SILICON VALLEY REPUBLICAN WOMEN FEDERATED NEWSLETTER

                 December 2008      

 

President: Ellen Longworth (408)354-0419 ~ 1st V.P & Program: Carol Greenleaf (408)867-5680

~2nd V.P/Membership: Laura Riffle (408)263-0990 ~ Treasurer: Naomi Blais ~

Secretary: Gloria Estes ~ Newsletter Editor/Legislation: Eve Bretzke  

Website: www.svrwf.org, Address: PO Box 2153, Sunnyvale, CA 94087

 

All SVRWF Luncheon and Dinner Meetings are held at the Ramada Inn,

Silicon Valley located at 1217 Wildwood Ave. Sunnyvale, California.

Luncheon Meetings: Social 11:30 AM., Lunch 12:00 PM, Cost $20.00*

 

Our next luncheon meeting is Thursday, December 4th at 11:30 AM.

“A reservation made is a reservation paid!” -  *Please note that our lunch prices have increased to $20 each.

 

Menu Choices*:  Ham Steak with Peaches & Pineapple  or Chicken Picatta -Tender Breast of Chicken with Creamy Lemon Caper Sauce

Louise Kenny 739-4724 or Alice Wilson 733-6352 for reservations.

 

Our guest speaker this month is Liz Froelich, CFRW-ND President will Install 2009 Officers and Speak to us.

 

Northern Division is comprised of 37 counties from the Oregon State line to the North and Monterey County to the South. There are 62 unit clubs representing all 37 counties with approximately 5,200 members. We are a diversified group of Republican women of varying ages and ethnic backgrounds. We are mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters. We are homemakers, career women, and active volunteers. We share a strong belief in family values and a government that is for the people, of the people, and by the people.    We are active in our individual communities and we enjoy getting together twice a year as a Division for conferences where we gather to share information and learn more about how the issues affect our lives. 

 

Let’s welcome Liz Froelich to this month’s luncheon meeting.  We look forward to seeing you.  Bring a friend and come “Talk Republican”! 

 

SILICON VALLEY REPUBLICAN WOMEN FEDERATED NEWSLETTER – DECEMBER 2008

 

 

PRESIDENTS MESSAGE (11/16/08)

 

On November 13^th the SVRWF Board met four our meeting and lunch at the Blue Pheasant on Stevens Creek Blvd. in Cupertino.  It is the location of our club meetings for the year 2009. The food is very good, we’ll have a room to ourselves and there’s good parking too.  If you are so inclined there is a 9-hole golf course adjoin the restaurant.  It is more centrally located for our membership too. 

 

At our meeting we discussed how powerful it was to spend November 6^th in memory of our veterans.  There was a table full of things to send to the troops overseas thru our Adopt-A-Chaplain program.  Mr. Ben Ferguson told us how much the things we send meant to the men and women who need them.  I hope you all bow your heads in prayer on Thanksgiving Day to give thanks for all we have in our wonderful country.

 

Eve Bretzke, our legislative chair and newsletter editor said she is going to start a special y column in our newsletter to help us focus on technology and how we can get busy as Republicans to elect our candidates to office.  It is going to be difficult to get a Republican Governor in California.  Our leaders now in Washington DC must get busy and listen to us.  Send those letters and make those calls to express your frustration with what is going on in the country.  There were many reasons why we lost this last election for the President of the United States.  The only bright spot was Sarah Palin the Governor of Alaska.  She’s an example of our future.  She’s a true pioneer woman like the ones who built our country.  The special interview shown on Fox News (Ch. 59) was an insight into how she and her family live in a very different setting from most people and yet she accomplishes so much.  She was the real spark in the Republican Party’s campaign.  I hope we can keep track of her and she will move up in the party.  She’s good-looking, she’s young, her family background is great and she can stand up to “the good old boys”.

 

Mark December 4^th on your calendar to be sure to attend our last meeting of the year.  The new officers will be installed by our Northern Division President Liz Frolich.  She will also be our speaker.  Liz is a very good at delivering a thoughtful message. 

 

Regards,

 

Ellen Longworth,

President, SVRWF

 

 

UPCOMMING EVENTS

 

Dec, 4              Regular Luncheon Meeting, 11:30 AM Social, 12:00 PM Lunch.  Speaker: Liz Frolich 

 

Dec. 11            Board Meeting will be at 10 A.M. at the Ramada. A Brunch of Quiche, Fresh Fruit, Rolls, Coffee & Juice will be served.  Cost is $12.00.  Please RSPV to Alice Wilson at 733-6352.

