CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS MINUTES
OF
29 NOVEMBER 2011

Meeting held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm by Chairman BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge was led by HARRY THOMPSON
Invocation by NANCY BOCK

BOB told the members that next week we were going to convene the meeting and then adjourn and all go over to the Community College, Joslyn Hall.  The John Locke Foundation is hosting a wind power work shop and Dr. Droz will be speaking as well as Daren Bakst and David W. Schnare. He asked HARRY THOMPSON if it wasn’t Dr. John Droz that he had talked about going to Raleigh.  HARRY said Dr. Droz was local and had spoken to us a few meetings back.  His passion right now is the hoax about ‘wind power’ that they are talking about putting up here off the coast.  It is a very expensive thing to try to do.  It is not efficient at all and it will cost lots more than what it costs to receive our electricity like we do now.  It is not only wind, but solar as well.  He has some really good presentations on his web sites and if you ever had any doubt about it, just read through some of those articles he has written and look up on the web site that he has put out there.  He has a slide show presentation that will just absolutely convince you.  Anybody with a half way open mind will understand this mess being touted is just a big joke.  BOB asked “What was this meeting in Raleigh Dr. Droz attended with the Legislature?:  HARRY said “Yes, he met with the legislators.  He had been invited by the  Speaker of the House, who had been informed by a member of the House, who had a friend that knew Dr. Droz.  Dr. Droz said they had about 100 people in the audience. They said he put on a good presentation there and the John Locke Foundation is using him now in conjunction with one of their presentations to talk about this subject.  He is fairly well known around the country and is getting better so.  He has done a lot of studying on this stuff.  Anyway, it is on Tuesday, December 6, he will be at Joslyn Hall at 7:00pm for a workshop presentation by the John Locke Foundation.  So if we can work it out so we can attend, he thinks we will find it most interesting.  HOWARD asked if HARRY knew Dr. Droz’s web site address.  HARRY said he could not remember right off the top of his head but he would get it to us.  HOWARD said he thought we should get it and include it in tonight’s minutes.  BOB said ‘it might be in the old minutes back when he spoke to us’,  but no one was sure of the date.  NANCY said we may have a link to it from our web site if anyone wanted to check it out.
JERE GEURIN spoke up and said ‘apparently we had forgotten that, for next Tuesday’s meeting he had arranged to have Dr. Mark Creech, Executive Director of the Christian Action League of NC come and speak with us.’  He wanted to know if BOB wanted him to contact Dr. Creech and try to get a different date.  Dr. Creech is scheduled to meet with various groups next Tuesday on the work of the Christian Action League, present a Legislative Update, and most importantly discuss the Marriage Amendment, which is scheduled to be voted on in May; and he had included us in his agenda.  BOB, at first said ‘yes’, but after considering, he changed his mind.  NANCY BOCK wanted to know how long JERE thought he would need for his presentation.  Maybe we could meet early, like 5:00 or 5:30 and if we left by 6:45 we could still make it to the Convention Center by 7:00.  JERE said he needed to know so he could let Sarah Bowman know, so they could adjust their schedule if needed.  HOWARD asked JERE what he thought about starting early.  Did he think Dr. Creech would need more time than say an hour or an hour and a half?  He didn’t want to cut Dr. Creech short.  JERE said he frankly thought the Marriage Amendment to the NC Constitution was probably more important, and more exigent than the wind mill issue.  The Marriage Amendment is going to be on the ballot in May and we need to know about it so we can tell other people what it is about and support it.  He knows it is outside the purview of the TEA Party because it is not one of the three main values.  Never the less it ought to be important to anyone who is a Christian or Conservative.  It is an important issue.  HOWARD said ‘Let me make a suggestion that we meet next week at 5:30, if no one has any objections, and we can tell Dr. Creech that we are going to have to leave by 6:30, so we will only have about an hour.  BOB said we could be out by 6:45 at the latest and still make it to Joslyn Hall by 7:00.  NANCY said since a lot of people are here by 5:00, why not start the meeting at 5:15 (until 6:45)  and that would give him an hour and a half for his presentation. Would that be more acceptable?  JERE said he didn’t know how much there was to say about the topics Dr. Creech would be talking on, but he thought that was surely be enough time.  HOWARD said the only thing that bothered him on the time was not how long Dr. Creech would speak, but there probably would be a lot of questions asked; since most of us are very interested in the amendment.  JERE said his main question was ’what do we say to people when they ask us about the amendment?’  He hopes this is one answer he will be able to give us.  HOWARD said it appears to him now, and he is not up on it like JERE is, but it seems to him that Christianity is under attack from every direction.  All agreed.  JERE said we have been under attack for many years and HOWARD said it is getting worse he thinks, isn’t it, or is he just noticing it more?  All believe it is getting worse daily.  BOB said, ‘well are we meeting here at 5:00 or 5:30’?  All agreed on 5:00pm.  BOB asked PEGGY to get the word out to as many as she could.  JERE said he would call Sarah Bowman tomorrow and let her know of the start time.  BOB said we would meet here at the Golden Corral at 5:00 for Dr. Creech’s talk, adjourn no later than 6:45 and reconvene at Joslyn Hall by 7:00 for the second half of our night.  JERE said if he could not work it out with Dr. Creech, he would call BOB and let him know.  BOB said he was hoping it would work, because he would hate for Dr. Creech to be here in town and we not be able to get with him so he would have to make a return trip just for us.
