Goodbye and Good Riddance, Joe Lieberman

Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman made his farewell speech yesterday to a mostly empty Senate chamber. And for good reason: nobody gives a shit about him.

Whenever I hear the name Joe Lieberman my reaction is "fuck that guy."

Lieberman droned about the need for bipartisanship in the Senate. He recalled the days when things got done by working with friends on the other side of the aisle. But Lieberman lost Democratic support not because he sided with Republicans on occasion, but because not only was he was an opportunistic scumbag who would stab you in the back, but more importantly because he was so goddamn consistently wrong.

He almost blew the 2000 Election (before the Supreme Court actually blew it) when he gnashed his yellow teeth on the Sunday talk shows and couldn't stick to what he knew to be the truth, what he was told by his own advisers. I remember that day well, as I was watching with bleary eyes and suddenly my hair caught fire. Here's the dramatized scene from HBO's fantastic movie, Recount.



The Democratic Party didn't leave Joe Lieberman. Joe Lieberman left the Democratic Party.

He left it when he supported the Iraq War even after we found out the truth. Joe Lieberman left the Democratic Party when he lost his 2006 Democratic primary against Ned Lamont and decided to run as an "independent." After he won the election in a three way race, he then he held his vote hostage to keep leadership positions on certain committees.

Joe Lieberman left the Democratic Party when he endorsed John McCain for president and speechified his mind-numbing patented drone that only Lieberman can drone at the Republican National Convention in 2008.

And don't fool yourself about why he's quitting. If he thought he had a chance to win he would have run in a second. He lost his support because he's become completely untrustworthy. He supported lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 55 until then Rep. Anthony Weiner and other liberals touted it as a great idea and included a Medicare buy-in in the Affordable Care Act. Then Lieberman completely backed off the idea. Was it because of fiscal reasons as he states, or was it payback for feeling rejected by the party he walked away from? So much for that bipartisanship he was mumbling about on the floor yesterday.

Whenever I hear idiots on the right whine on and on that President Obama had majorities* in both the House and the Senate, including that the Democrats had 60 votes in the Senate, where Republicans have engaged in record filibusters to stymie every bill that comes their way, all I can think of is three words: Joe. Fucking. Lieberman. He was consistently a thorn in the side of the Democratic party and leadership when his vote really counted. Sort of like McCain was after 2000. The only difference between McCain and Lieberman is that you know McCain is just prison fucking you in the ass out of spite, while Lieberman smiles that yellow toothy smile as he reaches for the Vaseline. Both are nasty, old, bitter warmongers who legislate out of spite while the latter tries to do it in sheep's clothing.

So goodbye and good riddance, Holy Joe. I'd say, "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out" but actually, I don't give a fuck.

__________________
* And don't get me started about waiting for Al Franken for six fucking months and then Ted Kennedy dying less than two months later. The fact is that Democrats NEVER HAD 60 fucking votes.

DNC Ted Kennedy Tribute...

... and eating Mitt Romney's lunch in the process.

60

Paul Kirk was just named interim Senator from Massachusetts to fill the late Senator Kennedy's seat.

[Paul] Kirk, backed for the post by Kennedy's wife Victoria and his two sons, will fill the seat until voters in Massachusetts elect a permanent replacement in January. His appointment will restore a 60-seat Senate majority for the Democrats that could help President Barack Obama's push to overhaul healthcare.

Lawmakers in heavily Democratic Massachusetts passed legislation in the past few days allowing Governor Deval Patrick to name an interim senator, something Kennedy pushed for before he died in August from cancer so his party would not lose a key vote during the healthcare debate.

"The issues before the Congress and the nation are too important for us to be one voice short," [Massachusetts Governor Deval] Patrick told reporters as he appointed Kirk after signing the legislation.

Ted Kennedy's Letter to President Obama

May 12, 2009

Dear Mr. President,

I wanted to write a few final words to you to express my gratitude for your repeated personal kindnesses to me – and one last time, to salute your leadership in giving our country back its future and its truth.

On a personal level, you and Michelle reached out to Vicki, to our family and me in so many different ways. You helped to make these difficult months a happy time in my life.

You also made it a time of hope for me and for our country.

When I thought of all the years, all the battles, and all the memories of my long public life, I felt confident in these closing days that while I will not be there when it happens, you will be the President who at long last signs into law the health care reform that is the great unfinished business of our society. For me, this cause stretched across decades; it has been disappointed, but never finally defeated. It was the cause of my life. And in the past year, the prospect of victory sustained me-and the work of achieving it summoned my energy and determination.

