In The Runoff For Georgia’s US Senate Seat…

I am proud to have voted FOR Allen Buckley yesterday, and I will happily put up with four more weeks of ads to vote AGAINST Saxby on December 2nd.

For any of you in doubt here in Georgia, remember that your senior Senator did the following:

1. Voted FOR the bailout.
2. Voted FOR the farm bill.
3. Was among the Gang of 10 energy boondoggle, raising taxes after taking the “no tax pledge”.
4. Voted FOR the FISA bill.
5. Voted FOR subsidies for “clean” energy.
6. Not present to vote to honor fallen soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan (but was able to vote on other bills the same day).
7. Voted TO allow telecoms to keep immunity for spying.
8. Only Senator NOT TO VOTE on habeas corpus for those held at Guantanamo Bay.
9. Voted FOR mixed-gender only marriage.
10. Voted TO re-authorize the Patriot Act.

Those ten things all happened in the last two years alone, and that’s a lot of things I disagree with, so I will be voting for Jim Martin.

Anyone voting for Saxby, feel free to sell him to me.

Another Greater Atlanta Meetup TOMORROW

For those of you in the metro Atlanta area, there is a Libertarian meetup tomorrow evening after the polls close to draw attention to the candidacy of Allen Buckley, who is running against the incumbent, Saxby Chambliss and whomever the Democrat nominee is.

For those of you getting the meetup information, this will be in addition to the already planned meetup for July 23rd, as the 15th is a special opportunity to meet with the candidate, as well as show support for the local media that night as well.

Bob Barr At the Atlanta Libertarian Meetup

Last night, I went to the standing room only Atlanta area Libertarian Meetup at Manuel’s Tavern in Midtown/Virginia Highlands.  As noted here, Bob Barr was the special guest for the meetup.  I had the opprtunity to speak with him one-on-one, as well as ask questions among the other meetup members from all over the metro area.  If the pictures we took with my phone had turned out any better, I would included them with this post.  In addition to Mr. Barr, Allen Buckley, who is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently occupied by Saxby Chambliss, and Russ Verney, Barr’s campaign manager who also ran the campaigns of Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996, were also in attendance. I also spoke with each of them individually as well. Bob spoke quite well on all issues addressed last night, and he was certainly well-equipped for the questions tossed his way.  Not one to be shy, yours truly threw a tax reform question wrapped inside an economic policy question, and Bob answered it with seeming ease and though he has yet to find an answer to tax reform, he satisfied my question.  He was also asked some rather sharp questions from the crowd about his former role as U.S. Attorney to Ronald Reagan and if that influences his position on the War on Drugs, the line item veto, the war in Iraq and possibly expanding that to Iran, and my #1 issue, the economy.  No query caught him off-guard, and he was very personable and gracious to meet with us all.

The answers fell very much in line with Libertarian thought, easing some previous concerns I have since overcome about his candidacy, especially in regard to his former Republican self.  I truly believe after having spoken with him and hearing him speak in person that he is the person that will best represent me in the Oval office.

On a side note, I have resisted the Buckley candidacy for U.S. Senate since it was officially announced that he was the nominee, but after having met him last night, I am revisiting my issues with him.  The biggest factor working against him, in my mind, is that he is steadfastly anti-FairTax, which I see as an answer to addressing many concerns in one package.

There are quite a few exciting things on the horizon for the campaign website, including a “fully-stocked” issues section and a store for Barr promotional items that will benefit the campaign.  Interestingly, the company involved in the creation and maintenance of bobbarr2008.com, Terra Eclipse, was also the firm that created Ron Paul’s presidential campaign website.

The meetup was certainly the biggest Libertarian gathering I have been to, and I hope to see the momentum that Bob brings gather with the momentum of the movement for smaller government and more liberty and freedom.

UPDATE:  A picture has been located of my question to Mr. Barr.  I am the guy standing on the right in the blue shirt.

Special thanks to Andrew at Terra Eclipse for letting me know about the picture.