[T]here remains one very important piece of this radical agenda that is still unresolved -the fate of

the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The latest word continues to be that Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is not asking, but demanding,

that the Refuge be opened to full-scale drilling as part of the final Reconciliation package. Stevens feels so strongly about this and

other Alaska issues that in the past he has threatened to resign. Hopefully when Arctic drilling is defeated, he will.

Just

yesterday, when it became clear to Stevens that he did not have the votes to keep the Arctic bill in the Budget Appropriations, he moved

the bill into the Defense Appropriations Bill, thus tying Arctic drilling to money for our troops in Iraq. Senator Stevens’

ploys are a disgrace and he must be stopped.

Stevens and the President know that this is their last and best chance to

open the Refuge to full-scale development. They will use our recent victories as yet another reason to plow forward with this disgraceful

proposal. As a Senator, Stevens has one of the worst voting records on the environment. In 1999-2000 he received a 0% by the League of

Conservation Voters and has supported cuts in funding for environmental and natural resource programs, pushed tirelessly for drilling in

the Arctic Refuge, lobbied hard for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, (a wildlife Mecca), to be opened to dramatic levels of drilling and

opposed nuclear waste cleanup.

Preventing drilling is going to require a massive outpouring of calls and faxes.

Please take the time and let our Senators and Congresswoman Wilson know that drilling in the Arctic Refuge will not bring down the price

of oil or make us more energy secure. But it will destroy perhaps the wildest and most sacred wildlife grounds in our country. All so

that Exxon and BP can add a little more to their bottom line.

You can make the difference, the time is now.

Stephen Capra

Executive Director
NM Wilderness Alliance

Please call our Representatives

Senator

Pete Domenici
(202) 224-6621
(505) 346-6791 (Albuquerque)

Senator Jeff Bingaman
(202) 224-5521
(505) 346-6601

(Albuquerque)

Congresswoman Heather Wilson
(202) 225-6316
(505) 346-6781 (Albuquerque)

Believe me, it’s a relief to know that Bush

believes DeLay is innocent. I assume the papers for a presidential pardon have already been drafted. Better be a Word merge document —

they’ll be reusing it a lot. mjh

President Says DeLay Is Not Guilty of Money Laundering By Jim VandeHei,

Washington Post Staff Writer

President Bush said yesterday he is confident that former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) is

innocent of money-laundering charges….

“I hope that he will, ’cause I like him, and plus, when he’s over there, we get our

votes through the House,” Bush told Fox News’s Brit Hume.

It is highly unusual for a president to express an opinion on a pending

legal case. [mjh: But commonplace for dimwits.]

Bush also defended three of the most powerful men in the

White House, all of whom have been the subject of speculation that they are losing clout with the president: Vice President Cheney,

senior adviser Karl Rove and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. …

Bush dismissed rumors that Rumsfeld will leave his post

early next year. Asked if Rumsfeld will stay through the second term, Bush said: “Well, end of my term is a long time, but I tell you,

he’s done a heck of a good job and I have no intention of changing him.” [mjh: A week after Bush said

“Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job,” FEMA’s Brown was gone.]

Update 13: Bush Takes Blame for Iraq Invasion, Intel –

Forbes.com

Bush has repeatedly noted that the decision to go to war was his responsibility. And he has acknowledged for more

than a year that most of the intelligence behind the claims of Saddam’s weapons programs turned out to be faulty. But he has

never linked the two so clearly and so personally.

Aw, he’s so noble. All if forgiven,

Duhbya. So what if the same team that misread and misled is still running the show — and as badly as ever. So what if before the

election you never recognized a single mistake in your presidency. Now a little humility/humanity plays well. mjh

Read the following polls of

Iraqis and Americans (3 different polls). Note that half of Iraqis say the US invasion was wrong; about the same number of Americans

agree. But more than 2/3rds of Iraqis oppose our continued presence (77% according to the DOD).

Yet, we will stay and continue

dying and killing — adding to the ranks of those who hate us. Maybe BushCo shouldn’t be allowed to fuck things up further. Impeach the

whole incompetent gang. mjh

ABC News: Poll: Most Iraqis Oppose Troops’ Presence

More than

two-thirds of those [Iraqis] surveyed oppose the presence of troops from the United States and its coalition partners and less than half,

44 percent, say their country is better off now than it was before the war, according to an ABC News poll conducted with Time magazine

and other media partners. …

Half now say the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was wrong, up from 39 percent in February 2004. …

A fourth of those surveyed, 26 percent, say U.S. forces should leave now, and another 19 percent say troops should leave after those

chosen in this week’s election take office. …

The poll was conducted by Oxford Research International face-to-face with 1,711

Iraqis age 15 and over from Oct. 8 to Nov. 22. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

DefenseLINK News: Poll Shows Nine in 10 Iraqis Want to Vote Dec.

15

A total of 77 percent of those [Iraqis] surveyed oppose the presence of coalition forces in Iraq, and almost half said they

believe there is a rationale for attacks on coalition forces, with 40 percent saying there is no excuse for such attacks.

CNN.com –

Poll: U.S. can win war, but won’t – Dec 13, 2005

Forty-eight percent of those [Americans] polled said they thought it was a

mistake to send U.S. troops to Iraq, as opposed to 54 percent of those polled last month. Fifty percent said it was not a mistake,

compared to 45 percent last month. …

The poll, released Tuesday, was conducted with 1,003 Americans who were interviewed by

phone. The sampling error varied from question to question, but none had a margin of error exceeding 4.5 percentage points.

Beyond The War Spin By E. J. Dionne Jr.

[T]he Democrats’ problem is not

just one of political tactics. It’s also rooted in a simple reality: Democrats in both houses of Congress have been divided on this war

from the very beginning. House Democrats are, on the whole, more dovish than Senate Democrats. And the party’s rank and file are, on the

whole, more dovish than its congressional wing.

There is no magic solution to this problem, and Republicans will continue to

exploit it. But if they do nothing else, Democrats have to stop being defensive in the face of Republican attacks. …

In any

event, why shouldn’t Democrats be divided on the war? So is the rest of the country. And so are Republicans.

What’s gone largely

unnoticed is that while Democrats show their divisions on the war in Congress, Republicans are more divided at the grass roots. …