Oil billionaire Pickens campaigns for horses

[Judi Lynn]

Oil billionaire Pickens campaigns for horses
27 minutes ago

Making a killing in the oil business is a proper American pastime but slaughtering horses and eating them is not, legendary Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens said on Monday.

The 78-year-old oil trading legend will testify on Capitol Hill on Tuesday on what he calls America's "dirty little secret" -- that slaughterhouses in Texas and Illinois kill about 100,000 horses a year and the meat ends up on dinner tables in Europe and Japan.

"It's not any different as far as I'm concerned than if you killed dogs and sent them to France and Japan," Pickens told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"It's just plain un-American."

Pickens said he supports legislation backed by Rep. John Sweeney (news, bio, voting record), a New York Republican, that would bar horse meat production at three U.S. plants.
(snip/...)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060724/pl_nm/pickens_horses_dc;_ylt=A86.I17ZPcVEiVYBWgMWIr0F;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

[Reckon]

1. YIKES!........ ............. ......nt

[LostinVA]

2. Good for him

I agree -- horses are domesticated, companion animals.

[goforit]

3. here here!!!

Man is looking really bad these days.

Nothing but barbaric animals!

[DemoTex]

4. Years ago, I almost took a job with T. Boone (Amarillo, Tx).

I went to work for Ken Lay instead. T. Boone was a corporate raider, Kenny-boy was, back then, a builder. T. Boone Pickens' Mesa Petroleum flight department was at the Amarillo airport, right across from Pantex, a nuclear weapons manufacturing plant. No thanks, said I, I'll take my chances with Kenny-boy in Houston. Look who's still around.

[TomInTib]

9. He used to write HUUUUGE checks to me.

And I mean huge.

[MasonJar]

5. Thank you, Mr. Pickens. An oil billionaire with some sense.

[zonkers]

6. Remember he charterd some planes to transport Katrina dogs to CA. (pic)

He's alright that Boone.

[President Jesus]

19. you *might* want to rethink that statement after seeing this

T Boone Pickens' campaign contribution list:
http://www.newsmeat.com/billionaire_political_donations/T_Boone_Pickens.php

Check out the $3,000,000 he donated to the "Swift Vets."

Thank you, Mr. Pickens, for having "sense." :eyes:

[saigon68]

20. The "Sleeze Boat Liars" raised 36 Million $$$$ to attack Kerry

It was the difference I believe

[Vidar]

7. Glad someone is.

[Dover]

8. I wonder what his position is on the slaughter of Iraqis and Lebanese?

I guess it's okay so long as they don't end up on someone's dinner plate.

Pickens is trying to buy up all the water rights in north Texas so he can sell it like he does oil futures. This guy is bad news. Admitted on Charlie Rose's show that he is now concentrating on buying up water where he can find it.

He considered running for president in 1988, but I guess big oil had to wait for Bush to really take over the government.(He is/was a BIG Bush supporter).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._Boone_Pickens

[Doremus]

10. A neocon with a heart -- for animals with 4 legs anyway.

Two-legged animals are only good for making money from, either from the sweat of their brow or the contents of their bank accounts.

Anyway, I find myself in agreement with him on this issue and I hope he's successful in curtailing this barbaric practice.

[blogslut]

18. not quite all four legged animals

When he and his wife left Amarillo in a huff (after we voted his crony mayor out of office) he couldn't be bothered to take his cat with him. A billionaire can't afford a pet deposit? Friends of my parents took the poor thing in.

[Just Me]

11. Wonder how he feels about slaughtering innocent children and,...

,...the mass graves our government forces them into.

Does he give that reality a second thought?

Somehow, I doubt it. I doubt he has any flash of human poverty in our own country, let alone the massive destruction we impose on other countries.

[Tellurian]

12. Something just doesn't smell right here..

I dunno what it is, but his motives do not seem to be as altruistic
as he portrays. Something is up...time will tell.

Will the horses be airfreighted directly to France and Belgium?

Horse meat is a delicacy in Europe.

[sandnsea]

15. Smearing the Democrat

This is the guy who was a major funder of the swift boat vets. The Democrat is connected to or endorsed by agriculture in Texas, who are for these horse meat plants. You can't run against agriculture in Texas and have any chance of winning. So Boone comes out for the horsies and smears the Democrat as a pony killer. Republicans who were never going to vote for the Dem still won't, but a lot of the left will stay home rather than vote for a DINO bla bla bla. Republicans do this shit all the time and I don't know when the left will stop walking into their traps.

