Posted on 01/26/2005 6:44:05 PM PST by Iam1ru1-2
Senator Richard Lugar wants to give the United Nations the same collection of villains and rogues who brought you the oil for food scam the means to raise your taxes.
You read that right! Richard Lugar, with the backing of Condoleezza Rice and other members of the administration, are once again pushing for ratification of The Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) which will allow the United Nations to impose taxes on each and every one of us.
Many of you may remember that we won this battle last year, when Senator Lugar tried to steamroller LOST through the Senate ratification process under the cover of darkness.
We won because many of you made your voices heard and Majority Leader Frist and other Republicans in the Senate not wanting to rile the conservative base in an election year let the matter die.
But it is not going to be as easy this time around and if we are to put a stop to this travesty we need each and every one of you to join with us and take a stand!
Use the Hyperlink below to send your personalized Blast Fax message to ALL 100 Members of the United States Senate and tell each of them in no uncertain terms that American freedom is not for sale! Tell all 100 Members of the Senate that you do not want hostile third world nations "legally" stealing our military secrets. Tell all 100 Members of the Senate that you do not want hostile third world nations cutting off our supply of oil. Tell all 100 Members of the Senate that you do not want hostile third world nations in your wallet. And tell all 100 Members of the Senate that you do not want hostile third world nations threatening our way of life.
WHAT IS LOST?
LOST is simply another United Nations power grab, initially conceived and brought to the world stage in the 1970s.
Under LOST, a United Nations agency called the Seabed Authority would take outright control of over 70% of the earth's surface and natural resources.
The Seabed Authority would be organized according to the General Assembly model; one nation -- one vote and thus give an organized block of third world nations hostile to the United States the power to:
-- Impose Taxes on the American Public
-- Cripple the United States Navy and Leave Us Susceptible to Ship Based Cruise Missile Attack
-- Empower Rogue Nations Such as China
-- Aid Terrorist Activity Against the United States
President Ronald Reagan refused to sign LOST in 1982, but in 1994 President Clinton signed the treaty and sent it to the Senate for ratification.
The Republican controlled Senate literally sat on this legislation for almost ten years and much of the credit goes to Senator Jesse Helms who was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for much of that time.
Then last year, Republican Senator Richard Lugar, who presently chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, mysteriously gave LOST precedence over other pending international agreements to combat terrorism and literally rammed LOST through the committee under the cover of darkness.
Lugar held two days of hearings and allowed only those supporting LOST to testify. Then he called for the motion to be passed by unanimous consent -- basically that means that everybody voted for it but no one is actually on record as having voted for it -- our legislators often use this maneuver to "cover their tracks" when passing unpopular legislation.
Then Lugar exerted pressure on Majority Leader Bill Frist to bring the matter to the full Senate -- WITHOUT DEBATE and WITHOUT A RECORDED VOTE.
Use the Hyperlink below to send your personalized Blast Fax message to ALL 100 Members of the United States Senate and tell each of them in no uncertain terms that American freedom is not for sale! Tell all 100 Members of the Senate that you do not want hostile third world nations "legally" stealing our military secrets. Tell all 100 Members of the Senate that you do not want hostile third world nations cutting off our supply of oil. Tell all 100 Members of the Senate that you do not want hostile third world nations in your wallet. And tell all 100 Members of the Senate that you do not want hostile third world nations threatening our way of life.
If the hyperlink above does not work, please copy and paste it into the address bar of your browser.
WHERE DO WE STAND TODAY?
During Condoleezza Rice's confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Lugar asked her about LOST.
Rice said in response that the president, "certainly would like to see it pass as soon as possible."
Expounding on that statement she said, LOST, "serves our national security interests, serves our economic interests. We very much want to see it go into force.
According to Andy Fisher, a spokesman from Senator Lugar's office, This is a breakthrough, an indication that they are prepared now to move ahead with a Senate vote on the treaty and will make it clear, I think & to Frist and to other members of the Senate that they want to have the vote now on the treaty sooner rather than later.
Fisher also claimed that the Bush administration did not push the Senates treaty ratification last year, so as not to rile the activists.
In other words, now that the election is over, Members of the Senate are much more willing to return to business as usual.
Paul Weyrich actually said it best. "Conservatives who want to stop this treaty had better be prepared to be even more aggressive this time. Powerful interest groups, notably the oil industry, want to have this treaty ratified despite its fine print that would place their fate in the hands of a governing body called the International Seabed Authority and ultimately the United Nations.
