CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS MINUTES
October 11, 2011

Meeting held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting called to order at 6:00pm by President BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance was led by ERIC BROYLES
Invocation by STEVEN BEST
Attendance – 20

New Attendee – Steve Miller – Moved to Carteret County in 2005 and into their new home in 2006 for retirement.  They had been coming down here since the 70’s.  He worked for IBM for 33 years.  He was a business executive for software.  When IBM decided to sell a company or buy a company, or software,  he was the executive that went out and negotiated the deal.  BOB said, “so that means you gotta lot of money then.”  Mr. Miller said, ‘used to; until he bought a boat.’

BOB said he presumed we all had heard about “Occupy Wall Street” and what was going on up there.  The TEA Party Patriots issued a press release today, which he paraphrased in lieu of reading the complete article.  ‘We good – Them bad’.  What instituted the release was someone had said the OWS group were like the TEA Party for the left.  This was the Patriots rebuttal.  Someone on the Webenar last night said we should have some type of ‘outreach program’ for these people and bring them into the fold.  LYN BAKER said Rush Limbaugh said pretty much the same thing today.  That there were a lot of people up there that have lost their jobs, their homes, and whatever, and they are just seeing this as a place to protest.  They don’t realize they should be protesting Obama instead of Wall Street and they need someone down there to educate them.  ERIC said the bad thing is Obama, Pelosi, and Biden, and some of the left politicians are throwing their support towards these guys.  If you look at their eleven (?) point agenda, he considers it pretty socialistic.  KEN LANG said there were thirteen points listed on the web site.  KEN said someone had mentioned the $650.00 they were getting paid, ACORN is actually paying these people to go down there.  That was in the paper (Wall Street Journal, he thinks).  He said he has not heard of anyone in the TEA Parties getting $650.00 to attend a rally.  (Actually, never heard of anyone getting paid to attend, period, from the amount in our Treasury, we might be able to get $3.50 each…no where near $650.00, right?.)  TOM HARMON said Nancy Pelosi had said ‘God bless them, they are frustrated’.  BOB said his biggest concern with this whole Wall Street crowd, in his gut of guts think this whole thing is going to evolve into riots, flipping cars over, busting out windows, destroying property, etc, like they are having in England and Greece.  TOM H.  said he thought the best thing conservatives could do would be to keep quiet; don’t get involved; and let the Democrats keep building them up, until all hell breaks loose.  Reminiscent of Chicago in the 60’s.  It is motivated by the same things.

BOB said he wasn’t sure we all got the late breaking news this afternoon that HOWARD GARNER had mentioned to him prior to the meeting.  HOWARD said that it was announced that an Iranian had been arrested for planning to assassinate the Ambassador of  Saudi Arabia and blow up the Embassy and the Israeli Embassy on American grounds.  He was wondering if this was just a ruse to get our minds and efforts off of Holder getting subpoenaed for ’Fast and Furious’.  Senator Issa was supposed to issue the subpoenas today.  Apparently this ‘act of proposed violence’ had been discovered a couple of months ago (knew about it in June and arrested the guy in September according to TOM H.)and it was just now coming out. Looks kinda fishy.

BOB said talking about late breaking news, I guess you all heard that Governor Christy of New Jersey came out this afternoon and endorsed Mitt Romney.  Kinda sorry to see that but RUTH PARKER thinks Sarah Palin will now come out and support Caine.  Several think she will but others think she will not until Michelle Bachman withdraws from the race.  Since her place in the polls keeps dropping, then she might in the near future. They do not think Sarah will stab Michelle in the back.

BOB said he wanted to start something new – a TEA Party library.  He has several good books just lying around the house (he has already read) and would like to share them with the members.  Anyone else with books they have read and would like to get out of the way at home and share, please bring them in.  He appointed STEVEN as our librarian (has to bring the books to each meeting and keep up with whoever (name and phone number) checks them out and when).  He read the names of the books he was submitting to get our library started.  (One of the books, ‘Why I am a TEA Partier’, he had an article in.)

BOB recognized EULA PARKIN who asked ‘who would be willing to put a wooden cross in your hand and walk down the streets of  Cairo, Egypt?’  Several were not aware of what she was getting at.  She said many Christians have been murdered there recently.  The military used to protect them but now are siding with the Muslin Brotherhood and allowing the killings to go on as well as getting involved with the killins.  Forty Christians have been reportedly been massacred.  EULA asked if we liked the book Islamophobia then she had developed a list of some really good books that, upon twenty five people requesting a particular book, she could get them for $1.00 just like she did the Islamophobia book.  She asked us to look the list over and any that we were interested in to please sign next to that book’s listing.  BOB asked us to take a look at the list on our way out from the meeting and see if there is any books we might be interested in.

BOB reported on the Republican Men’s Reverse Raffle held this past weekend at Cannonsgate.  He got to talk to the State Republican Chairman, Robin Hayes; Speaker of the House; Leader of the Senate, Harry Brown; and they all said for the TEA Party to keep on doing what we are doing – we are doing a good job and really helping out the conservative movement in the State.  They all contend that North Carolina is going to be a real battle-ground in the upcoming elections of 2012.  The National Democrat committee will be dumping millions of dollars into the state to try to pull it solidly into the blue state group.  The Democrats are still looking at the last election as an anomaly.  They are confident of winning the state back, so we are going to have to really get out there and do what we can to make sure that everybody we know – that can vote, does vote (in the right way of course).  Someone jokingly said “Vote early, vote often”, and EULA said ‘don’t vote early, they lose those votes.’  BOB said don’t vote ‘absentee’ either, especially if you are military, they don’t count those votes.  KEN said he had checked for the voting dates for 2012, but they were not listed yet.  BOB said we had upcoming (November) local elections. HOWARD said Atlantic Beach had held their elections today, but it was too early to know how it had turned out.  DAVID COX was not at the meeting tonight due to working the polls.

JERE GEURIN asked us not to forget the marriage amendment that we would be voting on in May – one man, one woman.  We need to pass this amendment, since what we currently have on the books can easily be overturned by a liberal judge.

BOB said we are going to have to start deciding if we are going to have a rally this coming spring to try to get folks riled up for the campaign season.  We will talk about that later on but be thinking about what you think we should do.

BOB reported that on Friday, some of us went to the League of Women Voter’s debate at Joslyn Hall at the College.  He was disappointed in the TEA Party turnout.  Only he, ERIC BROYLES, EULA PARKIN, HOWARD GARNER and PEGGY GARNER attended.  He thought the debates were very interesting.  He felt David Horton just really won the battle there.  Jerry Jones came out in his opening statement with personal attacks and he felt that kinda soured at lot of people right from the start.  The City Council folks – some had ideas and some had none.  FRED DECKER asked how Harvey Walker did.  BOB said he thought he did well.  He liked Harvey, Bill Taylor, and Lennie Griffin.  PEGGY gave the list of candidates who were there.  In addition to the above,  Diane Warrender and Craig Weber.  Ernest Yeager was absent.  BOB said Craig Weber used the same campaign speeches he used when running for House of Representatives.  He gets carried away with himself and turns people off.  BOB said he talked to Harvey Walker at the Reverse Drawing Saturday afternoon and he came across a whole lot better than he did on the stage at the debate.  Seemed like every time they asked him a question on the stage, he would go – that is a very important question and is certainly something we are going to have to take a look at and weigh all the options and come up with the best decision.  HOWARD said he also believed in planning.  BOB said when he got him one on one at the Drawing, and he asked him again some of the same questions asked at the debate, that he was very on top of each subject and his answers were very smart and BOB was impressed with his knowledge.  He felt he was a whole different guy than the one on the stage.  Someone asked how Bill Taylor did.   BOB said he thought he did excellent.  He was very level headed, calm, sorta looked at the big picture and focused.  STEVE MILLER said he had worked with him.  STEVE is chairman of the boat show, which is the biggest fund raiser they have for the DMCR (Downtown Morehead City Revitalization).  It is a charity and Bill is executive director and STEVE feels he has good business sense money wise.  He is fiscally responsible.  He doesn’t mind spending money if it is the right thing to do but he certainly won’t frivolously throw it away.  STEVE let us know that he was not campaigning for Bill, because he couldn’t vote for him, since he did not live in town, but wanted us to know what kind of person Bill was.  Election will be held the first Tuesday in November, after the first of the month.  (Not sure of date)

This coming Thursday, at Cape Carteret, Rib Eye Steak House, the Carteret County  Republican Men’s monthly meeting will be held.  Starts at 7:00.  They are having Frank Palombo, who is challenging Walter Jones in the Republican primary for the US House, as guest speaker.  Richard Hunt had told BOB that it was an open meeting (ladies invited) and requested that members of the TEA Party please attend and let’s fill the place up.  He would like to have a big crowd from the TEA Party to show our support for Frank.  Since the meeting starts at 7:00, if you want to eat, you need to come a little bit earlier.  BOB will introduce Frank and he will start to speak about 10 minutes after 7:00.

BOB said at the Reverse Drawing, he was talking to Robin Hayes, head of the Republican Party of North Carolina, and he asked him if he had met Frank Palombo, who was challenging Walter Jones, and Robin said no, but he had been wanting to.  He wanted to know why Frank was running against Walter anyway.  HOWARD said Robin had served in Congress with Walter.  BOB told Robin that he couldn’t speak for Frank but personally, he thought it was time that the 3rd Congressional District Republicans quit pretending that Walter was a Republican.  Why should we stick with Jones, when Jones only votes with Republicans occasionally, when we can have a 100% lifelong Republican.  He could understand the party may have wanted to support him last time because it was a chance that the GOP would win the House, which governs chairmenship and such and to stay with Walter was a slam dunk victory for the Republicans and therefore not taking a chance on losing an “r” in Congress.  He feels we are going to be picking up a lot more seats this time, if you believe the media, and it is time to unload these liberal RHINOs.  Robin apparently did not agree with BOB since he attempted to defend Walter
BOB asked who was that Democrat up there in NC District 1 – he got voted out and got replaced by a Republican (HOWARD asked if he was referring to Bob Etheridge) so now he is changing parties and is going to run as a Republican and Walter Jones is going up there and stand by him.  It is all on Lisa Marley’s Truth or Dare blog.  If you don’t read her blog, she is up in Dare County, on the executive committee, precinct chairman, and runs the TEA Party up there.  She has started a conservative blog, (you should Google on it), BOB recommends you sign up for it because she writes articles about what is going on in Eastern North Carolina about various house members, different goings on, and probably about a third of what she writes pertains to Dare County and what is going on up there, but her blog is worth reading.  If you sign up for it, whenever she writes you will get an automatic notice in your email inbox.  You can read the title and if it interests you then you can open it up and go right to her blog and read the whole article, plus you can read the comments as well as make them.  It is one of the few blogs he reads regularly.  Lisa has volunteered to be Palombo’s secretary.  Don’t forget Palombo this Thursday at Rib Eyes Steak House in Cape Carteret at 7:00 pm.

ERIC brought up that Ron Paul was supporting Walter Jones.  BOB said he did last time also and Jones backed Paul.  Big disappointment today was when Gov. Christy of New Jersey came out in support of Mitt Romney.  Most in attendance did not like Obamacare which is patterned after Romneycare, nor Perry’s stand on immigration.  Only two real candidates that most like are Caine and Gingrich; but Gingrich, while probably the most intelligent and knowledgeable, and probably the smartest one up there; he can not get elected.  BOB said in his heart of hearts he really believes Herman Caine is going to pull this one out.  If you look at his biography, he has excelled to the top of everything he has put his mind to.  FRED said Christy also appointed a Muslim judge and TOM H. said he was a true believer in Al Gores’ green world.  He believes in all that stuff.  All these people ranting and raving about Christy for President….you don’t know what you are getting.  ERIC…same thing about Perry, until he opened his mouth.  Christy is not a conservative, but instead is a liberal.

KEN stood to give us a report on the “Out West TEA Party”.   But first..…At the Reverse Raffle, he again met Judge Newby, conservative Judge running for the North Carolina Supreme Court.  KEN brought some donation forms to our meeting tonight, letting us know that Newby was running a little behind in his donors (while still doing well, he had hoped to meet his goal by the end of September).  If you can help with a small donation it will be greatly appreciated.  He needs people as well as funds, so if you and your wife wish to donate, please write two checks, one signed with your name and one with your wife’s.  We need CONSERVATIVE judges and we need to maintain our majority.  Make sure when you vote, you vote for Scooby, Dooby, Newby.  While he, at present, does not have an opponent, you can rest assured that a liberal judge will appear from nowhere to give him competition.  They are not about to let a conservative just walk right in.
Last week at Rucker John’s the ’Out West TEA Party’ had 28 people come to the meeting.  BOB showed up late for their meeting, having left our meeting to attend theirs, so they ended up with 29 in attendance.  BOB said that was dedication. KEN said he had put a link on the web on an article on Agenda 21 to the Moore TEA Party, who has a really good website with a lot of good information on Agenda 21.  Rather that duplicating their information on our website, he has provided a link and you can go there for the information.  Moore TEA is the force behind the billboards.  KEN talked to a couple of their people on the phone Friday.  They have been driving around looking for good billboard locations.  Actually looking at the areas to see how visible they are to the traveling public.  As of last Friday, they have logged in 2,000 miles of driving around North Carolina looking at locations.  They have already collected about $1,000.00 which is way short of what it will take to put up 8 to 10 billboards, but they have just announced this project and word has not gotten out that much yet.   Haven’t started pushing the fund raiser just yet.
Last thing he has is – he met with Adele Collins, member of the Board of Education, on Saturday.  There has been some speculation as to why she was not going to run again for the Board of Education, so that was one of the things he wanted to ask her. It was his understanding that she was not really up for reelection until 2014.  That is still a ways off, not that we shouldn’t be looking for somebody to run.  She did confirm that she is not going to re-run.  The reason is she works full time as a teacher; she just took custody of her grandson, so she has a four year old now at home, and a few other things.  He told her that one of the rumors was she was upset over the friction between the Board of County Commissioners and the Board of Education.  She said ’well, yeah, there is; but that is not the real reason.  However, it has added a tremendous amount of time that the BOE has had to do to work on the budget.  KEN gave an account of how he felt about the BOE, C4, Superintendent Novey, etc., and Mrs. Collins said he may be right that she had seen some of the things he mentioned, but had not put them together until KEN had expounded on them.  She said the previous Superintendent (who passed away) had worked real good with the Commissioners and the BOE and she did not recall ever having problems like were being encountered today.  KEN told her they still had the Board of Commissioners, Board of Education but different Superintendent – that should tell them something.  They should fire him.  She told KEN that Novey still has a year and a half to go on his contract, so they were not going to do anything as long as his contract was in force.  KEN said he felt sure there were provisions where they would have to pay him (buy off his contract) and that could be rather costly.  KEN recommended since Novey only had about 14 months or so, then the Board should start looking right now, because it will take a while to find someone who is good and can work with others.  He recommended that they not make a secret out of looking for a replacement for Novey, and not be underhanded about it.  Maybe he will get the message and try to improve his relationship with the BOE and commissioners.  There is a feeling (or understanding) from the members of the BOE, that they are just there to amen what the Superintendent wants.   He understands that Cathy Nagel has said that they had hired him (the superintendent) to take the reins and run everything and they are just there to support him.  HOWARD said that is not how the State Law reads…the board sets the directions and the superintendent follows.
KEN said he understands there might be problems in the Finance Department also.  The man in charge does not understand the system apparently.  There are three members on the BOE that have formed their finance oversight/review the budget group.  Mrs. Collins said they were having as much trouble getting data that makes sense, as the Board of Commissioners are having.  Mrs. Collins said that the BOE puts in excessive numbers of hours just trying to figure out what the numbers are.  They bring some numbers in, explain some things, are asked more questions; and they go back and get more data, bring it back and it is different than what they showed before.  KEN said this was the exact same thing he was hearing from the County Commissioners.  He asked Mrs. Collins what kind of accounting system do they use.  It is an accounting system that the state requires, but you have to know what you are doing to run the system.  Apparently, the man now in charge doesn’t, whereas the previous financial manager knew the system quite well.  KEN reminded us that there is a Board of Commissioners meeting next Monday, and we should get together and attend.  KEN said DENNIS TOMASO had read in the Jacksonville paper that the commissioners had already approved giving the BOE the $500,000.00 that had been held back…that C4 was actually congratulating them.  Several disagreed…the commissioners had told the BOE they had to justify use of those funds before they would release them and they thought this was what the BOE was attempting to do (justifying use of the funds) in the article so the Commissioners would approve their use…that C4 was actually wanting more funds besides the $500,000.00.  Question was asked ‘why so soon after receiving their budget funds are they needing more.  KEN said in March they were talking about being $3 million short, but then after the state gave them additional funds, they still came up and said they were $3 million short, but they could meet all their legal obligations.  In May they came back and more money was allocated, and Novey still wants that money and the $3 million but he could still meet his legal obligations.  In June they came out with the final budget and more money had been appropriated and they still wanted the $3 million.  It looks like Novey just keeps moving the ball.  Dennis said he did not understand the article anyway.  It said they paid the assistant teachers for driving the bus and then paid overtime for serving as teacher assistants.  KEN said he had looked at the numbers, and they have an adequate number of teacher assistants to teach and drive the buses with what they have without using overtime.  On top of that they have another 30 or more people who are certified to drive buses.  KEN thinks we need a good explanation for this situation.   Maybe they have one; but he feels we need to know their rationale.  But they won’t tell you, they just say they need overtime for bus drivers.  They are playing games with all the numbers.  If the BOE is aware of all this, apparently they don’t know how to fix it either.  As he reads the article, it would appear the fight is between the BOE and County Commissioners.  The real fight is with the school superintendent.   (Dennis reported later, he had misread the article – the funds are to be discussed at Monday night’s Commissioners’ meeting.)

DENNIS TOMASO reported that he had to change the date for the two speakers he had contacted (for us making a decision on which charity to sponsor) to speak with us; to both on the same night, due to scheduling difficulty.  They will be at our October 25th meeting.  Speakers are:  Peggy Rochon, SE Regional Director for “Hope for the Warriors’ and Brian Kramer, Town Manager of Pine Knoll Shores, who is a retired Marine Colonel and the originator of the yearly ’Kayak for the Warriors’ event in Pine Knoll Shores.

