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In my missive, I offered an appeal from Executive Director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Paul Rieckhoff. He, as I declared this issue is a vital concern. That has not changed. What has changed is my awareness. I discovered the “logic” for this damning plan.
Columnist Robert Novak explained in his editorial of late, why this measure was proposed. In his essay, “Durbin earmark's defeat no sign of reform,” Novak elucidates; members of Congress can be as childish and divisive as nations, corporate executives, Presidents and Prime Ministers.
It seems juvenile practices and policies are evident everywhere, in every walk of life. These effect real people, even those we purport to support, the young men and women that put their lives on the line for us, the citizens of the United States of America. With thanks to Senator Ted Stevens brain injured soldiers will suffer needlessly though they have done nothing to harm this glory king. Senate Democratic Whip, Dick Durbin of Illinois did, at least in the mind of a small-minded Stevens.
It all began on November 16, 2005. On that day, Chief Executive Officers from the nations largest oil companies were called to task, or at least an attempt was made to question their unequal truth. Petroleum prices were soaring; people throughout the United States were upset. Consumers were realizing the effects of a fifty percent increase in the cost of home heating oil. The fee charged for gasoline was growing. At that time, prices for vehicle fuel were twenty percent higher. Oil company profits were expanding exponentially. Citizens cried out and Congress heeded their call.
A Senate hearing was held. At this inquiry, Republican Senator, Ted Stevens of Alaska, the Senate President Pro Tempore and head of the Senate Commerce Committee, rejected requests from Democrats. Stevens saw no reason to have the oil executives sworn in. He assured the committee that these self-serving tycoons did not need to take an oath of honesty. According to Senator Ted Stevens, the law required these corporate moguls to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and of course, they would.
We all know prominent petroleum executives never lie. We have only the recent realities revealed by the British Petroleum paradox to reassure us. This oil organization purposely neglected corroding pipes for years. There is reason to think that possibly, BP executives paid inspectors to look away. Nevertheless, according to Senator Stevens these ethanol entrepreneurs can be trusted.
Forget that oil industrialists have close ties to this “right thinking” Republican Senator. Ignore the fact that the oils fields in Alaska fill their pockets. There is no need for concern, or such is the world according to Stevens.
However, Senator Dick Durbin saw it differently, and said so, loudly On Nov. 16, 2005, Durbin took the Senate floor to attack Stevens for permitting oil company executives to lie to the Senate Commerce Committee by not putting them under oath. Two days short of his 82nd birthday, Stevens was outraged by this assault on his integrity.
Displaying a famous temper often seen during 37 Senate years, Stevens roared onto the floor after Durbin's speech. He demanded Durbin's apology under Senate Rule 19 prohibiting senators from accusing each other of ''unworthy'' behavior. The Senate parliamentarian said the rule did not apply because Stevens was not on the floor objecting when Durbin spoke. Durbin, who gives no quarter, declined to apologize. He had made a formidable enemy.
Payback time came August 2, when the Defense appropriations bill was debated under management of Stevens as Appropriations subcommittee chairman. Durbin proposed his University of Chicago earmark to improve imaging of traumatic brain injuries. The hook connecting this with Defense was ''adaptation of current technologies to treat brain injuries suffered in combat.'' Durbin had been turned down in Stevens' subcommittee, but he used his access as whip to try again on the floor. The co-sponsor -- Durbin's colleague from Illinois, Barack Obama -- was nowhere to be seen for what ensued.
Stevens was prepared. ''We have to stop using Defense money for contracts with universities and basic research at the suggestion of a single senator,'' he said. ''Not one'' official from the military community, he said, ''came to us and said we needed more money for brain research.’’ However, I ask, do we need less? For, if this provision passes there will be less money to sponsor research and treatment for our brain injured troops.
