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August 2009August 2009Vol. 6, Issue 8Vol. 6, Issue 8

LEGACYLone StarLone Star

Bush Legacy Republican Women of Weatherford

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From the

President…

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

August 3 BLRWW Board Meeting

August 6 Parker County Republican Party meeting

August 11 Parker County Young Republicans meet, 7 p.m., Northside Baptist Church Fireside Room. Call Mike, 817-301-2871, with questions.

August 20 BLRWW Monthly Meeting at Railhead Smokehouse, 120 S. Ranch House Road in Willow Park. Arrive around 11:30 a.m. to order food if you’d like to eat. The program begins at noon. No RSVP is required.

September 17 BLRWW Meeting/Membership Drive with special guest speaker Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell

Constitution Day

October 17 Fundraiser at Applebee’s (see more information on page 2 about this and our other fundraisers)

October 24 Get Out the Vote Workshop8:30 a.m.- 4:30 p.m., Doss Heritage Center

s the Texas legislature was winding down, national issues A

became clear and pressing issues for us. Many of you have voiced your concern and opposition to the direction our nation is headed. We must be diligent in continuing our opposition in a positive manner. Not long ago, I heard someone say that we must be FOR something, not so much AGAINST something. Working hard to get our nation back on track in the right direction is something all of us are FOR!

BLRWW continues to move forward in its mission to:Increase the effectiveness of our members in the cause of good governmentFacilitate cooperation among the members and promote the welfare of BLRWWInform the public through political education and activityFoster loyalty to the Republican PartyPromote the principles of the Republican Party

We have a great membership, and look forward to more opportunities to carry out our mission with diligence and pride. Thank you to everyone for making BLRWW an outstanding club! BLRWW is still meeting at Railhead BBQ in Willow Park at 11:30 a.m. on the third Thursday of each month. No RSVPs are necessary, and we would love for you to come and bring a guest. We have wonderful programs lined up for August and for the rest of the year. If you've been missing our meetings, we've been missing you!!

thOur September 17 meeting will be in the Parker Room at the Fire Oak Grill in Weatherford. Lt. Col. (Ret.) Brian Birdwell will be our guest speaker. Lt. Col. Birdwell is a survivor of the terrorists' attacks on September 11, 2001. After hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 collided into the Pentagon, Brian was thrown to the ground and engulfed in flames. Of the burns that consumed 60 percent of his body, nearly half were third degree, resulting in the need for 30+ operations. Brian's recovery has been truly remarkable and spiritually he is stronger than ever before.

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Together, he and his wife, Mel, share that spiritual strength and encouragement with other burn survivors and their families through the message of Christ's love and sovereignty. Brian and his wife, Mel, communicate a compelling message of enduring hope, unwavering faith, undying patriotism and unconditional love. Brian's organization, Face the Fire, exists for the purpose of glorifying Jesus Christ. They hope to do this by helping burn survivors, wounded servicemen and women, their families and the medical facilities that specialize in their care.

Our September meeting will also be our big membership drive. This will be an awesome meeting to invite your friends and families to. We will have applications available at the meeting or you can download one from our web site: www.blrww.com. We’ve also included an application with this newsletter.

Blessings, Judy Flanagin, President

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ou’re going to enjoy our monthly meeting at Railhead this month. Y

For 30 years, Dave Lieber, a humorist and storyteller, has used stories to help change our world. Dave works as The Watchdog columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

He won the Katie Award from the Dallas Press Club as the Best Columnist in the U.S. Southwest.

He is co-founder of one of the largest children’s charities in North Texas, Summer Santa, serving thousands of children yearly through a volunteer service with no office or paid staff.

Dave’s work for Summer Santa earned him the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award, awarded to the U.S. newspaper columnist whose work produces positive effects on the readers’ lives.

Invite your friends and family to join us on August 20 to hear Dave’s presentation and learn more about BLRWW. O

Get Ready for the

Watchdog Nation

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Hospitality

Finance

Fundraising Fun Is Coming This Fall!

