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:

As election day is dawning upon us, emotions are running high, particularly among those entrapped in the major political party of their choice, urging those of us who cannot abide either of the major party nominees to pick the “lesser of evils”.  The reason given depends on which side of the divide from which it comes.  I’ve been hearing, or expect to hear, from my Obama-supporting friends, “You MUST vote for Obama, because we cannot have eight more years of Bush”.

When I first heard about Bob Barr’s Libertarian Party run, I actually looked at his past as a Republican congressman as a positive. Most people don’t join independent parties first crack out of the box, and I certainly didn’t. I found myself defending him against attacks that he was a “neo-con” or a pol seeking to advance a dying career.

That began to change as I heard more from him. The various news appearances he made were filled with canned rhetoric. He sounded like the stereotypical politician. It was hard to really tell if he believed what he was saying, or if he had just decided to leach onto the movement started by Ron Paul’s candidacy.

It appears like Neal Boortz, one of the nations top radio talk show hosts, will be voting for Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr because of his disgust for McCain’s campaign and policies.

Barr speaks out against the market distortion caused by the massive bailout, specifically mentioning the effect on inflation and home values.

Barr’s solution would include having a true business person as the head of the Treasury, limiting, limiting political interference in the economy, cutting non-essential federal spending, and revamping the tax system.

Since Bob wasn’t invited to the town hall debate on Tuesday evening, he decided to get his two cents in via Youtube.

Tom Bevan at Real Clear Politics notes that Bob Barr apparently requested that President Bush allow him to be involved in the bailout negotiations, with predictable results. Here’s the press release from Barr’s campaign:

“I respectfully request to be included in the discussions with congressional leaders, Senators McCain and Obama and representatives of your administration,” Barr requests in his letter to Bush. “I am adamantly opposed to the commitment of taxpayer’s hard-earned money to protect the companies and individuals who made bad investment decisions.”