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Edited on Wed Dec-17-03 05:35 PM by election_2004
1. He has teamed up with George W. Bush and Rick Santorum to rally for PUBLICLY-FUNDED “faith-based initiatives.” He has also sponsored his own legislation to give taxpayer-funded vouchers to parents who wish to send their children to parochial schools (“Holy Joe, Corporate Joe, G.I. Joe: Will the real Senator Lieberman please stand up?,” Doug Ireland, LA Weekly, 7/11-17/03).
2. He was a stronger supporter of Bush’s 2002 Iraq resolution than Gephardt was.
3. In fact, Lieberman teamed up with Trent Lott in 1998 to push for the Iraqi Liberation Act, which made the goal of regime change in Iraq an official part of U.S. foreign policy (“Man of Peace?”, Dan Levine, The Valley Advocate, 2/27/03).
4. He has opposed letting patients sue HMOs for punitive damages (“Does Joe Lieberman Really Hold the Moral High Ground?,” David Morse, The San Francisco Chronicle, 8/23/00).
5. Lieberman supported a watered-down version of “Star Wars” promoted by Clinton/Gore, even when there were billions of dollars unallocated that could be spent on social improvements across the globe (“Does Joe Lieberman Really Hold the Moral High Ground?,” David Morse, The San Francisco Chronicle, 8/23/00).
6. He supports the death penalty for minors.
7. In 2000 on the campaign trail with Gore, Lieberman advocated tapping into the Strategic Oil Reserve.
8. He has voted for federal support of private school vouchers (after being picked as Gore’s running mate, Lieberman later claimed he would support Gore’s anti-voucher stance, but also said he would privately push for vouchers).
9. While Lieberman was Chairman of the Senate Government Affairs committee, did he ever bother to investigate Bush’s role in the California energy crisis, as he’d promised he would? No . . .
10. In fact, while chairing the Government Affairs committee, Lieberman failed to subpoena any Bush Administration officials, or conduct any degree of meaningful investigation into the White House’s involvement with Enron (“The Tyranny of Triangulation: Can Joe Lieberman Lead?,” Nicholas Confessore, The American Prospect, 5/20/02).
11. He voted for Fast Track.
12. Lieberman and former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA) were two integral designers of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (which offers no protections for closeted gay soldiers who are harassed due to other soldiers’ bigoted suspicions).
13. He teamed up with Hillary Clinton to push for the passage of the Media Marketing Accountability Act of 2001 (S.790; H.R. 2246), which could give the federal government greater power to regulate and dictate “acceptability standards” for entertainment content.
14. He was a top advocate of the Biomaterials Access Act, which gave large corporations such as Dow and DuPont immunity from lawsuits relating to their defective medical implants that they manufactured (“Holy Joe, Corporate Joe, G.I. Joe: Will the real Senator Lieberman please stand up?,” Doug Ireland, LA Weekly, 7/11-17/03).
15. He voted for several Republican “balanced budgets.”
16. Lieberman initially praised Proposition 209 (which banned affirmative action in California) in 1995, but then backed off of his support for the referendum after being publicly denounced by Jesse Jackson and other civil rights groups. So that means he either doesn’t bother to do his research on some issues, or he only defends his convictions if it’s politically convenient for him? (“Mildly Ambitious: Is Joe Lieberman Up for 2004?,” James Traub, The New York Times, 6/10/01)
17. He supported the 1989 capital gains tax cut (“Who is Joe Lieberman?,” Dr. Manning Marable, Black Light Online, 9/21/00).
18. Joe Lieberman not only supported John Ashcroft’s plan to privatize the TIPS (Terrorism Information and Prevention System) program (which allows citizens to phone a hotline to report suspicious signs of terrorism), but as Chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, Lieberman blocked a Homeland Security bill amendment by Senator Pat Leahy (D-VT) that would have prohibited the federal funding of programs that encouraged citizens to spy on other citizens (“New Life for Operation TIPS,” Dave Lindorff, Salon, 8/30/02; “Holy Joe, Corporate Joe, G.I. Joe: Will the real Senator Lieberman please stand up?,” Doug Ireland, LA Weekly, 7/11-17/03).
