As the little girl in the 1980s flick, “Poltergeist,” said, “They’re back.” Now, after consciously maintaining a low profile the last two years, even though the Democratic Party maintained a majority in both houses of the Congress, the gun-control crowd is stirring. Yes, they’re back. And they’re feeling their oats.
Smartly, congressional benefactors for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the nation’s most notorious gun control organization, had lain low; and gun control was but a minor issue in then-Sen. Obama’s campaign for the White House.
The latest furor over the AIG bonuses has revealed the 111th Congress for what it is —- the Keystone Kops of the 21st century. Take Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
After the AIG bonuses came to light last week, the good senator said he had no idea where the amendment to the stimulus bill that contained language permitting the bonuses came from. A short time later, when the first explanation failed to fly, he admitted actually having a hand in placing the language in the final version of the legislation.
President Obama just can’t seem to decide whether he’s an optimist or a pessimist. His public speeches and discussions swing wildly from doom and gloom to hope and light; depending, it seems, on his political agenda. However, if the new president decides in the future to don his Pollyanna hat, he will find support in a new “happiness index” making the rounds of congressional districts across the country.
Is all this happening by trial-and-error, as seems often to be the case; or is there really a “plan” according to which administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, are orchestrating the most massive economic bailout in eight decades? Two bailout models seem to be floating around the meeting rooms and briefing papers in our nation’s capital nowadays. Unfortunately, both are deeply flawed.
Barely more than one month into its first term, and the administration of President Barack Obama is entering the rarefied world of Never-Never Land - the mythical world of Peter Pan where wishes magically come true and in which the normal laws of nature do not apply. How else, for example, to explain the president’s statements last weekend - delivered apparently with quite a straight face in his weekly radio address - that despite adding probably $1 trillion to the already mushrooming federal deficit and national debt, and on top of an additional $100 billion or so (the actual numbers are impossible to figure at this point) with his just-announced housing-rescue package, he plans to actually cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term? Only in the magical world into which Peter Pan took Wendy Darling and her siblings, could a government leader actually believe in such nonsense.
A few years ago, during a summertime business trip to New York City, I was invited to attend a baseball game at the old Yankee Stadium. It was the first time I had visited this venerated sports venue. The weather was stifling hot and the game forgettable, but there was a certain charm to the stadium itself; after all, this was the “house that Babe built.” Little did I know then that now, just a couple of years later, one of the highest-paid stars of that hot summer afternoon — Alex Rodriguez — would be embroiled in a scandal that would make Babe Ruth’s notorious and well-known boozing and womanizing pale in comparison.
The venerable Oxford English Dictionary defines “stimulus” as “something that promotes activity, interest, or enthusiasm.” If, as appears almost certain, the federal government enacts legislation appropriating more than $800 billion in a so-called “stimulus package,” the next edition of Oxford might properly include further definitions for the already-overused term: “any massive federal spending program designed to funnel taxpayer monies into pet political projects; a term employed to disguise massive federal spending programs designed to funnel taxpayer monies into pet political projects, but labeled ‘stimulus’ in order to secure votes necessary for passage.”
George W. Bush was president. The federal deficit was under $400 billion; and the national debt was “merely” a little over $9 trillion. Virtually no one outside of Alaska knew who Sarah Palin was. America’s Big Three auto makers were still, well, big. Lehman Brothers remained an American financial icon; and insurance behemoth AIG was riding high on the hog. Housing markets across the country were weak, but still appeared viable. And, the notion of smaller government was still paid lip-service support by the Republican Party.
In the 2008 Presidential Elections Bob Barr and Wayne Allyn Root obtained 509,478 votes, which is 0.4% of the popular vote. While that wasn’t quite enough to stop Obama, it’s the second best result of any Libertarian Party candidate ever! Congratulations to Bob Barr and we hope you’ll run again in 2012.
In a last minute appeal to all supporters and potential voters, Bob Barr explained how voting for him will make a real difference for our future and advance an important goal of all Libertarians and true Conservatives: “shrink[ing] the size, the scope, the cost and the power of the Federal Government”. This Tuesday, vote Bob Barr!
“Several weeks ago we talked about the fact that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between Senator McCain and Senator Obama.
well, here we are, four days before the election, and that’s still the case. There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the the other two candidates, Senator McCain and Senator Obama.
You know that, America knows that. Yet far to many of our fellow citizens will go out there and pull that lever or touch that screen for the lesser of two evils.
Well, the lesser of two evils is still evil.
There is a change, there is a way to make your voice for real change, for real freedom heard, and that is to vote for me, Bob Barr, your Libertarian candidate.
The poll numbers are going up. They are up. They are at record levels for the Libertarian party, and it’s because of your hard work and the message that I’m delivering on your behalf to the American people, that real change is possible, that real positive movement to shrink the size, the scope, the cost and the power of the Federal Government really is possible. But, some folks say ‘well, you know, the lines are just too long’.
Doesn’t matter!
I don’t care if you have to wait in line there for five hours. It is that important for America, to show America that we’re tired of the status quo two party monopoly system that has done so much damage to this country.
Go out there and proudly stand in line so that you can cast your vote for America, your vote for the Libertarian party, your vote for Bob Barr on Tuesday, November 4th. Thank you.”
