Posted last month on Libertarian Peacenik, the blog of Thomas Sipos. The following is written by Lawrence K. Samuels, who is the Chair of the Monterey County Libertarian Party:
Even before Anthony Gregory spoke at the Peace Resource Center in Seaside, CA, on June 20th, his topic was controversial.
Libertarians for Peace, and the Libertarian Party of Monterey County, wanted to see whether the 27-member Peace Coalition of Monterey County truly supported peace — or were only interested in having Democrats in charge of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Gregory’s speech was entitled: “Is the New Boss the Same as the Old Boss: Has Obama Kept his Promises?” The title alarmed a number of peace activists who were worried that Gregory, a research analyst at the Independent Institute, would go on an “Obama Bashing” tirade. But despite that concern, the Peace Coalition voted to be the main sponsor for Gregory’s speech.
Promo flyers tried to downplay the controversy by asking: “Do all politicians promise reforms and then reform their promises, or is Obama the exception?”
According to Gregory’s speech, Obama is no exception. The 28-year-old libertarian editor of the Campaign for Liberty website spent over an hour listing dozens of broken promises by President Obama. Some of Obama’s better-known broken promises include:
1. His promise of transparency, saying he would give the public a five-day public comment period;
2. His promise to quickly close Guantanamo;
3. His promise to oppose warrantless surveillance;
4. His promise to withdraw completely from Iraq;
5. His promise to stop unconstitutional actions such as “state secrets” and “immunity” claims;
6. His promise to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.
Unfortunately for peace defenders, Obama /has/ kept a number of promises — which actually hurt peace:
1. Escalating the war in Afghanistan with 30,000 more troops;
2. Increasing the Pentagon military budget;
3. More deeply involving the U.S. with the war against the Taliban in Pakistan.
During the Q&A period, one Obama supporter said that, despite all of Obama’s broken promises, the public should still support the President. His cited reasons were trivial, arguing that Obama has helped to heal American society, and has restored $50 million to the United Nations Population Fund.
Gregory countered by arguing that the U.N. was an imperialist cadre, initially organized by Stalin, dictators, and Western powers to the detriment of smaller nations.
Despite their fear of a harsh bashing of Obama, many local peace activists were impressed with Gregory’s speech. Most understood that Obama is no friend to civil liberties, international peace, or transparency.
He forgot the continuation of the Clinton-Bush Plan Colombia military and DEA interventionism.
LG,
Only sometimes? 😉
I’m starting Libertarians for Shaved Bush
Libertarians for Bush!!!
ROFL , oh god
no wait…
LOL
i forgot about that , so funny , so so funny
I always had a sneaking suspicion that Donderror is a Saddamite. Thanks for confirming that Mr. Knapp.
And given the fact that donderror started or Libertarians for Bush as well as the known to be very close relationship of the Bush and Bin Laden families, it would not surprise anyone in the least to see Donderror start Libertarians for Bin Laden (or would that be Republicans for Bin Laden) or perhaps Libertrarians for Bush and Bin Laden at the very least.
TK sometimes I just love you .
great point:)
tab,
Eric may be the only prominent “libertarian” to have ever actually worked for Saddam’s regime (as a member of the US Navy during the time that force was acting as Saddam’s seagoing proxy in Iraq’s war with Iran). Therefore, his statements on the subject should probably be taken with a grain of salt.
Anthony Gregory is a Saddam Hussein/Bin Laden lackey. He’s as good as a Terrorist himself.
You got that from what he said?
Hey A. Key, can you kindly tell me how it is that supporting murderous dictators like Saddam Hussein, and Islamic Terrorists like Osama bin Laden, can be called by any stretch “libertarian”?
Anthony Gregory is a Saddam Hussein/Bin Laden lackey. He’s as good as a Terrorist himself.
Hey Thane, I’m an honorably discharged Veteran of the United States Navy.
I can talk any mother-fucking way I please.
I did my time for my country. Did you?
We now know that Anthony Gregory has excellent libertarian credentials – he can add “disliked by Dondero” to his resume.
