Coalition To Block The North American Union
c/o The Conservative Caucus, 450 Maple Avenue East, Vienna, VA 22180
703-938-9626 • www.ConservativeUSA.org

For immediate release
Contact: Charles Orndorff

New Orleans, Louisiana – Prominent public policy activists opposing a North American Union (NAU) among the United States, Canada, and Mexico will challenge President Bush’s avowed intention to economically integrate the three countries when Mr. Bush meets in New Orleans on April 21 and 22 with the heads of Mexico and Canada.

Event: News Conference to challenge the closed door summit of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America, being conducted by President George Bush of the United States with Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada and President Felipe Calderon of Mexico.

Date and Time: Monday, April 21, 2008 at 11 A.M.

Location: New Orleans Marriott Hotel, 555 Canal Street, New Orleans, LA 70130

Sponsor: Coalition to Block the North American Union

Spokesmen:

WEBSITE: www.ConservativeUSA.org

Electronic press kit: www.conservativeusa.org/news

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DUNCAN HUNTER TAKES THE LEAD IN DEMANDING CONSTRUCTION OF A BORDER FENCE

Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) may no longer be a presidential candidate, but he is making good use of his final year in the House of Representatives. Hunter has introduced a bill (HR 5124) to require the building of "two-layered, 14-foot reinforced fencing" along the Mexican border. This would reverse the impact of last year’s end-of-session amendment that gutted the previously passed pro-fence legislation.

HR 5124 needs a large number of cosponsors to gain momentum toward passage. Contact your representative and ask him to sign on to the bill if he has not already done so.

The bill currently has these nineteen cosponsors: Rep Brian Bilbray [R-CA], Rep Ginny Brown-Waite, [R-FL], Rep. John Campbell [R-CA], Rep. Shelley Moore Capito [R-WV],

Rep. Howard Coble [R-NC], Rep. David Dreier [R-CA], Rep. Trent Franks [R-AZ], Rep. Phil Gingrey [R-GA], Rep. Virgil Goode, Jr. [R-VA], Rep. Sam Graves [R-MO], Rep. Ralph Hall [R-TX], Rep. Sam Johnson [R-TX], Rep. Kenny Marchant [R-TX], Rep. Sue Wilkins Myrick [R-NC], Rep. Ted Poe [R-TX], Rep. Dana Rohrabacher [R-CA], Rep. Edward Royce [R-CA], Rep. Jim Saxton [R-NJ], and Rep Sullivan, John [R-OK]

ILLEGAL ALIENS FLEE WHEN FACED WHEN FACED WITH PENALTIES, FEWER JOBS

Apologists for illegal aliens claim that it would be impossible to remove the millions now in the United States. Those of us who believe that the law should be upheld have claimed that by enforcing the laws against employment of illegals and stepping up efforts to catch illegals it would be possible to stimulate a massive "self-deportation". Faced with the possibility of being caught, and without the lure of a job, most illegals would voluntarily go somewhere else.

Prince William County in Virginia has now provided strong proof that we are right about self-deportation. The county’s Board of Supervisors recently approved an effort by local police and other county employees to identify and arrest illegal aliens. At the same time, the housing slump has eroded employment opportunities.

The result, according to The Washington Post (a consistently pro-illegal paper which has been intensely critical of Prince Williams new policy), has been a massive departure from the county. Businesses that catered mainly to illegal immigrants find themselves threatened with bankruptcy. Spanish-language masses have suffered a sharp drop in attendance. School attendance has shown a similar trend in neighborhoods with a high proportion of illegal aliens.

Because Prince William is one of the few counties following a strong enforcement policy, and because jobs are still available elsewhere, many of the illegals are merely moving to another part of the U.S. However, a nationwide policy would soon result in a flood of departures.

I hope to have the Chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, Corey Stewart, as a guest on my weekly TV show, Conservative Roundtable. Stewart has been the leader in pushing through this highly effective enforcement.

SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS U.S. CONSTITUTION AND INDEPENDENCE AGAINST BUSH CHALLENGE

The attempt by President Bush to force Texas to submit to the International Court of Justice (often known as the World Court) was foiled by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled on March 25 that states are not bound by rulings of the World Court.

Even liberal Justice John Paul Stevens joined the majority in the 6-3 decision. Justices David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and Steven Breyer agreed with Bush that the U.S. should surrender its independence and submit to the World Court.

The World Court had demanded, under the provisions of the Vienna Convention, that the Texas courts reopen the death penalty conviction of Ernesto Medellin. Medellin was found guilty of the rape and murder of two teenage girls. However, he is a Mexican citizen, and under the Vienna Convention should have been told of his right to contact the Mexican consulate. No such notice was given, and the World Court considered this reason to consider overturning the conviction and setting Medellin free.

