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Biden, just back from a trip to Georgia and the Ukraine, said that Russian leaders are "clinging to something in the past," and dismissed Russia's claim to a sphere of influence extending to neighboring countries. “It’s a very difficult thing to deal with, loss of empire,” said Biden.

Sergei Prikhodko, the chief foreign policy adviser to President Medvedev, shot back: “The question is: who is shaping the U.S. foreign policy, the president or respectable members of his team?”

It wasn't immediately clear if Biden's aggressive, and extended, comments represented a broader change of U.S. tone or policy, and the White House hasn't offered any comment on the interview.

Biden: They're not private meetings....

They're just closed to the press.

[W]e've wondered aloud how this Democratic VP's private meetings with unnamed people on unnamed subjects differs from the private meetings with unnamed people that his evil predecessor had that got so many Democratic senators and representatives worried about nefarious secrets.

The Audacity Of Having A Stupid Vice President

What did he mean Sunday when he seemed to give Israel a green light to attack Iran?

[I]f you wanted to scare the Iranians without credibly committing the United States, isn't Biden the perfect person for the job? I mean, it's just Joe Biden! He could be actually enunciating Obama administration policy. Or he could be winging it! Or it could be just another gaffe. Who knows? The Iranians don't. They can't dismiss the threat, and have to be worried, but can't be sure whether to expect a strike or not. Meanwhile, no credible U.S. spokesman has said anything especially bellicose. That's exactly what we want, no? ...

Strategic ambiguity, I think they call it. Everything Biden says is by definition ambiguous! He's an unreliable narrator. The trick is making it strategic. But the Obama brahmins would be crazy not to try to use this asset. When you've got lemons ....

Obama's Impeccable Judgement

Barack Hussein Obama argued that his lack of experience was a non-issue in his run for the presidency because he possessed such a superior judgment. Well, once again, he has provided us with an opportunity to evaluate his judgment.

Joe Biden has the special distinction of having an unbroken streak of errors when it comes to Iraq. So, let's put him in charge of running our relations with Iraq.

Joe Biden Makes An Ass Of Himself - Again

Joe Biden has been noticeably quiet beginning about a month before the presidential election. Now that he has opened his mouth, it's obvious why Obama clamped down on him.

The United States has done too little to fight the spread of weapons of mass destruction, U.S. Vice President-elect Joe Biden said on Wednesday, as he got a congressional report warning of their pressing threat.

Biden's appearance reflected what was likely to be a continuing interest in weapons issues in the administration of President-elect Barack Obama, an aide said.

"We're not doing all we can to prevent the world's most lethal weapons from winding up in the hands of terrorists," Biden told reporters at Obama's Washington transition headquarters.

Let's see now. Bush (doing it his way) ended the nuclear ambitions of Iraq, Libya and North Korea. After the Democrats neutered US foreign policy, Iran moved forward with its nuclear program.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden tipped the future administration's hand when he told Israel that they would simply have to reconcile themselves to a nuclear Iran.

Jerrold Nadler Says Obama Is Spineless

Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), otherwise known as Jabba the Hut's stunt double, tells his audience that Barack Hussein Obama does not have that steel in his spine after all.



So, perhaps this is why Jabba the Hut is advocating that we surrender Georgia to Russia's imperial ambitions. The critical exchange begins at about 3:50.



I'm pretty certain that few Americans will consider surrendering Georgia's sovereignty (along with Ukraine, etc) the proper course of actions.

Joe Biden Learns What It's Like To Be A Republican

Actually, the media treats Republicans far worse. Here's a fair and balanced interview on CNN. The critical question about Palin being incompetent, corrupt, stupid, etc. was actually a bald faced lie on the part of the CNN interviewer. The article he references was actually about how the media distorts Palin.



Here's the actual quote that CNN distorted.

Watching press coverage of the Republican candidate for vice president, it’s sometimes hard to decide whether Sarah Palin is incompetent, stupid, unqualified, corrupt, backward, or — or, well, all of the above. Palin, the governor of Alaska, has faced more criticism than any vice-presidential candidate since 1988, when Democrats and the press tore into Dan Quayle. In fact, Palin may have it even worse than Quayle, since she’s taking flak not only from Democrats and the press but from some conservative opinion leaders as well….

