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Showing posts with label JoeBiden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JoeBiden. Show all posts
Vice President Joe Biden faults Mitt Romney for believing that “so-called job creators” build the economy

Vice President Joe Biden faults Mitt Romney for believing that “so-called job creators” build the economy

Biden said at the National Education Association conference: “[Romney believes] somehow, that those so-called job creators will make everything okay for the rest of us. We believe that the way to build this country is the way we always have, from the middle out . . . [to] invest in the things that have always made our economy grow: innovation, research, development, infrastructure, and education.”

Did the US Government handle the Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng case well?

Did the US Government handle the Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng case well?

A political activist under house arrest by the Chinese government makes a daring escape to the US Embassy.  Publicly the Obama administration praises his bravery.  Privately did they really pressure him to leave the US Embassy?  CNN has this transcript of their interview with Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng:

Q: What prompted your change of heart [about leaving the US Embassy]?
A: The embassy kept lobbying me to leave and promised to have people stay with me in the hospital. But this afternoon as soon as I checked into the hospital room, I noticed they were all gone.
Q: Has the U.S. disappointed you?
A: I'm very disappointed at the U.S. government.
Q: Why?
A: I don't think (U.S. officials) protected human rights in this case.
Q: What would you say to U.S. President Obama?
A: I would like to say to (President Obama): Please do everything you can to get our whole family out.
Q: Is this your most urgent wish?
A: That's right.
Q: What has your wife told you after you escaped?
A: (My wife) was tied to a chair by police for two days. Then they carried sticks to our home, threatening to beat her to death. Now they have moved into the house -- eating at our table and using our stuff. Our home is teeming with security -- on the roof and in the yard. They have installed seven surveillance cameras inside the house and built electric fences around the yard.
Q: What did officials tell her if you didn't leave the embassy?
A: They said they would send her back (to Shandong) and people there would beat her. . . .
It doesn't seem as if the Obama administration followed the expectations of others for this case.  From the UK Guardian:

Jean-Pierre Cabestan of Hong Kong University said if Chen was at the embassy, the two governments would probably try to downplay the issue, at least until the end of this week's talks.
"Then the Obama administration will try to find a solution that may not be asylum, but an assurance from Beijing that they will stop harrassing Chen; but if that does not work, asylum will eventually be granted," he said.
Nicholas Bequelin, of Human Rights Watch, said it was unlikely that the Chinese government would accept Chen's demands for an investigation into his case. In the interim, Washington should offer to take Chen and his family to the US for "medical reasons". "If Beijing is not ready for that either, they should be ready to shelter Chen for a longer time, until a solution is negotiated," Bequelin said. . . .
Apparently, Chen was willing "to spend may years" in the US Embassy.  Did the Obama administration put a lot of pressure on Chen to get him to change his mind?


Boy, if the story below is correct, there is more evidence that turning away defectors is part of US policy.

The office of Vice President Joe Biden overruled State and Justice Department officials in denying the political asylum request of a senior Chinese communist official last February over fears the high-level defection would upset the U.S. visit of China’s vice president, according to U.S. officials.
The defector, Wang Lijun, was turned away after 30 hours inside the U.S. Consulate Chengdu and given over to China’s Ministry of State Security, the political police and intelligence service.
Wang has not been seen since Feb. 7 and remains under investigation. His attempt to flee China set off a major power struggle within the ruling Communist Party and led to the ouster of leftist Politburo member Bo Xilai and the arrest of his wife on murder charges. . . .
Here is a discussion from the WSJ that indicates that the US felt pressure to make a deal quickly.  At least the US got a deal over cleaner burning cook stoves.
Joe Biden: Al Franken is a "leading legal scholar"

Joe Biden: Al Franken is a "leading legal scholar"

