Sandy Garrett Blog - American History

The first president of the united States was not George Washington.

Washington was the first president under the Constitution of June 21, 1788, ratified by 1790.

The first constitution of the USA was titled "Articles of Confederation" and was in force between 1781 and 1788. It created a single house of Congress and no executive - but for one year during this period (1781-2, John Hanson served as "President of US in Congress Assembled" - or, in short, President of the United States. He was elected by his peers, including George Washington.

Hanson was followed by Elias Boudinot (1783), Thomas Mifflin (1784), Richard Henry Lee (1785), Nathan Gorman (1786), Arthur St. Clair (1787), and Cyrus Griffin (1788).

Washington was the EIGHTH president of the USA.

Many of the features of the American presidency are fairly recent. The length of the presidency was not limited to 2 terms until 1951 in the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) was elected to 4 successive terms between 1932 and 1944.

The president's inauguration day used to be on March 4. After Roosevelt died in office in 1945, it was changed to February 20.

Blacks could not become president until 1870 and women not until 1920.

The presidential salary remained the same for almost 100 years. It was pegged at $25,000 per year until 1873 when it was doubled. The president had no expense account until 1907 when $25,000 were added to his compensation to cover expenses connected to his office. The salary today stands at $390,000 plus $50,000 in expenses.

Retired presidents were not eligible for a state pension until 1958. The Former President's Act gave them $25,000 a year, an office and minimal staff. The pension today stands at c. $161,000 - the same as a cabinet secretary.

Presidents are not elected by popular vote but by an electoral college representing the states. John Quincy Adams (1824), Rutherford Hayes (1876), Benjamin Harrison (1888) and George W. Bush (2000) lost the overall vote but won the presidency.

"'Unbounded' morality ultimately becomes counterproductive even in terms of the same moral principles being sought. The law of diminishing returns applies to morality."

Thomas Sowell

There's a story about Robespierre that has the preeminent rabble-rouser of the French Revolution leaping up from his chair as soon as he saw a mob assembling outside.

"I must see which way the crowd is headed", he is reputed to have said: "For I am their leader."

.salon.com/tech/books/1999/11/04/new_optimism/

People who exercise violence in the pursuit of what they hold to be just causes are alternately known as "terrorists" or "freedom fighters".

They all share a few common characteristics:

A hard core of idealists adopt a cause (in most cases, the freedom of a group of people). They base their claims on history - real or hastily concocted, on a common heritage, on a language shared by the members of the group and, most important, on hate and contempt directed at an "enemy". The latter is, almost invariably, the physical or cultural occupier of space the idealists claim as their own.

The loyalties and alliances of these people shift effortlessly as ever escalating means justify an ever shrinking cause. The initial burst of grandiosity inherent in every such undertaking gives way to cynical and bitter pragmatism as both enemy and people tire of the conflict.

An inevitable result of the realpolitik of terrorism is the collaboration with the less savoury elements of society. Relegated to the fringes by the inexorable march of common sense, the freedom fighters naturally gravitate towards like minded non-conformists and outcasts. The organization is criminalized. Drug dealing, bank robbing and other manner of organized and contumacious criminality become integral extensions of the struggle. A criminal corporatism emerges, structured but volatile and given to internecine donnybrooks.

Very often an un-holy co-dependence develops between the organization and its prey. It is the interest of the freedom fighters to have a contemptible and tyrannical regime as their opponent. If not prone to suppression and convulsive massacres by nature - acts of terror will deliberately provoke even the most benign rule to abhorrent ebullition.

The terrorist organization will tend to emulate the very characteristics of its enemy it fulminates against the most. Thus, all such groups are rebarbatively authoritarian, execrably violent, devoid of human empathy or emotions, suppressive, ostentatious, trenchant and often murderous.

It is often the freedom fighters who compromise their freedom and the freedom of their people in the most egregious manner. This is usually done either by collaborating with the derided enemy against another, competing set of freedom fighters - or by inviting a foreign power to arbiter. Thus, they often catalyse the replacement of one regime of oppressive horror with another, more terrible and entrenched.

Most freedom fighters are assimilated and digested by the very establishment they fought against or as the founders of new, privileged nomenklaturas. It is then that their true nature is exposed, mired in gulosity and superciliousness as they become. Inveterate violators of basic human rights, they often transform into the very demons they helped to exorcise.

