Barr’s Road to Damascus Takes a Detour

I hate being wrong, but I’m starting to get the sense that my early enthusiasm for a potential Bob Barr presidential run may have been misplaced.

To be sure, Barr has had a whirlwind of MSM publicity, mostly favorable to the Libertarian Party, since he announced the formation of his Exploratory Committee last weekend. But Barr is coming up way short on delivering an actual libertarian message. The issues section of his campaign website is sparse, and what little is there is a mix of libertarian (non-interventionism and civil liberties) and anti-libertarian (”Fair Tax” and closed borders).

Since Barr is playing his cards so close to the vest, the libertarian blogosphere is vetting his recent public comments and writings to determine just what sort of candidate we can expect, should he win the nomination. Excerpts from some of his columns raise red flags.

First, just as year ago, long after Barr had joined the Libertarian National Committee and supposedly changed his mind about the drug war, he wrote the following about the U.S. policy towards Columbia:

Recognizing Colombia’s essential role in our country’s campaign against illicit trafficking in cocaine, the Bush administration and prior Congresses have responded to Mr. Uribe’s efforts by funding “Plan Colombia” to the tune over its seven-year lifespan of more than $5.0 billion. While critics interpret the fact that Colombian-processed cocaine stills arrives in our country as evidence Plan Colombia should be defunded or dramatically reduced, in reality this support for Colombia’s efforts will continue as an essential component of our anti-drug program. If Congress truly wants the plan work better, the solution would be not to dry up funding but to provide more flexibility for its implementation.

“An essential component of our anti-drug program”? For a former drug warrior, Barr sounds an awful lot like a current drug warrior.

Then just last week, the supposedly anti-interventionist Barr wrote the following about Columbia’s tensions with Venezuela:

While Washington’s current national security worldview remains focused like a laser beam on Iraq and Afghanistan, fires smolder and burn elsewhere. Shifting at least a portion of that concern and those resources to South America, and especially to the Andean region that currently is near the boiling point, is critical to our security. There may not be weapons of mass destruction lurking in the jungles of Venezuela, Colombia or Ecuador (there weren’t in Iraq either, of course), but arms are flowing into the area. Venezuela, for example, is buying billions of dollars worth of Russian military equipment. Leftist guerrillas and narco-terrorists remain firmly entrenched in the region, and evidence that other terrorist groups are using the area for problematic purposes is mounting.

So Barr understands the folly of our interventions when it comes to Iraq and Afghanistan, but he advocates “shifting at least a portion of that concern and those resources to South America.” We need “resources” (presumably military resources) in South America like a hole in the head.

Bob, you got a lot of splainin to do!

Flashback: Libertarians Vs. Bob Barr

Before he was “exploring” a Libertarian presidential candidacy, before he was on the Libertarian National Committee, before he was a lobbyist for the Marijuana Policy Project, Bob Barr was the biggest drug warrior in Congress. He was so bad on the drug war that the late, great Ron Crickenberger, political director of the national Libertarian Party, was inspired to create this 2002 anti-Barr ad starring medical marijuana patient Cheryl Miller.

Why do I dredge this up now? Hasn’t Barr sufficiently repented for his past sins? Well, yes and no. He’s certainly gotten a lot better on a lot of issues since leaving Congress. However, he also has a track record that isn’t easily dismissed. Ron Paul may be a Republican, but he also has an impeccably libertarian voting record in Congress. Barr doesn’t have that, and he needs to realize that he has to make an extra effort to prove he’s now on the side of angels.

I want to support Bob Barr. I started the online petition to encourage him to run. But I also expect Libertarian candidates — especially at the highest levels — to be clearly libertarian. If Barr wants the nomination, he has to earn it by coming out with some unequivocally libertarian campaign positions, particularly on those issues like the drug war where he erred so badly in the past.

