I'm about to head to the floor to vote against the Iraq supplemental.  Before I do, I thought I would share with you the speech I delivered about the bill in the Senate today.

I'll be back after the vote to respond to some of your comments.  Here's the speech I delivered on the floor today, explaining why I'm voting No:

It's great to be back here at DailyKos -- now in the majority! As we told the country last November, elections have consequences -- and one of those consequences was the change in leadership of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee.

I just finished up our first hearing on global warming as the new Democratic Chair of the EPW Committee.  Instead of a Chair who says global warming is a hoax, I said today that global warming is the challenge of our generation, and we must step up and meet it.

To that end, I hope you will help me move forward a bill that will be a meaningful start. We have lost so much time, so we must act quickly.

Many people have already offered suggestions to meet the challenge of global warming, and many other proposals are about to be put on the table. But I'd like to hear your ideas on the best way to move forward as well. What ideas do you think we should pursue? Let me know so that I can share your comments with my colleagues in the Senate at our next hearing.

Please click here to rank your preferred approaches to stop global warming now:  http://ga4.org/...

Friends,

To Gina Cooper and the YearlyKos planning committee, the more than 1,000 of you that were in the conference hall, and the tens of thousands more that were with us in spirit online, thank you so much for inviting me to join you and for giving me such a warm reception in Las Vegas.

Speaking with you at YearlyKos was exhilarating because it reminded me of what democracy is all about -- and what America can be all about once more, if we keep fighting for what we believe.  After joining you in Las Vegas, I'm more confident than ever that we can take back Congress this November -- but it's going to take all of us pulling together online, and reaching into our offline communities, to get it done.

More below the flip.

More than 40,000 Americans have already cast their ballots in our online vote that will determine which House incumbent and challenger will receive the next fundraising messages to the PAC for a Change email list.

This is your last chance, with just a few more hours to go until our online polls close, to join them.  So I'm making one last "get out the vote" push.

Please visit www.barbaraboxer.com/vote now and vote for the House candidates PAC for a Change should support next -- before our online polls close at 11:59pm PT tonight!

There are many critical races that will be decided this November -- races that will determine whether Democrats pick up the 15 seats we need to take back the House in 2006.  

So today I'm inviting you to vote and decide which Democratic House candidates PAC for a Change should support next.  The Democratic incumbent and the Democratic challenger receiving the most online votes will each be featured in a fundraising email to our PAC for a Change community -- which could be worth tens of thousands of dollars to their campaigns.  (A similar fundraising email that we sent last month on behalf of my friend and colleague from Florida, Sen. Bill Nelson, raised more than $68,000 for his campaign.)

www.barbaraboxer.com/vote

More on the flip.

Over just the past 12 days, more than 500 Iraqis have been tragically killed in Shia/Sunni violence in Iraq -- in the wake of the February 22nd bombing of the Askariya shrine in Samarra, a holy place for Shia Muslims.

Our brave men and women in uniform remain in harm's way, caught in the middle of an increasingly violent religious conflict -- and the situation is in real danger of spiraling into a full-scale civil war.

This is progress?  More on the flip.

As you know, on Tuesday the Senate Foreign Relations Committee met once more to consider the nomination of John Bolton as UN Ambassador. In the light of many serious allegations against Bolton that have emerged over the past few weeks, I along with the other committee Democrats urged Chairman Lugar to hold off on a final vote until these allegations could be fully explored.

Most observers expected our efforts to fail, figuring that committee Republicans would steamroll Democrats on a party line vote and ram Bolton's nomination through, sending it to the Senate floor for a final vote. But that didn't happen.

Thanks in large part to the efforts of the online community, including more than 37,000 emails you sent to your senators through my PAC website alone, Bolton's nomination was stopped in its tracks. Republican Senator George Voinovich of Ohio joined committee Democrats in urging more careful consideration of John Bolton's nomination, delaying a final vote for three weeks -- and I am so grateful for his support on this critical issue.

Now, it's time for us to do more.

Today, my heart is heavy.  By just two votes, we came up short in our effort to prevent oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, home to over 150 wildlife species.  

I offer my heartfelt thanks to the thousands of you who joined with me and signed my petition to Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist, demonstrating our strong opposition to this disastrous policy.

In the end, over 90% of Senate Democrats voted to stop this madness -- we just didn't have the votes to overcome the Republican majority in the Senate.

Today 4500 roses arrived at my Senate office -- what a wonderful Valentine's Day gift! Thanks so much to those of you who sent them for such a warm and kind gesture on this special day.

Thanks especially to Stacy Davies in Claremont, CA who spearheaded the whole project. I spoke with Stacy last Friday and thanked her personally for this terrific gift.

(See some pictures below!)

(From the diaries -- kos)

I can't thank all of you enough -- the Daily Kos community, and the blogosphere as a whole -- for all of your effective work during the recent debate over Condoleezza Rice's nomination. Your support and participation in this critical debate meant so much to me.

More than 94,000 Americans from across the country signed my petition and stood together to demand the truth from Condoleezza Rice. It was truly an overwhelming response -- much more than I could have anticipated. You helped to get our message out to millions of Americans -- I couldn't have done it without you.

And you made a difference. You gave me the voice I needed to ask the tough questions during Dr. Rice's confirmation hearings. And you gave the entire United States Senate the voice it needed to take its "advice and consent" responsibility seriously. In fact, Condoleezza Rice received 13 votes against her confirmation -- the most votes against any Secretary of State's nomination since 1825.