Mixed Bag

Well, the hype is over. Biden was chosen as the VP candidate. Some are happy, most a relieved, but I’m in limbo.

I have to say my whole take on politics has become skeptical, and I have a sinking feeling about how corruption seeps into the best of candidates, because they have to play the game to be in it.

I kind of started out really hopeful, and inspired by Obama- until he did the turnaround on FISA, and then announced he’d like to send 10,000 troops into Afghanistan.

I felt betrayed & disappointed.

The champion of Civil Rights & teacher of the Constitution was FOR illegal wiretapping, after he said he opposed it???

The announcement of the surge in Afghanistan blew me away. A surge is a surge & war escalation by any other name is still one & the same.

I won’t go off the deep end & vote for McInsane….. but I am not blinded by the hoopla of the announcement, the convention, or the democratic party itself.

I just can’t buy into the excitement, because a part of me is thinking these Dems, who have been a majority since 2006, failed us. They failed to impeach THE most criminal executive branch in the history of this country.
They failed to use the power of the purse to stop funding the illeal occupation. They failed to refuse to allow the supreme court to tipping to the extreme right. They failed to do anything about torture and abuse. They failed the prisoners in Gitmo. I don’t connsider these items to be small, differences of opinion.

I consider them to be gross Human Rights violations. Against Constitutional & International laws.
Serious and deadly violations, and in conflict of the true spirit, and very foundations of this country.

So I am watching.. waiting

I desperately WANT change, but I have serious doubts about if the system is too broken for the kind of change I hope to see.

That being said I made links to other blogs to check stuff out~

Dusty: Has a story about security for both conventions.

Each city has a $50 million dollar Homeland Security budget.

Denver has what has been dubbed a *Freedom Cage*… a fenced area where protestors can freely express themselves- out of site from the convention center.

Dada: He explores the realms of cognitive dissonance (Urban Survival): “That’s where you’re told one thing (‘The sky is green’) and your eyes or ears tell you something else.

Spado: He’s in the neighborhood of hte repub convention & speaks of 1s2 Amendment rights “What kind of a democracy is this if we let citizens become unnecessarily intimidated about being tazered, pepper-sprayed, infiltrated, spied on or photographed by cameras installed on public streets?”

ChrisPosted a comprehensive list of where Biden stands on the issues. Here’s a sampling:

• “Strongly” supports Roe v. Wade, but opposes public funding for abortion. (Hmm maybe not so strong???)

• Opposes same-sex marriage but supports civil unions. Voted yes on the Defense of Marriage Act, which denied Federal benefits to same-sex couples and allowed states to ignore same-sex marriages sanctioned by another state. (flip or flop…. not sure?)

• Supports direct engagement with Iran “to exploit fissures within the government and between the government and the people.” (Noooooooooooooooo!)

Maybe some of this is why I’m not jumping for joy about the Biden decision.

Where do YOU stand on these issues?

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Hunter Biden-Lobbyist for Big Pharma

Yet, his daddy Joe calls him a lawyer on his website. From the last paragraph on the page:

Senator Biden lives in Wilmington, Delaware and commutes to Washington, DC when the Senate is in session. He is married to Dr. Jill Biden, the former Jill Jacobs, an educator in Delaware’s schools for over twenty years. She currently is a professor teaching at Delaware Technical Community College. Senator Biden is the father of three children: Beau, Hunter and Ashley. Beau serves as Delaware’s Attorney General, Ashley is a social worker and Hunter is a lawyer. The Bidens also have five grandchildren: Naomi, Finnegan, Roberta Mabel, Natalie, and Robert Hunter.

Now, isn’t that interesting and just a little ironic? Which group is it that Obama has so much distain for he refuses to take their campaign donations? Lobbyists.

From Bloomberg: The Big O’s campaign had ‘no comment’. Also from Bloomberg:

Barack Obama’s speech announcing his running mate Joe Biden singled out the Delaware senator’s son who is headed for Iraq. Obama didn’t mention the profession of Biden’s other son, who lobbied for two drug companies and five universities.

No comment from the Obama-Biden campaign on what Biden’s son Hunter does for a living? You can bet your ass the neocon’s will be all over this little tidbit..so the campaign will have to address it sooner or later…And that’s not all the lobbying headaches for the Big O that Joe Biden brings to the campaign ‘table’. From The National Journal:

Further, a half-dozen or so former Biden staffers are working as Washington lobbyists. They include Jeff Connaughton, vice chairman of Quinn Gillespie & Associates; Mark Gitenstein, partner at Mayer Brown; Neil McBride, vice president for legal affairs at the Business Software Alliance; Jeff Peck, partner at Johnson Madigan Boland Peck & Stewart; Chris Putala, executive vice president of public policy at Earthlink; Jake Seher, senior legislative adviser at Venable; Ryan Spangler, manager of government relations at Monument Policy Group; and James Williams, senior vice president at Ogilvy Government Relations.

