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

Category: VoteVets

  • 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.

  • No commentary needed

    If you don’t understand what happened, read the next post.

    ADDED: Thanks to Uncle Jimbo for the compliments and the link from Blackfive.

  • VoteVets credits Obama for Iraq withdrawal

    So last night I was minding my own business, reading the internet when I came across VoteVets’ Chris LeJeune’s piece on “President Obama’s Speech To The DAV“. I thought it’d be interesting and I wouldn’t have to read the whole speech. But it wasn’t interesting. It was another POS Bush hit-piece. He begins by quoting part of the Obama speech;

    Under an agreement negotiated in 2008 with the Iraqis, all American troops are to be gone from Iraq by the end of next year.

    Then he sorta screws it up by typing his own words;

    I wanted to highlight that last sentence for a reason. It is important to note that the pace of the withdrawal, number of troops to be withdrawn, and dates of withdrawal, were all worked out between the Iraqi government and the Bush administration in 2008. The troops and their leadership have since done a wonderful job in carrying out the tasks needed for this transition. This is not to say that our current Commander-in-Chief has not had a heavy role to play as well. Although the details of the withdrawal were worked out before Obama became president, many high-level leaders were worrying as to whether the agreement would even be honored.

    Yes, Obama has had a “heavy role” in Iraq by completely ignoring it and hoping everything works out. When was the last time he was there? April 7, 2009. The time before that? June 2008, during the campaign when we shamed him into going. Yeah, heavily involved.

    “Before, the Iraqis were thinking that if they sign the pact, there will be no respect for the schedule of troop withdrawal by Dec. 31, 2011,” said Hadi al-Ameri, a powerful member of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a major Shiite party. “If Republicans were still there, there would be no respect for this timetable. This is a positive step to have the same theory about the timetable as Mr. Obama.”

    Yes. quoting an Iraqi politician on American politics. That’s convincing.

    The Bush Administration negotiated the withdrawal AFTER the surge…you know, the surge that Jon Soltz called a failure along with Harry Reid. The Bush Administration didn’t submit to a timetable until conditions in Iraq made a timetable a rational choice.

    I understand that LeJeune has a need to elevate his piss-poor performer president to waist level, but using the Iraq war to do it is pretty sorry. Especially as long as the internet is up and running what with all those cache files and archives hanging around.

    Update: Here’s LeJeune’s response which is totally off topic because apparently he doesn’t have anything to say about being a bald-faced liar;

    Let the record show that I have never called LeJeune a “fucking idiot” although ample evidence exists to support that contention. Nor have I threatened him. And I’ve never used my PTSD or any other illness as an excuse to physically assault anyone.

    I don’t think that threatening someone with a PTSD episode is especially helpful in getting treatment for the folks who really need it. In fact, I think the actual diagnosis of LeJeune’s PTSD can be called into question since he pulls it out so quickly like a loaded revolver.

  • Nutroots target vets

    I guess we missed it this morning. The Liberal bloggers of the world are meeting in Las Vegas to rub their parts against each other. We’re missing such great speakers as Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Jon Soltz and whoever else the left idolizes. But this caught my eye while I was leafing through their agenda;

    I just think it’s sad that they have to have a seminar for the ignorant Left to teach them to relate to veterans. What’s worse is they’ll all get it wrong when they’re out on their own – luckily, they won’t leave their Mom’s basement.

    Oh, Tony Camerino is supposed to be there too. Tony Camerino is the guy who calls himself Matthew Alexander and writes books about things he’s never done. yeah, he’s going to talk to the Nutroots about how they can shut down Guantanamo. of course, Camerino/Alexander has never set foot in Guantanamo, but that doesn’t matter to the left, I suppose.

    I thought Camerino was supposed to deploy earlier this summer. i wonder what railroaded that.

    At the bottom of the screen shot, you’ll see Brandon Friedman, known around these parts as Beaker. he really hates me. Really. Really. Hates. Me.

    We were supposed to do an interview with a Washington Post reporter. He threw a hissy because I was going to be a part of the interview (the interview was about how the VA could be more responsive to veterans on the internet). Friedman, the pussy, refused to do the interview until they got someone more passive, so they got CJ to do it. And it’s probably because he was afraid I’d call him Beaker in the interview and show the cute reporter chick pictures of the two to compare for her own edification.

    it’s not my fault you look like Beaker, talk to your damn ugly-ass parents, Brandon. He should grow a beard or comb his hair or dye it another color besides orange, for pete’s sake.

