Monthly Archives: March 2011

Will Senator Pryor be re-elected or not? (Part 3)

March 9, 2011 – 8:00 am

Michael Tanner, a senior fellow at the CATO institute, explains that the rate of return on social security will be much lower for todays youth.

Steve Brawner wrote in his article “Tiptoeing toward the third rail,” (Arkansas News Bureau, Jan 9,):

Social Security has long been considered the “third rail” for American politicians, meaning it’s like the electrified third rail that powers a train and lies alongside the tracks: touch it, and you die.

Tuesday, Sen. Mark Pryor tiptoed toward it.

Pryor was speaking to the Little Rock Rotary Club when, according to a report by Arkansas News Bureau writer John Lyon, he said this: “We have to take a hard look at entitlement programs, including the sacred cows of Medicare and Social Security, and admit that we cannot bring our spending into balance without changes in these programs.”

He went on to say, “The (deficit) problem is real. The solution will be painful. There is no easy way out. Everything must be on the table.”

Thinking people in Washington, and I like to think that’s most of them, know that what Pryor said is true, but they also are afraid that telling that truth is the equivalent of stepping on that third rail. That’s because Medicare and Social Security are popular programs that directly benefit seniors, the age cohort that most often votes. And of course, most of the rest of us expect to be seniors someday.

But you can’t balance the budget without doing something about Social Security and Medicare because those programs are becoming so big and are growing so fast. Along with Medicaid, they already take up more than 40 percent of the federal budget. That percentage will grow much, much higher as the baby boomers age. According to the recently released report of the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, by 2025 — that’s 15 years from now — projected government revenues will be sufficient only for Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid and interest payments on the national debt.

That means if we want to have a military, or a border patrol, or interstate highways, we’ll have to pay much higher taxes and continue borrowing, probably extensively from China…

Pryor knows he is fortunate not to have been on the ballot this year. Were that so, he might very well have lost despite his pragmatic record, general likability, and last name. And he knows that what he said to the Little Rock Rotary Club will be used against him when he runs for re-election in 2014.

I have already pointed out reasons that Pryor’s re-election bid may be in trouble:

1. He has been hypocritical about the appointment of Federal Judges.

2. Southern states have almost completely moved away from Democrats. (Jason Tolbert actually made this observation concerning a poll in Arkansas showing that voters for the first time in history were “inclined to vote for the Republican versus the Democrat in a race when considering only party identification.”)

3. Pryor’s statement that it must take 10 to 20 years to balance the budget is not the reality we must face. We can do it in 5 years just by freezing our current level of spending.

4. Pryor has not listened to the people of Arkansas and the polls that indicate that they opposed Obamacare, and he teamed up with the liberal Democrats to force it through the Senate even after Scott Brown was elected.

Now Brawner praises Pryor for saying that Social Security is on the table. I am encouraged by that too. However, we must move to privatize Social Security or it will fail. There is no way around this economic reality. Thirty countries have moved in this direction and the results have been outstanding. Chile did this in 1980 and now they are reaping the benefits.

Will Mark Pryor get re-elected? I don’t think he will unless he thinks outside his Democratic box on issues like Social Security Reform. Brawner is right to bring up the issue of the baby boomers. The current system we have will only get worse as the baby boomers born in 1946 to 1964 continnue to apply for Social Security benefits.

It is ironic that Max Brantley and John Brummett think the reddening of Pryor is a bad thing (“The reddening of Mark Pryor,” Arkansas Times Blog, Nov 30, 2010), but I think it will be the only way he will save his job in a state like Arkansas.

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Jason Tolbert, Social Security | Comments (0)

Candidate #2, Former Arkansas Gov Mike Huckabee: Republican Presidential Hopefuls (pt 2)

March 8, 2011 – 4:05 pm

Jason Tolbert in his article “A Thousand Pardons,” Arkansas News Bureau, Feb 20) states:

In contrast to his predecessor, Gov. Mike Huckabee, who issued over 1,000 pardons and commutations, Beebe has only commuted one sentence.

