http://lastfreevoice.wordpress.com/…

While I’m out at Pridefest 2008 raising awareness of libertarianism and the Libertarian Party, Bob Barr was on Fox News Sunday spewing anti-libertarian ideas of states rights. I recommend scanning through the comments of the article linked above as a few former LP presidental candidates comment on this. Steve Kubby says it well:

There is no such thing as “States’ Rights.” Only people can have rights and those rights are inseparable, indivisible, inalienable and non-transferrable.

States have powers, as enumerated in the 9th and 10th amendments, NOT rights. Furthermore, it is the duty of any government to recognize and uphold rights, not to grant or remove rights.

Libertarianism is about the rights of the individual, not the rights of states, nor any attempt to transfer rights away from the individual. States’ Rights may be a conservative idea, but it is also a totalitarian concept, that should be rejected by all true Libertarians.

and:

“States’ Rights” is a fraudulent and profoundly un-Libertarian concept that has no other purpose but to deceive and rob us of our natural, inalienable, inseparable, non-transferable rights as human beings.

The Ninth Amendment says: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain RIGHTS, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

In other words, just because the Constitution doesn’t mention a particular right, that doesn’t mean we don’t have that right. The US Constitution and Bill of Rights were conceived and written to limit government, not allow it to usurp our rights.

The Tenth Amendment says: “The POWERS not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

What part of “POWERS” does anyone NOT understand?

How can anyone logically argue that “powers” somehow includes a state government hijacking our “rights”?

and just as important a statement is Thomas Knapp’s:

You should probably start by learning the difference between “federalism” and “states rights.” They aren’t the same thing. One is a strategy. The other is one of many possibly justifications for the strategy … and a particularly BAD one.

Furthermore, Barr has now gone PAST making a “states rights” argument for libertarianism and is defining libertarianism as that particular argument for it. He’s not “introducing the LP and libertarian ideas,” he’s introducing the LP and linking it to ANTI-libertarian ideas.

http://thirdpartywatch.com/…

minutes after losing the V.P. nomination to Wayne Root on Sunday, Steve Kubby spoke to an angry crowd of about 100 near the Radical Caucus booth challenging them to stay in the LP and work to make it stronger than ever.

http://thirdpartywatch.com/…

Christine Smith, who recently sought the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination, has left the party.

Following a very angry C-SPAN interview on the convention floor in Denver, which followed an angrier concession speech targeting Bob Barr, Christine Smith wrote the following:

Two very different responses. I understand Kubby’s but I feel more like Smith’s. At least at the moment. After this I can understand her anger. The Barr/Root ticket may have name but it doesn’t have principle. They have till November to convince me otherwise.

Free Talk Live’s Monday show was practically a postmortem of the convention and a lot of ranting and raving about the end of LP. I find it difficult to disagree.

2nd vote:

Root: 289
Kubby: 255
Williams: 14
NOTA: 6

1st vote:

Root 276
Kubby 209
Williams 40
Burns 20
Lightfoot 14
Schwartz 1

Bob Barr had endorsed Root for VP. It will go to a second ballot.

After 6 rounds of voting Bob Barr has been nominated as the 2008 Libertarian Party candidate for President of the United States.The final results:

Bob Barr: 324
Mary Ruwart: 276
NOTA: 4

I was hoping for Ruwart. At this point I do not believe Barr to be authentically libertarian. This may be the end of the LP as we knew it if the conservative takeover conspiracy is to be believed.

5th vote:

Ruwart: 229
Barr: 223
Root: 165
NOTA: 6

Root will be dropped from the next ballot. Even though there are only two candidates left, they must get a majority of delegate votes to be nominated. “None of the above” and write-ins are included in the total.

Root just endorsed Barr and said he hopes to be the VP candidate.

4th vote:

Barr: 202
Ruwart: 202
Root: 149
Gravel: 76
NOTA: 2

Gravel will dropped from the next ballot.

3rd vote:

Barr: 186
Ruwart: 186
Root: 146
Gravel: 76
Phillies: 31
NOTA: 2

Phillies will be dropped off the next ballot. Phillies got up and declined to endorse anyone.

2nd vote:

Barr: 188
Ruwart: 162
Root: 138
Gravel: 71
Phillies: 36
Kubby: 32
NOTA: 1

Kubby will now be eliminated on the next ballot. Kubby got up and endorsed Ruwart.