Most freedom fighters are disgruntled members of the middle classes or the intelligentsia. They bring to their affairs the merciless ruthlessness of sheltered lives. Mistaking compassion for weakness, they show none as they unscrupulously pursue their self-aggrandizement, the ego trip of sending others to their death. They are the stuff martyrs are made of. Borne on the crests of circumstantial waves, they lever their unbalanced personalities and project them to great effect. They are the footnotes of history that assume the role of text. And they rarely enjoy the unmitigated support of the very people they proffer to liberate. Even the most harangued and subjugated people find it hard to follow or accept the vicissitudinal behaviour of their self-appointed liberators, their shifting friendships and enmities and their pasilaly of violence.

The Armenian massacres in Turkey started in the 19th century and continued well after the Armenian genocide of 1915 in which some 600,000 Armenians perished. The Armenians were also raided by Kurdish tribesmen on a regular basis. An Ottoman military tribunal, convened between 1919-21, even convicted for the crimes members of the administration of the Young Turks, including cabinet ministers.

Many of the perpetrators fled the country only to return, triumphant, after the establishment of modern Turkey in 1923. The Turkish government today denies that an organized, premeditated genocide ever took place and pegs the number of Armenian fatalities at 200-300,000 at the most.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the Armenians formed guerrilla movements in eastern Van (the Armenakans, in 1885) and in Russia. Radical nationalist parties were established by Russian-Armenian emigrants in 1887 (Hunchak or Henchak, "The Bell") and in 1890 in Georgia (Dashnak or Dashnaktsutyun, "Union"). Mass demonstrations in the Turkish capital (in 1890 and 1895) and armed uprisings followed (in 1894-5). The Dashnaks even invaded Turkey from Russia in 1896 - a demonstrative act which resulted in the slaughter of 50,000 Armenians.

The suppression of these revolts claimed 200,000 Armenian lives. In 1909, in Adana, more than 23,000 Armenians were massacred as the warships of the Great Powers stood idly by. In 1912-3 the Great Powers, led by Russia, pressured Turkey to cease its mistreatment of the Armenians. This intervention was resented by the Ottoman authorities. By 1915, Armenian calls for autonomy were deemed a danger to the disintegrating realm, now at war with Russia.

When the first world war broke, Turkey allied itself with the Germans. All Armenian men aged 20-45 were conscripted to the army as soldiers, soon to be disarmed and serve as pack animals or in menial jobs. When Russian Armenians recruited Turkish Armenians for the anti-Turkish Russian Army of the Caucasus, in April 1915, the elite of the Armenian community was arrested and executed. Between May and June 1915 the Armenian population was deported to Mesopotamia. The deportation followed mass executions.

Many more died from starvation, exposure, dehydration, abuse and outright torture. The survivors - less than 300,000 - were subjected to additional slaughter in Syria. People were beaten with blunt instruments, burnt alive or drowned forcibly. The massacres were carried out by military officers with dictatorial powers, aided by criminals especially released from jails and assigned to their gruesome duties.

Armed resistance in Van province, Mussa Dagh, Shabin Karahisar and Urfa - as well as setbacks in the war - prevented the Turks for deporting the urban Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire's major cities. Today there are less than 60,000 Armenians in Turkey compared to at least 1.8 million in 1910.

The War's beginning?

Some would say that World War Two began with Germany’s Invasion of Poland on the 1st September 1939 and the ultimatum of Britain that without a German withdrawal a State of War would exist. Needless to say there was no German withdrawal and WWII began, Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declaring war on the 3rd of September 1939

Others would argue that world war two was simply the second round of world war one. Although the major powers had yet to realise it the continuance of the war between the Axis and Allies would result in the end of European dominance of the world and the destruction of their colonial empires. By renewing the fight they only ensured their own demise no matter who won the outcome.

Some have claimed that the Treaty of Versailles was ‘harsh and unreasonable’ and therefore was the seed which guaranteed the second world war. Germany would seek to redress this wrong. In truth the Treaty of Versailles was no harsher than the very terms that the Germans had sought to impose on the Russians in 1917/18 with Russia forced to secede large tracts of territory and pay large indemnities in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

In truth the greater cause of the second world war was the belief by many Germans that they had never lost the first world war. German territory had not been invaded, the troops felt they had never lost. In reality the army had to return to Germany to preserve the state from social meltdown, as Germany was in greater danger from internal enemies than the threat posed by the allies. Hence the belief that Germany had only lost the war due to a stab in the back at home. This breakdown however was the result of a state put under immense pressure and succumbing to economic pressure and political facture, in order to win a modern war, victory in the field is no longer enough, victory must be obtained over the whole system of the other nation. (i.e. destroy its will to fight). Germany had lost the strategic battle, its system had collapsed and hence it lost the war. The British Navy had succeeded in its blockade of the Germany economy and had thus brought about its ruin and defeat, (even if the Navy hadn’t proven itself in open battle).