BOB wanted to know if anyone here heard ’Saltwater Catch’ on the radio today?  Chris McCaffity, (our local fisherman member) was on maybe an hour (or maybe a little less) being interviewed and he, boy, he just really carried himself well on that program.  Covered all the issues, sharp as a whip, expounded on some good ideas, and the moderator, Hitchcock, BOB thinks was won over by Chris and his knowledge and expertise.  Hitchcock had said he would definitely have Chris back on again.  He was very excited about some of Chris’s ideas.  Remember the last time Chris was here, he was talking about Governor Perdue asking for ideas from the public about how better to use state facilities down there, and Chris proposed a co-op fish house on Radio Island.  The co-op idea really got Bill Hitchcock excited.  He thought it was one of the most worthwhile ideas he had heard for use of the facility.  Chris’s passion really comes through when discussing the commercial fishing industry.  He is totally dedicated to his cause.  He has been to Raleigh and to lots of federal industrial meetings.  He is really involved.  PEGGY said ‘remember he had all those cards already made up, ready for mailing, the night he was here.  All we had to do was include a short comment if we wished, sign our name and address, stamp ’em, and drop them in the mail.  He was very organized she thought.  NANCY told about the big “blue fin tuna” (I think it was) that was huge, and it was taken away from a commercial fisherman by a government official because it was supposed to have been caught on a hook and line and not a net.  When the fisherman said he had never been told that (although he had all his legal papers to fish, etc.) and the official told him he was supposed to know.  You are supposed to know all the fishing regulations, before you do any fishing. GRACE GILLIKIN said a fish the size of the one the fisherman had caught was probably worth several thousand dollars, so the official saw money signs when he saw that fish; which is why he took it from the fisherman.  They may have had someone report the catch and that was why they were there waiting for him when he came into dock.  NANCY said she wondered if there would have been a difference if the man had been a recreational fisherman?  Discussion on the policy of having to throw anything, considered illegal to catch, back overboard to die.  It makes more sense to keep everything caught and consider number of pounds caught rather than number of fish caught.  It seems stupid for example: if you catch, say a red drum that is over 27 inches, it is illegal to have it, so you have to throw it back overboard.  Chances are the fish has been injured (or dead) from being caught.  So you have now wasted a perfectly good fish that could have been used for food.  BOB said it was a shame what they were trying to do to the commercial fishermen.  They are trying to drive them out (and are doing a pretty good job, it appears).  Now it looks like they are going to try to make game fish out of speckled trout, striped bass, and red drum and stop the commercial fishermen from being able to catch them.  CLAYTON  GILLIKIN said he used to be a commercial fisherman but the regulations got so ridiculous he got disgusted and quit.  He would set swing nets for flounders and if a crab got in the net and ate the belly out of a too small or illegal fish, he would take the fish, clean it right there in the boat, put it in his cooler and take it home to eat for himself.  Every week they would stop him just to find out what was in that cooler.  He told them to go ahead and write him up, he didn’t care.  He did not believe in wasting what GOD had given us to eat and use.  BOB said one of Chris’s ideas that he really likes is, getting rid of the size limit, instead use weight limit.  Instead of throwing all the by-products away, weigh your catch, bring it in where it can be used, instead of letting it all die.  GRACE said another problem is our fishermen are supposed to stay within a certain limit of shore; whereas the Japanese, and other countries are just outside the limits assigned to American fishermen and they are catching anything and everything and never throwing anything back.  