This is pretty funny.
Vice President Joe Biden described former Saturday Night Live comedian, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., as a "leading legal scholar," presumably in the Senate, today. "He has been one of the leading legal scholars," Biden said of Franken today, according to the pool report. He also said that Franken "is deadly serious" as a senator. He made the comments while recalling concerns that then-candidate Franken could not be taken seriously as a Senate candidate given his SNL work. Franken's comedic spirit got him in trouble on Washington. "This isn't ‘Saturday Night Live,’ Al," Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had to remind the freshman senator after Franken made faces while McConnell spoke during the Supreme Court nomination process for Elena Kagan. . . .
Vice President Joe Biden declares that 'General Motors is the largest corporation in the world again'

Vice President Joe Biden declares that 'General Motors is the largest corporation in the world again'

Has the bailout been really this successful? That is what Biden claimed on Face the Nation.
"Look, you know, everything that he said, the American people don't think the policies have worked. Romney argued about let — not an exact quote — but let Detroit go bankrupt. Wasn't very popular action the president took. Now they're hiring people. You know, hundreds of thousands of new people instead of losing 400,000 jobs. General Motors is the largest corporation in the world again."
See also this here.
On the broader-based Forbes list, Volkswagen weighed in at No. 24. Daimler (think Mercedes-Benz) hit No. 43. Ford and Toyota ranked No. 54 and No. 55. General Motors trailed at No. 61. . . . • No. 18 in sales • No. 70 in profit • No. 155 in assets • No. 148 in market value

Newest Fox News piece: Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman and the media's misleading rhetoric on guns

My newest Fox News piece starts this way:
Democrats want to make gun control an issue in the upcoming November elections. With Obama telling gun control proponents last year to be patient, that he was pushing gun control “under the radar,” it was probably always destined to be an issue. But the shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman in Florida has opened up an opportunity for Democrats to more openly embrace it. When asked about Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law on Sunday, Vice President Joe Biden warned: “as a consequence of the [gun control] laws, [people] unintendedly put themselves in harm's way.” Biden praised Florida's governor for setting up a commission to review the state's "Stand your ground" law and reminded everyone that Obama had already called for everything, including gun laws, to be re-examined. There's no question that the media has pushed the Martin story. . . .

Newest Fox News piece: Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman and the media's misleading rhetoric on guns

My newest Fox News piece starts this way:
Democrats want to make gun control an issue in the upcoming November elections. With Obama telling gun control proponents last year to be patient, that he was pushing gun control “under the radar,” it was probably always destined to be an issue. But the shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman in Florida has opened up an opportunity for Democrats to more openly embrace it. When asked about Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law on Sunday, Vice President Joe Biden warned: “as a consequence of the [gun control] laws, [people] unintendedly put themselves in harm's way.” Biden praised Florida's governor for setting up a commission to review the state's "Stand your ground" law and reminded everyone that Obama had already called for everything, including gun laws, to be re-examined. There's no question that the media has pushed the Martin story. . . .
Democrats' campaign against "Stand Your Ground" Law will hit a lot of Democrats

Democrats' campaign against "Stand Your Ground" Law will hit a lot of Democrats

When asked about Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law on Sunday, Vice President Joe Biden told Face the Nation that gun control would be a topic of debate this year.  He warned: “as a consequence of the laws, [people] unintendedly put themselves in harm's way.”

Well, it turns out that Democrats have overwhelmingly supported the law.  From the Daily Caller:


One Democrat, Fort Lauderdale state Sen. Mandy Dawson, missed the vote. But the rest of the Senate chamber supported it, 39-0.
The Florida House vote was 92-20. Twelve Democrats voted in favor.
And of the 15 states that have passed variations of the law since 2005, the year Florida’s model legislation became law, eight — a majority — had Democratic governors when the laws were enacted. None issued a veto. . . . Democratic governors who signed “stand your ground” bills, or otherwise permitted them to become law, include Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana, Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, Brian Schweitzer of  Montana, John Lynch of New Hampshire, Brad Henry of Oklahoma, Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Janet Napolitano of Arizona – now the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security.
The bills in Louisiana and West Virginia passed with Democratic control of both houses in the states’ legislatures, in 2006 and 2008, respectively. . . .
Some dumb political quotes from 2011

Some dumb political quotes from 2011

Here are some of the dumber quotes:

