Thursday, March 13, 2008

Why Is President Bush Attempting to Fund The Dangerous Law of the Sea Treaty?

In his fiscal year 2009 budget proposal, President Bush solicits some $5 million of American taxpayers' hard-earned dollars on behalf of the infamous United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, more commonly known as the "Law of the Sea Treaty," or "LOST." Indeed, few words could better characterize this pernicious accord better than "lost

For those unfamiliar, LOST is the proposed international agreement, rejected by President Reagan, that seeks to create an international legal tribunal governing the oceans and their resources. Just what America needs - another unaccountable multinational court to undermine its interests and further erode its sovereignty. Like the United Nations itself, such a tribunal would constitute a forum in which anti-American tyrants and kleptocrats could sue the United States and place the world's unclaimed oceanic resources under its authority. This body would take unto itself the authority to 'allocate' nations' ability to navigate the seas.

The Bush Administration's effort to endow this atrocious treaty with American dollars is perplexing and alarming. Because the United States is not a member of this agreement, it is under no obligation whatsoever to fund it or submit to its destructive terms. By choosing to finance it, however, President Bush sends a signal that America should somehow accept its obligations and ratify it formally.
In response, the Senate should rightfully resist the Bush Administration's not-so-clever attempt to circumvent its Constitutional advice and consent responsibilities, and refuse to provide the requested funds.
[worst of all: it would finally give the UN the (major) power to tax nations, thereby removing that pesky business of being beholden to its members for funding. This thing is an overt assault on the sovereignty of the US and its navy - it needs be defeated...]

READ MORE

President Bush: 202-456-1111 , Comments@whitehouse.gov + president@whitehouse.gov

Barbara Boxer = 415-403-0100 (SF),202-224-3553 9DC) + http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/email/policy.cfm
Dianne Feinstein = 415-393-0707(SF) + 202-224-3841(DC) + http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.EmailMe
Any other Senator's contact information = http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

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