CLAYTON said and the sad part is they are selling their catches back to us…catches that would be illegal for us; and our fishermen are sitting here starving to death because of all the regulations placed upon them.  BOB said he could not understand why anyone would want to destroy the commercial fishing industry.  What is the advantage.  Several said the recreational fishermen have the money to get the rules like they want and could care less about the poor fishermen trying to make a living.  BOB said don’t they have to abide by the rules like others, ie you can only catch so many fish (per species) a day?  CLAYTON said where a commercial fisherman has to abide by the size, for example, of a flounder and is not allowed to keep it under a certain size; the recreational fisherman can come along behind him with his ‘stupid stick’ and gig him.  The government does not want the fisherman trying to make a living get him; they want that idiot with his ‘stupid stick’ to have the honor.  The officials will not go out and check the recreational fisherman, but they will sit on the shore and wait for the commercial fisherman to come in with his catch.  CLAYTON said you can sit and watch those game wardens watching the shrimpers with night binoculars checking out where you can and can’t shrimp.  You let one of those shrimpers cross over that imaginary line (even with their nets floating) and they are on them like you would not believe.  How in the world can the game warden tell exactly where that shrimper is when the game warden may be a half mile away; but it is the shrimpers’ word versus the official’s and you can bet that shrimper will get a several hundred dollar fine every time.
HARRY THOMPSON said he had gotten an email today from the John Locke Foundation about the next session on the Constitution.  They had presented the first portion a few months ago that many of us attended. When HARRY  sent the information requesting their coming back for the second workshop, he had asked about Troy Kickler getting something set up for us in January.  Mr. Kickler told HARRY in the email today that  they were currently trying to make arrangements for January.  HARRY will let us know as soon as he hears something.
BOB said the last time we met we talked about having a rally or a fund raiser or something in the spring.  He said PEGGY brought up an idea before the meeting, that he thought was a good one, of assigning a committee to research, organize and coordinate the effort.  So, he was going to appoint HOWARD and KEN LANG to get together and devise a game plan for us, because we can’t seem to reach any kind of decision during the meetings.  We are like the house of representatives, doing more talking than acting.  HOWARD said he hoped they could do better than the super committee did.  BOB said he went down and looked at that Fort Benjamin Park and he thought it was quite a facility.
BOB asked STEVEN BEST if he had some kind of extravaganza going on at the cave for Christmas.  STEVEN said, yep, on the 18th at 5:00 (after all attending eat soup and sandwiches) they were going to show the movie “Nativity”.  That is on a Sunday.  BOB asked how the attendance has been there.  STEVEN said the first time was pretty good but the second was not as great.  They will have plenty of popcorn available on the 18th.
BOB called on EULA PARKIN for her weekly report.  Once again she asked how many had watched J’Had Watch today.  Only one responded yes.  She wanted to suggest to all that when we go home tonight look up J’Had Watch for today and you will be surprised, because, it is one of the best programs she has seen yet.  As you open it up, it starts right in with a presentation by this fellow named Bosth Bostom??? Who is a Muslim that speaks perfect English.  He talks about 40 minutes and then there is someone from England that speaks about what is going on in all the countries, including Africa.  There are several speakers, and you just have to keep hitting up on the pictures to bring up all the different segments.  They each run 30 to 40 minutes each.  The one that really got her attention was about the voter fraud of Al Franken.  It was brought out that there had been voter fraud in his election.  He was the one vote they needed for Obamacare.  Discussion on number of recounts they had before finally getting the vote the way they wanted it.  It was pathetic.
