First, we find out that among McConnell’s big supporters are NARAL and the Sierra Club, and now this. McConnell is also a tree-hugging environmentalist. “Poppycock!” you say? Well then, why did he congratulate Craig E. Williams for winning the Goldman Environmental Prize?
... I’m here today for one reason. Craig Williams has been a friend for over 20 years, and an inspiration. Craig won this award because he dared to speak out against an immovable, hidebound bureaucracy—the Department of Defense—and he won. He is proof that sometimes, David really can slay Goliath.
Wow, McConnell is supporting the environmentalist and attacking the DoD. What a flaming liberal my Senator is. I sure hope he has a primary opponent that attacks him from the right.
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I think what has me confused is that in McConnell's own words, people donate money to him because they like his "conservative philosophy."
In a recent interview, he said he never allows money to influence him. His donors support him because they like his pro-business, conservative philosophy, he said, so it's hardly proof of corruption when he does what they want.
Jesus. I sure hope his conservative voters don't have second thoughts to donating their hard-earned money to a environmental whacko like Addison "Mitch" McConnell.
As we've already discussed, Mitch is prone to liberal points of view. He was, after all, pro campaign finance reform, before he was against it.
1994
Year Republicans took control of Congress, and McConnell dropped his push for campaign-finance reform
Plus, you should see some other issues his "good friend" stands for.
Williams, a translator in Vietnam, has remained active in veterans groups. He was one of the original group of veterans who formed the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation in 1980. The Foundation, in turn, was one of six organizations that co-founded the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which was awarded the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.
You know what they say about birds of a feather.
In fact, Mr. Williams works for a good cause. For the last 20-years he's tried to stop the DoD from burning stockpiles of chemical weapons that are stockpiled in Richmond, KY and several other places around the world. He recognizes that neither incineration nor indefinite storage of mustard and nerve gas agents are viable long-term solutions. Instead, he favors a safer alternative, neutralizing them.
A Vietnam Veteran Fights a New Battle at Home
A cabinetmaker by trade, 58-year-old Craig E. Williams is a decorated Vietnam War veteran who successfully convinced the Pentagon to stop plans to incinerate stockpiles of chemical weapons stored in multiple locations around the United States. Today, 24,000 tons of obsolete chemical weapons agents are stored in the United States.
Williams started his campaign in 1985 after learning that one of nine weapons stockpiles to be burned was at an Army depot in his community. Worried that incineration would put local citizens and their environment at risk, he built a nationwide grassroots coalition — the Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG) — to demand safe disposal solutions and openness within the Pentagon’s program.
Basically, he started his crusade at about the same time McConnell took office and it was "one of the first things" to come across McConnell's desk. So, it fits in the time frame for when McConnell was righteously promoting campaign finance reform. Therefore, we can give old Mitch the benefit of the doubt by assuming he actually listened to his constituent for free, you know, like he's supposed to.
But, then again, the Williams is, according to McConnell, a lobbyist.
"The work Craig and I have done together is a perfect model for how government can and ought to work with the people it serves. Too often, collaboration between lawmakers and informed citizens—also known as lobbyists, please excuse my language, I know that’s a dirty word—is portrayed as unethical or sleazy."
So, it's gotten to this? A constituent has to come up with the dough to lobby in order to get the representation he's supposed to get for paying taxes? Am I safe in assuming Williams had to pay to get his issue in front of Senator McMoney?
A six-month examination of McConnell's career, based on thousands of documents and scores of interviews, shows the nexus between his actions and his donors' agendas. He pushes the government to help cigarette makers, Las Vegas casinos, the pharmaceutical industry, credit card lenders, coal mine owners and others.
Critics, including anti-poverty groups and labor unions, complain that McConnell has come to represent his affluent donors at the expense of Kentucky, the relatively poor state he is supposed to represent. They point, for example, to his support last year for a tough bankruptcy law, backed by New York banks that support him.
I can't prove Williams had to pay to play on behalf of Kentuckians across the state (haven't found the link yet), but I'd put down good money that says he did.
Too bad, too. Because if he did pay, he may, along with Bechtel, have gotten screwed.
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has extended its timeline to destroy its aging chemical weapons arsenal until 2023, despite concerns by Congress and watchdog groups that the stockpiles raise the risk of an accident or theft by terrorists.
The new schedule, outlined in Pentagon documents obtained by USA TODAY, means the military won't eliminate its stock of deadly nerve gases and skin-blistering agents until 11 years after the 2012 deadline set by the international Chemical Weapons Convention. The U.S. government had already asked for a five-year extension from an earlier 2007 deadline
More.
"To intentionally put tens of thousands of Americans at an unnecessary risk by continuing to store these weapons is reprehensible," said Craig Williams of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, a Kentucky-based coalition of citizen groups from stockpile sites. "Not only are they ignoring our international treaty obligations, they are undermining the military's ... obligation to protect U.S. citizens.
Of course, we all know how strict McConnell is about honoring treaty obligations (ahem, Geneva Convention). Here's what he had to say.
The Pentagon "is again backsliding on its commitment," Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement.
The projections "are simply unacceptable," he said. "They would subject the people living near (stockpiles) to the dangers of chemical weapons until well into the 2020's"
If Williams did pay to play, would McConnell give a fuck about those people? Or is he just pissed that he's put so much effort into this issue and the DoD keeps cutting his pork?
Here's how the budget fiasco happened. Last year, based on the apparent financial needs of all defense programs, the Pentagon formulated its Chemical Weapons Disposal Program Cost Projections for fiscal year 2006, a budget which totalled approximately $1.406 billion. A line item in the Defense Budget is Chemical Agent and Munition Destruction, under which heading comes the destruction of chemical weapons in Kentucky and Colorado. The funding needs for the programs in Kentucky and Colorado were accounted for in that original budget. $270 million dollars would be divided between the two states: $135 million to each state for the design and construction of neutralization facilities. In December of 2004 CWWG learned that the Pentagon had subtracted $240 million from the Kentucky/Colorado funding and had reassigned it to other chemical weapons destruction sites to cover ballooning expenses. This altered budget was submitted to Congress on February 7. As it stands, the budget provides only $30 million for Kentucky and Colorado to split. $15 million is insufficient funding to proceed with the planned destruction of the weapons stored at the Blue Grass Depot. "They are robbing our money to pay for poor management, poor technology choices and skyrocketing costs at other sites," said Williams.
I'll say this, Williams, like NARAL and the Sierra Club, might be better off giving his money and support to a Democrat in 2008. With a little congressional oversight, we might be able to get a handle on these cost over runs. Hell, we might even be able to find the $10 billion they lost in Iraq on McConnell's watch.
As for McConnell, I just have one question. Did Williams have to pay and does he continue to pay for your support on this issue, or were you banking on this issue bringing home the pork?
hink