BOB  asked ERIC to give a brief synopsis on the By Laws he had come up with.  We will not be voting on them tonight.  ERIC said he would get them posted on our web site, but basically are an update on the By Laws we were working on last year.  They were several pages long then, but he has consolidated them down to about 3 or 4 pages.  JERE GEURIN said he was told last year, when he had supported By Laws, that they were not necessary for this group.  Have they suddenly become necessary?  ERIC said any organization has to have some general guidelines to follow.  JERE said that is what he thought but had decided it was a dead issue.  ERIC said we needed guidelines for holding elections each year to establish our executive committee (Chairman or President, whichever we wish to call him or her; Vice Chairman/President, Treasurer, and Secretary); how to fill an office that has become vacant, etc.  So basically, the operational functions, and the outlining of some general duties of each position.  Once everyone has had an opportunity to read them over and raise questions over the next couple of meetings, then we can vote on them.  He feels we need to post ‘em, look ‘em over, make any modifications, clean them up, make sure they are as simplified as possible, and vote; but he feels we do need some general guidelines.  BOB said these By Laws, ERIC has proposed will be sent as an attachment to the minutes of tonight’s meeting.  BOB said he or ERIC, one, would send a copy to PEGGY to attach to the minutes.

BOB opened the floor and recognized LYN BAKER who said she had been asked about the ‘recommendation of candidates’ that we had at the last election, were we planned to do it again.  There were so many issues between Democrats and Republicans, so she was wondering if we could print the Democrat’s position and what is the truth on the various issues; kinda backing them up with facts.  These people feel that when they discuss politics with their neighbors they need to come with some kind of ammunition.  Not everybody feels adequate to discuss the issues.  BOB said he was all in favor of that but it was going to take people, time and energy to sit down and either drag the candidates down in here and ask specific questions, or do a whole lot of research.  She said she was not talking about individual candidates; just the difference in Democrat and Republican stances on the various issues.  Like we know, right now Obama wants to use the fact that his job bill isn’t going to pass because of the Republicans.  But we know that some Democrats will vote with the Republicans (otherwise, the bill would  pass in the Senate).  We could list those Democrats.  Things like this that the Democrats are twisting and using as ammunition against the Republicans.  (No further discussion.)

BOB recognized JERE who spoke on the defense of the Marriage Amendment which will be on the ballot in May.  We need to get behind it.  Two lesbians went to the courthouse in Asheville and asked for an application for a marriage license.  They were denied under General Statute 51.1.2 which says they can not do that.  So the lesbians vowed to return later and do it again.  Now what they are doing is gathering evidence for a law suit.  Their lawyer will probably get a liberal judge assigned to the case and that judge will declare that statute unconstitutional.  If it is in the Constitution of the State they can not do that.  He has contacted the Christian Action League in Raleigh, a lady named Susan Bowen (?).  She has replied and asked him if there are people down here that are willing to help them promote this amendment to the Constitution.  So he gave her a few names (BOB is one of them that he gave along with BOB’s telephone number).  They might want to send a representative down here to speak to the TEA Party group.  Second item…Tomorrow morning at 10:00 Sam Sanford goes to bat again for his project, “We Care”, where we package care boxes going to our troops in Afghanistan.  If you want to help, be down to his warehouse behind the new Furniture Distributor business across the street from Truckers’ Toy Store.  There is a little road that goes back into the woods when you go  behind that building of shops.  There is a small building with like a garage door which they will have open.  They plan to package 100 boxes tomorrow and Thursday or Friday, he and Sam will take those boxes to Morehead City Post Office to find people who will take those boxes, which have the paperwork – including customs form – already filled out, into the post office and mail them ($12.95 per box).  If you can’t come and help pack, then please come to the post office (not sure of date which will depend on the weather), and help by mailing the boxes.

HOWARD said he was not sure how many of those in attendance had ever read the book “Sea of Greed” on drug dealing that was written by Judge McCullough.  On the 22nd, at the Community College at 1:30 pm he will be holding a book signing.  He told PEGGY and I Saturday afternoon at the Republican Men’s Reverse Drawing that in the discussion they will bring out a whole lot more than was in the book.  HOWARD thinks this might be interesting if you have the time to attend.  There had been an ad in Sunday’s paper and he should have cut it out, but failed to do so.  BOB asked him to find out more on the event and bring it up at next weeks meeting.

LOU KUKULINSKI asked ’how many members do we have now?’  Someone told him they understood Crystal Coast TEA Party had 2500 members and he couldn’t believe it.  BOB said KEN LANG would know how many had signed up on the email list.  He was sure it was at least 1,000 or more.  TOM H. said it was 1,800 a year ago.  LOU wanted to know where they all were?  (Not everyone who thinks of himself as a part of the TEA Party movement goes to meetings.  HOWARD said a lot of them, that we never see, are reading our minutes, because many of them in writing letters to the editor are referring to our minutes, and are discussing what is going on at the meetings.  We are definitely getting attention there.)  STEVE  MILLER said he had had a few letters published as well, but he had a question…does the TEA Party have a financial structure…have any funds?  NANCY BOCK said she was the Treasurer and we sell Tshirts and hats, various items, and accept donations.  We use those funds (after the portion sent to the Wounded Warriors is removed) to pay for our rallies…liability insurance, porta potties, etc.  The Flea Mall does not charge us for the use of the field.  We currently have $1,200.00 in the bank.  STEVE wanted to know if we had thought about packaging some of the liability insurance with other non-profits.  You can put riders on other liability policies and save a lot of money.  NANCY said the last time we bought insurance, we bought it for a year, which allowed us to hold 3 rallies that year, which was much cheaper per rally.  She said she was not aware of what STEVE was talking about.  He said for example, for the Boat Show, he requires all dealers to carry their own liability insurance before they can participate; but they can take out a rider on the city policy and it saves them a lot of money.  If we knew anyone we could put a rider on, it could save us some money.  It could be a government agency, the Flea Mall may have a general liability or many other possibilities.  BOB said they Flea Mall wanted us to have our own insurance.  STEVE said we would still have our own insurance; it was kinda like subleasing.  He offered to look into the situation with the lady he does business with and see what he can find out for us.  BOB said that would be great…we have between now and April before our next rally to come up with something.

TOM H asked about the Veteran’s Day Parade and our participation.  BOB said it was confirmed we had a spot.  TOM H. wanted to know what we were going to have for a float and what we planned to do.  NANCY said her trailer was still available, and BOB said he guessed we’d be throwing candy to the kids.  We will be right behind the Republican float.  HOWARD told them that PEGGY was painting some posters depicting Veterans‘ Day ideas.  (Discussion on date of parade – will determine later).  BOB checked on the number of pocket Constitutions we had available.  ERIC said he had a few he had gotten from our representatives (which was fewer than he had hoped) and NANCY said she still had two boxes, so BOB thinks we may be OK.  NANCY said for the 4th of July parade we had the historical flags, but she thinks for the Veteran’s Day Parade we will need the military flags…Army, Navy, Marine, Air Force, Coast Guard.  She had looked at the prices today and for a set of 5 military flags 3×5 of outdoor nylon $150.00 ($30.00 each)  plus $5.00 shipping and handling.  The 4×6 is $50.00 ea.  She also thinks we should have MIA and POW flags also.  (Agreed).  LYN said her church had a set of the military flags and she would ask if we could borrow them.  BOB said the IGA Grocery on Hwy 24 used to have 3×5 flags and he thought they were about $4.00 a flag.  LOU said the Flea Mall had them all over the mall, he thought.  BOB thought we could possibly find flags a lot cheaper than $30.00 a piece.

EULA said the “Achievement Walk” for anyone who has ever had a knee or hip replaced will be held this Saturday.  Anyone wishing to participate please see her for information.

ERIC  wanted to know if we were going to do any recommendation forms for pass out at the local elections.  BOB said no, not for the local in November.  There is too much danger in creating dissention among our members and people in the local area, as we discovered recently with the Atlantic Beach election.  We are so spread out in the county, and many are unable to vote in the town’s elections that it would not be feasible for us to back candidates for this election.  To do so, we would have to call in all the candidates from the various towns for vetting and we do not have the time, anyway.  Plus there are so many issues in the various towns (which apply to that town only) that it would be almost impossible to ask the appropriate questions.  He prefers we hold off until the big election next November.  We do need to come up with some better way of vetting candidates, though.  We are not likely to get Congressman Jones down here to talk with us, or Governor Beverly Perdue, etc.  We probably can get those running for Carteret County Commissioners to come it an speak to us.  ERIC  wanted to know if maybe we could come up with a list of questions to send out for their response.  BOB said the problem with that is the issues keep moving.  If you ask any politician if they believe in ‘fiscal responsibility’, you can rest assured they all will all say “Oh, yeah”.  If we are going to ask questions then we need questions that will really nail their feet to the floor.  Example: the question to Jerry Jones on the phosphate issue … how in the hell did you let that one get by you?  We all agree that the TEA Party Voter Recommendation list (made up originally by TOM AUSTIN and FRED DECKER) was a great idea. (Discussion on vetting Bill Smith and Wade Nelms last election.   HOWARD said he had had some apprehension about Bill Smith in that election, although  he had known him for years, back when they were in the Jaycees together, but he has been extremely pleased with Bill‘s action as commissioner and his voting.  He feels he goes out and tries to find out what the constituents want before he makes a decision.  He is pleased with him as commissioner and that is not normal for him, since he (Howard) is normally critical of anyone in office.  Bill stops by  Howard‘s home every now and then and they discuss the politics of the day.  HOWARD feels Bill is getting TEA Party input through him.  ERIC said he had talked with Bill several times and he thought that Bill‘s philosophy was right in line with the TEA Party.  He thought it was Bill and Robin Comer that pushed for the Board of Education to report quarterly their numbers.  However, like BOB said the numbers they are getting do not make any sense.  They can not understand them.  Comer and KEN had gotten together one day and laid out the paperwork they had received from the BOE and tried to make sense of where the money in the budget was going and they just got lost….and both of them are good with numbers.)  BOB said he felt the list we passed out at the polls truly helped to get conservatives elected.  This is what he has in mind for next year. He was wondering though if we had recommendations for the primary, because Richard Hunt, who he plans to have come and speak with us soon, was ousted in the primary by Comer.  While we all appear to like Comer, it would have been nice to have vetted Richard Hunt.  He is a real numbers cruncher also.  He has been really tearing apart the Cape Carteret budget and the ILA (which HOWARD feels is comparable to the Carteret County budgets, since he is familiar with the ILA.)

Meeting adjourned at 7:15 pm.
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary.

CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS MINUTES
FOR
October 4, 2011

Meeting held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm by President BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance led by LOU KUKULINSKI
Invocation by NANCY BOCK
Attendance – 21

There were no new attendees at tonight’s meeting.

BOB said first subject for the evening is who we want to sponsor on our Tee Shirts. (and donate a portion of the proceeds from their sale.)  This is something we have discussed in the past but never made a final decision on. We had the Carolina K9 folks up here to explain their program.  [Andrew, who attended some of our meetings with his dog, was thought to be a wounded warrior; but BOB discovered that he was wounded while doing karate and was placed in the wounded warrior division until he could be processed out.  How he ended up with a special dog, BOB did not know.]  The dog program is a very worthwhile cause.  The one BOB is currently leaning for is  “Hope for Warriors” down in Jacksonville.  He asked DENNIS TOMASO if he knew any more about them.  DENNIS said he had it set up with them to come speak to us on the 18th.  The woman that runs it is very low key.  Every dollar received goes into “Hope for Warriors”.  BOB said the other good thing is they have the same logo as Wounded Warriors so we will not have to change our shirts emblem very much.  The Town Manager of Pine Knoll Shores runs a kayak race every year and this year they raised about $36,000.00 or $39,000.00.  The people who run the organization make peanuts, so we can be assured our money is going for a good cause.  The lady, who will be coming to speak to us, name is Peggy (but he cannot remember her last name).  He feels we will be impressed with her.  BOB said, ‘Let’s hold off making a decision until we hear from her”.  The other organization was Sam Sanford’s group “We Care”.  They make up boxes of goodies and mail them to our troops overseas.  We need to get Sam in here and give us a better understanding of what they do.  LOU KUKULINSKI said he thought they would be making up the boxes again tomorrow morning, down behind the old strip mall, across from Trucker’s Toy Store.

Up Coming Things….Today is Tuesday the 4th, and on Thursday, the 6th, we have Frank Palombo speaking at the Republican Men’s Club meeting at the Rib Steak House in Cape Carteret.  FRED asked “Are you sure it is the 6th”, he thought they met the second Thursday of the month, and the 6th is the first Thursday.  BOB said he needed to check on that.  LOU and FRED may be right.  He’d better call Frank and find out for sure. RUTH asked BOB to shoot an email out to the group as soon as he found out the correct date.
On the 7th, at the Community Center Joslyn Hall, at 6:00 pm, the League of Women Voters will be holding their candidate’s, for local elections, debate.  If you come to this meeting please wear your TEA Party shirts and hats so we can make a statement with our presence.   Bob said he imagines they will probably have a blank form, to fill out when you get there, to ask a question of particular candidates.  Then they will probably have like a vetting committee to sort them out.  Time is 6 until 9 pm.  He thinks we should get there around 5:30 to make sure you have a parking space and seating.  Question as to who will be on the platform.   BOB said local candidates, mayor, councilmen, etc.  Question as to which local (Morehead, Beaufort, Newport, Cape Carteret, etc. Carteret is a big county)  BOB said probably just Morehead, Beaufort and maybe Newport,  since there will be another forum in Cape Carteret on the 26th.  There really isn’t that many contested races.  He, personally, is interested in the Morehead City races.  HOWARD GARNER said David Horton had a real good ad in last week’s paper.  This is the second ad he has had and they both were very informative.  BOB asked if it was just a political ad announcing his candidacy and HOWARD said no it was a rather lengthy ad explained why he was running.  Both articles covered pretty much what he told us the night he spoke at our meeting.  CLAYTON GILLIKIN wanted to know if it would be appropriate for us to hand every candidate a copy of our pocket Constitution before the forum starts.  BOB said that may not be a bad idea.  CLAYTON said he wasn’t sure but he thought the League of Women Voters did not use the Pledge of Allegiance or Invocation prior to their meetings.  This is very important to the TEA Party.  BOB said he would check prior to the event and find out their procedure, and if not, would ask if they would please say the pledge and give an invocation prior to that night‘s meeting.
BOB said Walter Jones would be holding a get together at Parker’s Barbecue in Greenville at 5:00 pm on October 7.  Ron Paul, candidate for President, will be there.  Jones will again, this year, declare his support of Paul.  LOU said it looked to him that Paul was starting a lot of trash on the elimination of Awalocki (?).  Paul had said it was against the Constitution to assassinate an American citizen.  Most in attendance feel that it is wrong to say that we had assassinated an American citizen.  When Awalocki began his association with the terrorists and became one of their leaders, as far as we were concerned, he had given up his right as a citizen of the US.  BOB said he did not know for sure if there was an admission fee to the barbecue but if so, would probably be only about $5.00.  FRED said they had a big one recently and it was for a whole lot more, something like $2,500.00.  HOWARD said yes, but that one was held at the Country Club.  It started at $150.00 up.
BOB said the Republican Men’s Club would be hosting a reverse drawing at 4:00pm Saturday, at Cannonsgate on Hwy 24.  300 raffle tickets were being offered and he did not know if there were any left unsold.  SCOTT said he had one he would like to sell.  LOU said he thought there were a few left.  They are $150.00 a piece, and if you win, it is $5,000.00.  HOWARD said there would be heavy hors d’oeuvres and drinks served.  BOB asked if anyone knew who was going to be the keynote speaker at the event.  FRED said there would be a lot of them….McCrory, Pat McElraft, Jean Preston, and they were trying to get Sen. Burr, but he wasn’t sure if they had heard back from him.  Judge Newby, was a maybe and FRED said he thought Frank Palombo was coming.  BOB said he understood Jones would be there and a lot of the state’s Republican party bigwigs up in Raleigh would be there….Speaker, Senate Leader, Harry Brown, Tillis, etc.  Anyway, if you want to be there it is $150.00 for two people.  HOWARD wanted to know if the main gate at Cannonsgate will be open.  BOB said it would probably be opened for this occasion.  FRED said they were having the event catered this year by the Ice House.

BOB said FRED had handed him something that he thought was pretty interesting called the State Department Watch.  He couldn’t see an email or website on the paper but apparently something is going on about the islands off the coast of Alaska, the Aleutians, close to Siberia.  Apparently the Obama administration is trying to give or sell seven of these islands to Russia and along with that would be the 200 mile radius around them for commercial exploration (oil fields, fishing etc).  There is a request form to sign and return to the Speaker of the House John Boehner in opposition.  Boehner may be our last hope to save these islands from being lost forever to the Russians.  As you are aware, it is the unelected bureaucrats of the Obama administration; with no public hearings, no public scrutiny and without anyone noticing; are working on a land giveaway.  They are negotiating right now with representatives of the leaders of Russia….the same kind of thugs that ran the Communist Soviet Union…to give away thousands of square miles of Alaska.  [There were several “Unbelievable” comments from the audience.]  Thousands of square miles that contain billions of barrels of oil, tons of fish and other seafood, and millions of tons of valuable ore.  We are already sending millions of dollars to Russia right now to buy oil and unless we stop this giveaway immediately we will be sending them millions more to buy back our own oil.  The Russians are making out like bandits.
BOB listed the islands being proposed (Rangel Island, Bennett Island, Genet Island, Henrietta Island, Cooper Island, Sea Lion Rock and Sea Otter Rock, along with thousands of square miles of ocean sea bed that surrounds them…not sure of the spellings).  BOB asked FRED how he got on their mailing list.  FRED said it came in the mail today, and he didn’t know why he had gotten it.  BOB said he had never heard of this organization and he didn’t know if this was true or not.  It might be just a ploy.  He did see an address to write to on the paper to send donations.  BOB asked for someone to check this out and determine how true it is.  NANCY said she was checking right then on her hand held computer and had not been able to find anything recent about what BOB was reading about.  BOB said he would like for us to find out more about it.  .

BOB said we had all probably seen Herman Cain really winning a lot of these straw polls, by extremely wide margins.  HOWARD asked if anyone saw today (he thought) where Cain was debating Bill Clinton about the Hillarycare program, back when Clinton was president, in ‘94 he thought.  BOB said Hannity had a clip on it on his program last night.  HOWARD felt Cain did real well even back then.  He stood his ground with facts.  He holds his own.  BOB asked if anyone had read Cain’s biography.  Several said yes and it was very impressive.  BOB said when he read his credentials, he was blown away.  All he had heard anyone comment on Cain was the chicken/pizza man.  He read the email that had been sent out recently on Cain’s background – from his mother being a maid and his father working 3 jobs (chauffeur, barber and janitor) to make ends meet – to Cain’s turning around several businesses who were on the verge of failure and also his becoming owner of Godfather‘s Pizza, which he had made profitable in 14 months.  Every company he was asked to help, he had turned around to their making a profit.  (I will not give the writeup as read by BOB but would recommend everyone not knowing of Cain’s experience to please get a copy of it.  You will be carried away with this man’s background.  While he may not have political experience, {other than his involvement with the Federal Reserve in which he achieved second in command chairmanship, where he was able to observe how the monetary system affected the country} he truly has the experience to get this country back on it’s feet, job wise.)  He has written several books and hosted a radio show in Atlanta.  When you read this impressive bio, you may come to the conclusion he has probably the most varied experience of anyone running today or in the past several years.  HOWARD said Cain had said this morning on Fox and Friends “that we were PO folks and that was one step below being poor.”  Comments were made about who would be their choice for President and Vice President.  It was apparent that like everyone else, the group has not totally decided on who would serve us best, but a lot were leaning toward Cain, either as president or vice president.  Gingrich was selected to be the best one to work with the senate, that he could get things done there. LOU said he had one heck of a resume, ‘course not as impressive as Obama’s but’ (laughter) couldn’t hear the rest of his statement.  BOB said he would not be surprised if it did not end up a Cain/Gingrich ticket, who would be on top or bottom he didn’t know.  HOWARD said they both were from Georgia and it was unlikely they would pick two from the same state.

BOB said he had heard where Walter Jones had been in favor of a third party candidate, supporting Ron Paul if Paul does not receive the Republican nomination.  HOWARD said he hoped not, because that would give the election to Obama.  All agreed.  BOB said it is time the Republican Party quit considering Jones a Republican; he is a conservative Democrat, is and always has been.  He could understand why they had stayed with him last time because that was a guaranteed Republican seat and they did not want to take any chances because they wanted a Republican majority.  Well, they have a Republican majority in the house now, and it looks like we may have the opportunity to increase that majority; so now is the time to dump Jones.  He admits he is on board with Frank Palombo.  He feels it is time for some new blood up there.  While Palombo has never run for a political office before, he still feels he is very capable.  HOWARD said for Police Chief to survive as many years (14) as Palombo did in a city the size of New Bern, you have to have to know your politics. He also retired from the police force in Dade County, Florida and then put in 14 years here for a total of 32 years experience.  BOB said he knows the law and he assumes he knows the Constitution.

BOB said we are missing some people tonight that are attending the Western TEA Party meeting at Rucker Johns.  He hopes they have more attendees this week than they did the last meeting…only something like 15 people were there; however it was a nasty, rainy, night so they had an excuse.  Gus Wilgus has been sending out emails inviting everyone to come to the meeting.

BOB brought up the Morehead City parade in November commemorating Veterans Day.  FRED said he had talked to the lady in charge and had reserved a slot for us.  She told him she had sent out the information but had not received anything back from the TEA Party, but would put us down along with the Republican Party, Retirement Association, and another group (could not understand what he said).  He had told her if she put them all together, then he could be involved and ride in all of them.  But seriously, we do have a slot.  We will need more information before the day of the parade.  BOB asked NANCY if her trailer was still available and NANCY said yes.  Discussion on trailer hitch, who he had gotten it from last time and the size.  Wanted to know who planned to ride on the float.  RUTH  PARKER said to not drive so fast this time and BOB said he had to drive to keep up with the float ahead.  LOU said he didn’t remember him driving so fast.  RUTH said ’you weren’t walking either’. LOU said he wouldn’t be this time either.  PEGGY GARNER told BOB she was working on some posters for us to use.  SCOTT CARPENTER wanted to know if BOB wanted him to bring the data to the next meeting that we had compiled on pros and cons on the last parade, the flip charts.  BOB said yes sometime between now and Saturday, November 5th, it might be nice to look them over.  We need to be thinking about getting candy to throw also.  After Halloween there should be some good sales on candy.  BOB asked who wanted to buy all the candy and make it their job to assure we had it available for the parade.  The TEA Party will reimburse whoever volunteers to pick it up.  CLAYTON said he would help out by going out and trick or treating.  Jokes were made about shaking people up with the economy being really bad when Santa has to go out trick or treating for his Christmas candy.

EULA PARKIN informed us that the booklet ‘Islamophobia’, that we had asked her to buy had arrived, and the copies were on the table by BOB.  Please pick one up. In order for us to know her a little better, she gave us a brief description of an event in her life (which she asked me not to include in the minutes).  She then gave us a brief synopsis on the book.

BOB asked if anyone watched the video on line about the County Commissioners meeting where Greg Lewis told Nelson Paul to shut up and go home.  Paul was addressing the County Commissioners on rescinding the Scenic Byway and he started talking about Agenda 21 and Barbara Garrity Blake, who ran against Jean Preston in the last election.  She is somehow associated with the Core Water Fowl Museum.  They are getting funds to promote the Scenic Byway.  Nelson Paul started off talking about Agenda 21 and then went off into this great ‘one world government’.  Commissioner Lewis called a halt to his rambling, they didn’t have time for this, and told Paul to just go home.  BOB thinks where Paul lost support was when he started talking about one world government.  Actually there is nothing in Agenda 21 that addresses having a one world government.  That is another conspiracy theory type thing.  If we talk about Agenda 21 we should avoid any theories, like secrecy plots, undermining the government and stuff like that.  They have this green thing up in Dare County and one in Greensboro, the Scenic Byway here.  Remember several months ago we had a fellow, a geologist here in the county who came and talked to us about the sea level rising in North Carolina and how that was going to impact the land here in Carteret County.  North Carolina wants the county to take action ahead of  time trying to make sure certain areas do not get developed because they anticipate these areas are going to be flooded.  There are 3 scenarios under the current level of sea rise along with the sinking of the eastern seaboard of eastern America that if all things remain the same, the sea rise will remain about one foot.  A second proposed idea was a two foot rise, if global warming happened faster than what they planned, based on some models.  And then there was a worse case scenario of a three foot rise.  The one that was adopted to be acted on was the worse case.  That affects a heck of a lot more land, so under that program chunks of Carteret County are being removed from future development.  And then we have all these different projects going on for beautification or esthetic green zones, or whatever, he sees the whole thing as a long term program to where we slowly build our own prison.  Every new thing that comes along that we approve (well that sounds good, we gotta save the horses, do this or what ever), then you reserve more and more land away from human use toward these other things; so you slowly over time compress into a smaller area where humans can participate; which is the whole purpose of Agenda 21.  Limit development to allow the wild life and the eco zones to spread and proliferate.  Not that he opposed to saving the wildlife.  It breaks his heart every time he sees a dead fox, raccoon, possum, etc. run over on the highway.  They are being forced out of the woods by development but at the same time, right now there is no shortage of foxes or possums.  He was just really appalled at the way Commissioner Lewis handled the situation and felt he could have been a little more tactful in addressing Nelson Paul’s concerns…and more specifically addressed the Scenic Byway as opposed to addressing Mr. Paul’s ranting.  Discussion followed on Commissioner Lewis’ attitude now.

BOB asked FRED hadn’t he offered to talk to Adele Collins about returning to speak with us.  He said he hadn’t realized BOB wanted him to ask her, but he would.  BOB said we just wanted to know why it was so difficult to get information.  HOWARD asked BOB if he had read Al Hill’s letter to the editor this past Sunday.  BOB said no he hadn’t.  Mr. Hill said in his letter that they had been very open in their discussions with the commissioners and he does not understand why the commissioners are acting like they are.  Since KEN LANG does not get the Carteret News Times, HOWARD is going to get PEGGY to scan the article on schools by Novey and Al’s letter to the editor and email them to him.  This is directly in opposition to what KEN has been getting.  More discussion followed on who would make good candidates to run for the Board of Education.  BOB asked if that was the article where they were still wanting more money and HOWARD said yes, it was on the front page of Sunday’s paper.  The $500,000.00 that the County Commissioners had put aside, was being demanded now to pay for teachers and assistants/bus drivers.

BOB asked DAVID COX what was going on at Atlantic Beach.  DAVIS said contrary to previous comments, there was no plan to build a town hall.  They like the town hall right where it currently is.  HOWARD said it was obvious that people were reading our minutes on the internet from the letters to the editor that referenced them.  BOB asked what was it that the current board wanted?  A waste water treatment facility or a new town hall.  DAVID said they didn’t want either one.  What they had been talking about was having something for the kids; since all the amusement areas had left.  That was why they were talking about a park, because the previous regime had done away with all the bumper cars, Jungle Land, etc.  There was nothing left for the kids to enjoy.  BOB asked who the Ocean 6 was.  When the current board ran previously that is what they called themselves.  They are trying to keep a group of 6 people who want to keep Atlantic Beach a small community, not another Myrtle Beach.  They are replacing one this year.  John Rivers, who came to one of their meetings a few months ago and they do have a vacancy in the group right now.

PEGGY GARNER said if those who read our minutes will take notice, then they can not say we are one sided.  If they notice in last week’s minutes we had a gentleman who spoke in favor of the two ladies who had come to our meeting a few weeks ago that were running to unseat some of the Ocean 6…and another gentleman who spoke in favor of the current board.  AND we did not come out in favor of either one.  We just listened to what they had to say.  She hopes when they read those minutes, they will see it that way; that the TEA Party tries to stay informed.  DAVID said he wasn’t sure but he thought the gentleman who spoke in favor of the two ladies was on the Atlantic Beach planning board.  He did not catch his name last week.  PEGGY looked it up in last weeks minutes and told DAVID the gentleman’s name was JOHN HOPKINS and he had said he was on the Planning Board.

WAYNE WILLIS said we have another problem with the game.  It seems to be jinxed.  Now Matt, the boy who was helping WAYNE complete the final inputs into the game, had a wreck last Saturday night and tore up his truck, so that has put a screeching halt to finishing up that project once again.

BOB told everyone who had not already picked up a copy of the Islamophobia booklet, to please pick one up on the way out.

BOB adjourned the meeting at 7:05pm.
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary

CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS MINUTES
OF SEPTEMBER 27,2011

Meeting held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm by President BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance led by DIANE LANG
Invocation by JERE GEURIN
32 in attendance

BOB introduced new attendees:
MACON and ANN GARNER from Newport. Neighbors of HOWARD GARNER on the Nine Foot Road:
DOUG HILL, who had been absent for a while due to surgery.  This past spring he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor, about the size of a tennis ball.  After the two best surgeons in the country cut him about 8 inches on his head, and after about 8 ½ hours, they decided he would be OK and sent him home.  His brain is still scrambled.  He has no feeling, no emotions, short term loss of memory, and various other problems.  He said the first thing to come back to a skull base tumor patient is anger and that is why he is here tonight.  (Ha, ha).  BOB said he hoped they got it all and he is doing well.  DOUG said he is doing better that he probably deserves and they had gotten all they could get:
JOHN HOPKINS, who is on the Planning Board at Atlantic Beach,  is here just to listen, not campaign.

BOB welcomed back NANCY BOCK, our Treasurer, after a few weeks off this summer.
Friendly greetings and comments greeted her from the attendees.  She reported that we currently have $1,200.00 after writing the check for Carteret Literacy Council as requested from our previous meeting.

A lot of joking ensued when BOB tried to make out a name on the “sign in list” (ERNIE GUTHRIE) thinking it must be a new attendee.  Someone asked ‘what did BOB expect; after all ERNIE was a former student of Carteret County Schools‘.
BOB welcomed EULA PARKIN back after being absent a couple of weeks.  EULA said she had been attending church sessions.  They were studying “the life of JESUS”.
BOB welcomed ERIC BROYLES back and said he hoped ERIC’s wife was doing better.  ERIC said she was on the mend, but still had a ways to go.
BOB asked TOM HARMON how his wife was doing after her accident and the skin grafts.  TOM said she was doing much better.  Still having some pain where the grafts were but was improving.

KEN LANG reported on a discussion he had had with an aide in Senator Burr’s office. Ken had written an email to Sen. Burr about Agenda 21 and some other issues.  It included the ‘Green Way up in Greensboro’ and the outer banks, and Obama signing an executive order establishing a rural council which was going to advise farmers and other land owners how they were supposed to manage their own property.  Burr’s employee (a man named Eric) said the Senator did not think that was important.  There were more important issues at hand, that they needed to be looking at right now.  KEN asked him ’You mean to tell me you don’t think property rights are important.’  His reply was ‘There are more important issues on the table right now”.  KEN asked him if he even knew what Agenda 21 was.  He replied, “well, yeah, it had something to do with the UN.”
KEN said he thought that the Senator and his office were basically in the dark about what Agenda 21 is.  BOB said he thought the majority of Congress were not too informed about Agenda 21 either…thought it was just something to do with Global Warming.
BOB recognized STEVEN BEST, our representative studying Agenda 21.  STEVEN reported he had printed out the report (which is about 1 ½ inches thick) and the main thing he had discovered was, it was complicated and confusing.  BOB said the real quick thing he had gotten out of his research on Agenda 21 was…back in 1970/73 they were going to try to rein in air pollution, water pollution, and establish better usage of the planet.  Over a series of years they had developed a program and this was the 21st item on the agenda (thus the name).  What they want to do is on a global scale (but to bring it down to the US) there are about 50 different wilderness areas established in the country that they feel the land usage is not satisfactory to sustain long term development of the country.  With the loss of our forests and wildlife (this is a tree huggers bill), what they want is to expand on these wilderness areas and make it illegal for humans to even enter into these areas.  Then around these wilderness areas, they want to create very broad, wide buffer zones, that will have limited human activity permitted.  You will have to have a permit to even go into these buffer areas.  It will not be for human habitation.  With these expanded wilderness areas, and buffer zones, they want to interconnect all of these areas with green corridors, so that the wildlife can migrate or move from one area to another, thereby sustaining these wildlife.  As this thing is implemented, there is less and less land for humans to live on.  What they are pushing is called ’Stack ’em and Pack ’em’.  Remember the old slum hi-rise buildings they had in the big cities?  Well, these are coming back if Agenda 21 gets implemented.  The whole concept of rural living we now enjoy  (R zoning with ½ acre lots), they have decided is not conducive to development so they want to squeeze people into smaller and smaller areas.  What land is then available to be used they want to strickly say how you can use that land.  This will get into how farmers can farm or cultivate their property, how developers can develop the land, etc.  It is a massive program and is something we really need to be aware of and be ahead of the game because this thing is coming down the road and is already spreading its tentacles even in NC.  LOU said ‘Maybe we can slow it down when we take over next year and abolish the UN.’  BOB said ‘might help, if we assume all the legislatures are familiar with Agenda 21 or even interested in’.  LOU said, ‘obviously not, since we know our senator is in the dark about it.’
HOWARD GARNER said “A while back there was an article in the newspaper about the city planner in Raleigh who was pushing this, and some people got to checking on where he (the city planner) lived and he lived out on the edge of town on a tremendous plot of land.  It’s another case of ‘don’t do as I do, do as I say’.
TOM HARMON said ‘that land part, that’s like Project 60.’  He said if you Google Project 60, you will get maps that show you a huge red area that is already a controlled area, and then you will see little spots where people will be allowed to live.  BOB agreed that it was all the same idea that this thing is going to have a lot of various tentacle organizations that are all working on a master plan.  TOM said, ‘whatever is going on up in Raleigh and that area is all on this federation plan, and special code words are used by even the city councils.  BOB said he didn’t think most city councils were even aware of what those code words mean.  They are just picking up stuff people are telling them to say.  KEN said the project in Greensboro, the Greenway Project, is a part of that.  It establishes these greenways and they no longer condemn property, because, theoretically, then they are supposed to pay fair market value for it; so, what they do, instead of condemning property, is go in and rezone it to the point that developers can’t develop it and get the maximum profits they want to make out of it, so the value of the land falls next to nothing and then they pick it up for a pittance.  Through the zoning process they basically take land away from the owners.  BOB said that is how this whole thing is going to go down…a bit here, a bit there.  KEN said how this relates to this area is the Scenic Byway.  It was implemented without discussing with the public and the voters.  While right now, it doesn’t affect a whole lot of things; fear is it will just keep growing.  That is what the people, who are working on that Scenic Byway, are doing will be to limit eventual development.  Barbara Garrity Blake is one of the ones working to bring this about.  FRED said they have already cut the funds being raised for East Carteret High School.  BOB said ‘yeah, about $17,000.00 a year, he understands.  WAYNE WILLIS said ‘there are two or three things being mentioned here he wanted to elaborate on.  One, they had taken down the signs facing the highway, but they still had some facing the driveway, but they are on the East Carteret campus.  Another thing that came up, he watched them at the County Commissioners meeting on Channel 10, and he can’t  remember the precise number but he thinks it was 110 feet from one boundary of highway 70 to the other.  Does that number ring a bell to anyone else?  Someone said about 200 foot wide right of way.  He also said another thing some are concerned about is the closing of Cherry Point, which is being discussed quite a bit.  Lockwood had Darryl Garner, Mayor of Newport, on the radio tonight and they were talking about it.  It has been said before and everybody that lives here knows that every once in a while it will come up.  Forty years ago, it was on everyone’s mind, but nothing came of it.  The way this crowd is running things today, anything is possible.

