December 31, 2006

Year-End News And Report

GML2007 Conference Hotel Info Released

The end of the year is rapidly approaching, which means you have just hours left to make a 2006 tax-deductible donation to the We The People Foundation for Constitutional Education.

This year has been an extremely important one.

In January, February and early March, we succeeded in getting America buzzing about “America: Freedom to Fascism” by screening the movie in commercial theaters in twenty-four cities, from one end of the country to the other. WTP inspired Aaron to produce the movie, which prominently features the work of the Foundation.

At Aaron’s request, WTP leased the theaters, purchased the equipment necessary to show the movie in those theaters not equipped with digital projection equipment and we did what we could to advertise the screenings.

Each weekend, Bob Schulz traveled from his home in upstate New York to greet each audience and introduce the film. We could not have been more pleased with the results, from witnessing the packed theaters and standing ovations to being asked by Aaron to prepare a comprehensive business plan to build on that momentum.  Our proposed business plan was to attract equity investors and donors alike to raise the several million dollars required to advertise and open the film in the top twenty-five US markets. Although Aaron declined our proposal, the movie was eventually released and has now been seen by hundreds of thousands of Americans on DVD and for free on Google. 

WTP’s role in assisting Aaron Russo with the making of the movie, and WTP’s success in getting the publicity about the movie off to such a good start would not have been possible without the financial support from you, the People. We have no big financial angels. What we have is a passion for Liberty, courage of our convictions, commitment to civic education and civic action, and Faith that the People will support effective leadership – i.e., an organization with a vision that is making things happen and getting things done, intelligently, rationally and professionally.

In July and August we succeeded in demonstrating our ability to communicate our message, live, to a potential audience of millions of People – anyone with a computer and able to connect through the Internet to “The Liberty Hour”– and, to do it with remote feeds, from the road, away from the home office. We purchased all the equipment and trained ourselves to operate it, weaning ourselves off of our previous reliance upon costly video production contractors. 

Our “on-the-job” video production and live web cast training started with last summer’s Right to Petition tour with a grueling schedule that began in Concord, Mass., just yards from where the first violent confrontation against the British occurred.  Because of this experience and your generous financial support, our plan to broadcast a weekly “Liberty Hour” is one step closer to reality. 

September, October and November were largely devoted to stepped up activities related to what has become our primary focus - protecting, preserving and enhancing the People’s Right to hold the Government accountable to the Constitution by constitutional means, including claiming and exercising our constitutional Rights under the Petition Clause of the First Amendment and by testing the attitude of the Judiciary.

In October, before a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals in Washington DC we argued the People’s Rights and the Government’s Obligations under the Petition Clause of the First Amendment. The only questions before the Court are whether the Government is obligated to respond with specific, formal answers to our four Petitions for Redress and if the People have the Right to withdraw their financial support from the Government if the Government refuses to respond.

In November, we succeeded in bringing more of the public’s attention to the issue by taking a page out of the movie “V for Vendetta.” A lone person, wearing the mask and costume of “V” with a videographer in tow, appeared at the security checkpoints at the White House, the main Treasury Building, the main Justice Building and the Capitol. See the video: 250k high speed  56k dial-up

His mission was to see that our four Petitions for Redress of Grievances (regarding the Government’s violation of the tax, war powers, privacy and money clauses of the Constitution) were once again served on the Government in a public, recorded fashion, and to notify the Government that in eight days, up to 100 “Vs” would assemble at those locations to await a response to the Petitions.

On November 14^th, sixty or more “Vs” assembled, to await a response from the Government. Once again, the government refused to respond. Our repeated petitions continue to be met with repeated injuries.

Again, our efforts this year would not have been possible without your ongoing support and participation.
 

2007 looks to be another important year

A judicial resolution of the “capstone” issue for the American People is near – popular sovereignty and the People's ability to hold the government accountable to our unalienable, individual, natural Rights as guaranteed by the Constitution. The United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit should issue its decision soon, certainly before the date of GML 2007, our conference to be held in DC on March 29, 30 and 31. After that the United States Supreme Court will have an opportunity to weigh in on the matter.

What is so remarkable is the fact that our case, titled, “We The People v United States” marks the very first time in the entire history of America that a court of law will have declared the meaning of the fifth of the five Freedoms that are guaranteed by the First Amendment – the Right of the People to Petition the Government for Redress of Grievances and constitutional torts.  Truly amazing and long, long overdue. 