Any libertarian worth his salt earns that sooner or later.
Eric Dondero and Dave,
I would hope that your parents would be ashamed of your choice of words in a public forum.
JD__Jim Duensing // Jul 26, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Hey Dondero:
You still haven’t answered my long-standing question:
Are you a pro-Barr Libertarian or an anti-Paul Republican?
me __ I too would like an answer to Jims question
tab: spoken like a true blue conservative Republican and one of the guys whom has literally run the American ship of state on to the shoals!
Members of the Reform Party seems to have a weird obsession with me. I don’t mind. It is somewhat flattering.
I never said we should be in Iraq or Afghanistan. I simply said Gates has done a very good job at transforming and adapting tactics and strategy to the current state of war.
I guess it is a fault to be able to objectively judge a situation rather than engage in ad-hominem attacks.
tab: spoken like a true blue conservative Republican and one of the guys whom has literally run the American ship of state on to the shoals!
Thank you for your inappropriate presence and ignoble attitude! Gates is the 21st Century equilivant of Bob McNamara. What you infer about Gates Motel has been implied about Bobby!
Hey Dondero:
You still haven’t answered my long-standing question:
Are you a pro-Barr Libertarian or an anti-Paul Republican?
Obama kept failed DoD ‘mastermind’ Gates and is still in the middle east. Connect the bloody, expensive dots!
Other issues aside, Gates has been anything but a failure. He implemented the COIN strategies used in Iraq which have been quite successful.
Eric Donderror is not a libertarian by any stretch of the term. He is a Fascist Republiklan, who uses our term libertarian cause he thinks it sounds cool.
He should go back to Texas, or actually Mexico, or Western Pakistan, and suck off all his Republow-Fascist comrades that he loves so much.
One would hope that the cum drips off his lip, and that some Pro-American guy is there to snap a photo of Erikkk getting his butt fucked by his Hitler-loving pals like the Bush family, which actually helped to finance Hitler, and Rudolf Gmussoliani, who actually has pictures of Hitler and Mussolini on his wall that he masturbates to.
Anthony Gregory is not a libertarian by any stretch of the term. He is a Fascist Liberal, who uses our term libertarian cause he thinks it sounds cool.
He should go back to San Francisco, or actually Venezuela, or Western Pakistan, and suck off all his Islamo-Fascist comrades that he loves so much.
One would hope that the cum drips off his lip, and that some Pro-American guy is there to snap a photo of Gregory getting his butt fucked by his Hitler-loving pals.
Kudos to Anthony Gregory for speaking out on these issues. Historically, he is very correct about the United Nations being a coalition of empires organized by Churchill, FDR & Joe Stalin.
We do have to offer these criticisms in good faith. Liberals afraid of a Republican regime will naturally put up with some compromises, just as people opposed to Obama’s socialist drive will support Republicans despite compromises.
Libertarians offer a more pure critique, but we have to figure out how to fight some of the bad guys without giving sanction to the other bad guys who threaten our freedom.
Sorry, my remember pass word did not ‘contact’ on the Peacenik blog!
Hope Tom and or Tony get around to reading such:
“Kos is sure not too anti war! Plz contact us in the Citizens For A Better Veterans Home branch of the reform movement.
[email protected]
619.420.0209
[Reform as in Reform Party USA and not the ‘reform battles’ of foolish, juvenile food fights of the Libertarian Endless Debate Society.]”
Hi: “I’m Obama, your Yokohama Momma! Having been elected on the anti President Cheney and Puppet Boy Bush effort I will spend time, effort and treasury to act just like W.
Both the Afgans and Iraqi have formally or other wise demanded that we leave their sovereign territory! Thanks to me, our boys and girls are still there!
In 1964 LBJ railed against Goldwater. He then kept Robert ‘Edel’ McNamara and expanded the quagmire in South East Asia.
Obama kept failed DoD ‘mastermind’ Gates and is still in the middle east. Connect the bloody, expensive dots!
Definitely glad the word is getting out. What’s dismaying is that so many mainstream liberals still seem painfully accommodating to Obama.