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Right after Sen. Lieberman voted against U.S. troops on the Webb amendment, he launched his new Iran Amendment – cosponsored by pals Kyl, Graham, Collins and Sessions with strong support by McCain – and Senator Levin could not fall over himself fast enough to display his love of his big pal from CT. Watch here – but prepare yourself – it will test your gag reflex mightily. (Thanks as always to Crooks and Liars for being on top of the news!)
This gist of the amendment: It is the sense of the senate that Iran is participating in acts of war against the United States. (h/t OpenLeft)
They were making minor changes to the language right up to the last minute but the released draft states:
that “the murder of members of the United States Armed Forces by a foreign government or its agents is an intolerable act of hostility against the United States,” and demands the government of Iran “take immediate action” to end all forms of support it is providing to Iraqi militias and insurgents. The amendment also mandates a regular report on Iran’s anti-coalition activity in Iraq.
Joe says:
“For many months, our military commanders and diplomats have warned us that the Iranian government has been training, equipping, arming, and funding proxies in Iraq who are murdering our troops,” said Senator Lieberman. “This amendment is a common sense, common ground statement of the Senate to Tehran: we know what you are doing, and you must stop.”
Levin and Salazar asked to be added as co-sponsors before the language was finalized, McCain used the bullshit Michael Gordon Hezbollah story to justify his vote, Graham waxed poetic comparing Iranian leadership to Hitler and Sen Durbin spoke of his support – as long as the amendment specified that it was not an authorization of military action. (Wow, what a relief! We all know that little details like congressional authorization matter so much to this White House).
Levin introduced the actual vote on the Lieberman Amendment by stressing that the Senate stands as one and that Iran had better listen.
The final vote: 97 Ayes, 0 Nays
If you would like to thank the Senate for taking us one step closer to war on Iran - and in particular Senator Levin for his big smooch for Joe and Senator Reid for his "leadership," here are the numbers:
U.S. Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121
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zed?
very disturbing…
This is a perfect example of why this Democrat is fed up with his party.
Thanks for covering this so quickly. Another war, just what we need (NOT).
And for me, if you would do a HUGE FAVOR, PLEASE.
Tell Senator Levin that Democratic voters in Michigan are losing faith in him because his long-time friendship with Joe Lieberman has gotten in the way of his job representing the constituents of Michigan. You can tell them that Michigan constituents sent you.
Other contact info for reaching Levin’s district offices:
Detroit
Phone: (313) 226-6020
Fax: (313) 226-6948
Address:
477 Michigan Ave., Ste. 1860
Detroit, MI 48226
Saginaw
Phone: (989) 754-2494
Fax: (989) 754-2920
Address:
515 North Washington St., Ste. 402
Saginaw, MI 48607
Lansing
Phone: (517) 377-1508
Fax: (517) 377-1506
Address:
124 West Allegan, Ste. 1810
Lansing, MI 48933
Grand Rapids
Phone: (616) 456-2531
Fax: (616) 456-5147
Address:
110 Michigan St., NW, Rm. 720
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Warren
Phone: (586) 573-9145
Fax: (586) 573-8260
Address:
30500 Van Dyke, #206
Warren, MI 48093
Escanaba
Phone: (906) 789-0052
Fax: (906) 789-0015
Address:
524 Ludington St., Ste. LL-103
Escanaba, MI 49829
Traverse City
Phone: (231) 947-9569
Fax: (231) 947-9518
Address:
107 Cass St., Ste. E
Traverse City, MI 49684-2602
Thank you for your help, FirePups.
Pakistan has a nuclear arsenal and is becoming increasingly unstable, with a radicalized Islamic element within their country. North Korea has shown it’s one thing to make a nuclear bomb (if they indeed did), and quite another to make enough of them with a delivery means that can threaten anyone.
I dare any of these “wise old men” to explain clearly why Iran is such a major threat to the US. Their collective hard-on over Iran is as bizarre as our country being threatened by Cuba. Iran is not a credible threat. The only rational explanation has to be Israeli warmonger influence.
so now the senate has joined the house in the insanity (see h.con.r.21).
it was especially painful today to watch levin accept lieberman’s assurance that this bill was not an authorization for the use of force, and then - without reading the bill - ask to be a co-sponsor.
arrrrgh.
