After much anticipation and media-baiting, Obama's camp finally made their first pivotal chess move in the 2008 election process. The announcement of Senator Joseph Biden as a running mate was made via text message to supporters at three in the morning, just hours after it had already been confirmed by major news sources.

By now, most of us have heard the mainstream media's various rationalizations for Obama's VP choice. Biden, the son of a Scranton, Pennsylvania car salesman hails from a working class background, thus he may pull in the white working class voters who supported Hillary Clinton in the primaries. Biden has a "solid pro-Israel record" according to at least one major Jewish organization; this will please Jewish voters. And Biden is the quintessential "everyman"; neither flashy nor terribly sophisticated, he will surely help play down Obama's perceived elitism.

But some believe that the greatest asset that the Senator brings to the ticket is experience and expertise in foreign policy. Having spent 36 years, nearly three decades in the Senate, Biden chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, co-chairs the Caucus on International Narcotics Control, and has also been a longtime chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He has a a long and extensive background in foreign affairs, particularly Eastern European and Middle East politics.

Given that Obama's choice of Biden for a running mate is already beginning to frame the ongoing debate in significant ways, now would be a good time to briefly scrutinize how Biden stacks up in accordance with the issues that matter most to Citizens for Global Solutions and its members, just as we will pay McCain's running mate the same amount of scrutiny when the time comes.

Citizens for Global Solutions members who may have already chosen to support Barack Obama should know that, at the very least, Biden supports many of the issues CGS finds most pressing in today's political climate. Senator Joseph Biden has always scored favorably on our Annual Congressional Report Card, consistently scoring As and A+s on issues critical to our organization from at least 2005 onwards, particularly on four of our current biggest: Darfur, Energy, Climate Change, and Nuclear Non-Proliferation.

On the genocide in Darfur, Senator Joseph Biden's record is reliably consistent. Having taken a congressional visit to Darfur, Biden received a cumulative A+ score on the Genocide Intervention Network's Darfur Scorecard recently for being a significant supporter of legislation to help stop the genocide. Biden was instrumental in passing the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act in the Senate of 2006. He also introduced a successful amendment to the supplemental appropriations bill to establish an Office of the Special Envoy for Sudan whose primary responsibility would be to push implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement. Furthermore, Biden's rhetoric on Darfur has long matched his actions; he has always been notably forceful in his condemnation of the genocide and his will to act. In April 2007, hemade this oft-quoted statement before the Senate Relations Committee: "I would use American force now, I think it's not only time not to take force off the table. I think it's time to put force on the table and use it. Let's stop the bleeding. I think it's a moral imperative." However, his strongest statement on Darfur was in February 2007, when he declared to Iowans his policy on Darfur if he were elected president: "I warn you if I am your President I will do more than talk about Darfur. I will send American troops to impose a no-fly zone in Darfur and I will make sure that [we] take out the janjaweed. There is no [reason] why we are not imposing a no-fly zone. I visited Darfur. I looked at those 200,000 refugees that are dying. We have no moral right not to act."

Biden has also been an adamant supporter of an energy policy that is very much in line with the energy policies we here at CGS advocate. Whilst running for president in 2007 he championed "energy security" as his top priority. At a rally in Hartsville, South Carolina on March 3, 2007 he firmly stated: "If I could wave a wand, and the Lord said I could solve one problem, I would solve the energy crisis. That's the single most consequential problem we can solve. It's what you have to do to get greenhouse gases under control."

Biden strongly supports the increased use of biofuels as a means of combating oil dependency. Some of his proposals for decreasing oil dependency and increasing the use of biofuels have included co-sponsoring the Clean Power Act of 2005, which would have implemented a cap-and-trade system for carbon dioxide and other pollutants. During the primaries, he called for raising fuel-economy standards for automobiles to an average of 40 miles per gallon by 2017 by increasing fuel-economy targets within vehicle classes by about one mile per gallon per year. He also called for increasing ethanol and biodiesel production by upping the national renewable-fuel standard to require that the fuel supply include 10 billion gallons of renewable fuel a year by 2010 and 60 billion gallons a year by 2030.

Biden's position on energy mirrors his concern for the environment as climate change continues to threaten the future of humanity. He has received an approval rating of 83 out of 100 from the League of Conservation Voters for his support of environmentally-friendly legislation. In 1986, he introduced the Global Climate Protection Act, the first bill designed to limit global warming pollution. Recently, he has co-sponsored the Boxer-Sanders Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act, the most stringent climate bill in the Senate. It would establish a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse-gas emissions and require the U.S. to reduce its emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. He has held hearings in recent years on the national-security implications of global warming.

