VoteVets is not a veterans’ organization

Yeah, I’m pissed at VoteVets. Is it because I’m partisan? Nope it’s because I’m a veteran. I hate to see the troops and veterans get screwed by people who claim to want to help them. My feelings go back so far, that I remember running off Hari Krishnas in Atlanta airport in the 70s when they targeted GIs for “donations” to their cult.

Today, the charlatans are veterans themselves. Veterans like those at VoteVets. Besides having a stupid name, they’re run by stupid people. They claim to protect veterans’ interests, but remember what happened when SGT David Aguina spoke up at the Yearly Kos two years back? Twink Jon Soltz charged him from the stage and got in the young sergeant’s face like so many other punk-ass LTs I’ve seen in my time. And what does VoteVets vice-chairman Brandon Friedman (also known previously as Angry Rakkasan) do? He writes a comment in the Daily Kos accusing SGT Aguina of being mentally ill;

So while presenting themselves as a veterans’ organization, they weren’t so hot on supporting SGT Aguina.

Tooling their website this morning, I find out that they’re supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as “card check” which would do away with secret ballots for unions. Why would a veterans’ organization bother themselves with a union issue? Well, they explain it like this;

Fourteen percent of union members are veterans, some 2.1 million in all.

I’d explain it differently – no one would voluntarily throw away their secret ballot in any organization, the only reason Vote Vets is willing to toss away the secret ballot of veterans is for union patronage and the money that comes with that patronage for VoteVets.

VoteVets has also listed it’s legislative priorities for 2009. Leading the list is getting category 8 veterans into the VA healthcare system;

Vote Vets half-assed tells what a Cat 8 vet is;

In 2003 the VA signed a directive that barred veterans making over a certain amount from receiving VA care.

They neglect to mention that veterans over a certain level of income WITHOUT A SERVICE-CONNECTED INJURY are in the group. I don’t mean to start a Veteran against veteran argument here, but certainly anyone with half a brain who complains that veterans with service connected injuries are getting poor treatment can’t think that adding another load of people who don’t really need VA care can help conditions at the VA. In fact, anyone who lobbies for the addition of cat 8 vets to the VA work load can be called anti-veteran since it will have the effect of destroying veteran health care services.

VoteVets also calls for more Congressional oversight of the post-9/11 GI Bill – yeah that’ll fix it. They also need to talk to their pal Paul Reickhoff of IAVA, who after making the GI Bill the centerpiece of their political scorecard last year, recommends that the VA delay implementing the GI Bill which is due to begin in August.

In the comments last night, TSO mentioned an interview that Friedman did on the Olbermann show the other night about the “torture” investigations. What does that have to do with veterans’ issues? I don’t know either, but somehow during the interview, Beaker mentioned at least twice that Dick Cheney doesn’t care about the troops in regards to the issue;

With VoteVets inserting themselves into non-veteran issues like card check and the ‘torture” memos, how can they say that they’re a veteran organization? And, oh, I can’t do a VoteVets post and not show this picture again of Jon Soltz meeting VFP’s Bill Perry and some IVAW clowns on some airstrip somewhere doing something;

Category: Bloggers, Liberals suck, Usual Suspects