Posted on 01/24/2009 10:24:29 PM PST by BillyBoy
Press Release
For Immediate Release
Friday, January 23, 2009
Barr hails Obama orders on Guantanamo, torture, tribunals
Says steps start process to restore rule of law in America
Former Republican Congressman and Libertarian Presidential Candidate, Bob Barr, today issued a statement praising executive orders signed yesterday by President Obama ordering the closure of the military detention center at Guantanamo, restoring the practice of treating detainees according to legal norms, firmly stopping the practice of waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques," and doing away with the military tribunals that denied fundamental due process to detainees since their creation shortly after 911.
Barr, long a critic of steps taken by the former administration of George W. Bush to undermine civil liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights by, among other things, conducting electronic surveillance of U.S. citizens in their own country without court order and without any evidence of wrongdoing, said he "hopes these steps taken by the new president will be followed by further actions reestablishing the rule of law and respect for our Constitution that has been dramatically and unnecessarily eroded over the past seven years of the preceding administration." For example, Barr said, "I hope President Obama will seek legislation curtailing the dramatic expansion of federal wiretapping power signed into law last July when former President Bush signed legislation expanding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that now makes every international phone call or e-mail by or to any person in the United States subject to warrantless surveillance."
Barr also noted that arguments by supporters of these controversial powers that closing the prison at Guantanamo will increase dangers to America are unfounded, insofar as "any detainees against whom the government has evidence of terrorist acts, can try them or detain them in maximum security prisons, in military brigs, or in US military facilities overseas if necessary." Moreover, Barr said, "the government has more than sufficient intelligence, military and law enforcement tools that are consistent with constitutional guarantees in the Bill of Rights, to provide robust and essential security for our country."
Barr, a former Member of Congress (1995-2003), also served previously as a US Attorney and with the Central Intelligence Agency. He was the Libertarian nominee for President in 2008.
For further information please contact Andy MacPherson at 770-836-1776 or andy@bobbarr.org.
To those conservatives who voted for Boob Barf to "send a message" to the GOP, how's that "message" working out for you?
Yes, I second your post. Barr is an idiot and thus so are his supporters.
I wouldn’t have voted for this guy since he was basically a McCain clone, but they have no differences on Gitmo. The conservative voter had no choice in this election.
Once Bob Barr did an interview on Air America, I lost all remaining respect for him.
He was a nebbishy dolt when he was a RINO, he’s a nebbishy dolt and completely irrelevent now.
Great post.
Am glad to see others who have a clue about the friends of
the Far Left, the anti war Bob Barr, Chuck Baldwin and L Ron Paul.
They are also 9/11 Truthers and anti Israel.
The Libertarians on FR show their support to Obama by not
condemning him and his agenda but continued threads on
bashing Republicans, and their legalize drug threads.
FR has a core group of pro American Conservative Republicans and the remainder are lemmings for Obama’s
anti war agenda under the name of Libertarians.
This makes me so damn mad .. “... military tribunals that denied fundamental due process to detainees ...” WHY IN HELL ARE WE SO WORRIED ABOUT KILLERS WHO “DENIED FUNDAMENTAL DUE PROCESS” TO 3000 AMERICANS.
Everytime I hear that statement I could just scream!
anyone who thinks bringing these muzzies to America is the answer, has their head so far up their ass they will never see the light of day...
I get tired of cleaning up the f’ng messes of politicians who are dumb as dirt! We've got half the population dependent on the government for their livelihood, Americans buying oil & merchandise from our enemies and we're inundated with illegals & muzzies who would just as soon see anyone in this country who isn't a muzzie d...e...a...d!
People better wake up & smell the coffee & start replacing these clowns in D.C. who are only interested in getting rich off their office & staying in office or we are gonna have one hell-of-a-mess to clean up that’ll make the civil war, WWI, WWII, Korea & Viet Nam combined looked like a picnic.
Well, that's my Sunday sermon.
Nytol
Bob Barr has become a disgusting shell of what he once was.
That is my biggest gripe with libertarians. While I could go along with their free market ideas I can not stomach their childish focus on drug legalization and obsession with conspiracy. There is one thing to not trust the government, it is another to trust idiots in place of the the government and believe fanciful Utopian ideas about crime and illegal drugs.