  • VoteVets leads the charge into obscurity

    VoteVets, in keeping with their tradition of addressing issues which occur, at best, on the periphery of veterans’ issues has joined with a band of like-minded idiots in an $11 million ad buy opposing Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson (Huffington Post link);

    The spots, sponsored by SEIU, VoteVets.org, the League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club, are noteworthy for the extent to which they incorporate the oil spill crisis (and its more indelible images) into a somewhat tongue-in-cheek pitch for reform. The coalition isn’t doing solely negative advertisements. They are also releasing thank-you spots for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) for their support of climate change/energy legislation. Future ads are sure to be in the works, meanwhile, since the trio of organizations has set aside a large sum of money.

    Here’s the ad;

    What does SEIU, the League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club have to do veterans? Lately, the same question could be asked about VoteVets. VV and IVAW have both seemed to notice that the Left doesn’t care much about the wars or veterans so they chase the money to the environment, DADT, Gaza and immigration. to please their MoveOn and ANSWER masters.

    Well, that’s fine with me because the more they slide away from veterans, the less relevant they become – there are already organizations that do all of that shit, so who needs another bunch of vacuous sign wavers?

    Thanks to Operator Dan for the link.

  • VoteVets still whining about Fox

    This morning I awoke to to some more VoteVets whining. They have new million-dollar ad that they’re trying to cram down Fox’s throat about this Clean Energy bill in Congress.

    This ad features retired Brigadier General Steven Anderson, who was at some point chief of logistics in Iraq. Apparently he claims that 10% of casualties there resulted from moving fuel to the troops. I guess when the bill passes, the unicorns will be able to fly their shit-fuel straight to the front, reducing human casualties, but the plan has the potential to make unicorns an endangered species;

    I’m not exactly sure how we can cut our energy dependence without cutting consumption and without drilling our own reserves – and that’s probably why Fox won’t run the ad – it’s a lie from end-to-end. Vote Vets won’t explain how the bill works like they’ve said it will work. I’ll concede that I’d like to cut off money to Iran, but the only part of the Clean Energy bill that will work is the part where taxation will put fuel out of the fiscal reach of most Americans.

    dicksmith would be on the right of this if he asked why the other networks were so quick to run this ad seein’s how it’s so intellectually vacant. Maybe MSNBC and CNBC need the money more than they need their integrity.

  • 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;
    (more…)

  • dickmith: Bush’s shameful treatment of veterans

    Yeah, I’ve been trolling at VetsVoice again. dicksmith is peeing himself with excitement that the Obama Administration has made it easier for veterans to qualify for treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

    The government is making it easier for combat veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder to receive disability benefits.

    The Veterans Affairs Department plans to announce Monday it will no longer require veterans to prove what might have triggered their illness. Instead, they would have to show that they served in combat in a job that could have contributed to post-traumatic stress disorder.

    This is good news – real PTSD cases will get treated while the IVAW members who claim they got PTSD from the pizza guys at 8th and Eye, the IVAW members who claim they got PTSD from interviewing real veterans while a journalist and IVAW members who claim they got PTSD from worrying about their friends who actually deployed, well those guys won’t qualify for treatment without trying to convince the DVA they were combat soldiers. That’ll get some more phony soldier business.

    But anyway my bitch with dicksmith today is this paragraph;

    This doesn’t even address the Bush Administration’s under funding of VA and general lack of concern for Veterans and caring for them. The treatment received by Vets from George W. Bush was shameful, but President Obama has raised the bar and set a new standard for the way we care for Vets.

    Yeah, Bush’s underfunding of the VA. See, I actually research before I make idiot claims like that. According to the VA’s own accounting, their entire budget in 2000 (the year before Bush became president) was $106.2 billion. In 2008, the last year of his presidency the DVA’s budget was $422.6 billion. So the “underfunded” DVA’s budget grew four-fold under Bush. Was it enough? No, it wasn’t, but it was a damn-sight better than it was before him and a damn-sight less shameful than dicksmith would like to you to believe.

    dicksmith’s post brags that Obama set the standard for Veteran care, but it looks to me like Bush set the standard and Obama learned from Bush to not slight veterans.