PRESIDENT’S LETTER

This is written in the middle of “tax season”, my busy time of year.  Please excuse my brevity.

 First, I’d like to encourage you to send a sympathy card or short note to our past president, Norma Card.  Unfortunately, her daughter Michele recently passed away.  Our thoughts and prayers go to Norma.

 Norma Card

7149 Cobi NW

Bremerton, WA 98312

 With this being an election year, voter registration is our #1 priority.  All Republican organizations are being asked to participate in registration drives above and beyond the normal “Art & Wine” venues.  We are asking for volunteers to staff registration tables two Saturdays a month from 10 A.M. until 2 P.M. Please help out.

 Want some encouragement to join us for Advocacy and Lobby Day?  How’s this… Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be our luncheon speaker!  We have a bus going up on Monday, April 26^th and returning that same night.  I need to know who is going by April 5^th.  Call me at 408-263-0990.  Please feel free to leave a message.  Remember, it’s tax season.  You probably won’t find me at home.

 Some of us are spending the night for Advocacy and Lobby Day.  Regardless of whether you’re up for the day or spending the night, please wear a RED JACKET.  This identifies us as Republican Women and we really look good!  Of course, Republican Women always look good but we really look outstanding in RED, don’t you think?

 Laura Riffle 

President

Silicon Valley Republican Women Federated

 ***********************************

SPEAKER FOR APRIL 1, 2004

 Our April 1^ST Meeting will focus on re-electing President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.  Our speaker will be Andy Foster, Co-Chairman for the Bush/Cheney Re-Election

Committee for the Bar Area, which includes six counties.

Doris Whitney

1^st V.P. & Programs Chair

******************************

MEMBERSHIP

We welcome six new Regular Members for 2004:  Constance Cook-Turner, Carol Copley, Martha Curtis, Helen Egy, Norma Schilling, and Sandra Zasio.  We are also pleased to have two new Associate Members:  Keen Butcher and William Copley.

Thanks to all members who have paid your 2004 dues.  If you have not yet paid, please send your check to:

      Alice Story

      1482 Valcartier Drive

       Sunnyvale, CA  94087

Regular Member:       $25.00

Patron:                        $40.00

Associate:                   $15.00

*************************************

TREASURER

Dear Members,

 Thank you very much for having your checks ready when you come to the reservation table at the Ramada Inn. Checks instead of cash makes everything flow more smoothly and more quickly.

 The Ramada Inn has asked me to pass on to our members a more definite deadline for responding to our monthly meetings.  They would like a final count by the preceding Monday at noon.  They are going to start charging us for every reservation that is called in.  Before they counted the people there and charged us on that basis, but now they are changing it to the number of reservations made.  Shirley Harvey gave me a clever way for us all to remember this new rule.  “A reservation made is a LUNCHEON paid”. 

 Thanks so much for your help with these new rules.  The Ramada Inn and all the people who work on the reservations appreciate it.

Carol Greenleaf

Treasurer

**********************************************

VOTER REGISTRATION

 This 2004 election is so important to our country. One Major way SVRWF Members can help is by giving their time to Registering Republican Voters.

 SVRWF will continue Registrations at  “Art and Wine” Festivals.  In addition, details are being worked out for a regular Registration site at a local grocery store or shopping center 2 Saturdays a month, beginning now thru October.  Each Registration site will need 2 volunteers at a time during the given day.

 Voter Registration is a great time to meet new voters, others who are changing addresses or parties and to introduce them to SVRWF.  The California Republican Party and President Bush are asking you to be generous with your time. 

 Please call Shirley Harvey, 253-1591 to become one of these special Volunteers !  The exact locations details are coming ASAP.

 ***********************************

        BRIDGE NEWS

SVRWF says a “Good Deal” of Thanks to all!

2003 - 2004 Bridge Marathon Players. 

Dates are set for a “Grand Slam” ending of the Marathon season of fun, friends and fund-raising.

Mark your Calendars for these “Great Deals.”

COUPLES

 May 10th.   ALL GAMES  PLAYED AND SCORES ARE DUE INTO  JANE.

 May 14^th Couples party 7:30 P.M. at Reed’s  home. RSVP 245-2429. Tell Jane your choice of bringing either a dessert or hor d’ oeuvre to share.  Please bring $ 1 each for evening prizes. Reed’s address is 1515 Ashcroft Way, Sunnyvale 94087.

 DAY PAIRS:

May 14^th   ALL GAMES PLAYED AND SCORES TO JANE REED.

