The Vileness of Joe Lieberman

As part of his ongoing campaign to make himself as buffoonish as possible, Joe Lieberman devised a brilliant idea for dealing with American terror suspects:

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) thinks he's found a work-around on the whole Miranda rights debate for U.S. citizens accused of terrorism: Strip their citizenship and ship them to Guantanamo.

Lieberman plans to introduce a bill that would amend a decades-old law aimed at yanking citizenship from U.S. citizens who fight for a foreign military.

“I'm now putting together legislation to amend that to [specify that] any individual American citizen who is found to be involved in a foreign terrorist organization, as defined by the Department of State, would be deprived of their citizenship rights,“ Lieberman said Tuesday.

In other words, if the government says you are a terrorist then you have no rights.

This sort of thing makes Lieberman a darling of the right, a group populated primarily by pussies. Acting tough is about as close as they ever get to the real thing. That is why they are constantly prancing around with their guns and trying to out-sadist each other in contemplating the interrogation of suspects. They are perfectly happy to have a big, intrusive government so long as they believe it will only be other people who will be affected.

Andrew Sullivan aptly sums up Lieberman's (and John McCain's) insanity:

The appalling behavior of John McCain and Joe Lieberman this past week underlines what a bullet this country missed by electing Barack Obama president. This, remember, was McCain's original dream-ticket - before a forty hour Google search unleashed brain-dead boobage across the land. Look at their instincts: find a citizen terror suspect and tear up the constitution to ... do what exactly? McCain won't say. Or: strip the guy of citizenship immediately and then get to work on him.

And later:

Now recall that McCain and Lieberman were celebrated in Washington for their alleged maturity, wisdom, and elder statesmen experience. They are in fact adolescent hysterics, whose terrorized Manichean view of the world sees nothing but an existential struggle and the imperative to win it. We would have been electing Cheney to a third term. And we barely knew it.

Well said!

Here is Lieberman commenting on the big oil spill:

In a recent interview with National Journal, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Ct.) not only defended offshore oil drilling, but also sought to downplay the current Gulf coast crisis, saying “accidents happen.”

“There were good reasons for us to put in offshore drilling, and this terrible accident is very rare in drilling,” Lieberman said in the interview. “I mean, accidents happen. You learn from them and you try not to make sure they don't happen again.”

According to National Journal, Lieberman also said he would continue pushing for an expansion of offshore drilling to be included in the Senate's energy bill:

When asked whether the spill would change any of the drilling language he and Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have developed, Lieberman said, “I don't think so; certainly not to lead us to remove it.” He said the draft would allow drilling as close as 75 miles from the U.S. coastline.

Does Lieberman also support requiring elementary precautions that would greatly reduce the risk of these kinds of accidents? I doubt it.

The absence of an acoustical regulator -- a remotely triggered dead man's switch that might have closed off BP's gushing pipe at its sea floor wellhead when the manual switch failed (the fire and explosion on the drilling platform may have prevented the dying workers from pushing the button) -- was directly attributable to industry pandering by the Bush team. Acoustic switches are required by law for all offshore rigs off Brazil and in Norway's North Sea operations. BP uses the device voluntarily in Britain's North Sea and elsewhere in the world as do other big players like Holland's Shell and France's Total. In 2000, the Minerals Management Service while weighing a comprehensive rulemaking for drilling safety, deemed the acoustic mechanism "essential" and proposed to mandate the mechanism on all gulf rigs.

Then, between January and March of 2001, incoming Vice President Dick Cheney conducted secret meetings with over 100 oil industry officials allowing them to draft a wish list of industry demands to be implemented by the oil friendly administration. Cheney also used that time to re-staff the Minerals Management Service with oil industry toadies including a cabal of his Wyoming carbon cronies. In 2003, newly reconstituted Minerals Management Service genuflected to the oil cartel by recommending the removal of the proposed requirement for acoustic switches. The Minerals Management Service's 2003 study concluded that “acoustic systems are not recommended because they tend to be very costly.”

The acoustic trigger costs about $500,000. Estimated costs of the oil spill to Gulf Coast residents are now upward of $14 billion to gulf state communities. Bush's 2005 energy bill officially dropped the requirement for the acoustic switch off devices explaining that the industry's existing practices are “failsafe.”