The majority decision, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, insisted that although the United States was, at the time, a party to that provision of the Vienna Convention (the U.S. has since withdrawn), Congress has never provided any statutory mechanism for enforcement. Only Congress, having all legislative power at the national level, can make a treaty the "supreme law of the land" (Article VI, paragraph 2 of the Constitution).

This lengthy controversy should stand as a warning against the many treaties currently awaiting Senate action. The United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty (UNLOST), International Court Treaty, as well as various treaties relating to the rights of women, children, etc., threaten the possibility of losing American independence and finding ourselves subject to a foreign court with different standards of justice. Given the possibility that the next president may reshape the Supreme Court, we cannot be sure that the Court will serve as a roadblock during the next confrontation.

"In the quintessential contrast between bullets and ballots, while hundreds of Chinese riot troops spread out over Tibet to suppress demonstrations in the wake of the March 14 massacre in Lhasa, Taiwanese voted in the nation’s fourth direct presidential election on Saturday.

"The March 22 election also marked the second transfer of power between Taiwan’s major parties. The election of President Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 2000 ended 50 years of dominance by the Kuomintang (KMT). With the election of Ma Ying-jeou on Saturday, the KMT, or Nationalists, returned to power. Mr. Ma won the presidency by 58 percent to 41.5 percent for the DPP’s Hsieh Chang-ting. …

"What does the election mean for cross-Strait relations? When it comes to Taiwan’s security, Mr. Ma seems as determined as any of his predecessors.

"He condemned China’s 2005 Anti-Secession Law, whereby Beijing attempted to legitimize the use of force if Taiwan made unspecified moves toward ‘independence.’

"Mr. Ma blasted China’s Premier Wen Jiabao when he said last week that Taiwan’s future should be decided by people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, instead of by the Taiwanese themselves. (And when exactly did people on the China side decide anything?) Mr. Ma called Mr. Wen’s comments ‘ruthless, irrational, arrogant, foolish and self-righteous.’

"Unlike some KMT leaders, Mr. Ma attends annual commemorations of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and has denounced Beijing’s repression of the Falun Gong. He has also condemned the crackdown in Tibet, threatened to boycott the Beijing Olympics if it continues, and has said he would welcome a visit by the Dali Lama, who he described as the ‘lovable Tibetan leader.’

"While promising to lessen tensions with the mainland through trade and confidence-building measure, Mr. Ma has said the Republic of China (Taiwan’s formal name, preferred by the KMT) is a ‘sovereign nation,’ and has ruled out talks aimed at reunification.

"To underscore his seriousness, Taiwan’s president-elect has called for increasing the nation’s defense budget to 3 percent of GDP, to ensure the island is ‘strong enough to deter an initial attack from the mainland.’

"On Saturday, the Taiwanese also voted on two referenda questions: Proposal No. 5 (endorsed by DPP) advised Taipei to apply for United Nations membership as ‘Taiwan.’ Proposal No. 6 (the KMT referendum) urged the ‘restoration’ of U.N. membership as the ‘Republic of China,’ ‘Taiwan’ or another ‘appropriate name.’

"While both received a majority of votes cast – 5.5 million for No. 5 and 4.96 million for No. 6 – neither garnered the threshold 50 percent of all registered voters required to pass.

"Still, it seems clear that under the KMT the Taiwanese will continue their quest for international recognition. Taiwan is the only nation not represented in the United Nations – though it has a population larger than 60 percent of U.N. member states. Opinion polls show up to 80 percent of Taiwanese want their country represented in the world body.

"The contrast between China’s brutality in Tibet and the latest chapter of Taiwanese democracy couldn’t be more vivid. It will stand as one of the great ironies of the 21^st century that while the regime in power on the mainland is almost universally recognized as the ‘legitimate government’ of all China (including Taiwan), the government which will soon take power in Taipei will be as diplomatically isolated as those that came before it." (Source: Don Feder, The Washington Times, 3/25/08, p. A19)

"A Chinese advocate for land rights was sentenced Monday to five years in prison and then given shocks with electric batons during a scuffle between his family and the police, his lawyer said.

"The advocate, Yang Chunlin, had gathered more than 10,000 signatures for an open letter titled ‘We want human rights, not the Olympics.’ Most of the signatures came from farmers demanding redress for land taken from them by officials for development.

"Mr. Yang, a former factory worker, was convicted of subverting the power of the state, a charge that authorities commonly use to clamp down on dissidents.

"Family members tried to talk to Mr. Yang as he was escorted from the courtroom in Jiamusi, in Heilongjiang Province, but the police pushed his son to the ground, said his lawyer, Li Fangping. When Mr. Yang tried to intervene, he was repeatedly shocked with electric batons, the lawyer said.

"Mr. Yang, 54, has maintained his innocence and called the legal proceedings against him illegal because freedom of speech is supposed to be guaranteed in China, his lawyer said.

