I posted this on Online Cafe. I think it belongs here too.

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Please use the link after reading the post because the visual graphic there is not transposed to here.


http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/43359/

Vets group proves GOP does not support troops

Posted by Bob Geiger at 10:06 AM on October 23, 2006.



Lowest-rated Senators are all Republicans

Paul Rieckhoff, Executive Director and founder of Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the country's first and largest Iraq Veterans group, announced on Friday that IAVA has made available a web site giving the results of their analysis of who in Congress truly backs up their words on supporting the troops.

"Sure, politicians say they support the troops. But whose votes back up their rhetoric, and who's just wearing an American flag lapel pin?" asked Rieckhoff in a Huffington Post column last week. "Now there's an easy way to know for sure. The nonprofit, nonpartisan Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America's Action Fund has tallied up every Congressional vote cast on troops' and veterans' issues for the last five years. We've crunched the numbers, and given every legislator a letter grade - the IAVA Congressional Rating."

It is a wonderful idea to be sure and IAVA is certainly the organization to do it. So I thought I would go out over the weekend and do some crunching of my own to document what I think we already know about who in Congress really sticks up for the military and who are merely support-the-troops hypocrites.

I cover the Senate so I decided to do my digging there and what I found will not surprise anyone. IAVA analyzed 155 Senate votes that have taken place since September 11, 2001 and, to calculate their ratings, looked at "…each piece of legislation that affected troops, veterans or military families." IAVA then matched each Senator's votes with the organization's own view of what constitutes true support for active troops, Veterans and their families.

IAVA assigned an 'A' through 'F' grade using the scale at left showing the percentage of time each Senator has indeed supported troops and Veterans. As someone who has watched Senate Republicans vote time and time again against legislation that would benefit military families, the results did not shock me in the slightest.

No Senator in either party was given an A grade by IAVA. Thirteen Senators received a rating of A- and all of those were Democrats. A total of 23 Senators were given a B+ rating and 22 of those were Democrats as well. The other was Independent James Jeffords of Vermont, who caucuses with the Democrats.

Cutting to the chase -- and, perhaps more than anything I've seen in recent years, truly defining the difference between the two parties -- is that the worst grade received by a Senate Democrat was higher than the best grade granted a Republican. GOP-lite Ben Nelson (D-NE) received the lowest grade of any Democrat with a B- while Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) managed a C grade from IAVA.

And, when I averaged the scores of both the Democratic and Republican caucuses by assigning the numeric midpoint of the letter grade received by each Senator, which party truly supports the troops was made remarkably clear: The 44 Democrats and Jeffords had an average military-support grade of B+, while the 55 Republicans, who beat their chests with disgusting regularity about how strong they are on military issues, averaged a pathetic D.

And how about the guys Americans will be voting on in two weeks? Republican Senator Mike DeWine -- you know, he's the guy who starts one of his campaign's television ads with "While they're fighting for us abroad, he's fighting for them at home" -- came in with a D+. His opponent, Democrat Sherrod Brown, was given a B rating for his military votes in the House, despite DeWine's bogus claim in an October 1 Meet the Press debate that Brown "has voted against funding for the military when it really counted."

Let's look at some of the other GOP stalwarts trying to keep their Senate seats this year by telling voters how much they fight for military families. George Allen (R-VA), Conrad Burns (R-MT) and James Talent (R-MO) couldn't manage to get over a D+. John Ensign (R-NV), Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Rick Santorum (R-PA) were all rated a lowly D- by the largest group dedicated to the troops and Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course, of those Republican Senators, only Burns has actually served in the military himself.

And here's more stunning hypocrisy: In May, 2006, while giving a speech at the Nevada Republican Convention, Mr. D-minus himself, John Ensign, said "Democratic leaders like Nancy Pelosi and Ted Kennedy -- let me tell you, I say this without reservation -- they have hurt our military" and, of Kennedy, Ensign once said "Every time Ted Kennedy gets up and speaks (against the war) he undermines our troops."

Pelosi and Kennedy both received a B+ rating from IAVA.

This is an incredibly interesting and enlightening resource and everyone who is really interested in finding out who is supporting our men and women in uniform with action and not just words, should pay a visit. You can go here to see a list showing how each of the 100 Senators scored -- and you'll even find out which Republicans were given a failing grade of F by IAVA.

