constitution the united states constitution and other publications this concord resolution not only reauthorizes the printing of the pocket sized constitution but also the publication these congressional publications are favorites among members to distribute to their constituents who visit them both here and in the nation's capital and back at home in their district and i can say that not only do members enjoy distributing because we have such a respect and love for the constitution but i do have to tell you that students citizens teachers also love to receive receive these pocket editions and i always have to emphasize to them what a fantastic thing it is that a pocket sized version of a document has served this nation so well for so many years and that it has led to the longest lasting democratic government in the history of this planet in addition this root resolution authorizes for the first time the printing of a history of the u s for tenet garden this book offers a comprehensive history of the garden will further help its mission of educating the american public on environmental sciences with that mr speaker i ask for support of this reserving my right to object i would like to now join the chairman and urge the house to adopt this printing resolution the two publications to be reprinted our flag and the pocket edition of the u constitution are very popular with the american people like specially teachers and students i don't when i go to my schools our students really enjoy these two very fine publications telling them about their flying and about the constitution and of abbreviated form and so the supplies mr speaker are both have been exhausted and with constitution day approaching on september the seventeenth now is an ideal time to replenish our supplies the resolution also provides for printing of a new publication about the us attended gardens so mr speaker i now remove my reservation and are urged all members to support the resolution  without objection thank you mr speaker mr speaker the conflict between hezbollah the infamous lebanese based terrorist group and israel is nothing new but over the weekend hezbollah has upped the ante have kidnapped israeli soldiers and launched countless rocket attacks against israeli civilians with the support of iran and syria hezbollah has have is heavily armed and ready for an all out war obviously this issue is not new in one thousand nine hundred the peace treaty that ended the hostilities in lebanon called on the lebanese government to deploy its army along the border with israel this has not been done in two thousand and four the united nations called on lebanon to disarm hezbollah once again this is not been done with this in mind israel not only has the right to defend itself against terrorist acts it has the responsibility to do so allowing hezbollah just terrorize israel without fear of reprisal would be tantamount to appeasement throughout history this strategy has repeatedly proven itself a failure and a role model this week lieutenant governor when rockefeller dedicated his life to public service and to the people of his lieutenant governor governor rockefeller focused on economic development education and literacy let me give you just the example of the many great contributions that lieutenant governor rockefeller made not just as an elected official but as a citizen lieutenant governor created a program called books in the attic where boy scouts collected use children's books to distribute to needy families this was a little thing but lieutenant governor rockefeller always always willing to use his resources to the good but more important he wanted to get other people involved in doing good as well the passing without objection thank you ms speaker mr speaker i rise today with my colleagues from the arkansas congressional delegation to recognize a man whose generosity and dedication transformed so many communities across our state and with such an enthusiasm for service and will miss his leadership rightly when power rockefeller despite one of his favorite quotes on a plaque outside his home the quote c last sunday lieutenant governor when rockefeller cared deeply about his family did all he could for arkansas and loved america my wife was formally his associate pastor for seven years for seven years at plasti heights methodist church and she shared with me today  stories about when she said he was one of america's richest men and when he was with the youth program as a father as a member of the church rather than fly up to colorado and meet the youth group he climbed on the bus as a chaperone and took a sixteen hour ride with all the kids and teenagers up to colorado on the ski trip she also related to me when she left at the end of her seven years a placekicker heights methodist church and was going through a lot of changes in her life with the church had two different receptions at which he attended both of them to show his support and affection and concern for here for her governor rockefeller was a genuine caring man our thoughts are with his and as wonderful children and family you'll back purposes the gentleman from arkansas ross dress the house one minute revised in my remarks without objection thank you mr speaker i along with my colleagues from arkansas all four of us rise this evening to remember the life of our lieutenant governor went through paul rockefeller this is a sad day for arkansas and for arkansans as a state senator in the arkansas legislature i had the privilege to serve with lieutenant governor when rockefeller for nearly five years and presiding over the state senate not going to remember that he was always fair and ruled without political bias i had the  pleasure to know him personally as a result of our work together in the state senate and i can tell you he was a generous man he was an unassuming man he was a family man i can tell you mr speaker that he loves the state of arkansas