Property disputes and illegal land grabs have accelerated as China’s economy expands and farmland is gobbled up for industrial parks and skyscrapers." (Source: The New York Times, 3/25/08, p. A10.)

On Saturday, March 15, I attended the funeral of my friend, Milton Copulos, a top energy expert who worked with my colleague, Andy Messing, as President of the National Defense Council Foundation. Here is some background on Milt:

"Milton Copulos was born on August 25^th, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois. Throughout his life, Milton served in many prominent roles in both the public and the private sector, including president of the National Defense Council Foundation, senior fellow at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security and a founding member of the Set America Free Coalition.

"Milton was a veteran of two tours of duty in Vietnam. He was awarded the Bronze Star and several other Army Commendation Medals and was in the process of receiving a purple heart before his passing.

"He served as a cabinet-level advisor in two administrations and his views on energy security were sought after by many members of Congress and policymakers.

"His writing appeared in such prominent national news media as The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune. He was a frequent contributor to periodicals such as Insight Magazine, VFW Magazine and Regulation Magazine.

"Milton’s book ‘Energy Perspectives’ was a Washington Post nonfiction best seller, and for four years he wrote a nationally syndicated column on energy and environmental issues distributed by the Heritage Features Syndicate. He appeared on nationally broadcast news and information programs including FOX News. During the Afghanistan War he was an on-air military analyst for MSNBC.

"Yet, while proud of his accomplishments in life, the most cherished ‘jobs’ Milton took on were as husband to Janet and father to Jim who both love and miss him very much."

It was ludicrous to watch Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama sparring about the issue of NAFTA in their debate at Cleveland State University on Tuesday evening, February 26.

Neither was willing to flatly say that he would extricate the United States from NAFTA, and Hillary denied the easily proven fact that she was one of its strong advocates during her husband’s Presidency.

Neither the moderators nor the debaters mentioned the fact that, under the U.S. Constitution, Congress shall "regulate commerce with foreign nations". The founders intended that Congress not be able to delegate its trade responsibilities to a tri-national bureaucracy such as NAFTA.

Nor was it mentioned in the debate that NAFTA was not made subject to Constitutional requirements that treaties be ratified by a two-thirds vote of members of the U.S. Senate.

NAFTA was the precursor to the problems we now face with the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC), other NAFTA Superhighway proposals, the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), and the North American Union (NAU).

Perhaps someday, individuals who understand and believe in the Constitution of the United States will get to ask the questions.

In 1961, I headed a campaign against the left-wing, CIA-funded National Student Association. Its annual "Congress" was being held in Madison, Wisconsin.

My activities went forward under the auspices of an entity called "CRNSO", the Committee for a Responsible National Student Organization.

With the help of Kansas conservative Willard Garvey and my friend, Scott Stanley, I was able to raise enough money to facilitate the travel and lodging of several dozen young conservatives, who traveled to Madison from places throughout the United States to assist in our effort.

In order to make sure that there was no question about the care and integrity with which the money we had raised was handled, I placed the funds under the control of Victor Milione, who was then the head of ISI (now called "Intercollegiate Studies Institute", then having the name "Intercollegiate Society of Individualists").

Sadly, William Rusher, then the publisher of National Review, got control of the money and threatened me, saying that, if I did not vote with his faction at the next Board meeting of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), I would never see the outside of the motel room at the Madison Inn in Wisconsin. All the bills at the hotel were my responsibility.

Faced with this threat, I reluctantly contacted William F. Buckley, Jr., (at his fifth anniversary dinner in 1960 I had been a principal speaker). I told Mr. Buckley that, unless the money was wired to me within two hours, I would hold a press conference disclosing how a superannuated conservative personage was trying to blackmail me into supporting his side in an internal dispute which was roiling the Board of Directors of Young Americans for Freedom, an entity on whose board I had served since YAF was founded in 1960.

Bill Buckley, with grace and alacrity, responded to my phone call. The money arrived almost instantly. I paid the bill at the Madison Inn and a few days later had the opportunity to vote against Mr. Rusher at the YAF Board meeting on September 3, 1961.

The death of Victor Milione a few days ago recalled these events to my mind.

My friend, Evan Mecham, was never very popular with the liberals, and, in death, they continue to do all they can to besmirch him and the good reputation he enjoyed with conservatives in Arizona and throughout the United States.

Here is what The Washington Post (2/23/08, p. B6) had to say in its obituary:

"Evan Mecham, 83, the Arizona governor impeached, indicted and subjected to a recall campaign in 1988 for misuse of state funds and his inflammatory racial opinions, died Feb. 21 at a Phoenix hospice. He had Alzheimer’s disease.

"Mr. Mecham (R), a millionaire automobile dealer, was called the Harold Stassen of Arizona because he unsuccessfully ran for governor four times before he won a three-way race in November 1986 with 40 percent of the vote.

