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Libertarian Presidential nominee and former CL columnist Bob Barr was interviewed by Liz Gorman of Wonkette during Friday’s debate between the Barack Obama and John McCain. Skip the “festive” guy talking about conspiracies and start watching at 1:50. Barr shows his human side when he’s asked whether facial hair has any place in our armed forces.
Former Georgia Congressman and current Libertarian presidential nominee Bob Barr has been an outspoken supporter of Troy Davis, the death row inmate who received an eleventh-hour stay of execution from the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday.
Here’s Barr’s reaction to the stay
“While the death penalty is an important tool in our legal system, it should only be used in cases where there is absolutely no doubt of a person’s guilt. This was not the case with Troy Davis.”
“I hope the facts in Davis’ case can be reexamined in order to address the unanswered questions before once again deciding his fate. As a strong supporter of the death penalty, I do not advocate for clemency lightly. However, in the case of Troy Davis, the broader questions of fairness and public faith in criminal justice deserved another look.”
— At Live Apartment Fire, CL gets some props from Doug Richards for the “delightfully evil” cover photo of Bob Barr that was shot by Joeff Davis. And Doug contrasts that with the shadowy photo of John McCain in the Atlantic that made Johnny Mac’s crew go ballistic and forced the magazine’s editor to apologize because the photographer altered the pic to make McCain look sinister.
– Over at Politits, DCup has a little fun with the government’s trillion-dollar bail-out of what seems like every financial company on Wall Street. Since they aren’t paying their debts, then surely they don’t expect her to pay what she owes them. Right?
— A.man.I is concerned by speculation that white folks are having a difficult time voting for a black man. At My Urban Report, he throws in his two cents worth.
— Wednesday is “Car-Free Day” in Decatur. And Decatur Metro isn’t happy because it’s the one day of the week that being carless isn’t practical for him. Don’t worry. Your’s won’t be the only automobile clogging Poncey on the way to downtown Atlanta and then back again on a “car free” day. But at least he’ll feel guilty about it.
— Dave at Rather Than Working has a new crib. Living up to his blog’s name, he makes a list of all the things he was supposed to do over the weekend … but didn’t. Ah, the fine art of procrastination lives.
— And, finally, at Oh The Joys, there’s a poignant post where she recalls a visit to the psychiatric ward to see a suicidal friend, and taking with her a tape player cued up to her friend’s favorite U2 song. More proof that music heals.
Troy Anthony Davis, who is scheduled for execution tomorrow despite a heap of evidence that suggests he might be innocent, has gathered the support of former President Jimmy Carter, Nobel Peace Prize-winner Desmond Tutu, Pope Benedict XVI, the Rev. Al Sharpton, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, Libertarian presidential hopeful Bob Barr, and New York Times columnist Bob Herbert.
But his only really hope lies with the Supreme Court of Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court, and — yeah, right — George Bush.
Yesterday’s AJC described a visit the Rev. Sharpton paid to Davis on Georgia’s death row:
“He was not overly optimistic or pessimistic,” said the Rev. Sharpton, who visited Davis … at the request of Davis’ family. “He was suprisingly upbeat. He seemed like he was depending on his faith to see him through.”
Herbert, in his Friday Times column, opined:
Putting someone to death whose guilt is uncertain is always perverted, but there’s an extra dose of perversion in this case.
The United States Supreme Court is scheduled to make a decision on whether to hear a last-ditch appeal by Mr. Davis on Sept. 29. That’s six days after the state of Georgia plans to kill him.
And this morning, NPR chimed in, quoting the Southern regional director of Amnesty International, Jared Feuer:
“Troy Anthony Davis’ case symbolizes all that is wrong with the death penalty. You have questions of improper witness handling. You have procedural obstacles that get in the way of the truth. You have issues of race and, ultimately, you have a system that can’t go back and correct its mistakes.”
Last week, former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr won a legal battle to get on the Nov. 4 ballot in Pennsylvania as the Libertarian presidential nominee. A local Republican Party official had filed a lawsuit last month to have Barr’s name stricken from the ballot, despite an earlier pledge by John McCain that he would not tolerate party underlings trying to restrict ballot access for third-party candidates.