19. He pushed for corporate stock options.
20. In a 1998 speech (documented by the Congressional Record on 7/10/98), Lieberman stated that not all people who condemn homosexuality should be accused of bigotry, because, according to Lieberman, some of these people with anti-gay religious beliefs have “sincerely held morally based views” (“Defending Our Morality,” Paul Varnell, Chicago Free Press, 8/16/00).
21. He voted to increase the government’s power to wiretap cell phones.
22. Senator Lieberman referred to Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi as “a person of strength, principle and real national commitment.” Chalabi was convicted on more than 30 counts of embezzlement, fraud, and theft, and is a friend of Richard Perle. Speculation remains that the Bush Administration hopes to ultimately install Chalabi as Iraqi president in a puppet regime (“Our man in Iraq,” Joe Conason, The New York Observer, 4/09/03).
23. He has supported the privatization of Social Security.
24. Unapologetic about his support for the preemptive war in Iraq, Lieberman has accused John Kerry of being “ambivalent” regarding Kerry’s support for the war, and Lieberman has also painted Howard Dean as an unelectable extremist for opposing the war (“Lieberman Rejects Strategy of Running to the Left,” Jim VandeHei, The Washington Post, 8/19/03). The fact is, Kerry still voted the exact same way Lieberman did to authorize the War in Iraq, plus Kerry has a strong defense background that Lieberman lacks. Dean, not being a U.S. Senator, was unable to cast a vote on preemptive war, but Dean had expressed support for military action in Iraq only if the U.N. supported such actions.
25. Lieberman has a recent ACLU voting record of only 25% (far lower than his opponents for the Democratic nomination).
26. Mere hours after his presidential candidacy announcement, Lieberman’s campaign began spamming web-users via a bulk-mailing service called Constant Contact (distributed by Roving Software), which sent unsolicited pro-Lieberman email spam to individuals whose names were involuntarily collected - - including the inbox of the Electronic Frontier Foundation founder John Gilmore. Lieberman has publicly condemned electronic spamming and claims to be anti-spam - - yet when Lieberman sponsored the CAN-SPAM legislation, he and its other sponsors created a loophole for themselves (and their political campaigns) in which anti-spam legislation would only apply to commercial outlets ("Perspective: Hail to the . . . spammer-in-chief?,” Declan McCullagh, CNET News, 1/20/03).
27. He voted to reject the use of racial statistics in death penalty appeals.
28. He voted against a 1999 pay increase for servicemen and servicewomen (despite his supposed “praise” of the U.S. military under the Clinton Administration.
29. He supported Clinton’s military base closures in May of 1999 (even though Lieberman claimed to support maintenance of the U.S.’s (supposedly) strong military when he ran for vice-president in 2000.
30. In July 2003, Lieberman skipped an appearance in front of the NAACP in order to fundraise for his presidential campaign in New York and tape an appearance on The O’Reilly Factor (“Gephardt, Lieberman hit bumps on trail,” Glen Johnson, The Boston Globe, 7/21/03)
31. He joined with Bill Bennett to sponsor the “Silver Sewer Awards” for “immoral” video games.
32. At a 1994 press conference that he jointly held with Bennett on television violence, Lieberman was asked by reporters to name a favorite entertainment television program as an example of what he would consider “wholesome.” After much hesitation, Lieberman finally named Touched By An Angel after hearing on of his aides whisper it. (“Lieberman Versus Hollywood,” Paul Farhi, The Washington Post, 12/7/03).
33. During a 2003 presidential campaign stop at a diner in Stamford, Connecticut, Lieberman’s bodyguards removed a young activist named Chris Sare from the diner after Sare - - cattily yet non-violently and non-agressively - - took a sarcastic verbal dig at Lieberman while shaking his hand (“His Moment of Truth,” Michael Leahy, The Washington Post, 6/29/03). So is this how the Lieberman campaign is going to handle dissent - - simply eliminate it from having a public voice?