"The state attorney general quickly began investigating allegations that Mr. Mecham had lent his auto dealership $80,000 from his inauguration fund and had obstructed justice in his efforts to stop the investigation of a death threat against a former lobbyist. He was the first U.S. governor impeached and removed from office in 59 years.

"Charges against him did not hold up in court, however. After the impeachment, Mr. Mecham was acquitted of six felony counts of violating campaign finance laws by allegedly concealing a $350,000 loan from his campaign fund to a developer.

"Mr. Mecham’s archconservative and impolitic opinions, his deep suspicions about government and his willingness to carry grudges against the establishment were as lethal to his political career as the financial charges. Having campaigned for more than two decades as an outsider, he did not alter his perspective upon his arrival in the governor’s office.

"In a self-published 1988 book, ‘Impeachment: The Arizona Conspiracy,’ Mr. Mecham said the real reason he was impeached was ‘pure and simple raw political power exercised by those groups who wanted to remain in control."…

"Shortly after taking office in 1987, Mr. Mecham rescinded the state holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., which enraged state workers, prompted public protests and caused organizers of national conventions to steer clear of the state. Mr. Mecham, who said the holiday was implemented illegally and required a public vote, poured fuel on the controversy by opining that King ‘didn’t deserve’ the holiday. …

"Working women cause divorce, he said. When a group began circulating recall petitions, Mr. Mecham said the effort stood little chance of success because its leaders were ‘a band of homosexuals and a few dissident Democrats.’ He said a group of visiting Japanese businessmen’s ‘eyes got round’ when they heard about Arizona’s plentiful golf courses.

"Within 18 months of his election, Mr. Mecham faced an unprecedented trifecta of a recall petition, six felony indictments by a grand jury and impeachment proceedings. The recall election was never held, because after the state House impeached him, the state Senate convicted him and removed him from office in April 1988.

Mr. Mecham turned back to his auto dealership and attempted to start a newspaper, but it failed before a single edition was published. He ran again for governor in 1990 – his sixth and last time – but lost. In 1992, he launched an unsuccessful campaign for a U.S. Senate seat.

"Born May 12, 1924, in Duchesne, Utah, Mr. Mecham enlisted in the Army Air Forces during World War II and flew combat missions in P-38 and P-51 fighters. He was shot down over Germany just before the war ended and spent 22 days as a prisoner of war.

"Mr. Mecham returned to Utah, married and attended Utah State University, Creighton University and Arizona State University. He began selling cars and bought a franchise in the desert town of Ajo, near the Mexican border. He bought a Glendale, Ariz., auto franchise in 1954 and soon began a political career, winning a state Senate term in 1960.

"Survivors include his wife, Florence Lambert Mecham of Phoenix, and seven children."

Human Events (2/4/08) does a good job of delineating the Top 10 Big-Government Requests in President Bush’s State of the Union:

In 1992, when I was the U.S. Taxpayers Party nominee for President of the United States, on a campaign stop in Hollywood, I was warmly greeted and hosted by Johnny Grant, the Honorary Mayor of Hollywood who died recently at the age of 84.

Here is what The New York Times I1/11/08, p. B7) had to say about Mr. Grant:

"Johnny Grant, the avuncular honorary mayor of Hollywood who traveled the world as its No. 1 cheerleader for more than a half-century, was found dead Wednesday in bed in his suite in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. He was 84. …

"Named honorary mayor in 1980 by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Grant held the position for the rest of his life. He was perhaps best known as the jolly host alongside the more than 500 celebrities he inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with stars in the sidewalk.

"Mr. Grant’s mission in life was bringing the Hollywood story to everyone. He played host to red carpet arrivals at the Oscars, appeared in bit parts in movies and produced the annual Hollywood Christmas Parade.

" ‘I feel I have been the luckiest guy in the world,’ he often said. ‘It’s been a pretty good ride.’

"Mr. Grant also joined the globetrotting comedian Bob Hope as a U.S.O. ambassador, taking entertainers to war zones to perform for military personnel. Hope once called himself ‘the rich man’s Johnny Grant.’

"Born in Goldsboro, N.C., Mr. Grant was a cub reporter for radio station WGBR when he hitchhiked to Washington to cover Franklin D. Roosevelt’s third inauguration. He joined the Army in 1943, then moved to Hollywood after his discharge, landing a small role as a reporter in ‘The Babe Ruth Story’ (1948).

"Mr. Grant also had a part in ‘White Christmas’ (1954) with Bing Crosby, and he played himself in ‘The Oscar’ (1966). He did Lucky Strike cigarette commercials and celebrity interviews on the radio in the 1940s and ‘50s."

