As a Connecticut resident Dori has a valuable insight into what has happened and is happening in that race.

Expose Lieberman’s Lies Before the 2006 and 2008 Elections

Part One of Two Part Commentary by Dori Smith of Talk Nation Radio, WHUS FM 91.7 Storrs at the University of Connecticut

On August 9th Connecticut voters learned that it was possible to beat the machinery of George Bush and Dick Cheney. They also learned that it was possible to do this without running a nasty campaign or purchasing a media conglomerate. A few days later the Bush machine retaliated and threw their muscle behind Joe Lieberman as a stealth Republican for U.S. Senate. Now seems as though it’s politics as usual again. Or does it?

I say we should reflect a bit on the Lamont/Lieberman race, take a deep reassuring breath or two, and then leap back into the fray to reclaim what is rightfully ours–the political reality of our time is there for the seizing and Connecticut politics are but round one for progressives voting for Democrats or third party candidates.

Let the August 8th Democratic primary here be our first good lesson on how to proceed towards victory and let lesson number one be this: It’s still all about the lies.

Lieberman versus Lamont was an old fashioned horse race as of August 8, 2006 and the national press was refreshingly fascinated. Maybe they had become disheartened covering the Bush Administration, chasing the same old ambulance U.S. politics has been riding in since 9/11.

Political writers tend to cover U.S. elections in terms that no longer apply to America. We don’t have a two party system with an independent voting base that can upset the apple cart. Hell we don’t even have an apple cart. Instead we seem to be drifting aimlessly through a war zone in a rickety ambulance with Jack Abramoff in the driver’s seat and an inebriated George Bush and Dick Cheney falling this way and that over our frightened heads.

Ned Lamont may have ridden in on a wave of voter discontent but he also revived us a bit by running a clean campaign. During his many talks at public functions in Connecticut during July and August he seemed hell bent on finding a more familiar future for voters. We seemed to have more of a future before the time of John Rowland in Connecticut or Bush-Cheney in Washington.

The Lamont campaign reminded Connecticut voters of a time when candidates spoke about the things they planned to do on our behalf when they got to Washington. He reminded us of the days when a good political writer could help us sort through the horse manure to pick out better candidates, or try to. And the even better reporters would find creative ways to sneak the darker truths about politicians into their column inches one way or another. This was before the Washington Press came to be transformed as Rupert Murdoch-world with Karl Rove as its band leader.

Journalists now face a new set of restrictions. They work out which talking point from Karl Rove’s office is to be left in the copy versus which political lie they can get away with leaving out. The U.S. political press has collapsed under the weight of pure unadulterated lies.

My suggestion as an independent radio producer, voter, and American, is very simple. Just vote for the candidates who tell the fewest lies. You can still sort out the lies from the truths by using resources that have been put at our disposal by the international alternative progressive press corps: a new media where real people have been locating the lies of politicians and keeping track of them for us.

Sorting through the records of incumbents and the platforms of challengers is as simple as logging on to the internet, and for those without net access just search out your local independent radio stations. In Connecticut listeners can rely on FM stations: WHUS, FM 91.7 in Storrs Connecticut, (Range through to Hartford, E. Hartford and East to Storrs, Willimantic, and Windham and Tolland Counties, through New London; WPKN, FM 89.5 in Bridgeport, CT, and 100% community based, it covers Bridgeport and the surrounding area; WWUH, FM 91.3 at the University of Hartford, with a wide range through to the Mass border and South to Cromwell and Middletown; WSHU Fairfield, FM 91.1 with translators at Southern Connecticut and Long Island; WQAQ, 98.1 FM. Quinnipiac College; WMNR, 88.1 FM in Monroe; WFCS, 107.7 FM. Central Connecticut State University; WNHU, 88.7 FM. University of New Haven and WRTC, 89.3 FM. http://www.wrtcfm.com/ They are not all going to provide Pacifica News like Affiliate station WHUS in Storrs, but you can certainly begin to get more of a realistic political picture and enjoy diversity in music too. Here are the Gumbo pages for listings if you are online. Cut and paste promos for the stations and put them up in your local laundry, supermarket, town hall, high school, or library if they will let you: http://www.gumbopages.com/other-radio.html

Just think of the fun you will have sorting through the many lies politicians have told lately and then running them through the filter of your own honor system.

I’ll get you started by reviewing the lie campaign of Joe LIE-Berman, one of the best examples anywhere of a lie based-candidate. Am I allowed to call the candidates names and still be credible and dignified like the Washington press corps? Hell yes. I’m an independent salary free gal with nothing but democracy in mind. I do independent radio and public affairs. So stay tuned and here goes!

Joe LIE-Berman’s Legacy of Lying

LIE ONE: I am a pure Democrat running a clean campaign.

Actually this was a whopper. Joe Lieberman is now fully out of the closet as a stealth Republican candidate and according to Ned Lamont’s spokeswoman, Liz Dupont-Diehl, Lieberman is “the de facto candidate of George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney.”

The lie that Lieberman is the better Democrat who merely came under too much pressure from the tricky Lamont campaign was created by the candidate himself during his debate with Lamont. He announced that he was the victim of dishonest portrayals and the media dutifully picked up on that theme.

“Instead of hearing an honest debate about the issues that really matter to people, they have been overwhelmed with bogus charges about my Democratic credentials. Instead of having an honest discussion about your future, we’re getting negative politics at its worst.” Joe Lieberman

The Hartford Courant has reported that, “Senate Democrats of national stature - including Reid, 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry of Massachusetts, Connecticut’s Christopher J. Dodd and New York Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer - have publicly endorsed Lamont since the primary.”

Essentially Joe Lieberman is running in the void left open by the weak Republican candidate, Alan Schlesinger, and he only seems to be winning in the polls as a consequences of having morphed the would be Schlesinger votes onto remnants of his own voting base as a conservative Democrat. The Republican can’t even garner ten percent of Connecticut voters, and so Lieberman has made a Republican pact to essentially run in his place.

Lieberman has been helped into position as a stealth Republican by some of the Vice President’s dirty tricks. Cheney was asked if he planned on offering Senator Lieberman any help as he runs as an independent and Cheney replied; “Well, first of all, I doubt that we have any intention or aspirations of getting involved in Joe Lieberman’s campaign.” That was on August 9, 2006. On the same day Cheney used his official position to announce that Lamont is the “al Queda protecting candidate.”

In a Teleconference released by the White House August 9, 2006, Cheney said that what he found “partly disturbing” about Lieberman’s loss, was how it would affect the war in Iraq and the war on terror: “From the standpoint of our adversaries, if you will–the al Qaeda types–they clearly are betting on the proposition that ultimately they can break the will of the American people in terms of our ability to stay in the fight and complete the task.”

Lieberman sealed the direction of the lie on FOX Network as he also accused Ned Lamont of protecting members of Al Queda. Tricky Joe let Sean Hannity do the dirty deed for him. All he had to say was “yeah.”

In terms of Joe Lieberman’s lie about running a clean race the simple truth was revealed when Lieberman dragged out the most slothful political commercials ever. He found them hidden in the darkest corners of his own closet and merely incorporated Ned Lamont’s name into them. In a past race Lieberman incumbent Senator Lowell Weicker by accusing him of hiding away sleeping like a bear in a cave. Connecticut reporters found the spots nightmarish, and they could say so back then. Now one should have to turn to independent sources like the online New Haven Independent newspaper.

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2006/06/post_239.php

LIE TWO: I’ve been protecting the environment for you and your kids.

This is a very serious Lieberman lie. You have probably heard that Joe Lieberman is against drilling in the Alaskan ANWR. That sounds pretty good. But he can afford to tell voters that and still bask in the Vice President’s support because he voted for the Cheney energy bill. He will let the massive public relations campaign about ANWR tell the supportive lies that you can have ANWR oil and still protect the Alaskan environment. He knows it is only a matter of time before a Republican led Congress clears the way for the ANWR portion of the Vice President’s energy plan for America.

Like many politicians that have been squawking about their love for the environment and their steadfastness against ANWR drilling, Lieberman knew that legislation passed back in July of 2001 had already given Cheney the support he needed for shocking energy rights that essentially place America’s wealth in the hands of big oil, coal and gas executives. According to environmental watch groups the energy bill Joe Lieberman voted for in 2005 does away with pesky royalty payments for any gas hydrate extraction from Alaska.

Joe Lieberman’s former running mate, environmentally conscious Al Gore, refused to endorse him in the 2006 Senate race and it is not likely that Lieberman would endorse the reinvigorated Gore either.

In a letter to voters on August 15th Gore said: “Congress’ abdication of its constitutional duties has led to the manipulation of pre-war intelligence on Iraq, the formulation of a costly and overly complicated Medicare prescription drug bill, an energy bill written in complete secrecy by industry lobbyists and Vice President Cheney, the outing of a covert CIA agent and the illegal domestic spying on American citizens.”

“Only a Democratic majority in Congress can take the critical steps necessary to reverse the atmospheric changes.”

When he talks about a “Democratic majority” Gore is talking about real Democrats and real environmentalists. He is not talking about a stealth Republican candidate like Joe Lieberman who essentially provided cover for the administration on both the Iraq war and big oil’s new place at the policy making table. The energy executives knew that they would be able to price gouge at home while engaging in the setting up of a free for all for exorbitant profits. All they had to do was keep Cheney and Bush in office.

In covering lies about his energy policy with platitudes and empty promises, Dick Cheney was a great teacher for politicians like Lieberman. The most important thing Lieberman has learned is that you can vote the way your voters want you to some years after you have already helped to put legislation in effect that makes your later votes irrelevant.

