Archive for the ‘Joe Lieberman’ tag
The brave armchair generals calling for Julian Assange’s criminalization
Here is the list of the patriotic warriors who have criminalized Julian Assange
1. Candice Miller, Congresswoman
She wants to shut down the site:
“Julian Assange and WikiLeaks are criminals whose actions support terrorists and criminal regimes around the world. It is now long past time for our government to shut WikiLeaks down”
http://candicemiller.house.g ov/2010/12/it-is- past-time-to-shut- down-wikileaks.shtml
2. Jonah Goldberg Journalist
“Kill Julian Assange” Jonah Goldberg is an editor-at-large of National Review Online and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
http://www.salon.com/ news/politics/ war_room/ 2010/10/29/ jonah_goldberg_kill_j ulian_assange
3. Christian Whiton Journalist
Here are some of the things the U.S. could do: 1. Indict Mr. Assange and his colleagues for espionage, regardless of whether he is presently in a U.S. jurisdiction, and ask our allies to do the same. 2. Explore opportunities for the president to designate WikiLeaks and its officers as enemy combatants, paving the way for non-judicial actions against them.
3. Freeze the assets of the WikiLeaks organization and its supporters, and sanction financial organizations working with this terrorist-enabling organization so they cannot clear transactions denominated in U.S. dollars.
4. Bill O’Reilly FOX NEWS, Journalist
“Whoever leaked all those State Department documents to the WikiLeaks website is a traitor and should be executed or put in prison for life,” Bill O’Reilly said.
http://www.tvsquad.com/ 2010/11/30/bill- oreilly-calls-tor-the- execution-of- wikileakers-video/
5. Sarah Palin Member of the Republican Party, former candidate
“Hunt down the WikiLeaks chief like Taliban” “He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands. His past posting of classified documents revealed the identity of more than 100 Afghan sources to the Taliban. Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al-Qaida and Taliban leaders?”
6. Mike Huckabee Politician
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is the host of the number one rated weekend hit “HUCKABEE” on the Fox News Channel
“Whoever in our government leaked that information is guilty of treason, and I think anything less than execution is too kind a penalty,” the Republican said in an interview.
He added that the latest batch of Wikileaks put American lives “at risk.”
http://www.thestatecolumn. com/articles/mike- huckabee-calls-for- execution-of-julian- assange/
8. Prof. Tom Flanagan
Thomas Flanagan is a political scientist at the University of Calgary and a conservative political activist. He played an important role in helping Stephen Harper become Prime Minister of Canada. On 30th November 2010 in a comment to a Canadian television news anchor Evan Solomon of the CBC News Network on live TV, Tom Flanagan called for the assassination of Wikileaks director Julian Assange, suggesting that President Obama should put a contract out on Assange’s life or send out a drone to kill him. Although news anchor Solomon afforded Flanagan the opportunity to retract his statement, Flanagan continued to say that he would not be unhappy if Assange “disappeared.”
http://poli.ucalgary.ca/ profiles/thomas- flanagan
Incitement:
9. Rep. Peter King
Congressman, republican, he wants wikileaks listed as a terrorist organization and freeze assets
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45667.html
10. Tony Shaffer
Tony Shaffer of the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, told Fox News that he would like to see military action against Assange: “I would look at this very much as a military issue. With potentially military action against him and his organization.” (While the Obama administration no longer uses the term “enemy combatant,” it claims (PDF) the authority to “detain” someone who has provided “substantial support” to enemies of the United States.)
11. Rick Santorum
Rick Santorum, former Pennsylvania Senato
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20023941-38.html#ixzz16z2Hq5U2
12. Congressmen Peter King
King Supports Reported U.S. Prosecution Efforts of WikiLeaks Founder, calls to designate WikiLeaks as a Foreign Terrorist Organization
“I am calling on the attorney general and supporting his efforts to fully prosecute WikiLeaks and its founder for violating the Espionage Act,
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45667.html#ixzz174QHMFxM
“WikiLeaks presents a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States. I strongly urge you to work within the Administration to use every offensive capability of the U.S. government to prevent further damaging releases by WikiLeaks.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45667.html
13. Congressmen Dan Lugren
“WikiLeaks appears to meet the legal criteria” of a U.S.- designated terrorist organization, King wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reviewed by CNET. He added: “WikiLeaks presents a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States.”