 

Feb. 6              CFRW Winter Conference: San Luis Obispo, February 6-8

 

SILICON VALLEY REPUBLICAN WOMEN FEDERATED NEWSLETTER – DECEMBER 2008

 

LEGISLATION

 

California Update from CRWF and other sources

 

Careful, Taxes Ahead!:   The new and returning legislators are facing a California budget shortfall of 11.2 billion dollars. The state’s budget gap is in freefall because of the global recession. California normally relies heavily on capital gains taxes, sales taxes and vice taxes to refill the state’s coffers but that flow of revenue has fallen short of analysts’ expected outlooks. The freshman class of state legislators will have a rough start during the new legislative two-year cycle, which begins on December 1, 2008. The stalemate between the Republicans and Democrats on raising taxes or making deep budget cuts continues. The Big Five [Senate Minority Leader Dave Cogdill (R-14), Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines (R-29), Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-47), Senate President pro Tempore Don Perata (D-9) and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger)] have held more meetings to stop the freefall of the revenues than they had before the worst part of this year’s budget deadlock. California is a powerful economic engine in the global economy. When we close our doors to business by raising taxes, the domino effect begins. Consumers buy less, causing companies to downsize or relocate to states that are more conducive to business. Therefore, a proposal raising the state sales tax by 1.5 percent means California loses again. -- Michelle P. Connor, Legislative Advocate, CRWF Nov. 18, 2008

 

Overview of the Governor’s Special Session Proposals:  Plummeting Revenues Yield $28 Billion Hole - State Faces $27.8 Billion Shortfall. We concur with the administration’s assessment that the state’s struggling economy signals a major reduction in expected revenues. Combined with rising state expenses, we project that the state will need $27.8 billion in budget solutions over the next 20 months. Long–Term Outlook Similarly Bleak. The state’s revenue collapse is so dramatic and the underlying economic factors are so weak that we forecast huge budget shortfalls through 2013–14 absent corrective action. From 2010–11 through 2013–14, we project annual shortfalls that are consistently in the range of $22 billion.-- CFRW Analysis: Nov. 11, 2008

 

Car Tax Changes -- Speaking of legislative Democrats seeking more money rather than spending cuts: in the debate over increasing the car tax I did not see a press discussion of the vote requirement.  The car tax was increased by Governor Davis with an Executive Order, not a 2/3 vote of the legislature, and that increase was repealed by newly elected Governor Schwarzenegger by an Executive Order.  I know that in 2003 the Democrats were arguing that they had legal authority to change the car tax rate by a simple majority bill, cutting Republicans out of the decision.  What has changed? – Leonard Letter 11/24/08

 

National Update from NRWF and other sources

Republican Leadership:   The Senate Republicans chose their leaders for the 111th Congress. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky will continue in his role as Senate Republican Leader, with Senator John Kyl of Arizona as Republican Whip, Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee as Conference Chairman, Senator John Ensign of Nevada as Chairman of the Policy Committee, Senator John Thune of South Dakota as Vice Chairman of the Conference Committee and Senator John Cornyn of Texas as Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The House Republicans held an election for their new leaders. Congressman John Boehner of Ohio will continue as House Minority Leader with Congressman Eric Cantor of Virginia serving as Minority Whip, Congressman Mike Pence as Chairman of the Republican Conference, Congressman Thaddeus McCotter as Chairman of the Policy Committee and Congressman Pete Sessions of Texas as Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. -- Pink Elephants Weekly Talking Points, RNC, Nov. 19, 2008

SILICON VALLEY REPUBLICAN WOMEN FEDERATED NEWSLETTER – DECEMBER 2008

 

Obama's Latino Vote:  To update one of the Rev. Jesse Jackson's great phrases, "The hands that picked the cotton, and the hands that picked the lettuce, just picked the new president."  According to the exit polls, if whites alone had voted, John McCain would be president-elect. That gap was erased by Barack Obama's incredible support among African-American voters, who gave him 95 percent of their votes while increasing their turnout to 13 percent of the electorate. Despite idiotic and widespread pundit commentary earlier this year that insisted Latino votes wouldn't vote for an African-American candidate, Latinos in fact gave Obama two-thirds of their votes. – Nov. 20, 2008, The Nation