Even The New York Times (2/10/08, p. 14) is now prepared to admit that there is such a thing as a NAFTA Superhighway, although they use less threatening characterization: the Trans-Texas Corridor.

In a February 10 (p. 14) article, Ralph Blumenthal reported for Times readers,

"[T]exans have gotten the message, swamping hearings and town meetings across the state to grill and often excoriate agency officials about a colossal traffic makeover known as the Trans-Texas Corridor, a public-private partnership unrivaled in the state’s – or probably any state’s – history, that would stretch well into the century and, if completed in full, end up costing around $200 billion. …

"The plan envisions a 4,000-mile network of new toll roads, with car and truck lanes, rail lines, and pipeline and utilities zones, to bypass congested cities and speed freight to and from Mexico. …

"At particular issue in South Texas is a stretch of federal Highways 77 and 59 designated part of a proposed new segment of the federal highway system, I-69. But what was to have been a new interstate long sought by some businessmen and local officials is now listed as TTC-69, or part of the Trans-Texas Corridor. …

"The corridor project grew out of the 2002 governor’s race when Rick Perry, the former Republican lieutenant governor who had completed George W. Bush’s unfinished term, surprised transportation experts by taking ideas they had discussed a decade earlier, to little interest, and ‘supersizing them,’ as one recalled.

"The project grew to consist of four ‘priority segments:’ new multimodal toll roads up to 1,200 feet wide paralleling Interstates 35 and 37 from Denison in North Texas to the Rio Grande Valley; a proposed I-69 from Texarkana to Houston and Laredo; I-45 from Dallas-Fort Worth to Houston; and I-10 from El Paso to Orange on the Louisiana border. But the exact routes are years away from being designated.

"With construction, land acquisition and other expenses, the cost was estimated in 2002 at up to $183.5 billion, all of it to be put up by private investors, state officials say. No existing roads would gain tolls.

"The first planning contract, for a segment paralleling I-35, was awarded in 2004 to a partnership of Cintra, a publicly traded transportation giant based in Madrid, and the Zachary Construction Corporation of San Antonio. But lawmakers, concerned over the public outcry, put the brakes on additional contacts until next year.

"Legislators also asked transportation officials last week to explain why they were complaining of budget shortfalls while failing to use $9 billion in voter-approved bonding authority.

"Now that 12 town meetings have concluded and the agency this month began the first of 46 public hearings to run through next month, Mr. Saenz said, ‘We have now gotten to first base.’"

"Earl L. Butz, 98, an outspoken U.S. agriculture secretary who was forced from office in 1976 for making a racist joke, died Feb. 2 at his son’s home in Washington. No cause of death was reported.

"Dr. Butz, a free-market advocate, had a relaxed and earthy style that won him acclaim as an after-dinner speaker but caused problems in his public life. …

"He was forced to resign in October 1976 after telling an obscene joke derogatory to African Americans."

"The slur was overheard by John Dean, the former counsel to Nixon who was jailed in the Watergate scandal, and Dean’s report on it was published in Rolling Stone magazine. …

"Earl Lauer Butz was born July 3, 1909, in Albion, Ind., and raised on a 160-acre livestock farm. He attended Purdue University on a 4-H scholarship, graduating in 1932 with a degree in agriculture.

"He worked for year on his family’s farm in Albion before returning to Purdue and then becoming a research fellow with the Federal Land Bank in Louisville. He received a doctorate in agricultural economics from Purdue in 1937.

"He was assistant secretary of agriculture in the Eisenhower administration from 1954 to 1957. He then returned to Purdue and was dean of the agriculture school for the next 10 years."

"Dr. Butz maintained that farmers should rely on a free market driven by exports and not federal subsidies. …

" ‘He delivered real hope and opportunities for farmers to see their business prosper,’ said former agriculture secretary John Block, who served under President Ronald Reagan. ‘He sold grain to the Soviet Union and said they would pay cash on the barrelhead, and they did. The rising tide lifted all boats. It boosted all prices. Agriculture had been struggling.’

"Dr. Butz’s wife, Mary, whom he married in 1937, died in 1995. Survivors include two sons." Source: The Washington Post, 2/4/08, p. B6

The New York Times (2/4/08, p. A25) observed that "Serving under President Richard M. Nixon and his successor, Gerald R. Ford, Mr. Butz was a forceful, sharp-tongued figure who promoted legislation sharply reducing federal subsidies for farmers. He was the best known secretary of agriculture since Henry A. Wallace in the Depression days, when the federal government began to pay farmers to keep some of their cropland and livestock out of production in the face of plunging income.

"Mr. Butz maintained that a free-market policy, encouraging farmers to produce more and to sell their surplus overseas, could bring them higher prices. …

"Mr. Butz said he reflected rural values learned as an Indiana farm boy, and he gave no ground to critics. When environmentalists warned against pesticides and fertilizers, he retorted, ‘Before we go back to organic agriculture somebody is going to have to decide what 50 million people we are going to let starve.’