Can you imagine the laughter coming from Rove’s and Cheney’s offices. Bush is a very dangerous boy. Perhaps the ‘frontrunners’ can fall into line too.
on waging war with Iran … Holy Joe and what army ? well, at least Iran kicking them out of Iraq will bring the troops home.
Cr*p.
We’re going to have to lose the Democrats in Congress, all of them, because they’re too f*cking
stupidsomething to figure out what’s going on without someone reading the bills to them very slowly, and explaining all the words to them as they go along.We’ll need a new party name, too, because they’ve done to ‘Democratic’ what the GOoPers have done to ‘Republican’: turned it into a joke of an brand for a product that should be named ‘Acme’.
How can they claim to be representing us, when they can’t even read the bill and figure out where it’s going, before they vote on it, and they don’t listen to us, when we tell them what we’re seeing and hearing out here in the real world?
After the hearing earlier and now this, I give up. I’m going back to bed and taking a bottle of vodka with me.
And as soon as either the Stennis or the Nimitz are fired upon, both of which are sitting an Admiral’s piss stream from Iran’s territorial waters, Bush will be able to push those red buttons again. Boy, he must be excited!!!
It is hard to believe that these are the same idiots are scrambling to get away from their votes on the Iraq war, and here they are, ready to start a new one, with even less evidence than there was for Iraq. What a bunch of wankers!
Madness. Madness. Madness.
Words fail.
SeamusD @ 13
That does about sum it up.
When will Democrats in Congress get the message that sabre-rattling is not “patriotism.” We voted them in last fall to end a war, not start another one!
Remember the people who invoked the Iraq Liberation Act for ‘Clinton did it’ purposes, even though the text explicitly excluded military authorisation?
Damn.
And what are we going to attack Iran with? We are out of soldiers. Missiles and bombs are all we’ve got left. And if we do this, the Middle East will explode.
Where were Boxer, Feinstein, Feingold and Schumer for this lovefest? They seem to be Lieberman’s traveling ‘Alleluia Choir’ with anything he does. They NEVER speak out against him. Lieberman is batshit crazy and yet he has democratic followers.
Seamus - a very good point!
It was rather astonishing to hear them all saying Yea to this … they sure don’t learn from experience.
Spiritcatcher @ 9
That is what Joe is counting on, there is no more Army. If the Iran/Iraq war is gives any clue, the Iranians are willing to take large casualties. Joe and his handlers want tac nukes used on the Iranians.
Note the vote - 97 for the Lieberman Iran Amendment.
The assurance that the amendment wouldn’t be an explicit authorization to attack Iran should be read in conjunction with Glenn Greenwald’s post during TPM’s Book Club segment.
Glenn’s main point is that once it is generally accepted that Iran is conducting “acts of war” in killing US soldiers in Iraq, then Bush can use the existing AUMF in Iraq to attack Iran. He doesn’t need to get another authorization.
This is not saying that an attack is more or less likely than before; only that it arguably removes a barrier that might have existed.
siun, thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to hold our congress critters accountable…. i hope everyone will call first thing tomorrow morning (i will).
last week, when i spoke with my rep (jim mcgovern) about h.con.r.21 - he had no idea that there was any controversy about the translations (propaganda).
i swear - our congress critters must live a bubble that is almost as bad as the one president bush lives in. i guess that means it’s up to us to try to educate them.
Just a stupid question. What the %$^* just happened today? I am so confused. How did the Dems agree to let all the crap about ‘Clinton did it too’, get to be included in the House hearing? And why does every hearing Conyers has end up the same way, with the Repubs seeming to have the upper hand? I thought you had to be pretty smart to get elected to Congress. I’m just confused.
All they need is Chertoff’s gut to be right…and they will claim martial law, and it’s all over…or it’s revolution.
Another sad day in our country.
