Art For The Ages

I'm still a little confused by the election of Barack Obama. I share the viewpoint in which he is a political non-entity with barely enough experience to be a senator, much less the President. I attribute part of it to the fact he wasn't Bush, and part of it to the wierd cult of personality that built up behind the Obamarama. I also attribute the electoral results to the fact a vast number of my fellow Americans are dumb as rocks, but I attribute many, many things to that cause. General stupidity is such an accepted explanation around here it barely merits a lethargic "meh", much less a blog post.

Anyhow, I've heard a lot of people claim there's no cult, it's all based on issues and qualifications. To this I say: bollocks. As evidence for weird cult of personality, I give you this. And in conjunction with the picture, I'd like to ask: WTF? I mean, my fellow travelers are supposed to be the ones taking and advocating for the legalization of drugs, but I sure as hell didn't see artwork of Bob Barr and his moustache leading the faithful out of perdition while naked on the back of a dragon and smiting the statist bastards with hellfire and lightning. No, the donks are the ones making crazy posters.

Not everybody may have voted for the BO based on deranged hero-worship, but some of you sure as hell did.

Side note: How does a guy with two kids get to ride a unicorn? The classic unicorn can only be touched by a virgin. Unless the turkey baster is the preferred avenue of procreation in the Obama household, he don't qualify.

Voting

I have decided my plan for the final few days of this election season. I'm praying for a freak dual meteor strike to clear the efenant and donk top slot so we can have a do-over with better candidates. I'm uncertain as to which deity is the controlling authority for an incident of this nature, so I'm throwing a few words at all of them I can remember. I figure if Jesus won't hook me up, Cthulhu might. I'll freely admit it ain't much of a plan, but it beats drinking myself into a stupor so I don't have to listen to the blathering.

As long as we're on the subject, here's how a bunch of other people are voting. I think the short summation is as follows.

A) voting is for suckers
B) McCain, because Obama will screw things up
C) Obama, because the GOP is the suck
D) Barr, because both major parties suck

Pick one and move on. However, if you're in need of a good reason for the vote you've already decided to cast, maybe you can swipe a more eloquent version than my list.

I have to admit, the drinking myself into a stupor still sounds like a pretty good fallback plan if the meteors fail to appear.

Ore Strike!

Well, the rich vein of comedy gold I prophesized with Cynthia McKinney’s nomination has began to produce. We have an interview with her craziness from, of all places, the Final Call. I guess this comes out of the alternate universe where anybody pays much attention to either.

A few highlights:

Final Call thinks McKinney has “star power”, although whether she has more or less than Ralph Nader is not discussed. Since the quotes are in the original, maybe they're just trying to butter her up.

McKinney thinks “Politics is the authoritative allocation of values in a society”. Umm, what? Values are allocated? Authoritatively? Does this make any sense to anyone?

Final Call misses the obvious point that crazy people have different motivations than normal, sane people.

McKinney also thinks policy is made at a real table, and that the Green Party can get a seat at that table by winning 5% of the vote. Remember that tidbit: somewhere in Washington there’s a table where policy is made. Also remember this woman served in Congress.

By the way, did you know political parties don’t represent the values of those that don’t vote?

I could continue in this vein, and point out more choice bits of looniness. It ain't like McKinney's public statements don't just drip with teh crazy. I’ll instead leave you with this thought. The Green Party and the Libertarian Party both nominated former congresscritters for President. Amazingly, the Green Party picked someone even crazier and more abhorrent than their usual candidates. The Libertarians picked someone who appears calm and reasonable and doesn’t come off as a complete fucking loon. This may be a warning sign of the Apocalypse or something.

The Candidates Weigh In

The presidential candidate of choice around these parts has weighed in with his opinion on today's ruling. Of course, since he wrote the LP amicus brief for the case, I think we can guess which side he was on.

Everybody's favorite reading comprehension impaired candidate issued a statement hilarious for the lack of self awareness it displays. Two gems:

Unlike the elitist view that believes Americans cling to guns out of bitterness, today's ruling recognizes that gun ownership is a fundamental right- sacred, just as the right to free speech and assembly.

So, we can expect a bipartisan assault on gun rights cosponsored by Sen. McCain when, exactly?

This ruling does not mark the end of our struggle against those who seek to limit the rights of law-abiding citizens.

True enough. You're still a Senator, so there's work yet to be done on that front.

The asshat who locked up the donk nomination has yet to release a statement. It'll be hard for him to reconcile his statement that the DC law was constitutional with the fact the Supreme Court said it ain't. Some constitutional scholar he is.

Soon Enough

The Supreme Court is busily handing out opinions for the cases heard in the 2007 session. 4 came out yesterday, and 22 remain. In the remaining cases one is of particular interest around here. I refer, of course, to District of Columbia v. Heller, which centers on the 2^nd Amendment. While the court cogitates, here’s an interview with the lead attorney for the case.

I am, like the rest of the hardcore RKBA community, awaiting the decision impatiently. I don’t think we’ll get everything we’d like, but I don’t think we’ll get fucked over either. A sort of unhappy medium will be reached, despite Obamarama’s contention that DC’s gun laws are constitutional. They’re not, and a guy who is supposedly a “constitutional scholar” should know what the actual document says. Of course, running against him is a guy who has spent his entire adult life sworn to uphold and defend a document he has apparently never read.

On that note, have you considered an alternative to either one of the donkelphant nominees this fall?

Quick Reaction

One of the problems with the Ron Paul (RON PAUL!) campaign was the manner in which it was run. A lot of people have questioned where the money went and why he didn't run a more visible (read: better) campaign with the funds. The answer is in his campaign staff. Ron Paul kept, for the most part, the same campaign staff he had for his congressional campaigns. So you had a national Presidential campaign being run by the staff of a third-tier congressman from Nowhere, Texas. Strangely enough they didn't run the best campaign imaginable for a national office. I imagine this comes as a shock to some people, although I'm not sure why.

I've heard the suggestion that he could have hired a more knowledgeable campaign staff. The number of people who have run campaigns at the national level is vanishingly small, and none of them were going to go work for Ron Paul. The winners are all establishment players, and the losers want to be. Neither group is going to offend people they may need jobs from later by working for a campaign trying to upset the established power structure. It's not a smart career move unless you can win. I'm sure they parsed the chances of Ron winning about like I did. (See also: snowball, hell, chances in)

Having said all that, Bob Barr's people are reacting quicker and being more politically astute than Ron's people. This is a good sign and bodes well for the remainder of the season.

Neil & Bob

Now begins the time when I see just how many plays I can make off the word Bob for post titles. Today's is just a gimme, since it was immediately obvious. Expect more and more strained humor as I run out of ideas as we get closer to the election.

Denver Drama

So, the Libertarian Party held their nominating convention in Denver over the weekend. Did you know? Did you care? Did you watch any of the coverage on C-SPAN? I’m guessing for most of you the answers are no, no, and no. Being in the 0.5% of the voting public who regularly votes for the LP, my answers are different. I not only knew and cared, I watched the coverage on C-SPAN until I had to leave and get some stuff done on Sunday. Then we used my Blackjack II to keep track of the voting until it was over.

Let me first get this out of the way:

Okay, now I’ve dispensed with at least one obligatory joke.

The voting went almost how I expected. I didn’t expect the voting to be tied for two rounds between Ruwart and Barr. Generally speaking, this convention was a battle between principle and pragmatism. The long-term hardline radical LP members voted Ruwart. The people who thought it might be nice to get more than 300,000 votes nationally voted for Barr. I have no idea which answer is best for the long-term health of the party. Only time can answer that question, so get back to me in a few years and we’ll talk then.

Barr has a track record to deal with in his attempt to convince libertarians he’s worth a vote. A lot of his track record, especially his support for the War on Drugs, makes many of us twitch uncontrollably and start to foam at the mouth and swear. Since he left office, he has been lobbying for the Marijuana Policy Project. He also joined the LP in 2006, so he’s not a naked opportunist trying to jump on the bandwagon at the last minute because his major party presidential bid tanked. He is still less libertarian than many would like.

The only response I can offer is that it is, for some in the party and elsewhere, apparently impossible for a politician to admit he was wrong and try to do better. Some would argue his actions were so reprehensible that no future actions will suffice to make him acceptable. Any one who would argue that is frankly a cultist who is more worried about sin and redemption and the purity of the religion of Libertarianism. The party is not a church, it’s a political organization and exists to achieve libertarian ends through the electoral process. Bob Barr has a chance to influence the debate in a way no other candidate available would.

Other people would argue that it’s some kind of nefarious plot to either jumpstart his political career or engage in skullduggery for one of the big 2. I can dismiss the first with no thought whatsoever, but for anybody who’s slow in the audience: nobody in their right mind leaves the GOP for the Libertarian Party in an attempt to attain greater personal relevance. That’s like trading in your NFL career to go coach Pop Warner in the hopes of becoming rich. As far as skullduggery and nefarious conspiracies go, what could possibly be the upside for efenants? McCain loses? If Barr is a bad actor, he must be on the donk side. He could possibly pull enough votes from McCain to hand the election to Obama. There’s no scenario I can imagine where an Obama win benefits the GOP. Unless, of course, Barr is just bitter and wants to tank the GOP for hanging him out to dry after the impeachment. Hmm. I may have something there. Of course, he’s awfully prescient if he planned this out back before 2006. I may want to ask the campaign for some stock picks.

The upside for the LP? They finally have a candidate the mainstream media will take seriously and who isn’t obviously insane. Surely that’s worth something. If he will go out and make the case for libertarian ideals, he might get more traction than Cato and Reason and the rest of us combined. If the LP is ever going to succeed at changing anything, the first step is to get people paying attention. Barr has a better chance than anybody had in past elections, especially given the current political climate.

In any event, he’s the candidate. The libertarian faithful have three choices. Vote for lesser evil of the two majors and continue getting what we’ve always gotten: bigger government and more erosion of your rights. You could always stay home, because that’s guaranteed to make a change, right? At least you can feel good about your ideological purity then. Or you could suck it up and vote for Barr despite any differences you might have with the guy. Any attempt to get people in this country thinking seriously about government overreach and the rest of the hot-button issues ought to be worth a try.

Me, I know what I’m doing in November when it comes time to vote. My post-election plans remain unchanged.