Joe Biden -
Joe Biden has represented the state of Delaware in the United States Senate since 1972, when he was elected at the age of twenty-nine. Senator Biden is recognized as a leader in foreign policy, as well as one of the nation's most influential voices on terrorism, drug policy, and crime. Nationally, Senator Biden has earned a reputation for working on a bipartisan basis with Republican colleagues and bringing real results that matter to Americans.
Throughout Senator Biden's career in public service, the people of Delaware have remained his first priority. From preserving White Clay Creek and miles of Delaware's coastline, to putting hundreds more cops on the state's streets, to fighting to cover healthcare costs for all of Delaware's children, Senator Biden is working to improve the lives of Delawareans.
Senator Biden's legislative initiatives often have an immediate impact in Delaware. For example, Delaware was one of the first states to take advantage of the federal resources made available by Senator Biden's Adam Walsh Act, which helps protect children against predators. And fourteen years after Senator Biden first wrote and passed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), its programs are still caring for, training, and providing for victims in Delaware.
Agriculture remains Delaware's biggest industry and Senator Biden is committed to preserving Delaware's farming tradition. He believes that the term "family farm" should never become a Delaware legend.
As the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Senator Biden's top foreign policy priority is bringing home American troops without leaving chaos behind in Iraq. Senator Biden and Les Gelb, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, have offered a five-point plan that offers a political solution to ending the war - a plan overwhelming endorsed by his Senate colleagues by a 75-23 vote.
"Senator Biden has a very strong commitment to a bipartisan foreign policy and serves as a good example for everyone in Congress. He has a very broad, comprehensive view of the world. He's a good listener, but he's also a strong and effective advocate of his position."
His leadership was also widely hailed for helping to bring stability and peace to the Balkans. In 1999, Senator Biden authored a Senate-passed resolution endorsing air war in Kosovo. Today, Senator Biden is again leading the Congressional effort to end genocide, this time in Darfur, Sudan.
Senator Biden is committed to taking care of the men and women who have put their lives on the line to protect our country through military service. Ensuring that all veterans have top-notch medical treatment in a fully-funded VA health care system is a key priority.
As a long-standing member and former Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Biden is a strong leader on crime and drug policy and has been instrumental in crafting almost every major piece of crime legislation over the past two decades. His Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 - also known as the Biden Crime Bill - put more than 100,000 cops on America's streets and increased dramatically federal support for innovative criminal justice prevention and rehabilitation. The 2007 Biden Crime Bill goes further by addressing the 21st century crime problems such as computer hacking, on-line child exploitation and teenage prescription drug abuse. As the Co-Chairman of the International Narcotics Control Caucus, Senator Biden was the first in Congress to propose a "Drug Czar," a cabinet level office to coordinate all federal agencies responsible for drug-related programs and devise a strategy to combat illegal drug use and trafficking in America.
One of Senator Biden's longstanding priorities is making college more accessible and affordable for students and their families. Recently, he introduced the College Affordability and Creating Chances for Educational Success for Students (ACCESS) Act which would increase tax incentives, expand Pell grants, and begin college planning as early as the eighth grade.
Over the last thirty-four years, Senator Biden has shown prescience and leadership on the most critical issues facing Delaware and our country. From his instrumental role in passing the bipartisan initiative to create a Commission on Civil Rights in 1983, to introducing the 1986 Global Climate Protection Act, to establishing an annual National Mammography Awareness Day, and to authoring the Rail Security Act of 2007 to regulate the transportation of hazardous materials on American railways, Senator Biden consistently works to tackle America's toughest challenges.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Republican Vice Presidential Pick Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin -
An ethics crusader who won the Alaskabngovernor's office in 2006 (including a landslide primary victory over incumbent Republican governor Frank Murkowski) and has remained one of the most popular local politicians in America even as she continued to take on such powerful figures as the oil companies and the leaders of her own state party.
