Categories
gun control Politics

Vice President Biden: Republicans Opposition To Gun Control “Mind Boggling”

Vice President Biden on Tuesday said GOP lawmakers who are threatening to block a vote on gun legislation are making an “almost mind-boggling” move but said he holds hope that the Republican lawmakers will come around and support a vote.

Fourteen GOP lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have said they would likely move to block a vote on gun legislation out of concerns that the bill — which includes a provision to expand background checks —would infringe on American’s right to bear arms.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced Tuesday that the Senate will vote on Thursday to try to end the GOP filibuster.

“Why don’t people up there understand this?” Biden said in a speech to law enforcement officers in Washington. “What has to happen to break through the consciousness of the people up on (Capitol) Hill?”

The Senate is expected to begin debate on the gun legislation this week. The current version of the Senate gun bill would strengthen current laws on gun trafficking and straw purchasers, increase grants for improvements in school safety as well as expand background checks to nearly every gun purchase.

h/t USA Today

Categories
Politics selma

Vice President Biden Supports The Voting Act – “We’re Still Fighting”

Vice President Joseph Biden today urged the Supreme Court to uphold a provision of the Voting Rights Act that gives the federal government ongoing oversight of ballot collecting in states with histories of discrimination.

Speaking at annual memorial festivities in Selma, Ala., commemorating the 1965 civil rights marchthere, the vice president told a crowd including some of those original activists, “you know it continues on today.”

“Look folks, here we are, 48 years after what you did, and we’re still fighting,” he said.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 struck down Jim Crow segregation laws and other measures designed to impede or otherwise disenfranchise black voters. It has been renewed four times, most recently in 2006 when it passed Congress near-unanimously.

But last week conservative justices on the Supreme Court indicated they were ready to void a section of the law that requires certain states, mostly in the South, to seek federal approval for any changes to their voting regulations.

“Section Five of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, OK? I even got credit getting [Sen.] Strom Thurmond to vote for its reauthorization in the Senate,” Biden said, referring to the late, formerly segregationist lawmaker. “Strom Thurmond voted for its reauthorization in the Senate, and yet it’s being challenged in the Supreme Court of the United States of America as we stand here today.”

On Wednesday, Chief Justice John Roberts expressed concern that in its renewal Congress had used an outdated “coverage formula” that singled out certain states unfairly. Justice Antonin Scalia warned of “racial entitlements” that he said would prove “very difficult” to get rid of through democratic processes.

h/t ABC News

Categories
Barack Obama Democratic Politics

Vice President Joe Biden Officially Sworn In For 2nd Term

January 20, 2013 ( WASHINGTON) — Vice President Joe Biden has been sworn in to a second term.

The 70-year-old Biden took the oath of office from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotamayor during a private ceremony Sunday at the U.S. Naval Observatory, the vice president’s residence.

Biden and President Barack Obama will take the oath of office again on Monday during a public ceremony at the Capitol.

h/t Inquirer News

Categories
Paul Ryan Politics

Right Wing Goes Nuts – That Could Only Mean A Win For Joe Biden

The right-wing is having a hissy fit today. Just moments after the vice presidential debate ended, the Republican talkers received their talking-points and hit the waves with one intent –  trying to fool their followers into thinking that Paul Ryan won the debate. Personally I missed the debate because of some other pressing issues I had to deal with, but if the Republican fallout is any indication, Vice President Joe Biden cleaned the stage with Paul Ryan.

This could be one reason Republicans are up in arms today!

Fifty percent of uncommitted voters who tuned into Thursday night’s vice presidential debate in Danville, Ky., said they see Vice President Joe Biden as the winner over Mitt Romney’s GOP running mate Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., according to an instant poll taken by CBS News.

Of the 431 polled immediately following the debate, 31 percent deemed Ryan the winner, and 19 percent said they felt it was a tie. Party-wise it’s a switch from last week’s presidential debate, which uncommitted voters handed easily to Romney over President Obama.

Both Biden and Ryan gained ground on relatability and knowledge. The percentage of voters who say they believe they can relate to Biden spiked from 34 percent before the debate to 55 percent; 48 percent think Ryan is relatable, up from 31 percent before the debate. Meanwhile, after watching the two candidates debate, 85 percent of those polled think Biden is knowledgeable about the issues; 75 percent say that about Ryan.

Ryan, though, faced a loss among voters’ opinions of which candidate would be an effective president, if necessary. Before the debate, he led Biden 45 percent to 39 percent; after the debate, 56 percent of those polled said Biden would be an effective president, with fewer – 49 percent–saying the same about Ryan.

The debate:

Categories
Politics

Biden Tries to Save The Violence Against Women Act from GOP Block Party

Vice-President Joe Biden will Wednesday lead a Democrat push to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, the 1994 legislation that now faces opposition from some conservatives.

Biden will be joined by Attorney General Eric Holder, Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, White House Advisor on Violence Against Women Lynn Rosenthal and Sharon Love, mother of Yeardley Love and founder of the One Love Foundation, to talk about the need to reauthorize the law.

The New York Times has reported that the law would expand financing for and broaden the reach of domestic violence programs.

However, it said some Republicans say the measure unnecessarily expands immigration avenues by creating new definitions for immigrant victims to claim battery, and also dilutes the focus on domestic violence by expanding protections to new groups, like same-sex couples.

Categories
Mitt Romney Politics Ronald Reagan

Joe Biden on Mitt Romney – He Has No Idea Of The Broken Bargain

In a twenty minutes conference call to New Hampshire Democrats on Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden and the Obama Administration amplified the 2012 presidential campaign.

Taking direct aim at the Republican frontrunner, Mr. Biden said that Romney’s “I like being able to fire people” comment – although it may have been taken out of context – shows how out of touch Republicans are with the struggles of the working class America.

He thinks it’s more important for the stockholders and the shareholders and the investors and the venture capital guys to do well [than] for those employees to be part of the bargain,” he said.

“We inherited a broken bargain. A deal our parents didn’t have to face. Middle-class folks, if you gave them an even chance, they got to share in the benefits they helped to produce for this country. That bargain was broken during the Bush years and we were determined to fix it.

“Listen to Mitt Romney. He has no idea the bargain even exists, let alone is broken. How else can you say the best way to fix the financial crisis is by letting it all go down to the bottom?”

Greed. It has been the underlining and unmentioned trait of the rich in this country for centuries. And for centuries, because of the negative stigma of greed, a stigma the rich didn’t want to be associated with, working class America felt as though they were part of the solution and shared in the profits they helped create.

Then something happened about thirty years ago. With the election of Ronald Reagan, the me first you never attitude was born and the decline of middle class America begun.

Today, after the Bush presidency, that attitude is in full view for all to see. Greed is no longer considered a negative word, in fact, it is a trait Americans are judged by. It is the dividing line that separates the two political parties, as Republicans believe giving everything to the rich is the only way the middle class would survive while Democrats on the other hand believe that all Americans should have a fair shot at the American dream.

The 2012 election is about a choice that couldn’t be any clearer. Do we re-elect a president who believes that every American must have equal opportunities to make their American dream a reality, or do we elect someone who agrees with the Ronald Reagan and George Bush philosophy that taking from the poor and giving to the rich is all that matters?

With one candidate’s policies we can once again return to a system where the American dream is possible. With the alternative, we can continue the nightmare that Reagan and Bush started.

Categories
Politics Tax

Republicans Vote Against American Jobs Again – Must Make Obama Fail

Republicans again successfully blocked another portion of President Obama’s jobs bill. The bill that just went down in the Senate had 50 Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans voting against it. It would create or save 400,000 jobs, and put first responders back to work throughout the nation. Republicans stood in unity and voted against Firefighters, Teachers and Police Officers.

And why are these jobs not important to Republicans?

How do you pay for the bill? That’s the question Republicans have hidden behind as their excuse to cut or not support bills that will help Americans. In this case, the jobs bill to put these Americans back to work would cost $30 billion, and Democrats wanted to tax millionaires on income over $1 million to pay for it.

How was this tax going to work?

Democrats were asking Republicans to agree to a tax that equals half of 1 percent. That’s half of 1 percent on income over $1 million, so if a millionaire made $1 million and ten dollars, he or she would be taxed on the $10.00 at .5% or half of 1 percent. Vice President Joe Biden explains it this way;

 “Are you going to put 400,000 school teachers back in classrooms, are you going to put 18,000 cops back on the street and 7,000 firefighters back in the firehouses? Or are you going to save people with average incomes of $1 million a one-half of 1 percent increase in tax on every dollar they make over a million?”

The Vice President then advised Americans to pay close attention to how their representatives vote. “So I say to the American people, watch your senator, watch him or her choose.”

In last night’s vote, Americans saw another example of where Republicans stand when it comes to getting this economy back on track. All Senate Republicans decided not to vote for the jobs of school teachers, cops or firefighters. They all voted to make sure this economy continues down the drain, with the hopes that President Obama gets the blame and loses the election in 2012.

Party before Patriotism. That’s the new definition of today’s Republican party!

Categories
Politics

Boehner And Biden Caught On Open Mic At Jobs Speech

Boehner's Birdie

While President Obama tried to bring his jobs plan to the floor of a joint congress Thursday night, the important thing on John Boehner’s mind was not the American people and their plight, but about the birdie he missed during a golf game.

The video below shows a ‘hot mic’ situation, where the Vice President approached Boehner saying “we gotta heck-of-a-lotta work to do here…,” but Speaker Boehner wanted to talk about something more important to him. He abruptly interrupted Mr. Biden, telling him about a golfing misfortune, right before President Obama came to the floor of Congress.

Just goes to show who’s really working for the American people, and who’s the real elitist in the room.

A Hot Mic Moment

Categories
Barack Obama Democratic Politics Republican United States

Presidential Press Conference – Obama’s Speech On The Economy

The President used the bully pulpit today and did what many progressives were asking for –  to stand up and tell the Republicans that although spending cuts will be necessary, revenue must be raised and the rich must pay their fair share. That statement is exactly what made Eric Cantor walk out of negotiations with Vice-President Biden earlier this week, but hearing the president reiterate that very point got rave reviews from Progressives nationwide.

Watch the Presidential Press Conference below.

Categories
Egypt Egypt Egyptians United States

The Obama Administration Takes A Stand On Egypt’s President

The Associated Press is reporting ongoing negotiations between the Obama Administration and Egypt’s Vice President on what is being said is the “immediate resignation of President Hosni Mubarak and the formation of a military-backed caretaker government.” The article referenced talks between Vice President Joe Biden and Egypt’s Vice President Omar Suleiman, as well as conversations between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Mr. Suleiman.

From AP Reporting:

With protests in Cairo and other Egyptian cities expected to grow in size and intensity Friday, the administration fears they may erupt into more widespread violence unless the government takes tangible steps to address the protesters’ main demand that Mubarak leave office quickly. Creation of an interim government is just one of several possibilities under discussion, the officials said late Thursday.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomatic talks, which are continuing.

The officials stressed that the United States isn’t seeking to impose a solution on Egypt but said the administration had made a judgment that Mubarak has to go soon if there is to be a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

“The president has said that now is the time to begin a peaceful, orderly and meaningful transition, with credible, inclusive negotiations,” a White House spokesman, Tommy Vietor, said Thursday night. “We have discussed with the Egyptians a variety of different ways to move that process forward, but all of those decisions must be made by the Egyptian people.”

White House and State Department officials would not discuss details of the discussions U.S. officials are having with the Egyptians. Vice President Joe Biden spoke with Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman on Thursday, a day after a similar conversation between Suleiman and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Officials said neither Biden nor Clinton made a specific call for Mubarak to resign immediately but pressed for measures that would ease tensions on the streets and set the stage for democratic elections.

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