Ron Paul
When asked where he stands on Guantanamo in June 2007, Rep. Paul (R-TX) replied, “Shut it down”
another Libertarian loon and supporter of Chuck Baldwin
I’d like to see what the counter-proposal is. Nevermind the killers who are currently in Gitmo: Obama is going to set them free anyway.
I mean the new ones. OK, so you have your army fighting in Afghanistan/Iraq/Iran/Syria &tc — wherever. It doesn’t matter where. You come across a bunch of enemies who were shooting guns at your soldiers. They are not in uniform, and all of them are playing dumb.
What does the Army do with them? Let them go? (that would be efficient, because Obama is going to do that anyway) Shoot them dead and take no prisoners? (that would be efficient from an administrative point-of-view, but isn’t the best way to gather Intelligence) or what? Take them prisoner to...where? Do what with them? Make them talk how? (ask them nicely, no doubt: they apparently have Rights!)
So what is Obama’s proposal? What does Barr think should happen? (crickets)
Pinging some of the freepers who promoted Barr’s candidacy on FR (a few of which were smart enough to abandon the “Barr is a conservative” claims later on). Thought you might want to comment on him now.
Barr’s fan club on FR claimed among other things, that 1) Barr was a man of honor and integrity who was running on consistent principles, 2) the real deal for the GOP base with his past support for FR and a solid “98% conservative” ACU rating (basing this on his congressional voting record from a decade ago, which has long since renounced...oh well), 3) a viable protest vote who would “force the GOP to the right” and “send a message” for conservative values.
Anyone who talked up Barr’s credentials on FR during the presidential campaign still feel that way? Inquiring minds want to know.
Just for the record, here’s some threads about the actions of “true conservative” Barr since joining the ACLU and the LP, and then running for President:
Barr Endorses Obama Proposal
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2164778/posts
Bob Barr Predicts Obama Win in Georgia
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2115894/posts
Bob Barr postpones his defense of alleged child molester
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2079315/posts
Barr Attacks Palin’s Qualifications
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2073884/posts
Barr Slams Blagojevich Impeachment Resolution
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2164772/posts
Bob Barr: No defending the Defense of Marriage Act
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2159174/posts
Bob Barr Calls on GOP to Oppose ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2027289/posts
Barr says Bush is worse than Bill Clinton
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050011/posts
Barr Backs Gore on Global Warming
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048766/posts
Bob Barr praises Gore’s work on climate change
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047231/posts
Emphasize Diplomacy with Iran, Says Bob Barr
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028990/posts
Did Bob Barr swipe his immigration policy from Barack Obama?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2000227/posts
Your post is quite correct.
Conservative, Liberal and Libertarian are miles apart on key issues.
Liberals and Libertarians are far more alike as far as
anti war, they claim America brought on 9/11 and or America was behind it.
They believe in legalize drugs, and the list goes on.
Interesting how FR allows both conservatives and Libertarians when Libertarians are far closer to Liberals.
Glad to be a Conservative Republican
On that Maelstorm, I whole-heartedily agree you.
The freepers who spent the Nov. 2008 election talking up Barr's ACU rating refuse to acknowledge that today's Barr bears almost no resemblance to the one who served in Congress. If the current Bob Barr and his "values" got in a time machine and went back a decade ago, he'd probably offer to serve on Clinton's defense team instead of prosecuting him, and heap praise on Clinton's pardons for terrorists.
Some have said we should respect Bob Barr since he was once an active supporter of FR. Why? Barr has gleefully worked to undo everything he once fought for, stuck his finger in the eye of new conservative leaders like Sarah Palin, and threw his base (the ones who spent countless hours to help him get re-elected to Congress in the first place) under the bus (yet some useful idiots on FR continued to support his candidacy anyway). I didn't change my views, Barr changed his.
I hope some FReepers who can get access to Barr let him know PERSONALLY just how despised he has become by the the people who were once his most loyal supporters. He has only himself to blame. Every since his lost to John Linder he's declared war on conservative Republicans. BobJ mentioned he used to spend hours talking to Barr in his office, AmericanGirlRising mentioned she lives in his Congressional district and knows Barr's neighbors... Barr needs to understand he has flushed his entire legacy down the toilet. 10 years ago I would have funded efforts to have a memorial erected to his guy. Now I will never support him ever again and I will personally donate to any Republican who Barr runs against in the future. And all of that is squarely because of Barr's actions to carry the water for Obama and make himself the enemy of conservatives.