"Speaking before members of a farm credit association in Champaign, Ill., in 1973, he said that if housewives did not have ‘such a low level of economic intelligence,’ they would understand that the price of everything had gone up and that ‘you can’t get more by paying less.’ …

"He was a man with a penchant for barnyard humor who delighted in showing visitors a wood carving of two elephants mating that kept in a cabinet behind his desk, a gift from a friend in Indiana symbolizing his quest to multiply farm votes for the Republicans. …

"On a plane trip after the Republican National Convention that August, accompanied by, among others, the entertainer Pat Boone and John W. Dean III, the former White House counsel, Mr. Butz made a remark in which he described blacks as ‘coloreds’ who wanted only three things – satisfying sex, loose shoes and a warm bathroom – desires that Mr. Butz listed in obscene and scatological terms.

"Mr. Dean reported the remark, in an article he wrote in Rolling Stone magazine, attributing it to a cabinet official whom he did not identify, but New Times magazine subsequently cited Mr. Butz as the source. Prominent figures from both parties called on Mr. Butz to quit, and Mr. Ford gave him a ‘severe reprimand’ for ‘highly offensive’ remarks. Mr. Butz resigned within days, saying that ‘the use of a bad racial commentary in no way reflects my real attitude.’

"Earl Lauer Butz was born on a farm near Albion, Ind., on July 3, 1909, and grew up guiding horse-drawn plows. He graduated from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., in 1932. Five years later, he received Purdue’s first doctorate in agricultural economics. He was head of Purdue’s agricultural economics department from 1946 to 1954.

"During the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, he served for three years as an assistant secretary of agriculture under Ezra Taft Benson. Returning to Purdue, he became dean of agriculture, and he unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor of Indian in 1968. He spoke frequently to businessmen and bankers and served on the boards of large agricultural corporations. …

" ‘Butz’s power as secretary of agriculture seemed overwhelming,’ Joel Solkoff wrote in ‘The Politics of Food’ (Sierra Club Books, 1985). ‘He made one decision – to sell the Russians massive quantities of grain – that virtually overnight transformed the basic problem of U.S. agricultural policy from what to do with the surplus to how to make up for the shortage.’ …

"Mr. Butz donated $1 million in 1999 to the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue. The university dedicated the Butz Auditorium lecture hall in October 2004 to recognize his long service to Purdue, but it was renamed Deans of Agriculture Auditorium the following year after some students objected, citing his remarks during the 1976 presidential campaign.

"In the mid-90s, Mr. Butz still maintained an office at Purdue."

"Richard G. Darman, 64, a shrewd tactician, a tough and savvy infighter, and a Republican technocrat who mastered the complex political machinery of government while serving four presidents, died Jan. 25 of leukemia at Georgetown University Hospital in the District.

"As budget director during the first Bush administration, Mr. Darman was a principal figure in persuading the president to renounce his no-new-taxes pledge. Many Republicans never forgave him."

Do you remember George McGovern? I do.

As a candidate for President in 1972, he urged that every American citizen be given $1,000.

George W. Bush is the new McGovern. He wants to give less money to those who paid more taxes and more money to those who have paid less in taxes.

In addition to being unconstitutional, the Bush stimulus scheme is outrageously stupid.

Here follows a list of those members of the U.S. House of Representatives who, for various reasons, opposed the stimulus package:

Brian Baird (D-WA), Marion Berry (D-AR), F. Allen Boyd (D-FL), Paul Broun (R-GA), Michael Burgess (R-TX), John Campbell (R-CA), Howard Coble (R-NC), Jim Cooper (D-TN), Barbara Cubin (R-At Large-WY), Tom Davis (R-VA), Nathan Deal (R-GA), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Randy Forbes (R-VA), Phil Gingrey (R-GA), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Virgil Goode (R-VA), Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Timothy Johnson (R-IL), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Jack Kingston (R-GA), John Linder (R-GA), Ron Paul (R-TX), Collin Peterson (D-MN), Ted Poe (R-TX), Tom Price (R-GA), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Ed Royce (R-CA), Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), John Shadegg (R-AZ), Adam Smith (D-WA), Tom Tancredo (R-CO), Gene Taylor (D-MS), Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), and Robert Wexler (D-FL).

In an important January 23 article on WorldNetDaily.com, Dr. Walter Williams makes these comments:

"A subprime lender is one who makes loans to borrowers who do not qualify for loans from mainstream lenders. It's a market that has evolved to permit borrowers with poor credit history and an unstable financial situation the opportunity to get home mortgages. The catch is they pay a higher and typically an adjustable rate mortgage. Encouraged by the housing bubble, easy credit, along with the expectation that housing prices would continue to appreciate, many subprime borrowers took out mortgages they could not afford in the long run, particularly if interest rates rose and housing prices depreciated.

