YOU'RE INVITED...

When:    July 29 & July 30

Time:     8 a.m. (Registration is at 7:30 a.m.)

Where:   Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center Room 008-River Level;
200 E. Market St. in San Antonio, TX

Its a great time to be a Republican in the State of Texas! In the past election cycle, Republicans picked up over 200 offices and now, elected Republican officials hold over 2,000 offices across the state. We have seen this tremendous growth because of your involvement in our political process. But there is much progress to be made at the local level; just because we are not in the midst of elections, the activity must not stop! We must continue to grow our local parties to prepare for the 2006 elections so that we can see continued Republican expansion. Our goal is to enlist, equip, and engage!

That is why as Chairman of The Republican Party of Texas, I am excited to invite you to join me and your fellow Republicans at our Grassroots Training School. Come learn insider tips on developing a persuasive message for your local campaigns, fundraising, and mobilizing your community to become involved. Discover how to ID voters in your area and turn out their vote, along with a number of other important and relevant topics. The future growth of our party begins with your community. Please come join me and my team at this training so that you will be equipped to make a difference in 2006! I look forward to seeing you there!

Sincerely,

Tina J. Benkiser
Chairman, Republican Party of Texas

P.S.
Contact Person: Kevin Lindley or Damaris Barton, 512-477-9821
Cost: $75 per person, $100 per couple; RSVP to 512-477-9821  (Call early! Space is limited!)

To find out more about the Republican Party of Texas and what they are doing, check and bookmark their website: Republican Party of Texas

2004 Republican Party of Texas Platform:

http://texasgop.org/library/platform.php
 

Jocis leadership, volunteerism, civic involvement and tireless commitment to the Republican Party exemplify qualities that make her an outstanding recipient of this award. Mrs. Straus serves as a role model and mentor to women of all ages.

Special Presenter: Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames-Jones

Time: 6:30-8:00p.m.

Location: Grey Moss Inn; 19010 Scenic Loop; Helotes

Cost: $25.00 per person

Contacts:

Sandy Galvan                210.710.8586              sgal@satx.rr.com

Dee Momone                 210.691.3129              deemomone@satx.rr.com

Dee Brame                    210.493.5512              deeb@satx.rr.com

Laura Bush Service and Education Award Logo Courtesy of Robert Sanchez www.sanchezforcongress.com .
 

We are pleased to announce that Texas Supreme Court Justice Phil Johnson will be joining us for a Special Presentation and Petition Signing Party in Bexar County. 

(Please bring your voter registration card. We encourage South Texas Judges to attend with their petitions by 6:00pm. There is limited space.)

Judge Joe Brown, 57th District Court, will introduce Justice Johnson. 

Date:  August 31, 2005 (Wednesday)

Networking Reception:  6:30pm  7:00pm

Program:  7:00pm- 8:00pm

Cost:  FREE

Location:  Newforest Estates, A Wellstone Retirement Community, 5034 Newforest Drive, San Antonio, Texas 78229, Phone: 210-680-3649

Click here for a MAP

165 residents of the Newforest Estates Community will be invited to this function. 

Sponsorship Levels:  Gold- $100, Silver $50, Bronze $25.  Please contact Schuylar Crist if you would like to be a sponsor of the program.

In the past four years, South Texas Republicans and Alamo City Republican Women have been honored to host the following Texas Supreme Court Justices at our events:

Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, Justice Dale Wainright, Justice Scott Brister, Justice Paul Green and Justice David Medina.

The current makeup of the 4th Court of Appeals: 

5 Republican Justices:  Phyllis Speedlin, Karen Angelini, Sarah B. Duncan, Sandee Bryan Marion and Rebecca Simmons

2 Democrat Justices:  Alma Lopez (Chief Justice) and Catherine Stone

South Texas Republicans is NOW issuing a wake up call to our South Texas conservative lawyers.  It is time to step up and prevent a shift towards the left on the 4th Court of Appeals.  We predict the battle for this open seat will be a fierce one. 

Friends, get READY to RUMBLE!!!  We will need your grassroots support!!
 

And The U.T.S.A. College Republicans Proudly Present!

"The Texas Public Policy Foundation has brought together specific proposals by some of the nations best authorities on the most important issues facing our states..."
- Former President Ronald Reagan

Rough Riders of Bexar County Logo courtesy of Robert Sanchez-www.sanchezforcongress.com
 

Date: Wednesday July 20th  

Time: 11:30 a.m to 1:00 pm

Location: Water Street Oyster Bar; 7500 Broadway Street

Cost: $20 for members; $25 for nonmembers; $35 for new members (includes membership fee)

NEW Campaign Opportunities:  County Team Member, Hosting an Event in my Community, Fundraising, Helping to Build Coalition Efforts, Finding 15 E-mail addresses, Hosting an Event in my Community, Mailing Postcards to Friends before Election Day, Helping to Find Sign Locations, Sending Newspaper Articles to the Campaign Office, etc.

Volunteer Sign-up Sheet:

For more information on Susan Combs, please log on to her website at www.susancombs.com
 

Program Title:  "Funding Your Race: Three Components to Success"

Date: Thursday, August 18th

Time: Networking Reception and Dinner (on your own):  6:15pm-7:00pm
Program:  7:00pm  8:15pm

Location:  Grady's BBQ; 4109 Fredericksburg Road

Rough Riders of Bexar County Logo Courtesy of Robert Sanchez-www.sanchezforcongress.com
 

This is a service provided by South Texas Republicans, P.A.C.
 

For many years Ben Stein has written a biweekly column called "Monday Night At Morton's." (Morton's is a famous chain of Steakhouses known to be frequented by movie stars and famous people from around the globe.) Now, Ben is terminating the column to move on to other things in his life. Reading his final column is worth a few minutes of your time.

Ben Stein's Last Column...
============================================
How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be a Star in Today's World?

As I begin to write this, I "slug" it, as we writers say, which means I put a heading on top of the document to identify it. This heading is "eonlineFINAL," and it gives me a shiver to write it. I have been doing this column for so long that I cannot even recall when I started. I loved writing this column so much for so long I came to believe it would never end.

It worked well for a long time, but gradually, my changing as a person and the world's change have overtaken it. On a small scale, Morton's, while better than ever, no longer attracts as many stars as it used to. It still brings in the rich people in droves and definitely some stars. I saw Samuel L. Jackson there a few days ago, and we had a nice visit, and right before that, I saw and had a splendid talk with Warren Beatty in an elevator, in which we agreed that Splendor in the Grass was a super movie. But Morton's is not the star galaxy it once was, though it probably will be again.


Beyond that, a bigger change has happened. I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important. They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to.

How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today's world, if by a "star" we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model? Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails.

They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer. A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit, Iraq. He could have been met by a bomb or a hail of AK-47 bullets. Instead, he faced an abject Saddam Hussein and the gratitude of all of the decent people of the world.

A real star is the U.S. soldier who was sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of Baghdad. He approached it, and the bomb went off and killed him.

A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the U.S. soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded. He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad.

The stars who deserve media attention are not the ones who have lavish weddings on TV but the ones who patrol the streets of Mosul even after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for the sin of trying to protect Iraqis from terrorists.

We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines. The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines and near the Arctic Circle are anonymous as they live and die.

I am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that who is eating at Morton's is a big subject.

There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament...the policemen and women who go off on patrol in South Central and have no idea if they will return alive; the orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery; the teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children; the kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards.

Think of each and every fireman who was running up the stairs at the World Trade Center as the towers began to collapse. Now you have my idea of a real hero.

I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters. This is my highest and best use as a human. I can put it another way. Years ago, I realized I could never be as great an actor as Olivier or as good a comic as Steve Martin...or Martin Mull or Fred Willard--or as good an economist as Samuelson or Friedman or as good a writer as Fitzgerald. Or even remotely close to any of them.

But I could be a devoted father to my son, husband to my wife and, above all, a good son to the parents who had done so much for me. This came to be my main task in life. I did it moderately well with my son, pretty well with my wife and well indeed with my parents (with my sister's help). I cared for and paid attention to them in their declining years. I stayed with my father as he got sick, went into extremis and then into a coma and then entered immortality with my sister and me reading him the Psalms.

This was the only point at which my life touched the lives of the soldiers in Iraq or the firefighters in New York. I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters and that it is my duty, in return for the lavish life God has devolved upon me, to help others He has placed in my path. This is my highest and best use as a human.

Faith is not believing that God can. It is knowing that God will.

By Ben Stein
 

The following clubs will be holding important events and South Texas Republicans encourages participation by local activists:

Northwest Republicans Monthly Meeting

Date: Tuesday, July 26th

Location: Sea Island Restaurant;
11715 Bandera Rd at Bandera Point (Rt. 1604 and Rt. 16)
San Antonio, TX 78015

Time: 6:30pm to 7:00pm - Social and networking time.  Dinner is optional and on your own
7:00pm to 8:00pm (time-certain) - Formal Meeting

Speaker: Steve Johnson will discuss the 'Politics of Healthcare In the 21st Century'

Please RSVP your attendance to our Secretary Karen Stewart: Phone: (210) 488-3108 or email (gospursgo10@hotmail.com) her with your reservation

Do you have event information?
You can reach Schuylar either by phone at (210) 663-6093 or via e-mail: skyskyrider@hotmail.com

Click here to view the calendar for details on these and other events