United Liberty

Bob released a video yesterday shortly after the DC vs. Heller decision was announced. The video has been received VERY well online. He really goes over why it was such a good decision for Liberty lovers.

It seems to me his supporters levels are starting to surge forward lately. The Ron Paul campaign experienced this same effect around July of last year as the videos started to take off around the same time Terra Eclipse started doing the flash trackers. In fact, in July of 2007, the Paul campaign was in just about the same YouTube standing as Bob’s as I recall.

Dear United Liberty Reader,

Thank you all for your readership and support as we have been establishing our presence online. We have some exciting news for you! Very soon, we will be making some big changes to the site including re-branding and a new design. Along with that, we are bringing on some new writers who will propel this blog to new heights. I know things have been slow lately, but rest assured we have been hustling to move forward with the new features.

Looking forward to making this site awesome for you, and a major source for all things Liberty.

Martin Avila
Editor

… Barr or Baldwin? Marc Gallagher, at LibertyMaven, gives a convincing argument as to why Bob Barr is the obvious choice to continue the movement inspired by Dr. Paul’s campaign.

Ignoring media attention and the potential for more media attention for now let’s look at hard numbers where we can. The hard numbers we will look at are fund raising and meetup group support via meetup.com.

Fundraising-

Chuck Baldwin seems to have taken down his fund raising ticker on his web site so it is difficult to determine how much money he has raised to date. The last time I checked his site it listed (if I remember correctly) about $35,000. Let’s say he has doubled that since then, bringing his total to $70,000. Not too shabby for a third party candidate.

Now let’s look at Bob Barr. The ticker on Bob Barr’s site currently reads just over $290,000. That’s pretty impressive. The Constitution Party boasts that they have more members than the Libertarian Party. Why such lackluster fund raising? Maybe there are more “rich” Libertarians than Constitution Party members. In any case, in today’s political climate money talks. The more you have the better your ability to spread the message. Barr has likely raised more than 3 times as much money as Baldwin. Barr wins the money round.

Meetup groups/members-

Chuck Baldwin currently has 18 meetup groups with 218 members and 75 members expressing interest in participating in a Baldwin meetup group (source).

Bob Barr has 69 meetup groups with 2,435 members and 203 members expressing interest in a Barr meetup (source).

Bob Barr has more than 11 times the number of meetup group members than Chuck Baldwin. Barr wins this round in a landslide.

Past record-

Chuck Baldwin is a great candidate on the issues. He doesn’t have a bad voting record. He doesn’t have a voting record at all. He only has his articles and his radio show to represent his historical perspective on the issues. In one of his articles he claims that “homosexual marriage signals America’s undoing”.

Baldwin suggests that legalizing homosexual marriage is a gateway to legalized pedophilia. I’m not sure how he arrives at that conclusion. I’m not sure I want to know. This is the area where Baldwin and the Constitution Party and I part ways. I don’t want a Presidential candidate who wears religion on his sleeve.

Like Ron Paul, both Baldwin and Barr are now saying that the definition of marriage is not a federal issue and should be left to the states. Barr has some historically bad votes on such things as the Patriot Act, the Iraq War authorization, and the drug war, but he openly denounces and regrets those and has for several years.

Conclusion-

Do you trust Barr is sincere with his voting record remorse or do you trust Pastor Baldwin to keep his religion out of his politics?

I believe Barr is sincere. He has said nothing to suggest he is not. I can’t stomach even the potential of mixing politics and religion.

This is why this Ron Paul supporter is going to happily support and vote for Bob Barr.

Read the full article- Which Candidate Spreads Liberty Now that Ron Paul is Out?

When Ron Paul was asked by Reason Magazines’s Dave Weigel about write-in ballots, he had this to say-

“I don’t think that’s very productive,” Paul said of a write-in campaign. “They could do it, of course, but in most of the states it won’t count. If they can change the rules in a primary and not count all the votes, imagine what they could do with write-in votes!”

Marc Gallagher at LibertyMaven.com chronicles the discussion going on at RonPaulForums regarding who Ron Paul supporters plan on voting for-

What is most interesting, at least among the Ron Paul faithful who frequent Ron Paul Forums, is that in a forum poll asking “Who will you vote for?” with over 200 respondents about 34% said they’d be writing in Ron Paul (second place). The winner of the poll was Bob Barr with about 39%. In a distant third was Chuck Baldwin with 21%. Perhaps also of note is that Barack Obama received more votes (9) than John McCain (3). Ralph Nader was last with 2 votes.