Palin, 44, has been the Joan of Arc of Alaska politics, marching into battle against long odds on such big local issues as oil taxes and construction of a natural gas pipeline only to see her opposition crumble. Days after her 2006 primary victory, an FBI investigation into political corruption involving the oil industry and Republican legislators burst into view with surprise raids of legislative offices. Criminal indictments and convictions followed, often just in time for the headlines to help her win another contest in Juneau.
Though fearless in choosing the outsider's path in politics, she remains relatively untested as a campaigner, a politician and as a governor who has held office less than two years.
BUILDING AN ETHICS BASE
Palin finished a strong second in the 2002 primary for lieutenant governor and was being groomed by the party for higher office when she clashed with state Republican Party chairman Randy Ruederich. They both had seats on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, appointed by Gov. Frank Murkowski, the Republican she would later depose. She accused Ruederich of misusing the job for political chicanery and eventually resigned in frustration. Ruederich was forced to resign the job as well, though he remains head of the state party.
Palin later took on Murkowski's attorney general in a conflict-of-interest scandal that forced his resignation. And when state Sen. Ben Stevens, the son of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, was caught making a dismissive remark about the Wasilla area, Palin appeared in a rebuttal ad wearing a "Valley Trash" T-shirt.
In 2006, she knocked off Murkowski and then Democratic former Gov. Tony Knowles in a campaign that drew on grassroots support, relying on neighbors and friends for staff rather than the party and veterans of big-time campaigns.
She had strong support from social conservatives and often speaks of her religious faith. The Palins have five children, including their first-born, Track, who enlisted in the Army on Sept. 11, 2007. Track Palin is 19 and stationed at Fort Wainwright with the Stryker Brigade, preparing for a deployment to Iraq in September. The Palins also have three daughters: Bristol, Willow and Piper.
The newest member of the family, a son, Trig, was born in April ago after a pregnancy that Palin managed to keep secret for seven months. Trig was born with Down syndrome, which the Palins had discovered through testing.
But as governor, she has not pushed any big-agenda items of social conservatives. She spoke favorably in her campaign of schools teaching the creationism debate with evolution, but lived up to her pledge to do nothing as governor to push the idea. Her first veto was of a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships -- she said she supported the idea but accepted legal advice that it was unconstitutional. This year, she declined to call a legislative special session on two abortion bills because they would have interfered with her top priority, a measure promoting a new natural gas pipeline.
OIL AND GAS ISSUES
Her focus has been on raising oil taxes -- long suppressed by oil-friendly legislators, the taxes seemed ridiculously low once oil prices started rising -- and on launching construction of a $40 billion gasline from North Slope oil fields. Palin took on the oil producers, especially Exxon Mobil, saying they had been dragging their feet on a gasline. She persuaded the Legislature to pass a bill authorizing an independent company to build the line with state subsidy.
The ongoing corruption scandal in the Legislature over influence of the former oil field services company Veco helped Palin force change in the Juneau state capitol. That scandal has spread to include Alaska's two longtime powers in Congress, Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young. Palin has kept distance between herself and those Republican icons and backed ethics reform measures that passed the Legislature.
Palin's clean image has lately taken a shot, however, over charges that she tried to use her office to get rid of an Alaska state trooper who had gone through a messy divorce with one of Palin's sisters. Palin denied any involvement but has conceded a staff member made inappropriate calls. The Legislature has hired a special investigator, with the strongest criticism coming from Republicans antagonized by Palin during the oil and gas battles of the past two years.
She was already under steady criticism from some quarters, including conservative radio talk show hosts in Anchorage and rental car executive Andrew Halcro, a former state representative who ran as an independent in the last governor's race and features almost-daily criticism of her on his blog. Critics call her naive, a panderer in her economic populism and reckless in her dealing with the vital oil industry.
But at a time when state coffers are spilling over with new oil revenues, Palin has remained popular with voters, recently pushing through a $1,200 per person "rebate" to help with high fuel costs.