and its people the people of arkansas will deeply miss his leadership and his vision his vision to make our state a better place for all of us his family is in my prayers during this difficult time now you'll back balance of my time jim when you look back this time what purposes the gentleman from georgia ross  this is exactly what israel is facing today again the recent unprovoked attacks on israel are deplorable they're made all the more concerning because of the commendable unilateral israeli withdrawal from southern lebanon in two thousand which vividly demonstrated their desire for peace with united nations resolution fifteen fifty nine lebanon was charged with controlling their southern territory and disarming hezbollah the world should seize the opportunity now to assist and finally accomplish fifteen fifty nine america must strongly support israel's right of self defense while at the same time working to strengthen the democratically elected government in lebanon i'm encouraged by the unanimity of egypt saudi arabia and jordan in condemning the action of iran and the actions of hezbollah the war on terror is truly a global war and the civilized world must condemn these attacks and strive to work together to end the scourge of terrorist violence program have now begun to leave israel and to come home they had a wonderful experience but they were in the midst of one of the rising conflicts in a region that needs the full attention of this administration my first request is for americans to have the confidence in america and for america to extend itself on behalf of those who need to be rescued from lebanon how can we watch european countries and ship after ship and we are begging at the shores to be allowed to leave lebanon what more pain can americans experience and who can expect an american to have confidence in their government when you ask them to sign a piece of paper to pay to save their lives did they do that when they were fleeing from viet nam we're not viet nam was taking over south viet nam it is time to bring resolution and the president was right let's talk to syria let's have had a lot of stand down let's have a ceasefire let's have the soldiers of israel return and yes they have a right to defend but we as a world power have a right and responsibility to engage and bring about a resolution in the conflict in the mideast i yield back our purposes without objection mr speaker the speaker of the house came down to the floor just a few minutes ago and talked about helen who worked in the cloak room for probably forty or fifty years and told about what a wonderful lady she was  i don't want to be redundant but i want to say that there's an awful lot of people to serve in this body that the people of america never see that make it so worthwhile and so important to be here helen was one of those people she was so nice to every member of congress she treated us all like family she served with many presidents from richard nixon john f kennedy all of those guys regardless of party like helen  they all had pictures with her and she kept them back there in the cloak room and was very proud of each and every picture she had with presidents and they all admired her and as a speaker said they all came to visit her when they came to the capitol let me just say that helen was one of the most wonderful people i ever met and i haven't had many occasions since i've been here to feel a little weak in the knees when something happens but when i heard that helen died today i felt a little pain in the knees because she was such a wonderful person so to helen's family if they have been paying attention to this mr  speaker we send our deepest sympathy because she was one of the finest people that i ever met and she is surely going to be missed by everybody in the house thank you mr speaker i yield back amounts of my time jim last time has expired is there any other members who wish to of the national emergencies act provides for the automatic germination of a national emergency unless prior to the anniversary date of its declaration the president publishes all a federal register and transmits to the congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect be on the anniversary date in accordance with this provision i have sent the enclosed notice to the federal register for publication stating that the national emergency and related measures blocking the property of certain persons and prohibiting the importation of certain goods from liberia are to continue in effect beyond july two thousand and two two thousand and six the most recent notice return to the committee on international relations in order printed the chair lays before the house the following personal request leaves of absence requested for mr davis of illinois for today mr kind of wisconsin today before three p m and ms mckinney of georgia for  unanimous consent that today fall in legislative business and any special orders heretofore entered into the following members might be permitted to address the house revise and extend their remarks and include their and extraneous material mr jindal today for five minutes mr jones july twenty fourth and twenty fifth for five minutes mr shays today for five minutes mr gilchrist today for five minutes  what purposes a gentle lady from new york mr speaker under the speaker's announced policy of january before two thousand and five and under previous order the house following members are recognized for five minutes each of new york thank you mr speaker this bodies were and commonsense continues before the independence day recess the house approved two amendments to the science commerce justice state appropriations bill that promote irresponsible gun ownership and discover its police departments from working together to solve gun crimes last year the house passed legislation that would make sure that gun locks are included with all handguns sales last month the house