Stop ANWR
I confess, I never thought that the ANWR provision would pass the House, and now it has; just as it earlier passed the Senate, which then allowed the House to vote it down. I think it likely the Senate will reject it this time; thus allowing everyone who really wanted to, to vote both for, and against, destroying the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve for a meager amount of oil; though not so meager that it wouldn't be of great benefit to whatever oil company (or companies) this administration plans to hand this bonanza to. That is who this benefits; it does nothing to make us more independent on foreign oil. We would come closer to oil independence if we drove one mile an hour slower. We invaded Iraq for oil companies (or if not for them, it isn't at all clear why); just last quarter, they cashed tens of billions of dollars in windfall profits; we even give them tax breaks for pumping oil...as if the stuff is worth anything to them in the ground; isn't it fair to say we have done enough for the huge oil companies?
The ANWR provisions are in the Defense bill, of all things; as is money for victims of Katrina; the idea is to make people who don't want to destroy the environment look like they're soft on defense, or inhumanely indifferent to human suffering. Of course, the war case is a little hard to make given Senator John McCain is against linking this to the defense department authorization, or anything else; and McCain's record on defense and inhumanity is unimpeachable. If ANWR should ever pass (God forbid), it should pass because it was passed on its own merits, and not because people were blackmailed into voting for it because of other matters. It's the Senate's turn to step up and keep this Frankenstein monster of mismatched parts from getting up and walking.
Who chairs the Defense Appropriations subcommittee anyway, and is responsible for this atrocity of a bill? Senator Ted Stevens, the champion of the $200 million Bridge to Nowhere, who swore to us all that he'd resign if that bridge wasn't built. It's not going to be built, and this is just one more reason why every American should call on Senator Stevens to fulfill that saliva-packed promise he spewed one day on the Senate floor.
6:53:19 AM 
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