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Category: VoteVets

  • VoteVets: We need more veterans in Congress

    Temporary place-holder for Jon Soltz as executive director at Vote Vets, Ashwin Madia, released a statement today lamenting the lack of veterans in Congress. Of course, like Soltz, he loves the chickenhawk aspect;

    How often has the loudest military saber-rattling come from those politicians who never served a day in their lives? How often have we seen a non-veteran use high rhetoric full of empty promises in front of the Veterans of Foreign Wars or American Legion? Perhaps those who have lived through military experiences will have unique qualifications in helping make decisions about the military – and decisions weighing the true costs of war against the potential benefits.

    Yeah, how often, Ash-hole? In fact, i remember just a few weeks ago when I listened to “a non-veteran use high rhetoric full of empty promises in front of the American Legion” – He was your choice in the 2008 Presidential Election over a decorated veteran.

    Why, if they’re so concerned about electing veterans, did VoteVets toss a million bucks at Harry Reid’s last Senate campaign, who, using their definition of the term, was a draft dodger. That money couldn’t have gone to the thirty or so veterans running in the last mid-term election?

    And dicksmith is so fond of calling Allen West a “war criminal”, yet West is the most effective voice veterans have in Congress. And if Votevets were true to their stated mission of getting more veterans into Congress, why is it that the only veteran who was a Republican they’ve EVER supported in their entire history of existance was Chuck Hagel when he began criticizing the war in Iraq and President Bush?

    What Ash-hole meant to write, but couldn’t because he’s supposed to be non-partisan, is that we need more pussy-ass Blue Falcon Democrat veterans in Congress who are more concerned with non-issues like DADT repeal – candidates like Patrick Murphy, Eric Masa and Joe Sestak.

    Thanks to TSO for the link.

  • Hey, dicksmith, what’s up with Harry Reid?

    Yesterday, we wrote about VetVoice and Votevets complaining that the new Republican Congress hasn’t been able to create favorable employment conditions for veterans. Right after I wrote that TSO found an instance that the new Congress had indeed passed a bill to improve the employability of veterans in the form of the “Veterans Opportunity To Work Act” almost a month ago;

    The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Veterans Opportunity to Work Act Wednesday evening.

    The House legislation, passed by 400 lawmakers, wouldn’t actually create jobs. Rather, it would overhaul the military’s Transition Assistance Program, creating a job retraining program for older veterans who have been unemployed for 26 weeks or more.

    However, Harry Reid is holding up a vote in the Senate. Harry Reid, a draft dodger to whom VoteVets contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars because of his supposed support for veterans wants to attach a tax break for employers who hire veterans…a good idea, but since the House hasn’t voted on it yet, that move would delay activation of the other provisions of the bill.

    But my point is that if VoteVets is so concerned about Congressional inaction, why aren’t they trying to influence “their” candidate to pass the bill as it is and get immediate relief for veterans instead allowing Harry Reid to dick around with popular legislation that’s just sitting on his desk?

  • VetVoice: Yay, Obama. Boo, Congress.

    I know, it’s like the first tiem ever that dicksmith cheers for the President and attacks the new Republican Congress, huh? But here he goes;

    Congress has been dithering all year on creating jobs while every week more Veterans are struggling to support their families. Meanwhile, the Commander-in-Chief is showing real leadership to take care of those who have served. Hopefully, the Republican leadership will take a cue from the President and help return Veterans to gainful employment.

    Of course, those unemployed veterans only lost their jobs since January when this session of Congress began. We had full veteran employment while there was a Democrat Congress and a Democrat Administration before the evil Tea Party overthrew the perfectly-managed government last November, huh?

    Of course, veterans are going to need to be employed in order to pay for their healthcare after the Obama Administration gets done not balancing the budget on the backs of veterans. I’ve yet to see VoteVets mention how the rising costs of veteran healthcare will hurt vdterans and their families.

  • The experts speak on the Iran/al Qaeda slap fight

    Yeah, I read yesterday how al Qaeda criticized Iranian President Ahmadinejad for espousing his truther theories in the UN.

    “The Iranian government has professed on the tongue of its president Ahmadinejad that it does not believe that al Qaeda was behind 9/11 but rather, the U.S. government. So we may ask the question: why would Iran ascribe to such a ridiculous belief that stands in the face of all logic and evidence?” opinion writer Abu Suhail asks.

