My good friend and state chair Steve Gordon looked to be just fine as this was going on. Incidentally, Steve has been on board with impeachment for years.

Thanks for clarifying. That is fascinating. Did Steve Gordon look like he crapped his pants as this was going on?

Before I answer, a quick note about the name.

Paulie cannoli is an alliterative nickname which rhymes. It’s sort of like Red Fred or Eddie Spaghetti. “Mr. Cannoli” just ain’t it.

Now, as to your question: the exchange was at the Alabama Libertarian Party convention, 4/20/08. I asked my question from the floor, and several dozen people heard me and heard Bob Barr’s response.

By the way, Bob Barr gave an interesting answer about 9/11 conspiracy theories. He said some of his friends believe the US government was involved, and some don’t, and he believes his friends.

Hey, so did I !

More evidence of a vast right-wing anti-Libertarian conspiracy…….. the truth is out there…….

Bob blamed the Libertarian commercial for his defeat LONG before he became a Libertarian, thus he wasn’t doing it to flatter them.

Besides, thinking that a gun accidentally going off while he held it would change the opinion of enough voters to swing a 3 point positive to a 28 point negative is dillusional.

What color is the sky in your world?

9/11 truth is credible to a lot of people, and they would be much more open to considering libertarian ideas than those who find 9/11 truth to be incredible.

How could I view it as anything but nonsense to state Barr is somehow still a CIA “operative” or “asset”?

The Agency has numerous “former” employees. I have no inside information as to whether or not Barr is one of them. I don’t particularly care to talk to the people I used to know who could find out.

And all these people are being kept quiet?

Not all of them. You may want to do some research on the work of ex-CIA critics such as Agee, Ray McGovern, Victor Marchetti, and others.

I left something similar. It was not in a body bag.

This, at a minimum, would tend to indicate the same is possible with the Agency:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Agee

I’m not saying it would excuse the mishap entirely. I’ve been around guns since I was a little kid, and I always learned to treat guns as if they could potentially go off at any time, no matter if they were loaded. However, if I was handed a cocked and loaded gun and it went off, that would be an act of carelessness on my part. But the person who handed it to me committed an act of idiocy…

““Respectable to whom? If you count popularity, it has a lot more adherents than the LP does.”

So does Scientology. Or UFO conspiracies. Or young Earth creationists.”

Being in the LP might not be credible. Believing in UFOs might not be credible. Scientology might not be credible. However, imagine there is a candidate running for office who was in the LP, believed in UFOs, was a Scientologist, and believed in 9/11 Truth. The effect is additive, that candidate would be less credible than any person believing in any single one of those ideas.

My point: being a libertarian is already not too credible, so why make it worse by associating with another not too credible movement, 9/11 Truth?

“darolew – I’m not “implying” that Barr is a CIA asset, I’m stating it as an objective fact. Nonsense? Next you’ll tell me the sky isn’t blue.”

What? Barr hasn’t worked for the CIA for decades. He worked for the CIA from 1971 to 1978. It’s an objective fact that Barr has not worked for the CIA for thirty years. How could I view it as anything but nonsense to state Barr is somehow still a CIA “operative” or “asset”?

“People don’t leave the CIA like a private corporation, darolew. They leave it the same way they leave the Crips or the Bloods — in a body bag. They’re all just criminal gangs. And guess what? Barr isn’t exactly calling for the CIA’s abolition either, is he?”

So, I’m supposed to believe — without evidence — that everyone who joins the CIA remains an operative for the rest of their lives? And somehow, Barr’s campaign rhetoric, which has never called for the abolition or retention of the CIA, backs this up?

You are aware that the CIA has 20,000 current employees (estimated), and many more former employees? And all these people are being kept quiet?

I don’t buy that. Just another conspiracy theory.

I don’t agree, but for discussion’s sake suppose they are. Then what objective evidence is there for what is or isn’t ‘respectable’? You can have your opinion and I can have mine, and they are just opinions.

“But Bob Barr is more libertarian than Ron Paul!”

If Sonny Landham is for abolishing the CIA, then HE is more libertarian than Bob Barr.

My differences with Barr are not trivial. If you can’t understand that, that is your limitation.

By the way, G.E., calling Barr a CIA operative is like calling me an EDS operative because I worked my first job there after college. Although admittedly I push the agenda of my former EDS masters to undermine our way of life every chance I get.

Respectable means something that gets respect.

9/11 truth gets more respect than the LP does.

So does Scientology. Or UFO conspiracies. Or young Earth creationists.

Numbers do not make something respectable.

Steve Dasbach–You say that ” Barr should be commended for admitting that he was wrong”, but even you don’t say wrong about what? That’s exactly the problem. He is an eloquent speaker who is somehow unable to be specific about what he thinks about marijuana’s medical efficacy. That means whether or not marijuana works as medicine. How hard would it be for him to say whether or not he now believes that patients have been telling the truth all along? Can you reference even one time that he mentions anything about patients when talking about medical marijuana? How is ackowledging sick people’s exixtance something to be avoided at all costs? It’s not a matter of how fast and far he has come along Steve. It’s a matter if acknowledging that actual people are involved here. To date he has not done that very simple act. If he some day says that he was wrong about marijuana being legitimate medicine for some of America’s most vulnerabgle citizens, you will be happy to know that I will officially commend him.

You’re up Andy Craig.
Charactizing my post as “demanding apologies” would be valid…if there was even a vague mention of an apology. You can’t apologise to a dead person anyway.
Let’s see…..I start my post by saying “Bob Barr has changed his position on the Drug War”, yet you gripe at me that I don’t get that he’s “made it perfectly clear that he wants to end the War on Drugs”. Pay attention Andy….I get it! He’s changed his position on the War on Drugs. But then again that wasn’t ever the issue, was it? My concern is that Bob Barr seems to be unable to relate medical marijuana policy to the sick and dying Americans it effects. Saying he knows that medical marijuana patients were, and are, telling the truth about marijuana’s medical benefits is not an apology. It’s clarification of the simplest order. Besides, we certainly wouldn’t want a President who would apologise to sick people, would we? There’s no room for that kind of crap at the Presidential level.

And to sunshinebatman….How dare you challenge Bob Barr as to why he lost the election. He says that he lost because “the Libertarian Party relentlessly ran attack ads against me”. If you think that I am megalomaniacal to agree with Bob Barr, then I just don’t know what the world has come to. You may think that Bob is lying when he says why he lost the election, but I believe Bob! And with good reason. A poll taken two weeks before the election had Barr leading Linder by three percentage points. The “Why would you do that to me…Bob?” commercial began airing two weeks before the election. He went on to lose by a margin of 64% to 36%.

So…you say that Karl Rove had a “local dirty tricks operative place a loaded, cocked gun in Barr’s hand at a fundraiser” as to why he lost the election? Was that the guy running away real fast just before the gun went off? I can’t say that you’re assertion is megalomaniacal…but it is certainly something people who care about you should be concerned about.
One last thing sunshinebatman…the part about Ron Crickenberger ganging up with the RNC, the DNC, and Karl Rove to make that medical marijuana commercial? How could you forget to include the Riddler and the Joker?