Is 97-0 correct? What! This has all the makings of another cluster-fuck. Where are they going to get more troops for these leeches to bleed out? The draft? Oh, hell no! I have 16 and 14 year old sons. FUCK THAT!
I had just called Teddy’s (Kennedy) office earlier congratulating him for his floor speechifying.
Just called AGAIN to register my disgust with voting for a thinly veiled war resolution. I said I expected a ‘Nay’ from him and am disappointed.
blah.
We have no military to send to Iran? Let’s send every representative and senator who has made another war possible–and their families.
The fact that it’s the Senate of the U.S. Congress should console everyone: it’s a throwaway vote from a body that’s been excised from any role in formulating or executing our foreign policy. Whether the vote was 1-96 or 97-0 makes no difference. We’re not going to war with Iran.
Since the ISG these things have happened:
–Fallon refused to deploy the third carrier to the Persian Gulf.
–There were threats of “mass resignations” in the military if we attacked Iran.
– The British refused to participate in an attack on Iran and then unseated Blair.
That said, it is beneath contempt. I thought last year’s 410-8 vote against a Lebanon cease-fire was the nadir. They sell their votes to you-know-who because no one else is bidding.
What this disgusting spectacle may be prefatory to, however, is an Israeli attack on Hezbollah: maybe they’re warning off Iran, or something. Maybe an expert can tell us.
the text of the bill is not posted yet… but here’s where i think it will be (hopefully in the next few minutes): Lieberman Amdt. No. 2073
and here’s the roll call vote.
Called Levin’s office. I think he only answers to Israel, based on his last anti-war statement suddenly softened after a big meeting with the Israel contigent.
Scarecrow @ 24
exactly.
a responsible congress has NO business removing any barriers.
This is appalling on so many levels…
Never mind that this is pushing us one step closer to war with Iran - what the heck kind of horse-trader is Harry Reid supposed to be, anyway?
You hand the administration a great big wet kiss, and in exchange, get what? Screwed on every single other vote this week?
If Reid had armtwisted the Rethugs, told them “Okay, we’ll give you the Iran vote, but you have to stop with this nonsense of invoking cloture votes over everything”, then I could at least understand it.
But to hand the admin everything it wants WHILE getting screwed on everything else, with no quid pro quo, well.. I’m at a loss for words
Well, this sure takes the focus on the Libby deal away. And just about all the other Bush foibles with it. The Democrats are incredible.
dead last @ 12
They tried to make a casus belli out of those British hostages, and that didn’t work. They’ve been at it with Iranian-supplied “shaped charges” for months. Get used to it. A bellicose but impotent posture is going to be a feature of our posture towards Iran for a while. It took them a decade and three administrations to get their invasion of Iraq, it’s going to take just as long for them to have any chance to “go to Teheran”. With this difference: this time the rest of the world is fighting back.
Is anyone going to call BU!!SH!T on this ??
Where is the EVIDENCE Iran is killing our troops.. To hear retardo Joe talk on the Senate floor the Iranians were the ONLY ones attacking our troops..
Does anyone else smell a PNAC rat ?
Why would Levin jump on the PNAC war wagon ??
This is getting really ugly folks and I did not see any Dems up there stopping this march to yet another bogus corporate war..
There should be a maximum age limit for reps and senators–think Levin, Conyers, Spector, and several others.
We have an Executive Branch run amok enabled by the rightwing (and a few nuts from the middle and left).
The only answer will be a full out military coup to take our government back.
And how do we defend ouselves against the charge that ‘there’s not much light shining between the two parties’?
Not only did they not call BS, they lined up to vote Yes … and talked about their lovely nonpartisan agreement on this one.
Vitter R-LA didn’t respond.
He’s at his House in New Orleans Called the Rising Sun.
How the hell are we supposed to get Democrats elected in 08 when they refuse to differentiate themselves from Repubs?
More importantly, why should we?
Are they purposely trying to bankrupt this country?
NYT reporting Lady Bird Johnson has died.
selise @ 34
My feeling, oddly enough, is that they just feel it’s risk-free pandering. They have no power, and therefore no responsibility.
OT..but interesting take on the order from Bush, for Meyers not to talk.