Budget concerns were not weighing heavily on the mind of this fair Senator. The brutal behavior of this Alaskan husky did not reflect a lack of support for our soldiers. The diabolical decision to reduce resources was motivated by vengeance alone. A vile need for retribution was the rationale behind such a reactive posture.
For thirty-seven years, this self-centered man has seen fit to place his own, vindictive and egocentric needs above those of the people he represents. Senator Stevens cares not for the nation, our soldiers, or his own reputation. Retribution is his preferred cause.
When met with an admission of guilt, Stevens revealed himself for the vengeful viper he is. Senator Durbin stated, 'I plead guilty; it is an earmark,'' and pork-barreling Stevens marched on. Stevens said, ''We had a total of $3 billion in requests from this subcommittee for medical research from other senators. We turned them all down. The senator from Illinois wouldn't take 'no [for an answer].'' Stevens went on; ‘‘we cannot do this just for one senator.” Yet, he has. When one of the senators is Republican Representative Stevens, it seems that earmarking is fine. Last fall, after House Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) earmarked $223 million to link the remote town of Ketchikan (population 8,900) to the more remote island of Gravina (population 50), the Bridge to Nowhere became a national symbol of congressional pork-mania, lampooned by Leno, Letterman and Limbaugh. It was the most brazen of the record-breaking 6,300-plus earmarks inserted by individual members of Congress into the record-breaking $286 billion transportation bill. Even Parade magazine, not known for its muckraking, featured the project as a poster child for government waste.
Young, a 33-year House veteran, defiantly boasted that he had stuffed the bill "like a turkey." And Stevens, a 37-year senator, furiously threatened to resign if Congress shifted money away from Gravina and another bridge to nowhere near Anchorage -- a bridge named Don Young's Way, near Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. In truth Senator Ted Stevens is well known for earmarking. The bridge to nowhere is only one of numerous examples. However, this matters not in the mind of the pork-barreling master.
For, vengeance has no limit or logic. Senator Stevens is gratified as he reads the reports, in USA Today, “House and Senate versions of the 2007 Defense appropriation bill contain $7 million for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center — half of what the center received last fiscal year.” Yes, all is well, and “right” in the world of Ted Stevens. He has won and our soldiers have lost again.
War is a wondrous invention, be it on the floor of the Senate or in the fields of Iraq. Winners, such as Stevens celebrate their victory; victims’ pay the price. The cost for brain-injured troops is phenomenally high; these troops have lost millions.
References, Resources, Natural and "Un" . . .
• "Stop Congress. Billions For Bombs Not Brains ©", By Betsy L. Angert. Be-Think. August 16, 2006
• Dick Durbin's Senate, By Robert D. Novak. Townhall.com. Monday, November 28, 2005
• Big oil CEOs under fire in Congress, By Chris Isidore, CNN/Money. November 9, 2005
• Durbin earmark's defeat no sign of reform, By Robert D. Novak. Chicago Sun Times. August 17, 2006
• Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force, By Dana Milbank and Justin Blum. Washington Post. Wednesday, November 16, 2005
• Editorial: Hostage to pork. The Blade, Toledo, Ohio. Knight Ridder Tribune. December 28, 2005
• BP's Accidents Put Its Celebrated CEO On the Hot Seat. Wall Street Journal. June 16, 2006
• Alaska finds 10% of BP's Safety Valves In Huge Prudhoe Bay Oil Field Fail Tests, By Jim Carlton. Wall Street Journal. April 26, 2001
• Editorial: A red-faced green BP: Maintenance failures tarnish firm's image, The Sacramento Bee - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News via COMTEX. August 9, 2006
• BP faces shareholder legal action. BBC News. Wednesday, 16 August 2006
• Aanalysis of the Proposed Consent Order and Draft Complaint to Aid Public Comment.
• Center for war-related brain injuries faces budget cut, By Gregg Zoroya, USA Today. August, 8, 2006
• The Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center—Providing Care for Soldiers with Traumatic Brain Injury
Betsy L. Angert Be-Think
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