Eric Sundwall Interviews Mike Gravel

Eric Sundwall from the capital region Libertarians has a fascinating interview with former Democratic Senator and current Libertarian presidential candidate Mike Gravel. I don’t think he’s a real libertarian, and I sure don’t agree with him on everything, but Gravel sure is a deep thinker and an interesting guy.

 

Bob Barr creates exploratory committee

http://thirdpartywatch.com/…

According to bloggage at the New York Times (confirmed by other sources), Bob Barr announced today that he’s (drum roll, please) … forming an exploratory committee.

Barr’s newly launched web site also bears the “exploratory committee” label.

Don’t know about y’all, but I’ve never heard of a prospective presidential candidate forming an “exploratory committee” weeks after his party’s only primaries, less than two months before his party’s presidential nominating convention, and only seven months before the general election.

Then again, I’ve never heard of a two-term former US Senator and Democratic presidential candidate jumping the partisan fence one day and declaring for his new party’s presidential nomination the next day, either.

It’s turning into a very strange election year indeed.

There you go Jim. The LP race just gets more interesting all the time. So when is Ventura jumping in?

Ron Paul May Endorse Bob Barr

It looks like Bob Barr is finally heeding the call of my typo-titled petition and will seek the Liberarian nomination for President. I think this is very good news. Barr is simply outstanding on a lot of libertarian issues, and he’s certainly libertarian on all the top issues of the day, like the the war and civil liberties.

That doesn’t mean he should give a pass, by any means. He has a dubious track record from his stint in Congress to account for, and he should fully and publicly account for it before he is considered for the nomination. But it’s in all of our best interest to give him  a fair hearing.

And as a bonus, a website is reporting that Ron Paul may endorse Barr’s candidacy, which would be wonderful but weird, since Paul is still officially a candidate himself.

In other LP presidential contender news, you may have heard that former Democratic Alaskan Senator Mike Gravel joined the Libertarian Party last week and declared his candidacy for the presidential nomination. I think that’s, um, nice, but just way beyond the pale. Not that Gravel doesn’t have a lot going for him. For leaking the Pentagon Papers alone, he’s an American hero. But his economic policies are about as unlibertarian as you can get.

John McCain’s Decade-Long Attack on the Individual

Two interesting op-eds from today’s NY Times. (I think only the first one is in the print edition.)

The first is from Readon Magazine editor-in-chief Matt Welch on John McCain’s “decade-long attack on the individual.” Key excerpt:

“We are fast becoming a nation of alienating individualists, unwilling to put the unifying values of patriotism ahead of our narrow self-interests,” Mr. McCain warned in a speech during his 2000 presidential campaign. He added that “cynicism threatens to become a ceiling on our greatness.”

Where there are threats to national greatness, there are activities that Mr. McCain insists the federal government should curtail. And the most maverick individuals among us are destined to bear the brunt.

Am I the only one who hears “Ride of the Valkyries” whenever a politician starts talking about “national greatness”?

On a more cheerful note, the second piece from today’s Times looks at the graphics revolution inspired by the Ron Paul Revolution.

How the media injected black men with syphilis

March 23, 2008

When Malik Shabazz spoke for the New Black Panthers on talk shows last week in regards to Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s racial comments, he stated the US gov’t infected black men with syphilis according to the Tuskegee Experiment. Conservative pundits didn’t know how to rebuttal him. They couldn’t deny the Tuskegee Experiment took place between 1932 and 1972 where over 300 poor and mostly illiterate black sharecroppers were denied treatment for syphilis. It is one of the more shameful chapters in US history, alongside slavery and lynching.

However, it’s disconcerting pundits didn’t argue a crucial fact. Black men were NOT injected with syphilis. The men who volunteered to participate were already infected. The ethically unconscionable and monstrous act by federal researchers was denying them proper treatment of penicillin. Instead, the subjects were informed they had “bad blood” and were studied like lab rats to examine how syphilis would take its toll over the course of years.