While assigning a simple letter grade to the choices being made by elected officials may seem to oversimplify the matter, these ratings are the result of exhaustive research and IAVA Executive Director Rieckhoff makes clear that these are serious decisions, where there's no room for fake patriotism or posturing.

"Politicians' choices in Washington have a real human cost: Troops on the streets of Iraq with inadequate body armor. Veterans waitlisted for treatment at the VA. Military widows facing cuts in their survivor benefits," wrote Rieckhoff last week. "There is no excuse for a low score."

Tagged as: troops

Bob Geiger is a writer, activist and Democratic District Leader in Westchester County, NY. You can reach Bob at geiger.bob@gmail.com and read more from him at BobGeiger.com.
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Thanks IAVA for the work you've done on this, hope it gets wide circulation.


lenal







--------------------

Opinions are "theologically" held -- therefore impervious to reason, evidence, or argument.[/size]
(paraphrasing unknown author.)

The first casualty when war comes is truth.

Senator Hiram Johnson 1917

Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom. .
Coleridge


Seneca -Epistles
The best ideas are common

http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,117439,00.html

Which Politicians Support the Troops?
Paul Rieckhoff | October 20, 2006
Sure, politicians say they support the troops. But whose votes back up their rhetoric -- and who's just wearing an American flag lapel pin?

Now there's an easy way to know for sure. The nonprofit, nonpartisan Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America's Action Fund has tallied up every Congressional vote cast on troops' and veterans' issues for the last five years. We've crunched the numbers, and given every legislator a letter grade - the IAVA Congressional Rating. We have created a groundbreaking new web interface that will allow you (and every American) to find out for themselves where politicians stand on the issues.

Check your representatives' IAVA Congressional Rating at www.iavaaction.org.

The results are disappointing, to say the least. Fewer than one-quarter of House and Senate members scored an A. Eighty-six members got a D or an F.

What does a rating mean? It's simple. You get a point every time you vote with IAVA (in favor of body armor, vet hospital funding, or better treatment for Traumatic Brain Injury, for instance). If you vote with IAVA 95% of the time, for instance, you get an A. If you vote with IAVA 50% of the time, you fail. We believe that any grade lower than an A is unacceptable.

There is no excuse for a low score. Politicians' choices in Washington have a real human cost: Troops on the streets of Iraq with inadequate body armor. Veterans waitlisted for treatment at the VA. Military widows facing cuts in their survivor benefits.

This should be a wake-up call for every American who thinks Congress is doing all it can for our troops. I urge you to check your legislators' scores, and then demand accountability from anyone receiving less than an “A” grade.

Is this a liberal group? Just curious because of the scores:

Clinton A-
Bayh B+
Biden B+
Feingold B
Kerry B

Allen D+
Brownback D
Frist D
McCain D

Snuf, I posted this in this forum about ten minutes prior to yours. And as shown in this link I also earlier put it in the Cafe, I think it is very significant.


http://www.commongroundcommonsense.org/for...35&#entry636235

Consolidate if you wish.


lenal



















c

[quote=dggfwtx,Oct 24 2006, 09:27 PM]
Is this a liberal group? Just curious because of the scores:

Clinton A-
Bayh B+
Biden B+
Feingold B
Kerry B

Allen D+
Brownback D
Frist D
McCain D

[/quot

I believe the article states they analyzed all by the same criteria and since the R's are in the majority, I don't think you should try to label the results by who you think IAVA are. They are defined too in the article.

This won't keep some from slapping labels though, never has.

lenal

Not meaning to cast doubts on the group, but was just curious because of the wide disparity in scores. As we know, any group with an agenda can cherrypick votes to come up with the result they want. I certainly don't mean that is necessarily the case here, but was wondering if anybody knew anything about the group.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/43359/

Vets group proves GOP does not support troops

Posted by Bob Geiger at 10:06 AM on October 23, 2006.


Chart[s] of the Month: Who Supports the Troops?
Evan Derkacz
Paul Rieckhoff, Executive Director and founder of Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the country's first and largest Iraq Veterans group, announced on Friday that IAVA has made available a web site giving the results of their analysis of who in Congress truly backs up their words on supporting the troops.

"Sure, politicians say they support the troops. But whose votes back up their rhetoric, and who's just wearing an American flag lapel pin?" asked Rieckhoff in a Huffington Post column last week. "Now there's an easy way to know for sure. The nonprofit, nonpartisan Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America's Action Fund has tallied up every Congressional vote cast on troops' and veterans' issues for the last five years. We've crunched the numbers, and given every legislator a letter grade - the IAVA Congressional Rating."