BOB said before we go any further, he wanted to recognize PAM HANSOM, Clerk of Court of Carteret County.  She was one of our recommended folks to vote for in the last election.  She unseated a 20 some year incumbent in the court system.  LOU said ‘and they are still crying’.  BOB asked Pam if there was anything she wanted us to know about her job.  PAM said the last time she was here she told us a little bit about cleaning some of the stuff out, the old records, getting everything organized in storage, etc.  Hopefully some of you have seen the launch of the website.  We accomplished that which was one of her major goals.  Through that website, go to the County website and from there you can access just about anything you can think of.  If you can think of anything that is not on there please let her know so they can fix it.  ERIC asked about death records.  PAM said that was the registrars’ office.  PAM said it was coming up on a year anniversary, and it has been a very hectic, but very educational year for her.  They have accomplished a lot.  She got an invitation to speak to a ladies club and they said you will have 20 minutes.  PAM said she thought, 20 minutes….what in the world will I talk about for 20 minutes?  She started typing just the things they had done since she had gone into office last November and the next thing she knew, she had typed up six pages.  She promised not to go 20 minutes with us tonight, but she wanted us to know they have been very busy, and she thinks since they are coming up on the one year anniversary, the next thing she really wants to do is make a report card for herself and give it to all the staff and let them grade her and tell her how the past year has been.  BOB said he had a question about her staff.  When she went in there they were all registered Democrats; how has she been received and what sort of relationship do they all have?  Is it antagonistic or what?  PAM said ‘the first several months were pretty rough because they did not know what she was going to do and she didn’t know what they were going to do and it was a true ’getting to know each other kind of phase’.  There are 22 employees and let’s just put it this way, the past week she got invitations to two of their houses for personal parties.  She probably won’t go because her daughter is coming this week.  For her birthday they bought her a birthday present and they didn’t have to.  They chipped in and bought her a gift and it really meant a lot to her.  From last November to now, their relationship has come a long way.  BOB said that had been his biggest concern, that she would have 22 people trying to trip her up or embarrass her or something like that so he was glad that was not an issue.  PAM said they found out pretty quickly, that she (PAM) could do that all on her own.  BOB asked about all the lawyers (who had endorsed her predecessor).  She said all she could tell us was the feed back she was getting from that community.  For example she was walking up the stairs yesterday, heading for Superior Court Room 2, and one of the attorneys was going up the stairs at the same time.  They were doing the polite chit chat thing as they were going down the hall and he told her “You’re doing pretty good, PAM” and she was like “Really, thank you a lot, because, no, really, I mean it” and this was from a Democrat.  All she can tell us is what they are telling her.  She hasn’t had anyone in her office yelling and hollering.  BOB said ’now that you have a year under your belt, and in hind sight are you glad you ran and won the position?’  PAM said ’oh yeah, and yeah….but she would not have gone for it if she hadn’t known she would love the job and that she had felt like she could make a difference.  She feels like that in the past year she really has made a difference because of everything they have accomplished.  And they are not going to slow down.  There are other things coming down the road all the time.  Today for example (it has been being done around the state but it just hit Carteret County) they decided to upgrade from a closed email system and were put on Out Look, so they can interact with everyone else wherever they are now.  She is really happy about that, and we have a lot more things coming down the road that we can hopefully get into.  Example:  the RSVP Program….Retired Seniors Volunteer Program…If you or anyone you know of can come in and help take away some of those everyday necessary tasks, like filing, it will be appreciated.  They always have buckets of files that need to be put back on the shelf or files or drawers.  The girls spend a good deal of their time putting everything back where it belongs when they could be doing more productive work.  If they had someone to come in and help with that a few days a week, that would free the employees up to solve other types of problems that need taken care of.  So she is looking into bringing in members of the community to help.  BOB asked if there was an age requirement.  He was wondering about high school kids.  PAM said they have actually had a high school student that she had signed off hours for today.  She had given 10 hours of her busy summer and for a teen in the summer that is a lot of time loss from vacation.  Actually what she is looking for is someone to come in a couple of days a week steady.  WAYNE said he knew personally at least one of the employees, besides some of his relatives in that office, that retired immediately after PAM was elected.  He wondered how many more like that had happened.  He knew PAM knew who he was talking about.  He wanted to know if PAM had replaced them with “non-Democrats”.  PAM said that lady  was the only one that left.  WAYNE said ‘Then you still have the same crew?  You did have to replace her, did you not?  There were only two in that office where she worked.  PAM said she was lucky enough to replace her before the hiring freeze.  She was lucky enough to get her staff back up in time.  ROMA WADE asked if PAM thought her customers were happy with what she was doing?  PAM said she hoped so.  She has talked to some people who have come in and while it is impossible to make everyone happy (since they are coming to the court house, apparently, they have a problem and are unhappy), and try as they might in some cases, (there is nothing they can do to change that situation that brought them to the court house,) she and her employees can still try to ensure that their visit is efficiently taken care of, and information is provided, as much as possible, to satisfy their needs in resolving their problem, whatever it is.  She feels they have been doing a pretty good job of doing that.  Once again, she hasn’t had anyone in her office saying ,so and so is not doing something, so that is all she can look out for.  BOB thanked PAM for coming by and wished her continued luck in her position.  She thanked us for all we had done and promised to come back to see us.  Now she was going home and put on her old shorts and tee shirt and collapse.

ERIC BROYLES wanted to know if anyone remembered the S510 bill.  It was the one pertaining to food.  If you really think about that bill, it kinda fits in line with Agenda 21.  It sets up the rules and regulations on interstate commerce for food goods crossing state lines.  BOB said yeah, it certainly could fit.  He also said he called Burr’s office about an immigration bill that right now is being considered in congress.  Can’t remember the name of the bill.  Someone asked if it was the ’Legal Worker’s Act’.  ERIC said he didn’t think it was that one.  It was the one recently introduced into the Senate where they are trying to get the illegal immigrants some type of amnesty in this country.  His office is very clear on this, neither he nor Kay Hagan support this bill.  Kay has voted against the immigration bill (Dream Act) and continues to follow that opinion.  He also spoke to Burr about the Worker Program and Burr seemed a little clueless on that.  He also talked to an aid by the name of Eric and he said he would research it because if this is what is going on, then it needs to be stopped.  The President does not have the authority to issue executive orders put asunder laws that congress have authorized.

BOB called on EULA PARKIN and she told us that next spring will be the one hundredth anniversary of the Girl Scouts and this weekend she will receive her 50 year pin as a Girl Scout.  (Congratulations Eula.)

TOM HARMON said he got an email the other day on Obama’s Job Bill and a section of this bill (section 376 – Federal and State Immunity) says “the state’s receipt for use of federal financial assistance for any program or activity of a state shall constitute a waiver of  sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution.”  BOB said “Are you serious?”  TOM said, yep, that what it says.  BOB says that sounds like it is trying to do away with state’s rights.  In other words if you take money from the Federal Government, you lose your state’s rights!  By the end of the year, the EPA is going to outlaw the inhalers for asthma.  You will have to buy the special ones that costs between $30 and $60 bucks. Going like the florescent light bulbs, which on January 1st, you will no longer be able to buy 100 watt florescent light bulbs.  STEVEN said he heard that after that date and they check your house and they find these bulbs, it will be $25.00 fine for each bulb found.  BOB said he thought that was just hearsay.  Comment was ‘with the way things are going now, don’t bank on it‘.  ERIC said China has now stopped shipment of rare metals to us, that are used to make these new light bulbs, so that will definitely have an impact on us.  He said it might be a good idea to invest in these companies because the price of these new light bulbs are going to quadruple in cost.  BOB said he thought there will be a black market for incandescent light bulbs.  JERE GEURIN said recently Wal Mart had a sale on incandescent bulbs for something like 11 cents apiece and he bought about 4 dozen of them.  He figured at his age, they will last him the rest of his life.  Some people absolutely need these incandescent bulbs….example people who live in the country and have water pumps.  They use the bulbs to keep the pump house warm and stop the pump from freezing in the winter.  The florescent bulbs do not put off any heat.

BOB said one of the things ERIC had brought back to his attention is October 7th, Friday of next week, is the League of Women’s Voters debate/forum at the community college in Joslyn Hall from 6 to 9.  Please wear your red shirts when attending so we will look like a big red army and stand out.  There is also to be another forum held at the Town Hall in Cape Carteret on October 26. KEN LANG will brief the folks with the Western TEA Party group on this event.  BOB asked KEN to brief us on how the last meeting (third meeting of the group) went.  They had about 18 people show up.  It was a rainy night, not a good night for people to be out, so attendance was down.  Richard Hunt, who is running for Town Commissioner for Cape Carteret, spoke to them.  He really did not give a political talk except to mention he was running.  He spoke about 30 minutes on a review of the Cape Carteret budget.  It was an example of what towns, county, school boards, and everybody else does with budgets.  He had some really good points, one of which was you have to look at at least the last three years of budgets to be able to compare one to the other to make any conclusions about it.  There were two things he focused on during the discussion…one was the boat ramp that was approved several years ago in Cape Carteret.  When it was approved it was going to pay for itself because they were going to charge usage fees.  At the end of the first year the budget showed it was in the hole.  The next year when the budget came out they had changed a few things around in their line items and it made it much more difficult to compare as to whether it was making or losing money.  Although you could do it, you had to dig deep to figure it out.  The third year, they took and combined it with another line item which made it really hard, without sitting down with somebody that really knew what the budget was, and asking a lot of questions.  The point of all this is, we have been seeing that happen over this last year, and it has probably been happening in the past.  Like the school budgets.  It is hard to get information because they keep changing things around.  The other thing was the ILA thing, which is a combination of several towns and their fire departments.  In the discussion on that he discussed how the ILA was paying (it is really complicated because it is tied up in Federal regulations, state regulations).   He told about how fire departments are put together, how they pay for overtime, and it turns out they were getting paid overtime on top of overtime on top of other fees that weren’t really overtime but were extra money.  They came in an asked for a raise at one point and the raise was supposed to be some figure (let’s just say .2% – that was not the number but just for example) and when you dug into it, it turned out to be .4%, approximately twice what they said they were given.  Without really digging into the budget you couldn’t figure that out.  The taxpayers are the ones paying all this money.  It is the taxpayers who are picking up the bill for all this (Mr. Hunt did not use these words, but KEN’s words) fuzzy math/accounting.  We are picking up these same type of bills for the school board with the county as well.  This was the gist of what Richard Hunt talked about and was well received by the TEA Party group.  BOB asked if the attendees to the TEA Party meeting are all from Cape Carteret.  KEN said the biggest majority are, but they did have a couple from Emerald Isle, a gentleman from Bogue, and a man from Hubert who has been associated with the Americans for Prosperity (AFP); but it has died in Onslow County.  KEN said he found out why.  The man said they had ended up backing some candidates and it had split the group.  They were not just recommending, but actually had radio spots supporting certain candidates.  It was like a political action committee.  BOB asked if they were not a 5013C and if so should not have been supporting candidates.  KEN said they had been on Lockwood’s show also.  BOB said the AFP is a top down organization.  KEN said the gentleman (Tom Scurven?) was trying to reconstitute the group and KEN recommended he try setting up a TEA Party group instead; but he was kinda focused on staying with the AFP.  Discussion between BOB and KEN about that organization.  BOB said their mission statement that they had on the web was anti-Muslim.  This has nothing to do with the TEA Party mission which is for Limited Government, Fiscal Responsibility, and Free Markets/Capitalism.  He said this group has been pulled from the list of TEA Party Patriots on the web. BOB said TOM AUSTIN was currently busy finishing up the repairs on the new house he had bought, but had told BOB he was interested in getting a TEA Party group going around Jacksonville as soon as he was able.  Jan Beam, mayor of Jacksonville had mentioned to BOB about wanting to get a group going also. There appears to be a group of people there interested, but it takes a leader to get it going and maintain interest.  KEN reported that their group in Western Carteret would be relocating their meetings to Debbie Rucker’s restaurant (Rucker/Johns) in the near future (from October to April) at which time the tourist season starts again, so KEN will again be looking for a place to meet.  Their next meeting is October 4, 2011 at 7:00 at Rucker Johns in their meeting room.  If you wish to eat prior to the meeting please come early, like at 6:00pm.  If you know of anyone in that part of the county who may be interested, let them know about the meetings.  They have put out a few signs in various businesses in Cape Carteret and Emerald Isle.  BOB asked if KEN had asked for donations from the various businesses.  KEN said all the businesses he had been to were like the ones RUTH PARKER had contacted.  They are strapped for cash.  They like what we are doing but can’t afford to donate right now.

KEN said another thing he wanted to talk to us about was a subject we had discussed last meeting night…education and the budget.  He had read the minutes and noted that BOB had said that he, (KEN), ERIC, and NANCY had been working with the Board of Education trying to get information out of them on their budget.  He (KEN) has also been working with one of the County Commissioners (Robin Comer) who is interested in getting information out of the BoE too, without a whole lot of success.  Over the last two and a half weeks or so, he (KEN) has sent numerous emails to the point of contact for BoE, Tabbie Nance, trying to get information on personnel  The Superintendent claims to have laid off some 90 teachers under this RIF because he did not get enough money from the county and the state to fund all these teachers.  However, in the summary of the BoE meetings which is put on the web site, (called the Communicator) they list all the personnel actions.  They list everything from new hires, rehires, and dismissals by name.  If someone is dismissed they list their name and where they worked.   There is not one name listed for a single teacher or teachers’ aid being RIFed.  There is one in the last four months of a teacher who was rehired.  No where do they list any teacher leaving because of a RIF.  So he has been trying to find out why.  He emailed Tabbie and said “you have all these categories but do not show anybody being RIFed and yet you are saying you RIFed 90 people.  Where are the 90 people you RIFed?  He got something back from her and it was like “well, there was a motion put forth at the board meeting to give the Superintendent the authority to RIF these people and it was passed on the consent agenda”.  So KEN emailed her back and asked what did that mean?  Does it mean you do not have to identify the people who were laid off as a result of not having enough money?  So they are just going round and round.  Everytime he gets a response back he sends it to Robin Comer.  Robin is about ready to pull his hair out because he can’t get any information either.  CLAYTON GILLIKIN said he feels like the only way to ever get this mess with the school board straightened out is to tell them if they want any money, then they (BoE) have to submit a complete, detailed listing of what the money is to be used for and until they submit that, then no money.  There will be no coding and confusing data used.  It must be written so anyone can read and understand exactly what they want and need.  If this requirement is not met, then “Don’t ask us for a dime, cause you are not going to get it.” BOB said the only problem there is, once they get the money, they do not have to spend it on the budgeted items.  They can spend it however they want.  CLAYTON said maybe so, but if they request 14 million dollars and it is presented in a clump of data, then they would not get any money.  It must be listed and justified.  If they continue to play Mickey Mouse then cut their money off until they straighten up.  KEN said he had talked to Robin about that 5 million dollars that was unidentified right up until the last week of the fiscal year for the BoE.  They still do not have it.  KEN has sent several emails requesting that information and has not gotten a response back.  KEN said he told Robin that the County Commissioners should not have approved the BoE’s budget until they got the information they had asked for.  The problem is you have two or three commissioners who are willing to do that, with one commissioner who seems to be in bed with the BoE, and he claims to be getting information from the BoE but does not share with the rest of the County Commissioners.  This same commissioner is reported to be meeting with the C4  Group and meets with them alone, not accompanied by any of the other commissioners.  Maybe we need to invite this commissioner to come in and explain what he is getting from C4.  It is a messy situation and should be cleared up.  How do you get on the agenda before the County Commissioners?  You can go in an speak but are not allowed to ask questions.  There is no interaction with the County Commissioners.  Discussion on who is on the Board of Education and who will possibly run against them.  KEN said he sent emails to almost everyone on the Board of County Commissions on the 5 million dollars and only received answers from three.  Two agreed that they had been trying to get the same information and could not get any answers either.  Greg Harris emailed back a whole list of numbers and said he didn’t know why everyone was so bent out of shape.  This listing should explain what he understands about it.  KEN said he was sorry but he could not make heads or tails from the data Mr. Harris sent him.  It didn’t even add up to 5 million dollars.  He sent the data from Harris to the other commissioners and they all said that was the first time they had every seen those numbers.  Harris has numbers that he got from somewhere (the BoE he would presume) and he had never given them to anyone on the Board of County Commissioners.  That does not make any sense.  DENNIS TOMASO said he had to pay $14.00 for his daughter to take the SAT test (because he home schools her) while those in public school (being paid for by the taxpayers) get to take it for free.  He has asked the Superintendent of Schools but cannot get an answer.  KEN said they discussed the school system at the Western Carteret TEA Party meeting the other night and he had mentioned that a lot of our members are retired, have no children, or their children have graduated and on their own; but everybody here still needs to care about this issue because our tax dollars are still being spent without our say so.  For example an average home today in Carteret County will cost around 200 thousand and the tax on that home will run about $5,000.00 a year.  The family that moves into it probably will have approximately 2 kids in school.  That $5,000 they pay to the county on their home won’t even pay for one kid’s year of education.  (Cost per student averages almost $9,000.00 per year).  So someone else is paying for that other kid plus the difference still remaining on the first; and that someone is us.  So we still have skin in the game.  BOB told KEN he was doing a good job; keep at it.   DENNIS TOMASO said he didn’t understand why, since we had a Republican Board of Commissioners, and a majority of Republican Board of Education (he thought), couldn’t they talk to each other and work things out.  HOWARD said they come from different Republican Parties.  FRED DECKER again reiterated that 3 members of the school board would not be running next time.  CLAYTON said what we need to do is get the three to run again, and then pick a successor who can then run as an incumbent (like the Democrats do) and be a shoo in.  HOWARD said that is something we have been trying to stop and we shouldn’t pick it back up.  We need to get some good conservative candidates to run in the next election.

BOB asked if anyone remembers when Kruchef (?) pulled his shoe off and pounded the table and said ’we will bury you’.  People said there was no way Communism would ever take root in the US and he told them it already had.  Once you begin paying people not to work, and be in line for handouts it already has roots.  BOB says he thinks our trend has been more towards Socialism rather than Communism.  Capitalism is being trod upon today with more and more people with their hands out and the Government more than willing to hand it to them to keep them on the dole.  He said STEVEN BEST has gotten a copy of a movie called AGENDA -Grinding America Down.  It is not just another conspiracy theory.  He said at Rucker John’s, where the Western TEA Party will be meeting, they have a large screen where those who would like to see this (hour and a half) movie could lean back and watch.  STEVEN said it is about how Socialism got started in America, where it is now and where it is going; how the schools are involved in indoctrinating our kids; and how we can stop it.  BOB asked “How do we stop it?” and STEVEN said, one thing, by bringing Christianity back and prayer.  Someone said in that case we may be too late.  They have almost made Christianity a bad work today.  Also we can stop it at the ballot box.  HOWARD said he read a letter to the editor recently about a TEA Party member attending a TEA Party meeting in Boone and over half there were college students.  One of the students stood up and said most of the Professors there were Communists.  The member asked why didn’t the students object.  His reply was ’are you kidding?  They will fail us if we do.’ Our tax money is paying those professors.  KEN said that was why teachers/professors should not have tenure.  STEVEN gave the movie to KEN to show at the next Western TEA Party meeting.  KEN said he would like to watch it before he shows it to the group.