Ron Paul’s penchant for bringing together a wide political spectrum of supporters is both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing when the candidate is Ron Paul. Once Ron Paul exits the race, his free thinking voters split apart. They can unite behind a message, but veer apart when deciding who should carry that message.

Gallagher goes on to explain why he has chose to support Barr-

Read more about the shiny side of Barr’s record below.

• “In the 107th Congress when Ron Paul stood up for our sovereignty against the United Nations (Roll Call votes 245 and 246), it was Bob Barr who supported him … just as Barr supported Paul in cutting corporate welfare by limiting funding for the Export-Import Bank.”

• “Barr is a co-sponsor of H. Res. 197, ‘Stop U.N. Gun Ban.’”

• “Barr supports H.R. 2615 ‘Stop National Medical ID and the Patient Privacy Protection Act.’”

• “Barr is a leading defender of civil liberties. He introduced legislation that forces the National Security Agency’s Project ECHELON to provide a full accounting to the Congress of their covert monitoring of millions of phone calls, faxes, and emails.”

• “He led the fight against National ID Card proposals and introduced legislation in 1998 to check the federal government’s abuse of wire-tapping laws — including the use of roving wiretaps — and also opposed governmental interception of cellular phone calls.”

• “He introduced legislation to mandate that the federal government issue ‘Privacy Impact Statements’ every time it issues a new rule or regulation.”

• “He was a chief sponsor of a law to limit abuses of the civil asset forfeiture statutes.”

• “He fought against OSHA regulations and to limit small business vulnerability to frivolous labor litigation.”

• “He is a board member of the National Rifle Association, and a staunch defender of the right of Americans to own and use firearms. He has introduced and sponsored legislation to block litigation against gun manufacturers for the acts of their customers and to limit any background checks and mandate they be conducted ‘instantly.’”

• “Barr has succinctly advocated the principle that while criminals must be punished to the full extent of the law, their civil liberties must be protected with even more vigor.”

• “He is a staunch defender of American sovereignty and opposes the executive branch’s overzealous use of our military abroad he even filed suit against President Clinton’s war in Kosovo without congressional approval.”

• “He is a fierce critic of the United Nations — and to a lesser degree NATO — and has consistently supported efforts to withdraw U.S. membership from the United Nations.”

• “He co-sponsored a committee amendment to withdraw the U.S. from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.”

• “Since his first day in Congress back in 1995, Barr has tirelessly fought to eliminate the Internal Revenue Code, supported the “flat tax” proposal, and consistently supported passage of a constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds supermajority of Congress to raise taxes.”

• “He was an early supporter of lowering the capital gains tax and recently he introduced legislation to provide tax credits for educators: public, private, and home school.”

• “More than any other member of the Georgia delegation, Congressman Barr has parted with the Republican majority to vote against bloated “pork barrel” spending.”

• “He has continually fought the unconstitutional [McCain/Feingold] ‘campaign finance reforms.’ Defending our fundamental rights, he has filed a lawsuit to prevent implementation of the recently passed legislation.”

(Source)

These are some of the reasons Liberty Maven is supporting Bob Barr for President. The added benefits are that he has name recognition, he has the potential for pulling in more disaffected conservatives than other candidates, and he is getting the requisite media attention for spreading the liberty message to the masses.

…is the title of Emily Sherman’s article at CNNPolitics.com. Speculation of who Dr. Paul might throw his support behind has run rampant on the internet, despite his claims that he doesn’t intend to endorse anyone. But recent comments from the good doctor have shown that he is heartened by Barr’s run and hopes he does well in November.

Rep. Ron Paul had some words of praise for recently declared Libertarian presidential nominee Bob Barr Thursday, calling him a ‘very positive’ influence on the presidential race. Paul, who never officially ended his own Republican presidential bid, told American Morning Anchor John Roberts, “[Barr] talks our language, so I do really believe that he can have a very positive effect in this campaign and let the people know that limited government is a very, very important message.” Echoing the principals he based his own presidential run on, the Texas congressman said Americans’ voices will be heard with Barr, and he “gives everybody a choice in the matter.”

Barr, who was a former four-term Republican congressman from Georgia, left the GOP to join the Libertarian Party in 2006 and officially won the its presidential nomination late last month.