“I am pretty liberal on pardons after people have finished their sentence and if it is a nonviolent crime, particularly kids that have been involved in drugs or something like that,” explained Beebe on his monthly call-in radio program a little over a year ago. “Commutations where you shorten somebody’s sentence and let them out early is something I have been very reluctant to do and I have done it once in three years.”

Perhaps part of this reluctance is based on the damage — both political and otherwise — that Beebe has observed from some of the high-profile prison releases occurring under Huckabee. Most notably are Wayne Dumond, who raped and murdered a Missouri woman after being paroled under Huckabee’s watch, and Maurice Clemmons, who went on to murder four police officers in Washington years after his sentence was commuted by Huckabee.

This is Huckabee’s biggest challenge to overcome. Can he overcome it? I think he can. If he doesn’t then we will be stuck with Mitt Romney who basically imposed Obamacare on his state when he was governor. Can Romney be forgived for that? I think he can since he has since changed his position.

Did we forgive George Bush in 1988 for being pro-choice originally? We sure did. In fact, my former pastor, Adrian Rogers, had a chance to visit with Bush several times. He told him that the Religious Right did not have enough votes to get him elected on their own, but if he ever went against the pro-life view then they could definately derail his election bid.  

I think that Huckabee would be willing to change his view on this prison issue, and if he does then I think he will be electable.

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Adrian Rogers, Jason Tolbert | Comments (0)

Candidate #2, Former Arkansas Gov Mike Huckabee: Republican Presidential Hopefuls

March 8, 2011 – 3:37 pm

 

John Brummett recently asserted in his article “Huckabee goes into verbal overdrive,” (Arkansas News Bureau, March 7):

As I have explained previously, Huckabee is blessed with the gift of gab, one he refined as a teenage radio announcer and further honed as an ordained Southern Baptist preacher. He thinks he is Ronald Reagan, or, actually, even a little more adroit than Reagan.

Unlike the Gipper, Huckabee will venture at times, as he did disastrously last week, to step off the script and into a little jazz riffing.

Today’s question arises from the fact that Huckabee, out on the stump last week selling a book and keeping open his tepid interest in actually running for president, got all wound up on a New York right-wing radio talk show.

Actually I watched Huckabee’s show this week and he seemed to explain away a lot of these mistatements of his. I agree with Brummett that Huckabee does have the gift of gab just like Reagan did.

I do think that Huckabee’s most pressing challenge will be to explain all the pardons he handed out. Those usually have a way of coming back to haunt a governor. I actually was a Tennessee resident when Lamar Alexander had to be sworn into office early because Ray Blanton was practically letting everyone out of prison.

My Democratic relatives in Middle Tennessee used to tell me that they did not consider Lamar Alexander much of a leader because of his whimpy handshake, but I never got a comment from them on how Blanton does in the handshaking department. (By the way, I got to shake Lamar Alexander’s hand and I must be a whimp too because I thought he gave a firm handshake).

As you can see from my blog, I have done a lot of study on Ronald Reagan. Since I have lived in Arkansas since 1983, I have learned a lot about Huckabee too. In fact, I attended a service at First Baptist Church the first day Huckabee became the Governor of Arkansas. We prayed for him. Huckabee had lots of friends across the USA that were ministers. I remember back in 1992 when Huckabee was in a race for Senate against Dale Bumpers and I was at my parents property in Cordova at our annual Easter Egg Hunt. I ran into my former pastor Adrian Rogers and he asked me several questions about his “pal Mike Huckabee” and how the race was going.

I think that Huckabee will probably run for president because he knows he can go back to his job at Fox. We will just have to wait and see.

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Adrian Rogers | Comments (0)

Brantley and Brummett:Democrats want Fayetteville in 4th District

March 8, 2011 – 2:54 pm

John Brummett noted in his article “Don’t laugh too hard at Pig Trail gerrymander,” (Arkansas News Bureau, March 5):

The first I heard of it, of what I call the Pig Trail gerrymander, I laughed hard.

But state Sen. Sue Madison of Fayetteville, Democratic chairman of the Senate State Agencies Committee that will consider such matters, says she expects this little gem to be formally proposed as a seriously intended congressional redistricting plan.