DAVID COX said last week at the meeting we talked about the Atlantic Beach Town Council.  He said he was not at the meeting that the two ladies running for office in Atlantic Beach that spoke to us, so he was not totally sure exactly what they said.  However, he understood they talked about the current board is raising taxes. There has been NO property tax increase in the last two years.  He went to the Ocean 6 meeting last Wednesday night and they were talking about some of the things that they (the two ladies) are trying to do to get themselves elected.  One of the things is they are trying to get people to call and ask the voters to vote for only two people.  DAVID said he has seen no political signs up on Atlantic Beach for them until today when I saw one sign with one of the ladies name on it.  He said all of the political signs up are for those already in office.
He went down last week and ‘early voted’ to see if they were listed on the ballot and they are.  He said if they can get 200 votes, (voting just for 2 candidates) they can unseat someone already on the board.  To him that seems underhanded.  BOB asked what they planned to do about that.  He said they were just asking everyone they see to please vote for their candidates (Ocean 6).  From the response to their polls they have determined those who live on Atlantic Beach want to keep AB small (not another Myrtle Beach).  It was apparent to the residents and property owners that the previous board was more interested in growing into another Myrtle Beach.  The sewer system they wanted was not for the residents of Atlantic Beach but wanted it so they could build hi-rise condos.  JOHN HOPKIN said “That was not totally correct; that they also wanted a sewer system for the restaurants so they did not have to stay hooked up to honey wagons.  The group in there now wants to build a big fancy town hall.  The one they have now works just fine.  There is two sides to everything.”  TOM HARMON said that is what the two ladies said when they were here that they wanted to keep that property for a future sewer site, and not be used for a town hall.  PAM said a lady came to a meeting she had attended and gave a talk on the plans for the town hall and  park.  PAM said it was absolutely beautiful and she thought it would be great to have something so great across the street from her place of business.  She saw the lady later and asked how the project was going and was told they did not receive the funding.  They did not get the grant that they needed to make it happen.  PAM said, so she thinks what she meant was that project is now on a back burner unless they do come up with the money.  DAVID said he didn’t think the whole board was for the town hall to start with.  BOB said it sounds like it is going to be an exciting election on Atlantic Beach.  DAVID said he would be working the polls…and would be wearing his TEA Party shirt.

HOWARD said KEN had sent out an email from the Moore County TEA Party about billboards they are putting up on major highways.  He thinks it behooves us to see if we can’t come up with some money (don’t know how much we are talking) to come up with something.  BOB said he thought it would be about $600 a month.  KEN said “what they are asking for is to get money from as many TEA Party groups in North Carolina as they can to go out and put up these billboards.  The idea he gets right now is they will put these billboards up for a few months before the election.  Maybe a period of 4 months or so.  The pictures they showed on that email were put up before the 2010 election.  HOWARD said he thought at least part of them were on Interstate 95.  KEN said they were planning to meet and propose certain locations, preferably on frequently traveled highways like 95 and 40 and places like that.  KEN had asked them for more information before we could make a decision.  We need to know what will be on the billboard; would there be any mention on the billboard as to who had donated; or would it refer to a website where all those TEA Parties would be listed.  He wants to know what is the message; what are they trying to put out there?  The ones they showed on the email said just simple things like ’Take Back America – Vote in 2010’.  The artistry was really nice.  BOB said we are not talking about us renting a billboard because we do not have that kind of money.  But do we want to contribute some money to the NC organization that wants to put these billboards around the state or do we want to wait, like KEN says, until we get more information. Or would that be a wise use of the small amount of funds we have?  Was put on the back burner until we get more information.  BOB asked KEN that if he got further information to please send it to PEGGY so she can put it in as an addendum to the minutes.

BOB said last night they had their National TEA Party web-a-nar.  Last week was Constitution Week where TEA Parties were encouraged to adopt a school across the country.  It was very successful.  They gave out thousands of the teaching packets to the various schools and teachers.  The TEA Party wants to expand the program next year.  A particular success was the handing out the pocket Constitutions.  Some of the organizations went into the schools and ensured each student received their own copy.  A new TEA Party web site is coming out and is currently being beta tested.  Should be up in a week or two – teapartypatriots.org.  The continuing resolution passed the senate by a vote of  79 to 12 that will fund the government through November. Remember at the end of November the super committee is supposed to come up with budget cuts and if they do not have enough cuts, then there are some automatic cuts that will be triggered.  One of the triggers is something like a 400 billion dollar cut to the Defense Department and if that takes effect it might directly affect Cherry Point.  It has been BOB’s contention all along that the Democrats from the very beginning have wanted to make sure those triggers were pulled so the automatic cuts would take place (half of which would come out of the Department of Defense) gutting our military.  He thinks this has been preplanned.  This talk about Cherry Point closing may very well become a reality.  TOM said especially since they lost those wings.  The Senate hasn’t passed a budget in over 800 days and the thinking is the Democrats don’t want to be on record to the voters on what  they do with the money.  There is a push for the TEA Party to reach out to the Frederick Douglas Conservatives (which is a black group of conservatives).  Their web site is conservativemessenger.org.  BOB asked if there was one of their groups around here?  Willie Montague, who has spoken at some of our rallies, is back in the county and trying to organize a Black Republican Group here.  He has started a church in the area, with a Christian School.  BOB wants to get with Willie and see how he is doing getting organized.  BOB said he has sent invitations to Willie to come out to our meetings, that we would like to see him.  With just having gotten back, trying to get organized, and get his stuff going, it will probably be after Christmas.

EULA wants to know if anyone knows why the government has cut her Widow’s Fund by $35.00 a month.  They said it had something to do with Bush’s taxes ending.  BOB said he retirement check got cut this last time around and they said it was due to taxes.  TOM said they rework the paydays near the end of the year.  You will get a retirement check on the first of December and the 31st but would not get one in January.  Discussion on taxes, social security, medical, etc.

BOB said the TEA Party Patriots is coming up with an Agenda 21 training package.  It has been being discussed for a while now and there is no time line for it’s availability.  They also discussed the Patriot Radio.  They have a broadcast now. You should be able to get on it through the web site.

FRED said the Heritage Foundation has a score card on various subjects, like Obamacare.  Senator Burr got a 77 rating.  Kay Hagan got a 5.  Jim DeMint from South Carolina got a 99.  Representative Lamar Smith from Texas got something going in Congress about when the Obamacare comes before the Supreme Court, he is trying to keep Elaine Kagan from voting because when she was Solicitor General she was the one advising a way to defeat any challenges.  FRED gave Rep. Smith’s phone number 202-225-4236.  Call to encourage him to keep up the fight.

BOB closed the meeting at 7:40pm.
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary

MINUTES OF CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

Meeting held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting called to order at 6:23pm by President BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance was led by LOU KULULINSKI
Invocation by JERE GEURIN

Meeting was delayed pending the conclusion of a special meeting of the Rotary Club due to a mix up in scheduling.

BOB acknowledged that several of our regular members were missing tonight due to the Western Carteret TEA Party meeting in Cape Carteret.

BOB wanted to know if anyone had heard anything from EULA PARKIN since she was absent.  No one had heard anything.  All hoped she was OK.

BOB asked DAVID COX to introduce the lovely lady with him.  DAVID introduced his wife, SHEILA and a lot of ribbing followed.

BOB recognized ANNE LOMBARDI from Cape Carteret.  He said she was checking us out tonight and later would probably check out the Western Carteret TEA Party meetings (or as BOB refers to them ’the Out West TEA Party’.  He warned us to be on our best behavior.  He explained to ANNE that we were all the same group, but since Carteret County was such a long county, we had started another group to meet in the western end of the county and hoped sometime in the near future to get a group going down east.

BOB asked if anyone knew anything about CLAYTON and GRACE GILLIKIN.  They have not been here in a few weeks now.  At least not since the storm.

BOB reported that NANCY BOCK, our Treasurer, who was not with us tonight having gone to her son’s Soccer game in Mount Olive, had emailed him that we have about
$1,280.00 in our account.  She promised all the money is still there, that she hadn’t touched it!!! Even though we have not seen her in quite a few weeks now, he understood she had showed up the night we cancelled the meeting for the storm.

He reported that ERIC BROYLES was absent tonight due to his wife illness.  He understands that she is bed-ridden, something about a bad reaction to a drug she has to take.  ERIC didn’t go into detail.

WAYNE WILLIS is also on the missing list tonight as he is tied up with completing the POP game which is progressing quite nicely now.  The remaining additions are relatively simple now, and with the patriotic music selections, pictures, one liners, speeches, and ease of learning to play, he believes it will be good for all players.  BOB said he thinks it is going to be pretty exciting when that whole board game (which is now on computer, not a ’board game’ anymore).  BOB tried to explain, to those who were not familiar with the game, how it operated.  PEGGY GARNER said WAYNE had told her that he had spoken with a nurse who was interested in adapting the concept into an informational data program for cancer patients and care givers.  It would appear that it could be modified to accept many different subjects.  We all might be saying one of these days – I knew WAYNE when!!!!’

BOB introduced Wayne Schriever, who is with the Carteret Literacy Council.  Wayne said he was familiar with the TEA Party.  He had been at a GOP meeting last Tuesday where he is a member of the board and met some of our members there.  He also had gone with the group of TEA Party members that went to Washington last year.  He explained that he was on the Carteret Literacy Board and like every other program in the state it has been cut back in funding.  Most of the money they raise is through a fund raiser “A Spelling Bee” that they hold in October.  The Literacy Council’s objective is  working with about 60 adults that sometimes can neither read nor write, and sometimes both.  They usually are of American background, not people who come into this country not knowing how to read or write, but are Carteret Countians who either have very little education or in some cases are High School Graduates who never learned.  Wayne is currently working with a 36 year old who has learning problems but  graduated from high school.  He is currently reading at a kindergarten level.  It is unbelievable that there are people like that around today.  But there are a lot and some of them may even be your neighbor.  But they have learned to hide it so well you never suspect they have a problem.  They also have a program at the hospital called ’Books for Babies’.  Every child born in Carteret County gets a book that is easy to read.  They also have a program in Newport where adults go into the schools and read to the very young children.  They do a lot in the county and they are asking for support of this spelling bee.  They sell letters ’ABC’s (alphabet).  They have about 36 organizations in the county that have pledged $100 each for a letter and he thought he would come to the TEA Party and request their support.  He said he had received checks from Republicans and Conservatives but found that the Democrats were tighter with their money.   They talk a good game but do not support as often.  Members of the Literacy group that are Democrats were amazed at the difference in the groups with their donating.  They have a budget of about $20,000, which pays for the books they buy, their Secretary, office fees, printing supplies, copy repairs, etc.  It is a lot to get out of the $20,000.  The Spelling Bee is the 28th of October (Friday before Halloween) at the History Place in down town Morehead City.  He invited us to join them.  It is a dinner and the spelling bee is quite nice and a lot of fun, with contestant teams from East Carteret, West Carteret, Croatan, Wachovia Bank, etc…about 8 teams or so and they have some fun and it’s a great way to raise some money.  Each team has 3 people (all adults and from the schools are teachers).  They have articles in the paper listing the sponsors/supporters, their names are included in the folders they pass out, and your sponsor name is shown beneath your letter.  It is a good way to let Carteret County know who supports this worthy organization and Carteret County.  Often it is the little Mom and Pop businesses that appear to have to struggle to make ends meet that are the ones that make the donations.  BOB  asked if there was a motion on the floor to support this Spelling Bee Fund Raiser by buying the letter “T”.  Motion made and seconded.  BOB asked for discussion.  BOB said he thought this was a good idea, since we had just gone through a big battle over the school budget.  Helping kids, he is all, for but does not want to use just tax payer money to educate the children.  HOWARD said this is for adults except for the Books for Babies.  BOB asked who was the spelling bee champion last year.  Wayne said Croatan has won for the last several years.  HOWARD said he wanted to make a comment on who donates and who doesn’t.  He has read about several studies that showed liberals do not donate to causes as much as conservatives.  The liberals want to give away ‘your money’ but conservatives don’t mind giving what they have earned.  BOB said he had read that the most charitable state in the nation is Mississippi, the poorest state in the union.  BOB asked for a show of hands for buying the letter “T” for $100.00.  It was unanimous.  He asked PEGGY to contact Nancy and have her write a check to Carteret Literacy Council for $100.00 for the letter “T” from the Crystal Coast TEA Party Patriots and mail the check to Wayne Schriever, 106 White Sands Drive, Emerald Isle, NC 28574.  BOB thanked Wayne for attending tonight and for all the good work the Literacy Council was doing for the county.

BOB asked who looked at our Face Book page on a regular basis.  Did anyone have any comments about it?  PEGGY said that we had a lot of people putting stuff in there.  BOB said it really is only about 3 people but Face Book is supposed to be a social networking where people can have ongoing discussions but these folks who are not a part of the Carteret County group have joined on and they are just posting everything they find while cruising the internet and find anything they find interesting they just post it up there.  It doesn’t have anything to do with Carteret County or anything to do the TEA Party’s three principles.  He wrote one fella and said, ’Please cease and decease spamming our Face Book with everything that ‘you’ find interesting.  It is already on the internet, you do not have to tie up the Face Book, unless you have a comment to make on it.’  He has ignored BOB’s request.  That was why he was asking if anyone tried to read all the posts and links involved.  You will run out of time of day if you try.  Other concern is people who are anti TEA Party, anti conservative, or anti anything, could put a link up there that could include a virus when you open the link.  He and Ken are thinking about just banning these people from the Face Book Page.  LOU said don’t you have to unfriend them when you do that.  Didn’t you have to make them Friends prior to their being able to go on our Face Book.  BOB said no it was open to the public.  ERNIE GUTHRIE said he thought we could make it so you had to join in order to log on.  BOB said we may have to go to something like that but we advertise our web page, and he hates to have people go to the web site, and when they click on the Face Book icon have to ask permission to join.  LOU said other Face Book pages are like that.  BOB said that is for personal pages not an organizational page.  ERNIE said you still could have it so they had to join the group to be able to view the information available.  We need more information on Face Book joining.
ERNIE said he had seen a blog on Havelock placing a ban on carrying a weapon onto their park areas.  LOU said “They only have one park in Havelock, right?  Answer was no there are three, the small one near the plane, the bigger one where they have the circus and then there is a big one with tennis courts on Hwy 101.

BOB asked HOWARD to tell us about the event he went to last week.  HOWARD said “Last Friday night he and PEGGY, HARRY THOMPSON and his wife, Sarah, and JERE along with a large crowd, attended the Craven-Pamlico Christian Coalition 18th Annual ‘God and Country Banquet’.  It was exceptionally informative.  BOB asked if it was well attended.  HOWARD said the room (convention center) was packed.  HOWARD read their Mission Statement since he felt it pretty much paralleled ours:  1. To inform and educate the public on issues of moral and political concern.  2.  To restore to all levels of government the Judeo-Christian values upon which this nation was founded and 3.  To encourage and activate pro-family voters.  He said the speaker was LTG (Ret) William ’Jerry’ Boykin.  He graduated from New Bern High School in 1966.  He made a speech on God and Country and it was truly outstanding.  He also has a web site ’kingdomwarrior.net, but PEGGY has not had time to check it out yet.  Invocation was given by Justice Paul Newby, NC Supreme Court, and benediction was given by Representative Norman Sanderson.  Frank Palombo, candidate for congress 2012 was recognized; as was  Jean Preston.  BOB asked wasn’t Sanderson an ordained minister?
Reply was yes.  HOWARD said this retired general got to a point in his talk and said ’now I’ve gone to preaching and mentioned that he was an ordained minister.  He travels constantly.  HOWARD wants to go to his web site and find our more about him.   The general did say his wife was a member of the TEA Party and had a TEA Party license plate (TEA Partier).  HOWARD said he would recommend that if you get the chance to go next year (it is an annual affair) you need to try to make it.  PEGGY said the food was outstanding also.  BOB asked what was it…BBQ?  She said no, it was turkey and dressing , gravy, mashed potatoes, beans, corn, tossed salad, and fabulous deserts.  Tickets were $15.00 per person.  BOB asked HOWARD to put it on his calendar so he could remind the group so they can get tickets next year.  HOWARD said he didn’t know right now when it would be but would try to find out in time next year.  They sell tickets in advance and there were no seats left untaken.

BOB asked if Walter Jones was there and HOWARD said no.  BOB said that reminded him of an event that occurred after the hurricane this year.  The storm hit Friday night/Saturday morning and he called Palombo Sunday morning just to see what he was doing.  Palumbo was in Minnesott.  BOB asked what he was doing there and Palombo said he was checking to find out what kind of emergency response they were getting from the government.  He was checking with FEMA, Red Cross folks, and others.  He said the following day he was going to Pamlico.  He said the people down there really got wiped out.  He said the people there were alright but they didn’t know who was going to pick up the debris they were placing along the road side.  They had no trouble cutting it up, but had no way to dispose of it.  BOB checked Walter Jones site, thinking he would be all over the 3rd District since it had taken pretty much the brunt of the storm when it came inland, and found Jones had boarded a Coast Guard Helicopter and did a fly over.  The next day he co-signed a letter with both of our Senators urging Obama to expedite the emergency declaration of disaster for NC.  BOB was upset that Jones had not bothered to even land and talk with or reassure some of the survivors of the disastrous storm.  BOB thought it was commendable that Palombo, who lives in New Bern, drove all the way to Minnesott and Pamlico County.  Doing a fly over is not as effective as meeting and talking to a person who has a tree laying on top of his house.