Anyone think Lieberman would have demurred from that conclusion?

“Drill baby drill” is still the energy policy of one of the two major political parties in this country. Are we so stupid and short-sighted that we really think punching more holes in the ocean floor to drink up the last few drops of oil, running these kinds of risks, constitutes any sort of long-term solution to anything? Everyone knows the days of cheap oil are rapidly coming to an end. But anyone suggesting that we should consider getting more of our energy from renewable sources is quickly branded a commie ecofanaitc or some such. Even Obama was onboard the drilling bandwagon, for heaven's sake.

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Don't blame me, I voted for Ned Lamont.

Lieberman means nothing to the democratic party now, why does he still have a position in the party? Every word this guy says is straight in line with the teabaggers. It's not like any of them will ever vote for him.

I notice that your quote (and I went and checked on the HuffPo site, which has the same version) has Lieberman saying:
âI mean, accidents happen. You learn from them and you try not to make sure they don't happen againâ [italics mine]. Newspaper error or Freudian slip?

Other then Kennedy's ass, is there any other source of information that either the manual switch failed

The absence of an acoustical regulator -- a remotely triggered dead man's switch that might have closed off BP's gushing pipe at its sea floor wellhead when the manual switch failed

or that the deadman system that backed it up failed? Kennedy doesn't have a great track record for either rationality or fact checking (ie: his anti vaccination stance) The very fact he calls the acoustical triggering system a deadman shows he has no clue what he is talking about. There is no such thing as a REMOTELY TRIGGERED deadman switch. A deadman switch is held OFF from activating by a signal. There was a deadman system on the BOP that either failed to trigger, and then the BOP failed to activate on direct activation from an ROV, or the BOP simply failed to seal the well. Either of these scenarios (BOP failed to activate on command, or BOP triggered but failed to work) don't suggest that another triggering mechanism would have helped. Lieberman is an asshat and hopefully will be replaced by someone with both brains and a heart, but please, sticking to facts is more then enough to show that.

By Robert S. (not verified) on 05 May 2010 #permalink

This sort of thing makes Lieberman a darling of the right, a group populated primarily by pussies.

I like what Dan Savage had to say about pussies: "Pussies are powerful; they can take pummeling and spit out a brand-new human being. What you are [..] is weak, vulnerable, and far too sensitive for your own good. What you are is a ball sack."

The right is populated primary by ball sacks.

Odd. Where in your bill of rights are the rights restricted to citizens? My understanding is that the bill was a list of things that the government may not, at any time, to any one, do.

Paul: Real Americans (TM) are not to be constrained by such petty considerations! They are God's chosen people!

By Valhar2000 (not verified) on 06 May 2010 #permalink

OT but is Prof. Rosenhouse going to comment on the actions of kookoo Ken Cuccinelli, Virginias' attorney general against UVA and Prof. Michael Mann?

"Lieberman plans to introduce a bill that would amend a decades-old law aimed at yanking citizenship from U.S. citizens who fight for a foreign military."

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There is a specific word for this act. it is called TREASON!

Back in the old days aperson could be shot on site for such an act. Most of the time they faced hanging or a firing squad. Committing treason is a very serious offense and doing so in the name of evil is even more a detestable offense.

Of course I do have to disagree with the stripping of one's citizenship. I do fell that the so called citizen who betrays his country and goes to war against it should be tried in court, but I also feel that if convicted he should receive the death penalty - by firing squad.

I have a better idea for Islamofascist terrorists who are at war with us. Instead of worrying about what the liberals want to do with them once they are detained, here is my idea:
Forget capturing them at all. They are to be shot on site without question. Osama Bin laden is to be shot on site without question or mercy. Miranda rights only apply to citizens, not rogue terrorists. Since the islamic terrorists do not belong to a conventional army and are from multiple countries, it is impossible and problematic to try them as war criminals since they have no government and military backing them. They are lone homeade soldiers grouped together for the call of war against us. In that sense, they have no miranda rights since they are not citizens. They have no rights are war criminals since they technically do not belong to a specific country or conventional military. Therefore, there are no rules of engagement in how and when we take them out.

Rights belong to halfway civilized people, not bearded barbarians hell bent on destroying half the world. I say take them out and leave them lying where they fall and focus on the next target.

By Captain liberty (not verified) on 11 May 2010 #permalink