Use the Hyperlink below to send your personalized Blast Fax message to ALL 100 Members of the United States Senate and tell each of them in no uncertain terms that American freedom is not for sale! Tell all 100 Members of the Senate that you do not want hostile third world nations "legally" stealing our military secrets. Tell all 100 Members of the Senate that you do not want hostile third world nations cutting off our supply of oil. Tell all 100 Members of the Senate that you do not want hostile third world nations in your wallet. And tell all 100 Members of the Senate that you do not want hostile third world nations threatening our way of life.
WHY WOULD REPUBLICAN SENATORS SUPPORT LOST?
Big oil and multi-national firms support LOST because it would codify U.S. rights to explore and mine the ocean up to 200 miles from the American coast and would let the United States stake claims to seabeds outside that limit.
LOST means big money for big oil and other multi-national firms and it could actually be of some benefit -- in the short term -- to the U.S. economy.
Also, many of the big oil firms believe that it much easier to deal with one entity than many different entities. In common parlance, its easier to line the pockets of a few corrupt U.N. officials than to line the pockets of scores of corrupt world leaders. Its a recipe for graft.
But there are a few very big catches to LOST...
LOST will give the United Nations sole power to issue permits for fishing, drilling and mining operations at sea. Basically the United Nations will be able to charge exorbitant fees and taxes to companies wishing to mine and drill overseas -- fees that will be passed on to you at the gas pump.
LOST will give the United Nations sole power to levy taxes and impose production quotas on mining and oil production. The United Nations will be able to tell companies how much they are allowed to mine -- the very next gasoline shortage can and may be caused by a group of rogue third world nations literally cutting off our oil supply.
LOST will give the United Nations sole power to establish international courts and other agencies to enforce its dictates. The United Nations will be able to set up "kangaroo courts" to punish any American company that does not comply with it's arbitrary rules.
Provisions of LOST mandate that the United States must share certain technologies with other countries. These technologies will include military secrets.
The special interests wield a lot of influence and throw a lot of money around. To effectively do battle, we need to flood fax machines and we need to show our leaders that there is a clearly defined centralized opposition.
Let's send the Senate a clear message TODAY. OUR FREEDOM IS NOT FOR SALE!
Use the Hyperlink below to send your personalized Blast Fax message to ALL 100 Members of the United States Senate and tell each of them in no uncertain terms that American freedom is not for sale! Tell all 100 Members of the Senate that you do not want hostile third world nations "legally" stealing our military secrets. Tell all 100 Members of the Senate that you do not want hostile third world nations cutting off our supply of oil. Tell all 100 Members of the Senate that you do not want hostile third world nations in your wallet. And tell all 100 Members of the Senate that you do not want hostile third world nations threatening our way of life.
http://www.grasstopsusa.com/aculost.html
If the hyperlink above does not work, please copy and paste it into the address bar of your browser.
David A Keene
Legal experts won't be able to oppose this, but political scientists might.
I just called Sen Lugar's office, and his aide told me that President Bush SUPPORTS this and the committee supports it 100% what are we missing here?
Maybe they just don't make Republicans like they used to.
Q. Does the Bush Administration support the Law of the Sea Convention?
A. Yes. The Bush Administration strongly supports U.S. accession to the Law of the Sea Convention. The Law of the Sea was one of only five treaties that the Administration placed in its “urgent” category on their most recent Treaty Priority List. Representatives from the Department of State, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Coast Guard testified in support of the Convention at hearings in October before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Administration helped write the resolution of advice and consent accompanying the treaty. Representatives of the State Department, the Office of Secretary of Defense, the Navy, the Coast Guard, the Justice Department, the Commerce Department, and the EPA participated in this interagency drafting process.
What's your point? So the president supports it, at least he says he supports it. So what. There was only one man who was right all the time and he got crucified.
Call Senator Inhofe's office. He's been instrumental in blocking this thing in the past.
my point is if we are going to fight this one and win.. it will be a tough fight.. I would like to know the specific language in the treaty that we are opposing to make a good argument... it is 300 pages and I have not found the "offensive" language, unless of course we are opposing just on the fact that it gives the UN some "authority" which is fine, but not a strong enough argument to win.
Check out Gaffney's website. Centerforsecuritypolic.org.
You are correct in that we need to get the problems with this down to soundbite form. This would be a worthy freeper project.
It takes 2/3's passage in the Senate to ratify a treaty, unless they sneak it in on a voice vote in the middle of the night, like they did the Desertification treaty.
thats exactly what will happen.. it will be passed by UC, to avoid a roll call vote, unless we can come up with a good reason to oppose it
These are a start for talking points
A good resource would be to look up what others who have opposed it said, such as Ronald Reagan and Jesse Helms.
I could not find that in the language of the treaty.. im sure its there.. i just have not read the 300pages
I just restored it.
Thanks.. sorry for the double ping
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