Welcome to the First Coast Tea Party
TEA TIME IN DC: TALLY UP NEXT
I was invited to speak at the Tea Party Caucus in the House of Representatives Monday night. It was a memory I will forever cherish and am thankful for the opportunity.
Michelle Bachmann reached out and asked three tea party leaders to speak on behalf of the Tea Party Movement. Her goal was to get our input on the Debt Ceiling. (Answer: Do not raise the Debt Ceiling.) The room was filled with new and more seasoned representatives who felt they identified as a tea party member.
I’m sorry to say but my Representative, Ander Crenshaw, did not show up nor did anyone from the Northeast Florida area, including Rep. John Mica who I had breakfast with the next morning for a discussion on High Speed Rail.
Our new and outspoken Rep. Allen West was there and we had a meeting with him earlier in the day in his office. Let me say this about Rep. West – “Thank God he is there! What a man of character and courage and he is certainly a leader!” (We’re talking to him about showing up for a gig in North Florida in the near future so stay tuned on that one!)
The two days in DC were exhausting and enlightening. My encounters went like this:
- Rep. Allen West – A gift from God sent to the front line in DC! He said: “Keep the Tea Party awake. This place is crazy. We must control the House in 2012 and take back the Senate too. If we don’t have a good candidate to run against Obama, then we can control thorough the power of Congress.”
- Senator Marco Rubio – Met with him for a few minutes as he was rushing out the door. He was smiling and confident. He said: “This place is more screwed up than I could have imagined. Keep up the good work with the Tea Party, we need you guys.”
- Rep. Michelle Bachmann – As she led her peers in the House Tea Party Caucus event, all she could focus on was this question: “What do the Tea Party members think about the debt ceiling?” That was the question of the night and although those in the room wanted to speak, she kept drawing the conversation back to us – the tea party members – for our input. She told the audience: “We are here to listen to them. That’s why they are here.”
- Rep. John Mica – Enjoy meeting Rep. Mica for breakfast and discussion that followed. He is very smart about transportation issues in America and how money is generated for that purpose. He said: “18.4 cents per gallon of gas sold generates about $30 billion per year in the Highway and Transportation Trust Fund. 80% is used for highways and 20% for transit. If Florida doesn’t take the money for High Speed Rail (which he said is not really high speed and the messaging is wrong(?) – Obama’s administration will take that money and use it somewhere else in a liberal state to help his campaign.” About this time, my head spins backwards and I lose my breakfast! “Playing with our money for political gain” ran through my head. First things first – we could use that money to pay down the debt but no way will that happen. Rep. Mica had more to say and has his own perspective after many years in the House. We will work with his new Chief of Staff, Wiley Deck, to get him here for a face to face discussion on transportation dollars and the “not really high speed rail issue.” We have a lot of questions and the communication coming from Rep. Mica’s office needs to be improved and he agreed it did. Let’s make sure we keep on him about that communication flow and his attendance at a meeting with us in North Florida and all tea party leaders across the state. (More to come on this one – soon!)
My overall observation was this:
- We have some good leaders and we need A LOT MORE of them in Congress. 2012 is our time to focus on this critical issue. The left is already funding campaigns for progressives and they once again are ahead of us in that deal. They are also training Summer Interns on College campuses to work towards the 2012 election! What are we doing? Where is our funding coming from? How will we keep our members engaged without deep pocket funding that the left has? How can we educate those who are paid to canvas neighborhoods and sign up people for the progressive movement?
- The Tea Party leaders in this country must start to talk to each other in a more robust fashion while focusing on 2012 results. We have leaders of individual groups doing a great job across this country and they are doing fantastic work to keep the movement alive and awake. Our focus should now be on leading our local members to find qualified conservative candidates in our own districts. Encourage them to run for the House or the Senate and back them with your time, talents and resources. Start a team in your local tea party group that will focus on this one thing and one thing only. We need leadership at the local level and leaders working together in every state to keep their state awake to conservative values. Florida is a targeted state by the left so we have work to do. We presently have a great group of people leading tea parties in Florida and we talk every day about issues. This group needs to grow and each tea party group needs to grow. Let’s get it done and start our focus on 2012 now! Remember, “Without a leader, the people perish.” Let’s go find our leaders – forge ahead!