By Tom Kizza of the Anchorage Daily News
An ethics crusader who won the Alaskabngovernor's office in 2006 (including a landslide primary victory over incumbent Republican governor Frank Murkowski) and has remained one of the most popular local politicians in America even as she continued to take on such powerful figures as the oil companies and the leaders of her own state party.
Palin, 44, has been the Joan of Arc of Alaska politics, marching into battle against long odds on such big local issues as oil taxes and construction of a natural gas pipeline only to see her opposition crumble. Days after her 2006 primary victory, an FBI investigation into political corruption involving the oil industry and Republican legislators burst into view with surprise raids of legislative offices. Criminal indictments and convictions followed, often just in time for the headlines to help her win another contest in Juneau.
Though fearless in choosing the outsider's path in politics, she remains relatively untested as a campaigner, a politician and as a governor who has held office less than two years.
BUILDING AN ETHICS BASE
Palin finished a strong second in the 2002 primary for lieutenant governor and was being groomed by the party for higher office when she clashed with state Republican Party chairman Randy Ruederich. They both had seats on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, appointed by Gov. Frank Murkowski, the Republican she would later depose. She accused Ruederich of misusing the job for political chicanery and eventually resigned in frustration. Ruederich was forced to resign the job as well, though he remains head of the state party.
Palin later took on Murkowski's attorney general in a conflict-of-interest scandal that forced his resignation. And when state Sen. Ben Stevens, the son of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, was caught making a dismissive remark about the Wasilla area, Palin appeared in a rebuttal ad wearing a "Valley Trash" T-shirt.
In 2006, she knocked off Murkowski and then Democratic former Gov. Tony Knowles in a campaign that drew on grassroots support, relying on neighbors and friends for staff rather than the party and veterans of big-time campaigns.
She had strong support from social conservatives and often speaks of her religious faith. The Palins have five children, including their first-born, Track, who enlisted in the Army on Sept. 11, 2007. Track Palin is 19 and stationed at Fort Wainwright with the Stryker Brigade, preparing for a deployment to Iraq in September. The Palins also have three daughters: Bristol, Willow and Piper.
The newest member of the family, a son, Trig, was born in April ago after a pregnancy that Palin managed to keep secret for seven months. Trig was born with Down syndrome, which the Palins had discovered through testing.
But as governor, she has not pushed any big-agenda items of social conservatives. She spoke favorably in her campaign of schools teaching the creationism debate with evolution, but lived up to her pledge to do nothing as governor to push the idea. Her first veto was of a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships -- she said she supported the idea but accepted legal advice that it was unconstitutional. This year, she declined to call a legislative special session on two abortion bills because they would have interfered with her top priority, a measure promoting a new natural gas pipeline.
OIL AND GAS ISSUES
Her focus has been on raising oil taxes -- long suppressed by oil-friendly legislators, the taxes seemed ridiculously low once oil prices started rising -- and on launching construction of a $40 billion gasline from North Slope oil fields. Palin took on the oil producers, especially Exxon Mobil, saying they had been dragging their feet on a gasline. She persuaded the Legislature to pass a bill authorizing an independent company to build the line with state subsidy.
The ongoing corruption scandal in the Legislature over influence of the former oil field services company Veco helped Palin force change in the Juneau state capitol. That scandal has spread to include Alaska's two longtime powers in Congress, Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young. Palin has kept distance between herself and those Republican icons and backed ethics reform measures that passed the Legislature.
Palin's clean image has lately taken a shot, however, over charges that she tried to use her office to get rid of an Alaska state trooper who had gone through a messy divorce with one of Palin's sisters. Palin denied any involvement but has conceded a staff member made inappropriate calls. The Legislature has hired a special investigator, with the strongest criticism coming from Republicans antagonized by Palin during the oil and gas battles of the past two years.
She was already under steady criticism from some quarters, including conservative radio talk show hosts in Anchorage and rental car executive Andrew Halcro, a former state representative who ran as an independent in the last governor's race and features almost-daily criticism of her on his blog. Critics call her naive, a panderer in her economic populism and reckless in her dealing with the vital oil industry.
But at a time when state coffers are spilling over with new oil revenues, Palin has remained popular with voters, recently pushing through a $1,200 per person "rebate" to help with high fuel costs.
By Tom Kizza of the Anchorage Daily News
Thursday, August 21, 2008
McCain verse Obama the Issues
Where the Candidates want to take America
Barack Obama's Vision (in his words)
We find ourselves at a crossroads in America's history. It's a time where you can go to any town hall or street corner or coffee shop and hear people express the same anxiety about the future; hear them convey the same uncertainty about the direction we're headed as a country. Whether it's the war or Katrina or their health care or their jobs, you hear people say that we've finally arrived at a moment where something must change.Ladies and gentlemen, this is our time. Our time to make a mark on history. Our time to write a new chapter in the American story. Our time to leave our children a country that is freer and kinder, more prosperous and more just than the place we grew up. And then someday, someday, if our kids get the chance to stand where we are and look back at the beginning of the 21st century, they can say that this was the time when America renewed its purpose. They can say that this was the time when America found its way. They can say that this was the time when America learned to dream again.
John McCain's Vision (in his words)
I am convinced that a majority of Americans still consider themselves conservatives or right of center. They still prefer common sense conservatism to the alternative. They want their government to operate as their families operate, on a realistic budget, with an eye on the future that spurns self-indulgence in the short term for the sake of lasting prosperity, that respects hard work and individual initiative, and that shows no favoritism to one group of Americans over another. Common sense conservatives believe in a short list of self-evident truths: love of country; respect for our unique influence on history; a strong defense and strong alliances based on mutual respect and mutual responsibility; steadfast opposition to threats to our security and values that matches resources to ends wisely; and confident, reliable, consistent leadership to advance human rights, democracy, peace and security.
Barack Obama's Vision (in his words)
We find ourselves at a crossroads in America's history. It's a time where you can go to any town hall or street corner or coffee shop and hear people express the same anxiety about the future; hear them convey the same uncertainty about the direction we're headed as a country. Whether it's the war or Katrina or their health care or their jobs, you hear people say that we've finally arrived at a moment where something must change.Ladies and gentlemen, this is our time. Our time to make a mark on history. Our time to write a new chapter in the American story. Our time to leave our children a country that is freer and kinder, more prosperous and more just than the place we grew up. And then someday, someday, if our kids get the chance to stand where we are and look back at the beginning of the 21st century, they can say that this was the time when America renewed its purpose. They can say that this was the time when America found its way. They can say that this was the time when America learned to dream again.
John McCain's Vision (in his words)
I am convinced that a majority of Americans still consider themselves conservatives or right of center. They still prefer common sense conservatism to the alternative. They want their government to operate as their families operate, on a realistic budget, with an eye on the future that spurns self-indulgence in the short term for the sake of lasting prosperity, that respects hard work and individual initiative, and that shows no favoritism to one group of Americans over another. Common sense conservatives believe in a short list of self-evident truths: love of country; respect for our unique influence on history; a strong defense and strong alliances based on mutual respect and mutual responsibility; steadfast opposition to threats to our security and values that matches resources to ends wisely; and confident, reliable, consistent leadership to advance human rights, democracy, peace and security.
Presidential Election Decision 2008
Well I haven't posted in a quite some time and with the presidential election just around the corner I've decided to Blog about the facts or fictions surrounding each candidate. I'm still an undecided voter, not sure which way to turn. John McCain or Barack Obama? Typically I vote repulican (actually i like to describe myself as the most liberal republican you will meet.) So I've decide to begin posting information about each candidate here on the Complaint blog. Now I know what you're going to say that isn't much of a complaint, but we'll get back to complaining after the election. I'm sure there will be enough complaints to be filed, hanging chads, uncounted votes, unfair voting practices, faulty ballot machines etc... etc.. etc...
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