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Previous Speakers at the Freedom Summit

Written by Subject: Freedom Summit

FREEDOM SUMMIT 2009 Speakers


ron_paul_official_congressional_photo_portrait_20071Ron Paul

Rights belong to individuals, not groups.

Property should be owned by people, not government.

All voluntary associations should be permissible — economic and social.

The government’s monetary role is to maintain the integrity of the monetary unit, not participate in fraud.

Government exists to protect liberty, not to redistribute wealth or to grant special privileges.

The lives and actions of people are their own responsibility, not the government’s.

saupload_meltdown1 Thomas Woods

Thomas Woods (B.A., Harvard; M.A., M.Phil., Pd.D., Columbia Universety) is a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute and the New York Times bestselling author of nine books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, Who Killed the Constitution?, and, most recently, Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse (featuring a foreword by Congressman Ron Paul). His book The Church and the Market won the $50,000 first prize in the 2006 Templeton Enterprise Awards.  Woods’ books have been translated into Italian, Spanish, Polish, French, German, Czech, Portuguese, Croatan, Russian, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese.

Woods edited and wrote the introduction to several additional books, including We Who Dared to Say No to War: American Antiwar Writing from 1812 to Now (with Murray Polner) and Murray N. Rothbard’s posthumously released The Betrayal of the American Right.  A contributor to six encyclopedias, Woods is co-editor of Exploring American History: From Colonial Times to 1877, an eleven-volume encyclopedia.

Woods has appeared on hundreds of radio programs, as well as such television programs as Glenn Beck, FOX & Friends, Scarborough Country, and C-SPAN’s Book TV.  He lives in Auburn , Alabama , with his wife and three daughters.

John Taylor GattoDumbing

John Taylor Gatto is an American retired school teacher of 29 years and 8 months and author of several books on education. He is an activist critical of compulsory schooling and of what he characterizes as the hegemonic nature of discourse on education and the education professions.

John Gatto did undergraduate work at Cornell, the University of Pittsburgh, and Columbia, then served in the U.S. Army medical corps at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Following army service he did graduate work at the City University of New York, Hunter College, Yeshiva University, the University of California, and Cornell.

John Taylor Gatto is the author of great books including, Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, The Exhausted School, A Different Kind of Teacher: Solving the Crisis of American Schooling, The Underground History of American Education, Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher’s Journey through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling.

judgeButtrickJohnA Judge John Buttrick

Judge John Buttrick is the highest elected registered Libertarian currently in office in the United States.

Judge Buttrick graduated from Harvard Law School in 1976 and practiced business litigation for a national law firm until 2001 when he was appointed to the Superior Court of Arizona. Before taking the bench, Judge Buttrick was active in the Libertarian Party. He was the Libertarian candidate for Governor of Arizona in 1994 and for the Arizona House of Representatives in 1998. Judge Buttrick served two terms on the Libertarian National Committee and three stints on the Libertarian Party National Platform Committee, including twice as Chair in 1998 and 2000.

Since his appointment, Judge Buttrick has twice successfully faced retention elections in 2004 and 2008. In both those elections he received over 70% “yes” votes. His vote totals in Maricopa County alone surpassed the Libertarian presidential candidate totals for the entire country in both those elections.

Judge Buttrick believes that the direction of the national Libertarian Party has veered dangerously off course in recent years and the party is facing pivotal decisions in 2010 and 2012 which may determine whether or not it survives. In particular, Judge Buttrick is concerned that candidacies such as those of Bob Barr and Wayne Root hurt rather than help the future advance of libertarian principles in the political arena. His presentation is entitled “The Future of the Libertarian Party, if any.”

Charles GoyetteDollar-Meltdown-792666

Conservative commentator Charles Goyette -named “Best Phoenix Talk Show Host” by the New Times and “Man of the Year” by his county Republican Party – recently caused a industry stir when he was fired for political heterodoxy. Refusing to toe the Clear Channel party line and support the war in Iraq, he was first transferred from his high-profile druve-time slot to an evening pigenhole, and then terminated by talk behemoth 550 KFYI fter his contract no longer protexted him.

Charles was quickly snapped up by maverick, eclectic news/talk 1100 KFNX during morning drive time. In May of this year he abandoned the Republican Party for the Libertarian Party, explaining that the Republicans had abandoned any pretense of principle.

In Charles Goyette’s soon to be released book, “The Dollar Meltdown,” he reveals the governmental errors that led to the current economic crisis and the bumpy road ahead. “The Dollar Meltdown” is a book about the financial future and what you can do about it. And you can do something! You don’t have to be a financial professional, expose yourself to risky leverage, or worry about every tick of the markets…  Once you understand the nature of the crisis you will discover that there are common-sense steps you can take now to protect yourself and your family and even to profit from the dollar meltdown!

kokesh Adam Kokesh

Adam Kokesh was a Corporal in the United States Marine Corps Reserve and is a veteran of the Iraq War. He is currently an anti-U.S. occupation of Iraq activist. Adam majored in Psychology and Government at CMC.

On September 2, 2008, Kokesh spoke at Rep. Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic in St. Paul, MN, where he stated: “While it is our responsibility now to resist tyranny civily, while we still can, there may come a time when we will say to the powers that be, be it with your blood or ours we have come to water the tree of liberty … who will stand with me?”

In April 2009, Adam Kokesh supporters created a draft website to encourage Kokesh to run for United States Congress representing New Mexico’s 3rd congressional district. Soon after, Kokesh launched an exploratory committee, and on July 4, 2009, he officially announced his candidacy at a supporter rally. On the same day, supporters formed a moneybomb that raised more than $25,000 in a 24 hour period. On July 21 2009, Kokesh announced that he would be running under the Republican party ticket.

SS436 Butler Shaffer

A prolific writer and speaker, Professor Shaffer has presented several academic papers, led discussions, and written numerous books and articles on social theory, buisness and labor law. In his book, Calculated Chaos (1985(, he explores the theory that “institutions are the principle means by which conflict is produced and managed in society.” In his book, In Restraint of Trade (1995), he demonstrates how the business system endeavored to restrict competition between 1918 and 1938, and was the major factor in the creation of the New Deal’s National Industrial Recovery Act and has completed another book on The Redistribution of Authority. He has also been interviewed on these subjects on network television, cable and radio.

Professor Shaffer attended law school at the University of Nebraska and the University of Chicago. Prior to his appointment to the faculty at Southwestern University School of Law in 1977, Professor Shaffer served on the faculty at the University of Nebraska College of Business Administration where he taught courses ion business and law. Shaffer currently teaches Administrative Law, Antitrust Law, Informal Systems of Order Seminar, Labor Law, Property, and SCALE.

Butler Shaffer’s new book Boundaries of Order is scholarly, passionate, and a completely fresh look at a marvelous intellectual apparatus by a mature intellectual who has been writing on law, economics, and history for four decades. It is the treatise on liberty and property for the digital age, one written in the Rothbardian/Hayekian tradition with a consistently anti-state message but with a unique perspective on how the great struggle between state and society is playing itself out in our times.

Bud Burrellburrell_fw_sq_bw_300px-w-150x150

Mr. Bud Burrell has extensive experience working with major brokerage firms on the trading desk and arbitrage desk with almost 30 years experience — Industry authority, expert, Wall Street veteran. Love him or hate him, you will always know where he stands – his no-holds-barred style and frank honesty make his blogs a must read, from one of the originals. View his landmark correspondences in The Bud Files.

one-nation-largestBoston T. Party

Boston T. Party (aka Kenneth W. Royce, and founder of www.freestatewyoming.org) is a shooting instructor, speaker, and the author of 12 books on guns, history, law, politics, privacy, and government  — selling well over 100,000 copies through www.javelinpress.com.  His “Boston’s Gun Bible” is a classic within the shooting community, and his fiction novel Molôn Labé! has inspired a recent relocation wave to Wyoming.  Boston’s newest and final title is “One Nation, Under Surveillance — Privacy From the Watchful Eye”, which will be the topic of his retirement speech to mark the close of 20 years of book writing for the cause of Liberty.

Marc Victor10059419-attorney-for-freedom

Mark is a criminal defense attorney. Marc J. Victor. P.C., which often sponsors debates and presentation on freedom issues. As a former United States Marine and certified specialist in criminal law, Marc endlessly and zealously defends citizens accused of crimes against the state

Marc’s political and professional credentials can be viewed at his corporate website.

Ernest-Hancock-Photo-160x240Ernest Hancock

Ernest Hancock as been a freedom fighter for two decades. Education through the use of the courts, the political process and guerilla activism have made him well known to the general public as a sincere defender of libertarian philosophy.

Ernest Hancock as hosted his own show and been a talk show producer. Over 600 of Ernest’s daily talk show in shows in Phoenix, Arizona are archived at “Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock” and his new radio show from Freedom’s Phoenix Studios, “Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock” is archived on Freedom’s Phoenix here.

Ernest is also the publisher of FreedomsPhoenix.com, a constantly updated portal to political news and information.

Joel Skousenjoel-skousen-2814-20080105-48

Joel Skousen is an American conservative political commentator non-fiction Survivalist author, and retreat consultant that specializes in preparedness topics, particularly survival retreat and fallout shelter design and construction, as well as what he calls “strategic relocation.”Skousen is the founder and chief editor of World Affairs Brief, a weekly news analysis service. He has done architectural and retreat design consulting in both North America and Central America.

Skousen is the author of several books including Essential Principles for the Conservation of Liberty, Strategic Relocation—North American Guide to Safe Places, The Secure Home, Survival Home Manual: Architectural Design, Construction, and Remodeling Of Self-Sufficient Residences and Retreats, and How to Implement a High Security Shelter in the Home. He also published a booklet titled 10 Packs for Survival, which he has also posted to several web sites.

Skousen designs and consults on hardened retreat homes, often including fallout shelters with HEPA air filtration systems. In the book Dancing at Armageddon: Survivalism and Chaos in Modern Times by Richard G. Mitchell, Jr., (2001) Skousen was quoted: “‘You never want to make a house look like an obvious fortress. Those who want in can always move up a bigger gun. There is no way you can design a home to withstand RPG (Rocket-propelled grenade) rockets and tanks. I design these homes so you virtually cannot tell inside or out that they are any different from a conventional home.”

Stewart Rhodes is the founder and National President of Oath Keepers (www.oathkeepers.org), a fast-growing non-partisan association of currently serving military, Peace Officers, Fire-Fighters and veterans – all who swore an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Stewart served as a U.S. Army paratrooper until disabled in a rough terrain parachuting accident during a night jump.  He is a former firearms instructor and former member of Rep. Ron Paul’s DC staff.  Stewart graduated from Yale Law School in 2004, where his paper “Solving the Puzzle of Enemy Combatant Status” won Yale’s Miller prize for best paper on the Bill of Rights. He assisted teaching U.S. military history at Yale, was a Yale Research Scholar, and is writing a book on the dangers of applying the laws of war to the American people.

Would-be tyrants prefer blind obedience. The Founders understood this, which is exactly why they made the oath to the Constitution, not to any man or office, and why they put the oath requirement right in the Constitution itself.  The oath is like kryptonite to tyrants, as the Founders intended.. Tyranny cannot come to America if our military and police refuse unconstitutional orders.   The mission of Oath Keepers is to remind them that their oath is to the Constitution, not to any politician or party, to teach them about the Constitution they swore to defend, and to steel their resolve to keep that oath.  If enough of them are reached, it is game over for any attempt to destroy this Republic.

JP BIO STUDIO 3 Entertainment by Jordan Page

Jordan Page is a young singer/songwriter/guitarist who uses his music to promote a message of peace while educating and mobilizing resistance to tyranny and the erosion of American civil rights. He embodies the protesting spirit of past years that is so rare in music today. He believes that armed service is not the only way to serve one’s country. Armed with the truth in song, he has raised up his voice in opposition to extreme military foreign policies, the corruption of the Federal Reserve, subversion of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, torture of prisoners, warrantless domestic surveillance, and oppression perpetrated by globalist elements in government. His songs are often stirring, and always challenging.

Jordan was a featured performer at the historic Revolution March in DC in July 08, which featured Ron Paul, Naomi Wolf, and Adam Kokesh as speakers and was attended by more than 10,000 people from across the nation. This event was proof of the gathering strength of the Freedom Movement, and the need to bring its message to the American public.

FREEDOM SUMMIT in Arizona
Previous Speakers in 2001

bios_jgh Jacob G. Hornberger

Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. He was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, and received his B.A. in economics from Virginia Military Institute and his law degree from the University of Texas. He was a trial attorney for twelve years in Texas. He also was an adjunct professor at the University of Dallas, where he taught law and economics. In 1987, Mr. Hornberger left the practice of law to become director of programs at The Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, publisher of The Freeman.

In 1989, Mr. Hornberger founded The Future of Freedom Foundation. He is a regular writer for The Foundation’s publication, Freedom Daily. Fluent in Spanish, he has delivered speeches and engaged in debates about libertarianism to groups all over the United States, as well as Canada, England, Eastern Europe, and South America. He has also advanced libertarianism on talk-radio stations all across the country. His editorials have appeared in the Washington Post, Charlotte Observer, La Prensa San Diego, El Nuevo Miami Herald, and many others, both in the United States and in Latin America. He is a co-editor or contributor to the six books that have been published by the Foundation.

Don BoudreauxDon Boudreaux

Chairmen of the department of economics at George Mason University and past President of The Foundation for Economic Education [FEE]. Dr. Boudreaux is a professor at George Mason University and had taught at Clemson University before joining FEE. His areas of expertise include antitrust law, law and economics, and the economics of regulation. His articles have appeared in numerous law reviews, economics journals, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Investor’s Business Daily.

levyRobert A. Levy

Bob Levy joined The Cato Instutute in 1997 after 25 years in business. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, a director of the Institute for Justice, and a trustee of The Objectivist Center. Bob received his Ph.D. in business from the American University in 1966. That year he founded CDA Investment Technologies, Inc., a major provider of financial information and software. Bob was chief executive officer of CDA until 1991. He then returned to college and earned his J.D. in 1994 from the George Mason University, where he was chief articles editor of the law review. The next two years he clerked for Judge Royce C. Lamberth on the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., and for Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Among Bob’s publications are a book, dozens of articles on investments and, more recently, numerous papers on law and public policy.

Butler D. Shaffershaffer

A prolific writer and speaker, Professor Shaffer has presented several academic papers, led discussions, and written numerous books and articles on social theory, business and labor law. In his book, Calculated Chaos (1985), he explores the theory that “institutions are the principle means by which conflict is produced and managed in society.” In his most recent book, In Restraint of Trade (1995), he demonstrates how the business system endeavored to restrict competition between 1918 and 1938, and was the major factor in the creation of the New Deal’s National Industrial Recovery Act and has just completed another book on The Redistribution of Authority. He has also been interviewed on these subjects on network television, cable and radio.

Professor Shaffer attended law school at the University of Nebraska and the University of Chicago. Prior to his appointment to the faculty at Southwestern University School of Law in 1977, Professor Shaffer served on the faculty at the University of Nebraska College of Business Administration where he taught courses in business and law. He currently teaches Administrative Law, Antitrust Law, Informal Systems of Order Seminar, Labor Law, Property, and SCALE.

vin_suprynowicz_200Vin Suprynowicz

Vin Suprynowicz grew up in a nice Politically Correct Democratic family, fine folks who taught him that it was wrong to steal or to hate people for being different from them. He still feels that way, but has expanded his idea of who those people are from merely homosexuals and members of racial minorities to machine-gun owners, militiamen, folks who choose to vote their conscience in the jury rooms in defiance of the judge’s instructions, who use intoxicants other than those approved by the current government, who decline to contribute any portion of their income to support the welfare/police state, and the like.

He landed his first newspaper job at the alternative Hartford Advocate in 1972 after graduating from Wesleyan University. He went on to become the star reporter at the daily Willimantic Chronicle, wire editor of the Norwich Bulletin, managing editor of the daily Northern Virginia Sun, and founder and publisher of the weekly Providence Eagle.

Suprynowicz was named three times to the Golden Dozen (the top 12 weekly editorial writers in the U.S. and Canada) by the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors.

He finally migrated west to Phoenix, then moved to Las Vegas. He’s currently an editorial writer for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He also pens a twice-a-week syndicated political column that runs in 20 or so daily newspapers around the country.

Clint BolickBolick$2C~Clint

Clint Bolick serves as vice president and director of litigation at the Institute for Justice, which he co-founded in 1991 to engage in constitutional litigation protecting individual liberty and challenging the regulatory welfare state.

Bolick leads the nationwide litigation effort to defend school choice programs. In 1998, he helped win a landmark ruling in Jackson v. Benson in the Wisconsin Supreme Court upholding the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. He has also successfully defended school choice programs before the state supreme courts of Arizona and Ohio, and is currently defending choice programs in Florida, Cleveland, and Arizona from legal challenge.

Bolick has successfully challenged regulatory barriers to entrepreneurship on behalf of start-up businesses in the inner city, and is challenging New York’s ban on direct interstate wine shipments to consumers.

Bolick is one of the subjects profiled in Gang of Five: Leaders at the Center of the Conservative Crusade by Nina Easton, who says that Bolick “confounds his liberal critics because he something that is not supposed to exist on the right: an idealist.”

His latest book is Transformation: The Promise and Politics of Empowerment, published in August 1998 by the Institute for Contemporary Studies. Bolick received his law degree from the University of California at Davis in 1982, and his undergraduate degree from Drew University in 1979.

Jim and Melissa Sharpe

Jim and Melissa have the number-one rated morning radio show in the state of Arizona. Both Jim and Melissa are hard-core libertarians and proud of it. Almost everything dramatic in Jim and Melissa Sharpe’s marriage has happened in the hours before most people brush their teeth. They were married live on the air during morning drivetime. They had competing morning shows. They rode out Hurricane Andrew and the Northridge earthquake, and Jim found out he was going to be a father — again.

The Sharpes met in 1986 while working at co-owned Tucson stations. After announcing their engagement, their boss talked them into getting married on the air. The simulcast wedding was heard on their two stations during morning drive on October 16, 1987.

After stops in Dallas, New Orleans and Los Angeles, Melissa and Jim decided to head back to Jim’s home state of Arizona in 1996. Once again, the Sharpes found themselves on competing morning shows in Phoenix. That is until Newsradio 620 KTAR hatched a plan to put the show back together. In the weeks prior to the Sharpes taking over the Morning Show on KTAR 620, the Valley of the Sun was covered with 4′ x 8′ signs that stated “The Libertarians Are Coming — Double Edge Radio — Jim and Melissa Sharpe — KTAR 620 AM.”

You’ll find it hard to rattle the Sharpes. They were on the air through the devastating tornadoes of Hurricane Andrew in New Orleans and wildfires, mudslides and the Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles broadcasting vital information to their audiences. Jim, however, was rendered speechless one morning when Melissa surprised him on the air with the news that he would be a father for the third time.

Jim grew up in northern Arizona where he graduated from Page High School and attended N.A.U. He enjoys hiking, camping and snapping pictures in the backcountry of Arizona. Melissa is a San Francisco native who moved to Arizona in 1983. She enjoys swimming, reading and going to the movies.

FREEDOM SUMMIT in Arizona
Previous Speakers in 2002

wblockWalter Block

Walter Block earned his PhD in Economics at Columbia University. He is an author, editor, and co-editor of many books which include Defending the Undefendable; Lexicon of Economic Thought, Economic Freedom of the World 1975-1995; Rent Control: Myths and Realities; Discrimination, Affirmative Action, and Equal Opportunity; Theology, Third Word Development and Economic Justice; Man, Economy, and Liberty: Essays in Honor of Murray N. Rothbard; Religion, Econonomics, and Social Thought; and Economic Freedom: Toward a Theory of Measurement.

Dr. Block has written more than 500 articles for various non-refereed journals, magazines and newspapers, and is a contributor to such journals as The Review of Austrian Economics, Journal of Libertarian Studies, The Journal of Labor Economics, Cultural Dynamics, and the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. He is currently a professor and chair of economics, college of business administration, at Loyola University.

Lew Rockwellpage5_sidebar_6

Lew Rockwell, founder and president of the Mises Institute in Auburn, Ala., and vice president of the Center for Libertarian Studies in Burlingame, Cal., is an opponent of the central state, its wars and its socialism. A student and colleague of Murray N. Rothbard’s, he is the editor of six books, most recently The Irrepressible Rothbard.

3197264860_6981513f15John Pugsley

Investment guru John A. Pugsley’s first book, Common Sense Economics (1974), sold over 150,000 hardcover copies. His second, The Alpha Strategy, remained on the New York Times bestseller list for nine weeks in 1981.

Mr. Pugsley has authored a number of other books, monographs and courses, including The Copper Play, The Bank Book ,The Metals Investors’ Handbook, a nine-hour audio-cassette course titled Money, Investments & Lifetime Security, and The Interest Rate Strategy.

Mr. Pugsley’s unique ability to clarify complicated economic and investment concepts has won him wide acclaim as a speaker on numerous radio and TV talk shows as well as at conferences and seminars.

In 1997, Mr. Pugsley was involved in the founding of The Sovereign Society, an international organization dedicated to legal and moral ways to retain privacy and individual liberty. He currently serves as Chairman. Mr. Pugsley also founded the Bio-Rational Institute, an organization to foster personal fulfillment and social progress through an understanding of the evolutionary roots of human behavior.

George H. Smithgeorge-h-smith

George Smith publishes a monthly e-zine, The Philosophe, which contains substantial articles of interest to independent intellectuals such as libertarians, freethinkers, Objectivists, humanists, and others.

George has served as the Director of the Forum for Philosophical Studies, Los Angeles; a lecturer on American History at the Cato Institute; and a Senior Research Fellow and lecturer on political philosophy and intellectual history at George Mason University’s Institute for Humane Studies.

George is the author of Atheism: The Case Against God, and Atheism, Ayn Rand, and Other Heresies.

180px-Larry_Pratt_1Larry Pratt

Larry Pratt is the Executive Director of Gun Owners of America.

Sharon Harrissharon-harris

Sharon Harris is President of the Advocates for Self-Government. Prior to being chosen as President of the Advocates, Sharon was owner and manager of a successful book indexing business for 17 years. She also has worked as a free-lance writer, a magazine-article-writing instructor, managing editor of the Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia, and as a team-building trainer for businesses and organizations.

Sharon has been active in the libertarian movement since the early 70s. In 1972, she was a founding member of the Libertarian Party of Georgia (LPGA) and cast one of a handful of Georgia write-in votes for 1972 Libertarian Party presidential candidate John Hospers. She served the LPGA in many capacities, including being a member of the Executive Committee, editor of the Georgia Libertarian, meetings chair, convention coordinator, Cobb County LP co-founder and chair, and delegate to national conventions.

An award-winning speaker, she has presented libertarian ideas on radio talk shows, on cable TV shows, to college political science classes, before service clubs, and to Libertarian and Republican gatherings. She has also been interviewed by the editorial boards of several major newspapers.

Sharon has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a Master’s Degree in Counseling. She earned Certification by the Association for Psychological Type for teaching about, administering and interpreting the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the world’s most widely used personality inventory. She lives with her husband, writer and editor Jimmy Harris, in Rydal, Georgia. She has one grown daughter and three perfect grandchildren.

1238697403-1238676875-NewLoboLargeLouis James

Louis James is the President and CEO of the Henry Hazlitt Foundation, publisher of Free-Market.Net: The Freedom Network. Free-Market.Net enables people to learn about the ideas of liberty, use the information and resources that are available, and work together for the future of freedom.

Louis James’s career in the libertarian movement started in 1994 when he joined the Center for Market Processes at George Mason University in Virginia (now the Mercatus Center) as the Director of Development.

In 1996 Louis helped build the Sutherland Institute, Utah’s free-market think tank.

Honorable John ButtrickjudgeButtrickJohnA

John Buttrick is currently the highest-ranking Libertarian in Arizona state government. A graduate of Harvard Law, he has been a member of the bar of Arizona, California, the federal Ninth Circuit, and the Supreme Court. In May of 2001, he was elevated to a judgeship on the Maricopa County Superior Court by Governor Jane Hull.

Before being appointed to the court, John litigated for Brown & Bain in a variety of areas including antitrust, product liability, contract, environmental torts and intellectual property, for clients such as IBM, Intel, Dupont, and McDonald’s.

John has campaigned in previous years for the offices of state representative and governor as a Libertarian, and has served on the Libertarian National Committee and National Platform Committee.

lneilsmith-450x600L. Neil Smith

Three-time Prometheus Award-winner L. Neil Smith may be the most widely-published and prolific living libertarian author in the world. A renowned futurist who has made many accurate predictions, and one of the foremost authorities on the ethics of self-defense, Neil’s 23 books include science fiction novels like The American Zone, Forge of the Elders, Pallas, and The Probability Broach. He has also written two political thrillers, The Mitzvah, and Hope with JPFO’s Aaron Zelman. His collected articles and speeches appear in Lever Action.

A 40-year veteran of the libertarian movement who has twice run for public office, Neil writes regular columns for Rational Review, Sierra Times, and for The Libertarian Enterprise, of which he is the co-founder and publisher. He lives in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he wrote his last three novels at the ice rink where his wife and daughter skate.

FREEDOM SUMMIT in Arizona
Previous Speakers in 2003

Nathaniel Branden, Keynote Speaker13p_Nathaniel_Branden

Nathaniel Branden is a psychotherapist, a corporate consultant, a lecturer, and the author of 20 books, including The Six Pillars of Self Esteem, My Years With Ayn Rand, Taking Responsibility, and The Art of Living Consciously. He helped launch Objectivism as a philosophical movement with his 20-lecture course entitled “Basic Principles of Objectivism” at the Nathaniel Branden Institute in New York City in 1958. At that time he was Ayn Rand’s close associate. After their falling out he continued his work as a psychotherapist and lecturer, and became a leading spokesman for the self-esteem movement in psychology.

Richard Boddie

Dick Boddie is the President and Founder of The Motivators, a professional speakers bureau in Huntington Beach, and an adjunct professor in Political Science and History at Coastline Community College in Costa Mesa and Garden Grove, California. He holds a law degree from Syracuse University.

The son, grandson, and great grandson of Baptist ministers, he has the honor and distinction of having been the first black youth to ever become an Eagle Scout (BSA) in Rochester NY. A former Democrat, a former Republican, and a former radio talk show host in Rochester, Boddie is quite well known for his political activism over the years. He has been a Libertarian Party functionary and federal candidate for both House and Senate.

Harry BrownePhotoG52

Harry Browne was a successful investment advisor for 30 years. He has written 11 books that have sold more than 2 million copies. He has appeared on the Today show, Wall $treet Week , The Larry King Show , and hundreds of other national and local radio and television shows. Currently, he is Director of Public Policy for the American Liberty Foundation.

In 1996 and 2000, Harry Browne was the Libertarian presidential candidate. He campaigned in 38 states, and appeared on over a thousand radio and television programs. He won numerous Internet preference polls and was endorsed for president by dozens of radio talk show hosts and journalists. He received 485,759 votes on Election Day, the second highest total in Libertarian Party history. In 2000, he was again nominated to represent the Libertarian Party and garnered more than 382,00 votes in a tight presidential race.

Among Harry Browne’s books are the New York Times bestsellers How You Can Profit from the Coming Devaluation, and You Can Profit from a Monetary Crisis, as well as How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World, Fail-Safe Investing, Why Government Doesn’t Work, and The Great Libertarian Offer.

Rotator Pix 2- from Vahur Guelcin - 41Hans-Hermann Hoppe

An Austrian school economist and libertarian/anarcho-capitalist philosopher, Professor Hoppe teaches Economics at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, is a Senior Fellow with the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and the Editor of the Journal of Libertarian Studies. His latest book is Democracy: The God That Failed.

Ernest HancockErnest-Hancock-Photo-160x240

As one of the founders of the Freedom Summit, Ernie’s bio appears on our Founders page.

Donald “Mac” MacPherson


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