Our 1st Quarter Freepathon is Underway!

Donate to FR via Secure Server ^ | 01/02/04 | Jim Robinson

[Jim Robinson]

Howdy everyone,

Happy New Year!!

And it's time for our 1st quarter fundraiser!

Things are looking up despite the doom and gloom scenarios painted by the naysayers of the dark side. Iraq has been liberated. Saddam has been captured and will be brought to justice. Terrorist attacks are down world-wide. Terrorist states are surrendering their WMD (Libya) and or are taking notice (Syria) and or are cooling their heels (North Korea). The effects of the tax cut are kicking in. The economy is booming and the stock market is soaring. Manufacturing is accelerating. Employment is gaining.

According to a Wall Street Journal poll, economists are expecting 4.5% growth in the first quarter with growth rates north of 4% continuing in the second quarter and throughout the year. Corporate profits and hiring are expanding and picking up. Unemployment rates are expected to fall to 5.5% by November and 1.5 million new jobs could be created.

Inflation is checked, interest rates are at historic lows, tax rates have been cut and more cuts are expected. Capital is pouring into the markets, housing is up, business is booming and people are going back to work. With the booming economy, tax receipts will increase to the U.S. treasury and, likewise, receipts to state and local governments will increase, diminishing the size of the expected deficits.

The new year is looking to be a great year. And this is an election year.

The Democrats are in disarray and are scrambling to find viable candidates. Shock and awe has overtaken the dark side and, unfortunately for them, their leading contenders have become even more anti-American as a result and are leaning even further to the left. Their acerbic attacks on President Bush's successes are sounding more and more shrill and desperate and feeble. Their doom and gloom predictions have fizzled and they have no platform to stand on. Appeasement does not work. Communism does not work.

God willing, and short any drastic political reversals, President Bush should easily be re-elected. And the Republican majorities in Congress and in the state legislatures should continue to grow. It IS a shining new morning in America.

Thank God!

And I expect Free Republic to be a very busy site this year. Free Republic is THE place to get the very latest in breaking news and conservative commentary and activism. I expect our membership and chapter activities will continue to expand as our members get more and more involved in campaigning and supporting our conservative candidates and positions.

Our budget requirements this year are about the same as last year. We will be needing about $60,000 per quarter. Travel expenses may increase a bit, if my plans for a nation-wide tour come to fruition, but later in the year our $3,000 per month legal bill will finally be paid off. On other fronts, we are negotiating a settlement with the City of Fresno in regards to their libeling our Fresno Chapter and that looks to be coming out well.

If all goes well, I hope to see many of you during the year and then again at the Free Republic George W. Bush Inaugural Ball II in Washington, D.C. next January! Woo hoo!!

Thank you all very much for your continued support for Free Republic and our conservative causes!

Click here to donate via our Secure Server

God bless you all and God bless America!!

[glock rocks]

Hey Mo!

[Gabz]

happy New Year!!!!!

[Mo1]

THANK YOU TRUSSELL {{HUGS}}

[glock rocks]

ahem, Norm... the ping list... post TO the ping list :o)

[Mo1]

Hey Back At Ya !!

[NormsRevenge]

NASCAR Ping for the 1st Quarter FReepathon

[mitchbert]

Why are you always needing funds for this site?

Please help me to understand why so much money is needed. Where in the heck does it all go?

There are about 100,000 identified users on this site. Hundreds of thousands of other folks lurk here on a regular basis. Daily.

You don't manage that kind of traffic on a P3 800 with however much RAM as you can find. You need to build and maintain an infastructure. They've done it. Not without bumps, but then who has?

We're talking load balancing, archiving and backup systems like you can't imagine for a small business system even. Operating systems need to be updated and patched. This ain't free.

And hey, isn't someone allowed to make a living putting all this together? I think so, eh.

[glock rocks]

;o)

Thank you Zuben Elgenubi !!

[NormsRevenge]

LOL.. ssshhhhh... I'm trying something different ;-)

[cpprfld]

I thought we just had one of these

[Brad’s Gramma]

Ping







(hehe)

[Jim Robinson]

Go to our donation page and click on "Budget." It's all there for you to see. There are three of us working full-time (and more) on the system, plus the other operating and legal costs. FR is one of the largest conservative sites on the Internet, with thousands of members, millions of posts, hundreds of thousands of readers and muchos gigabytes of storage, processing and bandwith consumed. Ranks within the top 1200 sites trafficwise on the net according to Alexa. I sincerely doubt anyone could get as much bang for the buck as FR does. If they could, it would already be done. Aint the free market grand.

Thanks,

Jim

[Brad’s Gramma]

First, DONATE! Then, read THIS!

[steveegg]

Thank yous to:

blam
BOBTHENAILER
South Carolina
Illinois
New Jersey
Virginia for the monthly
Texas
California
Tennessee
Oklahoma for the monthly
South Carolina
Pennsylvania/smokeyb
netmilsmom
Connecticut/Fierce Allegiance
eureka!
Missouri/rface
Georgia
Michigan
larryjohnson
Colorado
Never Never Land
Minnesota
Wisconsin/codercpc
Howie
Canada
California
Oregon
backhoe
Canada/mitchbert
bentfeather
Molly Pitcher
SheLion
North Carolina/AQGeiger
Maine
Minnesota
Vermont
Wisconsin
Texas
Kansas
Maryland
Canada
California for the monthly
South Carolina/upchuck
Judith Anne
Georgia/Pan_Yans Wife
DoctorMichael
Texas
New York
Arizona
trussell

And anyone I may have missed.

[savedbygrace]

Suggestion for the chart: Swap the "Target" and the "Receipts and Pledges." The "Target" needs to go on the right, near the end of the bar graph, since that's what it represents.

[Jim Robinson]

Thank you very much, trussell!!

[Jim Robinson]

Thank you, facedown!!

[glock rocks]

Thank you Jim Robinson !!

[Jim Robinson]

Thank you very much, kimmie7!!

[Jim Robinson]

Wow! Well, thank you very much, Zuben Elgenubi!!