From TPM:
Invoking a privilege is one thing, but telling a person not to show up in response to a subpoena — if only to actually invoke the privilege — is quite another. It’s not just worse, it’s a felony under federal criminal law. See for yourself.
18 U.S.C. Sec. 1505 : … Whoever corruptly … influences, obstructs, or impedes … the due and proper exercise of the power of inquiry under which any inquiry or investigation is being had by either House, or any committee of either House or any joint committee of the Congress … [s]hall be fined under this title, [or] imprisoned not more than 5 years … or both.
18 U.S.C. Sec. 1515(b): As used in section 1505, the term “corruptly” means acting with an improper purpose, personally or by influencing another, including … withholding, [or] concealing … information.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/015273.php
war with china? na! give me war with iran for two hundred please…nice cynical strategy from dc dimwits toward our guys in the desert, perpetual war for imperial oil cynical cynical bastards in dc
The PNAC plan seems to still be on course.
There is a third carrier on its way now to the Gulf … and the plans talked about are not troops on the ground but carpet bombing 200 sites in Iran - Fox News has a lovely map of them.
Air war is great when you have completely destroyed your ground army.
Called both Boxer and Feinstein (my Senator’s) and asked them why they are supporting anything Joe Lieberman proposes.
Siun @ 51
Amongst all the other bad outcomes, the price of oil will skyrocket. Of course, that’s good for many of Cheney’s pals.
This is beyond dumbfounding. Words cannot convey the contempt I now have for the US Senators who have acquiesced to this nonsense. Un. F*cking. Be. Lieve. Able. Idiocies stacked upon insanities stacked upon death and destruction.
Siun @ 51
Air War didn’t work with Germany, Japan, or North Vietnam..won’t work with Iran.
siun, who are the three who didn’t vote? Do we know? It’s not on the Senate site yet that I can find.
If Cspan replays any of the discussion of the Amendment … please watch. This was not a throwaway vote - they are all very eager to take on Iran.
war with Iran sounds like it would be in Israels best interests, anyone wanna say A*P*C? Levin, Lieberman?
http://www.truthdig.com/report.....om_israel/
~~ModNote: Content edited to clear filters.~~~
Hey Zennurse!
Not sure - the roll has not been up … Johnson would be one, not sure of the other two.
Must have something to do with the terra tak.
Siun @ 51
I hope I’m wrong. But if I am, here’s another bitter consolation: an attack on Iran, from our current position of weakness, will hasten the expulsion of our army from Iraq. We have to lose sooner or later; I’d prefer it be sooner.
brendan @ 47:
My feeling, oddly enough, is that they just feel it’s risk-free pandering. They have no power, and therefore no responsibility.
Unfortunately, your feeling is exactly right. They don’t see or even consider the greater implications of this vote.
zennurse @ 56
not voting:
Brownback (R-KS)
Johnson (D-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
see my links above @32
Don’t these guys EVER learn????
I can understand a few Blue Dogs voting for this, but 97-0??? I am disgusted.
Bob in WI (temporarily)
I smell a draft…
unless we accept the premise that ALL the Democrats who voted for this really are clueless, spineless tools (which mind you I am not ruling out), what was their motivation in doing so? I believe Brendan’s theory is that they regarded it as an essentially meaningless act — are there any others?
Do you think we can depend on help from the Israeli military for our pending attack on Iran?
I can’t even follow the bullshit spin anymore. Who are the main bad guys? Is it al Queda or Iran?
Siun @ 57
This is insane. I’m just an editor from the hinterlands, but even I can see this as a disaster writ very, very large. How do you think China and Russia will feel about us blowing up Russia’s pipeline and China’s major source of oil? Both those countries, as I recall, have troops, submarines, planes, and nukes.
Oil prices would go through the roof, economies would collapse…
Who was it above who said something about crawling into bed with a bottle of vodka? I’m so there…
Siun @ 57
second that.
i watched the last part of it… eager is a good description.
Steve-AR @ 48
Yes.. I’ve seen this personally..
A judge threatened an attorney with contempt and JAIL for advising his client to ignore her court order..