- Communication is lacking between those in DC and We the People. I had the pleasure of sitting with all these people in DC and listened to their concerns. Not all of us can do that. I encouraged them to find better ways to get their message out and to open communicate with their local constituents. Communication is key to good leadership and they need to focus on that – BIG TIME. Here was one of my coaching moments with a few of our leaders in DC: “Without communication, people make up stuff and fill the void. If you do not get your message out to us, we will make it for you and that’s not pretty. Keep us informed. Get back into your districts. Tell us all the news – the good, the bad and the ugly. We can take it. We are smart people and we know more than you on some of these issues because we have more time to research than you do.” Let’s hope they listened and if they didn’t – let’s find some who will!
The two days were worth the time and the efforts walking those long hallways in high heels for the sake of Liberty! Now we must get to work and it must start today. November 2012 is only 19 months away and it is time to find our new leaders to run against the RINOs and root out the Progressives. Anyone up for the job?
BY THE WAY – We are now heading to Tally next week to meet with our leaders. March 8 is our day in Tally and we hope you will make plans to attend. If you are coming from Jacksonville, we have a free bus awaiting you for the trip up and back on the same day – March 8. On the schedule will be meetings with our legislators, a rally at noon on the steps of the Capitol with some great speakers, and a press conference at 4:00 announcing the new Tea Party Caucus in Tallahassee led by Rep. Mike Weinstein from Jacksonville. We will be a part of setting up this Tea Party Caucus and developing the agendas as they move forward with this new initiative. Contact our office at (904) 683-3945 to reserve a seat on the bus.
And another note: Today, March 2, at 4:30 we will announce the First Coast Tea Party endorsements of local candidates for city council and the mayor’s race. We ask for your prayers and support as we make these announcements.
Continue to stay focused, stay awake and stay the course. Tell your friends to join our movement and get involved in securing freedom and liberty for all. Our country needs you.
P.S. – Find attached a poster we handed out at the Caucus. Print one for yourself and post it on your wall. These people showed up way before any others across this globe showed up in their city squares. The media never spoke about that day and the numbers that came to DC. And guess what happened on that day – no one got hurt, the place was clean as a whistle when we left and no media personnel were attacked. America was the first to stand for freedom and why didn’t the media report about that? Look for the First Coast Tea Party in the crowd. We were there and we plan to be a part of the next March on DC in November 2012 when we take back Congress and hopefully the White House!
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Comment by JL Gawlik on March 7, 2011 at 11:02pm
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Oh, i just thought of a great campaign for 2012 slogan...
Liberate a Progressive Liberal from Congress and Washington, D.C. in 2012...
VOTE for a fiscal, constitutional conservative who will serve in the peoples' seat with great honor and integrity while actually honoring their oath of office to the people.
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You are WeLCOMe JR. I really am fed up with the lies, deceit, manipulation and twisting of facts. You are right about the Progressives, they can NOT tell the truth. You can look up the Progressive Caucus that Bernie Sanders started, he is a avowed socialist and speaks right out of the Communist Manifesto, most Progressive Liberals are not members like President Obama, but he is a progressive as many Democrats are and some Republicans and they can NOT be truthful about it because WHAT AMERICAN in their right mind would give up their liberties or freedoms to live under their ideologue? That is why the socialist/communists/marxist took up the name of Progressives back in the mid 20th century, they hide and lie because the majority of Americans reject them.
Sorta' like cockroaches... turn on the light (truth) and they run! *G*
ACTIONS speak a LOT LOUDER than words.
I meant to add, i am not calling anyone names, it is just my personal analogy of progressives, why can we all just talk about the truth and the facts of everything? That is my best way of spotting a progressive, they lie and deceive.