Max Brantley asserted on March 3rd on the Arkansas Times Blog:

I was inclined to reject this out-of-hand as as hoax. But it’s not.

A devoted reader sends along an e-mail from Steve Clark, leader of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, to various community and elected leaders objecting to a purported congressional redistricting idea that would move Fayetteville and perhaps all of Washington County into the Fourth Congressional District. It’s now in the Republican 3rd.

I do not think this will happen because the map would look too crazy. The real gamble will be if the Democrats try to make a run at the 2nd district. I think that Tim Griffin has a bigger margin of victory now with the rapid growth of Saline County and Faulkner County to work with, and it would take a lot to put him at a disadvantage.

I think that Brummett earlier article on this sounds more logical to me. You can access that here where I posted it earlier.

 

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Lu Hardin: Latest Victim of Gambling (Series on Gambling Pt 1)

March 8, 2011 – 8:46 am

John Brummett noted in his article “Lu Hardin: Last of the young reformers,” (Arkansas News Bureau, March 8th):

Hardin grew UCA as he grew his own profile. The school became the sustaining personal fiefdom for him …Hardin cut corners, because he could. He got in some kind of personal financial bind — the speculation is gambling — and broke both the bounds of decency and the law to forge a document and help himself to an early payout of deferred compensation.

I have always had mixed emotions when I have to stand behind long lines at the convience store waiting for the mainly poor people to finish buying all their lottery tickets. First, I really do want to tell them to take that money and buy milk for their kids. Second, I want to thank them for paying the voluntary tax that I am not dumb enough to pay. However, sometimes I want to tell them that the government is scamming them. I have been told that if gambling is wrong that I should not buy stocks because it is really the same thing. I don’t think that is correct and it reminds me of a story that my pastor used to tell.

My former pastor, Adrian Rogers, rightly noted:

Gambling is morally wrong. Why? Because nobody wins at gambling without somebody else losing. True, legitimate business is a win – win arrangement.

I make a widget. I sell it for a dollar. I get the dollar, you get the widget. I win and you win. In gambling, for every winner there must be a loser. Gambling is profit and pleasure at somebody else’s pain and loss.

Two people meet in a back alley and one puts a gun on the other person and takes what belongs to him, they call it thievery. But if two people meet in the casino and one takes what belongs to another, they call it gambling. Oh, they don’t call it gambling, they call it gaming.

When somebody gambles and wins, he has the spirit of thievery. When he gambles and loses, he’s been very foolish. So the Bible says in Habakkuk 2:6, “Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his!”

A great film clip I found on youtube that gives some statistics about gambling addictions.

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Adrian Rogers | Comments (0)

Ronald Wilson Reagan Part 49 (Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root)

March 8, 2011 – 7:46 am

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President Reagan attending the Bob Hope Salute to the United States Air Force 40th Anniversary celebration with Kirk Cameron, Phyllis Diller, Lucille Ball and Emmanuel Lewis at Pope Air Force base in Fayetteville, North Carolina. 5/10/87.

You will notice Kirk Cameron in the picture above. Cameron appeared in one of my favorite movies, “Fireproof.” That film really touched me, and I especially liked the end of the film. Here is a clip below.

Did you know that the movie “Fireproof” only had a budget of 1/2 million dollars and it opened #4 at the box office. It has earned over 33 million while in theaters and more than that in dvd sales. In fact, it ranked #41 in dvd sales for 2009 which outpaced many big budget films.

The book referenced in the movie “The Love Dare” has sold over 5 million copies and was on the NY Times Best Seller list for over a 100 weeks.

“Fireproof is about a firefighter, Caleb Holt, whose marriage has grown cold,” Stephen Kendrick, the writer and director, said. “Caleb’s father, a strong Christian, challenges his son to delay the divorce to read The Love Dare, which calls for 40 consecutive days of learning to show selfless love.”

Day One is the disarmingly simple idea that “love is patient.” Initially Caleb’s wife, Catherine, resents his efforts, which she sees as too little too late. Midway through the 40 days, Caleb despairs about her response and his own capacity to love. At that point, he accepts God’s sacrificial love for his sake. With his father’s encouragement, he sticks with it, learns to accept and give love, and ultimately restores his marriage.

__________________________________________

You will notice Lucy in the picture above with Ronald Reagan. Here below is a clip of Lucy trying to sell Vitameatavagamin

In a prophetic speech concerning the Soviet Union, Ronald Reagan predicted that “the march of freedom and democracy will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash-heap of history.” I am posting in the coming days excerpts from one of Reagan best speeches ever.  He addressed the members of the British Parliament on June 8, 1982.

Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.
Well, from here I will go to Bonn and then Berlin, where there stands a grim symbol of power untamed. The Berlin Wall, that dreadful gray gash across the city, is in its third decade. It is the fitting signature of the regime that built it.

And a few hundred kilometers behind the Berlin Wall, there is another symbol. In the center of Warsaw, there is a sign that notes the distances to two capitals. In one direction it points toward Moscow. In the other it points toward Brussels, headquarters of Western Europe’s tangible unity. The marker says that the distances from Warsaw to Moscow and Warsaw to Brussels are equal. The sign makes this point: Poland is not East or West. Poland is at the center of European civilization. It has contributed mightily to that civilization. It is doing so today by being magnificently unreconciled to oppression.Poland’s struggle to be Poland and to secure the basic rights we often take for granted demonstrates why we dare not take those rights for granted. Gladstone, defending the Reform Bill of 1866, declared, “You cannot fight against the future. Time is on our side.” It was easier to believe in the march of democracy in Gladstone’s day — in that high noon of Victorian optimism.

We’re approaching the end of a bloody century plagued by a terrible political invention — totalitarianism. Optimism comes less easily today, not because democracy is less vigorous, but because democracy’s enemies have refined their instruments of repression. Yet optimism is in order, because day by day democracy is proving itself to be a not-at-all-fragile flower. From Stettin on the Baltic to Varna on the Black Sea, the regimes planted by totalitarianism have had more than 30 years to establish their legitimacy. But none — not one regime — has yet been able to risk free elections. Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.

The strength of the Solidarity movement in Poland demonstrates the truth told in an underground joke in the Soviet Union. It is that the Soviet Union would remain a one-party nation even if an opposition party were permitted, because everyone would join the opposition party.America’s time as a player on the stage of world history has been brief. I think understanding this fact has always made you patient with your younger cousins — well, not always patient. I do recall that on one occasion, Sir Winston Churchill said in exasperation about one of our most distinguished diplomats: “He is the only case I know of a bull who carries his china shop with him.”

But witty as Sir Winston was, he also had that special attribute of great statesmen — the gift of vision, the willingness to see the future based on the experience of the past. It is this sense of history, this understanding of the past that I want to talk with you about today, for it is in remembering what we share of the past that our two nations can make common cause for the future.

____________________________________________

Little known presidential facts:

  1. James Abram Garfield (1831-1881) is the first president to ever talk on the phone. When he spoke to Alexander Graham Bell, who was at the other end 13 miles away, he said: “Please speak a little more slowly.”k
  2. Twenty-ninth president Warren Gamaliel Harding (1865-1923) repeatedly made love to a young girl, Nan Britton, in a White House closet. On one occasion, Secret Service agents had to stop his wife from beating down the closet door.e
By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Ronald Reagan | Comments (0)

White Flight or Everybody Flight to better schools?

March 7, 2011 – 5:24 pm

 

Max Brantley stated on the Arkansas Times Blog on March 7, 2011, “Charter school performance is more about demographic makeup of student bodies than educational strategies.”

I think the real reason that people want to move their children to better schools is that they care about their children. Many black people are upset at inner city schools and are doing just that. For years the Memphis City School officials have claimed they have been victims of white flight. However, it appears the last ten years they have been victims of “everybody flight.” Over and over we have had to listen to all the allegations of racism leveled at those who leave the city limits to take their kids to schools that perform better. Maybe it is not about demographics but about discipline and demanding more of the students? Take a look at this article from the Commercial Appeal:

City officials across DeSoto County on Friday were relishing 2010 Census figures that showed sharp population increases — and signaled economic and service opportunities.

And while the overall growth came as no surprise, analysts at the University of Mississippi said there was one myth-busting figure: “Black flight” was a large factor in countywide growth. African-Americans make up nearly half of DeSoto’s 54,000-person population increase from the last census.

In Hernando, which more than doubled from 6,838 in the 2000 tally to 14,090, city Planning Director Bob Barber said: “The figures aren’t unexpected, but when it all becomes official it takes things out of the realm of speculation.

“By going to 10,000-plus, we register on more radar screens of private investors and developers looking for that threshold. As to the public sector, there now are things that we will be eligible for as a city that we weren’t previously.”

Hernando Mayor Chip Johnson said, “We’re always looking for new opportunities” in grants and enhancements to boost services.”

Southaven soared 69 percent in population to 48,982, and is now Mississippi’s third-largest city after Jackson and Gulfport. Olive Branch grew from 21,054 to 33,484; Horn Lake from 14,099 to 16,066; and rural Walls surged from a 2005 estimate of 452 to 1,162.

As a whole, DeSoto County’s population rose 50 percent, adding more than 54,000 for a total population of 161,252. That moves DeSoto from fifth to the state’s third-largest county, jumping over Rankin and Katrina-battered Jackson counties, said Clifford Holley, interim director of the Center for Population Studies at Ole Miss. Hinds, site of Jackson, is still the largest county, with coastal Harrison second.

But what struck Holley as interesting was that while notions are popular of white outflow from Shelby County feeding DeSoto’s growth, the census figures show that of the 54,000-person growth, 23,050 are listed as black residents.

“In 2000 there were only about 12,000 black people in DeSoto; now the figure nearly triples to 35,266 of the total population,” said Holley. Much of the black share, he said, must come from shifts from Shelby and even within Mississippi — people looking for higher-paying jobs, better schools, a safer place to live.

That makes sense to Hernando Mayor Johnson.

“It’s incredible — the jobs, schools, medical facilities and infrastructure that are such a draw to everyone,” he said. DeSoto’s growth “is just due to high standards that have been set — and people realize that. Here in our city, we really didn’t plan all this growth, we just set out to make Hernando a great place to live.”

 

 

 

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

DC Voucher program

March 7, 2011 – 5:17 pm

 

I found this video from Reason TV that really tells the truth about the DC Voucher Program:

Barack Obama & the DC School Voucher Program: The president says he wants to do ‘what’s best for kids.’ So why won’t he save a proven program that helps low-income students?”

Mercedes Campbell is one of the 1,700 students in the Washington, D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, a school-voucher program authorized by Congress in 2004. The program gives students up to $7,500 to attend whatever school their parents choose. For kids like Mercedes, who now attends Georgetown Visitation Prep, the DC voucher program is a way out of one of the worst school districts in the country.

“It’s different, now that I go to Visitation,” says Mercedes. “I approach things differently. It’s like a whole new world, basically.”

The program is wildly popular with parents and children—there are four applicants for every available slot—and a recent Department of Education study found that participants do significantly better than their public school peers. Indeed, after three years in private schools, students who entered the program at its inception were 19 months ahead in reading of applicants unlucky enough to still be trapped in D.C.’s public schools.

Yet working with congressional Democrats and despite his pledge to put politics and ideology aside in education, the Obama administration has effectively killed the program through a backdoor legislative move. “[Education] Secretary [Arne] Duncan will use only one test in what ideas to support with your precious tax dollars,” says the president. “It’s not whether it’s liberal or conservative, but whether it works.”

That sort of doublespeak has left many Obama supporters not just puzzled but outraged. Certainly, Mercedes is. “Out of everything else they can shut down or everything else they can advocate for, they want to take this one thing away?” Adds her mother, Ingrid, “We voted for you, we walked, we went to the parade, we stood freezing. Why?…Can you get this tape over to Obama and have him answer our questions? Why, sir, why?”

“Barack Obama and the DC School Voucher Program” is approximately 5.30 minutes long and was produced by Dan Hayes and Nick Gillespie.

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in President Obama, Vouchers | Comments (0)

George Washington at 279 (Born Feb 22, 1732) Part 6

March 7, 2011 – 6:41 am

George Washington a Christian?

I went to Memphis yesterday and I actually got to walk across a bridge over the Mississippi River. Frankly it was so frightening that I turned around and came back since the bridge was shaking so much.

George Washington wore a lot of hats: JUDGE; MEMBER OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS; COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE CONTINENTAL ARMY; PRESIDENT OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION; FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES; “FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY”

David Barton lists several quotes from Washington concerning Christ:

You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are.122

While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.123

The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary but especially so in times of public distress and danger. The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier, defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.124

I now make it my earnest prayer that God would… most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of the mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion.125

Trivia about George Washington:

Washington stood six feet, three inches tall.

— He started losing his teeth in his twenties.

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in David Barton, Founding Fathers | Comments (0)

Ronald Wilson Reagan Part 48(England is our best friend)

March 6, 2011 – 8:13 am

HALT:HaltingArkansasLiberalswithTruth.com

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President Reagan and Bob Hope performing at the Bob Hope Salute to the United Sates Air Force 40th Anniversary Celebration at the Pope Air Force Base in Fayetteville, North Carolina. 5/10/87.

The full “Doctor, Doctor” scene including classic cameo by Bob Hope at the end!

I love Bob Hope movies. Hope came to play golf at the Pro-Am at the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic several times at Colonial Country Club. I grew up going to that tournament from 1975 to 1982 I went every year.

Former President George W. Bush delivers a eulogy for Ronald Reagan


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(I got to visit the Parliament in August of 1979 and I was amazed at all the great history.)

Funny SNL skit about the Queen.

My son Wilson loves this short from SNL about British movies

In a prophetic speech concerning the Soviet Union, Ronald Reagan predicted that “the march of freedom and democracy will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash-heap of history.” I am posting in the coming days excerpts from one of Reagan best speeches ever.  He addressed the members of the British Parliament on June 8, 1982.

England is our best friend now
This is an excerpt from the great address Ronald W. Reagan gave  to Members of the British ParliamentJune 8, 1982My Lord Chancellor, Mr. Speaker:The journey of which this visit forms a part is a long one. Already it has taken me to two great cities of the West, Rome and Paris, and to the economic summit at Versailles. And there, once again, our sister democracies have proved that even in a time of severe economic strain, free peoples can work together freely and voluntarily to address problems as serious as inflation, unemployment, trade, and economic development in a spirit of cooperation and solidarity.Other milestones lie ahead. Later this week, in Germany, we and our NATO allies will discuss measures for our joint defense and America’s latest initiatives for a more peaceful, secure world through arms reductions.Each stop of this trip is important, but among them all, this moment occupies a special place in my heart and in the hearts of my countrymen — a moment of kinship and homecoming in these hallowed halls.Speaking for all Americans, I want to say how very much at home we feel in your house. Every American would, because this is, as we have been so eloquently told, one of democracy’s shrines. Here the rights of free people and the processes of representation have been debated and refined.It has been said that an institution is the lengthening shadow of a man. This institution is the lengthening shadow of all the men and women who have sat here and all those who have voted to send representatives here.
This is my second visit to Great Britain as President of the United States. My first opportunity to stand on British soil occurred almost a year and a half ago when your Prime Minister graciously hosted a diplomatic dinner at the British Embassy in Washington. Mrs. Thatcher said then that she hoped I was not distressed to find staring down at me from the grand staircase a portrait of His Royal Majesty King George III. She suggested it was best to let bygones be bygones, and in view of our two countries’ remarkable friendship in succeeding years, she added that most Englishmen today would agree with Thomas Jefferson that “a little rebellion now and then is a very good thing.”


Little known presidential facts:

  • The only president to be unanimously elected was George Washington (1732-1799). He also refused to accept his presidential salary, which was $25,000 a year.b
  • Grover Cleveland was the only president in history to hold the job of a hangman. He was once the sheriff of Erie County, New York, and twice had to spring the trap at a hanging.k
    • By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Ronald Reagan | Comments (0)