There’s a certain amount of humiliation that comes with running as a third-party candidate for president. The federal deficit, loose nukes, angry Muslims, the economy — these are topics that the major party candidates are asked to address. But if you’re Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate, there are times when your campaign must seem like a never-ending Star Trek convention, with no Scotty to beam him up.This is a recent blog entry on Dispatches from the Culture Wars:I got to ask Barr a question I’ve wanted to ask him for quite some time. He’s repudiated and apologized for many of his previous positions and I asked him if he would repudiate his absurd anti-Wiccan crusade of 1999, when he wanted all Wiccans banned from the military. He said yes, with a bit of hemming and hawing. He said that he had reports from several military leaders that Wiccans doing rituals on military bases were causing problems and that’s why he did what he did, but that since that time it’s become clear that there are no problems with allowing Wiccans to serve and to practice their religion on military bases like any other religion.
Bob Barr'sLibertarian Party bid for the White House needs cash, but is NOT on the verge of being broke, Barr's campaign manager said Tuesday. Despite a fund-raising plea he sent out recently that said the campaign's progress "will stop dead in its tracks" without an immediate cash infusion, Russ Verney told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Barr has enough money to maintain his campaign at present levels. But that's not the goal, Verney said. "We're able to raise enough money to execute our plan, but we've got ambitions and that takes even more money," Verney said Tuesday. Those ambitions center around participating in the national debates with Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama. Barr, a former Republican congressman from Cobb County, has said he needs to be at 15 percent in the national polls by mid-September to qualify. He's yet to come close to that mark, although recent polls have shown him at or near 10 percent in several states, including New Hampshire, Nevada and Arizona. Money would help that effort by allowing Barr to buy advertising, do direct mail and other staples of national campaigns.
Bob Barr (right) with his running mate, Wayne Allyn Root.
Thus far the campaign has mostly been limited to personal appearances from Barr and his vice presidential nominee, Wayne Allen Root, as well using the Internet to raise cash and spread the word through Web videos, blogs and social networks like Facebook. But the money has been slow to come. Verney would not say how much cash the campaign currently has to spend, but Barr's June 30 monthly report to the Federal Election Commission put that figure at $68,000. His Web site, bobbarr2008.com, tracks fund-raising hour-by-hour. As of Tuesday afternoon the site said the campaign had raised about $550,000 toward its goal of $750,000 by Friday. "All campaigns, the big money flows right in close to the election," Verney said, "when there's a lot of public attention. Summertime is not a great fund-raising time and this year you have the added problem of $4 a gallon gasoline and a recession hanging over people's heads. We're asking people to give as early and often as they can." Daniel Adams, chairman of the Georgia Libertarian Party, said it's important to keep the current crunch in perspective. Barr, by polling as well as he has, is on pace to be the best-performing Libertarian Party candidate ever. "We're miles beyond any past Libertarian candidacy, so we're in unchartered territory," Adams said.
