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.