PFRW Calls August 2013 Board Meeting

Dear PFRW Board Members, Directors and Council Presidents:

PFRW is on the move with several exciting events being planned for August, September and October.  I wanted to take a few moments to tell you about them.

First of all, our next PFRW Board Meeting is scheduled for Friday, August 9th at 2 p.m.  I hope you are able to join us as we meet in Canonsburg, PA.  Complete details on the board meeting were sent out earlier this month.  Board reports are due by August 2, 2013 for inclusion in the board packets.  Reports should be sent in to PFRW by email (pfrw@comcast.net) or regular mail (PA Federation of Republican Women, 806 North Second Street, Harrisburg, PA, 17102.  I would like to have the chance to read them, too so please feel free to email yours to me at hatton81@msn.com or send by regular mail to 13 Sunset Drive, Clinton PA 15026.

Council Presidents and PFRW members are always welcome to attend our board meetings.  Local council members should let their president know that they are attending the board meeting.  Council presidents should notify their regional director if they and/or some of their members will be coming.  I want to make sure everyone is introduced and welcomed.

As was previously announced, the North and South West Regional Conference will be held August 9 and 10 in Canonsburg, PA.  The South Central Regional Conference is set for September 28th at the Radisson Hotel and Conference Center in Camp Hill, PA.  The North Central PFRW Fall Conference will be October 19th at the Shade Mountain Winery in Middleburg, PA.  Information on each of these events was sent out via email and regular mail.  There are also details on the PFRW web site (www.pfrw.org) and our new Facebook Page at Pennsylvania Federation of Republican Women.  Make sure you “like” us!

Meryl M. Hatton, President

PA Federation of Republican Women

pfrw@comcast.net

To make reservations – August 2013 Call to Board Meeting

I AM THE NATION by Otto Whittaker

I AM THE NATION

flag - aI was born on July 4, 1776, and the Declaration of Independence is my birth certificate. The bloodlines of the world run in my veins, because I offered freedom to the oppressed. I am the nation!

I am 281 million living souls and the ghosts of those who have lived and fought and died for me.

I am Nathan Hale and Paul Revere. I stood at Lexington andfired the shot heard around the world. I am Washington, Jefferson, and Patrick Henry. I am John Paul Jones, the GreenMountain Boys and Davy Crockett. I am Lee, Grant, Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Pershing, Eisenhower, MacArthur, Patton, and Colin Powell.

I remember the Alamo, the Maine, Pearl Harbor and September 11, 2001. When freedom called, I answered and stayed until it was over, over there. I left my heroic dead in Flanders Fields, the rock of Corregidor, on the bleak slopes of Korea, in the steaming jungle of Vietnam and the desert sands of Kuwait.

I am the Statue of Liberty, the wheat fields of Kansas, the granite hills of Vermont, and Tennessee the Volunteer State. I am the coalfields of the Virginias and Pennsylvania, the fertile lands of the west, the Golden Gate, Brooklyn Bridge and the Grand Canyon. I am Independence Hall, the Monitor, the Merrimac and the Challenger. I am the Liberty Bell that first rang for freedom.

I am big. I sprawl from the Atlantic to the Pacific – three million square miles of land throbbing with industry. I am two million farms. I am forest, field, mountain and desert. I am quiet villages and cities that never sleep. You can look at me and see Ben Franklin walking down the streets of Philadelphia with his breadloaf under his arm. You can see the lights of Christmas and hear the strains of “Auld Land Syne” as the calendar turns.

I am Babe Ruth and the World Series. I am more than 170,000 schools and colleges and more than 300,000 churches where my people worship God as they choose. I am a ballot dropped into a box, the roar of a crowd in a stadium, the voice of a choir in a cathedral. I am an editorial in a newspaper and a letter to Congress. I am John Glenn and Neil Armstrong and their fellow astronauts who whirl above my head. I am Eli Whitney and Stephen Foster, Tom Edison, Albert Einstein and Billy Graham. I am Horace Greeley, Will Rogers and the Wright brothers. I am George Washington Carver, Jonas Salk and Martin Luther King Jr. I am Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Walt Whitman and Thomas Paine.

Yes, I am the nation and these are the things I am. I was conceived in freedom and God willing, in freedom I shall spend the rest of my days.

May I always possess the integrity, the courage and the strength to keep myself unshackled, to remain a citadel of freedom and a beacon of hope to the world.

ACTIVIST ALERT – Prevailing Wage Bills considered today!