"As with most economic problems, we find the hand of government. The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, whose provisions were strengthened during the Clinton administration, is a federal law that mandates lenders to offer credit throughout their entire market and discourages them from restricting their credit services to high-income markets, a practice known as redlining. In other words, the Community Reinvestment Act encourages banks and thrifts to make loans to riskier customers.

"According to an article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Nov. 4, 2007, titled "Black Atlantans often snared by subprime loans," by Carrie Teegardin, a national study of credit scores, not just mortgage loan applicants, found that 52 percent of blacks have credit scores that would classify them as subprime borrowers compared with 16 percent of whites.

"President Bush's plan to deal with the subprime crisis is to freeze interest rates on adjustable rate mortgages. Freezing interest rates would stop people's mortgage payments from increasing."

The IRET Congressional Advisory No. 236 (January 28, 2008) reported concerning the proposed "stimulus":

"The House tax plan would include a tax rebate (up to $600 for single filers, $1,200 for joint filers) and a child credit ($300 per child) to encourage consumption spending by individuals, and two expensing provisions to encourage investment by businesses. The revenue estimate is about $150 billion.

"[T]hey should not work in theory, because they do nothing to reward additional production. They are merely handouts. The expensing incentive in the stimulus package could induce the manufacture of more capital goods in 2008. However, because it is temporary, it would not increase the desired capital stock over time, and would ‘borrow’ investment spending form 2009. …

"Every tax cut or spending increase has to be paid for, either with other tax increases or by additional federal borrowing. The Treasury does not kite checks.

"In the mid-1960’s, monetarist economist Milton Friedman asked, ‘If the government is spending $500 billion, and cuts taxes to $450 billion, where does the $50 billion tax cut come from, the tooth fairy?’ Friedman then explained that the government has to issue additional debt to cover the deficit. If it sells the bonds to the public, it is borrowing the tax cut right back, leaving the public with no additional money to spend, and, hence no boost to ‘disposable income’ or aggregate demand. The process plays musical chairs with the money, and does nothing to boost economic activity. (The same analysis also debunks the idea of a stimulus from higher federal spending, which must be covered by raising taxes or borrowing.)

"Alternatively, the Federal Reserve might step in to buy the added government debt, which it does by creating new money. That would add to aggregate demand, but the rise would be due to the change in the money supply, i.e., to monetary policy, not to the fiscal stimulus per se. The Fed can add to the money supply without any fiscal action by the Congress, or it can stick to its desired rate of money creation regardless of the fiscal stimulus."

Every now and then someone finds wisdom in The New York Times Book Review Magazine (1/27/08, p.13).

Although Chris Suellentrop’s review of Pat Buchanan’s latest book is not entirely favorable, he got it right when he said the following:

"For the first time since Bill Clinton’s initial term in office, Patrick J. Buchanan seems as if he could plausibly compete for the Republican presidential nomination. In Iowa and elsewhere, an economic populist and Christian conservative has threatened to topple the party establishment’s preferred nominees. Online, in what is sometimes called the ‘money primary,’ a foreign policy noninterventionist is breaking fund-raising records. And in the national popularity contest, if those two men (Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul) could have been combined – in a dubious but nonetheless irresistible exercise – to form a single Buchananite candidate, that person would have acquired a front-running 25 percent of the vote in a recent New York Times/CBS News poll.

"Of course – and many people are surely grateful for this – Buchanan is not running for president, and certainly not for the Republican nomination. He just seems as if he were in his new book, ‘Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed Are Tearing America Apart.’ …

"[I]f the book’s second, third and fourth chapters were distributed in isolation (no pun intended) to Democratic primary voters, Buchanan might find himself with a surprising chunk of support. Most Republicans, as Ron Paul has discovered, do not warm to statements like this: ‘The "cataclysmic terrorism" of 9/11 was an unpardonable atrocity. But it was not unpredictable. For terrorism is the price of empire. They were over here because we were over there.’ "

"Lawrence Eagleburger, George P. Shultz…Robert Mosbacher, Alexander M. Haig Jr., Margaret Tutwiler…Dan Coats — the list is weighty with stalwarts from another political era. The Reagan era, that is.

"There are 93 self-proclaimed ‘Reagan alumni’ who worked for the former president and who now insist that Sen. John McCain of Arizona has compelling Gipper-esque qualities and is the sole candidate who could unite a fractious Republican Party. …

"The Reagan touch may help Republican visibility, though.

"Republican candidates are having a recognition problem, according to a survey of 1,005 adults released yesterday by the Pew Research Center. Two-thirds of the respondents name a Democrat ‘as the candidate they have heard the most about,’ the survey found. Just 19 percent named a Republican.