Regardless of how the court rules, and although we believe the Court has little choice but to fully support our positions regarding this crucial Right protected by the First Amendment, our efforts will have resulted in a landmark decision that either affirms the essential principles of our Constitution or informs the People that our form of self-government predicated upon Popular Sovereignty and individual Rights has ended.

Our forthright and aggressive defense of our Rights under the Petition Clause, including the ability to hire renowned civil rights attorney Mark Lane, would not have been possible without the support of you, the People. 


GML 2007

The 2007 Give Me Liberty conference, GML 2007, will be held March 29-31 at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center in Alexandria, Virginia (not the Crystal City Marriott as indicated on the draft agenda we posted earlier this month). The hotel is a well-equipped resort and conference facility that should make our event a grand success and your stay a relaxing pleasure.

After carefully considering proposals from and negotiated concessions by three fine area hotels we settled on the Hilton primarily because of the significant savings in the rates for the guest hotel rooms and the fact that the Hilton has guaranteed that each of the rooms we have reserved will be a double (i.e., two full beds).  The hotel contract for guest rooms and conference facilities has been signed and executed.

Hilton Alexandria Mark Center

Lobby bar

Conference facility

To better facilitate our planned en masse “V for Vendetta” Right-to-Petition activist event at the White House as part of the GML 2007 conference, we will be hiring buses to transport the costumed “Vs” from the conference venue to Lafayette Park, located across from the White House.

The main hotel conference room will be set up class-room style, giving everyone a desk to sit at. We will have a working lunch each of the three days with speakers (box lunches available for everyone). There will be two dinner banquets, with a reception preceding each.

We have also negotiated a flat parking rate of $4.00/day, including taxes and gratuity. The hotel runs a shuttle van that leaves every half-hour for the Pentagon and Regan National Airport Metro stations, which are three miles from the hotel.

In order to make it possible for everyone to come to the conference, WTP is working closely with the Hilton to accommodate shared rooms.  If people want a roommate to share the cost of a room, we have made it possible to reserve a shared room at half the cost using our online reservation system.

IMPORTANT!! If we need to reserve additional guest rooms at the excellent daily room rate that we have negotiated ($159 plus taxes & fees), we will have to do so soon. The demand for booking hotel rooms in the DC is increasing quickly now, due not only to the usual agenda of “city-wide” events but also because of the two-week Cherry Blossom Festival which begins on April 1, 2007, the day after our event ends.

The only way WTP will know that we need to block off additional discounted rooms will be the pace at which the current block of reserved discounted rooms sell out. Therefore, we ask everyone to make their room reservations without delay.

We have also hired a Washington DC based consultant, with extensive contacts with constitutional scholars and organizations to help us bring the good news about the power of the Right to Petition to the attention of DC-based constitutional scholars and liberty-oriented organizations, to help prepare additional Petitions for Redress for the benefit of these other groups, and to increase the level of participation at GML 2007 and the “V” Right-to-Petition en masse demonstration planned for Friday, March 30^th.

A revised draft agenda for GML has been completed. We are hearing from those people we have invited to be speakers. Soon, we will announce the speakers who have accepted our invitation to speak at this important Freedom event.

Additional information will be released soon regarding conference registration, meals, entertainment, etc.

Please Donate. Your support ensures that we will continue to have a smart, courageous, committed advocate organization for constitutional governance carried out in decency and good order. Don't wait -- 2007 is almost here. Please make your tax-deductible donation today.  Remember, regardless of when mailed, donations dated before January 1 are tax-deductible for 2006.


We wish everyone a peaceful and successful new year.
Be well and stay vigilant.

With the warmest of regards,

Bob Schulz
Chairman

Click Here to reserve a full hotel room or
reserve a shared room for the GML2007 Conference.
 

We again ask each of you, in addition, to consider furthering your commitment in the form of an ongoing, monthly “subscription” donation.  This form of support is needed even more than ever because it helps us plan and budget to secure the larger, long-term objectives of our organization. If everyone committed even a modest amount we could accomplish many things very quickly.

Click here to establish an additional monthly recurring donation to support the mission of the WTP Foundation.