stripped away that provision gun safety locks can save lives i agree with both potence of these measures that most gun owners are responsible and store their guns safely and securely i'm not worried about these gun owners many responsible gun owners are already voluntarily whipped their guns with safety locks gun locks are needed to prevent accidents with the minority of gun owners who are not responsible and while the pro gun lobby doesn't like to talk about it yes there are irresponsible gun owners out there last month in new jersey an eleven year old found his grandfather's gun and killed his twelve year old best friend a gun lock that you can purchase online for less than seven dollars would have t according to the c d c one hundred fifty one children die of accidental shotgun wounds in two or three mandatory gun locks would have saved some of those children's lives gun locks prevent stolen guns from being used in crimes opponents of mandatory gun law cite that the cost of gun locks prevent gun ownership that is truly nonsense this is like saying the added cost of airbags and seatbelts prevent people from buying cars and again trigger locks are relatively inexpensive seven dollars could save a child's life mr speaker is a seven dollar gunlock really infringing on anybody's second amendment rights of course not i wish i could say that the amendment stripping away the gun like vision was the only nonsensical amendment to the department of justice appropriations bill but it wasn't once again this bill would have made felons out of lord forstmann officials who share a t f gun tracing information with police departments in other jurisdictions gun tracing program helps local police solve gun crimes by analyzing the unique marks made on bullets and cartridges cases when guns are fired the images of these markings can be compared with other images and more than two hundred federal state and local law enforcement laboratories but this appropriation bill would have made it across a crime for a police department to share information from the database from another department say a police department in my district on long island shot from the a t f and the similar shooting occurs in new york city the long island department could not share that information as fact or no officer who did share this information would be arrested this is absolutely insane instead of cracking down on criminals using guns this provision which treats police officers like criminals to paraphrase my friend mayor bloomberg of new york it's a god awful bill again some members of this body put their supplying illegal guns in our communities but this provision with that the use of trace data as evidence in any state or federal court or any known a t f administrating procedure this provision cuts local or in force spent out of the loop without this tracing data local or force me know if this is will be able to pursue gun suppliers that have been implicated in crimes without the a t f getting involved first we all know the a t f doesn't have the resources to get involved in every civil issue regarding gun crimes we let our police departments go after taverns that serve under age drinkers but congress will track down level them to crack down on the one to send one to cent of dealers in this country who sell guns involved in fifty percent fifty seven percent of the crimes mrs speaker it's time for common sense i hope the other body in the eventual conferees who will determine the final version of this appropriation bill will exercise more common sense in the house did last month mr speaker i've been here ten years i have never put any legislation forward that would take the way the right of someone to own a gun on here for gun safety issues i'm here to save lives on here to keep down medical costs i'm here to protect mr speaker humorous outgoing warm hearted devout these are few words to describe sixteen year old ashton glow over words that came instantly to those who knew her best and loved her ashton had the world  her fingers she was entering climatologists cool for her final year and then wanted to attend texas a and m university to become a veterinarian she was born and loved in texas and she was proud of her country roots and she held on to she now lived in the small town of sugar land texas outside of houston she was a self described tomboy ashton probably held an officer's position with the future farmers of america and she preferred the outdoors and being among night ashton wasn't about christian when not with the first colony church across youth group she was always willing to help those less fortunate or those in need she was always there to provide advice to france or give a simple hug to those in pain she thought her mission on earth was to help people room instantly eliminate illuminated with ashton's presence those who knew her stated they were the lucky ones they were able to share in everything that ashton was those who knew or however did not know that two other students with south they were driving trucks through muddy fields and it was their type of activity that appealed to this fun loving girl little bit ashta know that these two scoundrels had no plans to go mudding with her sinister intentions were not revealed until it was too late for her to escape they took ash into a dark deserted construction site away from the sure security of sugar land texas away from those who loved her away from the safety of her home and they executed her gangland style no reason no argument no justification just what one murderer called a morbid curiosity to see what would happen to see what she looked like when we shot her in the back of the head these tears feeling no remorse or human compassion left ashton to die there and the heap of the garbage while they went over to i hop for breakfast mr speaker there is something evil in cold about people who kill someone and then go and have a hearty breakfast after