I don't buy that Barr's votes came just from die-hard card-carrying Libertarian Party members. Barr ran a terribly inept campaign and still got 200,000 MORE votes than the lifelong Libertarian presidential nominee got in 2004. Barr is working hard to turn conservatives against the GOP and in favor of Obama.
So again, Let's face the facts: Bob Barr has declared war on conservativism and helped deliver the state of North Carolina to a marxist for the first time since 1964. I'd say it's time we start firing back at Barr and his phony "conservative" followers.
On that Maelstorm, I whole-heartedily agree you.
The freepers who spent the Nov. 2008 election talking up Barr's ACU rating refuse to acknowledge that today's Barr bears almost no resemblance to the one who served in Congress. If the current Bob Barr and his "values" got in a time machine and went back a decade ago, he'd probably offer to serve on Clinton's defense team instead of prosecuting him, and heap praise on Clinton's pardons for terrorists.
Some have said we should respect Bob Barr since he was once an active supporter of FR. Why? Barr has gleefully worked to undo everything he once fought for, stuck his finger in the eye of new conservative leaders like Sarah Palin, and threw his base (the ones who spent countless hours to help him get re-elected to Congress in the first place) under the bus (yet some useful idiots on FR continued to support his candidacy anyway). I didn't change my views, Barr changed his.
I hope some FReepers who can get access to Barr let him know PERSONALLY just how despised he has become by the the people who were once his most loyal supporters. He has only himself to blame. Every since his lost to John Linder he's declared war on conservative Republicans. BobJ mentioned he used to spend hours talking to Barr in his office, AmericanGirlRising mentioned she lives in his Congressional district and knows Barr's neighbors... Barr needs to understand he has flushed his entire legacy down the toilet. 10 years ago I would have funded efforts to have a memorial erected to his guy. Now I will never support him ever again and I will personally donate to any Republican who Barr runs against in the future. And all of that is squarely because of Barr's actions to carry the water for Obama and make himself the enemy of conservatives.
I don't buy that Barr's votes came just from die-hard card-carrying Libertarian Party members. Barr ran a terribly inept campaign and still got 200,000 MORE votes than the lifelong Libertarian presidential nominee got in 2004. Barr is working hard to turn conservatives against the GOP and in favor of Obama.
So again, Let's face the facts: Bob Barr has declared war on conservativism and helped deliver the state of North Carolina to a marxist for the first time since 1964. I'd say it's time we start firing back at Barr and his phony "conservative" followers.
Absolutely!
It is simple really.
The military won’t capture them anymore.
The military will kill them instead, outside the reach of Obama.
BARRF Alert .
McCain’s an idiot...So his supporters must be as well, eh???
For the most part, McCain voters (aside from those who supported him in the primary) were simply arguing that he was better than Obama, rather than argue he was a true conservative leader in spite of all his liberal positions.
Barr voters, on the other hand, were not just arguing that he was better than Obama, but claiming he was the TRUE CONSERVATIVE in the race, in spite of all his liberal positions.
Seems to me the folks talking up Barr as a bone fide conservative leader were either stupid or delusional. No one who honestly evaluated the positons Barr took during the campaign could believe his policies would "move the GOP to the right" or even be "more conservative" than the McCain/Palin ticket. Even the Libertarians listening to Barr kiss Gore and Obama's butts didn't buy the idea that he was libertarian.
disappointing at best.
Add this to the ‘List of a thousand reasons Bob Barr is an idiot’
Bob, you ignorant slut!
I know boob barf personally. Believe me he is NOT what he seems to be.
HE FAR MORE OF AN ASH HOLE THAN YOU THINK HE IS.
I have told him as much in front of hundreds of conservatives on a cruise and it felt very good.
Everytime he opens his mouth he proves my point.
Somebody close to him really should insist on a MRI to look for brain tumors.
Bob Barr, Bob Barr is our man, if he couldn’t give us Barak Osama nobody can!!
I swung off Barr when he went anti-war/global warming on us. I have no use for idiots torpedoing our Right to Exist.
Since I answered your question, please now answer mine. Did you vote for McCain? If so, do you still defend your decision?
When Obama starts violating the civil liberties of conservatives, you’ll be glad to have people like Bob Barr in your corner.