14. Jeffrey T. Kuhner Journalist The Washington Times
Kuhner: Assasinate Assange
15, Virginia Foxx, Rep. U.S. Senate
“WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s talk about transparency is just so much hot air. It is clear that his agenda is decidedly slanted towards tearing apart U.S. foreign relations and eroding our national security. He is a criminal, nothing more.”
“The federal government must use every means possible to bring Mr. Assange and any other perpetrators of this data breach to justice. Their irresponsible and possibly treasonous behavior has put the lives of our men and women serving abroad in new danger. They must be held accountable for their actions.”
http://foxx.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=55§iontree=54,55&itemid=1570
16. Senator Kit Bond, Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee
“It is critical that the perpetrator who betrayed his country be brought to justice for this deliberate treason that jeopardizes our national security.
17. Sen, Joe Liberman Send Brown and Sen Ensigt
Senator Joe Liberman from Conneticut is even promoting ammendments to the Espionage act to prosecute Wikileaks
“Julian Assange and his cronies, in their effort to hinder our war efforts, are creating a hit list for our enemies by publishing the names of our human intelligence sources,” said Ensign. “Our sources are bravely risking their lives when they stand up against the tyranny of al-Qaeda, the Taliban and murderous regimes, and I simply will not stand idly by as they become death targets because of Julian Assange. Let me be very clear, WikiLeaks is not a whistleblower website and Assange is not a journalist.”
19. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY)
“This man has put his own ego above the safety of millions of innocents,” Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said in a statement. “He should be extradited, tried for espionage, and given the most severe penalty possible.”
20. Marc Thiessen
“Wikileaks must be stopped”
Assange is a non-U.S. citizen operating outside the territory of the United States. This means the government has a wide range of options for dealing with him. It can employ not only law enforcement but also intelligence and military assets to bring Assange to justice and put his criminal syndicate out of business. The first step is for the Justice Department to indict Assange. Such an indictment could be sealed to prevent him from knowing that the United States is seeking his arrest. The United States should then work with its international law enforcement partners to apprehend and extradite him.
https://www.washingtonpost. com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/02/AR2010080202627.html
h/t Greg Mitchell
White House demonstrates awesome ability to remain clueless
Image via Wikipedia
Following her awe-inspiring performance as corporate shill during the healthcare reform debacle, Blanche Lincoln has secured top ranking on the list for “Most Likely To Be Burnt In Effigy By The Progressives.”
To claim Lincoln is despised in her own state is an understatement. As of February, her approval rating stands at 27 percent. In related news, Arkansas supports the public option. More than 8 in ten Democrats and 57 percent of independents support it. Overall, 56 percent of all voters want the public option.
Despite the program’s popularity, Lincoln said she would vote against any measure containing the public option. Lincoln said the measure is just too darn expensive, ignoring the fact that the CBO has stated that the public option could save billions of dollars over the next decade.
Hilda Solis shocks everyone, acts like a Democrat
Image via Wikipedia
Soon after she became the nation’s labor secretary, Hilda Solis warned corporate America there was “a new sheriff in town.” Less than a year into her tenure, that figurative badge of authority is unmistakable.
Her aggressive moves to boost enforcement and crack down on businesses that violate workplace safety rules have sent employers scrambling to make sure they are following the rules.
I’m assuming this story got little play because the media has become accustomed to pragmatist Democrats. You know, the party that sells out liberal ideals in the name of corporate donations, 60 votes, and few accomplishments. The public option, full withdrawal from the Middle East, these things aren’t as important as knowing Joe Lieberman is happy.
So it’s weird to see Solis act like a fiery liberal, one who sends Big Business sprinting for cover, shrieking.
Joe Lieberman cordially invites you to another war
Image via Wikipedia
Joe Lieberman was one of the most vocal supporters of invading Iraq after the attacks of September 11, 2001. He also harbored fantasies of being John McCain’s Secretary of Defense and can barely restrain his enthusiasm when the bad guys get what’s comin’ to ‘em (even if it’s only in a Hollywood film).
Lieberman likes expressions of American power. A few years ago, I was in a movie theatre in Washington when I noticed Lieberman and his wife, Hadassah, a few seats down. The film was “Behind Enemy Lines,” in which Owen Wilson plays a U.S. pilot shot down in Bosnia. Whenever the American military scored an onscreen hit, Lieberman pumped his fist and said, “Yeah!” and “All right!”
Armchair General Joe, who has never served in the military (but he’s seen lots of films!) is always the first to advocate the use of military intervention, and yet he has been wrong about pretty much everything.