ACTIVIST ALERT: Today, June 28, 2013 two prevailing wage bills HB 655 and HB 796 are scheduled to be considered. While these bills don’t go far enough, they are a step in the right direction of allowing public works dollars to go to the public works projects they were designed to and not to artificially bloated salaries.
Unfortunately, some of the Southeast members of the Republican caucus are listening to the union bosses who would prefer the prevailing wage laws stay stuck in the 1960s and are undecided about how they will vote. Please call all Republican members of the Berks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Bucks delegation and ask them to SUPPORT HB 655 and 796. Then pass this information on to your friends and ask them to do the same.

For contact information visit http://www.house.state.pa.us/

 

ACLU launches campaign to win GOP support for gay marriage

Shortly after the Supreme Court struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act, the American Civil Liberties Union announced a new initiative aimed at winning Republican support for gay marriage at the state level.

The ACLU’s campaign will be led by Steve Schmidt, a Republican consultant who held senior positions in the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush and John McCain. Schmidt also managed Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California gubernatorial re-election campaign.

Additionally, the ACLU announced the hiring of GOProud co-founder and former Executive Director Jimmy LaSalvia. LaSalvia’s task will be outreach to gay conservatives, according to a statement released by the group.

The two Republicans were hired as part of a broader initiative challenging state legal and constitutional provisions that restrict marriage to a man and a woman. The ACLU is planning to spend $10 million on this effort through 2016.

ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero told The Daily Caller News Foundation that he was interested in reaching Republicans “where they are” and trying to change minds on marriage. He praised Schmidt as someone who would help connect them to GOP leaders in the nearly 40 states that do not permit same-sex marriage.

LaSalvia will play a similar role with the tea party. “Jimmy isn’t with the ACLU on issues like abortion or voting rights,” Romero said. “But he has connections that can help us reach the tea party.”

Romero told TheDC News Foundation that the ACLU decided to begin a “respectful dialogue” with Republicans after the oral arguments in the gay marriage cases before the Supreme Court. They concluded the court was unlikely to strike down state laws on marriage, and therefore engaging the states in a bipartisan manner was “the next step for marriage equality.”

“Momentum is everything in advocacy,” Romero said, hailing Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling — written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Republican appointee — as “a tipping point.”

While the ACLU’s alliance with Republican supporters of gay marriage is new, the push by GOP strategists and donors to change the party’s position has been going on for several years. Over 70 prominent Republicans signed an amicus brief urging the court to overturn Proposition 8, California’s state-level gay marriage ban.

Schmidt came out in support of same-sex nuptials after McCain was defeated in the 2008 presidential election. Ken Mehlman, the former Republican National Committee chairman who ran Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign, announced his support for gay marriage in 2010.

House Defeats Farm Bill

PFB Express logo

Concerns over cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and overall spending, sunk the 2013 Farm Bill in the House of Representatives. The bill failed 195 to 234, with every Democratic member of the Pennsylvania Congressional delegation voting against the bill. Pennsylvania Republicans Scott Perry, Pat Meehan, Bill Shuster, Keith Rothfus, and Joseph Pitts also voted against the bill. American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman expressed disappointment following the bill’s defeat. “It was a balanced bill that would have provided much needed risk management tools and a viable economic safety net for America’s farmers and ranchers,” Stallman said. An amendment to the Farm Bill that would have added new work requirements of individuals receiving food assistance siphoned Democratic support from the bill and some Republican lawmakers also sought more reform, AFBF said. Members of the Senate previously adopted their own versions of the Farm Bill, a bipartisan move that cut spending but also gave strong safety net and risk management tools to farmers. Prior to the House vote on Thursday, several news agencies reported the President was considering a veto of the bill because of cuts to food assistance.

Glenn Beck to Speak at Audit the IRS Rally

audit the irs rallyl 6-19-2013Patriots, we have big news to share. We have just been informed that Glenn Beck has accepted an invitation to speak at our Audit the IRS rally on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 from 12pm to 3pm. There were rumors last week and even talk from Beck on his radio program that he would be showing up in DC this week. You can read more about his announcement here  Glenn Beck

SIGN UP FOR BUS TO DC FOR IRS RALLY

The Mifflin County Tea Party Patriots will be taking a bus to DC from State College, Burnham and Mifflintown PA for the IRS rally on June 19.  If you are interested please contact Lisa Nancollas @ 717-437-1327 email Lnancollas@aol.com. 

Lisa Nancollas, lnancollas@aol.com
Mifflin County Tea Party Patriots, Coordinator

Tea Party Patriots PA State Coordinator

717-437-1327

www.teapartypatriots.org

tea party patriots -3