Via Peter
Invited Speakers
Rep. Ron Paul, is an American medical doctor and Republican U.S. Congressman for the 14th congressional district of Texas. Paul serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Joint Economic Committee, and the Committee on Financial Services, and is Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy, where he has been an outspoken critic of current American foreign and monetary policy.
Paul served as a flight surgeon in the United States Air Force from 1963 until 1968, during the Vietnam War. He worked as an obstetrician and gynecologist in the 1960s and 1970s, delivering more than 4,000 babies, before entering politics in 1976.
Paul is the founder of the advocacy group Campaign for Liberty and his ideas have been expressed in numerous published articles and books, including Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom (2011), End The Fed (2009), The Revolution: A Manifesto (2008), Pillars of Prosperity (2008), A Foreign Policy of Freedom: Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship (2007), and The Case for Gold (1982).
Paul has been called the "intellectual godfather" of the Tea Party movement. According to University of Georgia political scientist Keith Poole, Paul had the most conservative voting record of any member of Congress since 1937. His son Rand Paul was elected to the United States Senate for Kentucky in 2011, making the elder Paul the first Representative in history to serve concurrently with his son (or daughter) in the Senate.
Sen. Rand Paul is the junior United States Senator for Kentucky. He is a member of the Republican Party and aligns himself with the Tea Party movement. He is the son of Republican Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul of Texas. Rand Paul is the first United States Senator in history to serve alongside a parent in the U.S. House of Representatives.
As founder and chairman of the anti-tax organization Kentucky Taxpayers United (KTU) since 1994, Paul regularly presents "taxpayers' friend" awards to state legislators. KTU sponsors the Taxpayer's Pledge of Americans for Tax Reform, encouraging politicians to pledge publicly to vote uniformly against tax raises.
Paul has been a practicing ophthalmologist in Bowling Green, Kentucky, since 1993, and established his own clinic in December 2007. As a member of the Bowling Green Noon Lions Club, Paul founded the Southern Kentucky Lions Eye Clinic to help provide eye surgery and exams for those who cannot afford to pay. In 1999 Paul founded the Non-profit organization National Board of Ophthalmology (NBO).
Paul has authored a book entitled The Tea Party Goes to Washington, released on February 22, 2011, which defends the Tea Party movement.
Doug Wead is a presidential historian, philanthropist and public speaker. He was Special Assistant to U.S. President George H. W. Bush, and is the author of more than thirty books that have collectively sold over 29 million copies, including the New York Times best-seller All the Presidents’ Children: Triumph and Tragedy in the Lives of the First Families. He has authored a sequel which examines the parenting of presidents of the United States, The Raising of a President: The Mothers and Fathers of Our Nation's Leaders.
In 1979, Doug Wead joined entertainer Pat Boone and Dan O’Neill in co-founding Mercy Corps and in the 1980s, he organized the Annual Charity Awards, now under the name International Charity Association. In 1979, Wead gave a speech titled “The Compassionate Conservative” at the annual Charity Awards Dinner, and tapes of the speech were later sold across the country at corporate seminars.
From 1984 to 2000, he served as an on-and-off adviser to both presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.
In March 2008, Wead helped create the website Religious Freedom In America, focusing on government threats to religious observance. He currently serves as president of Canyonville Christian Academy, a private boarding high school in southern Oregon.
Wead continues to speak around the world. He has spoken to audiences in 30 countries, including Russia, Poland, Hungary, France, Germany, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Brazil and across the United States.
Dudley W. Brown is a pro-gun lobbyist, as well as the founder and executive director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners based in Denver, Colorado. Brown's organization bills itself as a "no-compromise" pro-gun Second Amendment group. Dudley Brown is also the executive director of the National Association for Gun Rights, a group that serves as an umbrella coordinator for various state-level pro-gun organizations.
Brown is a 1989 graduate of Colorado State University, and founded the CSU College Republicans. After Brown’s 1989 graduation, he served as Northern Colorado Director for U.S. Senator Bill Armstrong. In 1990, when Armstrong retired, Brown became the Media Director for the Colorado House of Representatives
Brown currently resides in Northern Colorado. Brown is a weapons instructor and avid shooter, as well as a leader in Colorado's conservative movement.
In 1993, Brown became Legislative Director of the Firearms Coalition of Colorado and contract lobbyist for the Colorado State Shooting Association (the NRA state affiliate). In 1996 Brown founded Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, a no-compromise gun rights lobby concentrating on Colorado, which operates independently of other gun rights organizations. He is the only professional lobbyist to endure the 9-year battle for a "shall issue" concealed carry law in Colorado.
Dudley Brown's lobbying activities have focused on influencing the Colorado Legislature, both in opposing new gun legislation such as that proposed in the wake of the Columbine High School massacre, and supporting specific legislation to relax concealed carry regulations. Brown often criticizes the National Rifle Association as being soft on gun control.
Brown is well known for involving his organization in bitter Republican primary elections at the state and local levels.
Philip Giraldi is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer who served 19 years overseas in Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Spain. He was Chief of Base in Barcelona from 1989 to 1992, was designated as senior Agency officer for support at the Olympic Games, and served as official liaison to the Spanish Security and Intelligence services. He has been designated by the General Accountability Office as an expert on the impact of illegal immigration on terrorism.
Giraldi is now the Francis Walsinham Fellow at The American Conservative Defense Alliance and provides security consulting for a number of Fortune 500 corporate clients. As a counter-terrorism expert, he has assisted multinational corporation in the upgrad of their secufity at overseas sites to help them comply with the Patriot Act. He was one of the first American civilians to travel to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, was brought in for consultation by the Port Authority of the City of New York in its planning, has assisted the United Nations security organization, and has helped develop a security training program for the United States Merchant Marine.
He has written op-ed pieces for the Hearst Newspaper chain, is a columnist for AntiWar.com, and a contributing editor to American Conservative magazine. His media appearances include Good Morning America, MSNBC, NPR, BBC, FOX News, Polish National Television, al-Jazeera, and 60 Minutes. Phil was awarded an MA and PhD from the University of London in European History, and speaks Spanish, Italian, German, and Turkish.
Dr. Yuri Maltsev is a college professor, author and world-renowned speaker. Professor of Economics in Wisconsin, and has held various government and research positions in Moscow, Russia.
Before defecting to the U.S. in 1989, he was a member of a senior economics team that worked on President Gorbachev's reforms package of perestroika.
Before settling in the Midwest, he was a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, a federal research agency. His work involved briefing members of Congress and senior officials at the executive branch on issues of national security and foreign economic and military assessment.
Dr. Maltsev may be the only person to have briefed senior leaders on both sides during the last stages of the Cold War. He also testified before the U.S. Congress and appeared on CNN, PBS NewsHour, C-Span, CBC and other American, Canadian, Spanish, and Finnish television and radio programs. He has authored five books and over a hundred articles.
Dr. Maltsev has built a reputation for accurately identifying the right economic trends and political developments. His unique and broad experiences establish him as a primary source of information on the opportunities and risks created by the demise of the Soviet Union.
Thomas E. "Tom" Woods, Jr. is an American historian, economist, political analyst, and New York Times-bestselling author. He has written extensively on the subjects of American economic history, contemporary politics, and economic theory. Woods is considered a libertarian and is a proponent of the Austrian school of economics.
He is the author of eleven books, most recently Rollback: Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse and Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century. His other books include the New York Times bestsellers Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse and The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, as well as Who Killed the Constitution? The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush (with Kevin R.C. Gutzman), Sacred Then and Sacred Now: The Return of the Old Latin Mass, 33 Questions About American History You’re Not Supposed to Ask, How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, and The Church and the Market: A Catholic Defense of the Free Economy. His critically acclaimed 2004 book The Church Confronts Modernity was recently released in paperback by Columbia University Press. Woods’ books have been translated into Italian, Spanish, Polish, French, German, Czech, Portuguese, Croatian, Slovak, Russian, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese.
Woods is a convert to the Roman Catholic Church. He was associate editor of The Latin Mass Magazine, which advocates traditional Catholicism, for eleven years. As a traditional Catholic, he advocates the Extraordinary Form of the Mass and cultural conservatism. His 2005 book, How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, was the basis for The Catholic Church: Builder of Civilization, a thirteen-episode television series which aired on EWTN in 2008. The series examined the Church's influence on law, morality, science, and scholarship.
Thomas DiLorenzo is an American economics professor at Loyola University Maryland. He is an adherent of the Austrian School of Economics. He is a senior faculty member of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and an associated scholar of the Abbeville Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Virginia Tech.
DiLorenzo has devoted much effort to scholarly historical revisionism, focusing on what has been called "the Lincoln Cult” as a political and historical phenomenon. In the same vein, he has spoken out in favor of the secession of the Confederate States of America, defending the right of these states to secede in a view similar to that of abolitionist Lysander Spooner. He has also criticized the crediting of the New Deal for ending the Great Depression.
DiLorenzo lectures widely, and is a frequent speaker at Mises Institute events.
DiLorenzo has authored at least ten books, including:
- Hamilton's Curse: How Jefferson's Arch Enemy Betrayed the American Revolution – and What It Means for Americans Today (2008)
- Lincoln Unmasked: What You're Not Supposed To Know about Dishonest Abe (2006)
- How Capitalism Saved America: The Untold History of Our Country, From the Pilgrims to the Present (2004)
- The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War (2003)
- From Pathology to Politics: Public Health in America (2000)
- The Food and Drink Police: America's Nannies, Busybodies, and Petty Tyrants (1998)
- CancerScam: The Diversion of Federal Cancer Funds for Politics (1997)
Bruce Fein is a graduate of Harvard Law School. As a lawyer in the United States , he specializes in constitutional and international law. Fein has written numerous articles on constitutional issues for The Washington Times, Slate.com, The New York Times, Legal Times, and is active on the issues of civil liberties. He has also worked for the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation, both conservative think tanks, as an analyst and commentator.
Fein was a top Justice Department official under the Reagan administration. Under President Ronald Reagan, Fein served as an associate deputy attorney general from 1981 to 1982 and as general counsel to the Federal Communications Commission. In 1987, he served as the minority (minority party) research director of the committee in the United States House of Representatives that investigated the Iran-Contra Affair. He recently served on the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Presidential signing statements.
In March 2007, he founded the American Freedom Agenda with Bob Barr, David Keene and Richard Viguerie. Notable published writings by Fein include articles advocating the impeachment of former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and former U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney.
He is frequently quoted in The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, and other major national publications. He has been featured on the cover of the American Bar Association Journal, the legal profession’s most prestigious publication. He is a regular guest at the BBC, C-SPAN, CNN, Reuters, MSNBC, and NPR. He is invited to testify regularly before Congress and administrative agencies by both Democrats and Republicans.
He has authored several volumes on the United States Supreme Court, the United States Constitution, and international law. He has assisted three dozen countries in constitutional revision, including Russia, Spain, South Africa, Iraq, Cyprus, and Mozambique, and consulted foreign nations on matters ranging from telecommunications and cable regulation to sugar quotas, oil and gas pipelines, immigration, election laws, and human rights.
Lew Rockwell is an American libertarian political commentator, activist, proponent of the Austrian School of economics, and chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
Rockwell served as Ron Paul's congressional chief of staff from 1978 to 1982. He has maintained a working relationship with Paul over the years.
In 1982, Rockwell founded the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama and was its president until the summer of 2009, when he transitioned to the position of Chairman of the Board. He also is Vice President of the Center for Libertarian Studies in Burlingame, California and publisher of the political weblog LewRockwell.com.
The Mises Institute published Rockwell's Speaking of Liberty, an anthology of editorials which were originally published on his website, along with transcripts from some of his speaking engagements. Rockwell and the Ludwig von Mises Institute together publish the Journal of Libertarian Studies.
Tom Mullen is a writer, musician, and business consultant. Tom is originally a native of Buffalo, NY and graduate of Canisius College. He earned a Master’s Degree in English from State University of New York College at Buffalo. He now resides with his family in Tampa, FL.
In January 2009, he published his first book, A Return to Common Sense: Reawakening Liberty in the Inhabitants of America. Tom was the opening speaker at the Revolution March in Washington, D.C. in 2008 (keynote speaker Ron Paul). He has been a featured speaker at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum, Campaign for Liberty, Florida Liberty Summit, and numerous campus and community-based organizations.
Tom has made appearances on Freedom Watch with Judge Andrew Napolitano on Fox News and RT’s Adam vs. the Man. Tom’s writing has been featured on some of the most popular libertarian websites in the world, including LewRockwell.com, 321Gold! and Campaign for Liberty.
During the 1990’s, Tom was lead singer, guitarist, and principle songwriter for The Skeptics, an alternative powerpop band that played for audiences all over the U.S., including opening shows for national acts including 10,000 Maniacs. Tom has appeared twice on A.M. Buffalo with The Skeptics, and was also featured on Buffalo’s local music television broadcast, Nickel City Scene.
In 2007, Tom released his first solo CD, A Glimpse of the Ether, containing 13 original compositions. Tom’s style has been described as “Powerpop with a hint of modern rock.”
Sheriff Richard Mack is an author, speaker, a graduate of the FBI National Academy, and former sheriff who served two terms until 1997. He was named Elected Official of the Year by the Arizona-New Mexico Coalition of Counties in 1994, received the NRA Law Officer of the Year, inducted into the NRA Hall of Fame, 1995 Cicero Award, Samuel Adams Leadership Award from the Local Sovereignty Coalition, and Gun Owners of America Defender of the Second Amendment Award.
During his tenure, federal officers informed the sheriffs of the state that they would be required to enforce the so-called "Brady Bill" and run background checks at their expense under the law. In 1994, Mack and six other sheriffs from across the country, challenged the constitutionality of the Brady Bill and ultimately, fought it all the way to the United States Supreme Court, where they won a monumental decision for freedom.
Three years later, in a landmark 5-4 split decision based on the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Mack won his case.
Mack has been a consultant on numerous cases regarding police abuse, brutality, and other misconduct by public officials. He has joined with other members of the law enforcement community to speak out in favor of drug policy reform. During the past two years Sheriff Mack has been a speaker at more than 70 different Tea Party rallies all across the country, ranging all the way from Honolulu to Bangor, Maine. Mack has supported this noble movement, because it is both effective and peaceful.
Sen. Carey Baker was 18 years old when he joined the family business, the A.W. Peterson Gun Shop. The A.W. Peterson Gun Shop is the oldest gun shop in the United States, and has been owned and operated by the Baker family for over 50 years.
In addition to joining the family business at 18, Baker also joined the Army National Guard. He is still an active member, having served over 28 years and having attained the rank of First Sergeant. In 2003, while a Member of the Florida House of Representatives, Baker was deployed to combat missions in Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was the first state or federal elected official to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom while in office. His colleagues tied a yellow ribbon around Baker’s chair which remained in place until his safe return.
Carey Baker successfully ran for the Florida House of Representatives in 2000 and was reelected in 2002. In 2004, Baker won a special election for the 20th district seat in the Florida Senate. He was re-elected to full terms in 2006 and 2008.
Senator Baker was the Senate Sponsor of the Florida Health Care Freedom Act (which will be on the 2012 ballot as a possible constitutional amendment), the Florida Firearms Freedom Act and the 10th Amendment Resolution. These bills are Senator Baker’s response to encroaching federal influence in state policy
In November 2008, Senator Baker announced his candidacy for Florida’s Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services. However, citing a lack of funds, he dropped out in February 2010 and decided not to run for his current seat again.
Baker is currently a consultant and confidant to Senate President Mike Haridopolis.
Rep. Scott Plakon is a Longwood, Florida CEO and publisher. He is a Republican politician who serves as the representative for District 37 of the House of Representatives of the State of Florida. He was first elected to the Florida House in 2008. He was re-elected in 2010 without any opposition.
Representative Plakon was the House Sponsor of the Florida Health Care Freedom Act (which will be on the 2012 ballot as a possible constitutional amendment), the Florida Firearms Freedom Act and the 10th Amendment Resolution. These bills are Representative Plakon's response to encroaching federal influence in state policy.
Scott Plakon is a dedicated husband and father as well as a well regarded local businessman. After his first foray into publishing, he joined a local firm and had a successful career in the securities industry. He later served as chief operating officer at another publishing company and in early 1996, after only 3 years, that Central Florida Company started to trade on the NASDAQ National Stock Market.
Scott Plakon believes that we all have a responsibility to give of our gifts, talents and resources to help others that may be in need. Scott serves as the Vice Chairman of the Sanford Rescue Outreach Mission and the Open Door Shelter for Women and Children, one of the few places of refuge for the homeless and hungry in Seminole County.
Scott also serves as a founding board member of the Safe Harbor Pregnancy Center, which counsels pregnant women and helps those who have chosen to give birth to their babies be prepared for their new lives as mothers.
Sen. Greg Evers is a farmer and a small businessman from Northwest Florida who currently serves Florida Senate District 2. He was elected to the Florida Senate in 2010. Greg was previously elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2001 to represent Florida House District 1 and was subsequently re-elected.
As a Representative, Greg has put his experience in agriculture and business to good use in the Florida Legislature and is proud of his legislative accomplishments on behalf of Florida's critical agriculture industry, economic development, job creation and Second Amendment issues.
Evers has sponsored and passed legislation enabling Florida farmers to transport their farm equipment from field to field without the burden of additional government permits or fees; legislation creating tax incentives that enabled the Jay Oil Field to reopen, restoring numerous Northwest Florida jobs; and legislation protecting the right of law-abiding citizens in Florida to have legal firearms secured in their automobiles in public parking lots.
Greg followed in the footsteps of his parents with farming, taking over his parents' business, Baker Farm Center. He continues to operate Baker Farm Center and his farming has grown to include peanuts, soybeans, cotton, wheat and strawberries.
Evers has been a strong proponent of Second Amendment issues, the Intrastate Commerce Act, and Tenth Amendment issues.
Jack Hunter began his punditry career in the late 1990’s when a friend and popular alternative rock disc jockey agreed to let Jack air his political views during the afternoon drive on 96 Wave (96.1 WAVF) in Charleston, South Carolina.
Creating the moniker the “Southern Avenger,” which was borrowed from popular 90’s conservative talk radio host Ken “The Black Avenger” Hamblin, Jack assumed an anonymous super hero/ pro-wrestler persona, and entertained FM rock audiences with his antics and conservative political views until his departure from 96 Wave in 2007.
In 2007, Jack began working for WTMA 1250 AM talk radio in Charleston and began writing a column for the Charleston City Paper, that city’s premiere alternative weekly. Jack also began producing his popular video podcasts around this time, and today his You Tube Channel has received over two million views. Today, you can find Jack’s videos and columns as part of “TAC TV” at The American Conservative magazine.
Jack is a frequent guest host for The Mike Church Show on Sirius/XM’s Patriot channel and is a frequent guest on “The Savage Nation” with nationally syndicated talk radio host Michael Savage. His writing has appeared at The American Spectator, Lewrockwell.com, CampaignforLiberty.com and in Young American Revolution, the official magazine of the youth activist organization Young Americans for Liberty, to which he is also a contributing editor. Jack also assisted Sen. Rand Paul with his book The Tea Party Goes to Washington, released by Center Street in February, 2011.
Michael Boldin is the founder and executive director of the Tenth Amendment Center. Michael has a full schedule working as senior editor of the Center’s website, writes a regular column, fields media interviews, and travels the country (when invited, of course) to speak to crowds about sticking to the Constitution – every issue, every time, no exceptions, no excuses.
While media and activists alike seemingly want to pigeonhole him into a political category, his viewpoints and positions defy the standard categories and political parties. As he often says in his speeches, “I’m no conservative, and I’m no liberal. I’m not a Democrat or a Republican. And I’m not a green or a libertarian, or a socialist or an anarchist. I’m not even an independent. All I am is me. And all I want is to live free.” Michael lives in the belly of the beast in Los Angeles, California.
The debate centered around President Andrew Jackson’s Tariff of 1832. The South, and South Carolina in particular, saw this tariff as a nothing less than a means of transferring wealth to the northern states at the expense of the southern states. The tariff ensured that the prices for northern finished goods would remain artificially high by protecting them from foreign competition. At the same time, raw cotton enjoyed no such protection, and was sold at market value.