they were through eating their pancakes they came back and buried her in a shallow grave they went home and slept off the nights atrocity while her family had nightmares on where ashton was when ashley's body was located by police the outlaws decided to run in the darkness of the night they fled north to canada but they did not run fast enough or hard enough they were caught at the u s canadian border at police type their names into the national criminal database this tragic unspeakable crime hits close to my heart as a father of four and a grandfather of five no father wants to lose a child in the fullness of youth as a former prosecutor a judge i believe in justice and there must be justice mr speaker justice for a young girl who had the fall and rewarding life ahead of her who was murdered just so a couple of cowardly cunning criminals can see what it looked like to kill somebody when a young girl took her last gaspe breath there must be justice for her family in her france who must now endure life without her these two killers must also get some justice mr speaker justice is getting what one deserves these teens will no doubt cry and whine for mercy but justice must rule the day justice for these two demons who brutally executed a young ashton and extinguished a bright light in this world some individuals now will now argue that these two eighteen year olds should be treated with compassion because of their age mr speaker these two killers were macho enough to violently and the young the life of a young girl just to see the result they should be macho enough to accept the punishment in the penitentiary where they belong victims should not be discriminated against based upon the age of the offender as king solomon wants is quoted as saying justice will only be achieved when those who are not injured by crime feel as indignant as those who are and mr speaker that's just the way it is i yield back the remainder of my time  regarding the united states army help is on the way that's what president bush said to our military during the two thousand campaign when they were in pretty good shape and no why the chief of staff the army answered when i asked him if he was comfortable with the readiness levels of the non deployed army units here in the united states let me put it very clear in clear terms our army is in a crisis our forces are fighting valiantly in iraq and afghanistan but the strength of that continued effort as put our preparedness to deter our to fight somewhere else if we must at strategic risk the crisis in north korea iran middle east show us how quickly things can change and how they can go wrong we must be prepared and right now the army is not president bush during the two thousand campaign strongly criticized the clinton administration because two divisions were below their appropriate readiness ratings he said of call upon by the commander in chief today to entire divisions of the army to report not ready for duty sir today nearly every combat brigade located within the united states would report that they are not ready for duty there at the lowest levels of re most non deployed in the active army are reporting that they are not able to complete the expected wartime missions the exact numbers of course are classified army readiness for not in iraq is steadily declined and has equipment is deployed to iraq and afghanistan the army has depleted its preposition overseas war stocks of equipment the army is so strapped for equipment they're planning on downloading prepositioned ships loaded with  combat equipment to help fill shortages if you speak of the army has lost over a thousand wheeled vehicles over one hundred armored vehicles and one hundred helicopters since the start of the war in iraq guard units in the u s are suffering severe equipment shortages which will affect their ability to respond to emergencies in their own states such as katrina equipment suffering as the as the priority for repair parts and equipment is only two million but the army is still short of five hundred thirty million dollars to meet minimum support levels through the remainder of the fiscal year each insulation is being forced to find its ways to cut operating budgets these cuts are affecting vital training and family support which further degrade the army's readiness posture over two hundred ninety billion dollars of instead spent in iraq with no end in sight the army requested more money in the recent supplemental but the president's office of management and budget cut four point nine billion dollars from the army's request for the two thousand and six war supplemental before sending it over here to congress during the two thousand election the current administration told our military help is on the way that's clearly not the case and ministrations failed to request the funds needed for the defense of this nation we must get the  what it needs the army will need to sustain the seventeen they have billion dollars this year alone to start getting well we cannot shortchange them we must provide a new direction for the army was sustained gentleman's time has expired mr jones of north carolina for what purpose does the gentleman from nebraska ross without objection was twelve to seventeen year olds began drinking is twelve point seven years of age twelve point seven years of age the center for disease control and prevention estimated number of under age dress destitute of excessive alcohol use is roughly four thousand five hundred fifty four a year in other words in one year we lose more young people to underage drinking than we've lost in iraq in three years the death rate is six times higher for underage drinking another death rate that is six times higher as alcohol kills six times more young people than all other drugs combined heroin cocaine methamphetamine marijuana six times more is under age drinking teens or start drinking before the age of fifteen or four times more