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

Category: VoteVets

  • The worst persons in the world

    Jon Soltz tells Keith Olbermann why he won’t be living in Keith’s studio broom closet any longer. Soltz milks the sympathy of the four people in Olbermann’s audience and has a real hang-dog expression like he’s been sentenced to death instead of called to serve his country;

    Soltz claims in the video that he’s always separated his military service from his activism. When was that? If you go back over the countless videos in which Soltz appears, every other word out of his mouth mentions his four months in Iraq as a member of the military until recently, a picture of Soltz in a desert landscape and in a combat pogue uniform (no LBE, no helmet, only a weapon) appeared on VoteVets. How is that separating service with political activism?

    Soltz continues that his four months in Iraq led him to oppose the war. HTF did that happen? Four months dispatching vehicles and supervising motor pool police call disillusioned him?

    Soltz’ temporary replacement will be J. Ashwin Madia;

    Interim Chairman of VoteVets.org, J. Ashwin Madia, joined the U.S. Marine Corps and moved to Quantico, Virginia for 6 months of basic training, after Law School. He served in Iraq from September 2005 to March 2006. Madia was lead attorney in over one hundred trials, including thirteen jury trials. He is most proud of his work successfully defending a gay Marine from administrative discharge in 2005, when it was clear that commanders were using disparate standards in their treatment of this Marine compared to other Marines. Madia was a long-time Republican, who supported Bob Dole for President in 1996, and Senator John McCain in 2000, before running as a Democrat for Congress in Minnesota in 2008.

    Yeah, I was a long-time Democrat until VoteVets came along and I switched parties, you doofuses. It’s as if they don’t even hear how stupid they sound when they say stupid shit like that.

    I wish Jon Soltz luck and I hope he comes back safely. At least he’s not a complete pussy and avoiding the call. But I also hope he appreciates that he gets to reap the benefits of the surge which he so adamantly opposed.

    The word is that IAVA’s Paul Reickhof is taking advantage of the new space in the MSNBC broom closet that he and Soltz shared over the last several years and buying a new beanbag chair.

  • Soltz to end US mission in Iraq

    How many of you deployed to Iraq without a headline on Huffington Post? Well, you know, when Jon Soltz gets his orders finally, he can’t deploy quietly and return without fanfare. How appropriate that the three-month combat veteran announce his deployment on Veterans Day;

    Jon Soltz, the chairman and co-founder of VoteVets.org, a leading critic of the Iraq war, told the Huffington Post on Wednesday that he was taking a year of absence from the group to deploy to Iraq as part of Operation New Dawn.

    “This has always been a possibility,” he said. “I have always been a member of the army reserves, it is just not anything I talk about for legal reasons. The bottom line is, I can’t if I’m on active duty, be in charge of VoteVets anymore.”

    “I’m not an idiot. I’ve known the possibilities of this for a long time,” he added. “I get the honor to be probably in the last rotation in Iraq. My order is for 12 months and if you take a look at that timetable, December 2011 will be when all U.S. troops come out anyway.”

    I think I can probably find quite a few people who can argue effectively about that “I’m not an idiot” statement. The only real irony of Soltz’ deployment is that he wasn’t called back to duty before, and now that the country has benefited from the surge which Soltz vehemently opposed, Soltz gets to walk the peaceful streets which would have been otherwise if Soltz had his way.

    Lucky for Soltz the video of him attacking Sergeant David Aquina at the Yearly Kos have disappeared (the post I wrote at the time), or his troops might be watching it every morning. But here’s a screen shot of Soltz dressing down the young buck that was captured by PJ Media cameras;

    Soltz Aquino

    Even Kos diarists criticized Soltz for that bit of theater.

    Watch our buddy David Bellavia face down Soltz on Laura Ingram’s show a few years back;

    Thanks to Daniel and someone who didn’t want to be named for the link.

  • What’s different now about DADT?

    I think it’s funny that the New York Times and dicksmith are pulling their hair out because Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell might not get passed this year. First, the NYT;

    Prospects for Congress to authorize repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy face new uncertainties as time runs out for the Senate to act and strong objections remain among Republicans and the most senior ranks of the military.

    Do you know what I just realized? DADT was still in force as a policy last year and the year before…and the year before. So what’s the rush? Dicksmith says;

    Let’s be realistic. Repeal of DADT has to be accomplished before the end of the year. Otherwise, there will not be enough vertebrates in Congress, once the new session takes over, to get the repeal through. If we don’t want our force weakened and unit cohesion inhibited for another undetermined amount of time before a new Congress with testicular fortitude is elected, the harmful policy has got to go in this Congress.

