Our 2nd Quarter FReepathon is Underway!

Click to donate via FR secure server ^ | April 1, 2004 | Jim Robinson

[Jim Robinson]

Woo hoo!! Are you ready for another FReepathon!?

It's time once more for us to raise the funds that are necessary to keep Free Republic on the air.

People have asked me if the $60,000 settlement with the City of Fresno means we won't have to have a fundraiser this time. Well, I wish it could be so, but, unfortunately, it's not.

First of all, we did not actually receive $60,000. After legal fees, mediation fees and other expenses directly related to the suit, we netted approximately $34,000. Of that, we distributed over $10,000 to the members of the Fresno Chapter who were in business and their businesses suffered due to the city's libel and also to the members who met with us regularly on a weekly basis. Then, due to the fact that the city was late with their press release and no media picked it up, we paid approximately $2,000 to run ads in several valley papers announcing the city's retraction.

The approximately $22,000 left over will be used in our operations. We plan to use about $4,000 to upgrade our equipment and $10,000 or more will go for taxes. I plan to use part of the balance to beef up our insurance coverage and also will look into a health insurance plan. The remainder will be used for travel and other expenses. I still hope to visit as many chapters as I possibly can over the next year or so, but obviously won't be doing so in a motor home (you had to have been there to get the inside joke). We'll be traveling in our trusty old FReepermobile van. She's an 11 year old Mercury Villager with 150,000 miles, but she's got good rubber, purrs like a kitten and is pretty good on gas.

So, as it turns out, the settlement has strengthened Free Republic and also has strengthened the conservative position in the City of Fresno. As a result of our suit, the controversial loony peacenik chair person of the Fresno City Human Relations Commission who committed the libel against us and has also caused much turmoil within the city and the city council has resigned "to pursue other interests." Also, the loony liberal President of the Fresno City Council who made some ridiculous comments belittling the suit and the settlement in the Fresno Bee was voted out of office just a couple months later.

So, as I've said before, the settlement is a win, win, win position. It's a win for Free Republic, a win for the City of Fresno, and, ultimately, a win for the taxpayers.

At any rate, we thank all of you who participate on Free Republic and support our efforts and we look forward to another exciting election cycle.

Hope to see y'all either on our road trip and or at the Free Republic George W. Bush Inaugural Ball II in January!!

Go GWB!!

[Brad’s Gramma]

NORM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[NormsRevenge]

That was from Kashmir. I'm Glad I ran across it, lots of soft but powerful color in it.

[glock rocks]

HAHAHAHAHA !

[glock rocks]

the lines in the drawing are parallel.

[NormsRevenge]

I got another one but I shan't post it. :-}

This is a bit tamer.

[NormsRevenge]

US Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) gestures as he speaks with students of the Max-Planck-Ober school in Berlin. Powell has acknowledged that pre-war information he gave the United Nations (news - web sites) on Iraq (news - web sites)'s mobile chemical and biological weapons laboratories to justify the US-led war on Iraq was not 'solid'(AFP/Pool/File/Stephanie Pilick)

[Brad’s Gramma]

I'm going to go to bed....you two have fun. I sure hope one of you can win a Funkle tonight!

Sleep well.

[glock rocks]

G'nite Grammie. sleep well.

[NormsRevenge]

U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) pauses while speaking about jobs growth while visiting Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, April 2, 2004. The president is scheduled to travel to Georgia for two private Bush-Cheney 2004 fundraisers before spending the weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat, in Maryland. REUTERS/Larry Downing US ELECTION

[NormsRevenge]

Nite BG,, Im gonna hold out for the 20 % and hang it up myself.

[glock rocks]

I'm sittin up with my 2nd grader looking at illusions. I think midnight is probably past his bedtime, so we'll probably drift on outa here as well.

Take care, Norm. See ya tomorrow.

[NormsRevenge]

You got it! .. I'm gonna jam a couple more in and hang it up. Busch race tomorrow should be a good one and Sinday, well, Just Wow!! Those cars were flying today.

[NormsRevenge]

[NormsRevenge]

hmmm? I wonder what it will take to reach 20%

[NormsRevenge]

Win Donate One for the Gipper!

[NormsRevenge]

"The house we hope to build is not for my generation but for yours. It is your future that matters. And I hope that when you are my age, you will be able to say as I have been able to say: We lived in freedom. We lived lives that were a statement, not an apology."

[NormsRevenge]

"A leader, once convinced a particular course of action is the right one, must have the determination to stick with it and be undaunted when the going gets rough."
- December 5, 1990

[NormsRevenge]

"There is no question that we have failed to live up to the dreams of the founding fathers many times and in many places. Sometimes we do better than others. But all in all, the one thing we must be on guard against is thinking that because of this, the system has failed. The system has not failed. Some human beings have failed the system."
- June 21, 1973

[NormsRevenge]

Good Night Mrs. Calabash,, Wherever you are. ;-)

God Bless Our Nation and Its Leaders as We Stand on the Ramparts of FReedom and Fight to Keep That Which is Good and Reject, that which is at its core , Evil.

[NormsRevenge]

Let the Funkles Begin!!!