There will be struggles – there always have been – and they are already underway again. But as we moved forward in these months, I learned that you will not yield to calls to retreat - that you will stay with the cause until it is won. I saw your conviction that the time is now and witnessed your unwavering commitment and understanding that health care is a decisive issue for our future prosperity. But you have also reminded all of us that it concerns more than material things; that what we face is above all a moral issue; that at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country.

And so because of your vision and resolve, I came to believe that soon, very soon, affordable health coverage will be available to all, in an America where the state of a family’s health will never again depend on the amount of a family’s wealth. And while I will not see the victory, I was able to look forward and know that we will – yes, we will – fulfill the promise of health care in America as a right and not a privilege.

In closing, let me say again how proud I was to be part of your campaign- and proud as well to play a part in the early months of a new era of high purpose and achievement. I entered public life with a young President who inspired a generation and the world. It gives me great hope that as I leave, another young President inspires another generation and once more on America’s behalf inspires the entire world.

So, I wrote this to thank you one last time as a friend- and to stand with you one last time for change and the America we can become.

At the Denver Convention where you were nominated, I said the dream lives on.

And I finished this letter with unshakable faith that the dream will be fulfilled for this generation, and preserved and enlarged for generations to come.


With deep respect and abiding affection,
[Ted]

The Real Death Panels

Yesterday I read an article of a husband and wife who endured a real life death panel, not one invented by Betsy McCaughey or dreamt up in Sarah Palin's feeble brain.

Froma Harrop's ex-Marine husband was denied the treatment they needed by United HealthCare for liver cancer, but always gave them the impression that help was just around the corner. The time they wasted waiting for the bean counters at their insurance company may or may not have made a difference, but we'll never know. They just waited out the clock for him to die.

Today, with the passing of Ted Kennedy, I can't help but compare the waiting game by insurance companies to the waiting game of certain members of the Senate. Ted Kennedy was a huge proponent of health care reform, and the cynical side of me feels that some were just waiting for him to expire from his brain cancer to knock off one more Democratic vote for reform. I had mentioned it to a relative a few weeks back and promptly dismissed it, but the memory flooded back as I heard of Senator Kennedy's death.

Now, I know that it's a pretty callous thing to think about. That such a thing could possibly be considered is pretty cold-hearted. And maybe I thought the same thing after comtemplating it. After all, this "august" body always boasts of friendships and respect. Then I saw Senator Tom Coburn (R-Hell) at his health care town hall meeting.



So Coburn says his office will help, but "the government is not the solution." Uh, does he know he is the government? And he suggests to look to your neighbors. Look to your neighbors to help your husband whose had a TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY. I would suggest that Coburn is not the solution.

So with Ted Kennedy, there goes another humanitarian in the Senate; something that their chamber is solely lacking. Ted Kennedy had his problems, he had his scandals. But he also worked his tail off for decades for the common good of the people. I'd take one Kennedy over 50 Coburns any day.

"The work goes on,
the cause endures,
the hope still lives
and the dreams shall never die."

Ted Kennedy Dies at 77

NY TIMES: Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a son of one of the most storied families in American politics, a man who knew triumph and tragedy in near-equal measure and who will be remembered as one of the most effective lawmakers in the history of the Senate, died late Tuesday night. He was 77.

Ted Kennedy Collapses at Luncheon

Reports on NBC confirm that Senator Ted Kennedy suffered a seizure during the luncheon after the inauguration and was rushed away on a stretcher and taken into an ambulance. Kennedy has been fighting a brain tumor first revealed in May, 2008.

Sen. Orrin Hatch just said that Kennedy appeared to be in pain as he and Sen. John Kerry followed him out of the building but looked better as he was put in the ambulance and although he's not a doctor, thinks he may get through this latest episode.

Ted Kennedy Has Malignant Brain Tumor

NY TIMES: ...Tests performed over the weekend at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston indicated that Mr. Kennedy, 76, has a type of cancer known as a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe, the upper left portion of his brain. Mr. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, suffered a seizure on Saturday in Cape Cod and was airlifted to the hospital for treatment.

...“The usual course of treatment includes combinations of various forms of radiation and chemotherapy,” Dr. Lee Schwamm, the vice chairman of neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Dr. Larry Ronan, a primary care physician at the hospital, said in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon.

George "The US Does Not Torture" Bush Will Veto Ban on Waterboarding

We can't get rid of this guy fast enough.

