Joe Biden: We Don't Like Him Either
Delaware Senator Joseph Biden Jr. wants to be President too. You may remember Joe Biden from the horrible RAVE Act he sponsored, which subjects business owners to federal prosecution if they fail to prevent drug use on the premises. Worse yet, Biden actually wrote the law that gives us a Drug Czar. Seriously. Al Gore invented the internet or whatever. Joe Biden invented ONDCP.
I wonder what he was thinking. Was Biden concerned that the drug war was all injury and no insults? If so, he certainly succeeded in making prohibition more annoying, what with the terrorism ads, the interference in local politics, the podcasts, the blog, Andrea Barthwell…the list goes on.
Either way, Biden can now take some credit for ONDCP’s numerous contributions to the drug war status quo, and should either be very proud or ashamed depending who you ask. It would be unfair not to mention that Joe Biden doesn’t like John Walters, who he says runs ONDCP "like an ivory tower." One might credit Biden with taking a stand for accountability, but you’d have to ignore the irony of his complaints that the "Drug Czar" position he created seems to lend itself to tyranny.
That drug war cheerleaders so often prove to have high political ambitions is probably no coincidence. From Harry Anslinger’s race-baiting demagoguery to Karen Tandy’s campaign against Tommy Chong (which swept her into the top office at DEA), drug war grandstanding is one way to get your name in the paper. Running for President is another.
Electioneering laws prevent us from opining on the merits (or lack thereof) of various presidential candidates. So I’ll just say this: if the 2008 presidential election comes down to a contest between Rudy Giuliani and Joe Biden, the prison industrial complex can’t lose.
(This blog post was published by StoptheDrugWar.org's lobbying arm, the Drug Reform Coordination Network, which also shares the cost of maintaining this web site. DRCNet Foundation takes no positions on candidates for public office, in compliance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and does not pay for reporting that could be interpreted or misinterpreted as doing so.)
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redditSmorgan
Comment posted by Anonymous on Fri, 01/11/2008 - 6:34amI'm sorry to say... your article/opinion piece just doesn't sit well with me... Not trying to defend Biden, but the programs and positions he's created have done more good than bad.. at least, in retrospect- not considering that Bush is in power... He understands that there is a race and socioeconomic issue at hand and not just an a stoner's concern... not to say I don't like marijuana... but, he seems to know more about the drug war than some of the other candidates.
Biden
Comment posted by David Borden on Sun, 01/13/2008 - 7:43pmBiden has definitely improved during the period of time since that post was first published. Still, some of the things he's done are inexcusably bad, such as the RAVE Act. And creating ONDCP, which he was involved in, hasn't done more good than harm, has it? It hasn't accomplished much of anything except for generating political propaganda.
David Borden, Executive Director
StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network
Washington, DC
http://stopthedrugwar.org
Joe Biden: We Don't Like Him Either
Comment posted by Anonymous on Sun, 01/07/2007 - 8:59pmI was quite impressed with Mr. Biden on Meet th Press.
I am sad to hear that he might as well be George Bush regarding the current Marijuana Paranoia.
JD
Torrance California