Germany had lost its allies, Turkey and Austria, and had failed in production with less airplanes, few tanks and had run out of manpower. Although Germany had not lost the battle, it had lost the war.

Nevertheless this myth of not having been really defeated lead to resentment at being labelled the losers. Soon every problem in Germany was related to past wrongs. The great depression was the final straw. Mass unemployment and hyperinflation left a perfect environment for an extremist political party to gain enough support to take centre stage. In this case the Nazi’s with a combination of nationalism, racism, authoritarism, and the promise of better times gained enough political power to begin the takeover and change a democracy into dictatorship. Careful staged events such as the burning of the Reichstag and downright bully boy tactics led to complete dictatorship. In order to continue to deliver on promises Hitler who was the embodiment of the state had continue to expand, first via appeasement and then outright war.

The killer blow was the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed on the 23rd of August 1939, in which Hitler was free to carve up Poland with the acquience of the USSR.

Thanks to the Bitzkrieg tactics and superior ordanance the German army quickly overcome Poland. With France and Britain disgracing themselves by doing nothing on the Western front.

Once Poland was over Germany cemented its position by invading Denmark and Norway on the 9th of April 1940, guaranteeing its access to Swedish iron ore and opening up the North Atlantic. The invasion of France began on the 10th of May 1940, it also included a co-ordinated invasion of the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium with careful German planning producing brilliant results, France failed before it had even begun. A lack of will only quicken the defeat. The beginning of Germany's ultimate defeat though had already been sown with the failure to destroy the British at Dunkirk (which began to evacute on the 26th May 1940), and by failing to seize the French Navy. This combined with oppressive occupations produced stiffening resolve. Victory had gained Italy as a partner, but it was to prove a fatal marriage with Italy being more of a hindrance than a help. However for now the third Reich rejoiced at France's demise and the French signed the armistice on the 22nd June 1940. In less than two months since beginning its offensive Germany had defeated all its enemies bar the British Empire.

Turning East:-

It has become clear from historical records that Germany did not have the capability to invade Britain nor did Hitler have the patience to take the time neccessary to allow his current superior position to pay dividends to secure the situation and to build up the necessary naval superiority and required landing craft to invade Britain. Nor build the heavy bombers required to seriously bomb Britain into oblivion. This lack of patience and overconfidence from what had already been achieved lead to the fateful decision to turn east and invade Russia.

This plan was further doomed by the unnecessary invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece on the 6th April 1941, brought about by Italy’s failure and Germany’s rescue to later be repeated in North Africa. The delay to Operation Babarossa would be costly.

Operation Babarossa began on 22 June 1941. Three German army groups, an Axis force of over four million men lay in wait to invade Russia and Comrade Stalin was ‘asleep at the wheel’ having ignore British intelligence about Hitler’s invasion plans.

German success was doomed within sight of the Kremlin with the onset of winter and the confirmation to Stalin that Japan had no intention to invade, thus freeing up the Siberian Army to be transferred to the defence of Moscow and the winter offensive in which the Russians began a counterattack on the 5th of December 1941. The unprepared German army froze to death.

Russians Counter Attack at Moscow

Stupidly on the 11th day of December 1941 Germany declared war on the USA (After Pearl Harbour 7th December 1941). Unofficially the nations had already been at war with the USA supplying arms to Britain and USSR and US destroyers battling U-Boats in the Atlantic. However for Hitler to formalise it with a declaration of war was stupidity personified.

A second throw of the dice.

After the failure to succeed at Moscow or to take Leningrad and link up with the Finn.s Hitler had a throw at Stalingrad and the oil fields of the Caucasus on the 22nd August 1942. At first once again Bitzkrieg tactics rained supreme with the Germans reaching Stalingrad on the 8th of September. Once again Hitler failed by allowing his army to get into an urban fire fight for which they were unsuited, allowing the Russians to spring a giant trap and destroyed an entire army (surrendering on 31st January 1943), this combined with the Allied success in North Africa which resulted in the destruction another German army lead to the irreversible change in the course of the war with German doomed to destruction.

The Allies fight back.

With growing success in the battle of the Atlantic, and the victory at El Alamein on the 4th of November 1942 the allies began to swing into the offensive, with operation torch begun on the 8th of November 1942, the allies began to sqeeze the Germans out of North Africa. Next they invaded Italy, starting with the invasion of Sicily on the 10th of July 1943. They continued onto the boot of Italy however this proved to be a costly exercise due to terrain favouring the defender, Rome not being liberated until 4th June 1944.

The real end game began with the invasion of Normandy on the 6th June 1944 (D-Day). With the success of the invasion and breakout of the bocage. Success at the Falaise pocket and Kursk confirmed Germany’s fates.

