Lawson for Congress

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JULY 17, 2008

CONTACT
Linda Williams
919-481-1177

RALEIGH – Today, North Carolina Congressional candidate William “BJ” Lawson condemned House Concurrent Resolution 362 as “lunacy masquerading as policy.”  H. Con. Res. 362 is a bipartisan proposal which demands that George W. Bush impose a blockade of Iranian land borders, ports, and airways, which would effectively shut down the entire country of Iran.  The enforcement of this proposal is illegal and would be a declaration of war under international laws.

Lawson said, “In October 2002, actions similar to H. Con. Res. 362 led to the war in Iraq, and Congress, both Democrat and Republican, seem determined to make the same mistake again.  In 2002, the argument could be made that the evidence as presented inferred that Saddam Hussein may have weapons of mass destruction, even though this turned out to be incorrect.”

“This time, however, all evidence is to the contrary.  In December 2007, even our own intelligence agencies stated with high confidence that Iran’s program intending to transform raw materials into a nuclear weapon has been shut down since 2003.”

Lawson went on to say: “It is no surprise that confidence in Congress is at an all time low of 9%.  Our elected officials seem more interested in pushing through legislation like this at the behest of special interest groups, lobbyists, and foreign sovereign nations such as Saudi Arabia and Israel rather than what is in the best interest of our own citizens.  The proposed blockade of Iran is not in the best interests of the United States or the Middle East.”

Lawson continued, “Even if there was a valid reason to attack Iran, we currently have an ongoing war in Afghanistan and in Iraq, and our military are already vastly overstretched.  The possibility of preemptively opening a third front, for no reason, is at best irresponsible, and at worst criminal.”

“A blockade of Iran would also lead to an unprecedented rise in the cost of oil.  The removal of Iran’s four million barrels of oil per day from the market would inevitably lead to a scramble by China to secure much needed fuel for its economy.  The only people to benefit for this action would be oil companies and the people heavily invested in them.  If Congress is really so blind to push through this legislation, then maybe it’s time for them to lead from the front and give our soldiers a well-earned rest.”

Dr. William “BJ” Lawson is running for Congress in North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District.

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In a followup to this press release, it appears that we have some encouraging news regarding our posture towards Iran:

PARIS — The Bush administration is considering establishing an American diplomatic presence in Iran for the first time since relations were severed during the 444-day occupation of the American Embassy in Tehran nearly three decades ago, European and American officials said on Thursday.

The idea would be to establish a so-called interests section, rather than a fully staffed embassy, with American diplomats who could issue visas to Iranians seeking to visit the United States. But the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under diplomatic rules, cautioned that the idea had not been approved by the White House and could be delayed or blocked by opposition within the administration.

Talking with other nations and encouraging greater person-to-person contact is good policy, and in our national interests. Personal relationships are a first step towards greater mutual understanding.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JULY 14, 2008

CONTACT
Linda Williams
919-481-1177

RALEIGH – Today, North Carolina  Congressional candidate Dr. William “B.J.”  Lawson described the proposal by Henry Paulson and the Treasury department to support Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae as “deceitful and dishonest.”

Lawson said, “The options proposed for supporting these organizations amount to massive corporate welfare payments to bond investors and foreign governments.”  He went on to say, “Stock and bondholders of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have never had an explicit guarantee of government support, yet these two private companies have relentlessly pushed the limits of financial sanity in an effort to maximize their profits.”

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae hold over $5 trillion in mortgages and other debt, which is about half of all American mortgages.  As a result of the current credit crisis, they were responsible for funding about 80% of all mortgages in the first half of this year.  Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are both languishing in uncertainty, with representatives for both corporations claiming that they are currently solvent based upon historical asset values.  But market behavior and the government’s response reveal that both are actually insolvent based upon current marked to market asset values.

Lawson, however, proposes a more balanced solution to the problem: “Instead of a bailout, why don’t we give Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae a long-overdue dose of honesty? Their assets and debt needs to be honestly evaluated and restructured, with the stock and bondholders taking appropriate losses to reflect the fact that their investments were not without risk.”

He went on to say, “Using taxpayer funds to bailout these corporations and their investors is another example of letting corporations profit during boom times, but then expecting the American people to pay for their mismanagement during bad times.  Such abuse cannot be sustained by the economy, and Congress must begin serving the people instead of the banks and special interests.”

Dr. William “BJ” Lawson is running for Congress in North Carolina ’s 4^th Congressional District.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
APRIL 17, 2008

CONTACT
Linda Williams
919-481-1177

Durham - Congressional candidate William Lawson, M.D. will be holding a press conference at the Durham Earth Day Festival in Durham Central Park at 2pm on Saturday, April 19th to announce his opposition to the Department of Homeland Security’s proposed siting of a Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) biodisease laboratory (NBAF) in Butner, North Carolina. The conference will be at the Lawson for Congress table, and the setting has been chosen to emphasize the importance of local control and accountability in environmental protection.

The proposed facility will study a range of diseases affecting humans and animals, including the economically devastating Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD). It is impossible to predict which diseases will be studied, however, as the Department of Homeland Security reserves the ability to study organisms at their discretion based upon perceived risk.

Recent news reports highlight the history of accidents at existing facilities both in the United States and abroad, and the most recent severe outbreaks of Foot and Mouth Disease have paradoxically been caused by research facilities themselves. No facility can be completely safe, and Dr. Lawson believes it is common sense to avoid locating such laboratories in areas that put local human and livestock populations at risk. This position is shared by Dr. Roger Breeze, who previously directed Homeland Security’s existing biodisease laboratory in Plum Island, New York.

The second concern with such a facility is lack of local control. While we already have several BSL-2 and BSL-3 laboratories in our area, these labs are associated with industry, our universities, and our state’s Division of Public Health. As such, there are certain levels of transparency and accountability associated with their activities. The Department of Homeland Security is a completely different animal, and over the course of the past five years has proven itself to be highly politicized, corrupt, wasteful, and secretive. The transparency and accountability that we can demand of our existing facilities would be completely absent at NBAF.

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