{"id":3820,"date":"2008-10-09T13:03:20","date_gmt":"2008-10-09T17:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=3820"},"modified":"2012-08-18T08:06:20","modified_gmt":"2012-08-18T12:06:20","slug":"what-else-are-they-hiding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=3820","title":{"rendered":"What else are they hiding?"},"content":{"rendered":"

IAVA’s Paul Rieckhoff emailed us and apologized for slighting TAH on his response to the charges TSO levied on them on this board. I won’t revisit that but I will amend my statement that Rieckhoff is just like Solz…he has a bit more class than Jon Solz. I’ve added his response below the jump, but first I have unfinished business;<\/p>\n

I mentioned in the previous post, I’d taken some screen caps of some of IAVA’s cached pages…ya know, just in case. TSO and I thought it was little bit weird that all of the links to IAVA were down last night at the same time we were having trouble with our own site. So here’s two of the screen captures I took last night from their staff page<\/a>; the first mentioning Phillip Carter, but the second capture is what changed over night;<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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In his email to Blackfive<\/a>, Rieckhoff wrote “And as for Phil Carter, it is no secret that he is an IAVA member. We have tens of thousands of members\u2014and Phil is one of them. And we have clarified Phil\u2019s role at IAVA on this page<\/a> just so there is no confusion.” At the time he wrote that, the page he linked to looked like the photo above. But then their website went blank after his email to B5.<\/p>\n

This morning, the same webpage looks like this;<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nNotice the italicized disclaimer that’s been added. Did someone step in something?<\/p>\n

There has also been rumors bouncing around that IAVA is going to start an intimidation campaign. I can’t be intimidated – if you want to know where I live, email me and I’ll tell you. If you don’t want to be called deceitful, don’t be deceitful.<\/p>\n

I have an absolute hatred for my “comrades” who’ll climb the bodies of the fallen for their own selfish political gain – and that’s what that scorecard was. Political hackery bought and paid for by “our own” for themselves.<\/p>\n

There’s more than enough proof of everything TSO wrote and I won’t be intimidated into silence by any-Goddamn-body. You fucksticks think you can be the next John Kerry – not as long as I draw a breath.<\/p>\n

Per Rieckhoff ‘s request, here’s his full, unedited response in full below the jump;<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