The End Game

Despite Hitlers gamble at the Battle of the Bulge (Dec. 1944) the end was already on the way with the Allies laying waste to Germany from the air and the Russians laying waste with massed artillery and troops. The destruction of Berlin and the death of Hitler (30th April 1945) confirmed to the die hards it was over, V-E day being 8th May, the Germans having surrendered the day before.

Why Germany lost the War.

It failed the Diplomatic battle &ndash it failed to convince Spain another fascist nation to join in the cause. It failed to turn occupied countries into allies. It failed to have a unified plan with its allies. Imagine if Japan had been convinced to invade Russia instead of bombing Pearl Harbour. Imagine if the USA had been encouraged to stay out of the war for another year. In other words Germany failed to win hearts and minds, by the oppressive actions of the SS and others in Poland and Russia, instead of winning over many who would have gladly joined in the overthrow of Stalinism and helped guarantee German victory. Nazism with its German nationalist roots and outright racism just didn’t offer anything to non-Germans.

It failed the Technological battle &ndash although Germany produced new amazing technological advances in rockets and the like, it either failed to produce the really important technology early enough, i.e. radar, nuclear weapons, or failed to recognise and exploit to their full potential advances that really made a difference i.e. Jet power.

It failed to adopt Total War. Until late in the war when Albert Speer took over the economy German hadn’t fully exploited available resources. The Nazi philosophy regarding women had prevented full labour and military use. Whilst the Russians had no such qualms with females even serving in active front line units. In slaughtering the Jews and others deemed unwanted the Nazi’s wasted valuable military resources and valuable human resources which could have been applied in more useful purposes. German relied on slave labour to make up the gap, whilst Britain and the USA had an army of willing labourers in "Rosie the Riveter." German further wasted resources in futile projects such as the Atlantic wall (which didn’t even succeed in stopping the Allies for one day) and anti-aircraft guns which absorbed thousands of guns would have been more useful on the front as anti-tank batteries and the men in manpower it took to operate them. It also diverted resources to unnecessary battles such as Greece and North Africa. It believed its own propaganda and thus made Fatal mistakes. Some of these fatal mistakes included failing to realise that the enigma machine had been compromised. The Nazi's believed it was "unbreakable", thus would not realise how intell was leaking. Further fatal mistakes including failing to succeed in the intellegience war, apart a notable success in compromising the Dutch resistance most German intellegience activities paled into insignificance when compared to British Intell. That's not to say British intell was perfect but Churchill summed it up best with "in war the truth is so precious it must be wrapped in a tissue of lies". Hitler was sold on the Pas de Calais being the true invasion point. Further by centering all its confidence in the Fuhrer it lead to the disaster of Stalingrad, etc. Hitler may have thought he was a Military Genius, but after the conclusion of the invasion of France he made few successful contributions. One might asked what would have happened if the German Generals had been allowed to run the show?

I believe if the German economy had been fully geared up for the war from the beginning and if it had addressed some of these factors above there would have been every likely hood that they would have succeeded. We should not think that the outcome of World War II was guarantee, it was only with much sacrifice by the allies that final victory was achieved.

This article is dedicated to all those who fought in destroying the evils of Nazism. In particular to my Great Uncle Ivan HARRIS who died on Wednesday 22nd July 1942 fighting in North Africa fighting for New Zealand.

So, I'm channel surfing in my New York City hotel room, organizing the junk I lugged from a conference to my hotel room floor, junk I'm about to pay an exorbitant surcharge to lug over the border and then throw out once I get home. No point in channel surfing,'cause there's only one thing on, presidential hopefuls strutting their stuff.

Even with the volume turned off it didn't take me long to size 'em up.

Disclaimer. I have no business writing an article about American politics. I know nothing about politics and I'm Canadian to boot.

But I do know that all business is show business and politics is no exception.

After glancing at the chorus line of official Democratic contenders, I picked a couple to whom I'd give a call-back (or as they say on American Idol, send "To Hollywood" for the next round). Who? An uptight looking woman and a magnetic "what's his ethnicity?" guy with an intriguing name. The rest of 'em? A bunch of boring looking old white guys in suits.

A month later, I see an headline in The Huffington Post from The New York Times, "Young Americans Love Obama, Clinton". The article says that young Americans are really familiar with only two of the candidates. Duh. I doubt it's just young Americans.

In his best-selling book, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell writes of a study in which students were shown 3 ten second video-clips of a teacher and asked to rank that teacher's effectiveness. Those results were compared with the opinions of students who'd been in that teacher's class for a whole semester. The results were virtually the same, despite the fact that the clips were shown with the volume turned off. No surprise there.

