Welcome to the First Coast Tea Party
Dear Members: You Should Know About This
As many of you know, the First Coast Tea Party belongs to a Florida Statewide Tea Party Leaders Google Group. We have been together for nearly two years now. The group is a secured, confidential group and we discuss issues, thoughts and frustrations among tea party friends. We do this to coordinate efforts in the state of Florida and bounce off ideas.
Today I was called by the press about an email that was written by me to this private email group. The email was a part of a large discussion about the Tea Party and the 2012 election and focused on what happened here locally and how that could be applied to our future work. My email called out the GOP Lawyers who advised the Mike Hogan campaign to let it go and concede. To put it lightly, I felt they should have advised them to continue the battle and push hard to make sure … as Alvin Brown said “Count Every Vote.” I mentioned a 2 hour phone conversation I had with Jerry Holland the day after the concession where I was asking questions to understand what happened and why the concession was so quick. Jerry Holland was forthright and answered my questions with sincerity and professionalism. My email indicated how upset I was that the GOP Lawyers did not encourage a fight because I knew the “political machine” would have fought hard and would have kept this process going a lot longer.
To get to the point, either the “political machine” or a mole in our group (doubtful) stole that private email string and sent it to the media.
To say the tea party leaders were shocked and disappointed is an understatement. To say my trust level has been shattered is another understatement.
Abel Harding called me to get a statement about the email. It is circulating all over the media and of course they are running with it. This is juicy news.
I spoke to Abel this evening and told him that was a private email that was stolen and the tea party leaders in Florida were very upset about that. I stand behind the message of the email and believe the Political Machine did beat us and the GOP lawyers should have fought harder for a win. We found out the GOP does not understand who Alinsky is and Alinsky IS the Political Machine. No one organization or person is to blame for the loss of this race and ALL of us are to blame for the loss of this race.
The media loves this story and the GOP is not feeling good right now nor are we. That message was between friends as we tried to understand who the GOP is and how to fight the Political Machine so we can win in 2012.
These are all hard lessons for us. All of us who worked together to win the mayoral race were stunned with the outcome. The Political Machine beat us and that is the fact.
What we must do is figure out how to beat the Political Machine in 2012 – by either coming together with a plan; setting up our own political party; OR hunkering down and wishing it would all go away. At this point, I think we would all agree we must come together to figure thiout. The GOP is weak about the Political Machine and so are we. The Machine has massive amounts of funding and a grassroots system that surpasses all of us. Without funding, a system and boots on the ground, we are going to be fighting an uphill battle that we will not win.
The country loses, the GOP loses, the tea party loses and the people lose.
The end of this story is this:
- We are getting under someone’s skin so they want to infiltrate our emails and our websites.
- The GOP and Tea Party must figure out how they work together – if they do.
- The Political Machine is alive and well in Florida and will not be going away until December 2012.
Abel Harding will have his story about this sad state of affairs tomorrow. There is also another story brewing that the local GOP leader and the Tea Party are in a pointing fingers match with each other and the tea party is being blamed for Mike Hogan’s loss. That is an outright lie and no one in the GOP leadership or the Tea Party has said anything of the sort. We are not blaming each other nor are we blaming the Hogan camp. The blame lies within everyone who had anything to do with this PLUS the 300,000 peope who stayed home and did not vote.
We have gained one more notch in our political belt! We are new to this political game and finding how dark and difficult it is. These notches are hard to take but they are worth it all.
On another note:
- Please be aware that the Political Machine is trolling our website trying to have conversations with bloggers. We are watching these conversations closely and will remove these people from our website when we see hanky-panky.
- The day after the election a member received a phone call from someone asking about the bumper sticker she has “Take Back America.” She told them where to get it (our office) and they asked her if she was a tea party member. She said yes. A few minutes later the same person called backed believing he was calling someone else. She confronted him and he stammered with her until he hung up. It appears the Political Machine is working from a list and trying to identify tea party members. If you get a call, beware of that tactic. As for me, I’m proud to be a Tea Party Member and will gladly say “Yes” when they call.
