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*********************************** Announcing: Citizen Outreach Ladies and gentlemen. Boys and girls from around the world. Let's get ready to rummmmmble! OK, this is big. And I haven't been this excited about something new since my first daughter was born. Well, this still doesn't reach THAT level...but it's pretty darn close. Many of you have been with me since I launched my first paper-and-ink newsletter, "GOPress," way back in 1985 when I was Chairman of the Clark County Republican Party in Las Vegas. We've come a LONG way since then. The newsletter steadily progressed to a statewide weekly fax and ultimately to the daily "News & Views" e-newsletter today - which now has over 25,000 subscribers WORLD-WIDE! And I can't tell you how much it means to me that so many of you find News & Views to be of value and make it a part of your daily lives. I'm often left speechless by your letters of support and kind words. To say that I'm grateful would be an understatement of immense proportions. But I'm even more proud of the fact that News & Views has become not just a tool for communicating conservative/libertarian news, opinions and current events, but a vehicle to inspire grassroots ACTION that is truly making a difference in public policy decisions. One of my favorite letters came from Ernie, Lorene, Shannon and Bethany Ford not too long ago. "We wanted you to know how much we appreciate our daily dose of anti-liberalism that you so generously provide to a growing army of active conservatives. . . . It is wonderful to have found someone who shares every one of our family's viewpoints, and is also out there doing something about it so effectively. Your daily 'News & Views' is an invaluable focus of discussion, helping to change the traditionally non-involved conservative into an activist." And that's the key. It's not enough to simply share our views on the proper role of government and discuss them around the dinner table...we need to take action if we want to effect changes to the world we live in. And you all do...in spades. When you light up the phones and burn up the internet with calls and emails on important issues of the day, people listen...and respond. Remember how the editor of the Hill newspaper here in D.C. went bonkers after being flooded with emails from you all objecting to that cartoon they published before the holidays showing Sen. Mitch McConnell aiming a rocket launcher at an airplane named "Campaign Finance Reform"? I think he referred to it in an editorial as "the attack of the right-wing pod people" and dedicated a full page of his paper just reprinting many of your emails. Yes, we get their attention...and results. Between short email campaigns and more-formal online efforts through LibertyPetitons.com, News & Views readers have weighed in and made the average citizen's voice heard on a wide range of issues and incidents, including. * When that company in Florida banned the display of American flags in employees' work areas after Sept. 11, you lit up the company's phones and email until it backed down and changed the policy. * When Congress resisted proposals to allow pilots to arm themselves in the cockpit, a petition drive was launched to pressure Congress into reversing its position...which it did. (The FAA is now trying to thwart that mandate, but that's another fight we'll engage in very soon.) * When gun-control advocates stepped up pressure on the Justice Department to back down on its "individual rights" interpretation of the Second Amendment, 11,348 of you sent an online letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft urging him to "stick to his guns" - which he did. * When a three-member panel of the United States 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the inclusion of the words "under God" made the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional, 11,495 of you sent a message to the full court to reverse the ruling as a violation of the First Amendment. * When that Los Angeles city councilwoman tried to ban the showing of the World War II classic movie "Tora, Tora, Tora" last Pearl Harbor Day, we flooded her office with calls and emails. She withdrew her objection within 48 hours. * When that Las Vegas high school principal blocked a group of students from forming a "Teenage Republican Club" on campus, thousands of activists burnt up the phones and local talk radio voicing their displeasure with her attempt to impede free association. The principal was forced to back down and charter the club just three days after our press release went out. * When then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle attempted to impose a Clinton-style drug prescription bureaucracy on senior citizens last year, 16,708 of you signed an online letter to Sen. Daschle opposing his plan. * When that North Carolina bureaucrat docked a day care center points in an evaluation because "toy soldiers" were discovered in the playroom, the calls and emails - particularly from outraged military veterans - reached all the way to the governor's office, which ultimately intervened. * And most recently, when