On nuclear non-proliferation, Biden's record is less clearly defined, but he articulated his views on nuclear weaponry recently to the non-profit, Council for a Livable World, in the following statement: "I have been a leading supporter of non-proliferation programs since 1991 and I have worked to protect and increase their funding, broaden their scope and relieve certification requirements that diverted them from the mission of dismantling WMD capabilities, securing dangerous materials and finding productive careers for former WMD personnel. Right now, I am pressing for improved IAEA safe guards at nuclear facilities; improved capability to determine the origin of nuclear materials so that we can bring deterrence into the 21st century; increased funding for ex-weapons scientists in the FSU; repeal of Nunn-Lugar certification requirements; destruction of chemical weapons in Libya; a program to allow Iraqi ex-weapons scientists to come to the U.S. (instead of Syria or Iran); a fund for implementing future nuclear agreements with Iran or North Korea; and increased funds for the very important low end of non-proliferation: buy backs of handguns and automatic weapons in troubled countries."

Biden's long run in the Senate lend him a kind of transparency that Obama lacks. Voters curious about Biden's positions need only look back on his extensive voting record and major legislative decisions. As far as politics go, however, this is not necessarily an immediate boon for the Obama camp. Despite the media's curiously adulatory reception of Obama's choice of Senator Joseph Biden, considering that this is a man who inspired little adulation during the primaries, the truth is that Biden is both a potential strength and a potential liability for the Democratic ticket.

As McCain supporters have been quick to point out, Biden is friendly with and has much in common with McCain having often supported McCain on key issues. Biden may be used by Republican pundits to make McCain's case. Furthermore, Biden lacks Obama's silver-tongued eloquence and his record of making less-than-palatable statements is almost as lengthy as his legislative record. One hopes, however, that the American public will choose to look beyond the politics of personality and focus on the candidates' respective positions on issues that are central to their core values as well as to creating global peace and prosperity.

Back to you, McCain.

The whole world turned its eye on Beijing this August in what many were led to believe would be a celebration of the triumph of the human spirit. This summer's Olympics were certainly host to an array of extraordinary athletic achievements. Even I, not at all an avid sports fan, found myself taken in by the spectacle, and particularly by'standout athletes like American swimmer Michael Phelps, who has made his country more than proud.

But as the Olympic flame blew out on Sunday many began to look back on the 2008 Beijing Olympics and wonder what legacy it will leave in its wake. Sadly, the athletic accomplishments of many will be overshadowed by the fact that these Games were little about sports and more about politics, greed, and deception as the international community complicity gave credence to a hostile regime that is fundamentally undemocratic and steeped in human rights abuses and atrocities. The motto for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics was, ironically, "One World, One Dream", chosen out of 210,000 submissions submitted worldwide. Unfortunately, this 'dream' is far from realizable for many of the world's poorest and oppressed and the Olympic host country, far from fostering this dream, continues to exacerbate global inequality with each passing year. We, here are at Citizens for Global Solutions, are primarily concerned with China's position on two critical issues: Darfur and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

China has garnered sharp criticism from the international community at large for the role it has played in exacerbating genocide in Darfur. China is Sudan's closest economic, military, and political partner and, as such, is the national government best positioned to pressure Sudan to end government-backed violence in Darfur. However, not only has China failed to use its relationship with Sudan as leverage to help end a large-scale humanitarian crisis, the Chinese government has aided and abetted Sudan's Khartoum government in a number of ways with devastating consequences, including violating the UN arms embargo by supplying weaponry to Sudan's government in Khartoum and investing heavily in Sudan, particularly in Sudanese oil, and thus effectively bankrolling the ongoing genocide. For more information on China's involvement in Darfur click here.

China's complicity in fueling the Darfur genocide is closely linked to its position on the ICC. Although very active in the process of drafting the Rome Statute in the late 90s, the Chinese government has failed to live up to its earliest promises. The Beijing government has consistently taken steps that seek to undermine the effectiveness of the ICC. These measures have included: Publicly expressing disapproval over a number of ICC indictments, most recently that of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, architect of the ongoing Darfur genocide and attempting to use its position in the UN Security Council as political leverage to stall or nullify the work of the ICC. For more information on China's engagement with the ICC click here.

Members of Citizens for Global Solutions can make a vital difference by informing themselves and others of China's policies on Darfur and the ICC via our website, writing op-ed articles for their local newspaper, and continuing to hold their congressmen accountable by encouraging them to address how the US can put pressure on China to reform their policies towards Darfur and the ICC. Also, find out how your congressman stacks up on China and Darfur issues by checking out our 2008 Congressional Report Card. The 2008 Beijing Olympics will most likely go down in history as a curious exercise in mass delusion in which the international community symbolically threw its support behind a dangerous and hostile regime in the name of celebrating a common dream, but it can also serve as a clarion call for many to act. For if this is truly 'one world' we all have a moral imperative to act in the face of oppression and injustice.