Conservative Forum — Week of October 20

West Coast Leadership Conference Registration The West Coast Leadership Conference will host a two-day seminar at Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Resort in Santa Barbara, Calif., Friday October 24-Saturday October 25. This year’s Leadership Conference will include an advanced screening of Lionel Chetwynd’s DC 9/11: Time of Crisis, a made-for-TV movie about the Bush Administration’s reaction to the terrorist attacks of two years ago. The film covers the shift in policy priorities with the counter-terrorism measures the administration implemented right after 9/11. Attendees will hear from leading conservatives, such as talk show host Michael Reagan, Young America’s Foundation President Ron Robinson, author and Reagan biographer Peter Robinson, author and UC Regent Ward Connerly, San Francisco radio show host Melaine Morgan, and Young America’s Foundation Executive Director Floyd Brown. Registration for the conference is $25. The non-refundable $25 registration fee covers meals, tuition, supplies, and hotel accommodations for the entire conference. For more information call 877-797-7325 or visit the Young America’s Foundation website: www.yaf.org/conferences/conference.asp . ISI Celebrates 50th Anniversary The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), the creation of which was inspired by an 1950 HUMAN EVENTS article by Frank Chodorov, will celebrate its 50th Anniversary at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, October 23, 2003. The gala tribute to America’s premiere organization dedicated to instilling in successive generations of college youth an appreciation of the values and institutions that sustain a free society will feature an all-star conservative roster of dignitaries, including Amway co-founder Richard M. DeVos and National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr., who are co-chairing this event. The celebration includes: A reception featuring Alfred Regnery and the Madison Chamber Players; Dinner (VMI Glee Club Performance); the Premiere of ISI Anniversary Film; comments from Edwin J. Feulner, Jr., William F. Buckley Jr., T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr., Lt. General Josiah Bunting III, and others; anniversary project announced by Richard M. DeVos; post-dinner musical entertainment "Beats Working," featuring FOX News Anchor Tony Snow (invited). For more information on the ISI 50th Anniversary Gala call ISI at (800) 526-7022 or visit the ISI website: www.isi.org/galaannouncement.html. Accuracy in Academia Inaugural Luncheon Join conservatives over lunch at Accuracy in Academia’s luncheon on Thursday, October 23, at 12 p.m., at Charlie Chiang’s Restaurant, 4250 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20008. The feature speaker is Harry Wu the foremost U.S. campaigner against the human rights violations committed by the Laogai system, as well as one of the founders of the Laogai Research Foundation. Wu personally experienced the horrors of the Laogai prison system beginning when he was 23 years old and served 19 years in the Laogai for simply criticizing the policies of the Chinese Communist Party. Mr. Wu currently serves as the Executive Director of the Laogai Research Foundation. He has also authored three books on the Laogai including: The Chinese Gulag (1992), Bitter Winds: A Memoir of my years in China’s Gulag (1994), and Troublemaker: One Man’s Crusade against China’s Cruelty (1996). On Friday October 31, at 12 p.m., AIA will host a luncheon featuring Brian C. Robertson, author Day Care Deception: What The Child Care Establishment Isn’t Telling Us. Robertson’s new book exposes the problems with federalized institutional child care centers. He is a fellow at the Family Research Council. For Reservations, please call Charles Rozier at 202-364-4401 ext. 115 or Mal Kline 202-364-4401 ext. 114. The cost will be $15 ($20 to non-members)—cash or check to AIM at the door—for reserved seats ($5 additional if not reserved). For more information on Accuracy in Academia visit the AIA website: www.academia.org. Manhattan Institute Report Examines Trial Lawyers, Inc. The lawsuit industry today is truly a behemoth, says the Manhattan Institute in its new report, Trial Lawyers, Inc.: A Report on the Lawsuit Industry in America 2003. But unlike the major corporations in our regular market economy, says the institute, it remains financially opaque. Also, where public corporations must disclose their financials in 10-Ks according to the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations, trial lawyers practice in private partnerships that, under the guise of attorney-client privilege, have shielded their financials from public scrutiny. Trial Lawyers, Inc., while not an annual report per se, presents a snapshot of the lawsuit industry, and the picture is not pretty:

Total tort costs today exceed $200 billion annually, or more than 2% of America’s gross domestic product (GDP)—a significantly higher percentage than in any other developed nation.

Even as the economy has stagnated and the stock market has plunged, the lawsuit industry’s revenues have continued to skyrocket. In 2001, the last year for which data are available, U.S. tort costs grew by 14.3%.

Over the last 30 years, tort costs grew at a compound annual rate of 9.1%; by comparison, the U.S. population grew 1.1% annually, the consumer price index grew 5% annually, and the gross domestic product grew 7.6% annually during the same period.

While many Americans may understand that the lawsuit industry in America has run amok—most people could quote anecdotal examples of silly cases generated by our "lawsuit culture"—the public tends not to appreciate that the litigation industry is nothing but Big Business, the institute documents in the report. Given that 19% of all tort costs go to plaintiffs’ attorneys, Trial Lawyers, Inc. rakes in almost $40-billion per year in revenues—50% more than Microsoft or Intel and twice those of Coca-Cola. The lawsuit industry’s lack of transparency prevents an accurate profit estimate, but if its margins are as high as suspected, Trial Lawyers, Inc. might well be the most profitable business in the world. Source: Trial Lawyers, Inc.: A Report on the Lawsuit Industry in America 2003, Manhattan Institute, September 23, 2003. For text of the Manhattan Institute report visit: www.triallawyersinc.com. AEI Book Lecture: Human Accomplishment The American Enterprise Institute will host a discussion, "What Beethoven and Jack Nicholas Do and Don’t Have in Common," with AEI scholar Charles Murray on his newly published book Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences 800 B.C. to 1950, Monday, October 27, 5:30-7:00 p.m. in the Wohlstetter Conference Center,12th floor, American Enterprise Institute, 1150 17th St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. For more information call AEI: 202-862-5800 or visit their website: www.aei.org

.