Vets’ group: 92 percent of ‘D’ or ‘F’ grades on supporting troops go to Republicans
 

shocker! (insert the sarcasm internet facey thing here)


Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) gave out 154 D and F grades. 142 of those went to Republicans and 12 to Democrats -- meaning that 92 percent of the D and F grades went to members of the GOP.

Of the 94 congressmen that received A or A+ grades, 91 are Democrats and three are Republicans


Vets’ group: 92 percent of ‘D’ or ‘F’ grades on supporting troops go to Republicans | Raw Story

Re: Vets’ group: 92 percent of ‘D’ or ‘F’ grades on supporting troops go to Republica
 

I'll be the first to admit that I don't really think either party or society in general does a good job of recognizing vets. People put those stickers on their cars, but then they hardly give it another thought. I've been to the veteran's rest home in my town, and its downright depressing. We could do so much more for them instead of just using them for cheap political pops.

Honestly though, I wouldn't put too much stock in the grades of this group. After doing a little reading about them, they don't seem to be the most non-partisan entity. Factcheck.org did a little digging on them in 2007 when they sponsored some ads against Bobby Jindal in LA (FactCheck.org: Overspiced Louisiana Gumbo) and found their "non-partisan" claim to be a little shaky. Factcheck's conclusion, combined with what I've read, leads me to believe that this group has a bias that might be affecting their grading system.

Again, I'm not denying that politicians could do better helping vets. This particular group just smells a little fishy to me.

Re: Vets’ group: 92 percent of ‘D’ or ‘F’ grades on supporting troops go to Republica
 

While the right wraps themselves in flags and wear yellow ribbons, in reality they do not support the veteran's very well... the draft dodging neo cons love to send the boys off to war, but in reality do not really want to support them afterwards...

Why does the right hate our military?????

Here is the link to the complete report...

http://media.iava.org/iava_action/IA...eport_Card.pdf

Re: Vets’ group: 92 percent of ‘D’ or ‘F’ grades on supporting troops go to Republica
 

IAVA exposing the dirty politicians for what they truly are. Now you can see what their true intentions with their voting actions and ballots cast not the "party lines" that the yammer over and over.

It's not about right or left to me, look at those lists. The majority of them are two faced liars. The career politicians and the elite need to be driven out of the offices.

Re: Vets’ group: 92 percent of ‘D’ or ‘F’ grades on supporting troops go to Republica
 

Going to read the report before I make assumptions.

Re: Vets’ group: 92 percent of ‘D’ or ‘F’ grades on supporting troops go to Republica
 

You will be surprised...

Re: Vets’ group: 92 percent of ‘D’ or ‘F’ grades on supporting troops go to Republica
 

This makes more sense as to why it is so skewed. Both sides don't care about the troops equally, they just used this as a forum to try to regulate people's sexuality.
I notice at the end it shows how many people are vets in the house and senate. I'm going to see what their specific grades where as that might be interesting.

Re: Vets’ group: 92 percent of ‘D’ or ‘F’ grades on supporting troops go to Republica
 

Here is a list of all House and Senate veterans and their grade.
If anyone has the time, it would be interesting to see what wars/service they were in and what party they belong to also how many are actually Iraq or Afghanistan vets themselves.

