about” page, you’ll see a list of their goals;

    * Immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces in Iraq;
    * Reparations for the human and structural damages Iraq has suffered, and stopping the corporate pillaging of Iraq so that their people can control their own lives and future; and
    * Full benefits, adequate healthcare (including mental health), and other supports for returning servicemen and women.

    I guess IVAW wike up the other morning and discovered that they were totally irrelevant, and although those goals were worthy and admirable, it’s not enough to raise the vast quantities of money to keep Matthis’ nose full of coke. So this weekend, they took up a couple of other causes that are not related at all to the three listed above.

    Since IVAW blocks TAH from their sight the two irrelevant resolutions are below the jump in their entirety;
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  • Worth bringing up over 30 years later.

    With all this flag burning going on within the IVAW I thought that this was worth posting about. Also since that for a good number of people to include myself that this is the first time to read about it,

    Rick Monday saves the US Flag.

    I mean it is interesting story to read and watch. This was just after the Vietnam War and despite that the reaction of the people in the stands is very encouraging. Also the Patriot Guards caught up with Rick Monday who still has that flag.

  • Sheehan, Matthis, and Brower trial delayed

    A couple of people have asked me what happened in the trial of Sheehan, Matthis and Elaine Brower last week. I’ll let the She-creature explain;

    I had an early flight out of Sacramento this morning and on my way to the airport at 6am, I got a message from one of our lawyers that the trial was going to be continued because a judge couldn’t be found due to some “judge’s conference.” So, from Monday to Wednesday, a Judge Convention (golf games?) arose which necessitated the postponement of our trial? I would like to believe that’s true, but with all of the other harassment and outright lies put together, I logically doubt the integrity of the court system. Not to mention the officer at the Park Police station who practically admitted that I was being singled out for harassment when he said, “If you would stop protesting this stuff would stop happening to you.”

    Not only all of the above, but I am calling for more protests in DC from July 4th to July 17th and I have a “stay away order” from the perimeter of the White House which includes the sidewalk in Lafayette Park that borders Pennsylvania Avenue. The order is in place until our trial-whenever that is going to be. This stay away order will seriously hamper and limit my right to free speech.

    I call “Shenanigans” on the entire episode-the system knows that we are correct about the wars and they know that our civil rights have been violated. The system should be on trial-not we anti-war activists.

    A nation built on lies seldom, if ever, wants to hear the truth.

    UPDATE: THE “LEGAL” SYSTEM IN DC IS SAYING THAT WE PROBABLY CAN’T RESCHEDULE THE TRIAL (FOR AN INFRACTION) UNTIL AUGUST, SEPTEMBER OR OCTOBER. THIS IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE FINANCIALLY AND CONSTITUTIONALLY. SINCE I HAVE ALREADY LOST HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS ON AIR-FARE AND DAYS OUT OF MY LIFE THAT I WILL NEVER GET BACK, ETC FOR THIS TRIAL, I AM DEMANDING MY SIXTH AMENDMENT RIGHT TO A SPEEDY TRIAL TO BE HELD WHEN I AM IN DC FOR SIZZLIN’ SUMMER PROTESTS IN JULY.

    THEY WANT TO BREAK ME, BUT I WASN’T BROKEN WHEN THEY KILLED MY SON–WHAT DO THEY THINK THEY CAN DO TO ME NOW?

    Actually, she’s pretty lucky. Her buddy, Hugo, has people in jail waiting for trial for years with no end in sight. But she just lost the cost of plane tickets, what’s the beef?

    Thanks to freebirdnavybrat for the link.