the White House appeared uncertain as to whether or not to file a brief with the Supreme Court opposing racial preferences at the University of Michigan, 8,981 of you emailed the White House urging President Bush to weigh in on the issue...which it did just days after our online petition was launched. In fact, I added it up the other day and we've generated 104,048 online emails in the last year or so on just 14 specific issues at Liberty Petitions. That ain't peanuts. And that's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. But perhaps the most rewarding thing we've done over the past several years was provide training for grassroots activists and candidates. The fact remains that you can't change public policy without changing public officials. And I've traveled all over the country conducting seminars to help teach folks the nuts and bolts of winning elections. Of course, like everything else in life, we've won some and lost some...but many of you are clearly getting better and better at the mechanics of campaigns and we're going to win a LOT more in the years ahead thanks to your involvement and newly acquired expertise. In short, we've let the "establishment" know that average conservatives at the grassroots level are often "mad as hell" and we're not going to take it any longer. We've had news stories written, opinion columns published and appeared on radio and TV talk shows. We've worked cooperatively with many leaders of other conservative organizations on specific issues, as well as with conservative elected officials on specific legislation. We've gone a long way toward reminding people of the constitutional principles established by the Founding Fathers over 200 years ago and carried forward in recent years by great leaders such as Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. In addition to the 25,000+ readers of News & Views, many of you regularly forward bits and pieces of the newsletter to friends, family, co-workers...and even liberals. Your efforts have not been in vain. Indeed, I regularly receive emails from folks saying their hearts and minds have been changed because of the information we put out. And all of this has been done in a kinda haphazard, unstructured, un-coordinated way. We haven't had a formal organization tying everything we do together under one big tent. Until now. And that's the big news. Over the weekend - between digging out from the blizzard and losing snowball fights with my kids - I've been negotiating the acquisition of a decade-old non-profit 501(c)(3) public policy advocacy organization that has been pretty much inactive in recent years. In a conference call on Friday, I was officially named President & CEO of Citizen Outreach...and everything we've been doing for the last eight years will finally be brought under one roof. This means I'll be leaving the American Conservative Union in order to devote full-time to our new organization. This is no reflection on ACU. They still do great work putting on the annual CPAC conference and compiling the Annual Rating of Congress. I'm certain Citizen Outreach and ACU will continue to work together on issues of mutual concern in the future. So what does all this mean to us in practical terms? Well, to start with, nothing will change in the newsletter other than the fact that, as a non-profit, non-partisan organization, we will not be endorsing candidates or lobby for specific pieces of legislation. We'll be able to advocate, for example, for tax cuts but not lobbying for a specific bill that would, in fact, cut taxes. It's a subtle difference, but one that is VERY important to our friends at the IRS. Anyway, we have a lot of work ahead of us to expand our reach and effectiveness on public policy issues. Although we can and will continue to weigh in on a broad range of issues, here are some that we will focus particular attention on: * LAWSUIT ABUSE: Effective today, Citizen Outreach is formally launching a special project called "Citizens Against Junk Lawsuits." Greedy plaintiffs lawyers have been abusing our legal system with frivolous lawsuits that drive up the cost of goods and services, as well as taxes and insurance premiums. At the same time, they're driving job-producing companies out of business and doctors out of practice. Somebody needs to put a leash on these ambulance-chasers...and we're just the guys to do it. As you know, we recently launched a new e-newsletter focusing entirely on this issue called "Litigation Nation." If you haven't subscribed yet, just go to: http://www.chuckmuth.com/junklawsuits/ In addition, we've begun publishing an old-fashioned paper-and-ink version to mail to elected officials every month to keep the issue on their front burner. We've also produced a full-page newspaper ad to run all across the country urging elected officials to rein in the trial lawyer lobby, as well as recruit new grassroots activists to the cause. And in the next couple of days, we'll launch a new online effort on Liberty Petitions directed at the U.S. Senate urging them to take action on this issue. The President has called for legislation to stem the crisis in medical malpractice