Well, Barr has returned the favor by filing suit in Texas to have both McCain and Barrack Obama tossed from that state’s ballot. According to the Dallas Morning News, Barr is arguing that both major parties missed a state deadline to certify the names of their candidates.
The Libertarians are contending that the Democratic and Republican nominees are disqualified from appearing on the ballot because they missed the state’s Aug. 26 deadline to certify candidates. During the national conventions, Mr. Obama was not voted as the nominee until Aug. 27 and Mr. McCain claimed the GOP nomination on Sept. 3.
Rather than dismissing the suit, the Texas Supreme Court has asked both parties to file responses by Monday. Stay tuned.
Following CL’s lead, the New Yorker also has a feature story on Bob Barr this week.
It’s pretty good, but they spelled his name wrong.
We writers are pleased when people read our articles and we’re thrilled when they take the time to send us a comment. So imagine my giddiness yesterday when I saw that one Zac Carter had penned, er, tapped a 1,280-word response to my cover story about Bob Barr.
Apparently, the article about Barr’s efforts to win votes as the Libertarian candidate for president spoke to Carter. While he didn’t address the details of the story itself, he offered a veritable cri de coeur about his own disillusionment with the Republican Party. Here’s an edited excerpt:
The Republican Party today would be unrecognizable to my favorite Republicans of yesterday, such as Barry Goldwater, who said, “A government that is big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take it all away.”
As I heard one of the presidential candidates say in regards to these stimulus checks, “Whose economy are we stimulating here? Ours or Chinas? We are borrowing more money from China so everyone can go buy more stuff made in China.”
I get it, others in the GOP get it, so why doesn’t the party leadership?
I can’t take anymore disrespect for conservative values, and unless the Republican Party wakes up and gets its head on straight real soon, I will be taking my vote, time, energy, money and passion from the GOP and giving it to the Libertarian Party.
Even Reagan said, “Libertarianism is the very heart and soul of conservatism.” I will be doing everything I can to sway like-minded conservatives to join me in this exodus and vote for Bob Barr for president and Wayne Root for vice president. Both were recently Republicans and are among countless conservatives I’ve heard say, “It wasn’t that I left the Republican Party, it was the party that left me.”
Carter’s entire comment can be read here. If I’d known he had so much to say about the matter, I would’ve gotten him to co-author the article and saved myself a lot of time.
BTW, if you, too, are interested in Bob Barr and the Libertarian Party, don’t forget to check out CL’s Big Bob Barr Page.
Today’s Air Loaf features CL’s Chanté LaGon and Scott Henry discussing Bob Barr’s potential to be a spoiler in the U.S. presidential race — the subject of this week’s cover story.
Air Loaf is broadcast weekdays on 1690 WMLB-AM at approximately 8:10 a.m., 12:20 p.m. and 6:20 p.m.
It’s the biggest night of the year for Georgia Libertarians. Daniel Adams, the state party chairman, seems energized and a bit anxious as he crisscrosses the room greeting guests. In a few minutes, the Libertarian Party’s 2008 presidential nominee is expected to arrive as the guest of honor, and Adams wants his group’s chief fundraising banquet to exceed everyone’s expectations.
Compared with most big-city political confabs, however, this one feels a bit, well, small-time. The Dunwoody hotel setting is nice enough, but the ballroom space is so cavernous it makes the modest crowd appear even smaller. The ill-fitting blazers and mismatched ties worn by some guests suggest a blue-collar demographic that’s a far cry from the cliques of deep-pocketed lawyers and lobbyists who typically haunt such events. Then there are the guys who stand out because of their long hair or eccentric appearance, such as an older man wearing a black leather jacket and a black T-shirt dotted with white skulls.
It’s no stretch to imagine that the largely male, suburban, middle-aged, outsiderish gathering of white folks wouldn’t feel out of place at Dragon*Con. Which is fitting, since Dragon*Con founder Ed Kramer is among the attendees, dressed head-to-toe in black and wheeling about on an electric scooter.
When former Congressman Bob Barr and wife Jeri arrive at the reception, there’s no public-address announcement, no Secret Service detail and no sudden crush of well-wishers seeking face time with the would-be president. Most of the people here have met Barr before and are content to wait as he makes his way around the room exchanging pleasantries, shaking hands and posing for photographs. The only TV cameraman at the event snags a quickie interview with the presidential candidate, then heads for the door.