    Well, I was going to write about it, but then I figured that I’d wait and get the expert opinions, but then instead, I went to VetVoice and read how the whole discussion went straight over dicksmith’s empty and sjiny head;

    I wanted to post this to underscore a point. The Muslim world is not monolithic. But even within the Muslim world, those that oppose American interests are not monolithic either. The fact that both Iran and al-Qaeda do not like us does not mean that they are working together. Or even like each other. We saw this in Iraq with the gangs of local thugs being referred to as “al-Qaeda” in Iraq, when they were, depending on the region, local gangsters or supporters of other internal extremist movements like the Madhi Army.

    Yeah, they’re not monlithic…well, unless you recognize that they all want to kill Americans in droves. The whole Muslim World? Nope, no one ever said the Muslim World wants to kill us all simply because we live in this country. But the groups that dicksmith mentioned certainly do. They all use their religious beliefs to justify their blood lust…so they’re not monolithic if you disregard their central tenet.

    What exploration of this subject would be complete without calling on Veterans Today‘s Senior Editor Gordon Duff, but you almost already know what his take on it is, don’t you?

    Yeah it was an Israeli hoax;

    Highest level sources inside Israel’s military intelligence community are laughing themselves to death.

    They took the American press “hook line and sinker” when a story was put in in what was claimed to be an Al Qaeda ” magazine” threatening Iranian President Ahmadinejad for failing to give “them” credit for 9/11.

    Well, of course it was a hoax – how could Gordo continue to subscribe to his truther conspiracies if al Qaeda actually said in public that they committed the 9/11 attacks on America. And he takes the opportunity to discount the killing of bin Laden, the existence of Adam Gadahn Perlman and somehow Charlie Chaplin has something to do with it, too.

  • Dicksmith’s hyperbole

    Dicksmith at Vote Vet’s VetVoice piles on the with the crowd that somehow all republicans booed a gay soldier in Iraq at the debate the other night in a post entitled; GOP Finally Honest About What They Think of Troops;

    Republicans will wear their flag lapel pins and put yellow ribbon magnets on their car so long as you support their narrative. The moment you deviate from their party line, they throw you in the gutter. It’s what they did to Pat Tillman. It’s what they did to this Soldier last night, and it’s what they’ve done for decades to Soldiers and Veterans by exuding superficial patriotism on the campaign trail and betraying us once they end up in office.

    Yeah, listen to the “GOP” booing the soldier;

    I guess dicksmith buys into the conspiracy theory that the Bush Administration ordered the assassination of Pat Tillman because he was about come out against the war. I could hear maybe two people “boo” in that video, given that tehre were hundreds of Republicans at the debate, i don’t see how two booing members of the audience can be extrapolated to the entire party, whether the whole party was in the room or not.

    There are people who agree with me on every issue – but I’m still embarrassed by their behavior. And just because they’re jerks that doesn’t make me falter on my principles. I know the smithy of dicks is hoping no one will actually listen the video, and the intellectually vacuous reader [not plural] that VetVoice still owns probably will not listen.

  • VoteVets Ginning up false issues

    Remember when Votevets tried to convince us that clean energy is a veterans’ issue and they blew all of that money on an idiot ad that tried to make an issue of connecting IEDs to clean energy? Well, with the election coming up next year, they’re doing the same thing with Republican candidates – well, with Rick Perry, anyway. He must’ve influenced Soros’ ex-girlfriend to sue Soros or something. Anyway, now dicksmith and the gang over at VoteVets is saying that Perry tried to keep veterans from voting;

    [S]aid Allen Vaught, an Iraq War Veteran, who was awarded a Purple Heart. “Iowans, and Americans at large should know, however, that Governor Perry put partisan politics above the rights of veterans by recently signing a Voter ID Law in Texas that prohibits veterans from using their Department of Veterans Affairs ID card to vote.”

    Yeah, what Perry did was sign legislation sent to him by the legislature which required a FREE voter ID card according to the Dallas Morning News;

    Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, author of the bill, noted that it will allow Texans to get a state ID card for free from the Department of Public Safety. The state ID is one of the photo IDs that would establish the voter’s identity for voting purposes.

    Emphasis is mine, in the event that some doofus can’t see where it says “free”. But the whole point is that veterans can’t use their VA ID. I don’t even have a VA ID card – I never have. But I do have a military retiree card, a drivers’ license, a passport, a CCW license and an assortment of security badges. What veterans are walking around out there with nothing but their VA ID card? And how often do they vote?

