Introduction from Dave Powell, Chair, Allegheny County Libertarian Party:Thank you all for coming out, I know you all must be busy.
The subject of this lecture series is political leadership. Like many people here, I got very active in politics with the Ron Paul campaign. I’ll just say right up front that I can think of no other current leader in Congress other than Ron Paul that has any kind of credibility whatsoever.
I would also say that this lack of credibility extends to Senators Barrack and McCain. I might have been able to vote for the Obama of 2005. But he voted vote the MCA, the Patriot act extension and to extend funding for the illegal Iraq war.
So no HOPE or CHANGE for me then.
I went to campaignforliberty.com’s Rally for the Republic in September, which was a great event… no tear gas like the GOP rally, but, you know, fun nonetheless. The cops did bring their gasmasks later in the afternoon but, you know, the mood was gone.
I heard this at the Rally so I can’t claim authorship of this but it’s one of the truest things I’ve heard in years. Sometimes it seems that we have a choice between the Evil party and the Stupid party, as they enact laws that are evil or stupid. Sometimes, though, we get laws that are Evil *AND* stupid. ****We call this Bipartisanship****
And so it is with the Great Wall Street Bailout.
If I could go back in time 10 years and ask myself what I thought about Credit Default Swaps, Habeaus Corpus, RFID chips, or waterboarding I would probably have returned a fairly hostile stare and said “What the hell is all that? Stay away from me you WEIRDO!”
So I must ask:
Do we *want* to be activists? Do we *WANT* to be out hanging flyers at midnight? Do we *want* to be answering emails at 3AM? Do I WANT to be here in a hot suit, talking about politics and arcane Constitutional and financial matters?
NO! We have a lot of things we’d rather be doing. We have families and hobbies and some *really good TV* to watch (My Name is Earl just started back up)…but, for some reason we are all here.
WHY is that? Why is that?
It’s because WE HAVE to be
We HAVE To be activists.
WE HAVE to fight for change –Real change.
I am here today because the government has taken away your rights to Habeus Corpus.
I am here because waterboarding is something that *your* tax dollars pay for.
I am here because this deficit spending is nothing more than stealing from our children and grandchildren. The New York City Debt clock was not big enough anymore – THEY HAD TO UPGRADE IT!!!
I am here because the constitution is the framework that enables our country to be great, and our government has been ignoring it for far too long.
If the government does not follow the law THEN THERE IS NO LAW. It is a government of men, with all their imperfections, shortcomings, and faults.
So, if I may take a moment to address the Financial crisis:
You cannot fix a leaky dam with more water. You cannot fix a debt problem with more debt, it’s as simple as that. You cannot prop up failing businesses with tax dollars. We, in this area, know this firsthand, but they don’t seem to know it yet in D.C. And make no mistake, when they talk about “Credit”, they mean “Debt”.
Failed institutions must be liquidated, so that the good stuff can be bought up by people who saved and returned to productivity as soon as possible. Any money spent to the contrary will just delay the inevitable. Look at AIG – we give them $80 billion, and after they throw themselves a half-million dollar party, they come back for some 37 more.
They authorized 700Billion dollars to hold off a stock market collapse. What did we get?
What’s it’s called again? Oh yeah - A Stock market collapse. Even the socialist independent Bernie Sanders voted against the bailout!
Now, what we *really* have to avoid is a currency collapse. As the great Mister Rogers would say: “Can you say “Hyper-inflationary Depression? Sure, I knew ya could.” In case you are unfamiliar, a currency collapse is when your country needs to sell a lot of it’s currency or debt and nobody will buy it. Or, borrow a whole lot of money, and nobody will lend it. So the central banks prints money and the currency buys less and less the more it gets printed.
If other countries stop lending us $2Billion dollars per day, our government would be forced to cut Social security, Medicare, and military spending IN HALF.
Then, instead of just stock market people going broke through inflation, *Everyone* goes broke.
This is why we must END THE FED!
I stand here today to say to all who will listen: * Your republic, *YOUR* Republic is on the Edge.
