Bob Barr’s campaign has recently released a campaign ad for his presidential bid:

Watching the whole video reveals that Barr is nothing more than a typical politician.  Take, for instance, the fact that he uses more than half of this seven minute opportunity to attack his opponents. The rest of the time is spent spewing buzzwords like ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’ without giving anything to back those claims up. It seems to remind me of something another candidate has been criticized for doing with the word ‘change’.

He could of used the time to get out the libertarian message by explaining some of his proposals and how they will help fix the country’s problems, but he instead chooses the lesser road and attacks his opponents.  Thanks Bob for your role in turning the LP into another typical political party with your prototypical political blather.  I used to expect better from the Libertarian Party, but not anymore.

Farewell, Party of Principle. 

Well, its official, the LP has selected former Republican and Patriot Act supporter Bob Barr as their presidential candidate.

Bob Barr might be a Libertarian (in the sense that he is a member of the party), but he is not a libertarian. This is one of the reasons I’ve stopped paying attention to the Libertarian Party. They’re not even a major party and they still manage to stray away from their principles. Shame shame *wags fingers*

They should have picked Ruwart. I’m fairly appalled by this decision, but I’m not really all that stunned. The LP has been moving farther center every year and for what? Just to gain a half of a percentage point? It’s a pathetic development from the “Party of Principle.” And too think I was once actually a member.

Now theres not even a third party for those who believe in small government to vote for. Whats a true conservative to do? I guess I could write in Ruwart, but what kind of difference could that possibly make. Sorry to rant here, but I’m finally starting to get sick of the whole voting “process”. Every election seems more and more like a scam.

A couple things to remember.  First, Barr supports the War on Drugs, and second he voted for the Patriot Act.

Honestly, this is one of the most upsetting pieces of news to come out of the LP in years. They picked Barr for the little bit of media attention that he will produce and its really kind of sickening. I’m honestly starting to believe that voting and working inside the system will no longer achieve political change. Civil disobedience from the grassroots might really be the only way to go.

Theres a popular campaign sign out there that reads “Ron Paul Cured My Apathy”, but this decision from the LP has certainly brought mine back. The LP used to be the home for disenfranchised Republicans, but now where do the disenfranchised Libertarians go?

Watching the debate — and subsequent debate coverage from FOX and other networks made me realize one very important thing: The people of this country are absolutely stark-raving mad. They are so disillusioned and out of tune with reality that they can not even comprehend the fact that people all over the world hate us and it is not because of Britney Spears, Coca-Cola, rap music, our culture, or even our freedom. No, the fact is they hate us because of our foreign policy. They hate us because we have military bases all over the middle east — and the rest of the world for that matter. They hate us because we pick sides in Middle Eastern conflict. Yes, thats right, they hate us because of our foreign policy. Because of our foreign policy. OUR FOREIGN POLICY. Texas Representative Ron Paul had the guts to bring this up in the GOP debate only to subsequently be attacked by a truly ignorant Rudy Giuliani. The exchange went something like this:

Ron Paul: “They attack us because we’ve been over there. We’ve been bombing Iraq for 10 years. We’ve been in the Middle East [for years]. I think (Ronald) Reagan was right. We don’t understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics. Right now, we’re building an embassy in Iraq that is bigger than the Vatican. We’re building 14 permanent bases. What would we say here if China was doing this in our country or in the Gulf of Mexico? We would be objecting.”

Rudy Giuliani: (Pandering to the audience) “That’s really an extraordinary statement. That’s really an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of Sept. 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don’t think I have ever heard that before and I have heard some pretty absurd explanations for Sept. 11. I would ask the congressman withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn’t really mean that.” (Roaring applause from brainwashed neo-con audience)

Ron Paul: (Proudly sticking to his guns) “I believe very sincerely that the CIA is correct when they teach and talk about blow back. When we went into Iran in 1953 and installed the Shah yes, there was blow back. A reaction to that was the taking of our hostages and that persists. If we ignore that, we ignore that at our own risk. If we think that we can do what we want around the world and not incite hatred then we have a problem. They don’t come here to attack us because we are rich and we’re free, they come and attack us because we are over there. What would we think if other countries were doing that to us?”

