You should vote for me because...

Clinton: My husband got a blowjob
Obama: You're not racist, are you?
Edwards: Because.
Kucinich: I have an attractive wife
Mike Huckabee: because I believe in Jesus
Mitt Romney: because I believe Jesus was an American Indian
McCain: because I was tortured like Jesus
Ron Paul: Jesus, how can I explain this to you so you'll understand

• About Me
• Reagan on Compromise
• Founding Fathers (and soon after) and the Role of Government
• Fair Trade Patriots
• Favorite Pics
• African American Republicans/Conservatives/Non-liberals

Transplanted Arkansan.

Was a member of Arkansas State University College Republicans.

I visited Kennebunkport, ME in August 2001 to see the Bush home-- if you have a good camera, you can get some nice shots.

I like Ike, Reagan, GHWB, GWB, and Condoleezza Rice. I'm pro-life and support the RTKBA. I collect campaign memorabilia. I've seen Algore in person (not of my own volition) and GWB and Gov. Jim Douglas of Vermont; and have met Bill Bradley (he was in our place of business for the 2000 NH primary); Govs. Craig Benson and Steve Merrill; Sens. Judd Gregg, John Sununu, Lamar Alexander, Bill Frist, Mark Pryor, and Kay Bailey Hutchison; and Congressman Jeb Bradley. Bob Dole spoke at our state convention Fall 2002. I'm a political campaign junkie.

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"When I began entering into the give and take of legislative bargaining in Sacramento, a lot of the most radical conservatives who had supported me during the election didn't like it. "Compromise" was a dirty word to them and they wouldn't face the fact that we couldn't get all of what we wanted today. They wanted all or nothing and they wanted it all at once. If you don't get it all, some said, don't take anything. "I'd learned while negotiating union contracts that you seldom got everything you asked for. And I agreed with FDR, who said in 1933: 'I have no expectations of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average.'

"If you got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later, and that's what I told these radical conservatives who never got used to it.

Ronald Reagan, in his autobiography, An American Life

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Founding Fathers (and soon after) and the Role of Government

• "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."-- James Madison, in response to the 1792 congressional appropriation of $15,000 to assist some French refugees.

• "With respect to the words general welfare, I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers [enumerated in the Constitution] connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators."-- James Madison

• "The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite." Today, he'd be referring to the White House, Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court and federal regulatory agencies. Because of elite proclivities, Thomas Jefferson urged, "No man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."-- Thomas Jefferson, referring to the U.S. federal government

• "I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity," adding that to approve such spending, "would be contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded."-- Franklin Pierce, after he vetoed a bill in 1854 to help the mentally ill

• "I feel obliged to withhold my approval of the plan to indulge in benevolent and charitable sentiment through the appropriation of public funds . . . I find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution." -- Grover Cleveland, after he vetoed an appropriation in 1887 to help drought-stricken counties in Texas

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Fair Trade Patriots

• George Washington -- who refused to wear a coat cut of British cloth to his inauguration and signed the Tariff Act of 1789.

• James Madison, Speaker of the House, led the efforts to pass the Tariff Act of 1789. It was signed into law by George Washington. American production of cloth--cut two-thirds by British dumping in 1816--grew an astonishing 1,650 percent within four years of Madison's tariff becoming law.

• Alexander Hamilton who wrote in his 1791 report as Treasury Secretary, "The wealth...independence and security of a Country, appear to be materially connected with the prosperity of manufactures. Every nation ought to endeavor to possess within itself all the essentials of national supply."

• Henry Clay: "If the governing consideration were cheapness, if national independence were to weigh nothing; if honor nothing; why not subsidize foreign powers to defend us; why not hire Swiss or Hessian armies to protect us? Why not get our arms of all kinds, as we do, in part, the blankets and clothing of our soldiers, from abroad?"

• Henry Clay: "Poverty befalls any nation that neglects and abandons the care of its own industry, leaving it exposed to the action of foreign powers--there is a remedy and that consists in --adopting a Genuine American System accomplished by the establishment of a tariff--with the view of promoting American industry--the cause is the cause of the country, and it must and it will prevail."

• Abraham Lincoln: "Give me a tariff and I will give you the greatest nation on earth."

• Abraham Lincoln, 1847: "Abandonment of the protective policy by the American Government must result in the increase of both useless labour, and idleness; and so, in proportion must produce want and ruin among our people."

• Teddy Roosevelt who wrote, "I thank God I am not a free trader."

• "The prohibiting duties we lay on all articles of foreign manufacture which prudence requires us to establish at home, with the patriotic determination of every good citizen to use no foreign article which can be made within ourselves without regard to difference of price, secures us against a relapse into foreign dependency." --Thomas Jefferson to Jean Baptiste Say, 1815.