 Check made out and sent to Jane Reed for $ 17 for reservation to Day Groups I & II luncheon and bridge at  The Forum. Indicate with your check your choice of lunch.  1.  Chicken Salad with fruit, or 2.  Chicken Cacciatore.  The $ 17 includes Lunch, Tax, and Tip. 

 Please bring $ 1 for day prize. Reed’s address is 1515 Ashcroft Way, Sunnyvale 94087.  Phone (408) 245-2429.  

May 20^th  9:45 A.M. Bridge and Luncheon at The Forum

Thank you Helen White for making arrangements at the Forum

******************************

 Bus to Advocacy Workshop Sacramento

April 27        Tuesday

Time :          6:15 A.M.

Bus leaves from Stanford Shopping Center.  Parking lot in front of Macy’s Men’s Store.  El Camino and Sand Hill Road, Palo Alto.

Time:           3:30: P.M.

Bus leaves Sacramento for return trip.

Cost:            $30.00 Roundtrip

 Luxurious seats/Rest room on Board

Check must be in by April 5^th

Please include your name and telephone number with your reservation.  Seating is limited-seat guaranteed in the order reservation is received.

NO REFUNDS !

CHECKS MADE PAYABLE TO:  Palo Alto Republican Women Federated.

Send check for reservation to:       

Nat Hanson, 341 Richelieu Ct. Los Altos, CA  94022

BYOCW -  - Bring your own coffee, water, and etc.

           Treats will be provided!!??

QUESTIONS??  Nat Hanson – (650) 941-0445 or Lee Horn (650) 854-5197

NOTE:  SVRWF Members and guests, send your Luncheon Reservation to Laura Riffle.

            See Advocacy Signup (below)

Take My Job, Please

( contributed by Charles Prevost)

 As a job-market dropout by Jon Hilsenrath, Feb. 17 I wish to add another reason for leaving the work force; high taxation of second incomes in two-income families.  I had an annual salary of about $68,000 in 2000.  I paid 8% of my income ($5,440) to my home state of Minnesota, 36% (24,480) in federal income taxes, and 7.65% ($5,202) in Social Security and Medicare taxes, which my employer matched (an additional $5,202).  My take home pay of $32,878 while the government was receiving $40,324 from my effort greatly reduced my motivation for staying employed.

Steve Meyer Lakewood, CO 

A REPORT FROM A NEWSMAN ON THE SCENE WHO HAS A BACKGROUND OF TELLING

 IT’S LIKE IT IS,  BE IT A  LIBERAL OR CONSERVATIVE VANTAGE POINT.

 Well worth reading !!!

 The buildings that AREN'T burning in Iraq. "They have a saying in the news business," Geraldo Rivera related this week. "Reporters don't report buildings that don't burn."  And with that introduction, he told a TV audience about the story that is being systematically denied to our entire nation: the success story of post-Saddam Iraq.

Are we losing some soldiers each week?  Yes. Is there some frustration in the public about electricity and water service? Yes. Are some Saddam Hussein loyalists throughout the land, making trouble? Yes. Has this