34. He voted against a 1995 proposal to increase the ban on Congressional gifts from special interests.
35. In 1998, the NAACP gave Lieberman a grade of “D” on their annual report card (“Holy Joe, Corporate Joe, G.I. Joe: Will the real Senator Lieberman please stand up?,” Doug Ireland, LA Weekly, 7/11-17/03).
36. From 1994 to 1999, Lieberman served as co-chair for the Center for Jewish and Christian values, a project of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (featuring the likes of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell) and a group that has been known to structure foreign policy based on biblical prophecy (“What About Those End Times, Mr. President?,” Edward Ericson, The Hartford Advocate, 1/16/03).
37. Lieberman and anti-gay Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) are co-chairmen of The Empowerment Network, an organization that spearheads faith-based initiatives and culturally conservative solutions to social ills (“Holy Joe, Corporate Joe, G.I. Joe: Will the real Senator Lieberman please stand up?,” Doug Ireland, LA Weekly, 7/11-17/03).
38. He has supported the U.S. sales of F-15s to Israel and Saudi Arabia.
39. Citigroup, the top lender of Enron, is the Lieberman’s largest financial donor, having contributed $112,000 to Lieberman’s campaigns since 1997 FTC (“Lieberman feels the sting of criticism over Enron,” Don Von Natta, Jr., The New York Times, 1/21/02). How does Lieberman expect to credibly investigate Enron when his campaign has benefited from Enron’s cash flow?
40. According to lobbyists and executives who work for Hollywood and the Entertainment Industry - - including Geraldo Rivera and Barbara Streisand - - Lieberman has gone after particular television shows and entertainment products during his crusades without really knowing a whole lot about the content that he’s criticized. Joe Lieberman is apparently very good at finger-wagging, but sometimes fails to familiarize himself with the subject matter of what he’s attacking (“Lieberman Versus Hollywood,” Paul Farhi, The Washington Post, 12/7/03).
41. He voted against cutting U.S. nuclear weapons below START treaty levels (like the U.S. doesn’t already have enough nuclear weapons that could potentially obliterate the entire world with some to spare!).
42. Lieberman promoted Charles Murray’s (author of The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life) idea to relocate children of single mothers on welfare into federally-run orphanages (“Holy Joe, Corporate Joe, G.I. Joe: Will the real Senator Lieberman please stand up?,” Doug Ireland, LA Weekly, 7/11-17/03).
43. He supported the 1994 amendment authored by Jesse Helms that cut off federal funding to any school district that utilized educational materials that “supported homosexuality” (“Who is Joe Lieberman?,” Dr. Manning Marable, Black Light Online, 9/21/00).
44. He has consistently sponsored and supported efforts, proposals, and legislation to induce censorship of the Entertainment Industry, which includes his 2001 proposal to fine the FTC (“Bush Just Says No To Hollywood Probe,” Pamela McClintock, Variety, 6/22/01).
45. He co-founded, along with Lynn Cheney, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (an organization known for blackballing college professors who are “too liberal”) in 1995.
46. He was the only Democrat to oppose the nomination of Sheldon Hackney (former President at the University of Pennsylvania) to become president of the National Endowment for the Humanities (“Who is Joe Lieberman?,” Dr. Manning Marable, Black Light Online, 9/21/00).
47. Lieberman - - aided by William F. Buckley - - was endorsed by The National Review during his 1988 U.S. Senate race against Lowell Weicker . . . a liberal Republican who despised Nixon. In fact, Buckley started a PAC on Lieberman’s behalf for his U.S. Senate campaign (“Ask the Angels’ Scorn - - Joe Lieberman: Yankee Tartuffe,” Ross Vachon, CounterPunch, 2/25/03; “Scoop Jackson Democrat: Senator Joseph Lieberman’s Case for Economic and Military Strength,” Adam Meyerson, Policy Review, Summer 1990, No. 53; “Holy Joe, Corporate Joe, G.I. Joe: Will the real Senator Lieberman please stand up?,” Doug Ireland, LA Weekly, 7/11-17/03).
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