It is a wonderful idea to be sure and IAVA is certainly the organization to do it. So I thought I would go out over the weekend and do some crunching of my own to document what I think we already know about who in Congress really sticks up for the military and who are merely support-the-troops hypocrites.

I cover the Senate so I decided to do my digging there and what I found will not surprise anyone. IAVA analyzed 155 Senate votes that have taken place since September 11, 2001 and, to calculate their ratings, looked at "…each piece of legislation that affected troops, veterans or military families." IAVA then matched each Senator's votes with the organization's own view of what constitutes true support for active troops, Veterans and their families.

IAVA assigned an 'A' through 'F' grade using the scale at left showing the percentage of time each Senator has indeed supported troops and Veterans. As someone who has watched Senate Republicans vote time and time again against legislation that would benefit military families, the results did not shock me in the slightest.

No Senator in either party was given an A grade by IAVA. Thirteen Senators received a rating of A- and all of those were Democrats. A total of 23 Senators were given a B+ rating and 22 of those were Democrats as well. The other was Independent James Jeffords of Vermont, who caucuses with the Democrats.

Cutting to the chase -- and, perhaps more than anything I've seen in recent years, truly defining the difference between the two parties -- is that the worst grade received by a Senate Democrat was higher than the best grade granted a Republican. GOP-lite Ben Nelson (D-NE) received the lowest grade of any Democrat with a B- while Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) managed a C grade from IAVA.

And, when I averaged the scores of both the Democratic and Republican caucuses by assigning the numeric midpoint of the letter grade received by each Senator, which party truly supports the troops was made remarkably clear: The 44 Democrats and Jeffords had an average military-support grade of B+, while the 55 Republicans, who beat their chests with disgusting regularity about how strong they are on military issues, averaged a pathetic D.

And how about the guys Americans will be voting on in two weeks? Republican Senator Mike DeWine -- you know, he's the guy who starts one of his campaign's television ads with "While they're fighting for us abroad, he's fighting for them at home" -- came in with a D+. His opponent, Democrat Sherrod Brown, was given a B rating for his military votes in the House, despite DeWine's bogus claim in an October 1 Meet the Press debate that Brown "has voted against funding for the military when it really counted."

Let's look at some of the other GOP stalwarts trying to keep their Senate seats this year by telling voters how much they fight for military families. George Allen (R-VA), Conrad Burns (R-MT) and James Talent (R-MO) couldn't manage to get over a D+. John Ensign (R-NV), Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Rick Santorum (R-PA) were all rated a lowly D- by the largest group dedicated to the troops and Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course, of those Republican Senators, only Burns has actually served in the military himself.

And here's more stunning hypocrisy: In May, 2006, while giving a speech at the Nevada Republican Convention, Mr. D-minus himself, John Ensign, said "Democratic leaders like Nancy Pelosi and Ted Kennedy -- let me tell you, I say this without reservation -- they have hurt our military" and, of Kennedy, Ensign once said "Every time Ted Kennedy gets up and speaks (against the war) he undermines our troops."

Pelosi and Kennedy both received a B+ rating from IAVA.

This is an incredibly interesting and enlightening resource and everyone who is really interested in finding out who is supporting our men and women in uniform with action and not just words, should pay a visit. You can go here to see a list showing how each of the 100 Senators scored -- and you'll even find out which Republicans were given a failing grade of F by IAVA.

While assigning a simple letter grade to the choices being made by elected officials may seem to oversimplify the matter, these ratings are the result of exhaustive research and IAVA Executive Director Rieckhoff makes clear that these are serious decisions, where there's no room for fake patriotism or posturing.

"Politicians' choices in Washington have a real human cost: Troops on the streets of Iraq with inadequate body armor. Veterans waitlisted for treatment at the VA. Military widows facing cuts in their survivor benefits," wrote Rieckhoff last week. "There is no excuse for a low score."

Tagged as: troops

Bob Geiger is a writer, activist and Democratic District Leader in Westchester County, NY. You can reach Bob at geiger.bob@gmail.com and read more from him at BobGeiger.com.

Here's a link to the IAVA - gives all the details about the group.

http://www.iava.org/index.php?option=com_c...d=18&Itemid=145

lenal