HOWARD said he didn’t know how many had gotten the email, but KEN did some research and in the 2012 election there are two commissioners and three members of the Board of Education up for reelection.  So we need to be looking.  He had made one contact today.  He did not ask for an answer right then, since the man needed to talk it over with his family.  (He has run against Cathy Naegle twice in the past and lost. HOWARD feels with our support, he just might win this time).  HOWARD said he had not thought about it until this morning when PEGGY reminded him that he had said he would check into trying to get a map that outlined the Board of Education districts.  BOB asked what was the map he had last week, and HOWARD said that was the County Commissioners.  He feels that the Board of Education district map may change also, but he wanted to know what the boundaries were now, anyway.  BOB asked was there the same number of BOE members as there were county commissioners.  No one knew for sure.  BOB said it would make sense to have one map of the county for everything.  You’ve got your federal districting, state districting, county districting and a Board of Education districting; then fire districts, voting districts, etc.  HOWARD said he had made several calls, hoping to find someone who could help him get a copy of the map.  He had called the Board of Education office and the lady who answered said they were all out (and that was 9:00), but she would have someone call him when they came in.  She did and the lady who called gave him a number to call, (the tax office).  He then asked to talk with a friend who worked there that had helped him in the past.  The info had to come from the GIS Department at the tax office, and his friend was going to go over and try to get it for him, but PEGGY had checked prior to us leaving today and it had not come in yet.
BOB said he had been talking earlier with RUTH PARKER and she said the Iranians had taken over the British Embassy today.  BOB said does anyone know what brought this on?  Someone’s understanding was that the British were friends of the Americans and therefore they wanted the British out of there.  Discussion on whether or not we have an American Embassy there now.  Decision was that it was closed.
HOWARD asked if anyone was keeping up with what was happening in Richmond.  The TEA Party requested that (since they had had to post bond and pay for  permits, etc, to hold their rallies there, and the OWS had not had to pay) the money the TEA Party had been forced to pay be refunded.  Now the mayor is demanding the TEA Party be audited.  They have to provide documents on how much money they had received from food, lodging, etc. complete audit of books, anything to do with finances.  BOB asked were they going to audit the OWS group also.  No, just the TEA Party.  PEGGY said the reason they wanted to audit the TEA Party was because they had complained about them being charged and the OWS not being.  They were just retaliating against the TEA Party having the audacity to complain.
GRACE said apparently we have scared a lot of the Democrat politicians.  Did we see where a lot of them were not going to run again?  BOB said ’praise the Lord, Barney Frank is not going to run again’.  (Applause) His reason though is because his district apparently has been redrawn and this time he may have competition and that will mean he will have to get out and campaign and that is something he cannot really lower himself to do.  Someone said the only thing wrong there is when Barney retires, Maxine Waters is in line to take over his chair.  BOB said no need to worry about Maxine getting his chair, because if we can get the Republicans back in power, she can’t do anything anyway.  HOWARD said she doesn’t have the brain power, even Barney has, to do too much damage.  RUTH said ’she is an idiot’.  Just think about all the stupid things she has said recently about the TEA Party.
LOU KUKULINSKI said Sam Sanford will be packing boxes tomorrow morning.  Same time, same place.  If you want to help set up, come at 8:30.  JERE said they would probably do 100 boxes and he and Sam would take them to the Post Office Thursday, provided the weather is good.  BOB said last time we had over 40 people show up and they did the 100 boxes in 45 minutes.  The last time we talked about “We Care”, he didn’t know whether it was in a private conversation or not but the general idea was if we were going to support any charitable organization (we were considering Hope for the Warriors, Carolina Canines and We Care) the comment was we ought to do it locally and throw our support behind Sam Sanford’s “We Care”.  Was that at the last meeting?  Answer- yes.  BOB said he would like to go ahead and vote on that today unless someone thinks there is more to discuss.  HOWARD wanted to know if we had enough money in the bank at the present to start donating or do we need to raise more money first.  BOB said our money we donate comes from profits generated on the sale of tee shirts and hats.  Any other place we get monies, he asked NANCY?  NANCY said we got a lot of donations last year to help.  HOWARD told NANCY that we had 48 pounds of candy left from the Veteran’s Day Parade.  It is currently under lock and key and only he and PEGGY have keys.  