 

Other

Bad Behavior?  "I was always taught when growing up that when you reward bad behavior all you get is more bad behavior. From the mortgage meltdown to the automaker debacle to cities and states going under, it's all bad behavior. It should not be rewarded. The problem here is that our culture of debt -- both personal and corporate -- has created a culture of dependency. Everyone is calling out to our central government to give them money. And horrors of horrors, many are willing to let the federal government take ownership stakes in these entities and have a hand in their management. That is the road to socialism. The first step to ending the culture of dependency is to tell these corporations, cities and states they need to start taking responsibility for their actions by dealing with the consequences they have created for themselves. If not, then we could accumulate a national debt that even our grandchildren will never pay off." --columnist and former Mayor of Cincinnati Ken Blackwell

Media Backlash?:   Barack Obama's early association with two former members of the Weather Underground is no secret. Or is it? Apparently to many Obama voters it is, and it's not the only thing they don't know about their president-elect. According to a new Zogby survey, only two percent of Obama voters earned a perfect or near-perfect grade on a 12-question test that "gauged their knowledge of statements and scandals associated with the presidential tickets during the campaign. "For example, 88 percent didn't know Barack Obama said his energy policies would probably bankrupt the coal industry; 83 percent were clueless that he had ousted all his opponents from the ballot in order to win his first election; 72 percent couldn't cite Joe Biden's 1988 plagiarism disgrace; and 47 percent couldn't identify Biden as the predictor that Obama would be "tested by an international crisis during his first six months as president." Meanwhile, 94 percent pointed to Sarah Palin as the candidate with the pregnant teen daughter; 86 percent knew about her $150,000 wardrobe; 87 percent associated her with being able to "see Russia" from her house (although this was actually part of Tina Fey's "Saturday Night Live" parody); and 81 percent identified McCain as unable to count the homes he owns. Said poll commissioner John Ziegler: "[T]his poll really proves beyond any doubt the stunning level of malpractice on the part of the media in not educating the Obama portion of the voting populace. "Naturally, the poll has generated outrage -- not against the media or uninformed voters, but against Zogby for asking the questions. It's typical of anti-gun liberals to want to shoot the messenger.--- The Patriot Post, 21 Nov2008 - Vol. 08 No. 47  

"Let us contemplate our forefathers, and posterity, and resolve to maintain the rights bequeathed to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. The necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude and perseverance. Let us remember that 'if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.' It is a very serious consideration ... that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event." --Samuel Adams

 

SILICON VALLEY REPUBLICAN WOMEN FEDERATED NEWSLETTER – DECEMBER 2008

 

"When the GOP took a beating on Nov. 4, no mass protests ensued; no nationwide boycotts erupted. Conservatives took their lumps and began the peaceful post-defeat process of self-flagellation, self-analysis and self-autopsy. In fact, in the wake of campaign 2008 there's only one angry mob gripped by 'insane rage': left-wing same-sex marriage activists incensed at their defeat in California. Voters there approved Proposition 8, a traditional marriage initiative, by 52 percent to 48 percent. Instead of introspection and self-criticism, however, the sore losers who opposed Prop. 8 responded with threats, fists and blacklists. That's right. Activists have published on the Internet an 'Anti-Gay Blacklist' of Prop. 8 donors. If the tables were turned and Prop. 8 proponents created such an enemies list, everyone in Hollywood would be screaming 'McCarthyism' faster than you could count to eight. ... Corporate honchos, church leaders and small donors alike are in the same-sex marriage mob's crosshairs, all unfairly demonized as hate-filled bigots by bona fide hate-filled bigots who have abandoned decency in pursuit of 'equal rights'." --columnist Michelle Malkin

 

"Just because you do not take an interest in politics does not mean that politics will not take an interest in you." --- Pericles (c. 495 - 429 BC)"

 

Check out the new Sarah Palin Ad on YouTube:

A few of our own members were recently on-hand in Sacramento for a pro-PaIin rally.  It’s great to see our members out and about. 

VIEW AD: "THANK YOU SARAH PALIN"  or 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBoJDXW-ly0

“In the group picture at the end of the video you can see Ellen Longworth our SVRWF president, I am to the left of Kologian but I haven't been able to find myself.” – Laura R. 

 

 

SILICON VALLEY REPUBLICAN WOMEN FEDERATED NEWSLETTER – DECEMBER 2008