“Recently, ultra-right wing moral conservative presidential candidate Bob Barr wrote a statement in effusive praise of ultra-right wing moral conservative racist former U.S. Senator Jesse Helms,” says Boston Tea Party presidential candidate Charles Jay at his campaign Web site. Jay then goes on to compare statements made by Barr and Helms in what he called “Dueling Dixiecrats.”
This isn’t the first time Jay has attacked Barr. On July 5, Jay posted a graphic designed by his vice-presidential running mate, Thomas Knapp, that depicts Bob Barr alongside known racists Strom Thurmond, George Wallace, and Lester Maddox, with a Confederate flag in the background. The blog entry is entitled “Look out for those ‘Dixiecrats!'”
The Boston Tea Party is not a libertarian party. Libertarians reject fraud. The concerted effort to misrepresent other candidate’s positions in order to gain support is fraud.
Go fly a kite, Woolsey! You’d be much better at it than the farcical and outrageous comments you’ve been making about the BTP.
Mr. Woolsey makes a living off the taxpayers by getting a government-paid salary at the Citadel. Mr. Woolsey thinks that, by badmouthing all BTP members and paint them with a very long brush, it will enhance his credibility from where he lives to the ends of the Earth.
Clearly, he’s mistaken.
To accuse the Boston Tea Party of “fraud,” especially when Mr. Woolsey’s party The Libertarian Party has had a LONG history of fraud, backroom dealing, backstabbing, backbiting, and selling out its principles to the highest bidder, is extremely and rightfully laughable. Since its inception in July of 2006, the Boston Tea Party has NEVER, in its own history (with the exception of several fraudulent members on the Boston Tea National Committee who were, for various reasons, forced to resign), committed any kind of fraud, backroom dealing, backstabbing, backbiting, and selling out principles to the highest bidder.
Perhaps Mr. Woolsey should look at himself in the mirror. While he’s at it, maybe he should get his own party to take a good look at itself in the mirror while it’s at it.
It was ONCE true that the LP “rejected fraud.” While very few of its members still follow the philosophy and principles of which the LP used to represent, the Party itself does not.
The Party of Principle is a shadow of its former self. It nominated a Dixiecrat conservative who’s parading in that organization and calls himself a Libertarian. And, by doing that, the LP points to that candidate and says, “Yup, he’s a Libertarian.” Because of that, the LP has slit its own throat and is falling further into the abyss of marginalization, false advertising, and fraud.
The LP, for many years, has engaged in this type of activity. Its leadership has always been arrogant, unreliable, incompetent, untrustworthy, inexperienced, sleazy, and corrupt as sin. What transpired at the Denver convention is no different.
Now it gets to pay the price for its decision, not to mention take personal responsibility for it as well. When have the leaders of the LP ever done that?
The Boston Tea Party claimed that its program was in favor of reducing government and not increasing government. A great program! But, another fraud. Instead, it is a vehicle for lying hypocrites. Liars, who attack others for not advocating following their anarchist plumbline.
Bill Woolsey has the temerity and arrogance to accuse the BTP of “fraud” and its members of being “lying hypocrites.”
Of course, this is the same Bill Woolsey who sucks off the government teat, sucking it dry while working at the Citadel and collecting a paycheck at the expense of the taxpayers in the State of California. Not only that, he’s quite proud of that fact too. He’s never shown an ounce of dignity and integrity in his disagreements with other libertarians, and his ramblings here are no exception.
Point of fact, he’s never have a spine to oppose the hypocrisy and fraud of the LP especially during the Browne-Willis ruckus or even the recent events such as LP/BRCA controversy that Tom Knapp appropriately noted in his response above.
When Bob Barr’s PAC graciously donated monies to Republican candidates competing with LP candidates for those same seats (especially when Barr has repeatedly said the GOP has left him), I didn’t hear Bill Woolsey scream “FRAUD!” from the rooftops. Where the hell was he?
When Wayne Allyn Root, while campaigning for president little over a year ago, asked his supporters to throw in their support to John McCain, Woolsey didn’t scream “FRAUD!” from the rooftops too! Again, where the hell was he??
If Woolsey wants to play the fraud card, he sure can do that. But many of us in the BTP can play that game as well.
The question is — how far does good ol’ Bill want to take this?
Yours in Liberty,
Todd Andrew Barnett
Vice Chair, Boston Tea National Committee
http://www.bostontea.us
Trent: does wondering make us racists?
I’ve held off commenting on the BTP vs. “Dixiecrat” controversy because I was hoping that it would just play out and everyone would move on to 21st century issues, rather than mid-20th century ones.
However, it seems to just keeping getting worse.
I joined the BTP a few weeks ago because I thought it would be useful as a forum for the more radical (I don’t mean that in a bad way) opinions of libertarians who were uncomfortable with Barr. I also thought it would be good to provide those libertarian voters with another alternative, so that they wouldn’t feel like they had to stay home or, even worse, vote for Obama or McCain.
I still think the BTP could serve those purposes. I know many libertarians don’t like Barr. There are valid criticisms and they should be made, but Sharptonian charges of “racism” and rude, personal insults against the recently dead are not efficient ways to promote personal liberty.
Barr isn’t going to be president and neither is Jay, Baldwin, Nader, or McKinney. Still, I’m glad they’re all running. It provides for a diverse debate and a broad range of choices for the voters. Why not focus our greatest efforts on pointing out the anti-libertarianism of the Bush administration and of McCain and Obama?
The logic of people like Darren is so pathetic. Bar could have sent a private notice to Mrs. Helms. But no, he goes out and says that the guy was one of the best senators of all time, and that we should “give thanks to God” for his racist “life and work’ — as if anything less would have been speaking ill of the dead.