likely to become addicted to alcohol as someone who starts drinking at age twenty one yet the federal government spends about twenty five times more annually combat youth drug use and event under age alcohol use in other words we spend one point eight billion on combating heroin cocaine methamphetamine marijuana compared to seventy one million dollars for under age drinking and most people know that alcohol is a gateway drug it leads to all of these other drugs directly and it appears to be much more fatal and more dangerous when you look at the numbers television ads for alcohol products outnumber responsibility messages by thirty two to one another you'll see thirty two ads promoting alcohol many of those ads are very attractive to young people for everyone talks about responsible use of alcohol from two thousand and one to two thousand and three the alcohol industry spent two point five billion on television advertising their product and only twenty seven million on responsibility programs undera drinkers currently account for seventeen percent of all alcohol sale sales in the united states in my state nebraska and raise drinkers consume twenty five percent of the alcohol sold young drink they do not drink socially ninety two percent of the alcohol consumed by twelve to fourteen year olds is consumed when they're having five or more drinks in a row which is called binge drinking or more often drinking to get drunk recent studies have found that heavy exposure of the adolescent brain to alcohol manner fare with brain development will take a look at this poster on the right is a young person fifteen years of age who have stains from alcohol was asked to do a comprehensive memory program and a test on the left is a young person who is a binge drinker who is sober at the time has to do the same test you see them out of cortical activity th activity firing in the young person who as an abstainer compared to the one who uses and abuses alcohol so there's quite a difference in this regard and i would present a hypothesis of mine that is that a great many young people who drop out many young people who do very poorly in school are affected dramatically by alcohol binge drinking and alcohol abuse so there's a couple other things on this poster that i think are worthy of note the roughly three million teenagers who today are full blown alcoholics and alcohol as we mentioned kills about six times more people than all other drugs combined and the total cost of  drinking to the country is fifty three billion dollars a year fifty three billion dollars a year it's a huge expenditure and so mr speaker we have introduced legislation congressman r would number one create a federal agency coordinating all of the federal programs aimed at under age drinking right now we have raised drinking programs spread across twelve agencies they're not coordinated sometimes they duplicate each other and they're not very effective so we'd want those core to secondly authorize a national media campaign directed as adults the number one indicator of whether young person will use alcohol abuse alcohol is print latitudes and so many parents really believe the mess of a young person is using alcohol then they will not use marijuana they will not use cocaine they will not use heroin when exactly the opposite is true because any more a person who abuses one substance will abuse another and alcohol purposes the gentleman from california us without objection mr speaker members of the house the offshore oil drilling legislation that passed the house last month has a lot of problems one of its biggest failings is that the bill overrides ignores a long standing bipartisan objection to new drilling off of the california coast th people of california have repeatedly made it clear that they oppose this wrongheaded approach in fact opposition to this legislation is so unanimous in california that even in the middle of a highly charged race for governor the democrat republican on the same page on this one issue state treasurer phil angeles a democrat opposes the house bill pointing out that it would remove the critical protections for california's coastline and also financially punish states that decide to protect their environment and coastal economies by continuing to oppose offshore oil drilling and the republican governor arnold schwarzenegger sent another letter to the senate this week restating his opposition in no uncertain terms in his newest letter which i am submitting for the record he writes our coast is not for sale and no no amount of promises of money or other incentives walter my position on that well i'm disappointed that so many members of the house voted against california's interest last month our states and our  states senators have a strong record of speaking for the people of california so i'm not concerned about them but i do want to make sure that the senators from around the country realize that any legislation that opens the california coast to drilling will be a nonstarter our state and should be rejected as a governor wrote anything short of upholding the current moratorium in perpetuity would be unacceptable to californians governor schwarzenegger also wrote something very interesting and i quote california has the most aggressive energy efficiency measures in the nation because of our efforts california's per capita energy use does remain nearly flat while nationwide energy use has increased by nearly fifty percent what the governor is telling the people of this nation is that had you made the same choices that we made starting back in one thousand nine hundred seventy four with the first fuel crisis you would have been able to save a huge amount of energy in this country while california has continued to grow our per capita use has remained flat and that's fifty percent better than the rest of the nation that means that not only do california consumers save a great deal of energy they