[Judi Lynn]

16. Where's the Democrat in the story? What has been omitted?

Is there a Democrat behind the push to kill the horses? I've simply NEVER seen him/her named anywhere since this has been discussed in newspapers in the last year.

I really would like to know so I can hate him/her properly! If you know which Democrat(s) it is, please post the name(s).

[sandnsea]

17. Charles Stenholm

"His support for the bill sets up a duel with another Texan, former Democratic U.S. Rep. Charles Stenholm, who lobbies for the plants and Livestock Marketing Association."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4064438.html

Pickens doesn't give a crap about these horses, he's just launching smear campaigns, against Stenholm and those despicable foreigners.

"Pickens, founder of BP Capital and Mesa Petroleum, issued a news release today saying he was launching an attack against "foreign-owned horse killing plants."

[Judi Lynn]

25. Good lord. He served 13 terms.

His photo:

~snip~
Stenholm was born in Stamford, Texas and he graduated from Texas Tech University — with a B.S. (1961) and an M.S. (1962) in Agriculture Education (1961). He has operated a cotton farm in West Texas for many years.

Stenholm was elected to the House as a Democrat in 1978, representing the Abilene-based 17th District. He became one of the most conservative Democrats in the House, and was a leader of the Boll Weevils during the 1980s. Stenholm opposed abortion and gun control. However, his main interest was in budget matters — he was a longtime supporter of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. He frequently clashed with President Bill Clinton, and voted for three of the four articles of impeachment against him. However, he was a severe critic of the Bush Administration's fiscal policy, and voted against making Bush's tax cut permanent.

Despite his moderate-to-conservative voting record, Stenholm faced several tough reelection campaigns in the late 1990s. It was generally believed that he would be succeeded by a Republican once he retired. However, he was a major target of the Tom DeLay-engineered redrawing of Texas' congressional districts in 2003. Stenholm's district was split among three districts. Most of his former territory, including his home in Abilene, was thrown into the Lubbock-based 19th District, represented by freshman Republican Randy Neugebauer. The new district retained most of Neugebauer's former territory, an advantage that Stenholm was unable to overcome despite his seniority in the House. He lost by 10 percentage points.

After his defeat, he was mentioned by some major news organizations, as a possible candidate for Secretary of Agriculture in President Bush's second term Cabinet, despite Bush's support of the redistricting plan. Stenholm had been very interested in agriculture issues while in Congress — in fact, during his last three terms in the House he was ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. In the end, Bush nominated Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns, a fellow Republican, for the post. Stenholm is curretly a lobbyist representing among of others the horse meat industry.
(snip/...)

http://www.answers.com/topic/charles-stenholm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It sounds as if he's far closer to the right-wing than to Democratic principles. What a foul, filthy scum. I hope his life goes right into the toilet.

Thanks for the information.

[sandnsea]

26. Thanks so much for proving my point

Forget about needing every D we can get for a House majority, let's toss that over a Wiki entry about the guy being a pony killer. :eyes:

[Judi Lynn]

27. Glad to do it! Thanks to you.

[Tellurian]

22. Thankx for the info, sandsea..

Now, your description of how things "really" are sounds logical.

If Boone never stood up before against cattle ranchers advocating
the slaughter of the wild mustangs because they use federal lands
as their habitat, because they want the use of the land for their cattle.

It becomes quite obvious Boone is a manipulative, hypocritical fraud!

Ya hear that Mr. Boone- You've been publicly outed right here,
from the sound of my typing to God' ears!

[samsingh]

13. good for him

[ThsMchneKilsFascists]

14. Horses are way too cute and friendly to eat

Pass me over some ugly social misfits like pigs or cows
Oh and don't forget the fish

[leftyladyfrommo]

21. Yes! I am right there with him on this one. n/t

[xchrom]

23. on this issue he and can agree.

[AngryAmish]

24. Typical Freeper illogic

Go to bed, old man.

[Robb]

28. If you're going to kill animals for food, fine

Horses don't deserve any special status. They're cool animals, but they're animals.

Whether all animals should be killed for food is another debate. :shrug: