Bob Barr 2008 Presidential Committee News

Genuine Political Alternative Needed After Barack Obama's FISA Surrender, Says Bob Barr

ATLANTA, July 4 PRNewswire — "The two major parties like to say that a vote for anyone else is a wasted vote," notes Libertarian Party presidential nominee Bob Barr. "But it should be obvious to all that only the Libertarian Party provides an alternative in November. After all, Sen. Barack Obama has reaffirmed his refusal to live up to his promise to oppose the Bush administration, which violated the law by conducting warrantless surveillance of Americans' telephone calls."

Since September 11, the Bush administration has routinely sacrificed the privacy and civil liberties of Americans in the name of protecting America's security. "Yet the terrorist attacks on that tragic day resulted because government was not doing its job, using the powers that it already possessed," Barr says.

"Unfortunately, the Democrats also were more enablers of government abuse than defenders of American liberty," he adds. Sen. Barack Obama claimed to be different, offering real change. "But when the Democratic congressional leadership decided to concede to almost all of the administration's demands in rewriting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Sen. Obama went along with the crowd."

His supporters, who apparently really believed his rhetoric, raised a firestorm of protest. Many of them warned the Obama campaign that they had an alternative, another candidate and party that supported fundamental American liberties: Bob Barr and the Libertarian Party. "But Sen. Obama still refused to return to his original promise to defend the Constitution," says Barr.

"If Sen. Obama can so easily abandon a commitment on so fundamental an issue, is there any issue on which he will take a stand," asks Barr? "We cannot trust either the Republican or Democratic parties to defend the privacy and civil liberties of Americans, which demonstrates the bankruptcy of the two major parties." Only with the existence of an alternative is there any chance to hold the Democrats and Republicans accountable for their promise-breaking. "And only when Americans vote for an alternative — in this case, Bob Barr and the Libertarian Party — will we change the way Washington operates," concludes Barr.

Barr represented the 7th District of Georgia in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003, where he served as a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, as Vice-Chairman of the Government Reform Committee, and as a member of the Committee on Financial Services. Prior to his congressional career, Barr was appointed by President Reagan to serve as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, and also served as an official with the CIA.

Since leaving Congress, Barr has been practicing law and has teamed up with groups ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to the American Conservative Union to actively advocate every American citizens' right to privacy and other civil liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. Along with this, Bob is committed to helping elect leaders who will strive for smaller government, lower taxes and abundant individual freedom.

Paid for by the Bob Barr 2008 Presidential Committee BobBarr2008.com

SOURCE Bob Barr 2008 Presidential Committee

Send this news item to a friend.

Print This Page