No one said this would be easy and no one said the press would like us. No one said our friends would not rat us out. No one said we would win every race. But someone did say, “Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” That man was Benjamin Franklin and he understood that fighting for liberty would require a lot from each of us. There are days I wonder if I have it in me to keep it up. Then I cry my tears, wipe them away and say “Hell No – I’m not going away. I owe it to my grandchildren and to those who fought and gave their lives for my freedom."
I am willing to risk everything I have and will continue to do that no matter what the press writes or what the infiltrators do to me. The months ahead will require strong, principled people to stand up to the Political Machine, stare it down and say: “Machines don’t win, people do!”
Are you game for this? Will you go with us? Will we let the press or the Political Machine marginalize us or the GOP so Obama and his political class can win in 2012?
I planned to take the last couple of days off and that has been impossible. I will be taking next week off to recharge the batteries and prepare for the next battle. I may write a blog or two while I am away but I do not plan to entertain the media or anyone else about the mayor’s race. It is finished and there is no need to cry over spilled milk. Instead, it is time to clean it up and figure out a way to eliminate the spills in the future!
And a final note: “Be careful what you put in a private email. It may end up as a headline one day.”
Views: 133
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Comment by Patricia M. McBride on May 21, 2011 at 3:55pm
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Shavenger, do you understand that Alvin Brown probably spent all toll over a million dollars to get elected and had paid help and an almost endless budget. Hogan had far less money and counted on volunteers. Hogan was also working full time, going to events before work and some evening 2 events. Walking and events on the weekend.
Mr. Brown said many things that people should have known were not anything that someone could be criticized for. When you look at the pay increases Mr. Hogan has had over a 20 year period, he has had less than one a year (I think he went a total of 4 years without a raise.........yet the cost of living most years goes up). Alvin Brown also said he would have his pay cut by 20%............did you know that is not going to happen because there is no way to do it, and Mr. Brown was just blowing hot air? Mr. Brown did blow a lot of hot air and if people did not recognize it for hot air, shame on them! If you look at where the votes for Brown came from he took districts 7, 8, 9, and 10. Now look at your map of Jacksonville please, and understand because of the margin of the win, one of the TV stations went into those districts to ask various people why they voted for Brown and were told "because he was one of them and was black" (from what I understand that was the answer most given). Tell me again how you think more TV ads would have helped that from happening. The other districts voted for Hogan or should I say Hogan took the other districts.
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Comment by J.R. on May 21, 2011 at 3:54pm
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Lee, that was not all you said and it was not all that he said that I was addressing, either. I was addressing other remarks in his post, but not his yearnings that you somehow managed to glean on your own. You raised the free speech issue. And his baseless projection about Marco Rubio wasn't the only red flag he sent up.
No one questioned your knowledge of what a troll is, I questioned your criticism of me based on your free speech for trolls mantra. You are entitled to your interpretation and I am entitled to mine. And, I don't need a lecture from you about tolerance, since you apparently have no tolerance for my having opinions you disagree with. Get over it.
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Jean, the lists are made up of those people who mostly vote regularly, and no the folks that went early aren't taken out, but there is a notation of some sort that let's the poll worker know that an absentee ballot was requested and sent. If the ballot is not turned in at the poll when the request to vote is made on election day, the person must vote a provisional ballot. Then when voting day is over and all the votes are counted before any provisional vote can be counted, the supervisor of elections office must check to be sure the person has not voted already or to clear up whatever caused the requirement for a provisional ballot. I worked as a poll watcher on election day, and I believe there should have been poll watchers for early voting as well. I trust Jerry Holland explicitely and know he would never allow for a corrupted voting system, but most of the poll workers are democrats (more republicans need to volunteer or request to work as poll workers to balance it out but have not). Anyway, the poll watchers all being unwatched democrats during the early voters makes me very nervous especially in areas where bus loads were brought in by the Brown group. We actually did have someone who was a New York resident come into the polling place where I was and say she had moved here and wanted to vote, but she thought she could turn in her NY voter registration that day ........... I watched intently, and she wasn't allowed to do it, but there was quite a bit of conversation I could not hear and whispering. I was there and the woman running the poll was straight arrow, but I wonder a lot about those sorts of things. We are all supposed to be there to keep the election honest (poll workers and poll watchers.......but you need both).