CNN Pronounces BS Upon Joe Biden

So Joe Biden's a liar. That's just Joe being Joe.

But, of course, the media focus is on Sarah Palin's clothes. Not anything important like the Democrats' plans for, "more than $4 trillion in new spending, have a big tax increase, and defund our military — while certain to face international challenges where “it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right.”"

Vote Against International Crisis

Take Joe Biden's word for it.

What Was Joe Biden Thinking?

Like many of you, my interest was piqued when Joe Biden essentially promised his Seattle audience last week that Barack Obama would be challenged by foreign enemies, sometime during the first six months of his administration. “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy.” As a young and callow politician with no record of resolve, Biden expects that America’s enemies will start probing for weakness as soon as Obama is inaugurated.

As one pundit noted, Biden may have been trying to put lipstick on the Bay of Pigs. The Bay of Pigs was a catastrophic failure of President John F. Kennedy’s resolve that nearly led to nuclear war when the Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev judged the young American president spineless and deployed nuclear missiles in Cuba.

Biden, who during the same speech modestly boasted that he has forgotten more about foreign affairs that anybody else has ever known, indicated that Obama’s youth and inexperience would invite a similar test.

But perhaps even more disturbingly, Biden promised that Obama’s response would not go over well with the American public: “[H]e's gonna need help. And the kind of help he's gonna need is, he's gonna need you - not financially to help him - we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right.”

Note that he’s asking Americans to stand with Obama even if he follows an unpopular course, which is precisely the opposite of how Democrats have behaved toward the Bush administration.

In that same speech, Biden identified himself as the foreign policy expert to whom Obama would turn for expertise. So, it’s worth examining Joe Biden’s record so that we might have some idea what this unpopular response to a crisis might be.

Perhaps we should have a look at Joe’s response to the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center and Pentagon terrorist attacks for guidance. Biden’s initial instinct was to show some gesture of conciliation toward Arab countries: “Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran.”

That’s what you get from the man considered his party’s brightest light in foreign affairs – someone who doesn’t know that Iran is not an Arab country. But of course, he’ll fit right into an Obama administration. Until relatively recently, Barack Obama believed that Afghanistan was an Arab country too.

So, if we’re attacked in 2009, will vice president Joe Biden recommend that we cut our enemies a big check? I’m pretty confident that it will not be immediately apparent to most Americans that paying tribute is the right course of action.

But frankly, it would not be out of character. Joe Biden has a lengthy history of coddling Iran. For more than a decade, Biden’s insistence upon “engagement” with Iran has consistently undermined US efforts to pressure Iran into more civilized behavior. Joe Biden’s opposition to diplomatic sanctions has enabled Iran’s nuclear ambitions and has certainly given Teheran cause to root for an Obama victory.

This is quite a different fellow from the Biden whom Obama described as a man who has “stared down dictators.” His cold war history is that of a man who shrank from Soviet expansionism and opposed aid to allies. I’m half expecting Barack Obama to declare that, “that is not the Joe Biden I knew.”

But, hasn’t Barack Obama has already had his Bay of Pigs moment? Surely his spineless response to Russia’s invasion of the Georgian Republic already has the world’s despots, terrorists and dictators salivating. In fact, just this week the speaker of the Iranian parliament made it clear that, “We are leaning more in favor of Barack Obama...” Obama treated Russia’s aggression and Georgia’s self defense are morally equivalent: “I strongly condemn the outbreak of violence in Georgia, and urge an immediate end to armed conflict. Now is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint and to avoid an escalation to full-scale war.”

He next proposed that we invite the United Nations Security Council to straighten things out, forgetting (if he ever knew) that Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council and wields veto power over any Security Council action.

If, as Joe Biden assures us, Obama “has steel in his spine,” it must be spring steel. Are these really the guys we want answering 3 AM phone calls?

