VP hopeful’s wife: End Iraq war
By Jessica VanderKolk, jvanderkolk@altoonamirror.comEnding the war in Iraq and taking care of the nation's veterans is important to Jill Biden, especially as her son, Beau, deployed to Iraq this month and serves as a captain in the Delaware National Guard.
Biden, wife of Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden, spoke to the Mirror Sunday by phone after a Scranton rally with her husband, former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama's campaign offered the interviews to reporters in each Pennsylvania media market.
"Near and dear to my heart, since I have a son who is deployed, we need to end this war in Iraq," Jill Biden said during the eight-minute interview.
Biden said she encourages local families with loved ones in the military to consider the Obama-Biden ticket.
"One of the things I've heard Barack say, and I've heard Joe say, is that we have a sacred obligation to our veterans, that education and their health care needs will be taken care of," she said. "This is a really important issue for all of our military."
Biden, a teacher at Delaware Technical and Community College for 15 years, wrote her doctoral dissertation about how to retain students at community colleges, such as Pennsylvania Highlands in Johnstown.
She said she would continue her focus on education should the Democratic ticket make it to the White House.
"I wrote about student retention because I find in the community college where we teach we actually lose about one-third of our students," Jill Biden said. "I know my students are working, raising their children and going to school. When times get tough, the first thing that has to go is education.
"I had a student, a nurse, a straight-A student; his father was dying of cancer, and he knows he's not going to be able to afford next semester."
The Pennsylvania Department of Education's most recent community college annual report shows a drop in those students from the fall 2005 semester to spring 2006.
About 20 percent of students ages 18 to 21 dropped from fall to spring. The number increased to 24 percent for ages 22 to 34 and was about 19 percent for students older than 35.
In statistics divided by race, 25 percent of black students did not return for spring semester, compared with 23 percent of Hispanic students and 20 percent of white students.
During a recent family emergency, Biden telephoned the students in her 8:30 a.m. class to let them know she couldn't attend, hoping to save them the gas required to drive to campus.
"A lot of my students can't afford books," she said. "It's the little things making it so difficult for students to stay in school."
Biden cited her husband's experience on various issues as reasons he would succeed as vice president. Joe Biden has served in the U.S. Senate for more than three decades.
"I think he's a strong leader," Jill Biden said. "He has so much legislation that has helped women, especially his Violence Against Women Act, which criminalizes domestic violence."
Jill Biden also pointed to her husband's foreign policy expertise.
He has served as a ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since 1997.
On the Republican ticket, Todd Palin, husband of vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, also has traveled on behalf of his wife and presidential hopeful John McCain.
Spokesman Peter Feldman said Todd Palin may speak with the media before the Nov. 4 election.
"Todd Palin is campaigning for us, and we are excited to have him on the trail," Feldman said. "Like Gov. Palin, Alaska's 'first dude' brings a lot of energy to the campaign - and we're going to make good use of it in the final stretch."
Feldman said Todd Palin appeared in Maine Saturday as his wife traveled in central Pennsylvania, holding a rally in Johnstown and stopping in Altoona and near State College before attending a Philadelphia Flyers hockey game.
Mirror Staff Writer Jessica VanderKolk is at 946-7465.
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guttertroll
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10-15-08 9:40 AM
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If I can wait DECADES for this issue I can CERTAINLY wait decades for National Health Care.
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lambs1
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10-15-08 9:21 AM
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While everyone is screaming for alternative energy sources, every time Gamesa proposes a site for wind tech. the public, wildlife game comm ect... all have a reason to oppose it.
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guttertroll
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10-15-08 9:06 AM
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SURPRISE THAT CAME FROM NO OTHER THAN: President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 31, 2006
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guttertroll
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10-15-08 9:05 AM
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SOUND FAMILIAR? More stump speech? "The best way to break this addiction is through technology. Since 2001, we have spent nearly 10 billion dollars to develop cleaner, cheaper, more reliable alternative energy sources – and we are on the threshold of incredible advances. So tonight, I announce the Advanced Energy Initiative – a 22-percent increase in clean-energy research at the Department of Energy, to push for breakthroughs in two vital areas. To change how we power our homes and offices, we will invest more in zero-emission coal-fired plants; revolutionary solar and wind technologies; and clean, safe nuclear energy."
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guttertroll
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10-15-08 9:03 AM
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Oh by the way this info can be verifed in Business Week. Not the Daily Kos or Huffington Post material.
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guttertroll
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10-15-08 9:01 AM
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JUST AN EXAMPLE THAT OBOZO IS JUST AS MUCH A LYING POLITICIAN AS ALL THE OTHERS! PLUS IT WILL ADD TRILLIONS TO THE BUDGET. IS he taking this MONEY AWAY from HEALTH CARE? Obama's primary campaign in Kentucky sent out flyers in May showing the smiling Democratic candidate, a coal barge, and the message "Barack Obama believes in clean Kentucky coal."
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guttertroll
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10-15-08 8:59 AM
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Says Curt M. White, who ran the U.S. Energy Dept.'s carbon sequestration group until 2005, "RED FLAGS SHOULD BE GOING UP EVERYWHERE WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT THIS AMOUNT OF LIQUID BEING PUT UNDERGROUND." Corporations and the federal government have TRIED FOR YEARS to accomplish "carbon capture and sequestration." So far THEY HAVEN'T HAD MUCH LUCK. THE METHOD is widely viewed as being DECADES AWAY from commercial viability. EVEN THEN, the cost could be prohibitive: by A CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATE, SEVERAL TRILLION DOLLARS to switch to clean coal in the U.S. alone.
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guttertroll
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10-15-08 8:59 AM
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OK KM ISSUE: Another OBAMA LIE?THE DIRTY TRUTH ABOUT CLEAN COAL.: In all, some 118 electoral votes are in play in the top 10 coal-producing states—44% of the 270 needed to win the election. That likely will fuel plenty of speechifying. "Clean coal' is like a healthy cigarette,'" says Blan Holman, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center in Charleston, S.C. "It doesn't exist." "When OBAMA says clean coal,' he's talking about coming up with a system to put carbon back into the ground from whence it came," says Jason Grumet. ........
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TimmyH
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10-14-08 11:18 PM
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The U.N. agreed that yellow cake, which is used to make nukes, was considered a WMD before the invasion. Guess what? We found some. 550 metric tons of it to be exact. ***********msnbc.msn****/id/25546334/ "The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program — a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium — reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans. The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" — the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment — was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions." Yeah, Michelle, what a waste of money this war has been.
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TimmyH
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10-14-08 6:28 PM
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Michelle: you're right, Wal-Mart has no union. That is my point. If by shamelessly you mean that they give me a good wage for the area, good health and dental coverage for my whole family along with 401k, paid incentives on every pay check, quarterly incentive checks every 3 months, and basically put almost no limit on how much money I can make, than yes they're shameless.
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Michele731
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10-14-08 5:13 PM
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I don't think Wal Mart has a union. Aren't they notorious for treating their employees shamelessly.
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TimmyH
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10-14-08 1:31 PM
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Klaus: yes, you did. You stated that Wal-Mart would have no good benefits if it weren't for unions. I asked for proof, and you said to both me and gutter you don't have too. That is called making a baseless argument and refusing to support it. Next.
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ArtHUR
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10-14-08 8:14 AM
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Klaus, It was more of a general statement of the uneducated types on this site (166, Blair), I wasnt necessarily referring to you.
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guttertroll
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10-14-08 7:45 AM
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in the Federalist Papers you can find the intent of the 10th Amendment. In summary the Papers state that the 10th Amendment is a source of the constitutional policy that Congress may not exercise power in a fashion that impairs states’ integrity or their ability to function effectively in the federal system. Thus, federal laws and regulations which treat the states in a manner inconsistent with this policy are subject to challenge, not because they violate any specific constitutional provision or transgress the explicit boundaries of any definite grant of authority, but because they ignore the guarantees of the 10th Amendment and impinge upon the structural "assumptions" and "tacit postulates" of the Constitution as a whole.
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guttertroll
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10-14-08 7:44 AM
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KLAUS="MY nation was built on the belief in MY right to criticize it - and to be considered a PATRIOT to do so!" Then Klaus MAYBE you should start directing your comments at drippy, moooove and 166. Although it is called SECESSION it is supported as a patriotic movement also. Texas is kicking it around AND its Constitutional.
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guttertroll
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10-14-08 7:38 AM
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Heil Klaus. Burn the books. Burn the babies. Burn the churches. Burn the truth. HEIL KLAUS!!!
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homerbeep
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10-14-08 3:38 AM
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klaus, move, et al: So...Obama already won? McCain died? Who's the prophet here? BTW, if Obama's already elected, why is ACORN so desperate for votes?
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KlausVR
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10-14-08 1:17 AM
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I DO question and criticize our president ... if you consider that berating / name-calling, well ... sorry that YOU don't see the distinction. I have made no baseless allegations / refused to back them up. And, more importantly, I have questioned NO ONE'S patriotism because they have differed from me ... that's what Americans do ... differ from each other.
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ArtHUR
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10-14-08 12:35 AM
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Klaus, There's a fine distinction between questioning/criticizing and BERATING/NAME-CALLING the President. Learn the difference.
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TimmyH
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10-13-08 11:53 PM
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Klaus: making baseless allegations and baseless arguments and then refusing to back them up with verifiable evidence is not patriotic. Get over yourself.
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KlausVR
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10-13-08 11:50 PM
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MY uniform should have a swastika on it? I think not. I do not walk lock-step with whatever my president has to say. I am too American to do that. MY nation was built on the belief in MY right to criticize it - and to be considered a PATRIOT to do so! To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. (Teddy Roosevelt) Therefore ... thwfffffffft!
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TimmyH
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10-13-08 11:41 PM
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Too true Arthur. Its why they continue to dodge the deregulation bill from 1999 with Biden's voting YES for more deregulation while McCain didn't vote at all. They obviously don't know what to say to this and are too dishonest to admit that Obama's accusations toward McCain's voting record are a lie.
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ArtHUR
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10-13-08 11:35 PM
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Is McMelanoma really the best you can come up with? WATCH OUT! I figure the best way I can get you to shut up is to prevent facts, which you will just run from.
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drophammer
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10-13-08 10:39 PM
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TimmyH 10-13-08 10:20 PM "In that case drophammer I guess Michael Moore, Randi Rhodes, and Jane Fonda are all terrorists." ....Are they married to a V.P. candidate who is likely to become president when McMelanoma dies? Here's part of his 1,700 page medical records. ***********huffingtonpost****/2008/09/30/new-urgency-over-mccain-m_n_130298.html "what more important information is needed to elect a president other than his fitness for office? "I don't see anything wrong with opening up the discussion," said Ronald Bronow, former chief of dermatology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. "What we want to know is, what stage is this melanoma? Particularly with the prospect of the vice president becoming the president... If you are an objective physician, you have to be concerned about this."
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TimmyH
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10-13-08 10:20 PM
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In that case drophammer I guess Michael Moore, Randi Rhodes, and Jane Fonda are all terrorists.
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