RAVE, RAVE Against . . .
(posted by Jim Henley)
I used all my jokes on my home blog, but we are nevertheless required by statute to have a “Joe Biden is the Democratic nominee for Veep” thread. So, then. My impression was that the Biden nomination may be reasonable electoral politics, but that he’s a pretty awful avatar of left-libertarian hopes and dreams: meaning, Biden’s not much of a peace and civil liberties guy. He sponsored the RAVE Act and voted for the October 2002 AUMF in Iraq. But on the bright side, he’s got an 86% rating from the ACLU (compared to 29% for Delaware’s junior Senator, Thomas Carper). His voting record on GWOT issues this year has been better than Obama’s own. Animals will like him.
Here are some Biden “on the issues” snippets.
The big reasons to regret Obama’s choice of Biden include:
- The RAVE Act;
- Biden’s enthusiasm for interventionism generally;
- The bankruptcy bill;
On the other hand, he’ll be entertaining.
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:24 pm
[...] On AOTP, I discover Biden has an 82% rating from the ACLU. But Radley Balko suggests the ACLU are easy graders: But from a policy perspective, it’s a disaster. Biden has sponsored more damaging drug war legislation than any Democrat in Congress. Hate the way federal prosecutors use RICO laws to take aim at drug offenders? Thank Biden. How about the abomination that is federal asset forfeiture laws? Thank Biden. Think federal prosecutors have too much power in drug cases? Thank Biden. Think the title of a “Drug Czar” is sanctimonious and silly? Thank Biden, who helped create the position (and still considers it an accomplishment worth boasting about). Tired of the ridiculous steroids hearings in Congress? thank Biden, who led the effort to make steroids a Schedule 3 drug, and has been among the blowhardiest of the blowhards when it comes to sports and performance enhancing drugs. Biden voted in favor of using international development aid for drug control (think plan Columbia, plan Afghanistan, and other meddling anti-drug efforts that have only fostered loathing of America, backlash, and unintended consequences). Oh, and he was also the chief sponsor of 2004’s horrendous RAVE Act. [...]
August 26th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Correction: Carper’s score is higher than 29%. For some reason half of his votes are listed under the name Thomas (with a score of 57%) and the rest are listed under Tom (with a score of 29%)