Biden also has family ties to K Street. His, son, R. Hunter Biden, is a founding partner at law and lobbying firm Oldaker, Biden & Belair. William Oldaker, one of the firm’s other founders, has been a campaign adviser and fundraiser for Biden for 25 years, according to Delaware news reports. Biden is so close to former Rep. Marty Russo, D-Ill., CEO and senior vice chairman at lobbying firm Cassidy & Associates, that he is godfather to Russo’s granddaughter.

Goodness, this could really get played by the Rethugs in a big way..

Tags: Hunter Biden, Biden son Hunter is a lobbyist, Big Pharma

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Biden is a mixed bag for progressives..

Joe Biden is a good man, I don’t doubt that. He doesn’t live in DC, instead taking the train every night to his Delaware home…which by the way is quite modest by anyone’s standards. He isn’t worth much more than the average Joe and Jill that live down the street in middle-class America, having taken out a second on his house to put one of his son’s through college.

Biden is a good debater, he can hold his ground with anyone, and yesterdays bitch-slap of McCain was a welcome sight to me.

His positions on some of the important issues might cause a lefty to gulp however. This Alternet article tells us some of Joe’s pro’s and cons. He’s, according to Alternet, taken the lead on environmental issues, is strong on labor, with a number of years with 100 percent “pro-labor” voting scores by the AFL-CIO (his 2007 score of 85% was not among the top scores for Senate Democrats).

Again, from Alternet and Joshua Holland:

He has a mixed record on a woman’s right to choose, having voted for the ban on “partial birth abortion” — a nonexistent procedure invented by the religious right — and opposing federal funding for abortions for low-income women, but he has also been a consistent defender of the basic tenets of Roe V Wade.

He’s received a 78 rating from the Human Rights Campaign, and is a strong advocate for domestic partnership benefits for same-sex couples. He voted against the proposed Constitutional ban on gay marriage but supported the Defense of Marriage Act. In 2003, when asked if gay marriage was an inevitability, Biden responded, “I’m not sure. I think probably it is.”

Biden’s most problematic domestic issue, as far as progressive voters are concerned, is probably his record of fealty to the finance industry. Not only did he vote in favor of the 2005 bankruptcy “reform” bill, he also voted against most of the proposed amendments that would have strengthened consumer rights under the legislation. Biden, whose top contributor over his career has been the credit card giant MBNA Corp., was one of only 18 Democrats to vote for the bill. He’s often referred to by progressive critics as Joe Biden (D-Mastercard).

I am not thrilled at all with his stance on Abortion and poor women first off. It bugs the living shit out of me to be honest. I do not consider Biden to be a friend to the consumer either. His vote for the Bankruptcy Bill and his allegiance to the Financial Industry down right piss me the fuck off.

But the Drum Major Institute, which tracks all things that are relative to our nations middle class gives Joey B a 95 percent rating so far this year. His rating has consistently been an “A” except for the year he voted to fuck everyone with the new…and cough..improved Bankruptcy Bill. The MiddleClass.org site is a great little synopsis of each legislator and their pov on Biden is worth looking at.

Biden’s strong suit is supposed to be foreign policy but in my mind he isn’t “all that”. Holland’s Alternet article calls him a Liberal Hawk.

WTF? I guess there is such an animal..but its a strange bird none the less. The use of force anywhere around the world is not a slam dunk and must be used wisely. Biden is a big fan of the ‘use of force’ as witnessed by his votes to go into Iraq and Afghanistan. He also championed our use of force in Bosnia and Kosovo. He does support going into Sudan…and frankly I do too.

His views on medicinal marijuana, cannabis in general and “source country interdiction” are total and complete utter bullshit.

The Alternet writeup is a good read, and doing a little research on Biden shows he pretty much hangs in the middle-to-the-slightly-left category on most issues, but not all. He is a mainstream Democrat by and large.

Which means I ain’t real fond of him.

So the real question remains…will he help or hurt the Big O’s chances to become the forty-fourth President of these here United States.

Tags: Joe Biden, Joe Biden on the issues

Crossposted at Bring It On!

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