It was the highlight of my day..
The plans against Iran are likely to include only special forces on the ground, but with the full might and firepower of the US Air Force and the US Navy, both of which are not suffering the same maladies as the overstretched Army and Reserves.
Shock and awe all around.
-GSD
kym @ 43
He was asked to vote ‘no’, misheard it as ‘ho’, and no-one’s been able to reach him since.
brendan @ 60
Any attack on Iran will prompt an attack immediately upon the troops in Iraq and on Israel. The US would then bomb the holy hell out of Iran, we would be without an army, and they would institute the draft. That is the only way I can see such a thing going down. I hope I’m wrong, and I probably am.
i just called kennedy’s office. it’s closed for the evening.. but i’ll call again the am.
also called kerry’s office. the person i spoke with sounded very surprised to hear that kerry had voted for the lieberman amendment (seemed to completely understand why that could be a bad idea - iraq replay).
I’m often one of those saying that there isn’t much difference between the two parties, but the cloture vote today showed a clear difference: it was almost entirely on party lines, Democrats for and Republicans against.
As far as Iran goes, as far as I can tell the Democrats are more supportive of war with Iran than the Republicans. Hillary makes a speech every couple of weeks about how Bush isn’t being “tough enough” on Iran. All three of the top three presidential contenders have hinted that they’d consider a nuclear attack on Iran if elected, although Edwards has pulled back from that a bit recently. If you want war with Iran, vote for the Democrat.
Frank Probst @ 67
It’s the Neocons.
theWalrus @ 40
I mentioned this possibility to a colleague a couple of years ago, and he said I was crazy. I think if I were to bring it up again, I might get a different response. I never have thought it to be a high-probability event, but the spinelessness of the Senate certainly makes it more plausible.
What were they thinking? What’s going on. It just doesn’t make sense that it would be unanimous. There’s got to be something else at work that we don’t yet understand.
Nothin’ like a new war to take the voters minds off of the old war.
The end is near.
I told Lieberman in an email to give the troops a break.
Here’s the autoresponse I got:
I feel all fuzzy and warm inside.
Drudge has got the sirene up.
‘Al Qaeda at pre-9/11 strength’.
The bell is tolling, don’t ask.
There will be a massive regional conflagration in the Middle East this summer.
-GSD
Steve-AR @ 48
I just mailed that US Code quote to the LA Times, in reference to the AP wire story on Bush ordering Miers not to testify. Said that telling her that was, in itself, obstruction of justice and a felony. ‘Now can we impeach them?’
And I am, once more, p*ssed off at Feinstein and Boxer and Reid. Reid is a useless piece of sh*t Majority leader.
My reading on the actual text of this Amendment is that it’s pretty much meaningless. It doesn’t look like we’re actually accusing Iran of anything. We’re just saying: (a) killing Americans is bad, and (b) Iran should stop doing anything that would lead to the killing of Americans. If you go through the whole Amendment and replace the word “Iran” with, say, the words “Joe Lieberman”, I think that the Amendment will still be technically accurate–it won’t say that Joe Lieberman is actually killing US troops; it will just tell him to take immediate action to stop doing so.
The analogy eventually breaks down, though. Iran can’t really do much to stop the killing of US soldiers in Iraq. Joe Lieberman, on the other hand, could be a powerful voice to get the troops out of harm’s way and bring them home. But you get the point.
this is from an old comment of mine (from 6/26) about h.con.r.21 - that is relevant to today’s senate vote.
97-0 ???? OMG! Time to plan what planet I want to live on next.
I guess the silver lining in this will be our total and complete defeat after we attack Iran. Our status as a superpower will end, like the way Spain’s or the Soviet Union’s was ended. It’ll be bloody and many will die, but then our warmongering ways will be ended for generations.
