From NRDC website:

The future of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could be determined in the next few days, when the U.S. Senate votes on a budget bill that the Bush administration and the Senate leadership have commandeered as a stealth vehicle for opening the refuge to oil drilling. BioGems Defenders played a key role in the Senate's defeat last April of an Arctic drilling measure, when we shored up the opposition with more than a million messages to Congress. But last month the Bush administration renewed its push to turn this critical wildlife sanctuary into an oil field, padding the budget it submitted to Congress for 2004 with estimated revenues from oil leases in the refuge, even though leasing there is illegal . Senate leaders folded these projections into a bill called the budget resolution, which serves as a blueprint that members of Congress follow as they assign funds for federal agencies and programs.

If the budget resolution passes as written, it will call on Congress to rely on money that won't exist unless it also passes a law giving oil companies access to the refuge. Democratic senators plan to introduce an amendment to remove the Arctic leasing provision from the budget resolution, but it must pass by a full 51-vote majority.

[ 03-14-2003, 03:52 PM: Message edited by: Ziroc ]

He maybe able to create a cover-up in the media.. but he can't muzzle TL! :D

It is quite an amazing feat to use funds that do not exist.

[ 03-13-2003, 04:27 PM: Message edited by: Djinn Raffo ]

Wow, Bush lied, big news there [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Actually, it doesn't suprise me much about what he's doing. He's already screwing everything and everyone, using up money on health care benefits and wasting time with over 100,000 troops in Iraq and isn't doing anything. He just wants to look like the bigger man in the eyes of the United Nations and America so he can gather allies and gain the people's decision to go to war.

TL, you need to understand something here. If you look at that budget almost EVERY senator from our 50 states packed that budget with so much pork spending it looked like a Hog Report. What you are reporting is nothing new. Both parties of Congress as well as various administrations have been doing this for years upon years: Twisting and turning the wording to make it fit. Do you know why there was little to no uproar? Because everyone from both sides of the isle got what they wanted. This is nothing new. Check our governmental history, or better yet go ahead and check out the recently passed budget and see what was loaded into it by almost everyone. I am not saying it is right, but it IS business as usual. So Bush isn't the only one who is "lieing" in this quagmire we call a federal budget.

Albromor, I think I understand the system fairly well. Status quo would be to assume money from leasing - that's fine (or at least it's often done). But, his assumption is founded on Congress changing an existing law. It's silly - and it's more of a lie than just making a hypothetical assumption. He's made drilling there his pet project and is doing a lot of gyrations to get it done. I've never seen someone so gung-ho to rape and pillage the planet as he is on this issue.

You should (if you don't) watch the budget debates on C-Span. Real eye-openers.

"Pork" is spending on pet projects. Erroneous assumptions and misrepresentations aren't really "pork," if I understand the term correctly.

Yes, the system is horrible, and yes it's stupidly bloated. But, Bush isn't doing *anything* toward slimming it like he started out trying to do.

If this wasn't a big issue, Democratic senators would not go through the trouble of trying to amend it. ;)

[ 03-13-2003, 05:39 PM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]

<font color = lightgreen>Oh, well. This sort of thing happens all the time. Actually, those who have a heightened environmental consciousness should count themselves lucky that Bush hasn't already begun drilling for Alaskan oil under a secrecy blanket of "national interest".

Oopsie! I hope I didn't give anyone in Washington any ideas just now.... [img]graemlins/beigesmilewinkgrin.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img] </font>

The Oil in Alaska will net the U.S.A. 700 trillion dollars and distroy Opec and the rest of the Greedy towel headed terrior seekers. I say Go for it BUSH!! and if anybody doesn't like it then move to Irac and if you don't live in the U.S.A. then your statements meen nothing at all to the true Americans. When this planet if free of narrow minded people that can't do anything but wine about saving some damn bird in some rocky area that is good for nothing but being a frozen waist land the world will be all the better. If anybody really believes that drilling for oil in the frozen north is going to distroy the world then sell all your cars disconnect the power from your homes buy a horse and burn trees to stay warm, oh thats right you want to save the trees, well then cuddle up with the horse to stay warm on those cold nights with no oil for your stove and if your lucky the wind won't blow the tree over onto your house and kill you in your sleep! WA! WA! WA! WA! WA! GO BUSH GO BUSH GO BUSH and I'm a Democrate and Voted for Bush Hopeing he would Drill for oil in Alaska and through all the Clintonites out of our government once and for all.

whoah.... quite the rant there....

A bit over the top but makes some good points, being free from having to import oil would be good for the US, but of course I don't live there so I can't say that.

On a lighter note, Bush want's to drill Alaska?, is she good looking?, does Mrs Bush know?. boom tsh !.

A bit over the top - a bit you think? A statement that brands OPEC as a bunch of "greedy towel head terror seekers" is aggresive, defammatory, outside the bounds of the TOS, and not something that we should encourage from anyone even in jest. Obviously this dude was very quick to press the send button without taking the time to re-read his post.