Here is the video evidence:

I have a question for the shiftless bureaucrat that is Rudy Giuliani: Did you even read the 9/11 commission report? If you did, you would know that in 1996 Bin Laden issued “his self-styled fatwa calling on Muslims to drive American soldiers out of Saudi Arabia” and another in 1998 as a part of a long series of statements by Bin Laden showing resentment towards the interventionist policies of the United States into the Middle Eastern politics, particularly in his home country of Saudi Arabia. Thats right, they hate us because of our interventionist foreign policies.

To quote a wonderful Yahoo News Article:

The 9-11 Commission based its assessments on testimony from experts on terrorism and the Middle East. Asked about the motivations of the terrorists, FBI Special Agent James Fitzgerald told the commission: “I believe they feel a sense of outrage against the United States. They identify with the Palestinian problem, they identify with people who oppose repressive regimes, and I believe they tend to focus their anger on the United States.”

Fitzgerald’s was not a lonely voice in the intelligence community.

Michael Scheuer, the former Central Intelligence Agency specialist on bin Laden and al-Qaeda, has objected to simplistic suggestions by President Bush and others that terrorists are motivated by an ill-defined irrational hatred of the United States. “The politicians really are at great fault for not squaring with the American people,” Scheuer said in a CNN interview. “We’re being attacked for what we do in the Islamic world, not for who we are or what we believe in or how we live. And there’s a huge burden of guilt to be laid at Mr. Bush, Mr. Clinton, both parties for simply lying to the American people.”

I find it quite interesting that someone like Mr. Giuliani who claims to be so keen on terrorism prevention does not even know the true cause of said terrorism. Either he doesn’t care enough about terrorism to read the 9/11 commission report and listen to the CIA agents or he doesn’t care enough about the American people to tell them the truth. He would rather say the things that pull on their heart strings and get him the applause. Politics as usual I’m afraid. Either way, I sure as hell do not want him running the country that I live in.

Oh and did I mention Mit Romney wants to double the size of Guantanamo Bay? What the fuck is wrong with these people?

On a more positive note, Ron Paul was winning the live text messaging poll throughout most of the post debate coverage. The look on Sean Hannity’s face was priceless each time he had to announce it. Dr. Paul ended the night in second place behind Romney and ahead of Giuliani.  Maybe America is waking up.  Only time will tell.

Libertarians and Constitutionalists need to jump ship.

If you are a Libertarian or Constitutionalist and you live in a state that has closed primaries you need to join (if only temporarily) the Republican Party so you can vote for Ron Paul. He was, after all, the 1988 Libertarian Party nominee for the Presidency and he is now reaching for it again, this time with the possible support of a “major” party and a greater chance. The primaries are going to be the biggest hurdle for his campaign and he needs your support now more than ever, especially since he will be up against the likes of John McCain and Rudy Giuliani.

If he does make it through the primaries, he will easily be elected as the next President of the United States. With the backing of Libertarians, Constitutionalists and Republicans there will be no way for the Democratic nominee to come out on top.

So here is the trick: Swallow your pride and join the Republican Party. Then we might just end up with a Libertarian President, or at least the closest thing we’ve had in the past 220 years.

The Libertarian Party. Look it up in the dictionary and you will see the word ‘failure’. Not a single Libertarian was elected to the House or Senate during this midterm election. A self-proclaimed Socialist was elected to the Senate in Vermont and the Libertarians can not even get someone into the House. I think this is a very strong sign of the direction this country is headed.

I was looking through the LP website and they did win a few campaigns. They got a couple commissioners in various places and a state house seat in Alaska. The candidates they hyped the most during the campaign process managed to obtain 4 or 5 percent of the votes. Michael Badnarik, for example, only received 4.3%. He had $400,000 worth of campaign funding, a well-known name amongst Libertarians and a lot of support. He even had a couple of billboards in his district. Despite all of this, he could not get into double digit percentages.

There may be a light at the end of the tunnel, however, and it comes in the form of a beacon of liberty shining from the free state of New Hampshire. A few early movers have won state house seats in New Hampshire with a very interesting strategy. In Manchester New Hampshire a man ran as a Democrat and won a seat in the state house. Manchester is one of the largest cities in New Hampshire and he still managed to win the seat. He was not the only one either. A few other free state project members also won positions in the New Hampshire government guised in one of the two main parties. Maybe this is the real way to work inside the system. Either way, the free state project is the only way that I can see to beat the system.