BOB said he understood that CURTIS WILLIAMS is a fan of the new Glenn Beck television show.  Did he want to tell us about it.  “GBTV”  He paid for a whole year, rather than mess around with payments every month.  It comes on at 5:00 pm each day of the week and runs for two hours.  It has been pretty good, except for a few glitches at the beginning (maybe because of his stupidity, not knowing what was going on until he figured it out.)   The show is pretty much a steady stream (occasionally it will have to hesitate and let it catch up).  For the most part there are very few interruptions.  He was kinda worried because it was going to be a two hour show (and when Glenn had a one hour show CURTIS was always concerned about the world coming to an end).  But this is not that intense.  He has a history lesson, guests that come on, Blaze does a news segment – 2 or 3 times during the show.  His favorite is the history part.  Friday he had a segment with David Barton on the Declaration of Independence,  how it related to the Constitution and Federalists Papers. They were talking about how ‘they’ are trying to discredit the  Declaration of Independence.  Once ‘they’ get that out of the way, then ‘they’ can work on the Constitution.  It is real interesting and he had enjoyed it but you have to have two hours to put into it.  BOB asked what did he mean about the Constitution going together with the Declaration of Independence.  CURTIS said they were talking about where our founders based their laws on Judeo-Christian values and the bible and that is how a lot of our laws came about.  In the Declaration of Independence they talk about the creator two or three times, so if anybody was trying to say we were not a Christian nation, they need to go back and read it.  HOWARD said that is something that General said in his speech the other night that Europe is gone but we still have time to save our country.  But if we don’t do something we are down the drain too.   JERE said if anyone was interested in David Barton to go on line to wall builders.com.  You can buy CDs, books, all kinds of stuff there, about the founding of this nation.  You mentioned that the Bible was one of the documents that was used by the founders; it was used more than 3,000 times, more than 10 times any other document.  So anybody that doesn’t think this nation was founded on Christian values they need to go back and read history.
LOU asked if anyone went on line to the Hillsdale Constitution class.  Except for one professor it was excellent.  The one that did the Federalist Papers was about as boring as you can get, but the rest was excellent.  On the web site now, they have all the sessions on DVD, links available to check it out and it is all free.  Plus you can sign up for Imprimis newsletter.
BOB asked was anyone getting excited about the upcoming Republican  candidates and the debates.  FRED said he was waiting to see who else was coming in.  ERNIE said Ron Paul had won the straw poll in California.  HOWARD said Ron Paul was speaking at Walter Jones fund raiser at the Country Club in Greenville.  Tickets start at $125.00.  BOB said Jones endorsed Ron Paul last time he ran and is going to do so again this time.
HOWARD read an email he received about the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools claiming they are up the creek financially to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, in a bid to get the county to raise taxes and fork the loot over to them.  Then when they get the money – or not – they later conveniently discover they were never actually broke to begin with.  This is not the first year they have done this.  It appears that this is routine for many of the school districts in the state. The Gilford School System hid $10 million. (HOWARD read where Gilford County only funds their schools $7,000 per student where Carteret funds theirs at $9,000. $8800 he believes)  The schools  are desperate, everything is going to fall apart, gonna have to fire teachers, and sacrifice special education programs, etc.,… and ’wow, guess what we find out…. they found enough money to keep both the programs and teachers they were going to lose.  Sound familiar – happened in Carteret also.  BOB said his neighbor across the street put up a For Sale sign in front of their house.  When he asked about it he was told that she had lost her job as a teacher.  Later the sign came down and when he asked again, she said she had been rehired.  HOWARD said a lot of that happened.  BOB said when they talk about how many employees the schools are losing, he found out many of them are let go every year anyway due to being temporary employees whose jobs run out at the end of every year.  They are later rehired at the beginning of the next school year.  They are just playing word and numbers games.
ERIC and KEN have been boning up on the school issues, with a lot of emails between, school board, superintendent, money people (budget guy for the school system).  He feels by the time this comes around next time, we are really going to be prepared.  He understands that C4 is still functioning and working on increasing their funding.  HOWARD said he understands they have even joined the Chamber of Commerce.  Question was raised why the School Board did not have to undergo and audit every year like businesses do.  BOB said they are currently undergoing two audits right now.  (Someone said yeah, probably auditing themselves).  BOB said he understands that the company Joy Bell sold out to (McGladrey and Pullen) is doing one of the audits, and the state, he thought, was doing the other audit.  HOWARD said McGladrey and Pullen was doing most of the audits of the Fire and EMS Departments in this county and the commission, that he serves on, gets a report from them.  Their audit report is nothing but a CYA thing.  It is useless, in his opinion and he has seen a bunch of them, and they get big money for it.  It is disgusting.  BOB said what do you suggest we do.  HOWARD said he didn’t know the answer.  They are careful what they point out because they want to get the contract again next year.  If they stir up too much they won’t get it again.  Question – Why don’t they put the audits out for bids?  Don’t know how the system works.  ERNIE said maybe we need to go out the county to find someone to audit.  HOWARD said McGladry and Pullen was a national corporation, he was pretty sure.  ERNIE said maybe an auditing firm that was not in this area.  BOB said we probably would if we were in charge but we’re not.  FRED said this is another reason why we need to find someone to run for the school board.  HOWARD said KEN and ERIC and some of the County Commissioners are having an extremely hard time getting the facts.
PEGGY said “On Nancy’s email, she stated she was out of medium and 2XL short sleeve tees and wanted to know if she should order some“.  Since we are talking about changing our emblem, PEGGY recommended that we not order anymore and let our supply run out until we decide what organization we plan to sponsor.  BOB said he concurred with that plus he didn’t think we should be ordering short sleeve shirts right now anyway.  PEGGY asked about  the lady that came in last week to order a TEA Party shirt…didn’t she leave the money for one?  BOB said Diane is in charge of that and hopefully she will contact Nancy, since Diane was the one that got the money.  DENNIS TOMASO said the Hope for Warriors had the same emblem and we had been considering that as one of our charities.  (Discussed Andrew, our Wounded Warrior, who went to Washington).
JERE wanted to remind everyone that the One Man/One Woman Marriage amendment has finally come out of committee and instead of getting on the November ballot, it will not get voted on until the May primary.  That thing has been languishing in the General Assembly going on like 7 or 8 years.  About 3 or 4 years ago he wrote a letter to every member of the general assembly and the governor.  He got 3 replies.  One from Mark Basnight who said we already have a general statute so we don’t need an amendment and he promptly shuffled it off to another committee, the Ways and Means Committee which had not met in 3 years.  He got another letter from Fred Smith, who ran for governor from Johnston County a few years ago,  a real nice letter saying he agreed with every thing JERE had said but unfortunately Mark Basnight has control of both houses and he does what he wants.  The 3rd letter was from a lady representative, who just scribbled on his letter “I agree with this but there is nothing we can do.”  This is our chance, so figure out how you are going to support this.  It is important, because right now only a general statute keeps one man from marrying another man, or one man from marrying his dog, or his horse or his cat.  This is important, because any liberal judge who sits on a law suit that concerns this statute can overturn the statute, but he can’t overturn part of the Constitution.  HOWARD said it is going to be fought hard too.  JERE said yes, and the Democrats have already caused it to be moved from November to May, because they are afraid that on the November ballot it would pull more Republicans out of their houses to go vote on it.  Normally not as many people vote in May as in November.  BOB said isn’t it today that the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell ends.  So now anything goes!  BOB said he was listening to Lockwood on the way to the meeting and a Marine from Jacksonville, said something to the effect that the Military Justice was going to take all the laws about sodomy off the books, which BOB disagrees with since it is illegal to sodomize anyone.  While there may not be a ban against homosexuality, if you are admittedly a homosexual, but if you are, say the barracks officer  going around doing room inspection and you open a door and there is one Marine sodomizing another …sodomy is still sodomy.  You can get prosecuted for sodomizing your wife.  If they are planning to remove any legal opposition to sodomy in Military Laws, he thinks other laws will override the military. ERIC said he thinks we should call every church in this county and tell them what is going and get them to stand up for what is right.  FRED said they already know.  The southern Baptist Assoc. has put out the word to their congregation.  HOWARD said he hated to tell everyone but we have some gay preachers right here in this county but he wouldn‘t name any names.

BOB said in November we have local elections going on.  In the 2010 election we had people sitting at the polls, passing out TEA Party recommendations.  He would like for us to do that again this November, but time is running short.  We have had a couple of them come and talk to us ….Jerry Jones and David Horton, running for mayor of MC.  A lot of people are upset over the sulfur plant occurrence under Jones’ watch.   Who is running for City Council?  We don’t know because they have not come and talked to us.  Down at Cape Carteret we had Dave Fowler, candidate for mayor of CC, and Renna (?) who is running for Town Board, come and talk to the newly formed TEA Party group.  BOB said he was impressed with both Fowler and Renna and would like to see the TEA Party support them.  Richard Hunt has done an excellent job in looking into the EMS.  BOB said they had spent a lot of money on building a crematorium for burning road kill, when there was one already available in the county.  ERNIE spoke on Dave Fowler having run unsuccessfully in the past and it would be a long shot if he won this time.  ANNE (who had been a board member) said she had been impressed with Mr. Fowler in conjunction with the park there and how hard he had worked to get a bond approved, but was unsuccessful.  But she appreciated what he had tried to do.  BOB said Dave struck him as an honest, straight shooter.  HOWARD said he was impressed when Mr. Fowler spoke to us that night in Cape Carteret; although he had worked for his opposition a few years back; there was no hard feelings.

BOB called on DAVID COX to talk to us about the Atlantic Beach races.  The two ladies that had attended our last meeting had given us their side, so he understood that David had another side to tell…that one of them had gotten voted out of office last time.  He said Ruth had gotten voted out the time before and had run again this last time, but did not get the votes needed.  She is a real estate person.  She was a member of the council and mayor that his (DAVID’s) group got together and voted out.  The reason they did that was because, in his opinion, the old town board was looking out for the new town board which was made up of realtors,  His thought was, that they thought whatever was  good for them was good for Atlantic Beach.  They wanted to put in an expensive sewer treatment plant so that they could build high rise condos.  A group of regular people got together and ran against them and won.  BOB asked who was in there now?  DAVID said the group he had backed.  BOB asked if they were happy with that group and why?  DAVID said ‘they listen to the people’.  They send out surveys, they listen to the people (property owners) and the residents.  DAVID said they had a meeting coming up to discuss the upcoming election.  DAVID said he had never been involved in politics until recently.  He had moved down here to the beach about 10 years ago and he started going to the meetings since he only lived about two blocks away.  It didn’t take him long to see  the folks that were in office; when home owners and residents would stand up and  try to voice their opinions, were ignored.  It was obvious that they were disrespected by the “ins”.  They would say ‘you don’t have anything to do with this.  We’re the town board and mayor and we know what we need to do’.  DAVID said that is why he got involved in politics at AB.  BOB asked who was mayor of AB now and DAVID said Cooper.  BOB wanted to know if anyone was running against him and DAVID said not that he knew of.   They had Miller who is running for the vacant seat.  They only have one vacant seat but they vote in all the commissioners and the mayor at each election.  The important issue is ..there is a piece of property that they want to build a new town hall on.  The other group wants to put the sewer plant there because there is no sewer on AB.  He was still curious how they managed to build condos and apartments in some areas which were nothing but swamps.  When you realize there are only 1200 residents on Atlantic Beach, year around, the influx of people are only there during vacation season.  They have had water checks done and some of the water there on our beaches is the cleanest in NC.  So the sewer system is working except for the restaurants on the causeway, which are more or less hooked up to Honey Wagons.  HOWARD said that area was pumped in marsh so he didn’t see how they could possibly operate without the wagons.  When the wagons are full, it is carried to Newport.  It is not handled by the town of Newport, but by the farmers who use it to spray on their fields.

BOB informed us it was almost 7:30 and if there were no other items to discuss he was going to adjourned the meeting.

ERNIE said he had read where the man that originated the TSA is now calling for it to be disbanded.  He thinks we are the laughing stock of the rest of the world.  But who are they.  Europe is falling apart anyway.

BOB adjourned the meeting at 7:33pm.
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary

MINUTES OF CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
13 SEPTEMBER 2011

Meeting was held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm by President BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance was led by DIANE LANG
Invocation by HARRY THOMPSON
No in Attendance – 26