WASHINGTON — The White House says President Bush will veto legislation on Saturday that would have barred the CIA from using waterboarding- a technique that simulates drowning- and other harsh interrogation methods on terror suspects.

..."President Bush's veto will be one of the most shameful acts of his presidency," Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said in a statement Friday. "Unless Congress overrides the veto, it will go down in history as a flagrant insult to the rule of law and a serious stain on the good name of America in the eyes of the world."

Is Congress going to have the balls to do the right thing and override the Farce-in-Chief? Keep watching.

Andrew McCarthy on FISA Bill

This is just a laugh.

Steve Benen at C & L notes National Review's Andrew McCarthy and his latest editorial calling House Democrats out for playing partisan politics by not passing the horrible FISA bill with retroactive telecom immunity, which he admits is a bad bill, but what other choice do we have?

Here's another choice. No immunity. As Kevin Drum points out: , "...if it’s that important, there’s a simple answer: pass the bill without telecom immunity. Then come back and introduce immunity in a separate bill. If you’ve got the votes for it, fine. If not, too bad. I’m against immunity myself — though hardly hellbent on the subject — but whichever way the vote went, in the meantime we’d have the FISA extension and surveillance could continue normally."

Drum also notes that the "FISA extension" is shorthand for the Protect America Act, which passed last November and extended (i.e., changed) the then-current FISA legislation in various ways. PAA sunsets on Saturday if a new bill isn't passed, but the original FISA legislation will stay in place. It just doesn't magically disappear thereby materializing nasty Muslims on the streets who want to kill us for our freedoms.

As I said before, if it were truly a matter of life and death, why would the president effectively veto the bill by threatening to do as much without the immunity provision? Answer: Because there's no "there" there. The only reasons the administration wants immunity passed is so they can get away with the further erosion of the Constitution, protect corporations yet again while screwing its citizens and hide the crimes they have committed. Immunity equals no investigation.

So who's playing political football with national security? The Democrats who are trying to preserve Fourth Amendment rights for US citizens, or the Republicans who walk out of Congress, holding their breath til they get their way, crying "it's my ball and I'm going home"?

This false argument that we need to protect the telecoms from lawsuits or else they won't help us is complete bullshit. Case in point were the telecoms who stopped providing the information because the FBI failed to pay their phone bills! If they were really doing it "in good faith", then the information would have kept on flowing. So there goes that argument.

If the US government has a warrant, then the telecoms HAVE TO comply and no lawsuit would stand up in court. But the fact of the matter is that the US government doesn't want to pick and choose who they need to surveil on real facts and real leads. They just want to look like they're doing something so they record and read EVERYTHING from EVERYONE... how in hell can they effectively sort through all that data? It's the equivalent of the "no-fly"watch list being 800,000 people long (and including Senator Ted Kennedy). If everyone's on it, then it's absolutely useless.

I'll have more on this later because in skimming through McCarthy's editorial, it reads like your basic GOP talking points memo through and through, so I feel the need to stab a few holes in it when I have more time... much more time.

Bill Clinton Knocks Ted Kennedy and Links Him To Bush

It's time for the Big Dog to either tone it down or for someone in the Hillary campaign to put a muzzle on him. Bill Clinton has criticized Senator Ted Kennedy twice in the last week and linked him to George W. Bush and the No Child Left Behind fiasco.

"I want you to think about this, and I have to say, this was a train wreck that was not intended. No Child Left Behind was supported by George Bush and Sen. Ted Kennedy and everybody in between. Why? Because they didn't talk to enough teachers before they did that," said Clinton on Thursday, according to the Associated Press.

Obviously these statements come after the Massachusetts senior Senator endorsed Barack Obama and not Hillary Clinton. I can only assume that these comments would not have been made had Kennedy's endorsement gone to Hillary. What do you think?

Maybe Bill should have continued his diatribe and let his audiences know that the "everybody in between" included his wife. Hillary voted FOR No Child Left Behind. Or maybe someone in the Obama campaign will shed some light on that fact if the question is raised. That would be sweet.

Don't misunderstand, I think either candidate is going to make a good president, but since my horse has gone back to the stable, I'm putting my money on Obama. I suppose you can call this the official "Broadway Carl's Blog-O-Mania!" endorsement of Barack Obama which I am sure will propel him over the top and begin his landslide victory in the Democratic race and onto the White House.