    I think testicular fortitude is probably the wrong simile to use in a DADT discussion. Well, unless, ya know, it’s the most important aspect of the discussion to dicksmith. But at least he’s honest about what he thinks of us “invertebrates”.

    I don’t think waiting on DADT to be repealed is having much effect on our forces. Not as much as dicksmith would like us to think. There are a whole lot of dead terrorists who would take exception with dicksmith’s contention.

    Besides, the gay crowd put their hopes in the Obama rhetoric for the last two years and nothing has happened, what has changed that makes them think anything will change in the next couple of weeks?

  • Dicksmith and the war criminal fantasy

    As TSO mentioned earlier, dicksmith at VoteVets has a post up about a “War Criminal Caucas” in Congress now that Allen West has won his election in Florida over a rich boy Boca Raton lawyer;

    In one of the most disappointing races last night, voters in Florida have ensured the House will have a War Criminals Caucus:
    Yeah, that Allen West:
    I hope Republicans are proud of themselves. Maybe they can nominate a few child molesters and serial killers next.

    So I tried to inform the VetVoice echo chamber with a comment that went along these lines;

    Usually we don’t call people criminals unless they’ve been convicted of a crime and punished for it. But I get the idea that there’s something else that you have against Allen West, and I can’t for the life of me figure out what that could be.

    Maybe it’s because he’s not a pervert like Eric Masa or an irrepressible mad man like Joe Sestak. He doesn’t have an irrational obsession over DADT like Patrick Murphy and he’s not a phony pretender like Tim Walz. I mean those are the guys that VoteVets endorse for office, so I guess Allen West doesn’t measure up to those standards.

    But I can’t help but think it’s something else. It can’t be that he’s a Black Republican, can it? Nah, VoteVets is nonpartisan – look at at the countless other Republicans or blacks that VV has endorsed.

    Then I went on to recount all of the stuff you guys have read here before about them pouring $600,000 into draft-dodger Harry Reid’s campaign that they could have used to help out veterans of our current wars – you know one of the eight that didn’t win last night. (Links to previous TAH posts on the subject here and here)

    The reason I didn’t cut and paste my actual comment (which was much better than the one I wrote here) is because dicksmith deleted my comment. I guess dicksmith didn’t like the way I characterized his candidates. So now I get to use my outdoor voice instead of being limited to the nine regular readers of VetVoice. And I don’t think I’ll delete myself.

    UPDATE: OK, I guess I didn’t get my comment deleted. dicksmith writes:

    If enough users rate a comment as being a “troll” comment, the comment will be hidden. Not deleted. It still exists, you just can’t see it. And I have nothing to do with that.

    Not deleted. You can’t see it. Not my fault. So I guess it was willfully ignorant readers. Still VoteVets.

  • Then and now

    I just read TSO’s post below about the mighty (disappointed) VoteVets and the dicksmith statements last night. TSO quoted dicksmith;

    We deliberately seek out Veterans who might otherwise have problems gaining traction. We support Veterans who otherwise would struggle for exposure.

    But a scant few weeks ago, Jon Soltz was quoted at Congress.org as saying;

    “We vote for who is going to win….

    So dicksmith says they pick underdogs, after their candidates get creamed, but Soltz says they only back winners.

    And if anyone at VoteVets is wondering why they have no credibility and why their endorsements don’t help their candidates, it’s because they make completely truth-vacant comments like this;

    Senate majority leader Harry Reid, a man who despite the demonizations of the right is out paced by none in the Senate as a champion of Veterans will be re-elected in Navada:

    Yes, Harry Reid, who spent eight years trying to pull the funding for deployed troops engaged in combat, who told us that the surge had failed before it’d even begun, who rams defense spending for unwanted programs down DoD’s throat at the expense of the troops is a champion. Harry Reid, the guy who took more draft deferments than Dick Cheney.

    You complete morons at VoteVets threw $600k into the Reid campaign for a non-veteran while that money might have helped one of your REAL veteran candidates. Am I glad you did? Absolutely. But I think it makes the case that you’re nothing but a bunch of dick-licking phonies led by the biggest phony of them all.

    You fucks don’t care about veterans, all you care about is your own fragile egos and lining the pockets of your cheap suits.

    ADDED: And oh, yeah, your VoteVets candidate, Tim Walz, the phony veteran who pretended to serve in Iraq during the last election, credited his win to his perfect rating from IAVA without mentioning VoteVets at all. How’s that endorsement look now?

