Tag Archives: Joe Biden

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Questions, questions…

Glenn Greenwald asks a very good question about the situation in western China: What if the Uighurs were Christian rather than Muslim?

Just imagine if the Uighurs were a Christian — rather than Muslim — minority, battling against the tyrannical Communist regime in Beijing, resisting various types of persecution, and demanding religious freedom.  They would be lionized by America’s Right, as similar Christian minorities, oppressed by tyrannical regimes, automatically are.  Episodes like these — where a declared Tyranny like China violently acts against citizens with whom we empathize — are ones about which, in general, the American political class loves to sermonize.

But the Uighurs are Muslim, not Christian, and hostility towards them thus easily outweighs the opportunity they present to undermine the Chinese Government.

Amy Siskind has another question:

. . . with all the crises going on around the world, do we even hear Hillary’s name? Obama and Biden are off globetrotting and where is Hillary? What have they done with her?

I was wondering  the same thing as I was reading the transcript of the  Stephanopolous/Biden interview.  Why isn’t  Hillary out front and center discussing the situation in Iran, North Korea, and western China?  Good gawd, we couldn’t get Condi’s mug off the teevee when matters of foreign policy came up during the Bush years. An honestly, do you think Hillary would say something as dumb as this about Israel on the one hand and North Korea on the other?

BIDEN: Look, Israel can determine for itself — it’s a sovereign nation — what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Whether we agree or not?

BIDEN: Whether we agree or not. They’re entitled to do that. Any sovereign nation [unless they are someone WE don't like] is entitled to do that. But there is no pressure from any nation that’s going to alter our behavior as to how to proceed. What we believe is in the national interest of the United States, which we, coincidentally, believe is also in the interest of Israel and the whole world.  [Wow. Breathtaking claim regarding our national interest and the rest of the world's, no?] And so there are separate issues.

If the Netanyahu government decides to take a course of action different than the one being pursued now, that is their sovereign right to do that. That is not our choice.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But just to be clear here, if the Israelis decide Iran is an existential threat, they have to take out the nuclear program, militarily the United States will not stand in the way?

BIDEN: Look, we cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do [unless they are someone WE don't like] when they make a determination, if they make a determination that they’re existentially threatened and their survival is threatened by another country.

[...]

STEPHANOPOULOS: Meanwhile, North Korea…

BIDEN: Yes.

STEPHANOPOULOS: … seven missile launches in the last 24 hours, 11 this week. Anything the United States can do about it?

BIDEN: The question is, is there anything that we should do about it? Look, this has almost become predictable behavior. Some of it seems like almost attention-seeking behavior.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And you don’t want to give the attention?

BIDEN: And — no, I don’t want to give the attention, 

Sooo….Our BFF, Israel, is a sovereign nation who can do no wrong and can do whatever it wants. North Korea, on the other hand, is a temper-tantrum throwing child who should just be ignored. It could not possibly be that they are feeling “existentially threatened and [that] their survival is threatened by another country,” right?

All in all, I found the interview depressing. A lot of pass the buck or taking credit for stuff that hasn’t happened yet. The whole interview was typical Joe Biden, right down to this:

Look, I think the right approach is one we have chosen, the Obama/Biden administration.

At least I can him props for not joining in the Palin Pile-On and (gasp) taking her at her word.

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Jeebus

Received this in my inbox today. 

Joe Biden’s pro-RIAA, pro-FBI tech voting record

By choosing Joe Biden as their vice presidential candidate, the Democrats have selected a politician with a mixed record on technology who has spent most of his Senate career allied with the FBI and copyright holders, who ranks toward the bottom of CNET’s Technology Voters’ Guide, and whose anti-privacy legislation was actually responsible for the creation of PGP.

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Now, it’s true that few Americans will cast their votes in November based on what the vice presidential candidate thinks of copyright law. But these pro-copyright views don’t exactly jibe with what Obama has promised; he’s pledged to “update and reform our copyright and patent systems to promote civic discourse, innovation and investment while ensuring that intellectual property owners are fairly treated.” These are code words for taking a more pro-EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) than pro-MPAA approach.

Unfortunately, Biden has steadfastly refused to answer questions on the topic. We asked him 10 tech-related questions, including whether he’d support rewriting the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, as part of our 2008 Technology Voters’ guide. Biden would not answer (we did hear back from Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Ron Paul).

In our 2006 Technology Voters’ Guide, which ranked Senate votes from July 1998 through May 2005, Biden received a mere 37.5 percent score because of his support for Internet filters in schools and libraries and occasional support for Internet taxes.

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The next year, months before the Oklahoma City bombing took place, Biden introduced another bill called the Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995. It previewed the 2001 Patriot Act by allowing secret evidence to be used in prosecutions, expanding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and wiretap laws, creating a new federal crime of “terrorism” that could be invoked based on political beliefs, permitting the U.S. military to be used in civilian law enforcement, and allowing permanent detection of non-U.S. citizens without judicial review. The Center for National Security Studies said the bill would erode “constitutional and statutory due process protections” and would “authorize the Justice Department to pick and choose crimes to investigate and prosecute based on political beliefs and associations.”

That was Joe Biden then. Funny thing happened when he decided to run for President.

But Biden’s views had become markedly less FBI-friendly by April 2007, six years later. By then, the debate over wiretapping had become sharply partisan, pitting Democrats seeking to embarrass President Bush against Republicans aiming to defend the administration at nearly any cost. In addition, Biden had announced his presidential candidacy three months earlier and was courting liberal activists dismayed by the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping.

There’s that New Kind Of Politics again…

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Candidates statements on Mukasey

Biden – No statement on Senate web site. No statement on campaign web site.

Clinton – Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on Her Opposition to the Nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey to be Attorney General of the United States Will vote against.

Dodd – No statement at Senate web site. Late breaking banner on campaign web site. Will vote against.

Edwards – No statement on campaign web site.

Kucinich – No statement on House web site. No statement on campaign web site.

Obama – No statement on Senate web site. No statement on campaign web site.

Richardson – No statement on campaign web site.

Also, Harry Reid is voting NO.

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Better Know a Candidate – A new beginning

It’s been a week of new beginnings and I haven’t had time to post the way I am used to. I’ve started a new job and that means I’m no longer on staff with NSDP. What does that mean for Blue Lyon? First of all, the declaration in this post is no longer operative. That is, I intend to caucus for a candidate, and make my intentions known at some point. But not yet. Like many out there, I simply have not made up my mind. I have, at least, crossed some names off my list.

Definite NOs:

  • Joe Biden – Between his vote on the bankruptcy bill and his vote on the Iraq funding bill last week, he is now officially off my list. (Sorry, Omar)

  • Mike Gravel – Yeah, he is full of pee and vinegar, but though he’s right about Iraq, his “National Initiative for Democracy” sounds more like mob rule. Are you kidding me? Most Americans, between their jobs, families and trying to have some semblance of a life don’t have the time to be legislators too. Yeah, it sounds good, but we live in a representative democracy and it’s our job to hold those jokers’ feet to the fire. If they don’t do the job we sent them there to do, then fire the bums. But, we pay them to look at the facts, come up with solutions and pass legislation. We pay them to do that job. If they fail in that regard, we have a ‘national initiative for democracy every two years. It’s called an election. And as much as I hate what our tax code has become, his idea of replacing the current one with a national sales tax and a really convoluted system of “prebates” (replacing one bureaucracy with another?) is ridiculous. Our tax system is broken, but seriously, there’s got to be a better solution than a national sales tax.

Secondly, I may become more outspoken on people and topics I had heretofore been mum about. We’ll see how that plays out in the coming months.

I will continue to post about our candidates’ position on issues, but now feel freer to provide commentary at the same time.

Anyway, it’s my birthday (I was born on a Memorial Day Sunday – - really!), so this weekend is always a bit odd for me. I celebrate my life at the same time I mourn and remember the fallen.