This Democratic Congress has not had the will to stand up to a corrupt Administration, preferring instead to lapdog themselves into better standing in the next round of handouts. The fact that Bob Barr, and the other 3^rd party candidates were excluded from the Presidential Debates just shows how it debate was just a big joint press conference under the guise of open debate.
We need people to take a stand. We need people to run for local office, and we have a few here tonight: David Posipanka, Titus North, and Jim Barr are all running for office, please stand guys.
We need someone to stand up against the corrupt beltway politics that are bleeding our country dry.
Folks – we have with us tonight such a man. He is a former federal prosecutor and a former member of the United States House of Representatives
. He represented Georgia's 7th congressional district as a Republican from 1995 to 2003. Bob joined the Libertarian party in 2006, and served on it’s national committee.
We are all human, and therefore imperfect. Like Earle Hickey on the My Name is Earl TV show, Bob Barr has made decisions in the past that many of us don’t agree with. But like Earle Hickey, he means to make amends, no matter what it takes, and he stands before you today, as a flag-bearer of the Liberty movement, a champion of the Constitution, and a crusader for your personal freedoms.
He is willing to sacrifice to stand for office, he is Ready to lead, he is Our Candidate for the Office of President of the United States
Ladies and Gentlemen - Bob BARR!!!!!
Got some ink at the event today in the P-G, just published.
Barr brings long-shot campaign to CMU: "Barr brings long-shot campaign to CMU
Friday, October 10, 2008
By Dennis B. Roddy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Bob Barr, onetime bulldog of the Republican right spoke in Pittsburgh tonight, shorn of both his party membership and his allegiance to some of the policies he voted for as a Georgia congressman and promises to reverse as the first-ever Libertarian president.
He admits it's a long shot.
Mathematically, he could win the Electoral College, after surviving a gantlet of state ballot access laws and a ballot challenge in some of them.
Conventional wisdom -- the kind that usually prevails in national elections -- suggests he has little hope.
Mr. Barr, in fact, opened his speech before an audience of 150 at Carnegie Mellon University by listing his disqualifications for the nation's top office.
"You'll notice I'm not wearing an American flag lapel pin," he said He also noted he has only one house and doesn't care how many anyone else has.
Like Barack Obama, he said, he has also "had coffee with a number of people of dubious background."
"I'm not afraid to operate outside of my comfort zone," he said.
Mr. Barr represented Georgia's 7th District as a Republican from 1995 to 2003, and spearheaded the impeachment of President Clinton in 1998. He left the party after departing Congress, disillusioned, he said, with the party's trajectory away from constitutional principles.
One of Mr. Barr's key votes in Congress was to support passage of the Patriot Act in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
He regrets that now, saying powers to wiretap and spy have been abused.
"I voted for the Patriot Act -- something that I came very quickly to realize was a very bad vote," he said.
Mr. Barr said the administration promised the act would not be used for non-terrorism investigations and that they would report openly and fully about how the act was being implemented.
"In every instance they failed to honor those commitments," he said.
One key supporter said that change of heart is hardly a disqualification.
David Powell, Libertarian chairman for Allegheny County, likened Mr. Barr to the hero of his favorite television show, "My Name is Earl."
"Like Earl Hickey, he means to make amends, no matter what it takes," Mr. Powell said.
If Mr. Barr was there to make amends, it wasn't with leaders of either major party.
He referred to President Bush as a leader "who, similar to Sarah Palin, did not have any experience operating in the real world outside of the borders of our country."
He mocked the debates, from which he was excluded, as exercises that consist of candidates "answering questions that they want to be asked. That is not what they're going to be called on to do as president of the United States."
Last night's gathering pointed to the growing blur that has emerged between some groups on both the left and right, with right-leaning Libertarians making common cause with groups such as the overtly liberal Green Party.
Titus North, the Green Party candidate for Congress in the 14th District, delivered a speech prior to Mr. Barr's and was cheered when he attacked the Federal Reserve system, long a target of the far-right.
"The old left-right definitions don't work anymore," noted Mr. Powell.
First published on October 10, 2008 at 6:36 pm.
Great re-cap.
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