I try to appreciate the pressure these Senators face from the middle who are saying we have to stay because we made the mess, or we will create civil war or whatever, I really do. For every one of us, there is probably one of them that they have to respond back to. And I have made myself read about the weapons and the improvised explosives and the incredible damage they are doing in Iraq, just so I would know and could say I had some small understanding of that horror. But I don’t really get what these Senators expect to accomplish with this kind of effort. They can say they know what Iran is doing and they can shake their finger in Ahmedinijad’s face and say “no, no, go to the naughty chair”, but beyond that this is just rhetoric that supports the neocon’s argument for war. I can’t imagine what Bush thinks will happen to his adventure in Iraq if he takes the military into Iran and I can’t begin to connect to the feelings of the military families as they see this stuff happening. It’s bad enough that platoons who went over for 6 months early on are doing their third deployment in 5 years, but for them to then have to imagine two conflicts…
I think about their kids and pray that they get mad enough to generate a revolution, somewhat like the Peace Movement but with Blackberries and cellphones.
selise @ 74
yeah, guys like Kennedy are what I mean. And Webb — I mean didn’t he introduce a bill earlier this year to require king bozo to get Congressional authority for any move against Iran? Maybe I’m being naive again, but it seems to me there must be something more to this than just a massive cosmic wimpout.
selise @ 75
Unbelievable. It certainly doesn’t help diplomatic relations. I can’t believe Kennedy and Kerry voted for that piece of crap. Or Dodd. What the F* is going on?
All this stuff makes my gut hurt. I am going out to eat some Vindaloo..maybe that will help.
I smell a rat. They’re pulling the same fear mongering tricks they’ve pulled for years.
It didn’t work so well a few months ago so now they bring out Act II
97-0!!! These people just piss me off to high heaven.
How can anyone be so f*cking obtuse?
Were the A*P*C folks in the aisles passing out dollars as the vote was taken?
~~~ModNote: Edited for content to clear filters.~~~
GSD @ 82
Oh, goody. That just proves what a failure this administration is. It doesn’t matter anymore I guess.
I think the coup is pretty much complete. Our only hope is that the military turn, but they won’t, because they are brainwashed. I have my beliefs about 9/11, and all of this stuff just reinforces it.
scav @ 46
:(
Frank Probst @ 83
How much do you want to bet that Bush takes this as being given authority to bomb Iran?
mui @ 89
i suspect the D leadership told everyone to vote “yes”. what i don’t get is why.
LS @ 93
As individuals, not nearly as brainwashed as you might imagine.
What a F**KING OUTRAGE this is.
We are “represented” by people with NO PRINCIPLES, NO VALUES, NO INTEGRITY that they will not trample and abandon in the name of political expediency.
We are, in short, held hostage by crooks - like the Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee who trampled all over John Conyers with sneering deceitful impunity today, using our powers under the Constitution against us.
Carl Levin looked like somebody who got free ice cream today, grinning like a cheshire cat as he singlehandedly operated the United States Senate in service and on behalf of foreign governments and their lobbies.
Oh, how the campaign contributors cashed in their chips today. Between this travesty of a vote in the Senate and Senate Oil Crook Ted Stevens of Alaska letting slip the truth about Iraq on the front page of the Washington Post (that huge oil wealth Stevens and Cheney are drooling over), this government, in all its forms, is an absolute abomination to the good name of the people of the United States.
[Small silver lining: Rep. Joe Sestak on C-SPAN’s talk show, admitting to the ulterior motive of the oil law (thanks to informed callers), AND to the inherent war powers of our Legislative Branch (what a concept…), as the program came to a close. Joe means well, and defended his positions extremely effectively to both sane and insane callers.]
We must make these people who pretend to represent us pay for their utter contempt for we, the American people, and our rights, our liberty, and our will, while they violently abuse our power in open, flagrant defiance of honor, duty, country and the American Constitution.
Frank Probst @ 82
what text are you reading? thomas doesn’t have it posted yet.
ifthethunderdontgetya @ 53
Yes, exactly! That explains why the Iraqi infrastructure is incapable of producing pre-war levels of oil. The war was for this very purpose, according to Greg Palast. And the lie — that the war would be paid for with Iraqi oil — is just so much more cynical in that light.
Why are we letting a HANDFUL of warmongers lead us to the brink of destruction ??
I hear Tony Soprano’s lookin’ for work..
Let’s let him WORK !!
LS @ 27