Libertarian Party of Pittsburgh

Bob Barr’s campaign has announced that Libertarian Presidential Candidate, Bob Barr, will be speaking on the CMU campus for the CMU political lecture series on Friday evening. The event is open to the public, and there will be a meet and greet afterwords where you can have a chance to meet with Bob Barr.

Stay tuned for more details!

(Wondering how different Bob Barr is from the same, old Democrats and Republicans?  Consider Bob’s comments on business as usual causing the economic crisis.)

The repubilcans and democrats want you to let them rescue the economy. Yet these are the same ones that were asleep at the switch or playing politics with the country’s economic future. Hear what candidate Barr has to say.

Enough is ENOUGH! Stop voting for the lesser of two evils; That brings you economic crisis. Vote Libertarian!

We keep hearing from pundits on television, from Wall Street execs, and from politicians that “nobody saw this crisis coming.” That’s nothing short of the usual sping and lies we get from the status quo. Quite to the contrary, proponents of the libertarian-rooted Austrian School of Economics (a school of thought vs. an actual institution) have been warning about a serious crash for a long time. Not only did they warn of this crisis we’re now enduring, they warned in advance of the internet stock bubble that there would be a collapse, and as far back as the teens and 1920s they warned of serious repercussions coming for the mass money supply and credit expansion created by the Fed, then in it’s infancy. Luminaries such as Ludwig von Mises specifically warned that such policies would lead to the Great Depression, which included warnings that the policy responses of both Hoover and FDR would not solve the crisis, but only deepen and prolong it.

Above is friend of liberty Ron Paul, who while remaining a republican for political reasons, is philosophically libertarian (he even ran as the LP candidate for president back in the 1980s). On top of explaining the how’s and why’s, Paul asks the valid question: why don’t we ask those who predicted this was coming with near exact prescience to provide us the solution?

Note Bernanke’s wiggly answer on fighting inflation — defining inflation as prices rising vs. the printing of money. Absent is any acknowledgment that stock and bond prices are massive beneficiaries of inflation.

If you want truthful economic policies that are not about handing out free lunches, you need to vote libertarian and fast.  Stop voting for the lesser of two evils by voting R or D. who not only enabled this mess to happen, they were also too economically misinformed to even contemplate they were sowing the seeds of a massive collapse.  If they didn’t see it coming, how on earth do you expect these stumblers to fix the problem?

Both the republicans and democrats have the U.S. economy hooked on a free lunch system of economics, and we all know there’s no such thing as a free lunch.  With the kitchen now running bare, the massive tab is coming due — yet the D’s and R’s want the economy to gorge on another free lunch!   There only policy response is to soak taxpayers with a $700 billion package that, on top of offering a figure that is far too low give the real figure is too catastrophic to contemplate (some estimates are that this will cost at least $2 Trillion).  Again, the package itself is just another form of a free lunch promise.

On top of that, the policy hands over tremendous unchecked financial power to the Treasury. It is the economic version of the Patriot Act, where unaccountability  reigns, and blank checks are the standard.  Deliberate in the bailout’s designs have been provisions that quite literally make near impossible the ability of Congress to rescind this authority.   We already know that it is impossible to get power back from big government once it has it (no programs are ever cut), and now this administration actually has the arrogance to write such a provision into the law it wants Congress to approve!

Such policies are killing the dollar and reek of real inflation: If you think your gas and grocery bills are ugly now, consider those prices rose from the inflation of money supply that started in 2000 and ended back in 2004-2005 when the fed raised interest rates and cut back on the expansion.

End this economic stupidity.  Vote libertarian.

With all that’s been transpiring in the economy in recent weeks, we thought this picture hit the nail right on the head.  Click the image for your own copy.

Just moments ago, Bob Barr and our campaign manager, Russ Verney, stood on the steps of the Supreme Court of Texas to rally a crowd of supporters and answer questions from the media.

Today, we filed an emergency stay to prevent the Texas Secretary of State from printing ballots until after our case was decided.

For a quick recap, earlier this week we filed a lawsuit to remove both John McCain and Barack Obama from the Texas ballot. Texas election code §192.031 requires that the “written certification” of the “party’s nominees” be delivered “before 5 p.m. of the 70th day before election day” and both candidates missed that deadline.

When this story first broke, the New York Times , took a jab at us saying that if our campaign prevailed in Texas, the action may, “thoroughly alarm foreign investors.”

This morning, political pundits beholden to the status quo got a bit more serious. In a scathing hit piece published by CQ Politics, Craig Crawford wrote that Bob is in Texas “promoting a bogus claim that John McCain and Barack Obama should not be on the state ballot in November.”

Sorry, Craig, but you might want to do your homework the next time before you put pen to paper.

[Read more →]

Libertarians do not believe in global interventionism like the Republicans and Democrats. Republicans like to call libertarians “isolationists” — a deliberate and simple-minded distortion of our views that unfortunately finds an audience among the masses more inclined to see the world in shades of only black and white. It’s the same line of thinking reasoning that has many NeoConns in the Bush administration and those among McCain’s advisers that can be summed up as you’re either with us or you’re against us — As if one must march lock-step in line with interventionist-Republican thinking to be a true American.

Libertarians are realists about meddling in others’ affairs: You will make enemies of your friends enemies. Unlike John McCain, libertarian minded folk don’t see every tinpot dictator as a Hitler. Unlike NeoConn thinkers who find bogeymen under every rock, the history of conflicts does not start with World War II and Hitler. We think far better lessons are learned from World War I, where hubris and Wilsonian idealism ended up devastating the economies of Europe and the U.S., as well as paving the way for Hitler, World War II, and the Soviet conquest of Eastern Europe and half of Asia.

These are all issues that are the subject of books, so we’ll it at that for now. But give the video a look above and seriously consider what it is you’re waving the American flag for this election. And ask yourself how you can protect freedom by quashing it under a police security state at home. Remember, America is the land of liberty and a limited government that confines itself to protecting your freedom — or at least that’s for what it was founded. Let’s return to that basic principle. Vote Libertarian!

He won’t be allowed close to the debates, and he’s relegated to 6:a.m. slots on CNN, but thanks to modern technology, the power of the media is to whomever can afford an internet connection! Enjoy learning about libertarian ideas from our Presidential candidate, Bob Barr!

McCain is very much on record criticizing others for attempting to sideline his own election hopes a few years back through the use of legal tactics designed to exhaust the finances of less well capitalized rivals, and moreover, to simply keep competition off the ballot. Yes, this is common in this, the “land of the free” where republican and democrats trot out the world “democracy” only when it suits their own political needs. Hear Bob Barr’s situation, and John McCain’s campaign is working feverishly using lawyers as much as possible to keep him off the ballots in many sates.

On that subject, please consider a post earlier today where the political establishment will simply allow both R’s and D’s to violate campaign laws so they may be on the ballot.

As it stands now, Bob Barr is the Lone Candidate in the Lone Star State.

As the filing deadline passed this week, Bob Barr was the only presidential candidate legally certified on the ballot in Texas.

The new Texas law is clear:

A political party is entitled to have the names of its nominees for president and vice-president of the United States placed on the ballot in a presidential general election if . . . before 5 p.m. of the 70th day before presidential election day, the party’s state chair signs and delivers to the secretary of state a written certification of the names of the party’s nominees for president and vice-president . . .

Given that the deadline passed on Tuesday, Senator Obama was nominated on Wednesday, and Senator McCain has not even announced his selection for Vice President, the Republican and Democrat parties in Texas were technically unable to certify their candidates by the deadline.

However, I have a sneaking suspicion that the ballot situation in Texas will magically correct itself.

Since we sent out our release yesterday regarding Bob being the only presidential candidate certified in Texas, a spokeswoman for the Texas Secretary of State’s office stated that, “Upon further checking, both parties filed before the deadline.  We expect their amended filings after both parties finish their nominating process at the conventions.”

Upon further checking . . .

Hmmm . . .

As it turns out, upon further checking , we were able to collect 10,000 more signatures in West Virginia a few days after that early deadline passed.

Upon further checking, we found that ballot substitution is permitted in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

Also, upon further checking, we found that Maine stopped accepting our petitions a week earlier than they had done in the past.

Not to mention that, upon further checking, we do object to the state of New Hampshire insisting that two libertarian candidates for president be listed on the ballot.

Finally, upon further checking, we found that the signature thresholds in Oklahoma are a bit too high.

Will our diligence pay off for us in West Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Maine and Oklahoma where we have active interests?

Do you think that John McCain and Barack Obama’s names will eventually be printed on the ballot in Texas?

I would be willing to make an educated guess and say that we’re going to have to fight our hearts out to get on the ballot in the states above while the Republican and Democrat candidates won’t have to lift a finger to secure their place on the Texas ballot.

. . . that is unless we make a stand in Texas.

And that’s exactly what we’re going to do.

This situation in Texas is a perfect opportunity to highlight the double standard that exists in our nation.

Over the past several decades, Libertarians have spent millions of dollars, filed countless numbers of lawsuits while being sued countless numbers of times over their right to be on the ballot.  Thousands of people have put in their time, energy, earnings and passion in an effort that, in the end, simply allows a voter to see a candidate’s name printed on the ballot.

Throughout every battle that we engage in each election season, we must dot every “I” and cross every “T” or face the consequences of failure for our ballot drives.

Even when we follow the letter of the law, as we did in Pennsylvania, we still face challenges that drain our financial resources and strain our staff.

Should we give Barack Obama and John McCain a pass in Texas and look the other way?  Would they do that for us?

. . . I don’t think so.

If John McCain and Barack Obama want to bend the rules to get on the ballot in Texas, they’re going to do it with the Barr Campaign and tens of thousands supporters looking on and scrutinizing their every move.

If you want to join us and support our efforts in Texas and around the nation, now is the time to do it.

Our campaign is taking off with tremendous opportunity and we’re going to need your commitment to kick it into a higher gear.

A significant gift before the holiday weekend will help us roar into September and face our challenges in Texas, Pennsylvania and many other states.

Please consider a gift of $1,000, $500, $100 or any other amount Also, if you can give up to the maximum, please do so soon as September 4th represents the close of our primary season.

Thank you for all that you do.

In Liberty,

Shane Cory
Deputy Campaign Manager
Bob Barr for President

P.S. A reporter called last night about Texas and asked, “Do you think you’re blowing this out of proportion?”  I literally bit my tongue.   Voters need to know about the double standard that exists within our political system and this case in Texas is the perfect way to get that message out.  Please help us today with your most generous gift.

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule—and both commonly succeed, and are right… The United States has never developed an aristocracy really disinterested or an intelligentsia really intelligent. Its history is simply a record of vacillations between two gangs of frauds.

H.L. Mencken

That, dear readers, is why our nation was founded not as a democracy, as so many modern politicians are quick to claim, but rather a consent-based republic.  In other words, the ultimate right was the individual right to say no thanks to someone else (individual, group, or government) claiming some higher authority to your life, liberty and property.

Constitutionally, the only role of the federal government was what was listed outright in the constitution, and nothing more.   Reading the framers of the constitution’s own words you’ll learn that the primary purpose of the government was to protect the rights on the individual, which themselves were undeniable and inherent to life.  Compare that ideal to what is espoused by republican and democrat candidates (with the lone exception of Ron Paul, who we support and endorse since we’re not chasing power, but rather supporting the idea of liberty), and you should be worried!

Please contact us for this year’s election. We need your help!