Forbidden Campaign Issues, Sure Winners For Republicans

Voldemort! There, I said it! I have just named he who must not be named and was not smacked down by supernatural forces. And previously, I have even middle named Barack Obama without being cast screaming into the fiery pits of hell. So why is it that, in this political season, two of the greatest challenges facing our country cannot be honestly debated?

In one of his rare honest moments during the vice presidential debate, Democrat Joe Biden “accused” John McCain of voting against biofuel subsidies. If memory serves, the number of “no” votes tallied 21. Joe smugly believed he had won one. And he did, by forfeit. Sarah Palin, probably on orders from McCain, ignored the claim. What should have been a slam dunk win for McCain/Palin, ended up as a point for Obama/Biden. The ball was set up on the tee, and Sarah Palin, as all Republicans do these days, declined to hit it out of the park.

The biofuels that Obama and Biden tout is ethanol derived from corn. They claim that it will free us from foreign oil when they know for a fact that it cannot. Surely McCain and Palin know this as well, but they elect to keep the information to themselves.

The biggest problem with corn ethanol is that it takes about as much energy to make ethanol as one gets back from burning ethanol. When one takes into account the petroleum required to plow the fields, harvest the corn, manufacture the fertilizer, transport the corn to the distillery and distill the ethanol, you’re just about breaking even. But because ethanol is so corrosive, it cannot be delivered through pipelines and must be delivered by trucks and trains. More oil burned. Using the most optimistic calculations, if we were to sow every available acre in corn and convert it to ethanol, it would reduce our current oil imports by no more than 10%. Some actually estimate that we actually have a negative energy yield in corn ethanol.

Corn ethanol has the secondary effect of causing food prices to soar. Not only is corn more expensive, but so is beef, pork, poultry and dairy products, as feed is the number one expense for the producers. In addition, the prices of other starchy crops, such as wheat and rice, will follow corn. And because so many more acres are being planted in corn for ethanol production these days, fewer acres are planted in soybeans and other staple crops. The prices of these crops have soared as well. Burning corn is creating severe food shortages in other countries. The United Nations recently cited the diversion of food to fuel as the primary contributor to a worsening worldwide food crisis.

McCain and Palin should be proud that McCain has not voted for ethanol subsidies. And in a sane world, they could hang that albatross around their opponents’ necks and win handily this November. But alas, the corn ethanol is the boondoggle that must not be named.

The same goes for the financial crisis. In an honest world, McCain and Palin should be able to hang that one around their opponents’ necks as well, and not just because Obama accepted so much money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or because Obama has disgraced former Fannie Mae CEO’s as advisors.

Using nothing but the New York Times’ archives, one can follow the whole mortgage meltdown from its origins in 1999 in Clinton Administration directives to its fruition in 2008. And you will find Democratic Party fingerprints all over it.

But Republicans so fear being called racists that they won’t take it on directly. Indeed they have already been called racists for even mentioning Bill Clinton’s over interpretation of the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act in regards to the crisis. Never mind that it is easily traced back. Intending to increase home ownership among minorities, the Clinton Administration enacted rules that forced banks to give loans to people with poor credit. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac then purchased those mortgages and are now stuck with loans that will never be repaid. It’s as simple as that. But Republicans tremble in fear as Democrats blame George Bush and free markets. A free market would never have made those loans.

What better opportunity is there to speak right past mainstream media filters than during a debate? Seventy million people watched Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. Nearly as many watched Obama and McCain Tuesday.

Republicans might need a visit with the Wizard of Oz to ask for some courage.

Update: Are Republicans figuring this out?

John McCain and his Republican allies have elevated an unlikely pair of political villains to deflect blame for the slumping economy.

During a town hall in Wisconsin on Thursday, McCain called Senate Banking Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (Conn.) and House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (Mass.) “willing co-conspirators” in the current financial collapse.