insurance; the House has passed such legislation in the past; and now it's time for the Senate to do the same. * TAXES & SPENDING: Nothing has changed since Ronald Reagan pointed out that citizens aren't taxed too little; government spends too much. Yet elected officials - including WAY too many Republicans - continue to propose and support new and higher taxes. Our focus HAS to be to cut spending...and cutting taxes is the ONLY way to that. They can't spend what we don't send them. If government is ever going to get back to its limited role in our lives, we'll have to "starve the beast." So cut taxes, cut taxes...and then cut more taxes. And while we're at it, whatever taxes we legitimately need and owe should be determined in a manner that doesn't require a rocket scientist to figure out. Indeed, even rocket scientists can't figure out our current tax code. Whether it's a single-rate flat tax that can be calculated on a postcard or a national retail sales tax, the time for tax simplification is LONG overdue. * GUN RIGHTS: One of the most outrageous stories I've read recently was of the New York father who shot an intruder he discovered in his 2-year-old's bedroom...and was himself arrested and is being prosecuted for possession of an "illegal" weapon. The Brooklyn DA who is persecuting this father should be tarred-and-feathered. The right to defend one's life, family and property isn't just a constitutionally-protected right, it's a God-given right. And we simply won't let the victim-disarmament crowd continue with their gun-grabbing efforts without a fight...big time. * ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: As a "nation of immigrants," this is often a hot, controversial issue. But the problem isn't so much immigration as it is ILLEGAL immigration. And while this has been a major problem from a social services standpoint for years, it is even more so as a national security problem today. It's time for our elected officials to take their collective heads out of their collective butts and deal with this problem head on. American lives depend on it. * THE ADOPTION OPTION: For over 30 years now, abortion has been a divisive issue in the country and within the conservative movement. And it will continue to be so for a long time to come. But if we truly want to reduce the numbers of kids whose lives are being snuffed out through pregnancy terminations, we need to make adoptions easier, less costly and more desirable. On this, parties from all sides of the abortion debate can agree. Promoting adoption as a far better alternative to abortion needs to become a priority for our nation. * SCHOOL CHOICE: The government has a monopoly on education in this country. And the results are clearly evident. Kids, literally, cannot read their own high school diplomas or make change at a fast-food restaurant if the cash register breaks down. And there is an appalling lack to education about our country's history and founding principles. The system is rotted at its core. Even good teachers can't produce satisfactory results in this bad system. And I'm sick and tired of the education establishment blaming the "parents." You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. The only way to repair our broken school system is to offer the parents of lower- and middle-class kids the same options and choices that wealthy families have. Be it charter schools, vouchers or home-schooling, breaking the monopoly and stranglehold the teachers union and education "blob" have on our kids' education is imperative. We can't afford to sacrifice another generation of American youth just to appease the NEA and the bureaucrats over at the Department of Education. And yes, as conservatives USED to say back in 1994, there's no constitutional role for the federal government in education...and the Department of Education should be terminated with extreme prejudice. This sop by Jimmy Carter to the teachers unions has done nothing but make a bad situation worse. * AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: The rawest of raw nerves in this country continues to be over matters of race. But the truth is, conservatives have generally gotten beyond race and moved toward the ideal of a color-blind nation. Frankly, we don't look at Colin Powell as a "black" Secretary of State, or Condoleeza Rice as a "black" National Security Adviser, or Clarence Thomas as a "black" Supreme Court Justice, or Michael Steele as a "black" lieutenant governor, or Ward Connerly as a "black" university regent or Thomas Sowell as a "black" columnist. We see them as talented Americans doing their jobs just like the rest of us. It's the LEFT that is obsessed with race characterizations. Race-hustlers such as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Maxine Waters, Kweisi Mfume, Louis Farakhan, Charlie Rangel, Cynthia McKinney, Johnnie Cochran, Danny Glover and that goofy "Day-O" guy, Harry Belafonte, do nothing but inflame racial tensions for their own personal benefit. No one denies that racial prejudice still exists in some people. But two wrongs don't make a right and it's time to begin treating ALL Americans equally under