Lieberman Supports Anti-Choice License Plates For Connecticut

[Robbien]

One of the favored ways in which the relentless and well-funded anti-choice machine is making its way into government is the "choose life" license plate scam. Part of the funds from selling the plates go to the state, but a portion also goes to support "pregnancy centers that do not offer abortion as an alternative."

The battle seems headed for the Supreme Court, particularly since states like Tennessee — which allow sales of the plates — won’t allow pro-choice groups the same options. You expect this kind of stuff in a place like Tennessee, but when these anti-choice groups start trying to make a beach head in blue states like Connecticut using the same tactics it’s quite a different matter.

So what happened when the Connecticut state DMV said they were reviewing the right of an out-of-state group to sell such license plates in Connecticut? The group’s president, Elizabeth Rex of Yonkers, New York, produced her letters of support, incuding one from…wait for it…Joe Lieberman.

http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/05/26/lieberman-supports-anti-choice-license-plates-for-connecticut/

[BrklynLiberal]

1. The people of CT better get rid of that POS!!!

Ned Lamont has been making some progress. I heard him on NPR and on AirAmerica recently.
He sounded great, and he is getting name recognition with these appearances.

[Larkspur]

2. Ned Lamont will be marching in Waterbury's Memorial Day parade this

weekend. Lieberman will be at the same parade and will give a speech to veterans.

Now that Ned has clinched a spot on the Primary ballot, we're spending time organizing events to help Ned's name recognition problem.

[otohara]

3. Best of Luck CT - Joe Need To Go

He's getting worse by the day.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Good for you guys!! It would be a great blow to BushCo to lose Leiberman.

[tabasco]

26. Maybe Lie-berman can explain to the vets

why he's not one and why he supports an illegal and immoral war.

[Larkspur]

32. And he should explain why he won't sacrifice his kids to a war he supports

Lieberman took 2 deferments to escape service in Vietnam. Now he's a be cheerleader for war. What a moral hypocrite!

[jonnyblitz]

37. he's a chickenhawk. I can't (((wait)))) to vote in the CT DEM

primary for Lamont. I count the days...

[dsc]

39. He registered voters in MS during the height of the civil rights movement

ask Cheney, Goodman, and Swartz how easy that was. No wait, you can't, they're dead.

[Larkspur]

41. Too bad Lieberman has made a 180 turn since those days

When I reviewed Lieberman's answers to NOW's candidate questionnaire, Lieberman touted his progressive past, but I noticed that when Democrats and progressives were rising or in power, Lieberman sided with them in both ideology and in practice. Since the Rightwing has dominated politics since 1980, Lieberman has become more like them. Why else would he agree to appear on Hannity's show once a month to help disparage Democrats and progressives? Why else would he say that rape victims can take a short ride to a secular hospital if the Catholic one they were brought to refuses to dispense emergency contraception? Why else would Lieberman vote against filibustering Alito and help stack the Supreme Court in the Right's favor?

[jonnyblitz]

45. oh PLEASE! and what does THAT have to do with 2006?

even his apologists have to stretch waaaay back to dredge up something good about this asshole. :eyes:

[dsc]

49. You called him a chicken hawk

I pointed out, that I would be willing to bet unlike you, he did risk his life.

[Larkspur]

51. Lieberman got student deferments from service in Vietnam from 1961-67

And after he left Law School, he got a parental deferment because his wife got pregnant. How convenient for Chickenhawk Lieberman.

[dsc]

52. I would be willing to lay money

that northern volunteers registering to blacks to vote in the South faced a casualty rate that was at least in the ballpark of VietNam.

[Larkspur]

55. I doubt it

There's no stats to prove your point.

The threat of death and beatings was most likely very strong, but the actual killings and beatings did not happen at the same rate soldiers were killed in Vietnam of 1967-68, when Lieberman said he registered blacks to vote.

[dsc]

56. Several dozen of the people registering voters

had either beatings or death happen. In VietNam we had several hundred thousand troops at any given time. While the numbers killed in VietNam dwarf those killed in Mississippi so do the numbers of people who were in VietNam.

[IndianaGreen]

54. Grover Norquist was a liberal early in his life

and look at him now!

[riona]

4. I saw that in the Courant

those plates are very popular around here. Hope CT doesn't have to put up with them too.

[Robbien]

5. Talk about road rage

Waving red flags in the middle of traffic congestion is not the wise thing to do.

[CTLawGuy]

7. but Lieberman is such a PROGRESSIVE

except for ya know...

the war,
rape victims and contraceptives,
school vouchers,
video game censorship,
social security privatization,
the bush energy bill,
Terri Schiavo,
endorsement by Sean Hannity,
failure to censure Bush (when he would have censured clinton),
Voting for Alito before voting against him,
Refusing to rule out running as an independent,
endorsement by right wing Committee on the Present danger,
opposition to universal health care,
apologizing for abu ghraib ("9/11 hijackers never apologized")


but you know, those are all tiny issues.

[Stinky The Clown]

8. Does Joe have tertiary syphilis?

What other explanation can there be for the decline in his mental acumen?

[CTyankee]

9. I really wonder

Ned was at the Planned Parenthood of CT annual dinner last Thursday night and going on to the NAACP dinner later. I congratulated him onhis win and he was extremely gracious.

I also wonder about the Lieberman lovers on this board. It amazes me. They seem to be so supercilious and condescending. Don't they understand we know that Ned is an underdog and we are fighting a good fight for progressivism?

Good for CT. You know, I was at the PP dinner and Cecile Richards, the new head of PP Federation of America, reminded us that only a few streets away from us was the birthplace of Griswold v. Connecticut: Estelle Griswold's clinic that had the nerve to give birth control to CT women!

We keep ourselves inspired by this heritage here in CT!

[Stinky The Clown]

10. That clinic was (is?) in New Haven, wasn't it?

[CTyankee]

33. Yep. The building is still here and I give a little tour to my liberal

friends by pointing it out. As a matter of fact, my gynecologist until she retired was a young doc just out of Yale Medical School who practiced at that clinic and was there seeing patients the day of the police raid (which wasn't horrible. Estelle showed the cops around and gave them a little talk about how important it was for people to have contraceptives. The cops were supportive!)

[cmkramer]

11. Free speech issue

I think it's silly myself but why shouldn't someone be able to put a political sentiment on their license plate? By the way, Connecticut is not Tennessee so the idea that pro-choice people wouldn't be allowed the same rights there are somewhat specious.

[The Magistrate]

13. Do They Need The State To Issue It To Them, Ma'am?

Are there no bumper stickers? Are there no pots of paint? Are they incapable of scratching letters into the finish of their automobiles? Just how helpless are these creatures that they can only express themselves with a state issued specialty lisence plate?

[dsc]

28. If they permit any special plates at all

then they must permit any special plate that meets the non speech related standards they set up (certain number of sales, charitable purpose, etc). I think special plates are a dumb idea because they can lead to divisiveness but CT opened that barn door.

[cmkramer]

31. That's a good question

Are you allowed to make those kind of changes to your license plates?

[IndyJones]

44. But so what if they do? Pro Choice and Pro Lifers should both

be allowed to do the same. I think it's a nonissue.

[Warren DeMontague]

22. Can you get a pro-choice one? How about a pro-pot legalization plate?

Hey, sounds to me like a Free speech issue.

[Arugula Latte]

12. Fucking Lieberman ...

My loathing for him grows daily ... :grr:

[The Magistrate]

14. A Stupid Letter To Write, Ma'am

But close reading of the news accounts supporting this netizen's effort cited above suggests that the letter was one of general endorsement to the group, and did not bear on the lisence plate proposal in any direct way: it was simply offered by the group to demonstrate it was a real organization, and not some sort of out of state scamster.

"Never write what you can phone; never phone what you can say; never say what you can smile; never smile what you can nod; never nod what you can wink."

[Warren DeMontague]

23. Never wink what you can think

never think what you can... never mind.

[AusGail]

15. Who decided Lieberman was a Democrat?

With all the Republican policies that Lieberman sprukes why is he accepted by so many Democrats? At best he should be running as an independent. Not being knowledgeable about how everything works in your political system, I wonder if you could answer a couple of questions.

Who gets to vote in the primary between Lamont and Lieberman?

If the answer is anybody, doesn't that leave it open to Republican supporters to vote for Lieberman, so it will throw a spanner in the works for the Democrats?

If anybody is allowed to vote in the primaries, wouldn't it be advantageous for the DU to campaign to get as many people as possible out there to vote and hopefully support Lamont?

[The Magistrate]

16. His State Has A Closed Primary, Ma'am

Only persons identifying themselves as Democrats are allowed to vote in it.

The slating is generally done, however, by a state Party convention, composed of delegates from local Party organizations. A primary only occurs if less than eighty-five opercent of the delegates vote for the leading candidate. It has been many years since there was a primary involving a Senate candidacy there.

[AusGail]

17. Thankyou

I'm learning a bit more about American politics everyday.

[The Magistrate]

18. You Are Most We;come, Ma'am

At the risk of taking this off-topic, how do yours work?

Are M.P.s elected by district, or is there a Party list?

[AusGail]

20. Aussie politics (the Westminster System)

We have 3 levels of government- local councils, state and federal

Federal- We have 2 houses of parliament.- House of Reps & the Senate.
An election for the house of reps has to be called every 3 years or less.
Senators are elected for 6 years (every 3 years half the senate is replaced).
We have areas which we call electorates which consists of constituents of approximately the same number.
I am a member of the Labor Party and in our party we have preselection before an election where anybody who has paid their dues and has been a member for at least 2 years is eligible to vote for a candidate. That person then represents our party in that electorate in the election. Other parties can have slightly different methods of choosing a candidate.
Senate candidates are generally chosen by the party hierarchy.

On election day, whichever party wins the most electorates wins the election. Unfortunately, at the moment, the Liberals (the conservatives) control both houses.

The other levels of government works basically the same way with a few variations.

Voting is compulsory

If you want to know more, just ask.

[The Magistrate]

21. Thank You, Ma'am

So an "electorate" in your system is like a "district" in ours: an area in which a candidate runs, and wins election by gaining a majority there.

You say your Senators are selected by Party leaders. Do they run from an electorate, or from some larger area?

Compulsory votuing strikes me as most proper. A lot of the political art here is aimed at reducing the number of people who vote, as that makes the result easier to control through a loyal faction, and this does have a distorting effect at times.

[AusGail]

24. Electorates are like districts

Our senate candidates are chosen by the parties. Anybody can run for the senate, but if you want the backing of a party you have to be chosen by that party, then the voters decide if they want to vote for you. We have 6 states and 2 territories. Each state is allowed to vote in 5 senators to represent them and the territories are allowed 2. Which means 34 new senators are voted in every 3 years, which gives us 68 senators in the senate.

We need compulsory voting because we have such a small population (21 million). I'm not sure how many are of voting age. We also need it to ease the apathy. The conservatives are considering bringing in a bill to stop compulsory voting. Plus they are trying to disenfranchise as many potential Labor voters as possible. A bit reminiscent of Florida.

[The Magistrate]

25. Thank You, Ma'am

I understand it now. Thank you for the schooling. I have some electronic friends down your way I correspond with occassionally on non-political topics, and appreciate the extra knowledge.

Be well, Ma'am!

[BlueIris]

19. Of course he does! Nothing shocking here. Joe must go.

Senator Lieberman? Enjoy retirement.

[riona]

27. FYI - the lic. plate issue here in FL

Florida NOW Takes Action for Pro-Choice License Plates

By Myrah Hoffman, Orlando NOW


Orlando NOW is mobilizing to win approval of a pro-choice specialty license plate in Florida. After years of seeing only the "Choose Life" plates on the roads, Orlando NOW started a statewide campaign for a license plate with the opposing view.

Florida has approximately 100 specialty license plates, including the notorious "Choose Life" plate, which has brought in more than $4 million to provide funding for anti-choice groups to use in distributing biased anti-abortion propaganda. Pro-choice motorists don't have the opportunity to express their views on a government-issued specialty license plate, and Orlando NOW is working to change that.

"Every time I see the 'Choose Life' plate it reminds me how important it is to have our views expressed in the same venue. I figured we had to take action ourselves," said Cicely Scheiner, Vice President of Orlando NOW. In 2003, Gov. Jeb Bush passed legislation allowing the "Choose Life" plate to be available at an extra cost of $22 - $20 of which is given to anti-choice groups.
snip
http://www.now.org/nnt/summer-2006/florida_plates.html

[dsc]

29. This whole thread is hogwash

a gold carat dishonest statement. Blumenthal wrote a letter similar to that of Lieberman (I actually read the article linked at the blog). Shame on the blogger and shame on you for such a deliberately misleading post.

[skipos]

30. Good luck interrupting our daily Lieberman hatefest. nt

[IndianaGreen]

34. The dishonesty is Lieberman's for supporting an anti-choice group

She said the group supports pregnancy centers that do not offer abortion as an alternative, and also supports "safe havens" efforts under laws, including Connecticut's, that provide mothers the chance to drop off unwanted babies at specified areas such as hospitals and fire stations without fear of prosecution.

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-licenseplates0526.artmay26,0,5493827.story?coll=hc-headlines-local

[dsc]

35. So did Blumenthal

who isn't being criticised. Why isn't he? He is quoted in the article as saying they do good work. If Lieberman is wrong for doing this why isn't Blumenthal? Oh, wait, I know. The blog agrees with Blumenthal but not Lieberman.

[CTLawGuy]

36. Blumenthal is not running for senate

put the red herring away

[dsc]

40. It isn't a red herring

Lieberman and Blumenthal both wrote letters which the group later used to get the plates. Neither knew about the plate contraversy when the letter was written. They are both equally guilty.

[Larkspur]

47. But Chris Dodd did not write one support this scam

Don't know what Blumenthal was thinking when he wrote that letter.

[ChiciB1]

38. Hasn't Lieberman Said Something About Running As An Independent?

Can he do that? I don't live up there, but can you change your party once you filed a certain way??

I hope the people in CT are able to rid us of him, however from what I've seen he's still ahead itsn't he. And if he does change to I, does that really mean R???

Where's Chris Dodd on this?? Can't he help Lamont??

[Larkspur]

42. To run as an Independent, Lieberman would have to collect signatures from

1 or 2% of regiestered voters on a petition and file that petition by August 9. The Democratic primary is August 8, so if Joe decides to go Independent, he will need to decided soon. If he tries to run for the Dem primary and collect signatures at the same time, Chaos theory would say that Lieberman's trick will be exposed. It only takes one Lamont supporter to find out and spread the word on the Net.

Mayor DeStefano (D-New Haven) told Lieberman that if Joe goes Indy, the mayor will not support him. My friends supporting Mayor Malloy (D-Stamford) said that Malloy told Joe the same thing. Can Lieberman afford to lose the support of 2 pominent Democratic mayors and possibly many other Democratic officials?

Lieberman is in a Catch-22. Joe would have a hard time explaining why he turned Indy when he won the Dem convention by a 2-to-1 margin. He really needed Lamont to win the convention to make exiting the Dem Party something he could tout.

Right now polls show Lieberman with a large lead on Lamont, but if that lead starts to decrease, than Lieberman may be tempted to bolt the Dem Party, but the polls will have to decrease enough before the August 8 primary to give him time to collect petition signatures.