This comes as conservative talk radio hosts and an outside group aligned with the GOP accuse the duo of similar crimes against the economy, particularly an allegation that congressional Democrats blocked legislation to increase regulations and oversight for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

This latest back-and-forth shows how political the economic crisis has become after party leaders on both sides of the aisle helped usher legislation through Congress last week granting the Department of the Treasury historic authority to buy up to $700 billion in distressed mortgage-related assets.

Republicans and Democrats observed a tentative truce during negotiations over that bill. But this week they were back at one another’s throats, and Republicans decided that targeting Dodd and Frank – not terribly well known outside the Beltway — might make for good campaign rhetoric.

Another Day, Another Joe Biden Lie

This time it's the Washington Post that pronounces bullshit upon Joe Biden.

The Democratic vice presidential nominee brings up the 1993 confrontation on the campaign trial to whoops of delight from supporters. Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) mentioned it when he announced he had chosen Biden as his running mate.

During last week's debate with his counterpart on the Republican ticket, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Biden twice gave himself credit for shifting U.S. policy on Bosnia. The senator from Delaware declared that he "was the catalyst to change the circumstance in Bosnia led by President Clinton." At another point he noted: "My recommendations on Bosnia -- I admit I was the first one to recommend it. They saved tens of thousands of lives."

But, despite the bravado, Biden was not a key player in the legislation that ultimately forced Bill Clinton to lift an arms embargo imposed by the United Nations on Bosnian Muslims fighting the Serbs, according to congressional officials involved in the issue and a review of Biden's speeches and voting record.

But, he does have a much higher IQ than you do.

Calling Al Gore: Global Coolin In Full Swing

The International Climate and Environmental Change Assessment Project has the latest data on global cooling. It's not quite what Al Gore and Joe Biden say it is.

Hat tip: Gateway Pundit

Joe Biden's Cold Dead Fingers

Obama best not mess with Joe Biden's guns.

In an out-of-nowhere attempt to re-assure a southwestern Virginia labor crowd about gun owners' rights, Biden -- who regularly scores "F" ratings from the National Rifle Association -- warned Obama that if "he tries to fool with my Beretta, he’s got a problem."

"I guarantee you Barack Obama ain't taking my shotguns, so don't buy that malarkey," Biden said Saturday at the United Mine Workers of America's annual fish fry in Castlewood, Virginia. "Don't buy that malarkey. They're going to start peddling that to you."

Is Joe getting bitter too?

Joe Biden's Faith Healer Moment

Joe exhorts a wheelchair bound man to "Stand Up!"

Biden Returns To The Fold On Drilling

It's back to tire pressure gauges for the Democratic ticket.

Barack Obama didn’t take running mate Joe Biden to the woodshed for his remarks Monday on offshore drilling, which broke from Obama’s strong reservations to it. But Biden on Wednesday nonetheless offered a different opinion: “I’m against it.”

Biden flatly told voters this afternoon that he opposes offshore drilling for oil and gas and lambasted companies for failing to tap many coastal sites they have already leased from the federal government.

“Let’s say it makes sense to drill,” he said.

“No!” the audience replied.

“It doesn’t, I’m against it. But let’s say it makes sense,” Biden continued. “However, I want to remind you of one thing — that oil off the Continental Shelf… Guess who owns that oil? You do. It is federal property owned by all the American people. It is not Exxon Mobile’s property. It is not ARCO’s property.”

Biden also reminded the crowd that their state holds one of the most highly coveted areas for oil, off Florida’s northwest shore in the Gulf of Mexico. Biden said companies are holding more than 72,000 leases and are capable of producing 50 million barrels of oil, but “they are not pumping. Why do you think?”

Biden stayed perfectly on message — Obama’s message. He pulled proposals to develop alternative energy sources directly from the Obama energy plan. He also said the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which holds more than 700 million barrels of oil, should be emptied into the retail market to lower gas prices. As a cost savings, he said, the reserve should be replaced with heavier oil, which is less expensive than current inventory of lighter, sweet crude.

“When Bill Clinton did that it, it drove down the price of oil and gasoline at the pump 18.7% just be releasing it. Why won’t they do it?”