• "...experience has now taught me that manufactures are now as necessary to our independence as to our comfort..." Thomas Jefferson, 1816

• Daniel Webster: "Protection...of our own labor against the cheaper, ill-paid, half-fed, and pauper labor of Europe, is, in my opinion, a duty which the country owes to its own citizens."

It is sad to see the once proud Spanish people so easily bullied by alien thugs. It may be hard for most people to imagine, but Spain was the first global Superpower. It gained this status as the defender of Europe against Muslim armies and by leading the West´s exploration of America. In 1492, the same year that Spanish-financed Christopher Columbus discovered the New World, the last Muslim stronghold of Granada was ceded to Ferdinand and Isabella to complete the Catholic Reconquest of the Iberian peninsula. With Spain as its political base, and gold and silver flowing in from its American colonies, the Hapsburg dynasty became the dominant power in Europe. It controlled rich parts of Italy through Naples and Milan, and Central Europe from the Netherlands through the Holy Roman Empire to Austria. In the 16th century it added the far distant Philippine islands to its empire. The Hapsburgs held off the Ottoman Turks, whose resurgent wave of Islamic conquest in the 16th century swept across the Balkans and nearly captured Vienna.

The Hapsburgs went into decline in the 17th century, and while any such momentous event has many causes, for our purposes the focus will be on the economic collapse of Spain, which not only sapped the empire of strength but served to build up the power of its rivals.

The demands of empire required a strong and growing economy, but Spain did not keep up with the economic expansion that was taking place in other parts of Europe. Madrid´s financial base fell out from under its empire. Spain could continue to consume in the short term because of the flow of precious metals from American mines, but it could not produce the goods it needed at home, which in the long-run proved fatal to its standing as a Great Power and as an advanced society.

Spanish imports were double exports and the precious metals became scarce within weeks of the arrival of the American treasure fleets as the money flowed to Spain's many creditors. What industry there was, along with banking and shipping, was in the hands of foreign owners. As a modern historian, Jaime Vicens Vives, has concluded, “This was one of the fundamental causes of the Spanish economy's profound decline in the seventeenth century, maritime trade had fallen into the hands of foreigners.” This, plus the “opening of the internal market to foreign goods,” produced a “fatal result.” Spain's exports were at the same time under heavy pressure by competitors in third country markets. A nation that cannot control its domestic market will seldom be able to sustain itself in foreign markets, which are inherently less accessible and more unstable.

Yet, Spanish leaders were deluded by a sense of false prosperity. This is testified by the statement of a prominent official, Alfonso Nunez de Castro in 1675: “Let London manufacture those fine fabrics of hers to her heart's content; let Holland her chambrays; Florence her cloth; the Indies their beaver and vicuna; Milan her brocade, Italy and Flanders their linens...so long as our capital can enjoy them; the only thing it proves is that all nations train their journeymen for Madrid, and that Madrid is the queen of Parliaments, for all the world serves her and she serves nobody.” A few years later, the Madrid government was bankrupt. The Spanish nobleman had foolishly elevated consumption, a use for wealth, above production, the creation of wealth.

Historians have traced the flow of Spanish gold and silver across the markets of Europe. Those who “served” Spain by establishing industries to manufacture goods for the Spanish market gained the money. Spain´s rivals, France, Holland (which started a successful revolt in 1568) and England, prospered by their trade surpluses, and reinvested the money to expand their own capabilities. Another modern expert on Hapsburg history, Henry Kamen, has cited contemporary sources who referred to 17th century Spain as “the Indies for the foreigner.” The military empire of the Hapsburgs became the economic colony of other powers, or, to use a current phrase, Spain was the “engine of growth” for the rest of the continent.

Where there were jobs and prosperity, there was also rapid population growth, and rising tax revenue. Rival powers were able to field and finance military forces that could defeat the once superior Spanish forces both on land and at sea. The irony of this is that Spain was ruled by a warrior aristocracy tempered by centuries of constant warfare against Islamic hordes and Christian heretics. These nobles looked down on merchants and manufacturers and disparaged their mundane professions only to find that without a strong domestic business class they could not afford the fleets and armies that guarded the empire they had built.

Today, the American “empire” is also trying to consume more than it produces. The U.S. trade deficit is nearing Spain´s nadir of imports being double exports. Both government spending and private consumption are financed heavily by debt. Washington is printing money, the modern equivalent of digging gold out of the ground, rather than earning the means to pay its bills. And the political and military elites are apparently indifferent to the fate of domestic business and industry. Americans must learn more from the Spanish experience than just the perils of appeasing terrorists—and take corrective action while they still can.

William R. Hawkins is Senior Fellow for National Security Studies at the U.S. Business and Industry Council.

Pat Buchanan quotes on Protectionism

• "All four presidents on Mt Rushmore were protectionists."