I didn't need 3 ten second clips. Woman, African American, old white guys in suits.

But let's dig a bit deeper and check their back stories.

The woman's a no-brainer. She's a sharp tongued Yale Law School graduate who used to be Mrs. President. Forget that she's got the charisma of a carp, the former first lady's got an interesting story and best of all, she's a woman, and we've never had a woman president, so she stands out. She's the long-suffering "he done her wrong" wife of an affable but naughty donut eating President who "did not have sex with that woman".

OK, so we never really liked Hill, but we did always suspect that she was the brains of the operation. We weren't sure about her "stand by your man" attitude, but we understood why she did it--the woman had bigger plans. A stain on some other woman's dress wasn't going to derail her.

Who can resist renewing the melodrama for four more years? Think of the ratings!

Will Bill schlep around the country to stand behind her podium? Was there a deal? She looks the other way, he gets her into the White House"? What will he be doing behind the curtains? Don't touch that dial!

And we won't just be getting the first "First Man" in U.S. history, we'll be getting two Presidents for the price of one. The Mr and Mrs. President Show. But the real reason this woman has a shot? She'll get the curiosity vote. We all wanna see how she's going to wear her hair.

The other contender, is a Hawaiian born product of a "black as pitch" Kenyan father and a "white as milk" mother from Kansas (his words, not mine). Throw in a stint in Indonesia and things are starting to look interesting. He says his name means "Blessed by G-d" in Swahili and you gotta admit, the guy does have an angelic look about him.

The other choices? Like I said, a bunch of old white guys in suits. (OK, so one has a Mexican mother and a couple aren't grey haired yet, but they might as well be.)

I didn't notice 'em.

You can't get elected if people don't know you exist. It's no coincidence that actors do well in politics. The Republicans have figured this out. Sonny Bono, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Ronald Reagan got the lead. (Don't think Law and Order guy will.)

Actors get that "all biz is showbiz". You gotta confidence. You gotta have a story. And know how to tell it. You gotta have a look. A name. You gotta give us something to remember you by.

Most important? You gotta be able to connect with your audience.

A brief look at recent history proves my point. No one would ever accuse George W. of being the sharpest tool in the shed, but he's sharper than the cardboard cutouts they threw into the ring to run against him, smart enough to know that we won't vote for guys we don't relate to even if they are smarter, more articulate and have a better plan.

So whatever you're running for, whatever role you're after, V.P of Finance, Girlfriend, PTA President or American President-- remember, all biz is showbiz!

And that, my friends, is the inconvenient truth.

The Underground Railroad’s last stop in the slave-holding state of Delaware was located on Shipley Street in Wilmington at the home of a Quaker merchant named Thomas Garrett. Over 2,700 runaway slaves were given safe harbor there before making their way to the free states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Garrett’s passionate commitment to the abolition of slavery would cost him a great deal over the course of his life. Maryland authorities went so far as to offer $10,000.00 for his arrest. In 1848 federal court fines bankrupted him, forcing him accept the charity of his abolitionist friends to stay in business. During the Civil War his life was in constant danger so that he had to be guarded by African-American volunteers. But throughout his trials, Garrett never wavered from his principled stand again the evils of slavery.

Though Thomas Garret is today recognized as one of Delaware’s most honored citizens, he was in fact born in Upper Darby Pennsylvania in August of 1789. Garrett’s parents instilled in him a respect for human freedom at an early age by hiding runaway slaves on the family farm. When Garrett was a young man a family servant was kidnapped and forced into slavery. Garrett managed to track the family’s friend and employ down and affect an escape, but the incident left an indelible impression.

He moved to Wilmington, Delaware in 1822, but his personal convictions and deep commitment to his Quaker religious beliefs put him at odds with the state’s pro-slavery stance. It was only a few years before Garrett once again resumed his efforts to aid escaped slaves. For the next 40 years he did everything in his power to do so.

In 1848 Garrett and fellow abolitionist John Hunn were convicted of aiding the Hawkins family in their escape from slavery in Maryland. The sentence, a bank-breaking fine that would leave both men virtually penniless, was handed down in the New Castle, Delaware courthouse by US Chief Justice Roger Taney. After the sentence was read and unrepentant Garrett gave an impassioned speech so moving that even a slave-holding juror offered him his hand, “I say to thee and to all in this court room, that if anyone knows a fugitive who wants shelter” he said “send him to Thomas Garrett and he will befriend him."

Garrett continued to fight against inequality even after the end of the Civil War, acting as an advocate for the rights of former slaves. When the 15th Amendment was passed in 1870, giving African-Americans the right to vote, Garrett was paraded through the streets by his grateful supporters. Some went as far as to refer to him as “out Moses”.