reduce the pollution to the atmosphere they also save a great deal of money as the other body considers the legislation that was passed out of this house this last week i hope they remember that energy conservation and innovative al turn it approaches will guarantee is far more energy independence in the future than the short side of the house bill th minutes that objection today we are debating today we debated a constitutional amendment drafted not to protect my marriage or my family i see no reasonable way to argue it would but rather to explicitly deny a portion of our society the right to marry and the benefits that accompany that kind of partnership i do not advocate the legalization of gay marriage but our constitution is simply not the proper place to set this kind of social policy i believe back in one thousand nine hundred six when i voted for the defense of marriage act and i still believe today the decision about whether to recognize gay marriage should be left to the states i can't help but wonder why are we doing this what are we so afraid of gay men and women pass through our lives every day there are wonderful teachers and leaders and role models who happen to be gay and sometimes we don't even know they're gay there are brave men and women buried in arlington national cemetery who happened to be gay i wouldn't be a member of congress today if it weren't for an extraordinary teacher i had in high school forty years ago i learned years later he was gay and that he had to commute from connecticut to washington d c to be with his partner every weekend in part to protect his privacy and his job when i went to college my understanding of gay people was and impacted again by my wife's best friend one day she told us she too like my wife and i had found the love of her life we were eager to meet the boyfriend she was so madly in love with but we soon learned her love was not a he but a she once we got over our surprise and our ways of thinking about relationships we were able to sincerely rejoice in the joy they brought each other because we knew what a dear and good person our friend is my perception of gay people of abdulla and further during my first campaign for congress when i worked with a magnificent young man named carl brown he became my friend and he gave me another gay face to know carl has since passed away from aids but i remember him as a person of exceptional dignity and grace my teacher my wife's best friend and curl helped me understand their lives and i think i and i think made me a better person in the process the constitution of the united states which established our government grants us free speech and gives all citizens the right to vote should not be dishonored by this effort to ri indiscrimination i am clearly sensitive to some of my colleagues concerns about potential biblical and social implications of legalizing same sex marriage but i oppose this proposed amendment because i believe the constitution is not the proper instrument to set or reject such policy that debate should happen in our state legislatures thank you mr speaker mr woolsey what purpose is the gentle lady from believe that america needs a new direction to secure our country in combat terrorism we need a new direction so our children and our children's children will live in a safer and more secure world on may first two thousand and three president bush declared that iraq is free major combat operations in iraq have ended yet in more than three years since our world has not become a safer place and our military families continue to suffer more than one hundred thirty thousand u s troops are serving in iraq and more than ten thousand five hundred members of the selected reserves have been deployed more than three times ninety seven percent of the national guard combat and special operations battalions have been mobilized since september eleventh two thousand and one and the average tour of duty for national guard members is three hundred forty two days two thousand five hundred and three of our men and women have paid the ultimate price and that includes eleven member your members that i represent from the sauce angelus in the sangakkara valley private first class jose casanova age twenty three lance corporal manual cisneros age twenty three lance corporal francisco martinez flora's age twenty one leroy harris kelly the third age twenty corporal steven johnson age twenty four and corporal rudy sallis age twenty and lastly marine corporal carl soriano age twenty two another ten thousand three hundred twenty seven have been injured not including more than eight thousand five hundred who have been injured so badly that they can't return to action i strongly support our servicemen and women that are performed admirably under these very difficult conditions these conditions have been worsened by the lack of needed supplies and our men and women continue to serve without a plan to secure the peace today the government accountability office testified that congress has appropriated four hundred thirty billion dollars to the apartment of defense for the global war on terror and according to the g a o and i quote needed to deal dean or the congress reliably know how much the war is costing americans the g a o also testified that the u s can expect to incur significant costs for an unspecified time in the future requiring decision makers to consider difficult tradeoffs as the nation faces increasing long rages fiscal challenges we have seen some of the trade offs already critical programs remain  unfunded and underfunded by this administration and our veterans and their families are the ones that are suffering there are three billion dollars worth of gaps in needed services for our nation's veterans the number of new veterans waiting for health care appointments at the v the veterans administration has risen by four hundred percent over the last two years funding for homeland