Bob Barr Says: Maintain Economic Growth & Find New Energy
Bob Barr, former member of Congress from Georgia and Libertarian Party Candidate for President, Issued the following statement on energy and global warming: As America confronts a variety of domestic and foreign challenges in the future, it is essential that we preserve our prosperous, productive, and innovative economy. Without a strong economic foundation, it will be impossible for our nation to deal with the many serious financial, social, and environmental problems facing the U.S. One of the most complicated and controversial issues facing America is global warming. Although temperatures have increased in recent decades, the scientific community has been unable to make definitive judgments as to the past cause or future course of climate change. Indeed, the models which predict problems in the future did not predict the lack of any temperature increase over the last decade. Unfortunately, many climate processes are not yet clearly understood. Thus, we need to conduct more and better scientific research about climate change to assess likely problems in the future and develop appropriate solutions. More dialogue is key to understanding global warming and developing the best means of dealing with the important questions surrounding the phenomenon. This dialogue must include scientists from all sides of the issue, including those who are skeptical of the assertion that humans are primarily responsible for global temperature changes and that those changes pose a substantial danger to humanity. Moreover, we must develop cost-effective policies which will not undermine the U.S. economy. So-called cap and trade legislation, recently rejected by the U.S. Senate, would do grievous damage to the American economy, threatening to create a permanent recession by reversing industrial growth and destroying millions of jobs. Attempting to adjust global temperatures by artificially cutting energy consumption would undermine the very prosperous and innovative market system upon which we must rely for answers to everything from health care to international poverty to environmental protection. Our energy future must be built on a commitment to both find more conventional energy sources and expand use of alternative fuels. The U.S. has large deposits of petroleum, oil shale, and natural gas. Barriers to their development in the Outer Continental Shelf, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and other federal lands should be lowered or eliminated, which would provide Americans with a more secure source of energy over the short term and help bring down todays high prices, which are causing such economic hardship to so many Americans. Such steps would also allow us to begin seriously considering and developing alternative sources of energy that will be essential in the long term. The development of alternatives to fossil fuels would provide the country with many benefits, ranging from lower CO2 emissions to greater diversity of energy supplies. Given the failure of past government subsidy programs, this transformation can only be led by the private sector.The government must remove regulatory barriers, which limit the development of alternative as well as conventional energy sources. Moreover, public officials should cease their demagogic attacks on the energy industry, which has made money only by finding, refining, and transporting gasoline, natural gas, and heating oil for the American people. Vote-minded legislators risk creating an environment in which companies are punished for doing good, which will only make them more reluctant to invest in all technologies and fuels, alternative as well as conventional. Indeed, the challenge of promoting continuing energy innovation should cause us to reconsider other policies which discourage business investment and capital formation more generally. Americans for Tax Reform recently reported that the tax and regulatory burden rose at both the state and national level over the last year. Americas corporate income tax is one of the highest in the world, creating a self-inflicted economic wound. Congress now routinely votes for new spending programs for which we have no way to pay, putting our entire economic future at risk. The challenges that we face are serious, but I am convinced we can find solutions. We are more likely to develop policies that simultaneously promote economic growth, expand energy supplies, and lessen any adverse effects of climate change, if we promote a genuine dialogue among contending factions. Although I do not agree with the tax and regulatory policies advanced by former Vice President Al Gore, I do believe his call for greater reliance on alternative energy could be given positive effect by American industry. Only the market economy can balance his passion with the reality of preserving the growing economy upon which our future -- and that of our children and grandchildren -- depends. We must address the issue of climate change, but do so realistically, recognizing the importance of simultaneously expanding energy supplies and maintaining economic growth. Our greatest strength in confronting the problems of the future is our free market economy. Only by reducing government barriers to private research and development are we going to achieve the innovative, even transformational, changes necessary in the years and decades ahead. Barr represented the 7th District of Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003, where he served as a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, as Vice-Chairman of the Government Reform Committee, and as a member of the Committee on Financial Services. Prior to his congressional career, Barr was appointed by President Reagan to serve as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, and also served as an official with the CIA. Since leaving Congress, Barr has been practicing law and has teamed up with groups ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to the American Conservative Union to actively advocate every American citizens right to privacy and other civil liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. Along with this, Bob is committed to helping elect leaders who will strive for smaller government, lower taxes and abundant individual freedom.
Libertarian Party Presidential candidate Bob Barr says he won't draw votes from likely Republican nominee John McCain. At an appearance Sunday in Houston, Barr, a former U.S. Congressman from Georgia, said he won't play the same role for Senator McCain, R-Ariz., that independent candidate Ralph Nader did for Democratic Party nominee Al Gore in 2000, the Houston Chronicle reported. Some observers say Nader's presence drew just enough liberal votes away from Gore to allow U.S. President George Bush to win that year."Somebody willing to vote for a big government Republican like John McCain is not going to switch to a small government candidate like Bob Barr," he told reporters, adding that he'll instead try to put together a bloc comprised of young people and disillusioned voters of all political persuasions. Barr is best known as a former Republican hardliner who helped lead impeachment efforts against then-U.S. President Bill Clinton for lying under oath about sexual improprieties.
On the cover of the upcoming New Yorker: Satirical portrayal of Obama through the eyes of his opposition, or McCain recruitment poster? Senator Obama shrugged and said he had "no response" when asked about the cover on Sunday by CBS News' Maria Gavrilovic. The Obama campaign, on introspection, was more decisive on the issue; it might have appreciated the humor, if not for the delivery. The cover art, depicting Senator Obama in a turban, while wife Michelle, packing an assault rifle, shares a "fist bump" with him, is described by the New Yorker as artist's Barry Blitt's lampooning of "scare tactics and misinformation in the Presidential election to derail Barack Obama's campaign.""The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create," countered Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton. "But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree." "This is as offensive a caricature as any magazine could publish," one high-profile Obama backer told ABC News, "and I suspect that other Obama supporters like me are also thinking about not subscribing to or buying a magazine that trafficks (sic) in such trash." "We completely agree with the Obama campaign," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds added. "It’s tasteless and offensive."
John McCain dropped in on a phone bank to tell campaign volunteers they can make or break him in Minnesota. McCain's brief stop at his regional campaign headquarters in a St. Paul warehouse was long enough for him to thank - and warn - about 125 supporters. The presumptive Republican nominee was trailing Barack Obama by 17 points in a recent statewide poll, and he said Minnesota is a battleground. "We're going to win this state because of your efforts and we can lose because of your lack of efforts. Let's have some straight talk," McCain said, to laughter and applause.Gov. Tim Pawlenty, McCain's national campaign co-chairman and a potential running mate, acknowledged that picking up Minnesota's 10 electoral votes - which haven't gone to a Republican since Richard Nixon - won't be easy. "The Upper Midwest and Minnesota in particular will be challenging - it's always challenging - for any Republican candidate for president," Pawlenty said before meeting McCain at the airport and riding on his campaign bus to the event.
Jesse Jackson made some "crude and hurtful" remarks about Barack Obama Wednesday next to a microphone that Jackson didn't know was still on. Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama. Jackson said Obama was "Barack.. he's been talking down to black people... Iwant to cut his nuts off." Jackson told reporters that the interview had wrapped up and he didn't realize his remarks were captured by live microphone. Jackson didn't elaborate on the context of his remarks, except to say he was trying to explain that Obama was hurting his relationship with black voters by recently conducting "moral" lectures at African-American churches."My appeal was for the moral content of his message to not only deal with the personal and moral responsibility of black males, but to deal with the collective moral responsibility of government and the public policy which would be a corrective action for the lack of good choices that often led to their irresponsibility," Jackson said in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon. "This is a sound bite in a broader conversation about urban policy and racial disparities. I feel very distressed because I'm supportive of this campaign and with the senator, what he has done and is doing," he said. "I said he comes down as speaking down to black people. The moral message must be a much broader message. What we need really is racial justice and urban policy and jobs and health care. That's a range of issues on the menu. Then I said something I regret was crude. It was very private. And very much a sound bite," he also said."
Libertarian Party Offers Only Real Alternative In November, Says Bob Barr
"Americans are deeply dissatisfied with the direction their country is going and desperately want real change," says Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party presidential nominee. "But real change will not come from the two major parties, with their well-established commitment to the status quo. It will only come from outside the current system -- and through the Barr presidential campaign and the Libertarian Party." The American people have made their feelings known in the latest Zogby poll, which found that six percent of them favor Libertarian Party nominee Bob Barr. "And that is without benefiting from all of the media attention paid to the primaries and the big advertising campaigns already initiated by the other parties," notes Barr. At six percent "we have more than three times the support of any other alternative party," Barr explains. Seven percent of conservatives, 11 percent of independents, and 43 percent of libertarians said they backed the Barr campaign. Pollster John Zogby observed that "Bob Barr has some juice among conservatives..." With this level of support, "which will only grow as the Barr campaign's message of limited government and individual liberty reaches more people, it is only fair for the American people to include the Libertarian Party nominee along with the candidates of the Democratic and Republican parties in all public forums, from candidate town halls to national debates," says Barr."The November election should be about issues, not personalities," notes Barr. "The American people have suffered for too long from the big-spending policies and partisan antics of Republicans and Democrats alike in Washington." The country desperately needs an alternative. "The latest poll demonstrates that the one real alternative is the Bob Barr campaign and the Libertarian Party," Barr adds. Barr represented the 7th District of Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003, where he served as a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, as Vice-Chairman of the Government Reform Committee, and as a member of the Committee on Financial Services. Prior to his congressional career, Barr was appointed by President Reagan to serve as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, and also served as an official with the CIA. Since leaving Congress, Barr has been practicing law and has teamed up with groups ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to the American Conservative Union to actively advocate every American citizens' right to privacy and other civil liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. Along with this, Bob is committed to helping elect leaders who will strive for smaller government, lower taxes and abundant individual freedom.