But Shabazz was not the only one to have uttered this dangerously misleading inaccuracy without question. Obery Hendricks, professor at the NY Theological Seminary, stated on The O’Reilly Factor “we do know the government injected black men with syphilis.” Journalist Ed Gordon also stated “the government was giving syphilis to black men” on Hardball with Chris Matthews. Woefully inaccurate statements, which can’t be excused as “taken out of context”, have now become, for some, absolute truth.

Extreme fear of political incorrectness coupled with ignorance has muddied the waters of a needed dialogue once again on mainstream news channels. It’s no wonder we have yet to achieve a rational and peaceful resolution between blacks and whites as well as the left and right, when those in the media who speak to millions of viewers each day and earn just as much per year don’t do their homework.

As the battle for network ratings continues on the issues of racism and politics, it’s amazing no one has touched upon another study from the Tuskegee Institute to addresses the utter irony behind Rev. Wright’s hateful berating of Condoleeza Rice as “Condoskeeza” or Colin Powell as “Colonel Colon” for their Republican partisanship. Between 1880 and 1951 over 3,437 African Americans were lynched in the US. These crimes occurred not only due to the deep-rooted hatred in states along the Cotton Belt, but mainly because lynching wasn’t considered a federal crime.

Yet, during that same time, 1,293 white Americans were also lynched. Nearly all were Republicans who no doubt defied the Southern Democratic agenda of segregation. Also known as the Dixiecrats, this was the Democratic base Franklin D Roosevelt didn’t want to upset in order to pass his New Deal programs. This was the reason why FDR, nowadays viewed by many as a Democratic demagogue, never signed anti-lynching legislation during any of his four terms in office. Ultimately, some of these programs granted unions power to lock blacks out of the labor force during the Great Depression.

It wasn’t until after 1948 when Harry Truman introduced anti-lynching legislation that lynching finally became a federal crime. Truman, the same president who dropped the atomic bomb and inspired Rev. Wright to state “God damn America” (and break with the Third Commandment no less) for Americans supposedly not even batting an eye to the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Just another obscure and ironic historical fact that shows life isn’t as black and white or left and right as the mainstream media would have us believe.

Bob Barr rEVOLution!

Back when Bob Barr was still dismissing the notion (must have been weeks ago), I made the case for Barr to run as the Libertarian candidate for President. Now it looks like Bob is warming to the idea.

Come on, Bob, do it!

Yes, I know he isn’t a perfect libertarian — but honestly, neither is Ron Paul. Both are just a gazillion-percent better than any other credible candidate.

To reiterate, Bob Barr is:

• strongly pro-RKBA
• strongly pro-civil liberties
• strongly pro-privacy
• strongly anti-Patriot Act (admitting he made a terrible mistake in voting for it)
• anti-Iraq War (another mistaken vote while he was in office)
• anti-drug war

I’m not ready to give him a “strongly” on the last one, because he was one of the worst drug warriors ever while he was in Congress, and he has a lot to atone for on that front. But he was a lobbyist for the Marijuana Policy Project last year, and he has appeared with Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance to speak out against the drug war in recent years, so he is working on it.

Just seeing him on a debate stage with Hillary Clinton — whose husband’s impeachment he led — would be reason enough to have him in the race.

Sign the Draft Bob Barr for President (or Presdient — yes, I know I made a typo in the petition title, but I can’t change it) petition here.

Hat tip: Hit & Run

The Ron Paul Revolution lives!!

I just got this absolutely killer Ron Paul video from  www.HighTidepromo.com.

Ron Paul wins! and so does the human race

As the Democratic presidential race descends to new depths of personal negativity and John McCain disintegrates,  the cause of human liberty has emerged as the clear winner in the 2008 presidential race.

 

A little over a year ago few people had ever heard of Ron Paul, there were no Ron Paul meet up groups.  Rudy Giuliani was a shoo-in to win the Republican nomination and probably the presidency.  The Republican Party was firmly in the hands of the big government neo-cons and the Libertarian party was as usual pondering its naval.

Cultural change has to happen before political change and as Avery Knapp, leader of New York City’s Ron Paul meet-up puts it “ collectivism won the 20^th century”. 