BOB asked our new comers to please identify and give a brief account of where they are from:  Jeff Crane, from Havelock; Curtis Williams, from Newport.  FRED DECKER introduced the two ladies with him: Conservative Republicans – Ruth Barnes and Jane Cameron, who are candidates for town council of Atlantic Beach.  Fred is trying to set up a phone committee to campaign for the two ladies.  Would appreciate any help he can get.
Ms. Barnes spoke on why she is running:  TAXES!!  The current board keeps raising taxes and apparently they have plenty of money already because now they are planning to build a big “Taj Mahal” town hall.  She feels that if they have enough money to build this hall, then they should build a smaller building and lower taxes. The group currently in power is considered the Ocean 6, and are mostly Democrats.  (There are a couple of Republican also) and they are running Atlantic Beach in the ground.  HOWARD GARNER asked “If someone who doesn’t live at Atlantic Beach starts making phone calls in your behalf, is that going to create a problem or back fire?”  Ms. Barnes said Fred had a little blurp he had written up and you just give your name and not where you are from. Fred read the info he had written up.  ‘My name is _____ and I am calling about the upcoming election for Atlantic Beach town council and we are concerned about property taxes.  I would like to ask you to vote for conservatives Ruth Barnes and Jane Cameron, who are committed to keeping your taxes down.  Thank you.”  Ms. Barnes was asked if they had a web site.  She said no, but they probably should since Ocean 6 has one.  They do have email addresses: rbarnes@starfishnet.com and janecameron@starfishnet.com.  They left several of their cards with us.  Ms. Cameron then spoke.  She said she had lived at Atlantic Beach for about 20 years and while she is new to running for office, she has worked in Ms. Barnes campaigns in the past, sort of her campaign chairman and committee.  She said her burning issues are the taxes and sewer….taxes mainly.  She was asked what was wrong with the sewer?  Her response was ’There is none!!!’  As Ms. Barnes had explained the current board wants to build a big town hall and they want to put it on the property that was bought for a sewer system.  She would like to see that property kept for the purpose it was originally intended – sewer system, which as she explained was set up for that purpose by the town council several years ago, and they were mostly Republicans.  The property being discussed is where the old Food Lion originally was located.   WAYNE WILLIS said he remembers when a lot of issues on sewer at Atlantic Beach were popping up.  The restaurants still have to have their systems pumped, in other words they are using a ’honey wagon’ for a septic tank.  It has been like that since they built the bridge.  Ms. Cameron said she did not want the property to be used for something else and then when the opportunity to have a sewer system arises, they will not be able to say ’well, we can’t do it, because we don’t have anywhere to put it.’  BOB thanked them for coming by and talking to us and wished them well in their upcoming campaign.
BOB said he understood where they were coming from.  So often it happens that tax monies are appropriated for a certain item and then they are used for something else.  Comment was made ’like the schools’.   Original intent was for a sewer system and now a town hall, instead.  This happens too often.
BOB then called on Jeff Crane for a few words about voting Republican.  He currently lives in Havelock and moved down here from Cherokee, NC – came to his senses and moved to the beach.  He is from the south – he grew up in southern Connecticut.  He was a training instructor in the Coast Guard for four years back in the 70’s and in the 80’s he was in the Army Infantry.  He was stationed at Fort Myer, in Arlington, Va.  He was on the presidential honor guard when President Reagan was in office.  He just came tonight to more or less be a cheer leader.  This morning Ben Ball was on the radio and the science question was ‘how do you decrease velocity?’ and he called up and told him “Vote Republican”.  This country is moving so fast that we can’t even read the bills that we are creating.  I’m here to tell you, don’t rely just on your vote.  Talk to these kids, talk to your kids’ kids, your friends, your kids’ friends.  Encourage them to vote Republican.  Tie them up; do something; inform them; make them realize what is happening in our country.  You know what is happening – inform them.  Spread the word to these kids.  It was the kids that voted for Barrack Obama.  Once when he was in Bangor Maine, seven thousand people lined up outside to see Obama; all kids…young people.  They were going to change the United States.  Now they need to change the change.  We want to get this country back to where it was before Obama.  He went on to say ‘About 10 years ago he met his birth mother.  She lived in Blue Hill Maine when he was born.  The Kennedy’s frequented there.  He never has met his Dad.  That was as much as he was going to say about that, but he met his mother and she related that her mother’s name was Adams so he is related to John Quincy and Samuel Adams….and his blood boils when he thinks of how this country has become the melting pot which has become the sewer of the world.  We are better than that.  He applauds these ladies who just spoke to us, and applauds or commends us for just being here and being concerned about our country.  We need to multiply.  He would like to see a room the size of this building full of TEA Party members in this county.  Get the word out.  Thank you.
BOB then called on EULA PARKIN to speak.  EULA asked us ‘what can you do with just one dollar?’  (She had asked anyone interested in buying a book she had a copy of to please sign up.  If she got 25 names, then she could get the books for $1.00 each in lieu of $3.00.)  She asked us if we remembered the shootings over in Europe, where a man had blown up a building and then went to an island and shot a lot of people?  The government had tried to blame Robert Spencer, author of Islamifobia , the book she is talking about us ordering) for stirring up the murderer and the government wanted to try him (the author) in court.  His name had appeared in several pages of this murderer 1500 page manifesto that the murderer had written.  Two days after the incident, the New York Times ran a headline linking the murders to Robert Spencer.  She had felt sorry for the author and sent him a donation to help with his costs to defend his name.  He sent her a copy of his book in appreciation.  She read several short passages from the book (thought crimes, totalitarian state, more than 17,000 terrorists attacks by Islamic Jhadist since September 11, 2000, etc,- but no terrorist attacks against Muslims, at least not by non-Muslims) and told us we would find the small book most interesting and encouraged us to sign up for a copy.  BOB said he thought there were enough funds in the TEA Party account to purchase 25 copies of this book.  Asked if anyone was opposed to that idea.  There was none, so EULA was requested to order 25 copies and the TEA Party would reimburse her.
BOB then introduced HARRY THOMPSON to speak.  HARRY said a couple of weeks ago KEN LANG asked him about again contacting the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh and maybe having another or a follow up to the Constitutional Workshop we had last January.  We had very good turnout.   Seems like 80 something people showed up for that session.  He has received a response from Dr. Kempler who suggested having the second part of this workshop, since we had the first, last January.  He read a portion of Dr. Kempler’s letter on what the second part is about.  ’Workshop number 2.  In a continuous effort to understand how the founding era relates to our current Constitutional crisis, we offer this new workshop  which  focuses on what is arguably the most important facts of the founding era.  The Federalists supported and the Anti-Federalists opposed the application of the Constitution in Philadelphia in 1787.  The arguments about the federal principals of our Constitutional Government still speak to us 224 years later.  Understanding this debate among some of most famous founders enables us to clarify our present predicament.  Even though they engaged in a vigorous and sometimes bitter debate over the meaning of the Constitution, both sides would be horrified with how the Constitution has been twisted and distorted by the present ideology.  Liberal court justices and Presidents and congressmen, all want to expand government to assure their immediate re-election.”  This is sort of what the workshop will be based on and he just wanted to bring it up to you all here to find out if we want to go in as a partner with the John Locke Foundation to get this workshop presented again this coming year.  Dr. Kempler suggested that January, as last year, would be a good time to hold the session again to kick things off for the coming year.  Several attendees thought this would be a great idea.  One asked where it was held last year…Community College, Joslyn Hall.
HARRY thought it would be a good place to hold it again.  Asked how long the session ran.  HARRY said he thought it started about 9 or 10:00 in the morning and ran until about 3 in the afternoon, with a break for lunch.  Last year the price was like $10.00 maybe or maybe it was $5.00 since we did not include a lunch, he is not positive.  A meal would have to be catered and so he is sure we did not do that last year; so he’s pretty sure it was only $5.00 last year.  KEN LANG said he understood we want HARRY to go ahead and set this up?  BOB said yes.  KEN said he thought January was a good time last year, it’s around the bottom of all the holidays, etc. and he thought the time worked good.
FRED said for all the retired military keep your eyes on the television November 23 and you will find out what is going to happen to your benefits.  Another thing; Walter Jones is holding a fund raiser in Greenville.  He is going to endorse Ron Paul, who will be his guest.  BOB said Jones backed Ron Paul last election.
LOU KUKULINSKI asked how many had signed up for the Hillsdale Constitutional College?  This is coming up pretty quickly.  Go online to get the information. It is free.  Even if you miss a class they have reviews on the web site, so it doesn’t make any difference.  KEN said he thought it was too late for this year, but they are offering that series of seminars on the Constitution for free and we should get NANCY BOCK to look into it and see if they can’t get the high schools to pick that up because it will not cost them anything.  That was one of the things the school officials said, that they did not have the money to buy all the materials for stuff like that.  The schools have taken a lot of pride in all their teleconferencing and telecommuting and all this other tele-stuff they are doing at the high schools now, so this fits right into their modern day upgrade program for teaching kids.  We should look into this.
BOB recognized WAYNE WILLIS.  WAYNE said he had just gotten the first request for donations from Hillsdale for the Imprimis newsletter and he had been getting that newsletter for 25 years.  Somebody put his name on that list and you get it free, so he was surprised to get a request for money for some kind of  Chairman’s fund.  It is an excellent newsletter and if anyone who is not already receiving it, let him know and he will get you a form for requesting it.  It has Ronald Reagan’s speeches, Rush Limbaugh’s talks, stuff like that. PAT  NALITZ said most of the speeches printed are from talks given at colleges and universities.  They are that good.  WAYNE said the other update was, (BOB said yeah, I see the CD),  Wayne – yeah, I’ve got a CD but that is not what you think it is.  That is to try to fix my computer, which has crashed.  The guy who was helping him with his project brought it to him so he could open the virus/bug chaser programs already installed in his computer that he can not open.  The project now has 50 pictures in the software and you can play the game.  He has played it on his computer.  If you get 10 correct answers out of the 100 in that category, you get 10 points.  If you get 10 wrong answers, it takes 10 points away.  If you get 100 then you win.  There is a picture, that we are putting in there, that every time a subject comes up that you have to pick one of the 4 about that subject it will have 100 questions.  They were sent to him and there was so much information sent, it locked up his computer.  He said he did not have enough RAM.  He hopes that in the next few weeks we will have it ready.  He is sending it off to the patent lawyer to make sure that he won’t get into trouble with Theresa Earnhart, by having a picture of Dale or something like that.
BOB called for Open Floor.  TOM HARMON said he was watching the President today and he was telling everybody to call your congressmen to pass his jobs bill.  So TOM thought that was a good idea about calling his congressman; so he called Jones and told him, ‘don’t you dare pass that bill unless you have read it and it is going to help the people in NC‘.  These jobs he is talking about better be for more that just the union members.  It is all crazy.  In California they are going to pass a law that any pond or lake has to be environmentally checked and could cost those people who own those ponds or lakes 100 thousand dollars at least.  They are checking the fish to make sure aren’t eating the golden legged frogs/worms, whatever the h–l they are talking about.  They are going to put people out of business.  You know, if it passes in California, then lookout.
SUSAN RYNAS said she was surprised that we had not gotten more negative information on Eric Holder.  He is a good one to be gotten rid of.  She doesn’t care if you think he didn’t know what was going on with he Fast & Furious, in his position, he should have and regardless of whether he knew or not, he still should be out of there.  He should no longer be director of that office.  That is not the first thing he did.  Remember the Black Panthers who threatened the white people at the polls and would not let them in to vote?  He will not enforce the laws or have any charges against black on white.   Also he was the one that wanted to have the terrorists tried in New York City.  KEN said the good thing about that was with the Fast & Furious, it seems like about every week or week and a half, something new comes out of the woodwork.  Otherwise they would be sweeping it under the carpet.  It seems like things just keep coming out and keeping it alive.  He thinks the only reason that Holter has not been let go already is most of the major networks are not covering it.  It is covered on FOX, on talk radio, and conservative places like that.  Darryl Issa’s doing all he can to get information out about it.  If the major news networks picked it up, he would be out of there.  Information would come out even faster.  TOM H said ABC picked up on it.  PAT said their reporter was the one that broke it.
WAYNE said he had two more things that had popped up.  The comment on the Jobs bill; that is a lie, just like everything else Obama has put a name on, that he has been trying to do since 08.  It is not a Job bill; it’s a Tax increase.  From all he has read about it, that is all that is in there – tax increases.   The other thing is, has anyone here gotten an update on the Williston Basin which he has mentioned in this room before and either no one paid any attention or cared.  What he had said before was that there was a reserve of natural reserves of oil in the basin which is a large area in Northwest USA, with part of it in Canada.  At the time he found out about it, 5 or 6 years ago, it was known then that there was something like 5 times more oil there than ever was in Saudi Arabia and now the most recent report says that there is like 33 times more and if this crowd of Communist sympathizers don’t get run out of Washington, DC, we are going to be permanently dependent on the middle east.  To get a gallon of gas to get over here to a meeting we will be paying 12 or 15 dollars a gallon.  He had met a woman while he was on a business trip with Carteret Craven Electric (when he was on that board), who owned a trucking company, and asked her how much oil was there in that basin, and she told him there was no end to it.  They are using that frog or worm or whatever to shake down and stop the pipeline.  They are trying to starve Capitalism out of existence.
BOB recognized SCOTT CARPENTER.  SCOTT wanted to know if anyone had heard who it was thought won the debate last night or did BOB get any feedback from the web discussion he usually was on.  BOB said they did not have a weekly web-a-nar this Monday, due to the debate.  He thought they may have a meeting tonight but he would not be able to make it.  We usually talk about debates; who won, who got better points; etc., but pretty much leave it up to each individual.  They do not want to be in a top down position of telling the various TEA Parties who won and who lost.  PEGGY GARNER said she was very impressed with Wolf Blitzer last night.  She felt he was a much fairer moderator than the previous debate’s moderators.  All agreed.  More than half in attendance watched the debate.  When BOB asked ‘Who Won’?  Several gave their opinions.  One said they felt they all won.   The way they were batting each other around, they basically were singing to the choir, they should be going after Obama, rather that each other.  Another said they like the way Michelle defended herself against Mr. Perry. Even though it may have been a petty issue, she still took issue about cronyism.  HARRY said he had read today that according to ‘red state’, Perry had actually come out the winner.  He got beat up a lot, but he sort of held his own.  LOU said the Drudge Report said the same thing.  BOB said he heard on the radio that the one that really made out was Mitt Romney because he managed to get through another debate without anyone really going after him.  It was all ‘let’s get Perry now’.  LOU said that Newt Gingrich really came up with some great one liners.  All agreed.  BOB asked if anyone thought Michelle Bachman won the day.  PEGGY said she didn’t win but she came up in the ratings due to her performance.  Others said she had made a better showing this time.  BOB asked about Herman Cain.  Most felt Cain had done exceptionally good also.  KEN said the only problem was they did not direct that many questions to him.  STEVE BEST (I think) said they never do.  KEN said he thought Ron Paul was like he usually is, he did real good on some questions and other ones he shot himself in the foot.  He got booed several times.  TOM H said on the economy Paul makes sense, but when he gets on foreign policy, and the military, he loses it, by saying we should ignore Iran and countries like that.  LOU said Rush said today that to continue the debates we should throw out the two Democrats, Ron Paul and Huntsman.  KEN said he thought Huntsman made a fool out of himself last night.  HARRY said he was really surprised at how well someone from CNN conducted the debate.  That was the best one of the three so far.  He thought the reason for it was the format of using the TEA Party for questions.  Wolf did a real good job keeping everything moving along.  KEN said he thought there were some good questions asked.  WAYNE said it looked to him that they all jumped on Perry because he is currently in the top slot and Wayne’s criticism was instead of jumping on each other, they should have all gone after Obama.  BOB said yes, but this was a primary debate.
HOWARD said he had a couple more questions on the Williston Basin.  The main stream media has pretty much ignored it, but last week, he thinks it may have been FOX,  one of the networks did bring up about the Williston Basin.  He thinks that TOM AUSTIN said in here a few weeks ago that he had been out there and he knew that oil was there.  WAYNE said if they would turn that Williston Basin loose and let them drill like they want to then oil would go back to a few dollars a barrel again.  Someone wanted to know if that was liquid oil or sand oil.  WAYNE said both.  BOB said there was an oil sand company (couldn’t remember name of it ) but China had just bought them out.  The company was like about 2 billion dollars in debt.  He thinks it was an American Company operating in Canada that got bought out by China.
LOU said what is even more scarier than that is Obama’s administration is putting out 100 new restrictions on this country every day. The way it is going now, we may not make it 14 more months.  We gotta do something quick.  WAYNE says the biggest problem we have is that Obama crowd.  By 2014 we won’t be a to get an aspirin at CVS.  BOB asked if anyone knew how the New York elections went or are going (for Weiner’s seat).  Voting is supposed to be over tonight at 9:00 pm.  Last he heard was the Republican had a 6 point lead.  It has been almost 90 years since a Republican has held that seat.  There was another election in Nevada today also, but it appears that the Republican will take that seat with no problem since that district is Republican.
BOB said he was going to have to leave and join his compadres, who had already vacated the premises, for a Republican meeting.  We will meet again next Tuesday and  hopefully will have some candidates running for office with us again.
SCOTT asked if we could talk real quick on what happened down in Cape Carteret last week.  PAT said they had 27 attendees at the meeting, so it was a nice turnout.  They had a lot of folks that had never been there before.  SCOTT wanted to know where they were holding their meetings.  Explained it was the Community Center and described how to get there.  PAT said what KEN had had everyone do is introduce themselves and give a brief discussion of who they are and what they do.  It was really interesting because they got to know the people there, who they were, where they were from and a little something about what they do and/or are thinking and concerned about.  It was very informative.  BOB said he understood that the meeting might be moving over to Debbie Rucker’s Restaurant, (Rucker John’s) in the near future.  Debbie said she had a back room they could use during the off season.  They don’t know exactly when that is going to happen.  BOB said he didn’t think she could put more than 30 people in there.  He guesses they might be able to spill over on the deck.
PEGGY (jokingly) said the Western TEA Party did not have a Secretary and they had invited her down.  BOB said “What?”  Others said that needed voting on and another said ‘abandon ship’.  BOB said they could get a recorder that had voice recognition and then type on the computer what was said.  PEGGY said she had a recorder but couldn’t afford those attachments/software.  She works for a ‘cheap’ company, but really has no complaints yet.
BOB adjourned the meeting at 6:50pm.
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary.

CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
MINUTES OF 6 SEPTEMBER 2011

Meeting was held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm by President BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance led by WAYNE WILLIS
Invocation by EULA PARKIN

Discussion on the vicious attack by the union’s leader, (Jimmy Hoffa, Jr.), especially after Gifford’s shooting and Obama asking for the toning down of the terminology and comments we use…and then he (Obama) gets up to speak directly after Hoffa and doesn’t say a word on Hoffa’s attack on the TEA Party.  Opinion was “It was disgraceful.”  HOWARD GARNER said Obama’s policy was “Do as I say, not as I do!”  BOB said this is right on top of the Black Caucus, with Maxine Waters telling us to go to H–l, (the black woman in the red hat) saying ‘all our problems are caused by the TEA Party‘, the Vice President calling us Terrorists, etc. The Black Caucus members showed up on every TV talk show, radio, newspaper, magazine, etc with their virulent comments,.  BOB said if we stop and think about it “the Nazi’s used the Jews as a scapegoat.  It is not us – it‘s them!  And he sees a real similarity.  It‘s not the liberals creating the problem, it‘s the TEA Party.  He thinks we should just ignore that stuff.  Don‘t even try to respond to it because you will just engage them in more of the same.  He thinks the American people are smart enough to see through it.  That if we make it an issue, it will just backfire on us.  WAYNE said one of the things good about being called a terrorist is that it is recognition by the left that the TEA Party is a viable force that they have to deal with and instead of hurting us, it causes people to pay attention.  If they stop and think they know all this garbage is lies since there is no evidence of anything remotely resembling the TEA Party being a terrorist…or a racist.  TOM said he heard on TV a guy say ’you know the TEA Party is racist, because you hear them say racists remarks all the time and the moderator asked “when, where,?” And the guy said ’well you know, they do it all the time’.  That was all he could say, could/would not give details or events.  They can’t point their finger and quote remarks made; whereas we have many quotes heard by right and left – like Hoffa’s “SOB’s” remark.  PEGGY GARNER asked if everyone remembers during a demonstration by the TEA Party when the black Senator said he was called the N word and spit on as he walked through the crowd in Washington.   Bretbart offered a huge sum of money to anyone who could prove this happened…if it was recorded or videoed and no one came forward to collect the money with any evidence.  Well, even though it could not be proven, the left is still using it.  It was brought out again the other night, after all this time, they came out and said on TV that he had been spit on and called names by the TEA Party; so they continue to use something even they know is false.