On Labor Day, however, Biden expressed his thoughts quite differently. “I’m not opposed to drilling,” Biden said. He would only support drilling measures if Republican, who support offshore drilling assured their support for ending exports of U.S. oil; reducing the price of oil produced by U.S. companies below that of foreign oil; and increasing royalties that the U.S. government charges to drill.

When Candidates' Families Matter

On the day when the United States hand the Iraq's formerly lost Anbar province over to Iraqi administration, CNN concentrated its Labor Day coverage on Sarah Palin's daughter. So far as I could determine, CNN deemed Britol Palin's pregnancy even more important than the disappointing Hurricane Gustav.

Meanwhile, if anybody's family needs investigation, it's Joe Biden's. It seems that the financial giant MBNA was fattening Hunter Biden's bank accounts at the same time that Joe Biden was helping push through a bankruptcy reform sought my MBNA, but widely opposed by Democrats.

Joe Biden And The Culture Of Corruption

MBNA cut Joe Biden's son a big check just before the Senator voted for a credit overhaul bill that MBNA wanted.

It's a good thing that Biden's a Democrat, otherwise someone might suspect corruption.

Update: More here.

When Sen. Joe Biden's son Hunter needed investors to help buy a New York-based hedge fund, the first financier to step forward was a Chicago lobbying firm and one of the senator's top campaign contributors.

After the first attempt to buy the fund soured, one of Joe Biden's top advisers, who co-owns a lobbying and communications firm, jumped in to provide public relations help, and was later identified in court papers as a new investor.

Both deals came to light only after one of the parties -- who describes himself as a longtime acquaintance of the Bidens -- filed a fraud lawsuit against Hunter and James Biden, the senator's younger brother and a partner in the hedge fund.

The case, still working its way through New York's courts, illustrates an often-mentioned vulnerability of Joe Biden after 36 years in the Senate: his ties with Washington lobbyists, including those of his son Hunter.

Democrats were hoping to avoid Republican attacks and insider dealings when they chose the Delaware Democrat to join presidential hopeful Barack Obama and his message of political change.

But the legal dispute has offered inside glimpses of the deals, including revelations that a corporate counsel working for the Hunter Biden-led venture was awaiting sentencing on a federal money-laundering charge, and allegations of drug abuse by one hedge fund's senior officers and prior owners.

Is It Too Late For Obama To Declare A Mulligan?

Call it Joementum!

It’s official: Barack Obama has received no bounce in voter support out of his selection of Sen. Joe Biden to be his vice presidential running mate.

Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Aug. 23-25, the first three-day period falling entirely after Obama’s Saturday morning vice presidential announcement, shows 46% of national registered voters backing John McCain and 44% supporting Obama, not appreciably different from the previous week’s standing for both candidates. This is the first time since Obama clinched the nomination in early June, though, that McCain has held any kind of advantage over Obama in Gallup Poll Daily tracking.

Joe Biden's Spineless Foreign Policy

If it is true that Barack Hussein Obama chose Joe Biden for his foreign policy expertise, then we can infer from Biden's record what we can expect from an Obama administration - appeasement.

Biden's political games have made him Tehran's favorite senator. As Gen. David Petraeus struggled to unite Iraqis across the ethnic and sectarian divide, Iran's Press TV seized on Biden's plan for partitioning Iraq and featured his statements with the headline "US plans to disintegrate Iraq." Biden's attack-dog statements about U.S. policy failures emboldened Iranian hard-liners to defy diplomacy. In the Dec. 7, 2007, official sermon, Ayatollah Mohammad Kashani speaking on behalf of Iran's supreme leader, declared, "This Senator [Biden] correctly says Israel could not suppress Hizbullah in Lebanon, so how can the U.S. stand face-to-face with a nation of 70 million? This is the blessing of the Guardianship of the Jurists [the theocracy] . . . which plants such thoughts in the hearts of U.S. senators and forces them to make such confessions." The crowd met his statement with refrains of "Death to America."

Obama picked Biden for experience, but he might also have considered judgment. When it comes to Iran, Biden could stare down dictators; too bad he blinks.