HOUSE (name/state/district/grade)
�� Akin W. Todd MO 2 D
�� Alexander Rodney LA 5 D
�� Baca Joe CA 43 A
�� Bachus Spencer AL 6 D
�� Barrett J. Gresham SC 3 F
�� Bishop Sanford D. GA 2 B
�� Boccieri John A. OH 16 A+
�� Boehner John A. OH 8 D
�� Boswell Leonard L. IA 3 A
�� Boyd Allen FL 2 B
�� Broun Paul GA 10 D
�� Brown Henry E. SC 1 D
�� Buchanan Vern FL 13 C
�� Burton Dan IN 5 D
�� Butter"eld George K. NC 1 B
�� Buyer Steve IN 4 F
�� Carney Christopher P. PA 10 A
�� Coble Howard NC 6 D
�� Co$man Michael CO 6 C
�� Conaway K. Michael TX 11 D
�� Conyers John MI 14 F
�� Davis Geoff KY 4 C
�� DeFazio Peter A. OR 4 B
�� Delahunt William D. MA 10 B
�� Dingell John D. MI 15 B
�� Djou Charles HI 1 INC
�� Duncan John J. TN 2 C
�� Etheridge Bob NC 2 B
�� Frelinghuysen Rodney P. NJ 11 C
�� Gohmert Louie TX 1 D
�� Gonzalez Charles A. TX 20 B
�� Gordon Bart TN 6 B
�� Guthrie Steven Brett KY 2 C
�� Hall Ralph M. TX 4 C
�� Hare Phil IL 17 A
�� Hastings Doc WA 4 D
�� Hunter Duncan D. CA 52 C
�� Issa Darrell E. CA 49 D
�� Johnson Sam TX 3 D
�� Jones Walter B. NC 3 C
�� Kanjorski Paul E. PA 11 A
�� King Peter T. NY 3 A
�� Kirk Mark Steven IL 10 B
�� Kline John Paul MN 2 C
�� Linder John GA 7 D
�� Markey Edward J. MA 7 C
�� Marshall Jim GA 8 C
�� McDermott Jim WA 7 C
�� Miller Gary G. CA 42 D
�� Minnick Walt ID 1 A
�� Mollohan Alan B. WV 1 C
�� Moore Dennis KS 3 A
�� Murphy Patrick J. PA 8 B
�� Olson Pete TX 22 D
�� Ortiz Solomon P. TX 27 B
�� Pascrell Bill NJ 8 A
�� Paul Ron TX 14 F
�� Peters Gary MI 9 A+
�� Peterson Collin C. MN 7 B
�� Pitts Joseph R. PA 16 D
�� Poe Ted TX 2 C
�� Rangel Charles B. NY 15 A
�� Reichert David G. WA 8 B
�� Reyes Silvestre TX 16 A
�� Roe Phil TN 1 C
�� Rogers Michael D. AL 3 D
�� Rogers Harold KY 5 C
�� Rooney Tom FL 16 C
�� Rush Bobby L. IL 1 A
�� Salazar John T. CO 3 B
�� Scott Robert C. VA 3 A
�� Serrano Jose E. NY 16 B
�� Sestak Joseph A. PA 7 B
�� Shadegg John B. AZ 3 F
�� Shimkus John IL 19 D
�� Snyder Vic AR 2 B
�� Spratt John M. SC 5 C
�� Stark Fortney Pete CA 13 C
�� Stearns Cliff FL 6 D
�� Tanner John S. TN 8 B
�� Taylor Gene MS 4 B
�� Thompson Mike CA 1 B
�� Towns Edolphus NY 10 C
�� Walz Timothy J. MN 1 A+
�� Whitfield Ed KY 1 D
�� Wilson Addison Graves SC 2 D
�� Wolf Frank R. VA 10 D
�� Young Don AK 1 C
�� Young C. W. FL 10 F

Total: 89/435 (20%)
Avg grade*: 2.2 (slightly better than a C)

Senate (name/state/grade)
�� Akaka Daniel K. HI B
�� Bennett Robert F. UT D
�� Bingaman Jeff NM B
�� Carper Thomas R. DE C
�� Cochran Thad MS D
�� Dodd Christopher J. CT B
�� Graham Lindsey O. SC D
�� Harkin Tom IA C
�� Inhofe James M. OK D
�� Inouye Daniel K. HI B
�� Isakson Johnny GA D
�� Kerry John F. MA B
�� Kohl Herbert H. WI C
�� Lautenberg Frank NJ A
�� Lugar Richard G. IN D
�� McCain John AZ D
�� Nelson Bill FL C
�� Reed Jack RI B
�� Roberts Pat KS D
�� Sessions Jeff AL D
�� Specter Arlen PA C
�� Warner Mark VA C
�� Webb Jim VA B

Total: 23/100 (23%)
Avg grade*: 2.0 (a straight up C)



*A+ is 5 points, A is 4, B 3, C 2, D 1, F 0. Added them and took the average. Margin of error: .1 (completely estimated)

Re: Vets’ group: 92 percent of ‘D’ or ‘F’ grades on supporting troops go to Republica
 

Bump as this thread is too important to ignore, the illusion is not the reality.

Re: Vets’ group: 92 percent of ‘D’ or ‘F’ grades on supporting troops go to Republica
 

Went to the pdf and looked at the specific bill and votes taken by members in a number of cases there were bill that covered other issues than the vet issues as 1 example:


So one could certainly support the vet provisions, but object to crap like cash for clinkers, the Healthcare bill (Obamacare). So were the 'bad' grades a result of member voting against bills loaded with other controversial issues having nothing to do with vets? IS a vote against Obamacare proof someone doesn't support vets? Really?

another example from the report:

Other vets measures were buried in bills like a repeal of don't ask don tell, some sort of Matthew Sheppard bill and so on. So were the congress critters voting against vets or left wing social engineering. There seems to be a lot of gotcha politics here that has nothing to do with vets. If the dems (who control the presentation of bills to congress due to their majorities) were sincere they would introduce the bills for veterans as separate issues rather than burying them in bills having NOTHING to do with veterans.

Raw story of course doesn't mention this at all. While the scorecard is marred by this ( a number of ex dem legislative people involved with this group) give them credit for pointing out that bills in question had many important provisions beyond the provisions pertaining to vets issues.

http://media.iava.org/iava_action/IA...eport_Card.pdf