On January 25th of 1871 Thomas Garrett died. His funeral, attended by friends from all walks of life, including many he aided in their fight for freedom. Garrett's coffin was borne from shoulder to shoulder to his final resting place in the cemetery at the Wilmington Friends Meeting House at 4th and West Streets in Quaker Hill.

Charles Augustus Lindbergh was the first person to cross the Atlantic in a nonstop flight. This made him an instant celebrity. When, in 1932, his 19-months old son was kidnapped and murdered, the nation was appalled.

Finally, a German carpenter, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, was apprehended and, following a much-publicized trial, executed.

The police chief who arrested Bruno Richard Hauptmann was the father of Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of the American forces in the Gulf War in 1991.

The affair had many repercussions, both personal and national.

The Lindberghs, revolted by the media's unrelenting prying, moved to live in Europe in 1935. Lindbergh became a fan of Adolf Hitler and in 1938 received from him a decoration for having praised the German Luftwaffe as superior to all other air forces. In 1939, upon his return to the USA, Lindbergh embarked on a cross-country tour of antiwar and pro-Nazi speeches. Consequently, he was ousted from the air corps reserve and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.

Still, when war broke out, Lindbergh served as a civilian consultant to aircraft manufacturers. Later, the US Army sent him on clandestine missions to the Pacific and Europe. But he never regained his stature in the eyes of the American public.

He won the Pulitzer prize in 1953 for his tome, The Spirit of Saint Louis and died in 1974 in Hawaii.

The kidnapping and gruesome murder of his son prompted lawmakers to pass the Lindbergh Act in 1932. The Encarta: "The statute made it a federal crime, punishable by life imprisonment, to kidnap a person and transport that person to another state. This law was amended in 1934 making conspiracy to commit a kidnapping also a federal crime. In 1968 the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated that section of the Lindbergh Act that gave the jury the power to recommend the death penalty for kidnapping."

In my capacity as the UK Director of Operations for One World Tours Limited, one of my jobs is to ensure every client has the best tour possible, so here are some interesting facts about the history of Peru which I hope will enhance your trip.

Who were the Incas? They were a native South American people who in their day ruled over one of the largest and richest empires in the Americas. All that is known about them today has been uncovered through what was recorded through oral tradition, the remains of their culture such as stone, pottery, gold and silver jewellery, and what was woven in the tapestry of the people.

The Incas did not developed a written language making it fascinating that they were able to control and administer such a large area. The Incas reigned over people from hundreds of different tribes who all had their own languages. They managed to keep control by developing sophisticated ways of organizing their society. They realised that by maintaining a large army, and by inventing very advanced agricultural, building and engineering methods that they could become a formidable presence.

The most important inventions that the Incas came up with was the elaborate systems of stone roads and many bridges that they built to connect all the parts of the country.

Everyone that the Incas conquered were forced to learn and speak their language, so inevitably having a common language made communication so much easier in the Inca Empire.

Firstly the Inca road system deserves a mention as it is the most extensive system in pre-Columbia. It is amazing to think that the inca’s made a road system that covered approximately 14,000 miles some of which traversed the Andes mountains achieving heights of over 16,500 feet above sea level. When you consider that evidence shows that the Incas did not use of the wheel for transportation and that they did not have horses until the 16th century, it is incredible that the trails were used just to walk (for transporting goods) or run along (as a means of relaying messages).

In order to offer rest and refreshments there were an estimated 2,000 inns, placed at convienient intervals along the trails. These inns also offered corrals for animals, usually llamas, to rest and fill themselves with the provisions for their onward journey. The Inca’s made rope bridges to enable themselves access acroo the valleys. food, shelter and military supplies to the tens of thousands who traveled the roads. In Cuzco the Inca Capital city, the trails meet in the center of the empire.

The Inca trail to Machu Picchu. The Capaq Nan trail is the most popular Inca trail of all as it leads to the village of Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu, the "Lost City of the Incas". There are also many well-preserved ruins along the way and that along with passing through the Andes mountain range and parts of the Amazonian rainforests makes the whole experience very magical. You will encounter the 'Sun Gate' and entrance to Machu Picchu your reward after your amazing journey. The inca Empire reached its’ height around 1450 when Machu Picchu was built. Story has it that under the Spanish conquest the empire collapsed and Machu Picchu was abandoned less than 100 years later.

The Spanish did not manage to locate Machu Picchu, and because the jungle reclaimed itself it was preserved as were many other Inca sites. Only a very few knew of its existence and the empire was returned to the world’s imagination in 1911 by the Yale historian and explorer Hiram.