• "Cordell Hull, architect of free trade, drafted the nation's first income tax. His idea was to replace tariffs--taxes on foreign imports--with taxes on Americans' income."

• "Protectionists prefer taxes on foreign goods, and free traders favor taxes on American incomes."

• "By the 1990s customs duties that once produced 50-90 percent of U.S. revenue would yield 1-2 percent."

• "In 1955, the U.S. tried to convince Japan to end its protectionism. K. Otobe replied then the U.S. 'would specialize in the production of automobiles and Japan in the production of tuna.' When pressed to reduce tariffs on optical equipment, Otobe replied that his government 'wished to advance the development of the Japanese optical industry.' What about electrical equipment? 'The Japanese Government believes that an electronics industry is essential to the development of the Japanese economy...' Otobe reminded the Americans of how American industry developed under the protection of tariffs. "

• "Under protectionism, Japan's per capita income doubled from 1960 to 1967."

• "Deputy Treasury Secretary Richard Darman under Bush 41: 'Why do we want a semiconductor industry? ...If our guys can't hack it, let 'em go.'"

• "Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises enumerated 4 conditions necessary for the operation of a market economy. A trade zone with China fails all of the conditions."

• "No nation ever consumed its way to greatness or prosperity."

• "Total imports in 1930 added up to only 4 percent of the GNP and Smoot-Hawley applied to only a third of that, or to 1.3 percent of the GNP. Is it conceivable that an increase in tariffs on 1.3 percent of the GNP triggered the collapse of five thousand banks, wiped out five-sixths of the stock market, caused a drop of 46 percent in the GNP, and sent unemployment soaring to 25 percent?"

• "Milton Friedman on Smoot-Hawley: 'It played no significant role in either causing the depression or prolonging it.'"

• "A shift in taxation away from incomes, onto foreign goods, is how Bismarck built the German nation"

• "In 1880 Germany and the United States together had less than a fourth of world output. By 1913 the two countries had nearly half, while free-trade Britain's share was sliced from one-fourth to one-seventh."

• "Global free trade is a Faustian bargain. A nation sells its soul for a cornucopia of foreign goods. First the nation gives up its independence; then its sovereignty, and finally its birthright--nationhood itself."

• "Republican platform 1972: 'We deplore the practice of locating plants in foreign countries solely to take advantage of low wage rates in order to produce goods primarily for sale in the United States. We will take action to discourage such unfair and disruptive practices that result in the loss of American jobs.'"

• "(1840s) To David Ricardo's argument that we should abandon the home industry and rely on imports if a foreign nation could manufacture more cheaply, Friedrich List's reply was withering: 'Who would be consoled for the loss of an arm by the knowing that he had nevertheless bought his shirts forty percent cheaper?'"

• "Friedrich List: 'Men were not a part of a global community, in which their interests harmonized in a network of international commerce and division of labor. Between man and humanity was the nation....Each nation had its own history, culture, stage of development and position of power relative to other nations in the world. And the economic prosperity of each man was tied up with the success or failure of his own nation's struggle for political and economic influence and control in the global competition between nation-states....For the nation's prosperity and betterment, it was often necessary for the individual to sacrifice his private interest in the arena of trade and profit opportunities for the national interest of the country to which he belonged.'"

• "Karl Marx 1848: 'The Protective system...is conservative, while the Free Trade system works destructively. It breaks up old nationalities and carries antagonism of proletariat and bourgeoisie to the uttermost point. In a word, the Free Trade system hastens the Social Revolution. In this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, I am in favor of Free Trade.'"

• "John Maynard Keynes, in the face of the Great Depression, recanted his free-trade views in 1930, and recommended a tariff to cut imports and boost employment."

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Some favorite pictures of mine:

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African American Republicans/Conservatives/Non-liberals

• Veronica Airey-Wilson (Hartford, CT Dep. Mayor)
  
• Harry Alford (President/CEO of National Black Chamber of Commerce)
  
• Greg Anthony (NBA player, former president UNLV College Republicans, put Bill Clinton on the spot on lowering the capital gains tax)
  
• Charles Barkley (Fmr. NBA player)
  
• Kirt Bennett (2003 Louisiana Lt. Gov. candidate, speaker)
  
• J. Kenneth Blackwell (Ohio Sec. of State)
  
• Jennette Bradley (Ohio Lt. Gov.)
  