Lieberman qualified for a family deferment from Vietnam because he was already married and had a child. However, that moving tribute to family devotion has not stopped Lieberman from fiercely advocating the deployment of other husbands, wives, fathers, and mothers into wars zones.
Lieberman reaches 'private understanding' with Reid
Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Joe Lieberman has been telling anyone who will listen that he was previously planning to vote against cloture on any bill with a public option. The garrulous Senator seems to have now changed his tune.
Sources say Lieberman has reached a “private understanding” with Majority Leader Harry Reid that “he will not block a final vote on healthcare reform.”
Erm, okay. What the hell is a “private understanding,” and was there another way to phrase this to make it seem more like a triumph of compromise and pragmatism, and less like some shady backroom deal that will ultimately fuck the American people?
We’ll have to see what this compromise looks like. Hopefully, Reid calmly explained to Lieberman just how angry the torch-wielding mob that shall hunt him across the land will be after Joe becomes the poster boy of healthcare reform failure. Maybe Joe rolled over on his own after that.
While Congress dallies, desperate Americans seek free healthcare
Remote Area Medical Clinic (RAM) Dental area 2008- Scott County, TN (Image from alqi.org)
Update: The audio of my interview with RAM’S Stan Brock can be heard on Citizen Radio over here.
Yesterday, a group of six centrist and conservative Senators signed a letter to the Democratic and Republican leaders urging delay in consideration of health care reform. These moderates include Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Independent Joe Lieberman (D-CT), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Susan Collins (R-ME).
The day before these Senators signed a letter to effectively halt healthcare reform, citizens were just beginning to line up at Cocke County High School in East Tennessee for free healthcare provided by Remote Area Medical (RAM), a non-profit, volunteer relief corps dedicated to providing free health care, dental care, eye care, veterinary services, and technical and educational assistance to people in remote areas of the United States and the world.
Though registration would not officially start until Friday, and the doors would not open until Saturday, pre-registration had already filled up by Thursday, and the sessions were full (with a waiting list) before the clinic was ready to see patients.
This kind of turn-out isn’t unusual, Stan Brock, the founder of RAM told me by phone on his way to the high school.
We’re probably going to see people in the 700-800 range, which for us is a small turnout. At our larger clinics, we’ll give out 1500 numbers to patients during the course of the night because they come and they wait all night for these services. At the end of a weekend, we will have seen several thousand people. We’ve got one coming up in Los Angeles in eight days, and my guess if that there we’ll probably see many thousands of people by the time we’re finished there.
Rose Centers was already in line by noon on Friday. “The last time I tried to go to the dentist, it cost me $300, and all they done is a cleaning and X-rays,” she told WBIR.com. In America, where 62 percent of personal bankruptcies are linked to medical bills or illness, this kind of early turnout at Cocke County High School shouldn’t surprise anyone. Many Americans are poor, desperate, sick, and in need of some human compassion. Brock’s team doesn’t think their need should be exploited for financial gain.
As the engine of their medical van rumbles in the background, Brock shares some statistics with me. “You know, the World Health Organization rates the United States on the scale of 190 nations in their delivery of healthcare to the citizenry as number thirty-seven.” He then explains the history of the Great Britain (his native country) universal healthcare system. At the height of World War II, the population in Great Britain was around 49 million when Winston Churchill mandated universal healthcare coverage. “So when you think that 49 million people is about the number of people in [America] that don’t have access to healthcare, it’s roughly equivalent to the population of Great Britain at the end of World War II,” says Brock.
He means it’s a problem that has a solution. If Great Britain, which had been practically obliterated by German bombing (including 57 consecutive nights of air assault during The Blitz,) provided healthcare to every man, woman, and child, then surely America, a comparatively prosperous nation, could improve its own system.
Those politicians toying with the idea of a public-private hybrid model for healthcare reform should understand that the private sector’s prices inflation have made doctor visits unaffordable even to some people who have insurance. Brock told WBIR, “Now we are getting people who do have insurance and do have jobs but simply the co-pay perhaps prevents them from getting the services that they need, but they find they can’t afford it.”
But RAM doesn’t have the widespread reach of a universal healthcare program. They can only do so much. ”The sad part is,” Brock tells WBIR, “that we can’t see everybody, so on Sunday evening it’s going to be our sad problem to tell people ‘I’m sorry, but we can’t see any more.’”
Remote Area Medical is in constant need of volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering, visit their webpage here.
