Carlism (Basque: Karlismo, Catalan: Carlisme, Spanish: Carlismo) is a traditionalist and legitimist political movement in Spain seeking the establishment of a separate line of the Bourbon family on the Spanish throne. This line descended from Infante Carlos, Count of Molina (1788–1855), and was founded due to dispute over the succession laws and widespread dissatisfaction with the Alfonsine line of the House of Bourbon. The movement was at its strongest in the 1830s but had a revival following Spain's defeat in the Spanish-American War in 1898, when Spain lost its last remaining significant colonies, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines.

An exceptionally long-lived movement, it was a significant player in Spanish politics from 1833 until the end of the Franco regime in 1975 as a social and political force, and one of the main actors in the Spanish Civil War.

In this capacity, it was the cause of several major wars during the 19th century, and an important factor during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s.

The First Carlist War was a civil war in Spain from 1833-1839.

At the beginning of the 18th century, Philip V, the first Bourbon king of Spain, promulgated the Salic Law, which declared illegal the inheritance of the Spanish crown by women. His purpose was to thwart the Habsburgs' regaining the throne by way of the female dynastic line.

A century later, King Ferdinand VII of Spain had no male descendant, but only two daughters, Isabella (later known as Isabella II of Spain) and Luisa Fernanda. So he promulgated the Pragmatic Sanction, to allow Isabella to become Queen after his death. The Infante Carlos, the king's brother, would have normally become king without the Pragmática Sanción. He and his followers, such as Secretary of Justice Francisco Tadeo Calomarde, pressed Ferdinand to change his mind. But the ill Ferdinand kept his decision and when he died on 29 September 1833, Isabella became the legitimate queen. As she was only a child, a regent was needed: her mother, Queen Consort Maria Christina.

Lou Ann Hammond has a work history in the energy and transportation field. Starting with Chevron Corp. in finance and accounting from 1978 to 1986. Hammond was exposed to the accounting, selling, management, and transportation of petroleum and all the alternative energies Chevron explored for during the turbulent 1970s.

Hammond is the founder and owner of the first privately owned automobile website www.carlist.com. Carlist is the longest running used car database, since 1986, even prior to the internet.

Recently Hammond has developed an automotive and energy issues related website, www.drivingthenation.com, that covers a broader range of subjects than solely the automotive or the energy industry. Driving the Nation encompasses both automotive and energy issues to show the audience how dependent we are on both.

Hammond's varied background in the petroleum and automotive industry gives her an analyst insight into the myriad levels of automobile and energy topics.

Television
Hammond guests on MSNBC, CNBC, The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and Fox Business News, providing insight on the global car culture, advanced technology energy, and the oil business. Hammond talks about alternative energies, technologies, and engines that drive America.

Alex Witt (born April 9, 1961 in Los Angeles, California) is an anchor for MSNBC. She joined the network in January 1999.

Alex Witt serves as anchor for Weekends with Alex Witt and contributing anchor for msnbc Live. Before joining MSNBC, Witt was a reporter at KCBA from 1990–1992 and WNYW-TV from 1996–1998. Before getting her first on-air job at KCBA, she was a producer for the Today Show in Burbank, California. She has also been with KCBS-TV, KNBC-TV, KABC-TV, each of which in communities adjacent to Los Angeles, California.

On November 11, 2008, Witt joined former congressman (and actor) Fred Grandy as co-host of the series Daily Cafe on Retirement Living TV.

She is a member of the band Mrs. Robinson, which performed on Imus in the Morning on November 16, 2006.

She is a mother of two and the daughter of Dr. Charles B. Witt, M.D., a noted thoracic surgeon in Los Angeles, California.

Witt has noted on-air that she is related to George Washington. She is a second cousin, seven generations removed to George Washington through Bailey Washington, a cousin and contemporary of President Washington. Witt is a member of the National Society of Washington Family Descendants.

Contessa Brewer (born March 16, 1974) is an American host for the MSNBC weekend program Caught on Camera.

Brewer was born in in Parsonsfield, Maine, and graduated from Sacopee Valley High School in Hiram, Maine in 1992. She graduated magna cum laude from Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications with a B.S. in Broadcast Journalism in 1996, as well as a Certificate of Contemporary Europe following her political studies in Strasbourg, France.

Brewer joined MSNBC in September 2003, after working for WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as a weekend anchor and general assignment reporter. She has also worked for KMIR-TV in Palm Springs, California from 1997 to 1999, and KRNV-TV in Reno, Nevada. KMIR and WTMJ-TV are both owned by Journal Communications.

In spring 2005, Brewer served briefly as a news reader on the Imus in the Morning radio show, which was syndicated nationally. Her tenure was brief; she became embroiled in a public feud with Don Imus after the New York Post published a gossip item in which she was allegedly overheard disparaging the radio personality. Imus replied, on air, with his own disparaging remarks directed at Brewer. She later appeared as the news reader on Verdict with Dan Abrams before its cancellation in 2008. She and Dan Abrams would discuss the "Winners and Losers" of the day, as well as reading responses from readers. She hosted MSNBC Live weekdays at noon, until her departure on August 26, 2011.