Dave Lieber

Aug. 5 Karen Brasovan

Aug. 7 Jeane Brunson

Donna Couch

Aug. 10 Patty Williams

Aug. 13 Marsha Hardin

Aug. 14 Robyn Gentry

Aug. 31 Joan Shaw

Happy Birthday!Happy Birthday!

lyse Carter and her team have some great fundraisers Eplanned for BLRWW this fall that you’ll want to be part of.

October 17 will be a breakfast fundraiser at Applebee’s. We’ll have the restaurant from 8 a.m. until 10 a.m. for a delicious pancake breakfast. Each member is challenged to sell 10 of the $7 tickets. Several members of your BLRWW Board will be serving, and it will be a fun event! Elyse will have tickets available at our meeting at Railhead on August 20.

Also at the August meeting, Elyse will have forms available for our Christmas wreath fundraiser. BLRWW will receive a portion of the sales for beautiful, fresh, handmade 26-inch Norfolk pine wreaths for the Christmas season. Each member is challenged to sell 10 of the $30 wreaths. These wreaths can even be ordered for friends and family out of state and shipped to them as a wonderful Christmas gift.

And, we have two great cookbooks for sale. Praise the Lord and Pass the Biscuits is a memoir cookbook by author Suzanne McLennan. Each chapter is filled with recipes and stories of family, children and friendship. Her granddaughters have written Cooking with Sugar and Spice,

filled with tasty recipes kids can make. Each time a BLRWW member purchases one of these cookbooks, our club receives $2. Praise the Lord and Pass the Biscuits sells for $20 and comes autographed by Suzanne. Cooking with Sugar and Spice is $11, and is autographed by Suzanne’s granddaughters, Katy and Macy.

Contact Elyse at 817-594-9808 or wufwgn@uwmail.com for more information about any of these fundraisers.O

You’ve probably read about the home being locally for Specialist Brett Wolf, who was severely injured in Iraq in 2007. Homes for Our Troops builds or remodels homes across the country to accommodate the needs of severely wounded veterans, at no cost to those veterans. BLRWW donated Gatorade and snacks to the build brigade that began work on Brett Wolf ’s home on August 5. You can sign up at the Homes for Our Troops web site, www.homesforourtroops.org, to receive updates on this home’s progress, view pictures and videos of the site, and, most importantly, how you can make a donation.

built

Homes for Our Troops

Membership: PricelessMembership

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Remembering the True Heroesou may have received an e-mail recently about Ed YFreeman, who in 2001 received the Congressional

Medal of Honor for his actions during the Vietnam War. President George W. Bush, in his first ceremony presenting a Medal of Honor, said of Mr. Freeman: “He served his country and his comrades to the fullest, rising above and beyond anything the Army or the nation could have ever asked.”

The e-mail reads something like this:

You're a 19-year-old kid. You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley , 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam. Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.

You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out. Your family is halfway around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.

Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter and you look up to see an unarmed Huey, but it doesn't seem real because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.

Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.

He's coming anyway.

And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire as they load two or three of you on board.

Then he flies you up and out, through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses.

And he kept coming back, 13 more times, and took about 30 of your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.

Mr. Freeman passed away on August 20, 2008, in Boise, Idaho, of complications from Parkinson’s Disease. He was 80 year- old.

One of the national news stations, after his death, ran a 45-second story. Now, compare that to the almost constant coverage on the recent death of a troubled pop star.

As August 20, 2009, approaches, continue to remember Mr. Freeman and the brave men and women serving our country today. Please continue to pray for them, and share the stories of their courage and honor, which deserve constant coverage.

Thanks to Carolyn Estes for sharing Ed Freeman’s story.

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ur September 17 membership drive meeting will be O a great time for your friends and family to both be inspired and learn more about membership in BLRWW. I hope you’ll invite them to hear 9/11 survivor Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell share his amazing story. We want to help you get the word out - bring a list of names and addresses to our August meeting of your friends and family that might be interested in our club, and we’ll mail them postcards with a meeting reminder for September that will include all the details they’ll need to attend. Just give your list to me or any BLRWW officer. We’ll also be awarding a prize at the end of the year to the member who recruits the most new members; right now Pat Martin is in the lead!

If you’ve been thinking of someone that would be interested in joining BLRWW, now is the time to extend an invitation! Membership in our organization helps you support our local community as well as the Republican party. Now is an important time to not only get involved, but stay involved!

Preparing for 2010...

As the BLRWW board begins to plan for 2010, we’d like your input. Would you like to continue holding our monthly meetings at

Railhead Smokehouse, or do you have another location in mind that would work well for our meetings?

And, would you like to serve on the Board next year? Contact Judy Flanagin at judy@philking.com or 817-925-6425

to share your location ideas for our monthly meetings, and how you would like to serve on the Board.

At every meeting, let’s all remember to wear our nametags, and welcome new members. If you’re a new member and need a nametag, or if you’re a member in need of a replacement, just let me know. Your first nametag is free; a replacement is just $8.

I look forward to seeing you and your guests, and I’ll have plenty of membership applications for them on September 17!O

Dottie WorthingtonCall 817-596-9497 or e-mail dottie@worthington.bz

omparing the different reform plans being Cproposed is a daunting task. But it’s not hard to see the bill being pushed by the Democrats and the President significantly increases the role of the federal government in our health care choices (see page 5).

Following are a few online links that I have found helpful; if you don’t currently have Internet access but would like a copy of this information, just call me at 817-301-2873 and I will print out a copy and get it to you. Also, the back page of this newsletter lists the contact information for our Representatives.

Healthcare Debate  http://www.kff.org/healthreform/sidebyside.cfm (This Kaiser Family Foundation site allows you to compare all the competing healthcare plans by author or topic.)

 http://www.gopleader.gov (The Republican plan.)

 http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h3200/text (This site lists the full text of the bill along with member comments. This page has taken a while to load and has been operating very slowly at times.)

 http://docs.house.gov/edlabor/AAHCA-BillText-071409.pdf (The full text of the healthcare bill.)O

Karen Brasovan

Meeting Minutes

BLRWW, July 16, 2009Railhead Smokehouse Restaurant, Willow Park, Texas

The regular monthly meeting of Bush Legacy Republican Women of Weatherford was called to order at 12:08 p.m. by President Judy Flanagin.

Pat Martin gave the invocation. Pledge to the American Flag was led by Karen Brasovan and the Texas State Flag by Mike Brasovan.

President Flanagin welcomed and recognized the elected officials and guests.

Joan Shaw, program chair, introduced Roger Williams as our speaker.

A quorum check was made and there was a quorum present.

Joan Shaw made a motion to accept the minutes of the June meeting as printed in the July newsletter. The motion was seconded by Evon Markum. It was voted to accept the minutes as printed.

Robin Gentry gave the Treasurer’s report. Evon Markum moved to accept the treasurer’s report. The motion was seconded by Elyse Carter. A vote was taken and it passed.

Under Membership, Dottie Worthington announced we did not have any new members since last month’s meeting.

Under Programs, Joan Shaw announced that next month's speaker would be Dave Leiber, Watchdog Nation founder and Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist.

Campaign and PR chair Brandi Buckner asked that we turn in our April, May, and June volunteer hours.

Finance chair Elyse Carter announced that we are going to have a fund raiser breakfast at Applebee's in October. The details are to follow. She also informed us that the club would be selling Christmas wreaths.

Bylaws and Legislation chair Carolyn Estes was not present to report.

Hospitality chair Dodie Jordan reported that we had 24 members and 19 guests at today's meeting.

Dottie Worthington reported for Literacy Chair and Historian Brooke Worthington that the pocket constitution had been distributed to local schools, and asks for donations from any of the members who had not already given. There was nothing to address under Unfinished Business or New Business.

Under Announcements, President Judy Flanagin announced (a) Next BLRWW Board Meeting, Monday, Aug. 3, 2009 (b) Parker County Republican Women's next meeting will be Monday, August 13 at 11:30 a.m. at DHCC (c) Parker County Republican Party meeting, Thursday, Aug. 6, at 7 p.m.

The door prize tickets were drawn and the winners were presented the prizes.. The meeting was adjourned at approximately 1:08 p.m.

Subscribed by Pat Martin, Secretary

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BLRWW President Judy Flanagin welcomed U.S. Senate Candidate Roger Williams as our guest speaker at last month’s monthly meeting at Railhead. If you couldn’t make it, we hope to see you this month!

