Thread: Biden : "Mark my words...."

, > A NEW WORD IS BORN
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> I knew someone would find a name for our election process for this year.
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> Electile Dysfunction: the inability to become aroused over any of the
choices for President put forth by either party in the 2008 election year..

Originally Posted by peaceangle

Electile Dysfunction : the inability to become aroused over any of the choices for President put forth by either party in the 2008 election year..

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Originally Posted by DrHolliday

Is Obama's statement about redistributing wealth a matter of a slip of the tongue? I understand that he wants to raise taxes on those making more than 250k.

We were talking about how many states there were. That was a slip of the tongue, nothing more. McCain has made some also. We all do sometimes.

US official: Russians intend to test Obama on arms
By ROBERT BURNS, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 58 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The Russian government is likely to "test the mettle" of Barack Obama and his administration by taking a tougher stance against U.S. missile defenses, a senior State Department official said Wednesday. John Rood, the department's top arms control official, told reporters he believes the Russians are waiting to size up the Obama administration before Moscow advances its position on disputed arms issues.

In discussing the state of Russian opposition to U.S. missile defense bases in Poland and the Czech Republic, Rood said it appears that Moscow has "paused" in anticipation of a new national security approach in Washington.

"My assessment is that the Russians intend to test the mettle of the new administration and the new president," he said. "The future will show how the new administration chooses to answer that challenge."

Asked to elaborate, he said, "I think missile defense and other subjects will be among those that the Russians intend to determine what the new administration's posture will be." He said he reached this conclusion on the basis of an impression gained during talks in Moscow on Monday rather than from explicit Russian statements.

He also said the Russians have been less flexible lately in talks on missile defense. In particular he cited their stance on U.S. proposals to give the Russians more assurance that a missile interceptor site in Poland and a missile-tracking radar in the Czech Republic would pose no security threat to Russia.

The U.S., with the support of the Polish and Czech governments, has proposed that Russian officials be given regular access to the interceptor and radar sites and that they be allowed to monitor activity at both sites through undisclosed technical means. Rood did not elaborate on the details in dispute.

"I don't want to spell out all the details because I think this is a high-priority dialogue for us in the United States, and I don't think that putting all the details out will facilitate a resolution to it," he said.

Rood led a U.S. government delegation in talks with senior Russian officials on a range of subjects, including efforts by both governments to negotiate a treaty to replace the 1991 START nuclear arms deal, which expires in December 2009. Rood said the talks were useful but did not achieve any breakthroughs.

In Moscow on Tuesday, Russian news agencies quoted Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as saying Moscow hopes the Obama administration will agree that the weapons limitations under START "should be preserved and strengthened, rather than weakened."

Rood said the Russians want to expand the scope of a follow-on to the START treaty to include limitations on non-nuclear strategic weapons such as long-range conventional bombers and possibly submarines. The Bush administration has resisted that, saying the restrictions should be on nuclear warheads only.

Rood said he consulted with members of Obama's transition team before traveling to Moscow and will brief them on the substance of the talks. And he said he expects additional talks with the Russians on these subjects before President Bush leaves office Jan. 20.

Brooke Anderson, the Obama transition office's chief spokesperson on national security affairs, declined to comment on Rood's remark about the Russians likely seeking to test the new president.

The missile defense issue has been one of the most divisive over the past few years. The Bush administration has argued that extending its U.S.-based defense system to Europe is important in defending Europe and the United States from a possible long-range missile strike from Iran, while the Russians dispute the immediacy of an Iranian threat and worry about U.S. military expansion near Russian borders.

On Nov. 5, the day after Obama's election, President Dmitry Medvedev warned that Russia would move short-range missiles to NATO's borders to "neutralize" any U.S. missile defense system in Eastern Europe if necessary.

Medvedev has since backed off slightly. He stressed on Nov. 15 that Russia would not act unless the United States took the first step and expressed hope that the new U.S. administration will be open to negotiations.

Obama has not been explicit, at least in public, about whether he would proceed with the missile defense plan in Poland and the Czech Republic. More broadly he has said he supports missile defense but wants to ensure that it is proven to be a reliable system that does not detract from other security priorities.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081218/...CNdMs40AGs0NUE

Biden worried about another terrorist attack
Wed Feb 17, 8:07 am ET

WASHINGTON – Vice President Joe Biden says he's less worried about another Sept. 11-style attack than a strike by a lone bomber like the man who tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane last Christmas.

Discussing U.S. vulnerability in an interview on CBS's "The Early Show," Biden said, "Am I less worried about a catastrophic event? Yes."

Biden said he's more concerned about an attack "along the lines of the Christmas Day bomber." He said he considers that a greater threat than terrorism which requires "the kind of planning that's needed to pull off a very complicated 9-11."

Biden also said he likes former Vice President Dick Cheney and considers him "patriotic," but said he's wrong on war and counterterrorism strategy.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100217/...iden_terrorism

Obama: Risks of nuclear attack have risen
By Steven R. Hurst, Associated Press Writer 58 mins ago

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama told assembled leaders at the 47-country Nuclear Security Summit Tuesday the risk of nuclear attack — not by an enemy nation, but from terrorists — was on the rise despite the end of the Cold War.

In his opening address to the first full day of the summit, Obama described the new nuclear reality as a "cruel irony of history." He called the conference with the goal of locking down all nuclear materials worldwide in four years.

"The risk of a nuclear attack has gone up," Obama said, as terrorist organizations like the al-Qaida network try to get their hands on nuclear materials.

By Monday night, when Obama hosted assembled presidents and prime ministers for a dinner, the summit had already paid early dividends: China's agreement to work with the U.S. on possible sanctions against Iran and Ukraine's decision to rid itself of nuclear bomb-making materials.

Obama had already held two days of meetings with selected leaders from among the 47 countries assembled to recharge efforts to keep nuclear material out of terrorist hands. It ends Tuesday with a joint declaration to guide future work toward locking away and cleansing the globe of materials still too easily accessible to terrorists.

Obama announced at the outset that South Korea will host the next conference of this kind in two years.

China's incremental move toward U.S. ambitions to sanction Iran and Ukraine's plans get rid of highly enriched uranium put some wind in Obama's sails as he presses global leaders to join him in securing all nuclear materials within four years.

Obama's meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao was the last of the summit warm-up sessions before the U.S. leader sat down with his guests at a working dinner.

After the Hu meeting, White House national security aide Jeff Bader said Iran was a major topic of discussion at the 90-minute session.

"They're prepared to work with us," Bader said, interpreting that willingness as "another sign of international unity on this issue."

Obama has been pressing the case that a fourth round of sanctions is needed to persuade Iran to alter its perceived course toward a nuclear weapons capability.

China, while historically averse to tough sanctions and uneasy about potential damage to its trade relationship with Tehran, may indeed be coming on board with Obama. He already has the robust backing of Great Britain, France and Germany. Russia, too, has shown a willingness to join the sanctions effort, which would give Obama the required clean sweep of permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

But when pressed on whether China had committed to anything specific on the sanctions front, Bader was less direct.

"We are going to be — we've started to work that and we're going to be working on that in the coming days — coming days and weeks," he said. Obama wants agreement on sanctions before summer.

In Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said: "China always believes that dialogue and negotiation are the best way out for the issue. Pressure and sanctions cannot fundamentally solve it."

But she added that China supports a "dual-track strategy," combining diplomacy with the possibility of international sanctions against Iran.

The Ukrainians, who gave a major boost to arms control in 1994 when they agreed to surrender the nuclear weapons they inherited in the collapse of the Soviet Union, agreed to get rid of their weapons-grade fuel by 2012.

Some details are yet to be worked out, including how and where the nuclear fuel will be disposed of, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

The material could be sent to the U.S. or Russia, but Gibbs declined to specify the amount, other than to say it was enough to make several nuclear weapons.

When the summit began in earnest on Tuesday, the focus was Obama's goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons, with efforts to lock down materials to build those bombs an urgent first step.

Tons of plutonium and highly enriched uranium are believed to be insufficiently protected from international criminal gangs and terrorist organizations.

A report Monday by a Harvard nonproliferation found that Pakistan's nuclear stockpile was the world's least secure from theft or attack.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, in Washington for the conference, insisted that his country's nuclear weapons are well-guarded.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100413/...FtYXJpc2tzb2Y-