Read the rest of this article here.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
BACKS AGAINST THE WALL STREET: The Dow is suffering its worst loss since 2001 following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the buyout of Merrill Lynch, with AIG possibly next, despite recently borrowing $20 billion from its subsidiaries. The Fed today infused $50 billion into financial markets to stem the freefall.
MCCAIN: Reconfigures his recent statement that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.”
PALIN: Won’t cooperate with the ongoing ethics probe because she says Obama’s campaign has infiltrated it. Actually, she didn’t say that. Despite the probe being into her conduct as governor, the announcement that Palin won’t be cooperating was made by the McCain campagin.
JUST THE TICKET: Atlanta scofflaws will have two months, starting Oct. 1, to pay old parking tickets and have all late fees waived, a measure approved by City Council in hopes of collecting at least some money they otherwise might never have seen.
GASOLINE: Prices in Georgia are the second-highest in the country, although analysts say they should settle somewhere around $4 soon.
NATURAL GAS: Prices in Georgia may rise 25 percent this winter.
BARR VS. BLOOMBERG: The Libertarian presidential candidate will appear in federal appeals court in Atlanta today to defend his defamation suit against the New York City mayor, which alleges Bloomberg libeled Barr’s client, Adventure Outdoors Sporting Goods, by calling the Smyrna store a rogue gun dealer in his famous 2006 lawsuit.
Nate Silver, who runs the awesomely nerdtastic political blog FiveThirtyEight.com, joined the chorus of campaign-watchers criticizing the Obama campaign for devoting millions of dollars to trying to win Georgia’s Electoral College votes.
According to Silver, Virginia and North Carolina are more Obama-friendly than Georgia. If he can put either of those states in his column, he wouldn’t need Georgia. (more…)
Wayne Allyn Root, the Libertarian Party’s vice presidential nominee, would step aside should Ron Paul accept Bob Barr’s offer to become his running mate. A source inside the Barr campaign has confirmed this as well.
From a post on the campaign’s blog:
Atlanta, GA – Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party nominee for president, has invited GOP Congressman Ron Paul to be his running mate in the upcoming election. In a letter sent to Paul, Barr called Paul one of the “few American patriots” who exist in today’s society, and asked him to “seriously consider this final offer as an opportunity to show true, lasting leadership beyond party politics.”
…
Barr’s running mate, Wayne Allyn Root, expressed support: “As the Libertarian Party vice presidential nominee, I believe in one thing above all else—principle. There can be no compromise on the ideals of limited government, lower taxes, lower spending, and more freedom for the American people. Those are the principles to which I’ve dedicated my life. The GOP and Democratic candidates only give lip service—at best—to these ideals and principles. It is only an act at election time every four years.”
“I want to end the charade once and for all,” Root continued. “I am willing to sacrifice anything to advance the cause of liberty, freedom, smaller government and to enable the American taxpayer to keep more of their own money and property. Understanding Dr. Ron Paul’s reputation and name recognition in the freedom movement, I am willing to step aside as Libertarian vice presidential candidate if he would be willing to take my place. I will pledge to work day and night, just as I have as the vice presidential nominee, to support Dr. Paul. I believe this is a wonderful opportunity for the Libertarian and freedom movements. I encourage Dr. Paul to accept Congressman Barr’s offer. The campaign is making this offer because we believe there is no sacrifice too large when it comes to improving the lives of the American people and American taxpayers.”
A presidential ticket with a total of four syllables — success.
Former contender for the Republican nomination Rep. Ron Paul urged his supporters today to shun McCain and Obama.
Paul wants them to vote instead for Libertarian Bob Barr, the Green Party’s Cynthia McKinney, Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin, or independent Ralph Nader.
Barr, a former Republican congressman from Georgia, returned Paul’s hearty quarter-endorsement with a written plea asking Paul join the Libertarian ticket as his running mate.
I know Libertarians are, by their nature, wary of rules, but didn’t the Libertarian Party already select Wayne Allyn Root as its V.P. nominee?
The Houston Chronicle reports Republican Congressman and former 2008 Presidential hopeful Ron Paul will offer a hearty 25 percent endorsement to the presidential candidacies of fo
