Kerry: Senate Holding Our Troops and Hurricane Victims Hostage to Big Oil

[kerrygoddess]

John Kerry: Senate Holding Our Troops and Hurricane Victims Hostage to Big Oil Interests
December 15, 2005

CQ Today reported yesterday that “Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said hurricane disaster relief would be put on the same bill as ANWR - either the budget savings package or on the Defense appropriations bill (HR 2863).”

Stevens chairs the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. “It’s going to be awfully hard to vote against ,” Stevens said. “If it’s in there, maybe people will vote with me on ANWR.”

John Kerry responded today that the Senate is holding our Troops and Hurricane Victims hostage to Big Oil Interests:

“It’s appalling that the United States Senate is willing to hold our troops and hurricane victims hostage to their desperate attempts to satisfy big oil and drill in the Arctic Refuge. There’s no more infuriating example of this Congress putting corporate welfare over the public good. No wonder Americans are fed up with Washington. The American people aren’t interested in selling off America’s wilderness to the Republicans’ buddies at the oil companies. It’s time for Congress to end these backroom special interest deals and instead use the remaining hours of session to do right by our troops and the people of the Gulf Coast who have sacrificed so much.”

LINKS - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=1405

[emulatorloo]

1. kick and nominating n/t

[Coastie for Truth]

6. Kick and nominating

:kick: :kick:

[Ian David]

2. Let's "explore" for oil in Crawford, Texas! n/t

[flpoljunkie]

3. I read it will require 60 votes, which makes passage unlikely.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/15/politics/15cong.html

But Mr. Stevens and Senator Pete V. Domenici, the New Mexico Republican who is chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, have refused to abandon the drilling plan, which is as close to approval as it has ever been in two decades of debate. The idea of adding it to the Pentagon measure took on new urgency after House leaders suggested it might be the only way to win approval of both the budget cuts and the drilling initiative.

The military spending measure, already tied up in another dispute over treatment of terror detainees, is likely to be one of the final bills passed this year and could also contain aid for the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast as well as money for avian flu preparation, making it a difficult bill to resist.

Senate aides said they were trying to determine whether attaching the drilling provision to the Pentagon measure would prompt a filibuster and whether they could round up the 60 votes to break one. The budget measure had been the first choice of the drilling advocates, since it is exempt from filibuster under Senate rules.

Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader, said he was willing to pursue any option to win approval of Arctic drilling. "I support opening ANWR to energy production to help increase our energy independence and protect our nation from terrorists taking our energy supplies hostage, and want to move it through the House and Senate however I can," Mr. Frist said in a statement.

[fighttheevilempire]

10. Frist lies again, quite blatantly...

"I support opening ANWR to energy production to help increase our energy independence and protect our nation from terrorists taking our energy supplies hostage, and want to move it through the House and Senate however I can," Mr. Frist said in a statement.

Drilling in ANWR does not make us more energy independent. In fact it only makes the problem worse by prolonging the realization that oil will indeed eventually run out. The longer we prolong finding alternate sources of energy, the greater the demand for oil becomes.
Through the Resident's actions in Iraq WE have become the terrorists holding a large chunk of the world's oil supplies hostage, and we will remain so into the indefinite future.

What if the $300+ billion dollars spent not providing armor for our troops instead went into research, development and implementation of solar power? It's FREE energy. Maybe if we had, we might not have the need for so much damned oil anyway.

[Rainscents]

4. These republicans will do anything for OIL! I can't stand the basters!

[madfloridian]

5. Recommended and good for him.

I will commend our Senate Dems who have the courage to speak out.

[shance]

7. Glad to see this coming from Senator Kerry.

Thanks for posting.

[FrenchieCat]

8. Very good! Although I thought he was linking Big Oil and Iraq....

but this is still great!

[Sparkman]

9. Kerry would have made such a good president....another reason why!kick