security is suffering two and as a result the administration's because of the administration's misguided policies first responders grants have been slashed by fifty nine percent and only five percent of containers entering the u s ports are screened and there are eight hundred fewer border patrol agents than what was authorized in the nine eleven commission act afghanistan is also suffering from the bush administration's misguided policies secretary rumsfeld wrote a letter today that the united states maintains its strong commitment to afghanistan success we look forward to continuing our strong partnership he says yet the people in afghanistan are not feeling that commitment between november two thousand and three and april two thousand and three the number of insurgents has quadrupled from five thousand to twenty thousand the average number of daily attacks by insurgents has climbed by more than seventy the afghan defense minister recently stated that afghanistan needs five times the number of security forces to address the issue of a resurgen taliban and without them afghanistan is in real danger of collapse if his warnings were not enough just today the taliban recaptured two towns in the southern province of pakistan border despite the increasing conflict in afghanistan despite the lack of a plan for peace in iraq despite the lack of accountability for government contracts and despite the tradeoffs on homeland security important first responder programs ied ministration wants the united states to stay the course i could not disagree more war and military might alone does not show strength of foreign policy rooted in a unilateral and preemptive action which does not achieve peace for americans america needs a new direction mr speaker we must for what purpose does the gentle lady from ohio ross you know for repayment without objection thank you mr speaker today again the newspapers of our country tell the story of more organized killing more death more carnage more bombings more escalating violence in the middle east there are photos in this newspaper of fathers and relatives crying in lebanon and below it young people crying in haifa in israel we all read the stories and we say why can't the killing stop i is just one member of this congress i'm very proud to represent a community that knows what it will take for the killing to stop toledo ohio in fact was the first community in the united states of america to elect a mayor who was of american lebanese heritage michael damus who is no longer living you know i'm so proud of the people of my community today they came to our office in toledo and they said congresswoman we have a statement that we would like you to consider and i thought it was so thoughtful and even handed that i wanted to read it to the american people tonight they asked of course that americans who are in lebanon be removed safely and they asked us to urge the president of our country to move them out quickly but then they wrote we the american lebanese descent community of toledo requests that the war and the bombing be suspended and our u s government pursue peace and save lives in the region americans israelis palestinians lebanese and others it is a simple statement but i think it is a much more judicious statement than the president of our country made as part of the g eight summit the other day when using a vul garrity the president said at one point that syria should get hezbollah to stop its attacks newsreel his statement was an even handed it wasn't comprehensive it didn't talk about peace it didn't recognize the legitimate interests of the people of this country the people of israel the people of lebanon the people of a future palestine it didn't talk he his statement didn't talk about limiting carnage and the retribution that characterizes the t v to cheer your rating situation in lebanon and in adjoining countries i'm very proud of the people of the greater toledo area for understanding what it's going to take to create peace and to initiate peace i am very proud to sponsor today as well a resolution submitted by congressman kasich of cleveland that reads as follows it calls upon our president to appeal to all sides in the current crisis in the middle east for an immediate cessation of violence and to commit the united states and our diplomats to multi party negotiations with no preconditions and it calls upon the president to appeal to all those sides as the people in my community have done for an immediate cessation of violence wouldn't it have been great if president bush like president reagan had done with m begun when he served as president of israel prime minister of israel and asked for an immediate cessation of violence that didn't happen with president bush this resolution of mr coote sinuiju would commit the united states and our diplomatic efforts to multi party negotiations without precondition it would send high level diplomatic mission to the region to facilitate such multi party negotiations and would include representatives from the governments of israel lebanon iran syria jordan egypt the palestinian authority and it would support an international peacekeeping mission to southern lebanon to prevent cross border skirmishes during such multi party negotiations doesn't that sound like a much healthier way for the world to move there will be many resolutions offered here this week and i ask myself will they be as judicious as the people of our community will they be as full bodied will they be as even handed will they have a peace process in visioned at the end of this horrible horrible road will they recognize the legitimate interests of all parties concerned and will they seek to limit carnage or will those resolutions continue to engender hate and further retribution mr speaker this is a critical time for the world not just for our country but for so many fragile nations who really need the time to heal and the time to let them