Today's video from Bob Barr was from the first week of August....

Barr was so right to call both of the major party candidates out on the "politics as usual" attacks on fluff when they needed to be addressing issues like the ones that have led to the "necessity" for a big government bailout plan like the one we are hearing about now.

I've mentioned CRS reports here at least once or twice before. There's some decent reading about the events of the past week at a subsite of the State Department. Another decent spot to find some CRS reports is the Naval Postgraduate School's library site. Click here and then click the digital archive link near the top of the page. That will launch a new window with various electronic media links. One of them is titled "Congressional Research Service Documents". That's the link you'll want to click.....

After doing a SMALL amount of further research....

One of the members of Congress holding out on the Bush administration's version of "ze plan, ze plan" is Senator Richard Shelby. I absolutely believe that he's doing the correct thing in this case. His position can be viewed here and he provides a link to a list of over 200 economists who want, at the very least, a reasonable discussion of the policy issues and effects of the proposed dramatic government intervention in the market.

A third party (Libertarian, of course) view of the bailout provided by Bob Barr...

One might be tempted to dismiss what Bob Barr or Art Metcalf think about the current state of affairs as we are not economists. Here are some articles from economists William A. Niskanen (cato.org) and Pierre Lemieux (Université du Québec en Outaouais) about the big money mess.....

The final plank of the Libertarian Party platform:

"4.0 Omissions

Our silence about any other particular government law, regulation, ordinance, directive, edict, control, regulatory agency, activity, or machination should not be construed to imply approval."

-http://www.lp.org/platform

Although slightly dated, here was Bob Barr's take on the Russia/Georgia conflict....

"3.7 Self-Determination

Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of individual liberty, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to agree to such new governance as to them shall seem most likely to protect their liberty."

-from http://www.lp.org/platform

This is what can happen when there's not much good programming on television during primetime....

I've remained silent on the current economic plague that is apparently a huge threat to the American system.....

In part, this is because I don't claim to understand the entirety of the situation and I, for one, don't truly believe that any one person has a full grasp of the effects of all of the variables involved and what will happen when some (or none or many or all) of them are changed. I am not an economist and wouldn't even want to pretend to be one. With all of that being said, I don't like the idea of the current plan to bail out the ailing finance industry. Ben Bernanke and Les Paulson are trying to sell "the plan" like crazy and warning of dire consequences if Congress doesn't push it through. My gut says (and libertarian inclinations) that, if the economy must be steered AT ALL, it must be done only with the lightest of touches. In all truth, I generally fall right along the lines of laissez-faire capitalism with a slight anarchist tendency. I tend to think that the course correction that will probably be implemented at the hands of the government (your tax dollars at work to stabilize at least a decade of questionable business practices by the biggest names in the game) will be overly heavy and potentially worse for the economy AND your (and my) pocketbook. There is a much better (and more eloquent) explanation of why this plan is problematic here.

Getting away from the economy for the moment, check out this Bob Barr video regarding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act:



Keep in mind that Barack Obama voted to approve the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008 and John McCain didn't even vote.

The daily plank.....

"3.6 Representative Government

We support electoral systems that are more representative of the electorate at the federal, state and local levels. As private voluntary groups, political parties should be allowed to establish their own rules for nomination procedures, primaries and conventions. We call for an end to any tax-financed subsidies to candidates or parties and the repeal of all laws which restrict voluntary financing of election campaigns. We oppose laws that effectively exclude alternative candidates and parties, deny ballot access, gerrymander districts, or deny the voters their right to consider all legitimate alternatives."

-from http://www.lp.org/platform

Happy autumnal equinox!

Though it's a couple of weeks old, check out the vid of Bob Barr discussing the end of the Republican convention.....



As for the daily "plank"...

"3.5 Rights and Discrimination

We condemn bigotry as irrational and repugnant. Government should not deny or abridge any individual's rights based on sex, wealth, race, color, creed, age, national origin, personal habits, political preference or sexual orientation. Parents, or other guardians, have the right to raise their children according to their own standards and beliefs."

-excerpt from http://www.lp.org/platform

Libertarian Presidential Nominee Bob Barr weighs in on John McCain and Barack Obama's impact on the Constitution

"3.4 Free Trade and Migration

We support the removal of governmental impediments to free trade. Political freedom and escape from tyranny demand that individuals not be unreasonably constrained by government in the crossing of political boundaries. Economic freedom demands the unrestricted movement of human as well as financial capital across national borders. However, we support control over the entry into our country of foreign nationals who pose a threat to security, health or property."

-from http://www.lp.org/platform

As you all have probably gathered by now, I am not an Obama supporter. However, if the only choices I had (at the present point in time) were McCain and Obama, I probably wouldn't vote for McCain. Anyway, there's a headline that has been on my Yahoo! News page for the past day or so talking about the negative racial impact on Obama's run for office. I hate to say it, but if we're not over that crap by now, we've got serious issues. I'd much rather see people NOT vote for Obama because of his stances on things.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/specials/interactives/wdc/yahoo_poll_race/index.html?SITE=YAHOO&SECTION=HOME

I must start the day out with a hearty......

Happy Birthday Daddy-o!