BOB recognized a new face….Johnnie Polosky? (sorry cannot spell his last name).  He said he had been here before.  BOB said “Welcome back”.  Johnnie apologized saying he realized we had ladies in attendance tonight and he had a tendency to use words that might be inappropriate, but he was p–s-d off now.  He said we were talking about things that come up every day.  The news media, ever since the TEA Party was formed, has put the group down…calling them racists, terrorists, etc.  But look at us… we pay taxes, we work hard all our lives, we have families, and love our country.  Maxine Waters, who is a racist, tells us to ‘go to H–l’; Joe Biden, Vice President of this great country, (but he doesn’t consider him His VP}, calls us barbarians; and then you have this fool, corrupted idiot, Hoffa Jr., (who ought to be in a hole with his daddy) is saying he is out to get us SOBs.  If that doesn’t p–s you off, then what are you going to do, sit back and take it?  But, being teed off is not a good thing.  Action is a good thing.  How do you fight; how do you go against it; we can have meetings; we can talk about it; but, he personally has come across at least 20 if not 25 people within ten years of his age, who have never voted and he is 63.  He feels the best thing for us to do is play “like ACORN”.  Let’s go out knocking on doors, and get these people that don’t vote out to the polls.  If we can do it across the country, we can get 15 to 20 million people who usually don’t vote.  And guess who they are going to vote for?  I hate to say I’m racist, but rednecks like me, will not vote for that black man.  Then we’ll get these stupid Democrats out of office and take back our country.  These Republicans, who are Rhinos, need to be gotten rid of also.  We need to get back to smaller government, less spending, free markets, and the Constitution.
LOU KUKULENSKI asked ’Why do you think they are doing all the name calling?’  JOHNNIE said it was because they were scared.  We need to get organized and join together.  LOU said they keep saying the TEA party is going away.  What they don’t realized is that the TEA Party has added another 10,000 chapters and although they say we are going down in the polls, the reality is the TEA Party is just getting stronger.  The reason the TEA Party does not totally unite is because, we have small groups in almost every community, looking into, not just the national issues, but also the issues in their local communities.  We are ground rooted and prefer to remain connected to our roots.  People have a tendency to speak up quicker in a small group than in a large congregation.  And what we need is enthusiasm with our issues.  Sure we went to Washington and showed our concern with what was going on, but we came back and got involved locally.  JOHNNIE said this was kinda like what he was talking about.  We need to  start knocking on doors and; while not a good term; get in people’s face and ask ’do you vote?’ or ’are you going to vote?’  He would never tell anyone how to vote or who to vote for or who to vote against, but he guarantees there is a bunch of people out there who do not vote in this county that once you get them involved, they will start understanding what this is all about.  He got 3 people registered in 2010 and took them to the polls.  Someone said they also need to get informed.  They would rather go out fishing, play golf, watch a ball game, while some even are having to work two jobs and don’t have time to get involved.  So they do not even hear what is going on.  BOB said the thing with ACORN was they had an advantage that we do not have.  Someone said ‘yea, money’.  BOB said really it was the allure of money.  ACORN theory is, if you don’t get out and vote, you are going to lose your check.  BOB said he knew some people who had never voted in their life, and they were in their 60s and even their 80s, and frankly he wouldn’t want them to vote, because he knew how they would vote.  People who are too lazy to tune in and stay up with what is going on in the news and be informed, talk to other folks, get other opinions, and things like that; then they have no business voting.  LOU said that he and that young lady over there in the corner (SUSAN RYNAS) get together every election and a whole bunch of us make phone calls to every voter in Carteret County.  SUSAN said she had been here almost 8 years, so it has been at least that long.  BOB said last election we had a TEA Party recommendation ballot that we ran in the newspaper and also handed out at the polls.  He personally had sat at the Broad Creek Voting Place all day long, from the time the polls opened until they closed.   Several of the people here tonight also worked the polls, and from his personal experience, over half of the people who showed up to vote, either asked for a copy of our recommendations, or had one they had cut out of the paper; so we had a big impact on the election and we plan to do the same thing at the next election.  An attendee (didn’t get the name) said he had used one of the papers we passed out.  He did not know the judges and our recommendations really helped.him decide how he should vote.  BOB said don’t forget Judge Newby, who is running for Supreme Court Justice in this upcoming election.  He is our type of candidate…very conservative.  HOWARD said we need to make sure we get every precinct covered next time, also.  We were not able during the last election to get every polling district manned.  ERIC  BROYLES said we need to be sure to get it on our web page that we are looking for volunteers. We need to talk to KEN LANG about that.   BOB said we have a county election coming up soon on mayors and city councilmen.  We have already had several speak to our group …. Jerry Jones, current mayor of Morehead City, David Horton, candidate for mayor of MC, and at the first meeting of the Western Carteret County TEA Party, Dave Fowler, candidate for mayor of Cape Carteret, and Richie Renna, candidate for town commissioner of Cape Carteret.  Richard Hunt has been invited to attend one of our meetings to speak but doesn’t seem to be too interested in talking to us.
Discussion of the differences between the TEA Party meetings and the Republican Men’s meetings.  BOB said the Onslow County Republican Party meetings included both men and women; whereas in Carteret the meetings are separate.
EULA asked how many here tonight were once Boy Scouts.  Yesterday, she had a knock on her door and it was the Boy Scouts selling pop corn, $18.00 minimum.  She was overwhelmed by the cost, but she did buy.  LOU said wait until you taste it.  It really is worth it.  BOB said no wonder popcorn was so high; they use all the corn to make ethanol so they can put it into the gasoline to run our cars.  HOWARD said that is why our groceries are going up so high because of using our corn for ethanol.  We don’t stop and think of how many other uses we need corn for.
BOB said ERIC had gotten in touch with the League of Women Voters of Carteret County and they had let him know that they planned two Candidate Debate forums:  (1} Morehead City, Friday, October 7, 2011, 6pm-9pm at Carteret Community College, Joselyn Hall and (2) Cape Carteret, Wednesday, October 23, 2011, 6pm-9pm at Cape Carteret Town Hall.  He said he planned to attend both and hoped our members would attend also, wearing their red shirts and caps regalia. We need to let them know the TEA Party is out there watching and listening.  He will be mentioning it again at the next couple of meetings and Peggy will also include the information in our minutes.  ERIC said these dates give us very little time to decide who the TEA Party will recommend, especially the one on Oct 23,  and get something printed up.  BOB said ‘you remember last time I said we cannot use the word support, or vote for, but only use the word “recommend”;  he thinks a better way of playing that whole word game is to say that “these candidates support the TEA Party principles”.  Would someone please get in touch with the elections office, or a recent newspaper and get a list of all the candidates running in an opposed election.  ERIC said he already had the information.  Bob said let’s take a look at it at our next meeting and see if maybe we want to invite anyone else to come out and speak with us, so we can issue an invitation.  ERIC said there were only a few races that are contested, 2 mayor races and 2 or 3 councilmen races (where they have more people running than councilmen positions).  Any of the others are just guaranteed in.  So the only ones we need to review are the few that are being contested.  Maybe we could consider making up a questionnaire for them to fill out for us to decide which ones to recommend.  PEGGY volunteered to type and print the handouts once we have made our decisions.  HOWARD said we need to make sure that we are sure how we want to go before we make up and print the handouts, because last year after we had them printed, the membership changed their mind on one of the candidates and the handouts had to be redone.  HOWARD said, incidentally, there is going to be competition in Newport for Town Board.  He understands that a group (name requested not to be mentioned) who do not agree with some of the current conservative commissioners, have gone out and recruited their own slate of candidates who are more liberal. BOB asked who the conservative candidates were.  HOWARD replied Ken Davis, David Heath and Chuck Shinn.  Three can get elected.  A member said he was glad this was brought up, because he didn’t know who was running and he lived in Newport.  HOWARD said Frank Blunt is also running but while he contends to be Republican, he usually votes liberal with the Democrats.  He is a rhino and while he is a good friend Howard cares more about how a person votes rather than whether or not he is a friend.  HOWARD said Newport has the highest tax rate of any municipality in the county, except, maybe some of those on the beach that may have a sand tax which raises theirs.  He said he did not live in town, but what happens in Newport affects him.  BOB said if we want to change things at the top of the political ladder, we have to start at the bottom.  We need to control spending locally, then carry up to state, and then to federal.
BOB said he read in the paper recently that the Phosphate Company was back in the news again trying to finagle some new deal at the port.  ERIC gave us an update on the subject.  He had attempted to get up with Jerry Jones, but was unable to make contact, but he did get up with David Horton.  The deal with it is that they are trying to use this as a storage unit until they transport what they call solid pellets (or krills) to the Aurora plant, because he understands they are now going to build the smelting (or melting) plant there on the site of their plant there.  So, the product comes in to the port, is stored temporarily, then barged on up to Aurora.  Right now, they are saying it is safe.  There is no expected health residue from this; however the group that was opposed last time has gotten them to agree to an environmental study.  ERIC said he told David, they also need to do an economic and environmental impact study for the county.  David told him that as far as he understands it, this new proposal is as safe as what they have been doing all along.  The pellets will be going down a conveyor belt, exposed, but will be wetted down so there will be no dust.  BOB asked ‘Aurora is digging the phosphate out the ground there.  They process it somehow and get sulfur out of it?’  ERIC said no, they are importing sulfur to make their products.  The stuff we are talking about will be loaded on barges and shipped up to the Aurora plant.  ERIC said he thinks it is put on rail cars there and shipped out. ERIC said they make several products out of it.  HOWARD said KEN should be able to explain it better to us at the next meeting.  (He is at the Western Carteret Tea Party meeting tonight.)      ERIC said the thing is they are all on top of it now and monitoring it very closely.  They say that PCS is actually working with them on a very open basis, because what has happened here has probably cost them millions of dollars, and they don’t want to go through that again.  HOWARD said if they had been open with us to start with it would not have happened.  ERIC said that’s true, but they are trying now to act like good neighbors.  BOB said so, now, we can all sleep easy.  ERIC said no, not until the environmental studies come back.  We have a lot of seniors in the Morehead area, and some of them have lung ailments, and if this thing does anything to bother them, then it will not be good for the community .
WAYNE explained why the Morehead Port would never become a large port and make a profit.  Thirty or forty years ago, when discussion was ongoing about building the new bridge (hi-rise), it would have made sense to build it further upstream, and not right there at the port.  If this bridge had not been built there and deeper water was available… these two things are what is going to keep this port from ever becoming profitable.  It is too small and not deep enough. He went on to describe other ports and their depths available.  It’s not the tourist trade and the condos being built, but the layout and shallow water that will stop our port from ever making a profit.  Some said they really did not want a big port here like Charleston, SC.  WAYNE said so we have to settle for that building at the port that has been expanded a couple of times.  He is referring to the one in the middle.  Texas Gulf Sulfur started that whole thing when they discovered this Aurora project and started digging a big hole in the ground.  They were trying to determine how to get that product out and North Carolina, in their infinite wisdom, decided to come down here,  build a big storage building  with no contract  with Texas Gulf Sulfur to use it and spent 11 million dollars of the tax payers money.  Texas Gulf was the only possible customer they had that could use it.  That is the kind of decisions the State Ports Authority has been making all these years.  Now you have tourism built up, condos on the beach, and people not wanting anything stinking southwest of their abode.  He is in favor of industry/capitalism, but that is a state funded disaster just like the Global Transpark in Kinston.  HOWARD said when you go to Charleston SC and you go across the Mark Clark Expressway, you look and as far as you can see on each side of that bridge are big cranes for loading ships. Morehead can’t even compare to what you see there.  (It is like little league and the majors)  He doesn’t see anyway in the world NC thinks Morehead can compete with Charleston.  ERIC said the port is only used for plants like Aurora.  WAYNE said if we could get the sulfur plant to foot the bill, bravo, but not likely to happen, so Morehead Port continues to go in the hole, big time.  HOWARD said you talk about that big building, well how about the other big building there.  The state didn’t have the money to build it, so they got a private company, Duke Realty to built it.  Then the state turned around and bought it.  Now it appears to be some kind of shenanigans there.  Now there are three buildings there.  Looks like there ws some contention about what to build there to start with.
MIKE PRICE said he started off here, but is now out of Norfolk, but works from New York to Miami and there are three things that make money for a port, oil, coal and containers.  He knows no one wants refinement here or coal here, but containers would make money.  What we would have to do is push all those warehouses down.  You need three cranes per ship, and that dock will hold 4 container type ships.  It will need a deep draft.  Norfolk is currently dredging 50 feet draft.  Wilmington, he thinks has 42 feet but it is all rock and very expensive to maintain. and it is 17 miles up the river from the ocean.  Container ships work on a tight schedule.  A lot of times they are not even in there 8 to 12 hours, so Norfolk just built a container building that is almost fully automated/computerized.  That port can make a profit with container business.  Two things here at Morehead you would have to do are – dredge a deeper port; and our biggest problem there is right between the jetties and Fort Macon and Shackleford Banks.
Orland(?) Beach has a pipe/dredge that sits on the north side of their inlet and pumps that sand right underneath the channel and it goes on down the beach.  Just pumps it from one side to the other cause the sand moves from Cape Lookout to Swansboro.  The thing about Morehead is there is no bottom, so you could dredge as deep as you want to.  Matter of fact this would be a good place for a settlement base.  Because we are so close to the ocean, it would be quick in and out for container ships.  At Norfolk, from the time the ship enters, it takes 2 to 3 hours for the ship to get in.  Here it takes less than an hour.  The second thing for this port to profit, would be you would have to build a bridge, and get the traffic so it would not have to come through the town.  That bridge could even be a toll bridge and it would make money.  They built a bridge in Charleston SC from the Isle of Palms (about 3 miles across the marshes) and they went out there and drove steel pilings and put I beams on them and run overhead cranes; hardly did anything to the marshes.  They built that bridge in one year.  Most bridge will take 5 or 6 years to build.  What he is saying is this port could make money especially in containers, because they take short turnaround time.  WAYNE asked who was going to pay for that dredging he was talking about?  The Corps of Engineers has nothing in their budget.  Their budget has been cut away to practically nothing.  When Ronald Reagan got elected there was a big movement to dredge a harbor and a lot of money was spent for about ten years.  Harbors were dredged that didn’t exist before 1980.  Companies were started to do nothing but bid on the contract for dredging work.  Those companies have all gone out of business now and all that is left is the pipe line dredges.  One or two of these dredges are in dock now because the Corps of Engineers doesn’t have money enough to fix them.  Just a handful of little companies are all that are left.  The Corps of Engineers have all the experts in the world but they would make a mess of it wherever they go, so to get anything done right you have to get someone (a private company) in to do it.  He said he had worked with them for years, so he knew what he was talking about.  There is no money to do the dredging.  There are too many organizations today, like CAMA, so there is no way you can get there from here today.  Question was raised ’Where does the goods come from for those containers and where do they go to?’  They are redoing the Panama Canal that will handle big ships, and the Chinese are the ones doing the Panama Canal. The Chinese are the ones that we are trading with.  Those containers come in and leave on trucks.  Are the roads and infrastructure to the port able to support all that?  MIKE said yes, we have a four lane highway all the way to 95, but we would have to put in bypasses, like Goldsboro and Havelock.  They just built a two and a half mile bridge around little Washington and it just runs over the marshes and through the woods and it is not very high, so there is money to do stuff.  Right now, if we don’t go broke as a nation, you will have to get someone in there that understands business.  He said this port was for shipping items like tobacco, paper; but there is no longer any business for shipping that type of material.  Everything can go on containers except bulk cargo like phosphate.  The state has said when we get enough ships backed up then we’ll get more cranes.  That is a ridiculous statement.  That’s like WalMart saying ‘when all the people are standing in line to get into a WalMart, then we will build one out here’.  ERIC asked about Cruise Ships.  MIKE said there is not enough business to support that industry.  Norfolk can’t even support one.  The travel industry is in dire straits right now.
EULA asked if anyone was checking out Jhad Watch as she had asked us to do. She wanted to show us a picture of what was on there today.  Someone had raised an Islamic flag above and to the right of an American flag in a school.  Don’t know who did it yet, but there is all sorts of consequences to this.  They don’t know whether it was an adult or a student.  (A member commented that there would be nothing done about it as long as Obama was in office.)  She also reported on several recent items she had read about, ie Palestine, MI 5 (British Intelligence), Released prisoners from Gitmo (number who returned to fight again), Ramadan (Muslims are not allowed to wear jewelry during month of August and Obama’s watch and wedding ring were missing in photographs – it was said his watch was in for repairs), a Saudi father shot his daughter who had just recently given birth to twins because her marriage was over and she could not remarry, however he could get out of premeditated murder if the family asked for him to be forgiven, the Lockerbie aircraft bomber who was released a few years back because he was dying; well he’s still alive and now some want him returned to finish his prison term, so he is dying again.  Ghadaffi said if he were to die in Scotland then there would be blood spilled.  Blair and Brown buckled and requested he be returned to Libya.  Muslim Brotherhood is sponsoring Family Day at Six Flags in San Antonio Texas, in celebration
of Ramadan.  As many as 3000 Muslims from around the state will converge on Sunday, September 11 (9-11) in celebration of Ramadan and spread the message that most Muslims are peaceful and mainstream..  But….Ramadan ended August 31, not September 11.
SUSAN  RYNAS said Hoffa said the other night that the TEA Party members were not workers; only the members of the unions are workers.  The TEA Party is made up of those who have lots of money, and don’t do any labor.  Actually, those union leaders don’t really care about the workers,  just about their power.  BOB said this next election (2012), we have a lot of ground to cover to regain some turf/territory that has been lost.  We do have to get out the vote.  How do we get the vote out?  We have to keep talking to people.  JOHNNIE said he got 3 out to vote at the last election and he pledged to get at least 10 for the next election.  He is hoping that those 3 that voted the last time, will help this time.  He hears people complain about Obama, or Bush and he asks them if they vote and they usually say no.  HOWARD said our waitress tonight is not even registered.  He had been talking to her earlier tonight.  He is hoping he and the TEA Party can get her turned around.  BOB said anybody can go down to the Board of Elections and purchase a CD of every registered voter in Carteret County; by party (Republican, Democrat or Independent) and by voting district.  It is all laid out on an XL Spread Sheet with the alphabetized name, address, phone number, of everyone in your district.  LOU said he felt like we would see more voters out next year than we have ever seen in our lives.  He thinks it will be a landslide.  Several said they hoped he was right and was speaking in terms of the Republicans having the landslide.  SUSAN said she was not sure how up to date the information was.  BOB said it may be a little off (maybe 90 to 95% accurate) but still usable.  They teach a class on working the polls.  BOB said maybe we should work a deal with the college and get our members trained.  LOU said he got his at the Republican headquarters.  RUTH PARKER said you could go on line and register for the free class on the Constitution.  It is an online course.  Go to Rush@Hillsdalecollege.com.  HOWARD said they put out a very outstanding and interesting paper called Imprimis.
ERIC said right before the hurricane, Obama issued the statement that they were going to start issuing permits to illegal immigrants.  If they have not committed a crime (being here illegal, I guess, is not a crime), they will be allowed the right to work in this country.  Let’s see if he talks about that Thursday night in his talk about his new jobs program.  ERIC said he recommended that we all call our congressmen and senators and let them know how we feel.  Obama has basically  gone back and is trying to institute the Dream Act by executive order.  What Congress has said we will not do, Obama is saying he is President and we will do what he wants.  ERIC said he has talked to several of our congressmen and senators (ie Ron Paul, Rand Paul and some others).  Obama also wrote an executive order the other day giving college tuition and health care to illegals.  RUTH said remember that Wilson was condemned for saying ‘you lie’ when Obama said he would not do this?  Well, Wilson was right.  Obama did lie.  ERIC said he was wondering if Issa had enough data now to call for impeachment.  LOU said he sent a letter to Senator Burr and he wrote back that there was not enough to impeach Obama.  LOU wrote him back and said everything he had done was either unlawful or unConstitutional, what do you mean there are not enough grounds for impeachment.  And….guess what, LOU has not heard back from Burr since.  RUTH said this Fast and Furious should fall right on Obama’s desk and that should be his ticket out.  ERNIE said the reason Obama did that executive order on the Dream Act is because he is wanting votes.  And the Fast and Furious…there is never going to be anything done on that.  It will be swept under the carpet.  The head men involved in that just got pay raises and jobs in Washington.  Protection of gun rights is one of the first things ERNIE wants the TEA Party to take care of when we win.  (Not if but when)  We need to do away with the ATF.
STUART said he didn’t know if the TEA Party had a national platform, but one of the platforms should be that we adopt the same policy the unions have.  That is; if you don’t pay dues (taxes), you don’t vote.  ERIC said that was the way it was set up originally.  Under the Constitution you had to be a property owner to vote.  Land owner and tax payer.  Then they did away with it.  If we institute that you have to pay your taxes before you vote, guarantee it won’t be 43% that no longer pay taxes.  BOB was concerned about the committee of 12 who will decide the future of American while the other 400 plus sit back and do nothing.  Will be able only to vote up or down.  This is ridiculous.  If nothing is done by the deadline then it triggers the massive reductions in military, social security, etc.  He believes this is what the Democrats have wanted all along so they can blame it on the Republicans.
LOU said the scary part is when Obama loses, the cities will burn.
ERIC wanted to know if anyone else had been to the School Board site to look at the results of the testing of our students.  Two or three years ago all the schools met the AYB standards.  This last year only five met the  standards.  We are seeing a decline in the quality of education.  (C4 would say this is because of budget cuts).  This decline came about somewhere around the time Novey came in.  He would leave it at that.
Discussion on Democrat Convention in Charlotte and the bringing in of out of state union workers to work the convention rather that have our NC non-union employees do the job.  HOWARD said something similar has happened right here in Carteret County since the hurricane.  FEMA is bringing in workers from away from here to clean up on the beach and will not allow local businesses who have been doing the work to continue.
BOB called last call for anymore rants prior to closing the meeting.  Several more various items were discussed before BOB closed the meeting.
Meeting adjourned at 7:45 pm
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary