A Voice of Sanity in the Wilderness

I just spoke with Mary in Senator Inouye's Washington office and apparently no one is calling his office to complain about his support for drilling.

Washington DC Address
722 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-1102
Phone: 202-224-3934
TTYD Number: 202-224-1233

Please call Mary and express your outrage. She seemed uncomfortable with the conversation.

The pro-drilling speakers: Senators Judd Gregg R-N.H.; George Allen R-VA; Daniel Inouye D-Hawaii; John Thune R-SDak.; Trent Lott R-Mississippi; Ted Stevens R-Alaska; Larry Craig R-Idaho; Lisa Murkowski R-Alaska; Pete Domenici R-New Mex)
Always hun.

When in the world are Democrats going to get that message hat they too need to vote in unison, on to victory? Especially now when their numbers have dwindled. We always get a renegade Senator like Inouye, Landrieu, or Nelson that crosses the line and hands a victory to the Republicans.
I am especially angered by Inouye. Yes gas prices are high in Hawaii but of all places on this planet you would think that someone from Hawaii would have the highest respect for the environment. I urge everyone here to call Mary and tell her her collectively of our outrage with Senator Inouye.

I sickens me to think that it will end up being a Democratic Senator that crosses over and decides the future of Anwar. It sickens me!

The only rationale for a moderate Democratic Senator from an environmentally sensitive state like Hawaii to cross over to the dark side is the thought that Hawaii has the highest gasoline pump prices in the US b/c their oil goes from California refineries thousands of miles back to Hawaii and maybe Inouye thinks it will reduce their punp prices.
Fat chance.
Would he like to see oil drilling in Waimia Canyon or through one of his beautiful waterfalls or into the Napali coastline? Someone should confront him with that question.

Ira,

I would bet money that the Senators who voted against this were offered deals to help their states. Landrieu was looking for money to help Louisiana coastal repairs. Inouye may get other forms of help--or may have been promised same anyway.

Whether or not the Republicans hold up their end of the bargain remains to be seen. But I have been calling my own skepticism "The Daschle Lesson".

In the Texas Legislature it was reported (allegedly) that Bo Pilgrim was handing out a thousand dollars to state legislators to get them to vote his way on tort reform.
Is that next in D.C.?

Here lies both ends of the spectrum...

During several hours of Senate debate Tuesday, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said that even at peak production the refuge would account for less than 2.5 percent of U.S. oil needs. “How in the world can this be the centerpiece of our energy policy?” asked Durbin, arguing that more conservation and more fuel efficient automobiles would save more oil than the Alaska refuge would produce.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., a staunch supporter of drilling, said the refuge’s oil represents “the most significant onshore production capacity” in the country. “We should do everything we can to produce as much as we can,” he said, citing the country’s growing dependence on oil imports.

Marc: the lessons in don't think of an elephant apparently should be taught to our Senators and Congresspeople. Being right or logical like Durbin doesn't seem to sway anyone these days. Arguments have to be framed in moral and values language to be persuasive. What would Jesus do? I think we know the answer to that. I think that we learned in the last election that being right on the facts or issues get you absolutely nothing.

Am I dreaming? Did we win? I think so.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate on Wednesday narrowly rejected oil drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge, rebuffing the Bush administration on a top energy goal it had hoped to win with a wartime security appeal.

Despite intense lobbying by pro-drilling senators and the White House in the hours leading up to the vote, Democrats mustered the support needed to remove a drilling provision from a budget resolution expected to be approved later this week.

An amendment offered by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, to strip away the provision passed 52-48.

Development of the millions of barrels of oil beneath the 100-mile coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alaska has been a key part of President Bush's energy plan. Environmentalists contended drilling there would jeopardize a pristine area valued for its wildlife.

All but five Democrats voted against refuge drilling. There were eight Republicans who joined the Democrats in favor of barring oil companies from the refuge.

With one or two senators holding the balance, both sides stepped up their lobbying to try to sway anyone thinking of shifting. Freshman Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minnesota, under intense pressure, signaled he might vote in favor of drilling. But in the end, Coleman, who succeed the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, an ardent opponent of drilling, sided with the Democrats.

~ I missed the new thread change~

ira & others,
I share your frustration. Sen. Landrieu disappoints once again. She is a Louisiana DINO, as John Breaux was also. (Here in LA. they call themselves "conservative" moderate Dems). Breaux was replaced by Vitter (R). Mary is aware that her seat will not be threatened by a fellow DEM trying to unseat her. She has to safeguard her re-election from a future Republican challenger (possibly Bobby Jindal, LA's newly elected Congressman, who replaced Vitter in the House, when Vitter won Breaux's former Senate seat). She votes pro-military and pro-big business. Her Democrat constituents seem to sometimes be an after thought. Don't count on Landrieu to always vote as a Democrat. She has disappointed us many times. But if the alternative for LA. is Vitter or Jindal, we have to keep Mary. We just need to continue to press her to remember she is a Democrat!

~~And, Senator Robert Bryd has been a personal hero of mine, for all the reasons listed above, plus...in the mid-1960's he sponsored the Robert C. Byrd college scholarship for high school seniors, especially valuable to students from rural states. Its a 4 year grant awarded for academic excellence AND leadership skills to students who may not otherwise be able to afford the cost of a college education at a state university. I competed and won the Robert C. Byrd Scholarship many years ago, and my son is now a Robert C. Byrd College Scholarship recipient also. The emphasis is on "leadership skills" among college-bound students.
Robert C. Byrd's legacy lives on in many grateful students (past & present) across this country.

So would Jesus buy votes?

Looks like all my calling to Louisiana friends and Landrieu didn't help but it looks like there are a few reasonable Repubs. at least when it comes to the environment. Maybe we need to start calling them Blue Dog Repubs. And who were these turncoat Dems besides Landrieu. Ben Nelson and who else? I pray Salazar didn't vote with the Repubs again.
We should thank Senator Kerry along with our Texas shadow Senators Boxer and Cantwell.

Ira---

I don't know where that AP wire came from but it's wrong. We lost the ANWR vote 49-51.

Posted by: tutterfly at March 16, 2005 03:00 PM

Yes, and moreover, Cantwell was the author of the amendment, not Boxer. I wonder where this AP Press release come from.

The New York Times says we lost the Anwar vote 51-49. CNN says otherwise that the Boxer/Cantwell proviso won 52-48. Who is right? Did they agree to strip it from the budget and then vote for anyway. Sounds like the kind of crap they critized Kerry for on his $87 billion dollar Iraq vote.
If we lost as I suspect than we should thank Mary Landrieu.

CNN vote on Wolfowitz

Is Paul Wolfowitz the best choice to be president of the World Bank?

Yes
No

So far the % results are 82-18 in favor of No.
www.cnn.com

Here is the CNN piece:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/03/16/arctic.drilling.ap/index.html

Senate votes for ANWR oil drilling

Wednesday, March 16, 2005 Posted: 2:27 PM EST (1927 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Amid the backdrop of soaring oil and gasoline prices, a sharply divided Senate on Wednesday voted to open the ecologically rich Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling, delivering a major energy policy win for President Bush.

The Senate, by a 51-49 vote, rejected an attempt by Democrats and GOP moderates to remove a refuge drilling provision from next year's budget, preventing opponents from using a filibuster -- a tactic that has blocked repeated past attempts to open the Alaska refuge to oil companies.

The action, assuming Congress agrees on a budget, clears the way for approving drilling in the refuge later this year, drilling supporters said.

The oil industry has sought for more than two decades to get access to what is believed to be billions of barrels of oil beneath the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the northern eastern corner of Alaska.

Environmentalists have fought such development and argued that despite improve environmental controls a web of pipelines and drilling platforms would harm calving caribou, polar bears and millions of migratory birds that use the coastal plain.

Bush has called tapping the reserve's oil a critical part of the nation's energy security and a way to reduce America's reliance on imported oil, which account for more than half of the 20 million barrels of crude use daily. The Alaska refuge could supply as much as 1 million barrels day at peak production, drilling supporters said.

"We won't see this oil for 10 years. It will have minimal impact," argued Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, a co-sponsor of the amendment that would have stripped the arctic refuge provision from the budget document. It is "foolish to say oil development and a wildlife refuge can coexist," she said.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, argued that more oil would be saved if Congress enacted an energy policy focusing on conservation, more efficient cars and trucks and increased reliance on renewable fuels and expanded oil development in the deep-water Gulf where there are significant reserves.

"The fact is (drilling in ANWR) is going to be destructive," said Kerry.

But drilling proponents argued that modern drilling technology can safeguard the refuge and still tap the likely -- though not yet certain -- 10.4 billion barrels of crude in the refuge.

"Some people say we ought to conserve more. They say we ought to conserve instead of producing this oil," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-New Mexico, "But we need to do everything. We have to conserve and produce where we can."

The vote Wednesday contrasted with the last time the Senate took up the ANWR drilling issue two years ago. Then, an attempt to include it in the budget was defeated. But drilling supporters gained strength last November when Republicans picked up three additional seats, all senators who favored drilling in the refuge.

Opponents of drilling complained that Republicans this time were trying "an end run" by attaching the refuge provisions to the budget, a tactic that would allow the measure to pass with a majority vote.

"It's the only way around a filibuster" which requires 60 votes to overcome, countered Stevens.

The 19-million-acre refuge was set aside for protection by President Eisenhower in 1960, but Congress in 1980 said its 1.5 million acre coastal plain could be opened to oil development if Congress specifically authorizes it.

Bush, who has urged Congress repeatedly to allow oil companies to tap the refuge's crude, said Wednesday it's "a way to get some additional reserves here at home on the books."

Be ready to gag...
Bush sites progress on SS among other things.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/03/16/bush/index.html

You are right Cantwell not Boxer with Kerry sponsored the bill to strip Anwar from the budget. Who are these idiots at the AP and CNN. What incompitent reporting.
Anyone getting a campaign solicitation from Mary Landrieu in the future should tell her to go to h***

3 Dems voted no on Cantwell amendment-Landrieu & both Sens from HI.
Not much of an upside but, for once, Salazar voted with the Dems.

Reneged Democratic Senators again. There always seem to be 1,2. or 3 Dems that allow Repubs to get away with turning this country further and further to the right.
Until Reid gets his act together it is hopeless.I am devistated but nothing surprises me anymore.
If Dems don't stand for the Environment anymore what do we stand for?

Wolfowitz is only a good choice if we want the stupidest idiot on the face of the earth running the world bank. Good grief.

Ira,
lots of folks are a-calling Senator Inouye's office. Mary not too comfortable today.

What a sad day!

Posted by: Ira at March 16, 2005 03:15 PM

i agree. this is terrible. i just fired off an angry e-mail to Landrieu... i never realized she would do that, but now i remember she voted for the bankruptcy bill, too, didn't she?

Some diversity of views within the party is a strength- but the fact that any Democrat would support the bankruptcy bill, or drilling in ANWR, or bush's SS scheme is unconscionable.

whatever little power that Reid has over his Senators, Landrieu and Inouye ought to be punished when it comes to future committee assignments. No that is not the way we do things in the Democratic Party, but maybe its about time we started. This vote was important to many environmentalists across the country and Mary and Daniel just spit in our collective faces. I don't take too kindly to that.

John Kerry: "It's a sad day when the voices of the American people are ignored"
16 March 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 16, 2005

Senate Opens Arctic Refuge to Drilling

John Kerry: "It's a sad day when the voices of the American people are ignored and the Senate sells off America's public lands to the highest bidder."

Below is a statement from Senator John Kerry on the Senate's vote today to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. The Cantwell-Kerry amendment would have removed a provision in the president's budget that will allow oil companies to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It failed 49-51.

"Today we saw a Republican sneak attack on one of our most treasured natural wonders. It's a sad day when the voices of the American people are ignored and the Senate sells off America's public lands to the highest bidder.

"Our work is not done. In the last 24 hours alone, more than 260,000 Americans have stood with us in my online petition to fight to protect our Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That fight is not over. This is more than a battle over the wildlife refuge; it's a battle over two very different visions of our energy future. The President has a plan to sell off our public lands to the special interests that his own scientists and economists admit will not make us less dependent on foreign oil and will not lower prices at the pump. We have a vision that will put America's energy future in the hands of Americans - by inventing our way to real energy independence and having energy sources that create jobs and lower prices.

"We must continue to fight to make sure that American ingenuity wins out over a special interest funded partisan agenda."

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=561

There is no joy in Mudville.

Inouye is ready for retirement and I hope this vote becomes his legacy.
I would urge all of those in the Hawaii Democratic Party to start looking for a candidate to run against Inouye in the next election.

Attaching this to the budget should have been an issue on its own, and defended.

Cannot understand Hawaii, but there are perks we don't know to lose both of them.

Posted by: spinnaker at March 16, 2005 03:23 PM

Sorry pard...the stupidest person in the world is our President. Wolfowitz is at best number 2. There is a lot of jockeying for that slot but BushCo has the top spot.

Statement by John Kerry on Paul Wolfowitz's Nomination to be President of the World Bank
16 March 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 16, 2005

Statement by John Kerry on Paul Wolfowitz's Nomination to be President of the World Bank

Below is a statement from Senator John Kerry on the nomination of deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz to be the new president of the World Bank:

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=560

Posted by: Ira at March 16, 2005 03:08 PM

In fact the AP release you posted was dated from 2003. I dont know where you found it, but somebody on DU published the same one with the date and it is dated March 13, 2003.

Posted by: Ira at March 16, 2005 03:28 PM

Reid does not seem to have any authority on his senators, if I believe the previous votes.

Yesterday, both Lieberman and Ben Nelson were absent from the press conference concerning the nuclear option and this was noted by some media.

Here's another voice of sanity on the topic of SS.

snip.....

So let’s be clear where things stand. This is fundamentally an ideological fight. Democrats want to keep Social Security as a form of social insurance, and Bush wants to transform it into something else. Democrats are not willing to make a deal on solvency if it means giving up social insurance. And Bush is not willing to make a deal on solvency unless they do.

Given all this, how on earth can so many people continue to claim that Bush wants to save Social Security while the Democrats have their heads in the sand? How can this almost universally-accepted aphorism be said to have any basis in reality?

-- Jonathan Chait

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_03_13.php#005167

Wolfowitz has been proposed, but to get the job he needs the approval of the 184 members of the General Commitee...Up to now, only London supported Bush's Pick.

Too bad about Alaska. What is going to happen now?

Mass:

I thought that I was seeing things like John Kerry won the Whitehouse but no this story showed up on CNN All Politics dated today.
I am so disappointed with politics lately that I suspected it was wrong but no it looks like an AP/CNN screwup.

Senate votes for ANWR oil drilling
"Wednesday, March 16, 2005" Posted: 2:27 PM EST (1927 GMT)

CNN QuickVote

Is Paul Wolfowitz the best choice to be president of the World Bank?

Yes 18% 12820 votes

No 82% 57949 votes
Total: 70769 votes

I think Inouye is thinking retirement, to be helped by the GOP and Hawaiian business interests. I do. The energy argument does not hold up through to the gas pump.

Did he identify Hawaii with Alaska, as another outsider state, as a right for their economic determination. With so much at stake, I can't believe he couldn't have been talked out of that.

There are so many other ways to be inventive and forward thinking about employment in Alaska. About gas energy. If they are having problems with revenue, so are the other states.

Their voting public can be conservative, and leave me alone. Now we have to bail them out with short term gain.

If anyone finds out rationale, please let us know.

Posted by: Marjorie G at March 16, 2005 04:46 PM

I don't know if this helps, but as I posted on the previous thread, I cleared my morning & watched the entire Senate proceedings on CSPAN 2 (while I was calling Sen Landrieu). When Sen. Inouye D-Hawaii gave his speech, he said he was voting for opening the drilling into ANWR because "the people of Alaska wanted it." And he said he believes the interests of the state of Alaska should be supported. I am reasonably sure that was what I heard as his explanation for his vote against the Cantwell/Kerry amendment and "for" drilling.

otv4

With such a pivotal vote, and issues beyond the limited benefits of ANWR, how do we know if the people of Alaska want this?

Do they understand the choices any better than the midwest understood the election issues and candidates.

Can't believe this emotional take by Iouye is the whole story. States rights?

Thanks for watching.

Bush drove the oil prices so high,created another "crisis" and asked congress "to act". Well today 51% of Americans got what they voted for. It's only going to be more of the same,and you can be sure it's the
american way of the architects of not only our democracy,but the monetary prowess of Grover Norquist! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr,damned them all !! Notice the Spector amendment? It didn't mean a thing until Arlen was personally affected! These people make me so physically ill I'm screaming today!!

Marjorie I wouldn't doubt if plenty of people in Alaska want their monthly tax rebate increased with drilling. It makes economic sense.
But my wife and I have been to Hawaii 7 times and really love it there. I just couldn't imagine the politicans in Hawaii saying it would be OK to drill in Napali or around Diamond Head or the North Shore or Waimia if suddenly oil, natural gas or coal were found in Hawaii. Hawaiians, at least the one's I met, love their land and ocean and wouldn't tolerate this. My question is do the people of Hawaii agree with how their Senators voted today against the environment they love so much? I doubt it. My theory is that there was a quid pro quo to furnish cheap gasoline and stimulate the struggling Hawaiian economy. I truly don't believe that this has one thing to do with the people of Alaska. Why should Hawaiians care. There was a Hawaiian regular on our JK blog this summer if anyone remembers,I think her posted name was faith or faith1. I would love to get her take on this really strange vote, but I am really too p.o with DINO Landrieu to care and I emailed her office and Dean and told them as much.

CNN/All Politics just corrected their 52-48 AP story report of rejecting drilling in Anwar. What bozos.

"'The perception is that we're not in control of the ethics process, that DeLay can do what he wants,' said the lawmaker. 'It's giving the party a bad name . . . This thing is no different and has the same flavor and tone as when we knocked Jim Wright out.'"

Tom Delay is the Republican version of Jim Wright. Sounds pretty good to me; although Wright was much more of a man than DeLay will ever be. Maybe defeat of DeLay is what it will take to shake this country to its core and bring it back to a sense of sanity again.

I plan on crafting regular weekly letters to our Houston Chronicle editor, although unless they kiss Republican boots they are hard to get printed.

~~Bu$h wants US to go to Mars...perhaps, maybe we can send Bu$h to Mars....there's obviously no "sanity in Bu$h's wilderness"...

Bush's Vision for Space Means Big Cuts Elsewhere at NASA
At Least 14 Facilities, Thousands of Jobs Threatened

By Guy Gugliotta
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 16, 2005; Page A21

President Bush's ambitious strategy for space exploration is forcing wrenching changes at NASA, putting thousands of jobs at risk, threatening closure of facilities across the country and sharply altering the way the agency does business.

continue~
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38103-2005Mar15.html

Posted by: on.to.victory4Dems at March 16, 2005 06:36 PM
This article really hurts as I have been involved in the Space Program for a good part of my working life.
The public never understood that NASA inventions are public domain. Bush wants to charge for it now but the public is already paying with their tax dollars. This is another dumb policy by Bush.

The mission to Mars is a cruel joke. It sounds good as most things Bush says (NCLB anyone?) but the real details are always disturbing. Going outside low-earth orbit on-the-cheap will lead to more deaths as the needed technology doesn’t exist yet. Bush wants a new vehicle that needs to be designed, tested, and certified with only a small budget increase. The fly-off will be between the two already chosen primes. We will build-out the Space Station and then abandon it for the moon mission. This means other missions wile either be under funded or canceled. The pressure is not on safety or doing the job correct but is on doing the job cheap. Accommodations will be made that endanger the crew and the vehicle.
Get used to watching a lot of grieving family members on TV. Our only hope is the next administration restores sanity to the Space program.

About the Hubble telescope.
I do not think the reason for canceling the mission was cost but really was safety. The Columbia investigation demanded the Shuttle be checked for missing tiles before returning to earth. This could only be done at the Space Station. The Hubble is at a much higher orbit, so getting there is impossible if a stop at the Space Station is required. Portable tile kits were discarded because they were unusable. A broken tile must be precisely replaced and takes a highly-skilled installer in a static environment. Floating around in space is guaranteed to cause a failure because the proper restraint is missing. The Shuttle used to have hand-holds, but they not useable because when one tile would be replaced, others would be broken. The vehicle must be docked at the station to be inspected and repaired.
The outgoing NASA director Sean O’Keefe came into the program as a Bush party hack. But he came down with a touch of Space fever that they all do and did as good a job as was possible under the conditions imposed on him.

You got mad yesterday at Alaska drilling and Paul Wolfowitz, today a big wave of protest reached our shores. We are MAD at Bush once more, and only feel as opposing the master of the world for a change... What a wicked jerk!
Everybody is worried at Wolfowitz seen as a hawk and a warmonger. This seems like a war declaration and total despise for the rest of the world with one question : why are all the radical neocons leaving the government? And might it happen to Rumsfeld as well?
The press is very hard at Bush about his pick.
Alaska is a common cause for all the environmentalists. An international treaty rules the area listed to World Patrimony. So this is a shock for friends of nature, a crazy announcement. European and Japonese organisations already back Green peace and Sierra Club in their political analysis and move. Americans are at a very important stage of their history, but they keep wasting and ignoring that oil has become rare. On the contrary Japan was able to cut down its oil consumption by 47% in 30 years by improving its industrial productivity. Europe is quite the same.
When will Americans understand thet THEY have to change their habits, and that it's not the world that has to be changed to fit their habits?