PeteRepublic on Fox6

Crossposted from PeteRepublic.org 

Treaty Doc 103-39.

Familiarize yourself with this Treaty, also known as the LOST Treaty, because it’s President Bush’s next attempt at a legacy.

And it’s a wrong one. President Reagan thought it was wrong in 1982, and we as conservatives should be against it today as well.

The Senate held a hearing on this treaty last Thursday in the Foreign Relations committee, led by Senator Joe Biden (D-Delaware).  The witnesses scheduled to testify were John Negroponte, Deputy Secretary of State, Gordon England, Deputy Secretary of Defense and Admiral Patrick Walsh, Vice Chief of Naval Operations.  According to the schedule there will be a second hearing in October with “non-governmental” witnesses at which time “proponents” and “opponents” will be invited to testify.  Hope that list is balanced.

There is an EXCELLENT article by Phyllis Schlafly which explains WHY LOST is a bad idea, but in short, we lose something as a sovereign nation if we enter in to such a treaty. It would put our Navy basically at the behest of a UN-led organization where if disputes arise in the world’s oceans, the UN’s established tribunal could wind up being arbitrator.

I’d like to point out THIS paragraph from Schlafly’s article that is particularly bothersome:

LOST would subject our governmental, military and business operations to mandatory dispute resolution by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany. If you think activist judges in the United States are out of control, wait till you try your case before this UN tribunal, whose decisions cannot be appealed.

Scary.

President Bush again finds himself on the wrong side of an issue. He wants to sign this treaty. I can’t fathom why.

More Links:

Wall Street Journal Lies about Sea Treaty

Russion L.O.S.T. and found

An Administration LOST at Sea

Bush to pressure Senate to revive U.N. sea treaty

Law of the Sea Up for Vote Soon (including Top Five Reasons to Oppose LOST)

Law of the Sea Travesty

This is ONE EARMARK I don’t mind…..

Senator Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) has been leading the battle to appropriate the funds needed to begin the necessary renovations to the USS Arizona Memorial Museum and Visitor Center at Pearl Harbor.

"An overhaul of Hawaii’s USS Arizona Memorial Museum and Visitor Center, which commemorates the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, is estimated to cost about $52 million. So far, about $32 million has been raised through private and public donations."

This is partly why I’m so happy about this….there has been a private outpouring of support to see that this memorial lives on, and more than 50% of it has come from private donations.

"If Inouye’s provision survives as part of the final 2008 defense appropriations bill and the Navy transfers up to $20 million from its accounts to the National Park Service (NPS), which administers and funds the visitor center, the new construction will be fully funded."

……

"But the senior appropriator’s move is also garnering criticism.

'He is using his position as the defense appropriations chair to funnel money for his state,' the vice president of the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, Steve Ellis, said. 'It is an incredible memorial that Sen. Inouye has strong ties to. I am not disparaging the USS Arizona, but it still does not mean you should be earmarking out of the defense budget' for funding the belongs to the Department of the Interior, Ellis added."

Oh PLEASE….while I APPLAUD the efforts of any taxpayer watchdog group, you have to take in consideration the fact that on the face of it, not only is this memorial of great national value to the country, it’s personal to Senator Inouye:

"Inouye, a highly decorated World War II veteran who witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor, is an honorary chairman of the Pearl Harbor Memorial Fund’s fundraising effort, according to Tom Shaw, the president and chief executive of the Arizona Memorial Museum Association."

The fact that The Fund has managed to raise more that 50% of the needed funds to perform the required renovations to the Museum and Visitor Center ease anyone’s concerns. This CLEARLY isn’t a case of your typical tax-and-spend Democrat wielding that power out of control. I APPLAUD Senator Inouye for his efforts in this effort.

I, however, wouldn’t mind even if The Fund hadn’t raised a dime and this project had to be fully funded out of the 2008 Defense Appropriations Bill. Why? Because as a Veteran I feel this memorial is important to our history and heritage, and we need to preserve it.

All the same, I AM happy to see private citizens and/or corporations stepped up to the plate and donated to the project.

I look forward to the day when I’m able to walk the decks of the new Memorial and Museum.