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.
PROPOSED LIST OF JOURNALISTS AND PRESS RELEASE
Please post your propositions and I will copy them here.
——————Just Me’s Propositions——————-:
Josh Marshall, at TPM
Warren Olney, at KCRW, To the Point
Robert Sheer at Truth Digg
Arriana Huffington at Huffington Post
Matt Miller, Moderator of Left, Right and Center and columnist at Wash Post
Daily Beast
NPR All Things Considered
Robert Siegel, Michele Norris and Melissa Block.
NPR Morning Edition
Steve Inskeep, Renee Montagne, David Green
NPR Weekend Saturday – Scott Simon
NRP Weekend All Things Considered- Guy Raz
PBS NewsHour Program -Making Sense of it all, by Paul Solmon
NPR Planet Money (especially Adam Davidson)
Market Place Radio (http://www.marketplace.org/)
especially Paddy Hirsh and Kai Ryssdal
This American Life (we could pitch them an entire show on the unintended consequences of OVDI.)
Rachel Maddow- MSNBC
Daily Caller
Stephen Colbert
David Brooks -NYTs
E.J. Dionne, – Wash Po
Ezera Kliene – Wash Po
Mark Shields – PBS
Joe Norcera – NYTs
Jon Stewart (Daily Show)
James Fallows- The Atlantic
Simon Johnson of Baseline Scenario
enough for tonight…but I am not done Notice that I have totally skipped most of the MSM, like NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, etc….
———————– END of Just Me’s Propositions————-
———————– BEGIN Victoria —————————
– International Herald Tribune editorial board http://global.nytimes.com/?iht
– The Nation – not sure who would be best but perhaps someone who writes on World affairs here http://www.thenation.com/world
– The New Yorker: Gopnik who was an expat for a time here in France.
– Slashdot: A really popular techie hangout. They have several threads on Saverin. http://politics.slashdot.org/story/12/05/17/1827235/senators-to-unveil-the-ex-patriot-act-to-respond-to-facebooks-saverin?sdsrc=rel
———————– END Victoria ——————————
———————– BEGIN calgary411 ————————–
Fareed Zakaria
———————– END calgary411 —————————-
Comments on what Press Release should contain
—Petros: “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.”
—FromTheWilderness: “Another important theme I forgot to mention is many if not 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.”
—Patrick Henry:
1.) CITIZENSHIP-BASED TAXATION must be repealed! America’s founders refused to tolerate it, why should anyone else.
2.) EX-PATS have NO REPRESENTATION in congress. To be specific, there is nobody in congress with voting rights who is elected by and represents the interests of EX-PATS.
3.) EX-PATS do not use US highways, bridges, dams, power grid, schools, hospitals, fire, police, courts etc. They are not able to receive unemployment benefits or Medicare. EX-PATS receive NO SERVICES from the from the US government other than a travel document, which they pay for.
Jeff D Tom’s proposed press release text with input from Patrick Henry and FromTheWilderness
Dear xxxxxxx,
We are the Isaac Brock Society, http://www.isaacbrocksociety.com, a group of concerned Americans and Green Card Holders who have joined together to discuss many issues, one of the most important being US extraterritorial taxation and financial reporting policies. Most –if not all of us– are not millionaires or billionaires, just hard working middle-class, working-class, or retired persons living abroad, or people living in the US that are concerned about issues facing their friends and family who live abroad.
There are 6-7 million Americans abroad, according to recent estimates. Most of them pay income and other taxes to foreign countries where they live and work. Many of them hold dual nationality or permanent resident status in foreign countries and have been residing abroad legally for many years. Many of them have non-US-citizen spouses and children with multiple nationalities born abroad.
The US violates the economic freedom of US Persons abroad, effectively refusing them a level playing-field in their professional activities, and forces discrimination upon them that violates the founding principles of the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, the constitutions of many democratic nations, and longstanding principles of international law such as the Master Nationality Rule and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
The voting rights of Americans abroad have long been abridged, and recent legislative efforts to improve access to the franchise are not sufficient and have not been completely successful. Also, as Americans abroad are not counted in the decennial census mandated by the Constitution, they are not afforded the proportional representation in the House of Representatives as the Constitution requires. Those who have lived outside the US for more than 10 years are not counted at all, unless their relatives in the US erroneously report them to the census as household members. The estimated population of 6-7 million Americans abroad forms a much diluted minority constituency when divided over the 50 states, and many Congresspersons or Senators do not understand or do not bother with the serious issues facing US Persons abroad.
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.
The fact of the matter is, US persons abroad are struggling to deal with ever increasing US double-tax burdens (especially in countries with very high costs of living) and the invasions of privacy represented by FBAR and FATCA, which impose very complicated privacy-invading reporting requirements and excessive and confiscatory tribute fines for non-compliance or late compliance (in violation of the 8th Amendment). US persons abroad are being shut out of business partnerships abroad by potential foreign partners who do not want to compromise their privacy or have anything to do with the IRS. They are being refused jobs due to their American connection (US citizenship or green card), and are even being shut out of basic banking services abroad (due to FATCA) and in the US (due to US banks’ hard-line interpretations of Patriot and “Know your Customer”). The US is not helping its trade balance by impeding 6-7 million potential commercial ambassadors abroad.
Many of us are or were proud Americans who still do uphold and cherish the core American values of democracy, equal opportunity, and hard work. But we are increasingly flabbergasted, saddened, and enraged by Congress and the Executive Branch enacting and imposing increasingly punitive measures upon US Persons abroad. We feel that Americans abroad are being mistreated like the Crown mistreated the colonists prior to 1776. In summary:
Americans abroad have NO REPRESENTATION in congress. To be specific, there is nobody in congress with voting rights who is elected by and represents the interests of Americans abroad.
Americans abroad do not use US highways, bridges, dams, power grid, schools, hospitals, fire, police, courts etc. They are not able to receive unemployment benefits or Medicare. Americans abroad receive NO SERVICES from the US government other than a travel document.
Therefore, CITIZENSHIP-BASED TAXATION must be repealed! America ’s founders refused to tolerate it, why should anyone else. If not, the majority of Americans abroad will be forced to renounce US citizenship or return to the homeland — to look for work.
We would like to ask that you help us spread the word about the issues Americans and green card holders living abroad face. Voters in the US need to become better aware of the issues, and people all around the world need to be made aware of the continued attempts by the US to exersize extraterritorial jurisdiction. Please feel free to visit us at http://isaacbrocksociety.com/ American Citizens Abroad http://www.aca.ch also has a wealth of information on the issues.
Jeff D. Tom’s proposed DISTRIBUTION PLAN FOR THE PRESS RELEASE
Let’s go viral Brockers. I propose the following phases for distributing our press release once we agree on it. The first steps will take a lot of work, the ensuing steps will take a huge amount of work, but if we can get articles published on only 20% of the press releases we send out, then we will definitely be heard:
1. Distribute to all of the people on the list in this thread.
2. Distribute to all ABC, NBC, CBS stations in every State Capital, and in every city over 100’000 people. This means at least 275 cities http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population, I’m not sure if there are any capitals with smaller populations.
a. Divide the US up among 4 Brockers according to time zones, Alaska and Hawaii go to Pacific time.
b. Each Brocker finds the websites for all 3 stations in the capitals and cities in their zone. Send the press release via whaever email one can find (editorial, newstips, email for feedback on the website, etc.)
3. 4 Brockers (divided by time zone as above) send to the major TV stations or major newspaper in each county for every state in their zone (will need some assistant Brockers for each of the 4 Brockers, as this is a huge task). The technique might be to look up each state on Wikipedia and identify a list of County Seats.
4. Do the same thing for all major cities and national and provincial capitals (attention, some countries have more than one capital e.g. Brazil) in every country where Brockers live.
a. Would need to add some text explaining why FATCA is a risk to financial markets worldwide and a big expense in time and money for no real wealth created.
5. Do the same as in #4 for all countries of the world.
a. I wonder if Roger could take care of Portuguese (Angola, Mozambique, Brazil, Portugal).
b. I can do Francophone and Anglophone Africa, maybe with Victoria’s help to proofread any French text.
c. Brockers in Canada do the Americas
d. Somebody please volunteer for Europe (Tell, Don, Victoria?)
e. Somebody will have to take Asia and Oceania.
f. Iceland (Formerly to Denmark) and Greenland (to Denmark) are part of Europe.
g. If we can’t get anybody to do it in local language, then we just send it in English.
This may sound grandiose and a lot of work, but sometimes brute force does work. Judging from the “Rush or not to Rush” vote, We are at least 40 strong in terms of people that visit IBS regularly, so I think it is feasible.
As @FromTheWilderness suggested, I agree that the most bang for the buck would be to address all journalists first, then friendly politicians and academics as a second priority.
Also, every active Brocker should have their own WordPress or Blogspot with links to IBS, ACA, and all of the other sites. Even if the blog is not updated very often, it should contain each person’s personal position papers on the subject. This should increase the hits for keywords like FATCA, FBAR, double taxation, expatriation, etc.
Just Me — May 19, 2012 at 3:12 am said: [Post redacted and moved here by JDT to keep list of propositions at the top of this thread]
Moved by JDT HERE
JDT@Victoria@all once we have a complete list, should we vote on a common email to send them, or should we just split up the list between us and each send their own letter?
I held my nose and read the Rush Limbaugh article. If I understood correctly, he thinks that Saverin is escaping the US without paying any tax. But in fact, Saverin is paying about $350 million in exit tax, according to the Bloomberg estimate.
That misconception should be corrected.
@garbo999 Why don’t you write him ElRushbo@eibnet.com and describe the exit tax for covered expatriates (over 2 million in assets)? By the way, I don’t believe I’ve seen you around before, are you new here?
I prefer John Stewart’s humour to Rush Limbaugh’s rants….
@Jefferson D. Tomas: Hi, I’ve been lurking but have posted a few times. I don’t think I can bring myself to write Rush…I despise the man and I don’t think my e-mail will be read anyway.
I have been posting on NYT and Bloomberg but I am beginning to feel it’s hopeless…renounce is the only choice. That’s true especially after reading the comments in the latest Bloomberg article on Saverin today.
As for a letter to Rush on IBS letterhead, the Nay’s have it 25 to 19 with 1 maybe. So any communication to Rush will have to be individual and not on behalf of IBS.
If Rush picks it up later when he hears the noise (which he probably would if the others listen and publish something) fine, we will see what he says and if he sees our side of the story at that time.
The problem with renunciation is that it requires a number of tax-related forms that might be difficult, expensive and time consuming to fill out and might subject someone to a breach of fiduciary duty in their home country, let alone a very long wait (at least in my country) for even the initial renunciation appointment. I have looked into shopping for other consulates in my region, but they don’t seem very enthused to accept my renunciation. I am personally more inclined now simply to avoid visiting the US until further notice (which I haven’t done in a decade) and if the IRS comes after me, I’ll see them in court in my home country.
We have to fight the fight in the US press, even if it is an uphill battle. But at the same time, we need to struggle in our host countries (and this goes even more for people that have the nationality of their host/home country) to ensure that the national sovereignty and rights and privacy standards of such countries are preserved and respected.
@JDT. I just voted yes. I don’t like most of what the man says, however, he is (from a quick investigation) listened to by a lot of people. We may have to deal with people we don’t like in order to get the message out there (like Ackerman, etc). However, an always present danger is that he might spin it in a way we don’t want, need or like and which might cause harm to our cause. Of course, that’s a danger will all of the media, so I’m not saying that in only in relation to him. I’m not sure that there’s a forum for us to contest any issues we don’t agree with, other than calling in to his radio show? I like the op-ed pieces or articles where we have the opportunity to comment and present our differing view, right there online for everyone to read.
I have a question for those that are media savvy. I’ve always been taught to keep the correspondence short to get the attention of the person you’re writing to. Is that still the case in today’s world? This is a very complex issue and hard to capture in a one page letter/email, but is it something we need to strive to do? I’m wondering for myself as well, for my letter writing campaign to the politicians.
Perhaps a quick attention getter (2 paragraphs) and then a follow up a few days later with the whole text.
How about Fareed Zakaria [*** JDT: OK ADDED ABOVE] who seems to deal with global issues in a literate, reasoned way:
Fareed Zakaria hosts Fareed Zakaria GPS , is editor-at-large and a columnist for TIME magazine, and a columnist for The Washington Post. Fareed Zakaria GPS is an international and domestic affairs program on that airs Sundays on CNN/U.S. and around the world on CNN International. The forum is a television destination for global newsmakers, U.S. politicians, CEOs, and thought-leading authors and journalists. He is based in New York.
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/
I agree, geeez. He turns a lot of people right off and him talking about expats might be detrimental to our cause or at least I think so.
I voted yes for the reason that even a broken clock (Rush Limbaugh) is right twice a day.
I don’t know anything about the US media, but I spent many years working in financial & personal finance PR. We always issued one general press release (there’s a standard format which always includes a quote for anyone who just wants to lift from the press release) plus did follow up phone calls which were tailored to the specific journalist’s interests. For this type of subject, the press release would be one page long and then any additional stats and sample case studies would be included in the notes.
