The Absolute Worst Veteran’s Day Story Ever
So there’s a charity formed in Houston called Helping a Hero. Meredith Iler runs it.
Come to find out, it isn’t much of a charity. There are numerous complaints from veterans who were bilked. They were told that if they bought a lot of land, Helping a Hero would donate $100,000 toward a house and builders would contribute that much too.
West Point graduate Sam Brown was one of those wounded veterans. He bought the land, he and his wife paid taxes on it for a year, and …..
Almost weekly, he pleaded with the charity for an update. He said all he got from Helping A Hero founder Meredith Iler were excuses.
“That was the theme, ‘Sam just bear with us, we don’t have everything lined up yet,'” Brown said, quoting Iler. “‘We are working on it, we are working diligently.'”
He finally sold the land and give up.
This happened over and over. When the local tv station investigated, the found….
Veteran Eddie Wright of Conroe, Texas, recipient of the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, served on the board of Helping a Hero for six months. He said he quit after learning of how Meredith Iler was spending donation money, such as a $3,500 breakfast for advisory board members at the exclusive River Oaks Country Club in Houston.
Wright says he’s troubled by other expenditures, such as an unexplained $39,000 reimbursement to Iler and a $20,000 payment for anonymous speaker travel.
That does seem a little excessive for breakfast. But what Wright found out next really floored him.
Wright later learned that speaker was former President George W. Bush, flying a private jet from Houston to Dallas in association with the charity’s 2012 annual fundraiser gala. What upsets him more, he says, is the fact that Iler paid Bush $100,000 to speak at the same gala.
“You are our leader. Why would you charge somebody $100,000 to raise money for men and women who are wounded fighting a war that you commanded us to go fight?” Wright said.
Is there going to be a time when George W. Bush isn’t making money off the misfortune of young American men and women fighting a war?
I thought I was as cynical as a human was biologically able to be. But this takes the cake. Is there a pit of hell deep enough for this man?
Oh yeah, there’s an investigation.
News 8 has confirmed that both the Texas attorney general’s and the Harris County district attorney’s offices are investigating complaints filed against Helping A Hero.
Yep, both Republicans. That mean Bush will get a medal and the vets will get the screw.
Meredith Iler lives in Cypress. Here is her Texas voting record. The R’ s mean Republican.
Thanks to Sandy D for the heads up.
Chickenhawks want boots on the ground in Iraq. I suggest we begin with the New All Volunteer Army composed of Meredith, Chimpy and anyone else Miss Juanita Jean and the readers here wish to ‘volunteer.’
1if you google “Helping a Hero” its just rains bad. This even before you add in George W Bush and the plume of $hit he lugs behind him sufficient to fertilize a desert.
2And give Senator John McCain a WWI bi-plane to fly air support! Please tell me that there is a special place in hell for these turkeys!
3To pay George W Bush to speak at a fake veteran charity is like paying a bank robber to give a speech on “How I became a banking insider by tunneling under the safe.”
4This makes me ill. This is lower than I thought they could even go.
5She is OK one pitiful excuse for a human being…. even for a Republican!
6She’s a pitiful excuse for a human being and so’s Dubya. Okay, we knew that last part, but this is scumbag even for him.
7someone with more computer savvy than I–please send this as a link to NPR.org
8Dubya didn’t even have the IQ of fungus, so this is really not a surprise. Worse yet, he doesn’t really need the money. I hope he gave it back. It must have been the excuse of getting out of the house and flying around a bit like he used to on the taxpayer’s dime in Air Force 1 shuttling from D.C. to the ranch inasmuch as he used the White House only to change clothes. He certainly can’t leave the country. There are too many war crime charges out there with his name on them.
9Gramiam, if Crash McCain does head the Armed Services Committee, my promise to you is that for every rattle of his phony saber, he’ll receive a flood of suggestions from me.
With Miss Juanita Jean’s permission, will post the contact information for all the Congress varmints. Call them, e-mail them, or snail mail them.
Marge Wood our new bumper sticker: Republicans, get your boots out of your mouths. The ground in Iraq awaits you.
10To answer your question Miz Juanita Jean, NO. NO there is not a pit of Hell deep enough, nor is Hell hot enough, nor is eternity long enough for him or the rest of his misbegotten family. May they all rot there.
11What I can’t figure out is why any veteran–ANY veteran–would ever vote for Dubya. And yet some of them do.
It makes me sick what these people do to veterans. (It also makes me sick that my publisher put a thing on Twitter about Dubya’s new book…granted, it’s a business and it’s about the numbers and the bottom line, but…ICK.)
12Well, Republicans now consider Dubya a hero, and he probably found the $100K speaker fee helpful – so I’m sure any Texas state government investigation will not find any wrongdoing.
13Lower than a tick turd but a donation to a real Veterans charity would be better than returning it to the shyster. Probably too charitable an assessment of his character to even think anyone could ever shame that money out of his hands.
14Despicable.
15Shame.
16PCM: Chickenhawks want boots on the ground in Iraq, but only until Obama orders them up, then Chickenhawks DON’T want boots on the ground. There, Fixed.
17Right now I’m praying that one of my friends will re-send me one of those Reich-wing emails that praises the good works of Georgie McAwol and “Wounded Warrior Project”, and comparing him to Obama.
18