And it only makes matters worse for Clinton to have her husband stumping the old-fashioned way: with mudslinging and half truths. Someone has got to control him, not only because it reflects poorly on the Clinton campaign, but it's really unbecoming of a former President. I almost feel embarrassed for him when I see him blow a gasket.

If that's what Hillary calls "change", I ain't buying it.

Dodd Delays Telcom Amnesty FISA Bill

Finally, a politician with the balls to do what's right and follow through on what he promised.

From ChrisDodd.com: Majority Leader Harry Reid has just pulled the FISA bill from consideration in this session. It will be brought up at some point next month.
Without Senator Dodd's leadership today, it is safe to assume that retroactive immunity would have passed.
This is a great victory for the American people. His outspoken opposition to retroactive immunity and the Intelligence Committee's FISA bill made it impossible to move forward now. From a process standpoint, that took the persistent shadow of a Dodd filibuster on this legislative process, a "hold" against any legislation that included retroactive immunity, and today, a refusal to grant unanimous consent to rules of debate that would have made it harder to strip retroactive immunity from the Intel Committee's bill through the Dodd-Feingold Amendment. He brought along some of the Senate's most passionate voices -- Senator's Feingold, Kennedy, Boxer, Wyden, Brown and Bill Nelson joined him to stand up to the President today.

Clinton, Obama and Biden, all of whom said they supported Chris Dodd and his filibuster, did not take the time to return to DC from the campaign trail in Iowa to help Dodd in his fight against giving retroactive immunity to telecom companies that aided and abetted in the illegal wiretapping of American citizens by the Bush administration.

Here's Dodd's FISA speech on the Senate floor today.

Senator Kennedy: "Voting for amnesty would be a vote for silence, secrecy, and illegality... The President has said that American lives will be sacrificed if Congress does not change FISA, but he has also said that he will VETO any FISA bill that does not grant retroactive immunity. No immunity? No FISA bill.

So if we take the President at his word he is willing to let Americans die to protect the phone companies!"

Not Since Nixon

Not only did the C.I.A. destroy videotapes containing the interrogation of two suspected terrorists, but they did it despite warnings against it.

White House and Justice Department officials, along with senior members of Congress, advised the Central Intelligence Agency in 2003 against a plan to destroy hundreds of hours of videotapes showing the interrogations of two operatives of Al Qaeda, government officials said Friday.

The chief of the agency’s clandestine service nevertheless ordered their destruction in November 2005, taking the step without notifying even the C.I.A.’s own top lawyer, John A. Rizzo, who was angry at the decision, the officials said.

Democratic Senators are calling for an investigation.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts accused the C.I.A. of “a cover-up"... “We haven’t seen anything like this since the 18½ -minute gap on the tapes of Richard Nixon,” Mr. Kennedy said in a speech on the Senate floor, as reaction to the disclosure about the videotapes seemed to intensify minute by minute.

Mr. Durbin, the Democratic whip, said he had written Mr. Mukasey to ask for an inquiry into “whether C.I.A. officials who destroyed these videotapes and withheld information about their existence from official proceedings violated the law.”

Where are the Republicans on this issue?

Ted Kennedy's Minimum Wage Rant

I know this is old news, but if you haven't caught it, you can't miss Ted Kennedy on the Senate floor wondering what the problem is with the Republican's dragging their feet on a minimum wage vote. This was before it actually passed along with an $8.3 billion amendment package that includes tax breaks to small business owners. A lot better than 70 amendments and the $276 billion in tax breaks the Rethuglicans originally proposed.

Kennedy: "What is the price that you want from these working men and women?! What cost? How much more do we have to give to the private sector and to business?!... WHEN DOES THE GREED STOP?!"

Kennedy's Bill

Today, Sen. Ted Kennedy proposed legislation that requires Congress to vote before the President can send additional troops to Iraq.

Think Progress: "...no funds can be spent to send additional troops to Iraq unless Congress approves the President’s proposed escalation of American forces."

Kennedy: "Listen to this comment from a high ranking American official: 'It became clear that if we were prepared to stay the course, we could help lay the cornerstone for a diverse and independent region. If we faltered, the forces of chaos which smell victory and decades of strife and aggression would stretch endlessly before us. The choice was clear: We would stay the course and we shall stay the course.' That's not President Bush speaking, it's Lyndon Johnson speaking 40 years ago ordering 100,000 more American soldiers to Vietnam.
...Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam. ...Our men and women in uniform cannot force the Iraqi people to reconcile their differences."