United Liberty

Bob Barr was on The O’Reilly Factor last night to the debate the pompous host of the show on conservatives’ reaction to the Christmas Day attempted terrorist attack.

In his recent column, Barr wrote:

The criticism has included such childishness as blasting Obama for waiting a few days before making a national speech on the incident.  For heaven’s sake, the president was briefed on the incident from the moment it occured; he made statements almost immediately indicating his concern and that he was being regularly briefed; he took time to gather the facts and meet with his national security team; and then he appeared publicly to give a rational, measured, but hard-hitting response.  And for this, a former vice president criticizes him.

Barr blames it all on partianship, and he is right for the most part. I do think the failures of TSA need to be brought to light and fixed. However, we do not fix these problems by having a knee-jerk reaction and violating more civil liberties.

Here is video of Barr on the show:

I wonder if Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck have any idea how dorky they are. In signing Bill O’Reilly’s book, Jay-Z shows an ability to have fun that O’Reilly wouldn’t understand if it was explained in one of those Complete Idiot guides.

As for race no longer being an issue, this is obviously coming from two very white men, but also from men that are from environments detached from racial strife. Northbend, Washington, where Beck grew up, is certainly not the hood and neither is Long Island, O’Reilly’s home. Whoever takes either of these two as authority on the status of minorities in the United States is a fool.

The left screamed about the Bush administration using fear. It’s being used again in this same way—to get packages through Congress. The same way Bush and Cheney did it, now Obama and Biden are doing it. You don’t hear a word from the left. I mean, I’m sitting there going, ‘Am I in the Twilight Zone here?’

There’s no denying that the Bush Administration used policies of fear in an inappropriate manner to convince Americans that it was necessary to allow our civil rights to be ignored and abused in order to provide security for our nation.  But O’Reilly is correct- using these same tactics in order to pass the largest spending bill in history is equally reprehensible.

On Jon Stewart’s Daily Show, Bill O’Reilly claimed himself  “an anarchist,” and said that there was  “no part” of the federal government that he likes.  I find this particularly odd considering how belligerently he spewed forth pro-death propaganda for our *current* illegal wars, repeatedly telling Americans crying out for reasoned debate to “Shut-up” on the state’s mouth piece, Fox News.

I expect sharp words and fireworks with Bill O’Reilly and Barack Obama on the same set.  What I don’t expect is to find myself agreeing with Obama over O’Reilly.

Though I consider myself conservative, when it comes to foreign policy, there’s a sharp divide between my beliefs and the current practice of the Republican Party.  I certainly can’t claim to agree with Senator Obama 100%, but I find his rhetoric regarding Iran and Pakistan far less scary than “Bomb, Bomb Iran-McCain”.