Since he is diabetic he can’t eat candy anymore, so it now is safe from him, and PEGGY eats very little candy.  HOWARD recommended that if we could find somebody who is participating in a Christmas parade and would like to buy what candy we have, we can let them have it at a reasonable price, just to get rid of it.  He said we could offer it at a $1.00 a pound which is a lot cheaper than what they can buy it for in the store.  PEGGY said we should not take less than $1.00 a pound, though.  Discussion on who would be interested in using the candy in the upcoming Christmas parades.  PEGGY said RUTH had said something about donating part of the candy to Sam to put in the boxes.  What did others think of that idea.  JERE asked how many here tonight would be willing to donate on a monthly basis to ’We Care’…like maybe $5 or $10.  If we are willing to do that he will bring his mailing address to us and we can donate through the mail and he will send each of the donators a receipt for whatever you send and that receipt is tax deductible.  That money is tax deductible.  He is a 501 organization.  BOB asked him to get Sam’s address to PEGGY and she will get it out to all our members:  (WE CARE, c/o Sam Sanford, 1603 Fairfield Ct., Morehead City, NC 28557).   HOWARD said let’s settle this about what we want to do with the candy.  Do you want to donate the hard candy to We Care and then try to sell the chocolate and chewy type candy.  PEGGY said if we use the hard candy for We Care, then you will need it tomorrow morning, right?  JERE said if we want it to go in this week’s shipment, (this will be the last shipment of the year) then yes, they need it early in the morning.  PEGGY said she would go home and sort through all we have and have the usable candy to them for packaging in the morning (by 8:30).  (NOTE: Sam told Peggy Wednesday morning that he could use chocolate and chewy candy during the winter months while it was cold since it would not melt then.)  BOB asked ‘all in favor of donating the hard candy to Sam’s We Care, please raise your hand.  Carried.  For those who are interested, Sam sets up behind the new Furniture Distributor Store across from Trucker’s Toy Store on Hwy 70.  PEGGY said she would take care of sorting the candy and she and HOWARD would make sure the candy was at the location prior to 9:00 in the morning.  EULA wanted to know if we could just give JERE the money for mailing a package  – $12.95.  JERE said sure he would see to it that Sam gets the money before he gets to the Post Office.  A couple of members gave JERE enough to mail a couple of packages.  BOB asked GRACE what was the status of the candy they had.  GRACE said they probably had about 5 bags at least.  GRACE said another thing that was good to mail was ink pens and pencils.  BOB said when he was overseas, it was truly great to get a care package from the states.  It was like celebrating Christmas.  GRACE said when she went to stores that had stuff like that marked down, she would usually try to buy some for use later.  LOU said he liked getting those big old sticks of pepperoni,  nuts, and chocolate chip cookies.  GRACE said don’t send those little bottles of Tabasco Sauce, because she had tried that one year (making sure she thought that they were well cushioned) but by the time they got to their destination, every bottle was broken and mixed with all the other items enclosed.  BOB said he thinks Sam sends Tabasco Sauce, but he thinks it comes in plastic bottles now instead of glass.  BOB asked GRACE and CLAYTON to remove all the chocolate and soft chewies and get them to Sam by morning.  She said she would just drop the bags off in the morning since they had to go by anyway.  BOB wanted to know if Tootsie Rolls would be alright.  JERE said no, they melt.  PEGGY said we will save them just for BOB since he likes them so good.  JERE said the boxes will probably set out on the tarmac in the sun, so any candy that could melt it is best not to send.  EULA said she used to buy boxes of cross word puzzle books, but her problem was getting them to the troops.  She finally found some people in Havelock that could get them over there for her.  She said you could get like 60 cross word puzzle books for around $25.00.  She just recently bought a box of them.  JERE said he thought they would rather have something to read, because they could pass them around.  One magazine could possible reach 100 GI’s before it wears out and falls apart.
BOB asked NANCY what the treasury looked like.  She responded $995.00.      BOB asked if there was anything from the floor.  Discussion on Gov. Christy and his comments on Obama; and the fact that Obama had prayed a Thanksgiving prayer without mentioning GOD’s name.  Several said ‘what’s new’?.  MARIAN MERRILL said he sure could come up with some stupid remarks, like when he said we had 57 states.  PEGGY said wouldn’t it be something if the news media would have a field day over
Obama’s blunders like they did with Dan Quail‘s ‘potatoe‘.  BOB wanted to know if anyone still thought Herman Cain still had a chance at the presidency.  Most thought it was all over for him (innocent or not).  HOWARD said don’t count anyone out – it ain’t over until the fat lady sings.
Don’t forget 5:00 next Tuesday, meeting early!!!!
BOB adjourned the meeting at 6:50pm.
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary