[haus]

To make a long story short, they amended the Defense Appropriations Act with a provision to open up the ANWR for drilling. Story at http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-12-18-congress_x.htm

The Sierra Club has an e-mail action campaign on this issue at http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/arcticdod?

There are a few similar ones at http://www.headstrong-america.org/p2/phpLD/index.php?c=18

Cheers!

[MAGI]

HEY HAUS.............Lookie HERE...............From the N.Y. Times........

"Frustrated Democrats predicted they could round up the votes to stall the Pentagon measure even if it put them in the awkward position of blocking money for American military operations. They called on Republicans to drop the language allowing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

"I don't have any hesitation to be part of a filibuster," said Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, who is a military hawk and a longtime foe of the Arctic drilling plan. "This is a tough fight," he added. "But it is a fight worth waging.""

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/20/politics/20cnd-cong.html

Our Democratic Republic isn't dead! You prompted me to call & e mail....and I did. Looks like LOTS of people did! I'm Impressed with my CT. Senator Joe Lieberman today. How about you?

Keep up the fight, haus. You're a good man!

[haus]

Aw shucks, Magi, you made me blush :) & I saw Lieberman's quote last night and thought of you.

I had my cel-phone on auto-redial for 6 hours yesterday and I couldn't get through to my (good) Senator's DC office. I finally gave up and left a voicemail at his local office. People are participating, and that's the key. Makes an escape to Canada or Cambodia seem like less of an inevitability.

I found this pretty heartening, too: every time I put up a Feingold-related article at my blog, I get a ton of hits from senate.gov. I'm trying to keep it in perspective, but one could almost imagine *gasp* that the people in power are listening.

Even if we lose on ANWR, the climate of democracy is much healthier now than it was a year ago. Let's hope that next year it's even better.

p.s. -- almost forgot. I think the vote got moved to Wednesday...

[MAGI]

I followed through with a HUGE Thank You e mail earlier & also thanked Lieberman for talking up alternative fuel & conservation.......I'm feeling proud of me today toooooooo......... :)

An edit:................. just checked my mail & want to share it....

December 20, 2005



Dear Friend:

Thank you for visiting my Contact Center and sharing with me your comments
on the important issues I am addressing in Congress. Your message has
been received; you will be receiving a response to your concerns as soon
as our review and research have been completed.

I value having the benefit of your thoughtful views and hope you will
keep me apprised of any other matters of interest or concern to you in the
future. Please continue to visit my web site at
http://lieberman.senate.gov for current information about what is
happening in Congress and updated news about my work on behalf of
Connecticut. I am pleased to let you know that I have launched an email
news update service through my web site. You can sign up for that service
by visiting my web site and clicking on the "Subscribe Email News Updates"
button at the bottom of the home page. I hope these are informative and
useful.


Sincerely,



Joseph I. Lieberman
UNITED STATES SENATOR

[MAGI]

Pelosi Salutes Senate Democrats on ANWR Vote; Vows to Force House Budget Vote in Light of Day
Washington, D.C. -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on the failure of Senate Republicans to invoke cloture on the Department of Defense spending bill because of a special interest provision that opened Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Also today, the Senate passed its immoral budget by a narrow margin of 51 to 50, with Vice President Dick Cheney breaking the tie. Because Democrats forced several changes to the budget bill, it now must come back to the House to be voted on again. Pelosi will not allow approval by unanimous consent and will request a recorded vote.

"I am pleased to see that our Senate colleagues secured a crucial victory and joined the vast majority of House Democrats to vote for preserving our pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In a bill that should be about supporting our troops, Republicans have attempted to defile one of our nation’s most beautiful areas. Instead of wrapping up a present for big oil companies, Democrats have helped to ensure that generations to come will enjoy the gift that is our nation’s wild lands and creatures."

http://www.democraticleader.house.gov/press/releases.cfm?pressReleaseID=1340

[gratelady1]

Trying to save ANWAR when the rest of the world is screwed, is as reasonable as trying to save a big toe of a person who has just been blown to kingdom come.????

[MAGI]

An article from N.Y. Times:

"One Man's Obsession


Friday, December 23, 2005; Page A20

FOR SHEER political hyperbole, it's hard to beat the rhetoric of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who declared Wednesday to be "the saddest day of my life . . . a day I don't want to remember." For the umpteenth time, Mr. Stevens's pet project -- drilling for oil in a slice of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- failed to pass the Senate. But this should not have been a surprise: Over the past 25 years, Mr. Stevens has tried to attach a drilling measure to nearly every piece of legislation. This week's failure involved a defense appropriations bill that had no relevance to Arctic oil: Although the bill had to pass for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to receive their wages, angry senators of both parties refused to let the measure through.

There seems little chance that Mr. Stevens, dressed for the vote in his Incredible Hulk necktie, will cease his crusade. After the vote, he told senators who opposed him that he would "go to every one of your states, and . . . tell them what you've done." He also threatened to keep his battle going, declaring that "I am going to go home, and I am going to think about it and I am going to try to figure out what to do next year."


But maybe Mr. Stevens should look for the silver lining in his latest defeat. Perhaps it will cause the administration -- at last -- to go back to the drawing board. Drilling in the refuge would, at best estimates, provide the equivalent of 18 months of oil for U.S. consumption. Drilling in the refuge was never, in other words, going to provide for America's long-term energy needs. It made an extraordinarily weak centerpiece for the energy policy of an administration that claims to be interested in ending U.S. reliance on foreign oil; measures to curb automobile fuel consumption and promote alternative forms of energy would go a lot farther. The White House should drop the policy, let Mr. Stevens obsess over his latest failure -- and take the vote as a sign it's time to come up with something better."

I ask YOU gratelady1 to pay particular attention to THIS ....repeat of a sentence in the article:

" Drilling in the refuge would, at best estimates, provide the equivalent of 18 months of oil for U.S. consumption. Drilling in the refuge was never, in other words, going to provide for America's long-term energy needs."

[snowdog]

Yea lets not drill up in Alaska cause of the environmental impact..... Yet
its just fine to drill in other parts of the world. That makes it all better huh?

Do Liberals ever understand the whole thing or just what they want to believe?
it appears to me that Liberals have no problem switching their values, principles,
if it suites them. case in point. One thread a poster talks about How Jesus
would deal with todays world, how he would say how wrong it is to the US for
going to War. then 3 days later the same poster talks about the importance
of the seperation of church and state. Seems to me that falls in line with
that IDIOT in 2004 "I voted for the bill to allow more money to fight in Iraq,
before I voted against it."

Or, "Saddam is a threat to the US, because he has WMD's!" 3 years later...
"this war is unjust, there were NO WMDs! we need immediate US
withdrawl!

Then ya wonder.... "Gosh how come J Kerry didn't win? I just don't
understand it" Because he tried to ride what appeared to be the pulse
of America if that idiot would of stood for his values instead of selling out
for votes, maybe he would of done better.

[Jane of Arc]

Or you could be like a Republican who lies as easily as they breath, who has a complete disregard for the truth and who 'recreates' the facts to make their nasty little points.

Yes ... it's really smart to destroy the eco-system of Alaska for the gain of a few months of useable oil. But that's what Republicans do so well. They destroy without thought, without intelligence and without a conscience.