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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (19579)5/26/2003 7:03:40 PM
From: T L Comiskey  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 89467
 
LT...
Scott has been very busy ...has a contractual obligation
he does appear from time to time.......
TL



To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (19579)5/26/2003 9:10:47 PM
From: stockman_scott  Respond to of 89467
 
<<...wheres Stockman Scott?...>>

RIGHT HERE...lol...

Lizzie: Hope you had a good holiday weekend...I've been very busy with a consulting project (i'm working with a large law firm that is helping to defend IBM in one of the biggest lawsuits in the country...Compuware has sued IBM for patent infringement and IBM has 4 law firms that are a part of their defense campaign...there is an incredible discovery process going on right now and we are working long hours -- often 7 days/week...yet, I did spend the last 2 days re-charging out at Lake Michigan).

Thanks for stopping by this thread...there are some very bright folks out here and many different things are discussed -- the economy, investing, foreign policy, politics, etc....Anything goes out here...;-)

regards,

-s2



To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (19579)5/28/2003 1:36:34 AM
From: stockman_scott  Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 89467
 
U.S. Rearms While Telling Others To Disarm
____________________________

by Helen Thomas
Published on Saturday, May 24, 2003 by Hearst Newspapers
commondreams.org

WASHINGTON -- While the United States tells other nations to disarm, the Bush administration appears eager to take steps toward expanding our nuclear arsenal.

At the behest of the administration, the Senate has agreed to lift a 10-year-old ban on research on a new generation of low-yield nuclear weapons. Senate Democrats won a concession that congressional approval would be needed before full-scale development.

A comparable bill for a study of low-yield "mini nukes" was passed in the House. A conference committee is expected to work out a compromise between the two bills.

The Senate also agreed to continue research on the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, which could explode targets protected by rock or hardened surfaces.

Republican proponents of beefing up the U.S. nuclear arsenal claim that they are essential in modern warfare to dismantle hidden chemical and biological weapons.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the proposed Penetrator could explode with as much as 70 times the force of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, toward the end of World War II.

The administration's new drive for nuclear arms is the latest example of its campaign to further scuttle our own arms control commitments, even as we urge Iran and North Korea to drop plans to join the nuclear club.

The scrapping of the anti-ballistic missile treaty was one of the forerunners of the Bush rearmament process and the dream of the hawks who are pushing for a Star Wars defense.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., expressed his worry that such nuclear weapons would eventually be used. If we build them, "we'll use" them, he warned.

Those who pushed for an end to the ban on the low-yield weapons said they could target enemies more precisely.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said it is "illogical" to "stop research and development on a potential weapon that could destroy a terrorist group or prevent a rogue nation from creating a chemical-biological capacity deep underground."

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters the Pentagon only wanted to consider such weapons, "nothing more, nothing less."

"It's not 'pursuing.' And it's not 'developing.' It is not 'building.' It is not 'manufacturing.' And it's not 'deploying.' And it is not 'using,"' Rumsfeld added.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., scoffed at Rumsfeld's protestations.

"Just a study? Baloney," Feinstein declared. "Does anyone really believe that?" To repeal the ban "opens the door for Americans to develop nuclear weapons again," she said.

Feinstein and Kennedy both believe the development of such weapons could lead other nations to follow suit and pave the way for a nuclear war.

After years of diligent negotiations for global arms control and reduction agreements with the former Soviet Union and other nations, how can we justify reviving a nuclear arms race?

There is no way the lifting of bans on nuclear weapons -- small or large -- will make this a safer world. Why wouldn't other nations seek to follow suit? American officials have been freely doling out advice to other nations on the proper way to disarm. They should take their own advice.

The nuclear research programs are included in the Pentagon's $400.5 billion military budget. It would be great if a few billions of that bloated budget could be used for educating poor children and helping the homeless, instead of blowing it on a new generation of nuclear arms.

Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said eight nations possess nuclear weapons and other countries are suspected of working to acquire them.

He said that although the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty was passed 30 years ago, its objectives have not been achieved and thousands of nuclear weapons are still around.

The United States should set the example by continuing to rollback its own nuclear stockpile, instead of seeking new and more powerful weapons. Then we could lead the way for the world to be a less dangerous place.

Copyright 2002 by Hearst Newspapers



To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (19579)5/30/2003 12:43:25 AM
From: stockman_scott  Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 89467
 
THE FICTIONAL WAR ON TERRORISM

uexpress.com

<<...Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bob Graham caught heat for calling the war on Iraq "a distraction" from the war on terrorism, but he was far too kind. The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq have replaced a real war on terrorism, and they've vastly increased the likelihood of future September 11's. Bombing Afghanistan scattered bin Laden, his lieutenants and their foot soldiers everywhere from Chechnya to Sudan to China's Xinjiang province; fleeing Talibs spread new anti-American seed cells while the Taliban and other radical groups retain their pre-9/11 Pakistani headquarters. With radical Shiite clerics like the Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim poised to fill the post-Saddam power vacuum, Iraq could become a Shia version of Taliban-era Afghanistan: an anarchic collection of fiefdoms run by extremist warlords happy to host training camps for terrorist organizations.

"We're much safer," Tom Ridge claims. If this is safety, give me danger...>>