1st vote:

Bob Barr: 153
Mary Ruwart: 152
Wayne Root: 123
Mike Gravel: 71
Geo. Phillies: 49
Steve Kubby: 41
Mike Jingozian: 23
Ron Paul (WI): 6
Christine Smith: 6
NOTA: 2

Jingozian and Smith will be dropped from the next ballot. Following the vote announcement, Mike Jingozian spoke and endorsed Mike Gravel. Christine Smith got up and gave an anti-endorsement of Bob Barr.

Is Richard Viguerie Trying to Buy the Libertarian Party? by David F. Nolan

Key developments in the weeks leading up to the Libertarian Party National Convention, which takes place this weekend, show a disturbing pattern. While none of them is sinister in itself, taken together they add up to a strong indication that outside forces are in the process of trying to take over the LP and turn it into an arm of the conservative movement.

Some of the principal officials working on the campaign for former Georgia Republican Congressman Bob Barr appear to be veteran “partyjackers.” Barr finance operative Richard Viguerie, a longtime conservative fundraiser, mounted an unsuccessful hostile takeover attempt on the American Independent Party back in 1976. In 2000, Russ Verney, now Barr’s campaign manager, first opened the Reform Party up to a successful takeover by “the Buchanan Brigades,” then defected and ran a rump convention to further split the party by nominating Natural Law Party invader John Hagelin.

Recent events within the LP show a similarly disturbing trend.

The convention organizers were told that they must invite Neal Boortz, a conservative Barr supporter, to be the speaker at the Sunday Banquet. Boortz had to cancel because of knee surgery, but the pattern of placing Barr supporters in many of the prominent speaking spots has continued.

The convention organizers were told that they must have Barr himself as the convention’s keynote speaker. After Barr launched his presidential exploratory committee, they were then told that his replacement would be Richard Viguerie. This choice of having Viguerie, a movement conservative, deliver the keynote was imposed on the convention organizers contrary to their own desire, which was to fill the slot with one of the many Libertarian speakers available and eager to fill the keynote slot.

The LP’s former Executive Director, Shane Cory, used the national office to release without authorization a statement that many considered to be openly hostile to candidate Mary Ruwart. He then resigned and has since accepted a position within Viguerie’s organization. (The unauthorized press release appears to have been taken down, but here’s the text.)

Sunday, it was announced that Mr. Viguerie has purchased the popular blog Third Party Watch, which until now has been a largely unmoderated site where proponents and opponents of all third party candidates could freely express their views.

Monday morning, longtime libertarian activist and Third Party Watch contributor Tom Knapp attempted to post a piece about a highly critical story appearing in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about Bob Barr’s fundraising practices. Within minutes, his piece was deleted and his previous posting privileges on the site were revoked.

Clearly, Barr and Viguerie are attempting to gain control of the LP so that Barr can campaign on a conservative/libertarian hybrid platform and Viguerie can extend his fundraising empire into the libertarian quadrant of the political universe. If they succeed, the Libertarian Party will become just one more mouthpiece for malcontent Republicans.

This makes the attempts of some Libertarians to get back to first principles, such as by restoring the 2004 platform, all the more important.

This may be a more recent development but was easily predicted. From the ‘74 Dallas Accord to the Reform Caucus to even the Ron Paul Revolution.

Update:

You can find more at Steve Kubby’s radio show from the 20th.

http://www.cnn.com/…

Jesse Ventura…for president!!?? The former wrestler-governor is back and talking politics. Where has he been - and is he really making a run for presidency?

There are too many interesting characters running or possibly running for the POTUS. Ideally I want a Libertarian Party candidate who the Conservatives could support, maybe some Greens, and disenfranchised Democrats and Republicans. Someone with enough prior fame to possibly get into a national debate. I think Bob Barr may be that person. He was in Congress, knows Washington, became disenfranchised with the Republicans and has been in the LP since 2004. He went from a pro drug war / pro prohibition advocate to a MPP lobbyist. Is he a great libertarian? No, but few running are. Ruwart is pretty good but only well known in the libertarian circle. Ventura is known but I don’t believe that he’d have the publicity or be taken as seriously as Barr. We will see.

Speaking of Ruwart, she was on fellow LP candidate Steve Kubby’s radio blog yesterday.