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Comment by Barry Lee Phillips on May 21, 2011 at 3:32pm
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J.R., I didn't miss the point at all. You replied to Matthew:
And Marco Rubio is not running for office. He was just elected to a six year term in the U.S. Senate. And your raising that red herring here, along with unsupported comments, sends up a red flag ...
I know what a troll is and I don't intend to wet nurse any. There are hundreds of people out there with individuals they would like to see running against Obama who are committed to their current position. Think of it as a wish list if you like, but it is certainly not troll-like behavior to yearn for someone else as President rather than Obama even if it is not going to happen.
All I am saying is exercise some patience with others.
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Comment by JL Gawlik on May 21, 2011 at 3:15pm
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JR, I think many of them have proven over and over, that if they say it enough times, it actually becomes fact, the truth... or at least they think so.
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The Democrats' trying to marginalize something they want to go away is nothing new. Every time someone or something appears on the horizon that they believe is a threat to their power and control, or their cherished socialist programs, they scream bloody murder and demagogue it into the ground to try to marginalize it---or whatever person they fear will get in office or interfere with their successful march to socialism. And their unholy alliance with the yellow journalism media is supposed to help them accomplish it. Their blaming Hogan's loss on the Tea Party was as sure to happen as death and taxes. And, their omnipresent and endless predictions for the demise of the Tea Party are just a part of their trying to create a self-fulfilling prophecy that will make it true.
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Comment by jean alexander on May 21, 2011 at 2:57pm
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I agree that perhaps the ballots should have been scutinized.
i would like to know more about the voting process. When we go to the polling station the workers have a list of residents of that area but has the list been undated to delete all of the voters who went ot early voting locations or sent in an absentee ballot?
Where is the safeguard to prevent people voting twice? Is the second ballot automatically kicked out if one already exists?
We hear a lot about corruption and fraud so what guarantee is there that the outcome is legit?
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Kelly, you're so right about Google, I always use BING for a search engine. I believe Google has far too much power to webcrawl and invade our privacy.
Lee, I believe you miss the point when asserting a free speech right for any troll to come, incognito, onto this closed website to snoop and agitate members into written exchanges that are designed to get us off message, talking about them, and writing something they can turn to their advantage. For example, when Le'Nodd set up a false premise related to race, then accused me of making a racist remark when I had absolutely made no remark or drawn any inference about blacks. This has nothing to do with free speech, but it has everything to do with opposition politics. You can wet-nurse trolls if you want to, but don't tell me they have free speech rights on this closed website to falsely accuse me of anything. Billie has already posted that they are carefully monitoring the troll invasion on this website and to not feed the trolls. Feeding the trolls = taking the bait and responding.
It's not our job to try to correct or alter trolls' thinking and it's a waste of our valuable time that can be better spent. They are not here for any positive reason and we don't need that negative diversion from our mission. You are entitled to your opinion and to your free speech. So am I.
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Go check out Billie's Blog post The Obama Legacy:
http://firstcoastteaparty.ning.com/video/video/show?id=4150782%3AVi...
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Myself, I was disappointed by lack of advertising that Hogan did for the office. Nightly were adds by Brown criticising the number of pay raises Hogan received as a member of city govt., didn't see many adds by Hogan until just before election. I'm in a different county so I couldn't vote for Hogan, but I can promise Duval county voters, especially those who didn't show up to vote for Hogan, you'll be sorry before the 4 years is over. DemocRATS by nature and ideology want to spend money for every social program they can think of, they see the public as a cash cow to bleed for tax dollars to support programs the electorate would never vote for. Brown's so-called downtown development will be nothing more than millions in tax dollars for projects Jacksonville can't afford right now and wouldn't vote to proceed with. His election was more than just for mayor of Jax, he's now the front man in the fight for Barack Obumbler to carry the state of Fla. in '12 elections and the base for George Soros and MoveOn.org to operate from.
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First Coast Tea Party
1205 Salt Creek Island Dr
Ponte Vedra, FL 32082
904-392-7475
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