1) "Our assessment is that the Egyptian government is stable." Hillary Clinton, 18 days before Mubarak stepped down. January 25, 2011
2) "They have acted like terrorists." Joe Biden on Tea Party Republicans. August 1, 2011.
3) "What we're trying to do is save the world from the Republican budget . . . . We're trying to save life on this planet as we know it today." Nancy Pelosi discussing John Boehner's Debt Ceiling bill. July 28, 2011
4) "Millionaire job creators are like unicorns. They're impossible to find and don't exist." Harry Reid asserting that there aren't any jobs created by millionaires. December 12, 2011
5) "Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy." Joe Biden, December 19, 2011
Biden claims that without new jobs bill that crime will rise

Biden claims that without new jobs bill that crime will rise

Do the number of police matter in reducing crime? Sure. But it looks as if Biden is having some simple trouble with the numbers here. From Fox News:

. . . "Let's look at the facts," Biden said. "In 2008, when Flint had 265 sworn officers on their police force, there were 35 murders and 91 rapes in this city. In 2010, when Flint had only 144 police officers, the murder rate climbed to 65 and rapes, just to pick two categories, climbed to 229.
"In 2011, you now only have 125 shields. God only knows what the numbers'll be this year for Flint if we don't rectify it," he said.
Biden made the comments as part of an effort to talk up the Obama administration's $447 billion American Jobs Act, which stalled in the Senate Tuesday night. The package includes $5 billion for police and first responders.
FBI statistics show that the number of law enforcement officers in Flint has sharply declined over the last few years, as Biden said. The number went from 201 in 2008 to 132 in 2010. If civilian employees are counted, the numbers are a bit closer to what Biden cited.
The rise in violent crimes like murder and rape, however, was not as drastic as Biden suggested, according to FBI statistics.
The FBI reported 32 cases of murder and non-negligent manslaughter and 103 cases of forcible rape in 2008. That's similar to what the Flint Police Department reported -- which were the exact numbers Biden cited Wednesday.
But the FBI reported the number of murders at 53 in 2010, with the number of forcible rapes actually dropping to 92. According to the FBI, the Flint "metropolitan statistical area" -- which includes the surrounding county as well as the city -- recorded 225 forcible rapes in 2010. However, that would also mark a decrease from the 239 recorded in the broader area in 2008.
A representative from Biden's office said the 229 number came from the Flint Police Department. . . .


Total crime is down between 2008 and 2010 from 9186 to 8649.
Violent crime is up from 2,297 to 2412 (a 5 percent increase)
Murder and aggravated assaults are up, but rape and robbery are down.
Property crime is down from 6,889 to 6,237

For Michigan as a whole, violent, property crimes are down. Murder and rapes are up, Robbery and Aggravated Assaults are down.

UPDATE: Biden makes more comments.

"Do you regret using the rape reference to describe Senate opposition" to the bill, Jason Mattera asked Biden as he left a rally with police unions and others who have faced the budget ax in recent months.

"I didn't use ... no, no, no," Biden responded. "Let's get it straight, guy. Don't screw around with me. Let's get it straight."

"You didn't use a rape reference," said Mattera, of the conservative news organization Human Events.
"No, let me explain," Biden said, pointing toward Mattera. "I said rape was up three times in Flint. Those are the numbers. Go look at the numbers. Murder is up; rape is up; burglary is up. That's what I said."

"And if the Republicans don't pass this bill, then rape will continue to rise?" the reporter asked.
"Murder will continue to rise; rape will continue to rise; all crime will continue to rise," Biden said.
Asked by Mattera whether it was appropriate to use such language, Biden scoffed and walked away. . . .


Jay Carney joins in:

"I think it would be hard to find anyone that doesn't agree," White House press secretary Carney said about Joe Biden's remark that rapes will increase if Congress does not pass Obama's latest stimulus bill.

Carney was asked about Vice President Joe Biden saying rapes and murders will rise if the president's jobs bill is not passed.