"The support from Mr. Reagan's loyalists has been mounting for months, said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers.

" ‘John McCain was once a foot soldier in the Reagan revolution,’ Mr. Rogers said. ‘And that list is pretty impressive.’

"Mr. McCain, campaigning in South Carolina yesterday, is pleased.

" ‘President Reagan stands out in history as a leader who recognized America's potential and had a vision for her future. I knew President Reagan well, and respected and admired his unwavering leadership in the face of grave challenges,’ he said. ‘I am grateful to have the support of so many friends and colleagues who have all worked to build and maintain President Reagan's legacy.’"

Grant Aldonas, Stanton D. Anderson, Richard V. Allen, Mary Jo Arndt, William L. Ball III, Ralph Benko, Charles R. Black Jr., Judy A. Black, Dr. Otis R. Bowen, Ellen Bradley, James H. Burnley IV, Gahl Hodges Burt, Richard Burt, Mark Buse, Frank Cannon, David Chew, Nancy Christy, James W. Cicconi, Former Sen. Daniel R. Coats, Charles E. Cobb Jr., Carol Crawford, Ron Crawford, Tim Crawford, Dan L. Crippen, Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., Richard H. Davis, Mimi Dawson, Rhett Dawson, Stephen I. Danzansky, Frank J. Donatelli, R. Rebecca Donatelli, Lawrence S. Eagleburger, Marlin Fitzwater, Melinda A. Fitzwater, Alison B. Fortier, H.P. Goldfield, Mark Holman, Janet Mullins Grissom, Alexander M. Haig Jr., Janet Hale, Bryce L. Harlow, Robert Heckman, Warren K. Hendriks Jr., Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., Former Gov. Frank Keating, Retired Gen. P.X. Kelley, Nancy Kennedy, Bobbie Kilberg, William J. Kilberg, Ann Korologos, Carole Kuhn, Jim Kuhn, Christian Josi, Chris Lehman, John F. Lehman Jr., James Lake, Thomas G. Loeffler, Peter Madigan, Fred Malek, Robert C. McFarlane, Robert A. Mosbacher Sr., Timothy J. Muris, J. Bonnie Newman, Trevor Potter, Anthony J. Principi, William Bradford Reynolds, James Roberts, Patricia O'Connor Roberts, Peter Rodman, John Rogers, Sig Rogich, Nancy Risque Rohrbach, Gen. Edward L. Rowny, Mark Salter, George Sawyer, Craig Shirley, Zorine Shirley, George P. Shultz, Pamela Stevens, William F. Sittman, Bernie Streeter, Orson G. Swindle III, Lance Tarrance, Mike Thompson, Carol Townsend, Pamela J. Turner, Margaret Tutwiler, Peter Wallison, John Whitehead, Lanny Wiles, Joseph Wright, Chuck Yob, Al Zapanta,

Carl Karcher Was an American Business Hero

As reported in The New York Times (1/13/08) Carl Karcher has died. Mr. Karcher was at one time a generous contributor to the work of The Conservative Caucus.

"Carl N. Karcher, who parlayed a $325 investment in a hot dog cart into one of the largest hamburger chains in the western United States, died [January 11, 2008]. He was 90. …

"Mr. Karcher, a deeply religious father of 12, was famous in the fast-food industry for his rags-to-riches story – a tale that was tainted in later years by an insider trading scandal and feud with his board that led to his eventual demise as chief executive. …

"He opened the first Carl’s Jr. – named ‘Jr.’ to distinguish it from his full-service eatery – in 1956.

" ‘With the help and support of my wife and children, my faith in God, my good health, my belief in the free enterprise system, and my willingness to work hard, there was no way I could have failed,’ he wrote in his 1991 autobiography. ‘Never Stop Dreaming.’ …

"In 1989, Mr. Karcher and his family agreed to a $664,000 settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission after the agency accused Mr. Karcher of having told six family members to sell stock ahead of an announcement that company profit would plummet by 50 percent.

"In 1993, after increasingly bitter feuds with his board and crippling personal financial losses, Mr. Karcher, then 76, was ousted as the company’s chief executive. …

"Mr. Karcher is survived by 11 children, 51 grandchildren and 39 great-grandchildren."

One of the most faithful friends of the work performed by The Conservative Caucus and The Conservative Caucus Foundation of which he had served as a Trustee was Jesse Grier who died on Christmas Day at the age of 85.

Jesse attended Haverford College and played football for the college. He was a Naval officer in the Pacific theatre, a chemical engineer widely regarded as a genius, worked for Total in Calvert City, Kentucky.

Jesse was active with Take Back Kentucky, the Constitution Party, and as a supporter of Hillsdale College.

He loved the game of golf and was a member of the Calvert City Country Club. He was also a jazz aficionado.

Jesse was a dear and generous friend who will be much missed.