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Comment by J.R. on March 7, 2011 at 8:13pm
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JLGawlik: Look in Mr. Stephenson's post to Mr. Korach, six posts below and you will see Mr. Stephenson's remark he wrote about Bilderburgers and Illuminati that I spoke of in my post below to William Korach. Liberals often lie when the truth would sound better... Obama comes to mind. Thanks for the Rubio link!
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To Mr. Stephenson: On save our homes in Florida, i do not see how it is grossly unfair. Go to:
http://www.coj.net/departments/property%20appraiser/save%20our%20ho...
This was put into place to protect home owners from a large spike in home value and taxes. You would love it out in California, where they probably are going to tax the very air you breathe next because they can not stop their out of control spending or taxes.
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Here is a link to Marc Rubio's latest proposal:
http://townhall.com/columnists/marcorubio/2011/03/07/washington_nee...
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William Korach, I notice that none of your three questions were answered. And the snide remark about the Bilderburgers and Illumati was a swipe at me... again, for I'm the one who has written about them on this website. Your questions were very specific, very relevant, and deserved a straightforward and honest answer. I don't think that's too much to ask of anyone. It's unfortunate that the provocateur was unable to rise to the occasion.
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Comment by William Korach on March 7, 2011 at 6:00pm
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Mr. Stephenson;
What taxes and giveaways do you think benefit FCTP ? Why do you think FCTP want to keep others off of our collective "lawn?" Why are you a member of FCTP when you seem to share none of our values?
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Online progressive Democrat troll, John Stephenson, is at it again today, negatively trying to needle and goad FCTP members, who are engaging in vigorous dialogue on issues that fit within the framework of our mission and long-term goals, into responding to his recurring attempts to insult the Tea Party, Billie Tucker, some of its members (including me), and stimulate arguments to get as many of us as he can off message. Yesterday and today, he has been laboring to get us away from our conversation about national/international labor unions, the worthless and perverted U.S. Dept. of Education, and other topics important to us. Also, both he and Tamara Stephenson raised almost identical topics that were totally unrelated to our dialogue and the subject of Billie's post that started this thread, in two of their separate posts. If you respond, they come back at you with a negative response, accuse you of saying things you didn't say, insult you, and make further false and needling statements to keep things stirred up.
FCTP members, please do not respond to these provocations. For example, we know that the FCTP has credibility among people and organizations that are important to reaching our goals. (See the post below this one for reference). And please pass the word to other members that it is an exercise in futility to respond to such negative provocations by these people. It is very important that we have our on-message dialogues and conversations and I have found this lengthy thread of posts very informative, stimulating, and a wonderful opportunity to engage in vigorous conversation and debate. So let's not allow anyone to pull us off message. Staying on message will help us meet our goals. Thanks, and I hope many of you will be in Tallahassee with us tomorrow.
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Here is another $100 billion:
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/appropriations/146695-republi...
We need to have a lot of defunding in Washington, DC.
Another article says it could be between $100 billion to $200 billion in savings:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703749504576172942399...
The economist, Milton Friedmen once said:
"if the government were in charge of the Sahara Desert, there would be a shortage of sand."
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Comment by Joe Story on March 7, 2011 at 2:06pm
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If the department or agency has not accomplished the goals upon which it was established it should be dismantled. The Department of Education created in 1980 is a perfect example; it has not improved educational results from its inception. If anything the educational level of the average American has decreased at the same rate as the expenditures on education have increased. The federal role in education is limited as it should be because of the Tenth Amendment. This department should never have been created in the first place.
Why does the Department of Education have over 4,200 employees and a budget of $200 Billion dollars? In fact the forced acceptance of federal demands in order to receive funding is one of the most destructive uses of the old “carrot and stick” approach of Government control. It clearly violates the Tenth Amendment. At the same time new weighted standards for educational funding are being put in place. The people in charge of the system will now determine where the money is spent based on their own socialist objectives.
The Department of Education should be limited to a fact gathering agency. It should not have control over any money which can be used as leverage to manipulate the states. Only awards of individual merit should be allowed to students in order to further programs of national and international interest.
Just de-fund the agency!
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