Before I start I would like to admit that I am a conservative. I am not a Republican, I despise President Bush for his big spending policies and I am sorry I ever voted for him. If I do not like his level of spending you can imagine how I feel about a candidate who is promising 10 times as much. I also spit at the thought that the Republicans may choose a liberal like Rudy Giuliani to run on their ticket.

So far Hillary has promised over 750 billion dollars in new spending over the first four years she is in office. These are the conservative figures; most of which are the amounts that she says the programs will cost. If you know anything about politics, politicians always give the lowest bids they can on the cost of programs that they propose. That equals to over 3000 dollars for every man, woman and child in America. Most of the time she does not suggest how she will pay for these programs. Obviously taxes have to be raised. Last year around 140 million people filled tax returns. That works out to over 5300 dollars per tax payer over the four years she is in office or over 1300 dollars a year. That is unless she is like President Bush and puts it on the credit card for our kids to pay.

Here are some of the high lights of Hillary’s spending proposals.

Health Care. Hillary is proposing a comprehensive health care plan that she says will cost 110 billion a years or 440 billion for her term in office. Most analysts I have seen say it will cost much more than that. Consider this, Hillary’s health care plan is much more modest than the universal health care plan she proposed while her husband was President and significantly more modest than the other Democrat who are running and the most influential Democratic Congressmen are proposing. I am willing to bet that if she is elected and has large majorities in both Houses of Congress, she will go for the plan she came up with 14 years ago and has supported until this year when she was running for President.

The Baby Bond. Hillary has proposed that the federal government give the family of every baby born in America a 5000 dollar bond. With around 4 million babies born in America every year that equals 20 billion dollars a year or 80 billion during her term in office. Note that she makes this as a blanket statement. I have not heard her qualify this statement since. Does this also include babies born to citizens of foreign countries and illegal aliens? Note that because of the negative feedback from all across America, Hillary has since stated that she has given up on the plan.

401(k) plan for all Americans. Hillary has proposed to make 401(k) plans available for all Americans with the federal government. I believe the idea is a solid one but she goes way beyond just making them available she also plans to have the government provide up to a thousand dollars a year by matching dollar for dollar in tax credits. Wow another tax break for the wealthy! At least by their definition it is. How many of the bottom income earners can afford to make payments into a 401(k) when they can hardly put food on the table. The estimated cost for this program is 25 billion a year to the federal government or 100 billion for her term in office.

Education money for developing countries. Hillary has proposed spending 2 billion of your hard earned tax dollars every year to get young children in developing countries into school. Can you believe this, in a country where we seem to fall further behind the rest of the industrialized world in education, she wants to spend our money to educate children in other countries. This adds up to 8 billion over her term in office.

Universal Pre K education. According to Hillary’s fact sheet on Universal Pre K education on her website, she would spend 5 billion dollars a year increasing to every year up to 10 billion as more states participate. I thought that funding pre college education was the state’s responsibility. Here is another example of the federal government wanting to take over the state's responsibility for educating out children at a cost of between 20 and 40 billion dollars during her term in office.

150 Billion Dollar investment in energy. Hillary plans to spend 150 billion in additional alternative energy research. She has a plan to tax oil companies for 50 billion dollars of the cost but does not offer information on her website as to where the additional money will come from.

Reinstate the Office of Technology Assessment. This is one of my favorites of her spending proposals. The Office of Technology Assessment was closed in the early nineties. The stated purpose of the proposal to spend 30 million dollars a year is to keep science free of politics and to tell the truth about science. Now this is great. We are going to get politics involved in deciding which science is true so that science can be free of politics. Does anyone else see the irony of this?

Hillary has also proposed spending tens of billions of dollars on other programs such as.

 10 billion on bridges

 250 million for grants to find bridges that are not safe.

 Eight billion in increased health research.

 Increase National Science Foundation Fellowships by 378 billion.

 300 billion for second chance education.

 36 million for school physical-education programs.

 1 billion to bail out people who made bad mortgage decisions.

 6 billion on public transit.

 8 billion in college affordability programs.

 7 billion to get states to enact family leave programs

 Double Funding For the Consumer Product Safety Commission at 70 million per year.

 Create an U.S. Public Service Academy at 200 million a year.

 1 billion to create affordable housing (above the billions we already spend).

 50 million a year to help foster telecommuting.

 1.2 billion for the Department of Transportation’s congestion reduction program

 1 billion for Investment in Intercity Passenger Rail.