IAVA Returns Fire
\nHey Matt,
\nI wanted to respond to the link posted here yesterday by the guys at This Ain\u2019t Hell attacking IAVA and the IAVA Action 2008 Congressional Report Card. I hope you will post this, and let your readers hear from us in response to TSO\u2019s recent post. Glad to see that he personally likes me. I only wish he put his real name on his posts so I knew who it was that was attacking my integrity and that of our organization.
\nWe\u2019re sorry to see TSO leave our membership. But like any veteran, that is of course his right. We have a broad diversity of political opinions within our membership, and encourage everyone who has served in combat since 9\/11 to join us. But we don\u2019t charge for membership. Never have and never will. IAVA and its thousands of members are proud of the work we do every day. And I want to set the record straight for the readers of Blackfive (and anyone else who is interested).
\nIAVA and IAVA Action, our sister fund that released the Congressional Report Card, have always had one primary mission: to advocate for and improve the lives of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families. We are and always have been committed to achieving this objective in a non-partisan way. And we haven\u2019t done half bad. We have a solid track record of getting things done in Washington. Just look at this year\u2019s historic passage of the new GI Bill, a victory that will give every single Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran a chance to go to college. IAVA played a key role in this almost two-year long process (along with our friends at the VFW) that proved to be a game-changer for veterans\u2014and for Washington.
\nIt is easy for folks like TSO to play Monday morning quarterback, but the bottom line is that in the last few years IAVA has been a force in Washington that is always on the side of veterans. Since our founding in 2004, we have pushed relentlessly for cooperation, compromise, and partnership among elected officials, the media, and other veterans organizations to get points on the legislative board in an extremely polarized environment\u2014a place where REAL results are hard to come by. We routinely work closely with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and have established a reputation of delivering to our members–and to our country. We are regarded as the country\u2019s most credible nonpartisan Iraq and Afghanistan veterans group, and that\u2019s why our staffers have testified in front of Congress dozens of times on issues like VA funding, educational benefits, and suicide prevention. You don\u2019t have to take our word for it. Ask Senators Webb, Hagel, Lautenberg or Warner. Call the VFW or talk to Pete Hegseth at Vets for Freedom. Ask a veteran who has been positively impacted by our organization.
\nIn fact, one of TSO\u2019s commenter\u2019s made exactly this point yesterday:
\nI have to say when it comes to communication and having questions answered… IAVA \u2026 are far more respectful, polite, and are willing to help find answers.
\nAt IAVA, we\u2019re proud of our work, and we don\u2019t let misguided attacks on the integrity of our organization go without being challenged.
\nAs for the Report Card campaign specifically, we were clear about the fact that that every legislator received one point when their vote reflected IAVA Action\u2019s position on a particular issue, and straightforward about the fact that we gave lawmakers two points for being a co-sponsor of the \u201cPost 9\/11 GI Bill\u201d. GI Bill co-sponsorship was not \u201cextra;\u201d to earn a perfect score, a legislator must have joined every major veterans group in America (including the VFW, American Legion and others), more than half of the Senate and more than three quarters of the House in co-sponsoring the GI Bill. The new GI Bill is the most significant piece of veterans\u2019 legislation of our time and those lawmakers that stood by it early on deserve to be recognized. Most of those 1.7 million veterans who will take advantage of the benefits in the new GI Bill would probably agree.
\nWe didn\u2019t just pick the votes that legislators were graded on out of thin air. As the report clearly states, these votes were selected based on our legislative agenda, an agenda which was not chosen because of special interests or politics, but one that was carefully built on the most pressing priorities of our thousands of veteran members across the country.
\nIt seems ironic that TSO would object to choosing legislation that had high levels of congressional support. We have consistently stated that one of the goals of the Congressional Report Card is to highlight the achievements of the 110th Congress. We are proud to see the extraordinary level of support many pieces of veterans\u2019 legislation received this year. 56 senators received an A ranging the political spectrum from Republicans John Warner (VA) and Walter Jones (NC) to Democrats Jim Webb (VA) and Patrick Murphy (PA). Bipartisan efforts like our work with Republican Senator Kit Bond (MO) on the HONOR Act occurred in this Congress, and deserve nothing less than our full respect and recognition. These successes occurred in part due to hard work and pressure from groups like IAVA and the VFW.
\nThe methodology for our Report Card really could not be any more transparent. Senators and Representatives are paid to go to Washington and represent the American people by sponsoring and voting on legislation. And that\u2019s what we grade them on: actions, not rhetoric. Not their party or their status as a veteran, but their votes. Duncan Hunter (an example cited with outrage by TSO) received a C with good reason. Despite his honorable service, and that of his son, he was running for President and chose to miss 3 critical votes, one on protecting Iraqi interpreters, one on treating TBI and on one expanding veterans benefits. He also decided not to be a GI Bill co-sponsor, in contrast to several of his colleagues\u2014including dozens of Republicans ranging from Representative Peter King (NY) to Senator Pete Domenici (NM). Let\u2019s face it–you aren\u2019t supportive of the troops just by virtue of being a veteran.
\nWe at IAVA understand how Washington works. Our folks are working on the hill every day. They don\u2019t just air drop in a few times a year for press conferences. And we get the complexities of being an elected official and dealing with competing demands. In some cases, the bills we included in the Report Card had other provisions that might have led a Representative or Senator to vote against the larger bill. We know that lawmakers have to make compromises. We get this. That is why we are so thorough in our descriptions of the votes, so that people can understand the politics behind the votes. That\u2019s why, for instance, we state unequivocally when legislation was a part of a continuing resolution, or a part of the Defense Authorization bill.
\nNot only are we on Capitol Hill everyday, we are active in all 50 states working with veterans, their families, and civilian supporters. We know these folks and work with them every day. We spent the Fourth of July with them in San Diego in which thousands of people came together to honor Iraq and Afghanistan veterans on the deck of the USS Midway. We spent time in Arizona with our members, running at Pat\u2019s Run to support the work of the Tillman Foundation. And we sponsored two brave Iraq veterans who competed in the Paralympic Games in China. We strive to keep membership active and maintain an open dialogue with our members through hundreds of different activities and forms of outreach. And we are proud of those relationships.
\nAs for DIA, which TSO refers to as a \u201ccraptastic organization\u201d, this is simply an online mechanism that allows smaller organizations with limited resources like IAVA to communicate with its members. It allows us to keep our budget low and spend money on building other tools for Iraq and Afghanistan vets like www.GIBill2008.org. Being a member of IAVA doesn\u2019t mean that you have to subscribe to the mission statement of DIA– because it doesn\u2019t dictate or influence any part of IAVA\u2019s messaging or agenda one bit. It is an autonomous organization that maximizes the ability of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to connect with one another and to forge their own agenda independent of outside political influences. Associating IAVA with DIA is like assuming a person has the same political ideals as their phone company.
\nAnd as for Phil Carter, it is no secret that he is an IAVA member. We have tens of thousands of members\u2014and Phil is one of them. And we have clarified Phil\u2019s role at IAVA on this page just so there is no confusion. He is not and never has been a paid staff member of IAVA. Give him a call. I am sure he\u2019ll be happy to answer any questions. There are probably members of IAVA working and or volunteering in both Presidential campaigns around the country\u2014and that\u2019s great. As a matter of fact, we met with both the DNC and RNC to offer our input and expertise on their party\u2019s veteran\u2019s platforms and attended both conventions this summer. Any of the organization\u2019s contact with political campaigns has been informational only and entirely legal.
\nUnfortunately, we don\u2019t have the staff or resources to respond to every single blogger who has a bone to pick with us. But we wanted to provide some clarity for the readers of Blackfive-both because the site is an important to many in our community\u2014and because we are fans of it ourselves.
\nIAVA Action stands by the integrity and value of the Report Card\u2014and all our efforts over the past few years. We don\u2019t work for Democrats or Republicans–we work for veterans. And we never forget that fact. And we encourage any and all veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan and their supporters to join us here.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IAVA’s Paul Rieckhoff emailed us and apologized for slighting TAH on his response to the charges … What else are they hiding?<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,11,49,47,5,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antiwar-crowd","category-economy","category-iava","category-liberals-suck","category-politics","category-support-the-troops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3820\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}