law...just like it says over the entrance to the Supreme Court. We'll never heal our racial wounds until we finally start judging people by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. (Where have I heard that before?) Of course, we'll tackle other issues as they come up, but the above will give you an idea of the serious matters that we will continue to devote considerable time and attention to. OK, lastly (for now) and to wrap this up, we're going to change the Goldwater Club to the Goldwater Project. The operative phrase back in his 1964 run for president was, "In your heart, you know he's right." And he was. All you had to do was read a copy of his book, "Conscience of a Conservative." In fact, if we really want our elected officials to conduct their duties as the Founding Fathers intended, they should be encouraged to read Goldwater's book (along with the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Federalist Papers). Even the late liberal icon Sen. Paul Wellstone read and respected Goldwater and "Conscience of a Conservative," although he disagreed with its principles. So, in what will be our most ambitious effort at Citizen Outreach, the Goldwater Project is going to attempt to distribute a copy of "Conscience of a Conservative" to every member of Congress, as well as every state legislator in the country. We know you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink...but at least we can make it easier by putting the trough under his nose. Like I said, pretty exciting, huh? But as Morton Blackwell, one of the lions of the conservative movement, says in #18 of his The Laws of the Public Policy Process, "You can't save the world if you can't pay the rent." And while we've accomplished a LOT together over the years on a shoe-string budget, if we want to move to the next level and truly play in the "big leagues," we HAVE to have the financial resources to do so. Fortunately, our embrace of modern communications technology has meant we've been able to get a lot more bang for the buck. We do a lot with very little. We don't have a huge rent payment. We don't have a huge staff. (In fact, we have NO staff.) But we will have some hard costs to do what I've outlined here. It'll cost money to place newspaper ads. It will cost money to publish books and newsletters to mail to Congress and other elected officials. And it costs money to travel all across the country to conduct grassroots activist training seminars. So I'm hoping you'll consider contributing some "seed" money to get this new endeavor off the ground and on the right foot. In the days, weeks and months ahead, I'll be seeking financial help from corporations, grants from foundations and small-dollar direct-mail donations from folks who aren't yet part of our 25,000+ base of activists. But it takes money to make money...and it takes money to make the political wheels turn. Can you help me out? Again, we don't need a lot of money to make a big difference. So if you can kick in just $25, $50 or $100 to help fund the start-up costs for Citizen Outreach, I'd be extremely grateful. You can make a secure online contribution using your Visa or MasterCard by going to my website at: http://www.chuckmuth.com/eshop/ . (One of the first things we'll do after we get the ball rolling is develop a new website for Citizen Outreach.) Or, if you prefer to send a check (or can't access the donation page because you use AOL or a few other internet services which don't play well in the sandbox with our web host), please make your check out to: Citizen Outreach 611 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, #439 Washington, DC 20003-4303 The motto I've adopted for Citizen Outreach is, "Putting the Public Back in Public Policy." Our mission is simple: "To become the most effective grassroots advocacy organization in the country for public policies based on the governing principles enshrined in America's founding documents." Together, we've already been doing this for the last eight years. And together, I hope we'll continue doing this in an even bigger and better fashion in the years to come. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the support you've given me over the years and hope I can count on you to continue the fight as we move in this exciting new direction. In closing, let me share a quote from Founding Father Samuel Adams (who makes a pretty darn good beer, to boot) which News & Views reader Marilu Greene forwarded to me today: "...It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds..." I think ol' Sammy Adams had folks like you and me in mind when he said this. Yours in liberty, Chuck Muth President & Grand Imperial Pooh-bah Citizen Outreach P.S. There's one other thing you can do to really help move this project forward...and it won't cost you a dime. There's strength in numbers. So I' d like to see us DOUBLE the number of activists on our email list over the next year. So please consider talking us up with friends and family and encourage just two of them to sign up for News & Views. You've already seen what 25,000 of us can do. Imagine the impact we'll have with TWICE that number. Good hunting.