Cheney’s energy policy lying began to come to light back in July of 2001 when he went on a national tour holding carefully staged town meetings. On July 18, 2001, a smug Dick Cheney told PBS’s Jim Lehrer

“I think we’re getting the message across. I think it’s just a complicated problem. There’s a reason why nobody’s offered a comprehensive energy policy around here for many, many years, and it’s because these are tough issues; people have strong feelings about them; they’re complex issues, but I think we are getting terrific we’re having a fair amount of success. –We’ve seen positive votes now, we should have a bill out of the House before the August break. We’re winning some of the key votes in committee; we did yesterday on the question of ANWR, for example, in the House Resource Committee.”

By voting for Dick Cheney’s energy bill Joe Lieberman awarded $6 billion in subsidies to the oil and gas industry right off the top. He also allowed oil companies to drill on public land to pay taxpayers in oil rather than in cash, and he encouraged them to head for the best drilling sites with all speed regardless of who owned them or where they were. It was a privatization bonanza with absolutely Iraqi-ian CPA features. Something only a stealth Republican could love, something that could only have been conceived by the former CEO of Halliburton, Dick Cheney.

On Tuesday August 9th, 2005, one year before the Democratic primary in Connecticut, Democracy Now reported that the energy bill “grew out of a task force led by Vice President Dick Cheney, the former CEO of Halliburton. The Cheney Energy Task Force, which was formed in 2001, was charged with developing a national energy policy. Some documents released under court order showed that the task force met exclusively with industry executives.”

The bill doesn’t regulate energy prices or decrease our dependency on foreign oil. What it does do, according to Democracy Now is give loan guarantees to builders of nuclear power plants. It also allows Cheney’s new Office of Indian Energy Policy & Programs at the Department of Energy, to oversee the use of Indian land for construction of new nuclear plants, as well as uranium mining and the storage of nuclear waste. In sum tricky-Dicky rode roughshod over anyone without political clout in Iraq and America and Connecticut’s Senator, Joe Lieberman was right behind him.

You can listen to Democracy Now on WHUS FM 91.7 every day at 12:00 noon and find it online at WHUS.org where you can note which Pacifica Affiliate station cable access station, Indy station or even NPR station is carrying it.

It is worth noting that the former head of the U.S. led coalition provisional authority in Iraq, Paul Bremer, served as a kind of secretary for the “industry executives” put in charge of America’s future. Bremer set up rules that essentially let big oil run oil rich Iraq. Bush and Cheney came right out and said they would be using oil revenues to pay for the invasion and occupation and then they awarded all of the reconstruction contracts to Bechtel and Halliburton.

This is reminiscent of the way John Rowland ran the Connecticut Governor’s office for nine years in office before he became an inmate. He awarded all top contracts to a handful of construction companies who were also his biggest campaign contributors. He got caught in lies about paying for work done on his vacation home and served a year in jail. (More on him and the way Joe Lieberman protected his ENRON pals in part two see link below.)

Finally, when the CPA, Coalition Provisional Authority and Paul Bremer set up an Iraqi constitution that gave big options for oil revenues out of Iraq directly to big oil industries the CEO’s loved it right up until the violence began to limit oil revenues. That merely meant a delay in oil profits out of Iraq while international financial matters could be put in order: the French, German, Russian, and other investors in line for the oil rights could be held off and the major fuel lines set up through the Middle East that had been in the works much longer than Dick Cheney’s energy bill.

Link Festival

Attacks cripple Iraq oil exports June 15, 2004 BBC News.

The War on Lebanon and the Battle for Oil Global Policy, Global Research, by Michel Chossudovsky, July 26, 2006

Iraqi has worst fuel shortage since ‘03 August 13, 2006 AP

Middle East Oil, Peace, War, Israel, and Palestine Posted by Bill Garret & Roy McAllister

Oil from Iraq : An Israeli pipedream? Janes, Foreign Report, April 16, 2003

As oil executives wait for delayed profits out of Iraq they are charging US voters three times as much for existing oil. They are taking the highest profits ever recorded in their industry as poor Americans struggle to make ends meet.

In PART TWO we discuss Lieberman’s lies number three, four, five, six, and seven featuring Joe LIE-berman as Super “Progressive” Man.

LIE THREE: I am for campaign finance reform.
LIE FOUR: I ended the ENRON scandal.
LIE FIVE: I am for human rights, women’s rights, and civil rights.
LIE SIX: I am for freedom of religion but I can still protect faith based initiatives.
LIE SIX: I am the anti-corruption candidate.

Whatever else you do in November, VOTE! The Green Party is running a candidate for the office of U.S. Senate in Connecticut see: Ralph Ferrucci at his web page.

We will be talking with as many Greens, Democrats and Republicans, as possible during the 2006 and 2008 election seasons.