Barr built his career in appealing to people’s bigotry, and old habits die hard. He is a bigot-monger, but the cosmotarians at the LP are so blinded by his long history as a government welfare bum (as they aspire to be) that they’ll even let this grave sin pass.
*re-examines Barr picture*
He had me fooled
No he isn’t!
Isnt Bob Barr black?
Darren what you don’t point out is that I don’t have a problem with Bob Barr’s words of condolences to the Helms family but what I do have a problem with is that of a Libertarian Party presidential candidate he basically spoke for all those who are members of the LP when he said that Helms was one of the greatest men to ever serve in the Senate. Not only does it give me goosebumps and smacks me squarely in the face as a Libertarian but as an African-American it sounds like Barr, and we know Helms, don’t give to shits about blacks in this country. I have tried to get minorities in the LP for 15 years and what I did gain in that aspect, that press release basically killed any hope for future outreach to minorities for a long time. Bob Barr, the great American Bigot!
Tom Knapp is campaigning his ass off for his congressional race, which he running as a Libertarian Party candidate. You failed to mention that darren.
I guess I would retract my statement if I were you darren, otherwise, you look pretty stupid.
Speak only about what you know.
First, the fact that the BTP’s vice-presidential candidate Thomas Knapp is wasting time arguing internally on blogs rather than campaigning to the public shows that this splinter group is just looking to extend the LP’s reputation as a debating society.
Second, if Jay takes issue with Barr expressing condolence to the family of a dead former senator, perhaps he should have issued his own press release: “Jay to Helms family: serves you right for having a racist father!”
But a smart politician does what any decent person would do: offer the customary condolences and focus on the departed’s positives. To imply that means you accept their negatives as well is disingenuous. That would mean every minister that eulogizes on what a great man so-and-so was is to be considered an accomplice to whatever evil they may have done in their life.
To be fair to Prof. Woolsey, he did express disapproval for the press release.
I’m surprised to learn that Woolsey was a Russo supporter. I think Russo was a great man and would have been a wonderful candidate, and I appreciate his focus on the Federal Reserve — however, I think Freedom2Fascism perpetuated some untruths about the Fed; the same kind of stuff Woolsey railed against in his article on the subject in Liberty.
If I recall, Bill Woolsey supported Aaron Russo back in 2004. This press release does damage to the credibility to the Barr campaign and the LP in the future. As an African-American and long-time libertarian activist I am disgusted to see that Barr “whole-heartedly” embraced a known racist bigot like Jesse Helms and anyone who fails to acknowledge the errors of this press release is no better than Barr himself! I won’t be supporting Barr and any true libertarian shouldn’t either!
Since withdrawing my endorsement of Barr and noting that he’s running as a Dixiecrat, I’ve pretty much remained silent on the subject, even when he confirmed the validity of the Dixiecrat assessment with his paean to the virtues of evil segregationist Jesse Helms.
The main reason for my silence has been fairly pedestrian: I prefer to see the Boston Tea Party run against the status quo rather than against other minor parties. The LP in particular, at least at the national level, is doing a perfectly competent job of sweeping itself into the dustbin of history — it doesn’t need an assist.
On the other hand, for anyone representing a party with a culture of fraud running as far back (e.g. the Willis Affair, “Liberty Computing”) and as deep as the LP’s to accuse any other party of fraud is so laughably disgusting that I can’t help but comment on it.
I don’t recall hearing Bill Woolsey scream “fraud” when the LP went from announcing “solid in 46 states, likely in 48” ballot access before its national convention, to “OMG — 31 states unless you GIVE MONEY NOW!” at and after that convention.
I don’t recall hearing Bill Woolsey scream “fraud” when LNC/LPHQ refused to sell advertising to LP presidential candidates, citing BCRA concerns … until their preferred candidates entered the race, at which time apparently McCain-Feingold was repealed without anyone but LNC/LPHQ being told about it.
I specifically recall that when LPHQ joined in the smear of Mary Ruwart, a smear which fraudulently twisted the fact that she said (accurately) ten years ago that child porn laws don’t work into an endorsement of child porn, Bill Woolsey attacked ME for pointing out that Bob Barr publicly proclaimed last fall that the government of Georgia not only should, but MUST, distribute child porn to anyone who demands it — a claim which was, and remains, true.
The LP perpetrates a fraud on the American people every time it points to the top of its ticket and says “THAT is Libertarian.” Nobody forced the LP to give its presidential ballot line to a Dixiecrat instead of to a libertarian. Some of us fought hard against the attempt to do so. But, the LP decided to run a Dixiecrat instead of a libertarian for president.
Now it gets to live with the consequences.
The Boston Tea Party is not a libertarian party. Libertarians reject fraud. The concerted effort to misrepresent other candidate’s positions in order to gain support is fraud.
The Boston Tea Party claimed that its program was in favor of reducing government and not increasing government. A great program! But, another fraud. Instead, it is a vehicle for lying hypocrites. Liars, who attack others for not advocating following their anarchist plumbline.
Chris Bennett, an at large member of the Boston Tea Party national committee has also expressed his outrage at Barr’s enthusiasm for Helms. I think Barr said we should all thank God for the work of Jesse Helms. Must make the blacks, women, and gays in the party feel especially loved by Barr, huh?
BTP vice chair Todd Andrew Barnett has also gotten into a battle over the Barr obituary for Helms, see our national site at http://www.bostontea.us for Todd’s blog on the topic.
Barr is anti-gun, anti-freedom, anti-drugs, anti-gay, anti-Wiccan, anti-integration, anti-peace, pro-espionage, pro-war, and nuts, in my opinion.