• Yvonne Brown (Tchula, MS Mayor)
  
• Edie Bukewihge (2004 US Sen. Cand. in CA)
  
• Herman Cain (2004 US Sen. Cand. in Georgia)
  
• Jennifer Carroll (Florida State Rep., 2002 US Cong. Nom. for FL-3-- 40% of vote)
  
• Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell (Pastor of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston, TX)
  
• Joe Louis Clark (Speaker, fmr. Principal of Eastside High in Paterson, NJ and depicted by Morgan Freeman in "Lean on Me")
  
• Jean Cobbs (Professor at Virginia State University)
  
• William Coit (2004 US Cong. Cand. in GA-13)
  
• Ward Connerly (fmr. University of California Board of Regents member)
  
• Stanley Crouch (writer and critic)
  
• R.D. Davis (writer and radio talk show host in Huntsville, AL)
  
• Joetta Clark Diggs (Speaker, four-time Olympian in track and field, appointed by fmr NJ Gov. Christie Whitman to the NJ Sports and Exhibition Authority, daughter of Joe Louis Clark)
  
• John Doggett
  
• H.K. Edgerton
  
• Larry Elder
  
• Ada Fisher (2002 NC US Sen. Cand.; 2004 US Cong. Cand., NC-12)
  
• Rev. Floyd Flake (fmr. Dem. Congressman who endorsed Rudolph Giuliani for mayor, George Pataki for governor, and Alfonse D’Amato for US Sen.)
  
• Gary Franks (Fmr. US Congressman-CT)
  
• Stephen Frazier
  
• Morgan Freeman (actor who said GWB was, as of April 2002, a "perfect president.")
  
• Robert Freeman (Cabarrus Co., NC Commsr.)
  
• Dylan Glenn
  
• Steve Gordon (2002 US Cong. Nom. in MO-5)
  
• Hurley Green, Sr.
  
• Mike Green
  
• Ron Greer (US Cong. nom. in WI-2)
  
• Ken Hamblin
  
• Charles Hargrave (Housing finance officer for a non-profit housing developer, 2002 Cong Nom. in CA-7)
  
• Paul Clinton Harris (Fmr. VA State Delegate/Justice Dept. Official)
  
• Niger Innis
  
• Roy Innis
  
• Rev. Earl Jackson
  
• Reba Jackson
  
• Gary James
  
• Kay Coles James (Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management)
  
• Rev. Dr. Alvan Johnson
  
• J.J. Johnson
  
• Joan Johnson
  
• Alan Keyes (fmr. GOP presidential candidate)
  
• Rodney Lain
  
• Clinton LeSueur (2002 US Cong. Nom. in MS-2-- 44% of vote)
  
• Glenn Loury
  
• Lynette Boggs McDonald (Las Vegas, NV Councilwoman, 2002 US Cong. Nom. in NV-1-- 43% of the vote)
  
• Rochell Moore (St. Louis, MO Bd. of Ed.)
  
• Phyllis Berry Myers
  
• Deroy Murdock
  
• C. Daryl Neely
  
• Rod Paige (US Education Secy.)
  
• Star Parker
  
• Dr. Carlton Pearson
  
• Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson
  
• Colin Powell (US Sec. of State)
  
• Michael Powell (FCC Chairman)
  
• Shannon Reeves (Oakland, CA NAACP Chair)
  
• Gerald Reynolds
  
• Condoleezza Rice (National Security Advisor)
  
• Jack E. Robinson III (2000 GOP US Senate, 2002 MA Sec. of Commonwealth nominees)
  
• Vernon Robinson (2004 US Cong. candidate, NC-5)
• Joe Rogers (Fmr. Colorado Lt. Gov. & congressional candidate)
  
• Lucky Rosenbloom (Minnesota BRC Pres.)
  
• Angela Sailor
  
• Timothy Scott (Charleston Co. (SC) Councilman)
  
• Winsome Sears (VA State Delegate)
  
• DeForest "Buster" Soaries (Fmr. NJ Sec. of State, 2002 Cong. Nom. in NJ-12)
  
• Thomas Sowell
  
• Michael Steele (Maryland Lt. Gov.)
  
• Shelby Steele
  
• Art Teele (City of Miami (FL) Commissioner)
  
• Clarence Thomas (US Supreme Court Justice)
  
• Franklin Thompson (Omaha, NE Councilman)
  
• Rita Thompson (Fairfax Co., VA Sch. Bd. Member)
  
• Conrad Tillard aka Conrad Muhammad (2002 US Cong. cand. for NY-15, founder of C.H.H.A.N.G.E.)
  
• Lee Walker
  
• Sunny Warren (Gwinnett Co. (GA) GOP Chair)
  
• Joseph Ward (community activist, 2002 US Cong. Nom. in MD-7)
  
• Maurice Washington (Nevada State Sen.)
  
• Julius Caeser "J.C." Watts (Fmr. US Congressman-OK)
  
• Winston Wilkinson
  
• Alvin Williams
  
• Armstrong Williams
  
• Michael Williams (TX RR Commissioner)
  
• Walter Williams
  
• Jackie Winters (OR State Sen., 2004 US Cong. Candidate OR-5)
  
• Robert Woodson
  
• Deborah Wright

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