This follows his recent statement to Neil Cavuto that “Bob Barr, I’m hopeful, will do a better job as a third-party candidate than average…”

Former Arkansas Governor and GOP Presidential Candidate, Mike Huckabee recently raised the ire of libertarians by calling libertarianism “not an American message,” stating libertarianism was a “soulless type of economic conservatism” and a threat to Republicanism. LP spokesman Andrew Davis responded with-

“Huckabee is right that Libertarianism is a threat to Republicanism. The Republican Party, with the help of people like Sen. John McCain, has done nothing but increase the scope and power of government while throwing fiscal responsibility to the wind. It’s the ‘compassionate conservatism’ touted by people like Huckabee, McCain and President Bush that has caused a soaring national debt and a society where prisons are overflowing because of Republican ‘compassion.’ Libertarianism is unquestionably the American message because libertarianism is the only political message that empowers the American people by giving them more control over their lives and their wallets. Huckabee proves once again that there is very little difference in the messages of Republicans and Democrats, and shows that McCain and Obama might as well be running in the same political party.”

Michael Freeman at TheLedger.com purports that Mike Huckabee is a “good reflection of a polar opposite to [the libertarian] message.

As Arkansas’ governor, Huckabee wasn’t shy about raising taxes to fund social programs, including programs for the state’s poorest residents in areas like education and health care. He’s been equally active on social issues, calling for constitutional amendments to ban abortion and gay marriage. Huckabee is a strong believer in the power of government to help people economically by the redistribution of wealth and the allocating of taxpayer money for spending programs, and to change the culture through nation bans.

Self-proclaimed libertarian Glenn Beck stated this during his recent interview with Bob Barr-

“Do you think the problem is- with Republicans is that they got tied up into the compassionate conservative thing? I don’t even know what that means. Is that an admission that conservatives are not compassionate? I think the most compassionate thing you can do is let a man fail… let a man find himself…let a man pull himself up by the bootstraps. That used to be something that was admired in this country. Now it is not.”

In my opinion, what’s truly “un-American” is a tax-burden over 50% and government-enforced redistribution of wealth. If Mr. Huckabee wishes to have a long term prominent position within the GOP he would be advised to fall in line and spew empty rhetoric about traditionally conservative libertarian ideas.

This week while McCain was out on the campaign trail giving press conferences with green shaded backgrounds promoting his initiatives on global warming, the actual fight over climate change and what to do about it was going on in the Senate (McCain did not care to show up). A bill sponsored by Joe Lieberman - McCain’s Independent friend - that McCain himself adamantly supported was trashed by the GOP Leadership with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell calling it “A huge tax increase” and “the largest restructuring of the American economy since the New Deal” .

With McCain being the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party, he should at this time have enough influence to keep the leadership from blocking his signature bills, but luckily that is not the case. For the sake of liberty, we can only hope this continues, especially if McCain does pull off a miracle and becomes President.

AP - GOP blocks Senate’s global warming bill

As it turns out, Republican leadership has more in common with Libertarian Presidential Candidate Bob Barr  - especially conservatives - on this issue. In a recent press release Congressman Barr stated:

The Senate is now debating the Lieberman-Warner bill to restrict energy use. “This legislation would sacrifice our economic future, and particularly that of poorer Americans, for virtually no environmental gain,” warns Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party candidate for president.

Is it possible the GOP Leadership is more in line with a Presidential Candidate of a different party than their own candidate? Even bringing this question up for consideration shows how out of touch McCain is with his own party - especially the conservative base.

At LibertyMaven.com, Marc Gallagher makes the case that the differences between Bob Barr and Ron Paul are precisely why Barr is the perfect candidate to carry forward the message of freedom.

Most people just aren’t ready for the truth and when they hear it they run to the hills, look back and call the truth teller names as a diversionary tactic to make themselves feel better. Some though are ready, and these are the people who still make up Ron Paul’s faction of supporters. They hear, “Abolish the Fed” and keep their eyes open. They hear, “Stop the NAU”, and think “damn right.” They hear, “We can have a 0% income tax” and cheer loudly in agreement. Everyone else shuns this “crazy” talk and then they just stop listening altogether, eyes closed tight and mind closed tighter. How do we pry open these eyes and minds?

The answer: Bob Barr.

Don’t laugh. As the Libertarian nominee he is uniquely positioned to do this. He can take Ron Paul’s rhetoric and soften it for stubborn ears. He can be the political voice of liberty whereas Ron Paul can remain the principled voice of liberty. He is the perfect candidate for this task because he used to be one of them.

Continue reading the article- Bob Barr Is Not Ron Paul