[ChiciB1]

43. So Theoretically... Joe Will Win?

Lamont isn't a real factor from what you are saying.

We have an odd election here in Florida. They guy I really like decided to run as NPA against Bill Nelson. But unless he gets some HUGE support real quick... I'm going to HAVE to vote for Nelson!

My current representative is Cruella, and I've HAD ENOUGH! The mere thought of her screwing ANOTHER election is just TOO HORRIBLE to think about. I really don't like Nelson very much at all. I have very little respect for him, but I'm stuck!

[Larkspur]

46. No, I didn't say Joe will win. I was explaining that Joe running as an

Independent carries major risks and will not be a cakewalk like his supporters think it will. Due to CT spoiler law, if Lieberman loses the Dem primary, he can't get on the November ballot. The Republicans won't cross-party endorse him. They have their own candidate now. If Lieberman decides to run as an Independent before the August 8th primary he has til August 9, the day after the Dem primary, to collect petition signatures from 1-2% of CT voters. If Lieberman decides to collect signatures while running as a Democrat, Chaos theory predicts that he most likely will be exposed for the traitor that he is.

As far as the polls, right now they show Lieberman with a large lead, but Lamont's name recognition is very low -- 7%, so many people who are not political junkies don't realize that Lieberman has a challenger in the primary. Lamont's goal now, after winning a spot on the primary ballot thanks to 33.4% of the CT Dem Convention delegates, is to increase his name recognition and support.

Lieberman's higer poll numbers are mostly due to name recognition at this point.

[ChiciB1]

48. Well, If You're From His State.... PLEASE Get Busy!

Thank you. I can't believe the way Lieberman has changed so drastically. Or maybe I just wasn't keeping a closer tab. However, he never seemed this conservative before, and I seem to see him standing behind The Idiot so much of the time.

I kind of wonder if he really wants to be a Repuke but knows he'll lose in CT because it's BLUE!

[Larkspur]

50. I've been busy...

I held a Meet & Greet for Ned Lamont in my town in February and I helped get Ned Lamont the NOW PAC endorsement. I'm a board member of CT NOW and we worked with NOW to develop a process to recommend to NOW PAC which federal level candidates we would like NOW PAC to endorse. CT NOW can not endorse federal level candidates, but we can recommend to NOW PAC who we want them to endorse.

And now that Ned has a secure spot on the Primary ballot, I'm planning house parties and working to get Ned to march in a July 4 parade in Willimantic.

Lieberman has always been conservative, especially with religion. William F. Buckley and Bill Bennett backed him against Weicker in 1988. Lieberman was a recipient of BucPac in 1988. The one thing I noticed with Lieberman's answers to CT NOW's candidate questionnaire was that when the Democrats and progressives were in power or rising into power, he was a active supporter, but as the Rightwing ascended, he ideologically wandered over to their side. To best explain Lieberman, he was a disciple of John Bailey, the last great CT Dem Party. In short, Bailey's philosophy was basically to do what you need to do to win the election. Principles are hair dressing, winning is everything.

[ChiciB1]

53. KUDOS... A I Wish You Sooooo Much LUCK!

Sounds like Lieberman is a LOT like Bill Nelson. But I have always felt Nelson was much more to the right! Nelson attends a monthly religious club that's kind of secretive there in D.C. I have the info somewhere, but have to dig it out. Came across it the other day, but filed it again. I had kept it because I was hoping Florida might have someone to challenge Nelson, but the only person who could will run as NPA! Brian Moore.... much more of a Democrat than Nelson ever has been.

It's too bad that so many people in Congress stick their finger in the air to find out where they stand!!!!

I'm just learning the FULL extent of the Lieberman philosophy!

Thanks for your input, and thanks for all the "hard work" that you are doing! I have NO DOUBT that you're working MUCH harder than The Decider!!