opened a window for some terrorist mischief?  Yes. But that's ALL we hear.  No wonder the country is in a mixed mood about Iraq.  If you hear about the buildings that are not burning, though, it is a different story indeed.. Rivera is no shill for George W. Bush.  But Bush, Condi Rice and Colin Powell together could not have been as effective as Geraldo was Thursday night on the Fox News Channel's Hannity and Colmes program. "When I got to Baghdad, I barely recognized it," he began, comparing his just-completed trip to two others he made during and just after the battle to topple Saddam.  "You have over 30,000 Iraqi cops and militiamen already on the job. This is four months after major fighting stopped.  Can you imagine that kind of gearing up in this country?  Law and order is better; archaeological sites are being preserved; factories, schools are being guarded."  But what about the secondhand griping that the media have been so efficiently relating about power, water and other infrastructure? "To say that Iraq is being rebuilt is not true," answered Rivera. "Iraq is being built.  There was no infrastructure before; we are doing it. I just think the good news is being underestimated and underreported."  At this juncture,  one must evaluate how to feel about the voices telling us only about the bad news in Iraq, whether from the mouths of news anchors or Democratic presidential hopefuls.  At best, they are under informed.  At worst, their one-sided assessments of post-Saddam Iraq are intentional falsehoods for obvious reasons.  If I hear one more person mock that "Mission Accomplished" banner beneath which President Bush thanked a shipload of sailors and Marines a few months back, I'm going to spit.  That was a reference to the ouster of Saddam's regime, and that mission was indeed accomplished, apparently to the great chagrin of the American left.  No one said what followed would be easy or cheap, and that's why the dripping-water torture of the cost and casualty stories is so infuriating. Remember we pay our soldiers whether they are in Iraq or in Ft Bragg, North Carolina. We should all mourn the loss of every fallen soldier.  But context cries out to be heard.  Our present news media is not performing this task.  As some dare to wonder if this might become a Vietnam-like quagmire, I'll remind whoever needs it that most of our 58,000 Vietnam war toll died between 1966 and 1972, during which we lost an average of about 8,000 per year.  That's about 22 per day, every day, for thousands of days on end. Let us hear NO MORE Vietnam comparisons.  They do not equate.  What I hope to hear is more truth, even if we have to wrench it from the mouths of the media and political hacks predisposed to bash the remarkable job we are doing every day in what was not so long ago a totalitarian wasteland. Local elections are under way across Iraq, Rivera reported.  "Where Kurds and Arabs have been battling for decades, things have been settling down. Administrator Paul Bremer is doing a great job." So does Geraldo think his media colleagues are intentionally painting with one side of the brush?  "I'm not into conspiracy theories,..but there's just more bang for your buck when you report the GI who got killed rather than the 99 who didn't get killed, who make friends, who helped schedule elections, who helped shops get open for business, who helped traffic flow again. "The vast majority of Iraqis are very happy to have us there.  I would like to see a bit more balance."  This needs to be reported to the American Public who are presently being duped.  I expect the dominant media culture to nitpick and attack Bush, and Democrats to blast him with reckless abandon.  But when that leads to the willful exclusion of facts that would shine truthful light on the great work of the American armed forces, that level of malice plumbs new depths.

***********************************

 LIST SAYS KERRY TOP SENATE LIBERAL

By Stephen Dinan

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

 Sen. John Kerry was the "No. 1 Senate liberal in 2003," according to new rankings by the National Journal.

    The publication rated all 100 senators' votes on 32 economic issues, 15 social policy issues and 15 foreign policy issues, and found the Massachusetts senator and presidential hopeful more liberal than any of his colleagues.

    The magazine noted that Mr. Kerry had the most liberal record three other times in his 20 years in Congress: in 1986, 1988 and 1990.

    By contrast in 2003, fellow Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was the 11th most liberal senator, according to the rankings by the weekly, which covers Washington government and Congress.

    Mr. Kerry's voting record was less liberal throughout the 1990s, compared to his Senate colleagues. But this past year, he and Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, the man presenting the most serious challenge to Mr. Kerry for the Democratic nomination, were both much more liberal. Mr. Edwards was ranked fourth most liberal.

    It was striking that the two men were so similar, the magazine said, "because during the course of their Senate careers, their ratings have often placed them in different wings of their party."

    Their high scores may be due, in part, to having missed so many votes while campaigning last year. Of the 62 votes the magazine tracked, Mr. Kerry missed

37 and Mr. Edwards missed 22. Both men usually returned for the most critical party votes, which probably boosted their liberal credentials.

    The Republican National Committee (RNC) sent out an e-mail yesterday listing the 62 votes National Journal used in its rankings, with the subject heading, "Label Him What You Want, Kerry Wrong Choice For America."

    Later, RNC spokeswoman Christine Iverson said, "John Kerry's record speaks for itself, and we've been saying that all along and will continue to say it."

    Mr. Kerry's campaign press office did not return a call for comment.

    The National Journal's voting record list included the senator's votes on trade agreements, abortion, Medicare, tax cuts, spending and efforts to end filibusters on confirming some of the most contentious judicial nominees.

    Other groups also rate Mr. Kerry as more liberal on the political spectrum, though not the most liberal senator.

    The American Conservative Union (ACU) gave him a 13 rating on its conservative scale for 2003, with 100 being the most conservative. His rating was higher than the 10 rating or lower scored by Mr. Kennedy and 13 other Democrats. This was partly because Mr. Kerry missed three votes, which boosted his average.

    Mr. Kerry has a lifetime career rating of 5 from the ACU, slightly above the group's lifetime career 3 score for Mr. Kennedy.

    The Americans for Democratic Action, a prominent liberal advocacy group, gives Mr. Kerry a lifetime career rating of 92 on a 100-point scale, with 100 being the most liberal. Mr. Kerry's rating is higher than fellow Democratic candidate Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio Democrat.