    Vaught added, “Governor Perry knows full well that a Veterans ID Card is a legitimate, government-issued ID. In some cases, it’s the only government ID a veteran has. Veterans fought to protect our democracy. Yet, Governor Perry’s ill-conceived voter ID law will ensure that some veterans don’t get to participate in the democracy they fought to preserve. That doesn’t earn the respect of any man or woman in uniform that I know. I’d urge the press to dig into Rick Perry’s record on veterans issues. They’ll find his record doesn’t stand up to his blustery rhetoric.”

    Emphasis is mine again. Put a cork in it, Vaught. That’s all drama queen bullshit. Didn’t you read the part where I said that Sen. Troy Fraser wrote the bill? The bill Perry signed that passed the Texas legislature didn’t specifically target veterans – it targeted unqualified voters. Our troops don’t want to serve the will of unqualified voters more than they don’t want to get a free Texas ID card., ya pimple.

    Thanks to TSO for the links.

  • dicksmith and his inability to comprehend what he reads

    Our friend, dicksmith, at VoteVets’ VetVoice blog thinks that Governor and Presidential candidate, Rick Perry “smeared” the troops’ professionalism;

    At his speech before Iowa Republicans Sunday night, [Rick Perry] said, “One of the reasons, one of the powerful reasons, that I’m running for the presidency of the United States is to make sure that every young man and woman who puts on the uniform of this country respects highly the president of the United States.”

    Of course, dicksmith can’t think for himself, so he turns to equally illiterate moron Adam Weinstein of Mother Jones to coalesce his thoughts;

    Perry is insinuating that “America’s roughly 3 million active-duty and reserve soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines don’t respect President Barack Obama-whose administration drew down their numbers in Iraq and Afghanistan, revamped the Department of Veterans Affairs, increased Pentagon funding, and oversaw the operation that killed Osama bin Laden.”

    Really, Richard? They’re supposed to be grateful that Obama has begun pulling them out of Iraq and Afghanistan despite the increasing violence that threatens the results of their sacrifice in those nations? Maybe that’s what you anti-war creeps want, but certainly not a majority of the troops who served there and are now watching their good works collapse.

    Obama “revamped” the DVA? How has it improved? They can’t meet deadlines and provide the care and services they promised, but I guess you could call that revamped. He has improved funding of the DVA, but he’s far short of the 800% increase of the Bush years.

    Increased Pentagon funding? When? Right before his administration proposed $800 billion in cuts?

    And if by “oversaw the operation that killed Osama bin Laden” you mean that he watched it on TV, you might be right, well, except for the period of time that the satellite picture blacked out. But dicksmith makes it sound as if Obama devised the plan and trained the SEALs to the task personally. He watched…remotely…a safe distance away. All he did was give his permission to continue.

    American troops are perfectly capable of disagreeing with the policies of a President and still holding respect for the office of Commander-in-Chief. For Rick Perry to suggest otherwise is nothing more than a below the belt smear against their professionalism.

    Perry suggested no such thing. What he meant was that the troops need a leader who doesn’t accept the accolades for their efforts…like your “oversaw” comment.

    Rick Perry is a veteran, after all. So I can expect VoteVets to support him if he does end up running against non-veteran Obama, right?

  • VetVoice and the homeless vet issue

    Thank goodness that the Republicans took over the House last year or VetVoice’s dicksmith wouldn’t have anyone to blame for the report yesterday that number of homeless veterans are on the rise – well, actually the number has fallen by 55,000 recently, but the total number rose as the number of veterans increases since the beginning of the war.

    I did a search of their archives and the only things I could find in regards to the homeless before January when this Republican class moved into the House, was praise for the Democrats raising spending on homeless vets and a guest piece by John Edwards promising to house the homeless.

    Oh, there was piece listed written by Rick Duncan/Strandlof blaming “neocons” for the homeless vets, but of course, they removed all of his posts to disassociate themselves with him, but his posts still show up in the search function.

    So overall, more homeless are off the streets since 2009 by more than a third, but the remainder are somehow the fault of Republicans in the House, not the Democrat in the White House and the Democrats running the Senate. Or the House Democrats who ran that joint from 2006 until 2010.

    Oh, yeah, the number of homeless veterans is down from a peak of 400k to 131k in 2009 – was that the fault of Republicans, too? How about doing something instead of pointing fingers and ignoring statistics, there, dicksmith. You guys throw money at Harry Reid, a draft dodger by your own standards, why not throw it at homeless veterans instead.

    And I’d like to see their accounting methods for determining who is a homeless veteran and who is not. If we’re busting them left and right here at TAH, is the VA even asking them if they’re really veterans?