  • Bi-partisanship; UR doin’ it right

    The other day I wrote that VoteVets called themselves a nonpartisan organization which supports veterans regardless of their political stripe, even though in the several years that they’ve been around the Republican they ever supported was Chuck Hagel several years ago. They’re always yelling about all of the other organizations’ supposed partisanship, while endorsing only Democrats.

    Mostly they whine about the American Legion (which doesn’t endorse candidates), the VFW (whose PAC got shut down this year for endorsing anti-veteran Democrats) and Vets For Freedom.

    Well, Vets For Freedom’s PAC just released their list of endorsements and they’re endorsing Jim Marshall, an incumbent Democrat from Georgia’s 8th district. I don’t know much about him, but TSO has a big ol’ man-crush on him for the ferocity with which he supports veterans and active duty soldiers.

    According to his bio, Marshall took time off from his college career to enlist and serve as an infantryman in Vietnam. Marshall earned two Bronze Star Medals and a Purple Heart and a spot in the Ranger Hall of Fame. Well, ya know it’s not as tough as that 40-mile walk that Harry Reid had to take to college (while he got countless deferments for his college career) which got Reid Vote Vet’s support as an honorary veteran.

    Someone tell Jon Soltz that’s how non-partisanship is done.

  • VoteVets Favorite Congressman’s Campaign Involved in Voter Fraud

    VoteVets biggest “superstar” is Patrick Murphy, a Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania’s eighth congressional district. For those of you don’t know, Murphy is an ex-Army JAG officer who served in OIF with the 82nd Airborne in 2003 and 2004.  He was also was the first OIF veteran elected to Congress in 2006 and VoteVets has been his biggest cheerleader since assuming office. However, it appears that he hasn’t used his Army JAG training to teach his campaign staff about voter fraud:

    New reports are emerging that could spell trouble for Patrick Murphy’s campaign after it was revealed that his campaign manager controlled a post office box where voters were being instructed to send their absentee ballots. The ballots were then re-mailed to the county Board of Elections.

    A letter from a fictitious agency, the “Pennsylvania Voter Assistance Office,” was sent to an unknown number of residents across the 8th district in southeastern Pennsylvania warning them that their ability to voter could be jeopardized unless they returned an enclosed absentee ballot in a pre-paid envelope that went to a private post office box in Bristol, Pa.

    At issue is whether Rep. Patrick Murphy was directly involved, and whether absentee ballots were tampered with or discarded as they were proceeded through the post office box maintained by Tim Persico, his campaign manager.

    More info here and here. Now to be fair, there is no CLEAR evidence that Murphy is directly involved in this obvious attempt to commit widespread voter fraud. However, if he were still an Army Captain and there was illicit activity going on involving his subordinates, he would be held accountable and it would reflect on his leadership. There is no reason why in this case he shouldn’t be held accountable either.

    Of course, our good friends over at VetVoice are all over this……not.

  • Nonpartisanship; UR doin’ it wrong

    TSO sent me this link from Moonbat Central at Veterans Today in their own discussion of the war we started with the VFW PAC entitled VFW Endorsements rile the grassroots written by Michael Leon.

    Leon defends the VFW PAC by pointing out how other PACs support candidates from both sides of the aisle based on their voting records. He spends an inordinate number of column inches on Vote Vets. Every time a writer does that, you can bet he’ll screw up. After quoting Jon “Hanger Queen” Soltz, Leon writes;

    The VoteVets.org PAC leadership picked 10 veterans to endorse for office this year, including one Republican.

    Oh, really? Which Republican would that be?

    In the VoteVets PAC’s “About Us” page it says;

    VoteVets.org PAC has three primary goals:

    Elect Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans to public office – regardless of party.

    I asked them the other day which Republican they EVER supported. The answer came back; Chuck Hagel. Well, Chuck Hagel isn’t in the running this year, and as far as I know, although he was a veteran, he’s not a veteran of either Iraq or Afghanistan – unless you count the sharpshooting he did at President Bush.

    So I’m wondering which Republican they’re supporting this year. A dogcatcher in Bumfuk, Montana?

    See, if you go to Iraq Veterans for Congress’ website, they tell you in their “About Us” page right up front, that they only support Republican veterans.

    Vets For New York does the same thing.

    But VoteVets even supports non-veterans, even though their About page says that they only support veterans. Just yesterday, they announced they’re throwing another 200 grand into their ad buy for Harry Reid in NV. That’s a total of $600k for a guy who has never served a day in uniform…in fact he avoided the draft during the Vietnam War by taking a number of college deferments, the same thing Dick Cheney was criticized for eight years over.

    But $600,000 for a non-veteran? From an organization that calls itself “VoteVets”? There should be a law.