What a difference a year makes!  Today pretty much everyone, whether they like him or not, knows who Ron Paul is. Twenty-somethings debate non-interventionist foreign policy, the gold standard and elimination of the Fed and the IRS.  By the way they don’t debate “whether” on these issues, they debate “how”.

Of course that debate hasn’t made it through the thick skulls of the vast majority of major party candidates yet or even a majority of voters.  But no one is dismissing the Ron Paul Revolution anymore either. 

Let’s look at a few areas where the Ron Paul Revolution won resounding victories. The internet is considered by many to be the campaign tool of the future and the Ron Paul Revolution buries the competition with 106,000 meet-up group members, in over 1500 meetups.  Mike Huckabee is a distant second with 19,000 members and 496 groups.  But let’s look at what those meetups are doing.  Ron Paul meetups are 10 times more active than Huckabee’s and account for about 90% of all presidential meetup activities.

Candidate            Members         Groups            meetup events

Ron Paul                 106,000          1500            37,000

Mike Huckabee        19,000            496               3,600

Barak Obama             7,000            105               1,000

Hillary Clinton             1,800              36                  334

John McCain                   36                1                      0

Source: http://www.meetup.com/topics/polact/cand/pres/

How about fund-raising?  Of course the party of big money, the Democrats, have their fangs much deeper into corporate America. Clinton and Obama have each raised about $140 million primarily from people connected to financial institutions and law firms.  McCain gets his money from people in similar industries and firms but he has only raised about $50 million.

Compared to the big money crowd Ron Paul, having raised about $32 million, might not look like much.  But as Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney know, money can’t always by you love.   And when an unknown guy who ”had no chance” raises nearly as much as the winner of the Republican nomination you have to ask yourself where it all came from.  It turns out that the guy who wants to bring the troops home from everywhere, and leave health care to the free market gets much of his money from people in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Health Care. 

It’s also worth mentioning that “budget-balancer” John McCain has about  $5.2 million cash on hand and about $5.5 million in debt.  You do the math.  Is that how he’d run the country?   In contrast “crazy” Ron Paul has about $6 million cash on hand and 0 debt.  What? Zero debt?  Excuse me – I’ll have what he’s having.

Sources: http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/moneyweb.asp?cycle=2008

What’s wrong with this picture? 

The democrats are busy spewing venom.

The big government Republican nominee has more debt than money and his army consists of a professional campaign staff.  The sitting Republican President is a world-class bozo with record low approval ratings and the neo-cons are in disarray.

On the other hand, the Ron Paul Revolution is flush with cash and bursting with young, energized, committed volunteers who are busy right now expanding their grass-roots decentralized, free market network.  They are preparing for phase 2:  running Freedom Movement candidates, raising awareness and educating the public as to why Human Liberty works better for everyone, and taking action to change outcomes in DC, State Houses and City Halls.

As Arlo Guthrie said if “50 people a day do it they call it a movement.”  This one goes by a few names, the Freedom Movement or perhaps the Second American Revolution and it’s happening now, right before your eyes.  Everyone doesn’t agree on everything.  That’s the beauty of the free market.  But we share a belief in Human Liberty as the best way to improve the human condition.

The majority of the Ron Paul army is Republican or “libertarian-republican” but there is a significant minority of  “libertarian-democrats” as well.   It also includes some members of the Conservative Party and Constitution Party.  We also share critical principles with social liberals.

Major party approval ratings dwindle and the Ron Paul army has declared it’s intention to save the Republican Party, to turn it away from Bush, neo-cons, big spending and war and back to principles of freedom and small government. Meanwhile, Libertarian Party membership is up 25%.    Freedom Movement candidates are starting to build their campaign teams with veterans of the Ron Paul primaries.

People are talking about non-intervention, sound money, free markets and all the other thinsg that go along with Human Liberty.

What’s wrong with this picture? 

Nothing is wrong with it.

Ron Paul wins, and so does the human race.