Coleman Has Strong Lead In Senate Race, With Or Without Ventura
Former Gov. Jesse Ventura would trim support from both Sen. Norm Coleman and Coleman's DFL challenger, Al Franken, if he were to enter the U.S. Senate race, a Survey USA poll has found. The poll, which was commissioned by a local TV news outlet and conducted of 700 Minnesota adults last week, showed Coleman winning a three-way match over Franken and Ventura. Forty-one percent of poll respondents said they would support Coleman, compared with 31 percent for Franken and 23 percent for Ventura. The margin of error on that question was plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.If Ventura doesn't enter the race, 52 percent said they support Coleman and 40 percent said they were for Franken. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points. Ventura has said he is considering running. The deadline for filing is mid-July. The poll also tested how things might change if former Senate candidate Mike Ciresi entered the race and beat Franken in a primary election this fall, thereby becoming the DFL candidate. Under that scenario, Coleman had 41 percent, Ciresi 28 percent and Ventura 26 percent, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points. Before he dropped out of the race in March, Ciresi said he would abide by the party's endorsement.
Libertarian Presidential candidateBob Barr said that the Republican Party has utterly failed to present a "new program, new leadership or vision." "What's wrong with John McCain is symptomatic of what's wrong with the Republican Party in these first years of the 21st century," Barr said: "They talk one thing but do something different, and that's become very obvious to the American people." Barr said that he tends to agree with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on issues of civil liberties, while he tends to agree with McCain, a senator from Arizona, on issues of government spending and taxation. "Neither of these candidates is talking about the deep cuts in government spending and returning power to the people that we are," Barr said.Asked whether his presidential bid might cost McCain needed votes in the fall, Barr said that McCain has lost his way, in particular through his support of the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program, which Barr said "would provide the authority for the federal government to surveil American citizens in their own country." "This is a fundamental issue that goes to the very nature and power of our government, but nobody's really talking about it," Barr said. Barr was asked about his own positions as a congressman, when he voted for many of the measures and policies he now seems to oppose. He said he regretted voting for the Patriot Act. He saw his vote in favor of codifying marriage as between man and a woman as a proper exercise in returning the question to states. "That's a very conservative principle reflecting the fundamental notion of states' rights in our country," he said.
This is a recent blog entry on Dispatches from the Culture Wars: I got to ask Barr a question I’ve wanted to ask him for quite some time. He’s repudiated and apologized for many of his previous positions and I asked him if he would repudiate his absurd anti-Wiccan crusade of 1999, when he wanted all Wiccans banned from the military. He said yes, with a bit of hemming and hawing. He said that he had reports from several military leaders that Wiccans doing rituals on military bases were causing problems and that’s why he did what he did, but that since that time it’s become clear that there are no problems with allowing Wiccans to serve and to practice their religion on military bases like any other religion.
This is a recent blog entry on Dispatches from the Culture Wars: I got to ask Barr a question I’ve wanted to ask him for quite some time. He’s repudiated and apologized for many of his previous positions and I asked him if he would repudiate his absurd anti-Wiccan crusade of 1999, when he wanted all Wiccans banned from the military. He said yes, with a bit of hemming and hawing. He said that he had reports from several military leaders that Wiccans doing rituals on military bases were causing problems and that’s why he did what he did, but that since that time it’s become clear that there are no problems with allowing Wiccans to serve and to practice their religion on military bases like any other religion.
