Purpose of this thread:
1. Establishing some standard press release text to send on IBS letterhead to journalists and others. The press release would present IBS and our main issues and consensus opinions.
2. A list of journalists to whom to send such press release.
3. Agree on procedures for approving the press release (as of 26 May, this would appear to be a vote at IBS, final editing and approval by Petros and Just Me).
4. Agree on distribution plan for the press release.
@Bubblebustin
I think you would be surprised how receptive Tea Partiers will be to the plight of expats, particularly the Ron Paul movement types.
I have seen several articles posted on Lew Rockwell’s (former Ron Paul Chief of Staff) blog in support of expatriation. To Rockwell, if the government had respected the constitution, nobody would be interested in expatriating.
So I guess I’ve been lurking here long enough to finally comment. Kudos to you all for the insightful blogs and the commenting blitzkrieg!
Weighing in on the press release debate, I think draft by Jefferson D Thomas is really spot on. And regardless of how vile Rush can be, the more attention this gets from the press, the better.
As we are so little regarded in the US, I think it might be our only chance of having any say/sway in public opinion. In the very least, we have to at least fight against the depiction of all being in the same boat as Saverin.
In that respect, as someone just starting her career, I have to say, it wouldn’t hurt our case either if we were to argue for our informal role as American ambassador abroad. I teach English to kids, so obviously they are excited about America and want to hear all about it. The more I lose faith in the country, the more the kids pick up on it. But not just kids, Germans I meet practically jump out of their skin with excitement when they find out where I’m from.
The world is becoming more global and mobile, and if the USA becomes more insular, it will lose. I don’t think this point can be overstated enough. I too worry about joint accounts and pension funds, but I think perhaps it’s less divisive to talk about why young people should be given the chance to try something abroad, just as an easy way to get people more interested in the debate,rather than what sometimes can be viewed as purely about taxes.
so my two cents and greetings from Germany.
Sami.. the media,unfortnately, likes to make it 95% about taxes. I think writing a story about my boring life is not what resident Americans want to read about. Eduardo Saverin, on the other hand, is something that gets Americans riled up.
Mark Zuckerberg married his girlfriend that is of Asian descent. I’m really quite happy for them both. When I told my wife yesterday that they got married, he first reply was “He’s moving to China (Singapore) too!!??). Imagine that if the American Golden Boy, Mark Zuckerberg, did the same thing as Eduardo Saverin? I really think that’s the only thing that would wake up Americans from their fear-induced coma: someone very famous bringing the issues to their lives. Eduardo Saverin is easy to criticise because he’s rich, but not famous. Zuckerberg is RICH, famous, and is never really criticised anywhere.
@littlemsami, welcome! I’m intrigued by your comment “Germans I meet practically jump out of their skin with excitement when they find out where I’m from”, can you give us some insight into that remark? Also, I can see your concern as an ambassador for the US, it becomes more and more difficult to keep a smile on your face for a country that punishes you for living abroad. We just did our US taxes, $2,000 in filing costs to pay just dollars in tax, a true waste of resources!
@geez, I think that the US needs to hear our boring stories! Extraterritorial taxation hurts the little people too!
Welcome, littlemsami. Tell us your story. I know little of Germany, but I understand there is a big segment of the German population that is enamored of the Cowboys and Indians of the Old West culture, with gatherings and costume shows and black powder shooting competitions as in the US west. As someone starting your career, your insight is valuable.
I agree that not enough press is given to the advantages to America of having citizens living abroad and speaking of the benfits of a Constitutional republic, even if in practice it is now deeply flawed. The ideas behind it appeal to all people. I remember how moved I was by the appeals from the rebellions in Iran and in Libya when they asked for moral support from the US, which is still regarded as the repository of the values associated with liberty and individual rights.
@ all, esp. Jeff, Thanks for this thread. Yesterday and today, I’ve been holding back responding, as I was busy with the Amerian Thinker article which Thomas Lifson so kindly published this morning.
In releasing a press release, I think we need to respond to immediate crises and mobilize. This means, we should make the next press release about the Ex Patriot Act, in my opinion. [JDT:copied above to HERE]
@Petros @FromTheWilderness @Patrick Henry
I have summarized your suggestions about press release content at the top of this thread. I have also moved my proposed distribution plan and proposed text to the top (second post in the thread).
Would you please copy my proposed text to your word processor and integrate your suggestions into the text? To keep this word-processor independent, please do not use the revision functions of Word, just write anything you add or change in red.
Then I will look at all 3 versions, make an amalgam, and post it back here. You could send me the 3 versions to stopdoubletaxation@yahoo.fr, because the red letters from the word processor would be lost when you copy to a post here.
@All If I overlooked anyone’s imput, please let me know and I will add it to the second post in the thread.
As soon as we come up with the revised text, I propose that we call a vote and then if ok, proceed to divide up the worldwide distribution responsibilities between Brockers as discussed in the second post above.
Let’s get going while the going’s good.
In addtion to the Ex-Patriot Act as a current event that we should emphasize in our press release, perhaps we should also bring up passport revokation.
ACA has just issued a position paper yesterday against the same: http://www.aca.ch/pospaperpassportandtaxes.pdf
They also sent a letter to Schumer: http://www.aca.ch/schumerletter.pdf
@Jefferson
I think my input would fit the best into paragraph five (5) of your draft. Please see below:
We are especially concerned that the press in the US has historically slammed Americans abroad when we talk about citizenship renunciation or the unfairness of the US system of citizenship-based taxation. For example, in recent articles and editorials about the Saverin issues, we feel that that all Americans abroad being grouped together with very wealthy people. Most, ex-pats left America with empty pockets. The money in their savings and pensions was earned in their countries of residence, not the US. The American people as a whole are not being allowed to see the whole story.
@Jefferson
Before distributing, I would like to suggest that Petros and/or Just Me edit it with an eye towards shortening it, while preserving the main themes.
Pingback: Glossary Thread — Jargon of IBS, and groups that deal with common issues | The Isaac Brock Society
@Jefferson,
I have been meaning to get back to this, and I apologize it has taken so long. I know you are trying very hard to get something going here, and it needs to “get going”, but you see the difficulties of using a “distributed model” for responsibility of media releases and email distribution.
Just a thought here…, but as Petros works on his seamless switch over to a .ca server for Isaac Brock, and then tries to come up with a contribution model to fund this effort, I think we need to search out the “ONE” Brocker who has the aptitude, interest and the time to be the media PR point person for both creating IBS Press Releases and distributing them. It is too hard to do this by BCC (blog comment committee), in my opinion.
For sure, some of this media outreach is being done by our individual efforts, some more than others, but it is haphazard at best, if my own efforts are any indication of what others might do.
We each try, but get distracted with normal life and real jobs, demanding wives 🙂 and even with the best of intentions, just don’t get back to it and let opportunities slip by.
I only look at myself for these failures. I should be more supportive of your efforts, and yet it slips my mind, and you have to comeback, somewhat frustrated to ask me to do your poll. I hate polls BTW.. 🙂 Just a personal peccadillo, and tend to ignore them and petitions.
I will do your poll, after I finish this. I promise.
I do have a list of additional reporters that I email from time to time. I keep meaning to add them to this list, but then find something else I would rather do, procrastinator that I am…which got me thinking……..
I don’t know much about how you do this, but Isaac Brock should consider using a web based Press Release media. It might be a good idea, like ACA does. They use PRWEB. Here is their latest.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/5/prweb9556599.htm
I don’t know what the costs are for use of this service, but I could research it, just too lazy this morning… See what I mean? 🙂 (Yes, I do see the button to create a Free Account, but I am sure there is a catch. Will check later.)
Also, I know there are others out there like http://www.prnewswire.com/
Don’t know the advantages or disadvantages of one over the other, (maybe both are good) but once we have some sponsorship money coming in, combined with a Volunteer PR point person, we could be using these resources to advocate positions or opposition to misguided U.S. policy in the future…
Then we would have a directed media strategy, with someone reaching out to the media in a regular and consistent way, while the rest of us would continue our ad hoc outreach. I do not think a single media PR strategy will be enough, and we all have to do what we do the best, or have the time for, whether it be direct email to our favorite journalist, tweets, letters to editors, or comments to news storie on line.
I will try to add to my list of journalist I have emailed in the past 6 months, for all to see later today… No promises, as I have to work on my FBARs. See, I procrastinate! 🙂
Another distributor of Press releases to consider.. http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/
I’m late coming to this thread. My one concern is that the release not imply that all of us on this website are US citizens; many of the people on the Brock site are NOT US citizens but FORMER US citizens who the IRS deems to be US citizens, contrary to the US Immigration and Nationality Act. Others are people who are considered by the US to be US citizens by birth, but who hold another dominant citizenship by virtue of their parentage or birthplace, who have never lived in the US, earned any income in the US, held a US passport, or in any other way exercised rights of US citizenship and who never will, but are still liable for US taxation in the eyes of the IRS.
We are NOT all Americans or US citizens (“dual” or otherwise), nor do we all consider ourselves as such. Yet we are still affected, or our spouses and their children are.
PLEASE ensure this distinction is made. I do NOT agree to myself, my wife, my wife’s adult children, or the other folks whose relinquishments I am advising, being described as US citizens or Americans. We are NOT. We are Canadian (in our specific cases) citizens who are being targetted by the IRS.
I appreciate that this may complicate the wording of the press release, but I strongly object to any simplification of the release that would lump all of us as “Americans” or “dual citizens.” That would be the same kind of arbitrary over-simplification that is the hallmark of the IRS and the US State Department, and I don’t want us to go there.