"I think everyone will agree with the equation that fewer police officers on the street has a direct effect on the crime rate. We saw this in the 1990's. I do know that any lawmaker up on Capitol Hill will contest that simple fact or any American who makes that assessment in their local communities. Would you want fewer or more law enforcement officers on the job? Do you think that having more officers on the job would have a positive impact on crime? That is the point that the President absolutely shares," . . .
While everyone focuses on Biden's remarks on China's one child per family restrictions, he had some other real winners

While everyone focuses on Biden's remarks on China's one child per family restrictions, he had some other real winners

In his speech at Sichuan University, Biden said this:



It’s also great to be here on a university campus. I also want to thank our host, the university which counts amongst its alumni some of the most illustrious figures in recent Chinese history, including Zhu De and Ba Jin, both of whom are -- one a literary icon; the other, one of the most illustrious figures, and a founding father of the republic. . . .




The Britannica Encyclopedia describes Zhu De as: "Founder of the Chinese communist force that became the People's Liberation Army." Zhu De was involved in the "liberation" and genocide in Tibet.
Biden's massive misstatements

Biden's massive misstatements

From the UK Telegraph:



Vice President Joe Biden may have managed to cure his own stammer but he still appears to be pathologically incapable of speaking of his own accomplishments without exaggerating. In an address he made today to students at Sichuan University in China today (full text, as emailed out by the White House, here), he stated that he has had “an opportunity to literally meet every major world leader in the last 38 years”.. . .
Was Obama right that Biden never referred to Tea Party members as terrorists?

Was Obama right that Biden never referred to Tea Party members as terrorists?

The Los Angeles Times reviews the evidence here:



In an unusual move within the fraternities of Washington journalism, Politico, which broke the original hot story, issued a reaffirmation of the piece Wednesday, apparently in response to another Washington news organization questioning Politico's sources as "dubious."



To refresh your memory, hours after Biden met behind closed doors with unhappy congressional Democrats during the heated talks, Politico reported that the vice president of the United States had agreed with Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle's characterization of the House's new GOP majority and said, "They have acted like terrorists."



Biden tried to make a joke over his "effing" gaffe. But not this one, not when his boss is bemoaning hyperbolic Republicans.



Politico describes its reporting on the incident, saying it had five sources describe the scene and notes that Biden never asked for a correction or retraction and issued an artful dodge of a response.



The veracity is important here because the Obama administration is trying to blame the tea party's unreasonable ideological rabble for the unprecedented credit downgrade by Standard & Poor's, not the White House's wanton spending or unwillingness to make entitlement cuts.



It's an important part of Obama's planned 2012 campaign meme to pin blame for the nation's ongoing economic stagnation on Republicans, who just took over the House in January -- and to shield the lopsided congressional majorities of Democrats since 2007 that included both Obama and Biden for half that time. . . .
Biden: Tax Cuts For The Rich Are “Morally Troubling”

Biden: Tax Cuts For The Rich Are “Morally Troubling”

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy



A transcript is available here:
BIDEN: . . . The one target for us in two years is no longer extending the upper income tax credit for millionaires and billionaires, and scaling back what we had to do to get the compromise , the estate tax for the very wealthy. . . .
MR. GREGORY:
The president wrote in " Audacity of Hope " that he found the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy morally troubling.
VICE PRES. BIDEN:
They are.
MR. GREGORY:
Is that still his belief?
VICE PRES. BIDEN:
It's still his belief.
MR. GREGORY:
Your belief as well?
VICE PRES. BIDEN:
Mine as well.
VICE PRES. BIDEN:
. . . They're for two years, and we're coming back and going at it again. . . .


My take on this claim is available here.
Remember the ruckus over Palin's quickly corrected misstatement?: Biden's this weekend is ignored

Remember the ruckus over Palin's quickly corrected misstatement?: Biden's this weekend is ignored

Biden makes misstatements all the time so this probably isn't news, right?

Biden said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “we’re going to be totally out of there come hell or high water by 2014.”

What Biden meant to say, Gibbs argued, was that the “combat role” in Afghanistan would end by 2014. . . .