My personal opinion is that IBS should have one centralised place which issues the standard statements to the press and then the rest of us can make our own individual contact, whether by email/phone call/letter/online comment so that journalists have multiple sources and contacts.
I too would love to see Fareed Zakaria devote some time to these issues – he is one of the very few adult voices left in the American MSM. I will consider it to be a watershed moment when he says the words expats, Americans abroad, dual-citizens, accidental Americans, citizenship-based taxation, FATCA, FBAR, OVDI, penalties, reporting burden, extraterritorial overreach, draconian, ridiculous and laughingstock all in the same episode. The few Americans left with any functioning brain cells and any sense of America’s place in a global context pay attention to Fareed, and well they should. Number one on my list.
@outragedcanadian..
Regarding Rush… I am not sure that we want to fan that flame, as he can turn into a uncontrollable wildfire and do a lot of damage with hyperbolic and over the top rhetoric, like calling that George Town student a Slut. Do we want him representing our positions even if he does have a large audience?
http://youtu.be/Jfb9f7yFYgw
When he speaks, then the Progressive side of the equation closes their ears to what he has to say for reasons like this. We need them too, so I would stay away from Rush, even when he is right. You never know what will come out of his mouth in search of ratings.
@calgary411 and Deckard1138 Absolutely on Fareed! Good one that I should have added to my list. He has spoken on Tax simplicity issues many times. Getting rid of Citizenship taxation is in the simplicity spectrum.
Anyone mention Bill Maher, Bill Moyer, Jim Hightower?
@Just Me, I do hear you loud and clear, and I’m not saying I don’t have real concerns about contacting him, for sure. I’ve been debating, to myself, on that whole thing about any publicity being good publicity. I don’t really buy into that, but then again, when it’s bad publicity like Ackerman, it allows us to jump in and give the opposing view.
@Jefferson D. Tomas
I do appreciate and like your attempt to put together a standardized letter that we can use. I know we all attack this issue from multiple view points, but when contacting journalist it does help to have a model or standard format to use, if nothing else to help you organize your thoughts.
I am going to be otherwise occupied today, and then traveling the next two days, but I just wanted to let you know, that I like your efforts here. I will definitely get back to it as media contact has been a keen interest of mine. I have no expertise or skill in this area. I just thrash around trying to get attention. However, I do recognize the need to be more focused, deliberate and have a strategy if that is possible for such a diverse and scattered diaspora.
Speaking of media, maybe before you started commenting here, I had posted on this very subject some time back… Amongst the many good comments there, maybe there are things we can build on.
Getting Media Attention on Harmful US Citizenship Tax policy
@just me. If we can get Rush on board we would be so lucky. He has huge audience that agrees with most of what he says and he is a powerbroker on conservative side. Definitely could use him. That’s why I started writing for the American Thinker because Rush often reads their articles on the air.
@bubblebustin… I understand, but he is a “loose canon”, and he will make this very partisan. Now, maybe that is where it has to go to get any media attention, but it will alienate all the progressives, so I am torn.
Regarding Bill Maher, Bill Moyer, Jim Hightower?
All good for varying reasons…
Bill Maher is funny, will have both conservatives and liberals on his show, but is a bit too profane for me and has a problem with his mouth like Rush.
Bill Moyer is excellent, and I definitely like his style of discourse. You know he is liberal, but some of the best conversations I have seen is between him and long time Conservatives. Two old warriors in reasoned discussion.
I am not that familiar with Jim Hightower, so will defer to others.
Another to add, is Charlie Rose. He is very good too, and some of his interviews with Fareed are great, so would be a natural for a non polemic discussion on Citizenship taxation..
Got to run… my wife is trying to get my out the door.. 🙂
Just Me just directed us to …
http://isaacbrocksociety.com/2012/03/11/getting-media-attention-on-harmful-us-citizenship-tax-policy/
There’s a comment there by Brash which is loaded with useful PR information (too long to reproduce here). And then there is Scotgirl who has PR experience too. IBS has a lot of talent to draw from I think.
@all, on the Rush question, this is a war. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
@Petros, and yes…. So, now Fox News Panel, those champions of freedom and liberty, fair and balanced, all agree Rush Limbaugh is wrong!!
So maybe you can stir Rush to battle Fox. 🙂
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201205190004?