Posted on 11/02/2007 12:50:45 PM PDT by Baladas
THE US Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the UN Law of Sea Convention , sending it to the full Senate for ratification. A statement issued by Foreign Relations Committee Republican leader Dick Lugar said he encouraged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to schedule floor consideration as quickly as possible. Senator Lugar told the committee: “The United States faces intensifying national security and economic costs if we continue to absent ourselves from the Law of the Sea. If we fail to ratify this treaty, we are allowing decisions that will affect our Navy, our ship operators, our off-shore industries, and other maritime interests to be made without U.S. representation. Our ability to claim exclusive right to the vast extended continental shelf will be seriously impeded. We will also be forced to rely on other nations to oppose excessive claims to Arctic territory by Russia and perhaps others.” He went on to detail how the US would continue to lose out if it did not sign up tot he now 25-year old treaty. He dismissed worries about the binding arbitration provisions of UNLCOS.
He said: “Opponents of the treaty have bemoaned the binding arbitration involved in this Convention as if it were the first time they have ever encountered it. Yet, binding dispute resolution mechanisms are a common feature of many of our international agreements, and virtually every sitting Senator has voted for or acceded to the passage of treaties and agreements that have included it.”
Bad news dispensed and government dirty work is usually done late on Friday.
If Dick Lugar is for this then you know it has to be bad. He went over to the dark side a long time ago and is no longer working for the interests of the US. I hope the GOP comes to their senses as they have done with amnesties.
I just spoke to minions of Senators Corker and Alexander to convey to them my strong disapproval of ratification. Neither has announced a position yet, but both offices tell me they are receiving hundreds of calls about it.
Call your senators. Call them again.
I can’t say what I think about Lugar, or I’d get banned.
Lugar lost his mind a long time ago.
Tennessee, right? My senators are Cantrell and Murray, so forget it but Patty’s office said the same thing - that the calls are running way against ratificatiobn.
I just called my Senators Cornyn and Hutchison. The phone person said Cornyn is definately against the treaty. Hutchison’s person said she had not taken a public position yet. This is disturbing and sounds like she may be wavering. All Texas voters need to call her D.C. phone number 202-224-5922 and put pressure on her.
This treaty gives the UN the power to assess fees (essentially taxes). It is the first step in the transition from an organization of world governments to a World Government. It must not pass!
Yes, Tennessee. Unfortunately, we have been having problems with rampaging RINOs here recently, but fortunately they tend to shy away from loud, frequent noises of disapproval delivered by electronic means.
It's a bad treaty, everybody knows it and it should never have been allowed to get this far.
The treaty is in effect and being used extensively to make claims and settle boundary disputes.
There’s a lot more to this treaty than settling boundary disputes. And there’s a cumulative effect going on involving free trade and other agreements that is diminishing our sovereignty to the point that eventually the Constitution will be meaningless.
California is ignoring the Raich decision and the Controlled Substances Act by continuing to allow the sale of medical marijuana. There are States that are enforcing our borders even though that is the exclusive province of the federal government. The federal government no longer respects, or fears, the States or the People. If LOST is ratified, the States and the People better fight back. Otherwise, we will be pledging allegiance to the United Nations.
Yes, there is also the seabed issue.
Do you honestly think that just because US oil companies won't/can't develop and implement the deep sea technology that no other nation won't? Or that US oil companies won't create offshore subsidiaries to do the same.
The reality is that if and when the deep technology gets implemented, the fees, royalties, and taxes will flow to the Seabed Authority whether the US participates or not. BTW, those fees are substantially less than what the US charges to drill the US shelf.
bttt
We don't need the UN in our business and it's why I hope the GOP says no thanks.
The US has been adhering to LOST for 25 years.
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