Yes I did and yes I still believe McCain was FAR better than Barr. Bob Barr is a liberal Al Gore worshiper who bears no reselbmanece to the man he once was. While McCain is no "true conservative", he is certainly far more conservative than your boy Barr. (The fact that even a backstabber like McCain is the RIGHT of Barr shows just how far left your guy has veered)
You cited ONE bill where Barr's position is better than McCain -- the 2008 bailout legislation (by the way, McCain is opposed the CURRENT bailout bill proposed by Obama, so you premise that "McCain loves bailouts" is simply wrong)
By contrast, here's half a dozen issues where McCain is better than Barr:
McCain and his running mate support the human life amendment, and would work to restrict abortion nationwide. Their personal lives are pro-life as well. They had the strongest pro-life platform of any Republican ticket in history. Barr is a faux pro-lifer who urged his second wife to get an abortion and quickly switched his position to maintaining the status quo on abortion and keeping quiet about the slaughter on the unborn, in order to curry favor with his masters at the LP.
McCain supports traditional marriage, including the Defense of Marriage act, and endorsed the Arizona proposition to protect marriage. Barr renounced the very Defense of Marriage he worked to pass, and issued press releases cheering on the liberal activist judges California Supreme Court for overriding the will the voters in California and legalizing gay marriage.
McCain has always supporting WINNING in Iraq and fought for the surge long before anyone else thought it was possible. Barr supports surrender in Iraq and ran to the left of Obama on the issue, saying he was begin withdrawl immediately after taking office (Obama later backtracked on that one and changed it to "by the end of my first term)
McCain and Palin support domestic energy policies and wouldn't be caught dead attending an Al Gore function and hailing Gore's tree-hugging agenda. Barr not only attends Al Gore functions but introduced Gore and praised him for his "Inconvenient Truth" garbage. Barr tried to run to the left of all the other major Presidential candidates, including the Green Party wackos, by complaining none of them was "sufficiently addressing" man-made climate change and vowing to work with Al Gore to fix it.
McCain supports tough measures to combat terrorism, including the Patriot Act and Guantanamo Bay detention. Barr opposes tough measures to combat terrorism and instead repeating the Democrat talking points about how terrorists deserve the same "civil rights" as U.S. citizens. Barr also repeats the favorite talking points of the left like denouncing Bush's wiretap policies. If you think that's the "true conservative" position, then you must think Dennis Kunicinch and Barack Obama's positon on terrorism is "more conservative" than Bush.
McCain choose an outstanding limited government, pro-traditional values, free market conservative running mate who was governor of the nation's largest state and whose record in office was far MORE "libertarian" than anything Barr had ever done, Sarah Palin. Barr denounced the conservative-libertarian Palin as "unqualified" for the office, and hypocritically picked a Las Vegas TV producer with ZERO political experience for his running mate who was COMPLETELY unprepared to step in as President at a moment's notice. Barr later tried to throw him overboard and get Ron Paul as a running mate, but even Paul realized your boy Barr was a joke so he endorsed Chuck Baldwin instead.
So yes, I voted for a pro-life, pro-traditional families, pro-WOT, pro-victory in Iraq, anti-Al Gore envirowackoism, qualified proven conservative veep to run the government, while you voted for an anti-life, anti-traditional family, anti-WOT, anti-Iraq victory, Al Gore loving, and totally unqualified veep to run the government.
Would those policies be more conservative than Barr's? The answer to that question by any measure was a resounding yes.
There are other minor issues, but those were the biggies. McCain/Palin were RIGHT on every issue major issue (abortion/guns/taxes/spending/WOT/marriage/etc.), with the only exception being immigration/bailouts. On the other hand Barr was WRONG on every major issue (abortion/WOT/marriage/enviroment/security/immigration) except gun rights and the 2008 bailout bill (even renouncing his formerly good policy on fighting illegal immigration)
You supported that liberal agenda for America, and now you're going to get it (with Bob Barr applauding Obama and trashing conservatives every step of the way)
Sort of ironic, considering Barr's help getting Obama elected, don't you think? Or was that some other idiot suing to get McCain and Obama off the ballot in a deeply red state? The day I need a screw ball like Barr to protect my rights is the day I have no rights worth protecting.
Not “ironic” at all. Obama would have still won if all third parties on the ballot would have won zero votes. You can’t blame McCain’s thundering loss on anyone but McCain and his supportors.
My point stands. The current bailout is chicken feed. The great leap to socialism was made in the much larger bailout last year. If you really believe that a guy who supports such a radical, anti-free market measure is better than Barr, we'll just have to disagree.
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