5www.blrww.com

The Republican flowchart of the healthcare plan. For an interesting talk on this flowchart, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVyTGo2WP2g. O

Healthcare Reform or Bureaucratic Nightmare?

Bush Legacy Republican Women of Weatherford

Karen Brasovan, Newsletter105 Forest CourtAledo, TX 76008817-301-2873karen@thgsolutions.com

U.S. Senator John Cornyn http://cornyn.senate.gov/public/index.cfmWashington Office: 202-224-2934 202-224-2856 (FAX)Dallas Office: 972-239-1310 972-239-2110 (FAX)

U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson http://hutchison.senate.gov/index.htmlWashington Office: 202-224-5922 202-224-0776 (FAX)Dallas Office: 214-361-3500 214-361-3502 (FAX)

U.S. Rep. Kay Granger www.kaygranger.house.gov/index.aspWashington Office: 202-224-5071 202-224-5683 (FAX)Fort Worth Office: 817-338-0909 817-335-5852 (FAX)

YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS

State Rep. Phil King www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist61/king.htmWeatherford Office: 817-596-8100 817-596-8375 (FAX)

State Senator Craig Estes www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/Senate/members/dist30/dist30.htmAustin Office: 512-463-0130 512-463-8874 (FAX)N. Texas Office: 940-898-0331 940-898-0926 (FAX)

Texas Legislature news:U.S. congressional news: To contact state and national elected officials,

as well as GOP officials:

www.capitol.state.tx.uswww.congress.org

www.texasgop.org/site/PageServer?pagename=leadership_home

www.parkertxgop.org

www.tfrw.org

www.nfrw.org

www.pcyr.us

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• BLRWW Website and Monthly Newsletters with web based meeting reservations and reminders

• Keeping you Informed on Important Issues with Informative Programs and Outstanding Speakers

• Arm Yourself with Political Knowledge and Education

• Build Lasting Friendships and Memories with fellow Republicans

• Meet Area Leaders and Politicians • Serve on Community Service Projects • Opportunity to Network with Others and Become a

Mentor to Others • As a Member You Support Our Troops in BLRWW

Projects • Become a Leader; Join Other Members in a

Leadership Role in Our Community • As a Member You Become an Advocate

For Republican Principles • Assist in Making Republican Issues Visible to the

Community • Learn About and Support Great BLRWW

Scholarships Programs • Assist to Register Voters • Attend or Assist with Fundraisers • Advertise In the BLRWW Newsletter • Annual Christmas Party, Membership Drive and Other

Fellowship Activities Throughout the Year • Membership to TFRW and NFRW • Learn About Political Meetings Happening in Your

Neighborhood

FOR MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION CONTACT VP MEMBERSHIP Dottie Worthington 817-594-0291

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION Date: _______________________________________ Mrs. Ms. Miss. Dr. Mr. Other Title ____________________________ Member Occupation: ________________________________ (REQUIRED) ( ) Name: _______________________________________ _______ Regular Membership is $100.00 ( ) Address: _____________________________________ _______ Dual Membership $90.00 Primary Club: ______________________________ ( ) City, State, Zip: ______________________________ _______ Associate Membership $90.00 (Republican men, spouse, etc.) ( ) Home Phone: _________________________________ ( ) Husband’s Name: _______________________________ ( ) Cell Phone: ___________________________________ Birthday: Month ______________ / Day ______________ ( ) Work Phone: _________________________________ Voting Precinct Number: _________________________

( ) Email: _______________________________________ ____Yes, contact me regarding the following BLRWW activities NOTICE: Items in ( ) will be printed in directory unless checked. ___ Awards ___ Campaign Activities ___Hospitality IT’S NOT THE COST OF MEMBERSHIP, ___ Peach Festival ___Voter Registration IT’S THE VALUE OF MEMBERSHIP Other: _________________________________________ Single mother’s and Widow’s $55 Young Republicans $35 Young affiliate (under 18) $25 Elected Officials $35 Make Checks Payable to: (NO CORP CHECKS) BUSH LEGACY REPUBLICAN WOMEN OF WEATHERFORD, PAC Dottie Worthington, VP MEMBERSHIP, 1701 Santa Fe., WEATHERFORD, TX 76086 817-594-0291 Email: dottie@worthington.bz