Biden on the issues.

[Matariki]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Joe_Biden

I'm not too happy with this choice. And in eight years...

For one thing:

He voted in favor of a 1999 bill to ban in most circumstances "partial birth abortion"<2> and on the 2003 Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.<3> Biden has defended these votes as recently as April 2007.<4> He has also stated his opposition to federal funding of abortions.<5>

[Matariki]

1. And his middle name is Robinette

[Muttocracy]

8. It's a family surname. Got a problem with Obama's middle name? nt

[Matariki]

12. So, has he apologized for his Iraq war vote?

[endthewar]

17. Yeah, he actually owned up to his mistake unlike some other politicians

Plus Obama clearly stated that he doesn't want yes-men, but people to give him different points of view.

[Carolina]

33. even if he has

I'm sick of fucking apologies. What about judgment? What about voting to give Bush so much authority in the first place!

Apologies mean squat after so much death, destruction, devastation, the decimation of the military and depletion of our national treasury

I can see it now: Sen Obama: you have said the war should never have been AUTHORIZED and yet you have chosen as a running mate someone WHO VOTED TO AUTHORIZE IT! You have also chosen a long term Washington insider. How does your choice of Senator Biden square with you claim about the war and your message of CHANGE?!

[inthebrain]

2. Iposted that stuff and explained it

I think they are awful stances.

Public funding for abortion is so fucking important. Even amongs a lot of the pro life contingency, not many people believe that a rape victim should be forced to carry if she doesn't want to.

His partial birth abortion stance is just as bad if not worse. That procedure is for women who's lives are threatend by the fetus.

[still_one]

23. Obama is the president, and does not agree with those positions

Obama choose Biden for his international experience, not domestic

Either way, this is what it is, and the choice is quite simple

Obam verses mccain

[Captain Sensible]

30. There are allowances for that and he voted for them.

[Muttocracy]

3. nice selective copy and paste there

Social issues

Joe Biden believes that the Roe v. Wade decision should remain intact. He is quoted as saying, "The best policy for our country on the question of abortion is a policy of Government neutrality. Put another way: I do not believe that the government should be involved in making judgments on whether a woman can, or should have an abortion, or – if she chooses to do so – in paying for that abortion."<2>

He voted in favor of a 1999 bill to ban in most circumstances "partial birth abortion"<2> and on the 2003 Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.<3> Biden has defended these votes as recently as April 2007.<4> He has also stated his opposition to federal funding of abortions.<5>

He has joined with Democrats in voting against parental notification and a ban on abortions on military bases. Biden's record on abortion is generally favorable towards the practice receiving a 100% rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America in four of the last five years, although he received a 36% as recently as 2003. Biden pledged that he would appoint Supreme Court justices that share his beliefs.<6> He has also stated his opposition to the Mexico City Policy, and voted in favor of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act in 1994. Biden supports federal funding for stem cell research and voted to expand development and voted against a 1998 ban on cloning.

Biden voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act<7> and against the Federal Marriage Amendment.<8> He supports states rights to establish civil unions and favors adding sexual orientation to the criteria for a hate crime.<9><10>

Biden favors diverting drug offenders out of the nation's prison system. He is against making stricter laws for drug offenses but helped in the creation of a Drug Czar. He voted against restrictions on children obtaining violent videos and supports funding for the Boys and Girls Clubs in underprivileged areas.

[Matariki]

4. I posted the parts I'm UNHAPPY about

and as a female, I think those parts are IMPORTANT.

[Muttocracy]

6. So vote McCain and see how well that works for the Supreme Court. nt

[lonestarnot]

7. blah blah blah

[endthewar]

21. The buck stops on ONE desk

People have been under the MSM delusion that this is a co-presidency. It's not. From "the buck stops here" to "I am the decider," all Presidents have made this point clear. At the end of the day, the Vice President is just another private citizen giving counsel and advice to the President. The Vice President spot is NOT a consolation prize like some people seem to think.

[lonestarnot]

5. That's not a fucking issue. The war, the economy, the mortgage and banking industries, the fanny

and freddie bail outs are issues.

[flamingdem]

9. It's a throwaway issue relevant to .0000001 percent of cases nt

[Matariki]

10. Tell that to a low income, pregnant rape victim.

it's not an either/or thing.

I'm sure Biden will be fine. I don't like his stand on abortion funding and partial birth abortions and some other issues as well. I wish it were a different choice. But I'm sure I'll 'come around'. It's my first reaction.

It's easy for men to say "it's not an important issue". Easy for straights to say "gay marriage isn't an important issue". Easy for caucasians to say "affirmative action isn't an important issue" and so forth.

[lonestarnot]

11. Your first reaction was re abortion? WTF 1 issue bullshit.

Get the fuck out.

[Matariki]

13. Iraq war vote.

It was a mistake because of the 'way it was handled'. Not because it reprehensible to invade a country and kill tens of thousands of innocent people?

[endthewar]

22. Who did you want to be V.P.?

You know that Hillary voted for the IWR too, right? Plus she had to get an apology dragged out of her.

[Matariki]

14. Women's right to access to safe & legal abortions in NOT a bullshit issue, btw.

[whirlygigspin]

18. lonestarnot, you've got me rolling on the floor laughing, I love it

:rofl:

[Matariki]

15. Biden's mostly good on the issues. The wiki summary is worth reading

Guess I'm just a wee disappointed the choice wasn't a woman. I'd like to see a progressive woman president in my life time.

[FrenchieCat]

16. Me too.....

Barack can only be in for 8 years. Biden wouldn't run, he's too old. Therefore, there is an opening sooner than way, way later.

[endthewar]

19. This leaves the door wide open for Hillary you know

Since Obama will win 2 terms, Biden will be 73 years old after Obama's presidency. That's older than what McCain is now. Not very likely for him to run for President 8 years from now. So the door will be open for Hillary 8 years for now (or even 4 years from now in the unfortunate case that Obama loses).

[Matariki]

20. Well, I didn't mean Hillary specifically, but good point

However, is this just speculation based on his age or has he said anything to infer he won't run in 2016?

[endthewar]

25. You see how much age is a factor for McCain now?

Well, Biden will be OLDER than McCain is now in 2016. If he did run in 2016, one of the major talking points in MSM would be that Biden is older than McCain was.

[G_j]

24. anyone remember The Rave Act?

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2003/04/07/024/84486
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A164591
http://www.drugpolicy.org/communities/raveact/

[Demeter]

26. I'm With You, Kineta

When I think of the state of the nation, and all the work to be done, Biden is NOT the name that leaps to mind or lips!

His record is all over the map. There's no guiding principle in sight.

I do think VAWA speaks in his favor, but one flower doesn't make a spring...

[endthewar]

27. It's not a co-presidency

I feel like a broken record having to say this so many times.

[Dover]

28. US Democrat Biden advocates the communal break-up of Iraq

The “five point alternative plan” for Iraq put forward last week by Joseph R. Biden, the ranking Democrat member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, can best be described as a proposal for a sectarian bloodbath. He has joined others in the US political establishment whose solution to the catastrophe in Iraq is to tear the country apart along ethno-religious lines and—providing they collaborate with Washington—put anti-democratic regimes in power over the population.

Biden is a thoroughly pro-war figure. In 2002, he voted in the Congress to give Bush the authority to carry out the illegal invasion of Iraq. He has vehemently defended the White House’s criminal policy of preemptive wars. The Democrats as a whole have provided crucial support for the militarist agenda of the Bush administration. Biden’s main criticism of the Iraq war is that the White House did not send enough troops.

Three years after the invasion, Biden, like a growing layer in American ruling circles, is alarmed about the state of affairs in Iraq. The US military is bogged down fighting against anti-occupation insurgents. Over 20,000 troops have been killed or wounded, while the cost of the conflict is approaching $100 billion per year. There is no viable government in Baghdad and, far from the situation beginning to stabilise, the efforts of the Bush administration to weaken resistance by encouraging sectarian divisions have triggered fratricidal warfare between Sunni and Shiite extremists.

Biden’s concern, spelt out in an op-ed contribution in New York Times on May 1, is that the nightmare the Bush administration has created in Iraq is shattering domestic support for the war. He fears that the “frustration of Americans is mounting so fast that Congress might end up mandating a rapid pullout”. Such an eventuality would threaten what he considers “key security goals” of American imperialism. While Biden did not spell them out, those goals are US domination over the territory and oil and gas resources of the Middle East.

Biden’s solution to the disaster facing the United States is to split Iraq into three autonomous statelets within a loose federal structure. He advocates “giving each ethno-religious group—Kurd, Sunni Arab and Shiite Arab—room to run its own affairs, while leaving the central government in charge of common interests”. Alongside the de-facto Kurdish state that already exists in northern Iraq, he calls for the creation of a Shiite-controlled autonomous region in the oil-rich southern provinces and a Sunni Arab region in the central and western provinces.

The new Iraqi constitution that was drafted by pro-occupation Shiite and Kurdish parties and the US embassy enables such a partition to take place. It provides the mechanisms for the establishment of regions and gives control over all new oil fields to the regional governments, not the federal authority in Baghdad. Washington’s plan was to create Shiite and Kurdish regions that would provide a stable basis for American corporations to begin the wholesale exploitation of Iraq’s untapped oil reserves—the second largest in the world.

Thus far, this has not been possible. Sunni-based parties and organisations have bitterly opposed the constitution, as most of the country’s oil and gas fields are located in the south and north. A Sunni region in the centre would face the risk of being cut out of a share in the revenues. The predominantly Sunni Arab resistance groups regularly carry out successful attacks on oil refineries and pipelines across the country. The northern oil fields are barely able to operate. Iraqi oil production is declining, while the general insecurity has made companies reluctant to invest.

..cont'd

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/may2006/bide-m09.shtml

---


Biden's plan for Iraq as different from the other Dem candidates:
http://www.observer.com/node/36658

[Captain Sensible]

29. can you...

give me a good reason other than the health of the mother to have a partial birth abortion at 8 1/2 months? its not so bad to vote against that after all thats the only reason given by pro choice advocates for the need for partail birth abortions.

[Matariki]

32. That's a decision to be made between a woman and her doctor. NOT law makers in congress.

[Carolina]

31. me neither!

Biden:

1) a long time Washington insider... some change
2) years of Senate votes & Sunday morning bloviating for repukes to dredge up and throw back at us
3) years of verbal gaffes for repukes and their media toadies to throw back at us
4) IWR.... DUH, the war that never should have been authorized (that one bothers me the most)
5) beholden to the banking/credit card industry
6) not a big vote getter in the primaries
7) brings Delaware... big woo

I'm on board with the ticket but have no enthusiasm.