[pp.int.general] Joe Biden is an enemy

[Andrew Norton]

Per von Zweigbergk wrote:
> 21 jan 2009 kl. 14.56 skrev Reinier Bakels:
> 
>>> It's not exactly news, nor is that 2 weeks ago, omaba nominated two
>>> former RIAA civil suit prosecutors to 2nd and 3rd places in the
>>> Department of justice (first being the Attorney General). Thats got
>>> coverage in the Us and even in Sweden, with references made to PPUS.
>>
>> Well, for me it was news, but for insiders like yourself it obviously 
>> isn't. Could you - as an insider - tell me whether there are any 
>> (powerfull?) PP-friendly politicians in the US?
> 
> 
> I'd like an answer to this as well. I had heard about the nomination of 
> the former RIAA prosecutors to the DoJ posts (via Slashdot as well as 
> via Swedish news), but I was not aware of Joe Biden's role in the 
> document Reiner posted in the first e-mail of this thread.

Biden's been a 'pro copyright' guy for about 5-6 years. Him, Orin Hatch 
(a republican) and Howard Berman (aka 'the distinguished gentleman from 
Hollywood')

> 
> Remember, this e-mail list is about international cooperation between 
> pirate parties. I don't think everyone can be expected to know about the 
> political circumstances in different countries. If I list the names of 
> some Swedish members of parliament:
> 
> - Staffan Danielsson
> - Fredrick Federley
> - Karin Pilsäter
> - Lage Rahm
> - Alice Åström
> 
> I'm sure most of you (Swedish members of the list excepted) would have 
> no idea at all about which of these people are sympathetic or 
> unsympathetic to the goals of the pirate movement.

Sorry if I'm snippy. When I wrote it, I'd been standing in -10C weather 
with my kids, waiting for the school bus for 30 mins (it was 30mins 
late) and I was very cold and very annoyed. I'm sorry. Here in Georgia, 
in January, temperatures in the teens are more usual, not negative 
teens, and houses are built accordingly.

> 
> As such, I would absolutely encourage that the list contains posts about 
> politicians being sympathetic or unsympathetic to our issues. We should 
> absolutely try to refrain from calling "old news" on some fact that 
> might not be generally known. It might be well known to *you*, but it 
> might not be to everyone else. I have enough on my mind to try to 
> remember how the politicians here in Sweden are acting.
> 
> Maybe a wiki effort to document these kinds of things could be useful?
> 
> Finally, if this was "old news" to the US Pirate Party, why did the US 
> Pirate Party endorse Obama as President of the USA in the first place? 
> If I knew what I know now, and what the US PP considers old news - it 
> would indicate pretty poor judgement on the part of the PPUS.

At the time of the endorsement (over a year ago now) our then Operations 
officer, Ray Jenson, had been in contact with the Obama chief of Staff, 
and said they were favourable towards our position. Middle of last year, 
when things went the way they are going now (not only the Biden VP pick, 
but also Obama voting FOR the warrentless wiretapping, while McCain had 
a 'no-vote') I called for a retraction of the Obama endorsement. It 
failed. The general consensus was 'lets wait and see'. The two biggest 
opponents were myself (who didn't like anyone in the end) and Glenn (who 
favoured Nader).

Andrew
PPI