Note on how the media covered Palin's quickly corrected misstatement about North Korea see here.
Weren't we supposed to get massive job creation this summer?

Weren't we supposed to get massive job creation this summer?

Last year it was the prediction that unemployment would not get above 8 percent. This year it was promises of massive job growth.

Usually the Obama administration downplays expectations for job growth, but apparently Vice President Joe Biden didn’t get the memo – or he did, but just blew it off.

“Some time in the next couple of months we’re going to be creating between 250,000 jobs a month and 500,000 jobs a month,” Biden said at a fundraiser today in Pittsburgh.

Next month, Biden predicted, the nation’s employers will add between 100,000 to 200,000 jobs to their payrolls.

If employers were to increase their payrolls by half a million jobs at some point in the next few months, that would mark a massive turnaround for a country that was hemorrhaging hundreds of thousands of jobs a month just one year ago. But with the big boost expected from the government’s 2010 census, on top of an improving employment picture as evidenced by the 162,000 jobs created in March, such future job growth is a distinct possibility, analysts say. . . .


We have had the Obama administration predict multiple times that the economy had already turned around. Now when things keep on being bad, the reason for the continued weakness is George Bush.
How long has Biden been Vice President?

How long has Biden been Vice President?

This guy was unaware that there is a hold on airplane traffic when the president or vice president is taking off or landing at an airport. How could the VP be "oblivious" to the delays? People were apparently very angry about the delays.

Vice President Joe Biden held up airplane traffic for hours on Friday night at Los Angeles International Airport after an appearance on Jay Leno ‘s ‘Tonight Show,’ leaving restless passengers fuming.

A spokesman for the vice president said he was unaware of the FAA temporary flight restriction that stopped flights coming in, and delayed those going out.

“I know we didn’t ask for anything,” Biden’s spokesman James Carney told TheWrap. “There was no sign of any stoppage. And there shouldn’t have been one.”

Oh, but there was. Passengers were stuck for anywhere from 45 minutes to four hours as a result (including this writer), leaving many of them fuming. In one LAX terminal, flights on Horizon, Alaska and Virgin Air had three-hour delays.

“I sincerely hope that the vice president was oblivious to the number of lives he inconvenienced by deciding to land at LAX and his attempted humor on the Tonight Show,” said Will Roos, the owner of an environmental company GreenUp who was on his way back from a business trip in Sun Valley. . . .

Temporary flight restrictions are common when the top officials in the country travel. FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown confirmed the flight stoppage, but could not give a reason for it other than standard safety practice. She could not confirm how many flights were delayed or for how long. . . .
Biden explains the difference between private meetings that are closed to the press and private meetings that are closed to the press

Biden explains the difference between private meetings that are closed to the press and private meetings that are closed to the press

From the LA Times:

And we'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. . . . .

According to the White House schedule, Biden will not spend the remainder of the workday in private meetings that are closed press.

Instead: "The Vice President will spend the remainder of the day in meetings that are closed press."

You get the difference, right?

New Fox News Op-ed: Stimulus Spending Is Making Things Worse Not Better

My new Fox News piece starts this way:

It isn't that President Obama's policies aren't working. It is just that the economy was so much worse off than anyone realized. -- Or so the Obama administration claims.

Vice President Joe Biden repeated the mantra again this past Sunday on ABC's "This Week." Host George Stephanopoulos asked him how the 9.5 percent unemployment rate in June squared with the administration's prediction that if the stimulus package was passed, "unemployment will peak at about 8 percent." Biden replied: "we and everyone else misread the economy. The figures we worked off of in January were the consensus figures and most of the blue chip indexes out there."

Translation? The economy being much worse than ever predicted isn't Obama's fault, the Bush administration supposedly left us a worse economy than anyone realized. Even to Stephanopoulos, the alternatives were only two: "either you misread the economy [that the economy was worse than they realized], the stimulus package is too slow and to small." A headline in today's Wall Street Journal reports "Calls Grow to Increase Stimulus Spending." . . . .


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