If you want to know she means business all you need to do is watch her in the Senate. She already has a reputation as being one of the biggest spenders in congress and is known as the earmark queen. This year alone on just 3 appropriation bills she has successfully attached 530 million dollars in earmarks. Compare that to Senator Barack Obama’s 40 million and you can see what a successful spender she is. Last January Hillary voted against a bill to require public disclosure of earmark sponsors. Her vote is understandable since she successfully got one million dollars earmarked for a Woodstock museum. Fortunately for us taxpayers that other Democrats were so embarrassed when this made the news that they voted again and removed the funding from the bill.

Hillary became a Senator in 2000. In her first four years as a Senator she sponsored or cosponsored 380 bills that totaled 302 billion dollars in increased spending and only 3 that reduced spending. Of course not all of these bills passed but it goes to show how committed she is in increasing spending. 302 billion proposed in her first 4 years as a freshman Senator, can you imagine what she would do as President?

Everyone needs to ask how does she plan on paying for all these increases. It is simple; Raise taxes. She wants to raise taxes on the rich. She wants to raise taxes on businesses. It appears from her speeches for the last 4 years that she wants to repeal the entire Bush tax cuts. This means that the lowest income taxpayers will see their taxes increase from 10% to 15%. That is a 50% increase in the amount of taxes that the lowest income tax payers have to pay. She also talks about raising taxes on business. It is important to understand that business do not really pay taxes. They pass the cost on to the people who buy their products. Raise their taxes and they raise their prices. The have no choice if they are going to stay in business. So raising taxes on business is just another way of taxing even the poorest people in America.

In summary, Hillary in on a spending spree and she has your credit card. She wants everything she sees and joyfully knows that she is not the one who has to pay the bill.

Timeshare selling can be a advantageous business. Timeshare on a property such as that of a condo, vacation resorts, yachts, houseboats or motor homes can be a financial exchange as well.

An owner who owns time share can sell it to other like-minded buyers. One reason why someone would want to make a decision onto selling his timeshare is they may not be able to use it at that given time and it was already paid for by him. So as to not go through a fiscal loss, he’ll compensate for it by letting somebody else use it &ndash and that someone will be paying him instead.

To alleviatethe illegal re-selling of timeshare, it is best that the parties involved comprehend exactlythe terms of their transaction. First of all, one must know what kind of timeshare the person you're dealing with actually owns..

The different types of time shares are:

1. Fixed week ownership

The most common timeshare unit. Example: Fourth of July Holiday is always in the peak period.. If you own this particular week at an often-visited resort, you can use it every year to your advantage.

2. Floating

Ownership is the number of weeks. Example: Weeks 22 to 36.

3. Rotating

If the time share has many owners, the weeks that are often most demanded such as week 26 which normally includes the Fourth of July holiday will be shared among them.

4. Deeded and Right to Use

The utilization of timeshare in deeded contracts is often divided into weeks and are sold as if they were real property. Consequently, the owner can do whatever he chooses to with his week &ndash he can use it, rent it out, give it to those who are requesting for it or make it an inheritance to his heirs. As for right to use, the person who buys the timeshare must use the property with what is stated on his contract.

5. Vacation Clubs

These are organizations owning units in various resorts in different locations. They are sold as deeded contracts, as well as right to use. So, club members can make reservations at any time at the locations as long as it is available.

So, if you are going to sell your timeshare, you have to tell buyers all the information they need to know. Discuss it clearly with them.

An option is to ask forthe help of Timeshare Resale Services. They have programs which will place advertisements in for you. They call these as “Ad-Listing.”

As the owner, you need to have an exposure. That is exactly what those Timeshare Resale Services provide. With Ad-Listings, your timeshare is made securable to the interest of other resale companies, rental companies and most importantly, potential buyers.

You could also hope that they hold an auction for your timeshare. Usually, Timeshare Resale Services conduct auctions each week, assuming most timeshare owners can not always use their week at that given point.

With Timeshare Resale Service’s marketing campaign, you'll reach a larger marketwill be made aware of what you are selling. Their campaign covers newspapers, yellow pages, magazines, radio and even direct mail. Most recently the net is also being used to announcethe recent selling of timeshare.

Finally, you must be aware whenever your timeshare is being evaluated. Like yourself, you must know how much your timeshare is worth. Some timeshare resale companies say that your timeshare is worth more than it really is and charge you way too much..

The strategy is selling your timeshare week for less than what the resort is selling. Mark it down around 20 to 50%.

Or if you’re up to it, you can just not sell it and donate it to charity. As a consequence it will reflect a write off on your tax return. If you want, you can also exchange it in for another timeshare week at a different resort. You can actually trade what you have for something better.

Like what is mentioned earlier, timeshare is a business. Just like any business, you always, have to be very savy..