CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
MINUTES OF
14 FEBRUARY 2012
NOTE; Secretary PEGGY GARNER was absent tonight, but her recorder was in attendance. Please bear with the following:
Meeting was held at the Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting called to order by Chairman BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance was led by ROMA WADE
Invocation by Representative Norman Sanderson
BOB apologized for the meeting starting late, because he and KEN LANG had been on the radio with Lockwood Phillips. Wanted to know where HOWARD and PEGGY were tonight. KEN said they were on a Valentine’s date. BOB said why, they’ve only been married about 80 years, right? DIANE said that is why they are still married.
BOB recognized our visiting dignitaries: House Representative Norman Sanderson, who is running for Jean Preston’s seat in the Senate. Asked Mr. Sanderson if he was District 3 or District 1 right now, to which he replied House District 3, which is all of Pamlico, and about 75% of Craven. He also recognized County Commissioner Chairman Robin Comer. BOB asked about the protest tonight. STEVE BEST said he understood it was at the Train Depot in the park. BOB asked who were they protesting? STEVE said they were protesting against the Marriage Amendment. BOB wanted to know if there was a big crowd down there. STEVE said probably 50 or so and he thought the newspaper and radio were there also. BOB also introduced Doug Raymond, a former radio personality. BOB asked, didn’t he have the talk station before Lockwood. Mr. Raymond said he worked on the talk station, Lockwood has always had it. BOB said you (Mr. Raymond) also took over Frank Rouse’s TV operation and you are now soon to be senator Sanderson’s campaign chairman as I understand it. Mr. Raymond said he was an advisor. He did not like titles. He was helping Norm in any way he could.
BOB asked if there were any new faces here tonight. He asked who the lady was with STEVE tonight. STEVE said it was his wife Susie and tonight was their anniversary.
BOB then talked about the little protest rally (some of the TEA Party folks showed up in Beaufort as well as some non-TEA Party folks) against Mr. Randy Ramsey who is running for Jean Preston’s seat under the Republican ticket. He is a registered Republican. BOB went back and checked the 2010 registration and party affiliation and he has been a registered Republican as far back as he checked. But he has been a real heavy donor to the Democrat Party and Beverly Perdue, Mike Easley, and also Mark Basnight. He said he did not want to pick a dog in this fight but the TEA Party is a very conservative organization and we have three basic principles that we are guided by. To try to get those principals disseminated, that is our goal, to educate the voters. It is one issue we thought was needed to bring to attention, and we hoped it would be a media event and we were led to believe that there would be TV and other media there. But just three newspaper reporters showed up but that still will get the word out; along with KEN and I being on the radio tonight. KEN spoke up and said they did have channel 14 stop by but without cameras. He gave the reporter with channel 14 a copy of the fact sheet they had made up to pass out. The reporter didn’t even have a notebook or anything to write on. KEN said he thought he was just passing by and noticed the crowd. BOB said he was surprised to hear that Ramsey was waiting until after we left to show up to register. KEN said it was obvious that he got a phone call letting him know we had left. BOB said anyway he hoped we shot a torpedo in the side of his submarine trying to sneak in under the public umbrella. Someone in the audience said they were trying to take care of him. They are trying to prove that there is a bus that leaves Havelock each morning loaded with illegals that goes to Jarrett’s Boat Works. BOB said he heard that they were investigating that. BOB said Jarrett has more than 25 employees too. The member said Jarrett was not the only one using illegals, there were several more doing the same thing. Where we have been getting that this bus leaves Havelock, they contracted with (Greenbar?) to haul bus loads to Jarrett Boat Works and he gets paid for all of them in cash. If we can get them on camera, we can take care of Randy Ramsey. BOB called on ROMA WADE who had his hand up. ROMA said he just wanted to say, ’when that goes, every boat builder out there by Jarrett Bay is gone also.” BOB said as a landscaper one of the things that really amazed him was when he retired from the Marine Corps was the lack of work ethic out here amongst our younger folks. He was totally taken by surprise by that. He had no idea how much power the youth uniform code of justice had over the young folks to make sure they worked.
BOB announced that he, KEN and FRED DECKER were going to have to leave early tonight and he believed our distinguished guests would be leaving early also. They had the Court House Meeting. He would be leaving the rest of the meeting in the hands of ERIC BROYLES, Vice Chairman. Before they had to leave he wanted to take this opportunity to ask Norman Sanderson to have the floor and speak to us about whatever he felt like.
Norman thanked BOB and said he just wanted to commend him and KEN for the outstanding job they did on the radio. He had done interviews with Lockwood. ‘They can be a little tricky at times. Lockwood is a good man and he means well. Anyway, I thank you for giving me a couple of minutes of your time tonight. I want to just start out by giving you a little background on me. I have lived in this area since 1972.’ Used to live right next door to Willie and since 1972 Norm has raised both of his children here. They went to high school in Pamlico County, graduated from Wake Forest University. His daughter, three grandsons and her husband live just ten miles down the road from them so that is a blessing to have them that close. But he wants to talk about himself a little bit. He knows he could spend this whole ten minute period talking about his opposition and the people running against him but he wants to tell us where he is coming from). From 2008, he believes, they started back up the Coastal Tax Payers Association which is his (and the Craven area) TEA Party version of what we do here in Carteret. When they got the CTPA going again, he was the Vice President. They used to have one years ago but it kind of died, he and the others lost interest, but when they began to see what was happening across our state and nation and even in our own county, a group got together and said we need to bring the CTPA back on line because we need someone out here that is a watch dog for the general public, because most of the public doesn’t have a clue as to what is going on. If they hear it on the 6:00 news that is great but who can believe what you hear anymore. And so they re-started that organization and he was really pleased to be a part of the first rally that they had. They had about 1500 folks that marched from the court house to Union Park in New Bern and had a fantastic rally about bringing life to what was going on in our government. He is just like those of us here tonight, he believes in the same three basic principals that BOB mentioned. He believes in less government, less government intrusion in our lives; the government has far too many tentacles in our lives; believes our government costs us way too much money for what they do for us, and so he believes in lower taxes for everybody concerned. He believes that we, the people/the citizens are the ones that have to rise up and take our state and country back because if we just let government go unchecked, it is just going to continue to get bigger and bigger. It is like fire; as long as you keep giving it fuel, it is just going to grow and never satisfy itself. So, what you do, when you talk about educating the voters, and that is what we have to do; we have to educate and let them know what is really going on. When we have someone come along that says they are one thing but all the indicators are pointing that they are something else, then we as citizens have a right to really ask the hard questions. We need to get answers to our questions. We don’t need to take anything for granted just because somebody claims to be a good person and they claim to be on your side; I say let them show me the proof. He will take the record that he has for the one term he has served. They went through probably one of the hardest legislative terms that they have ever had to do. It was the first time in one hundred years that the Republicans had control of the House and the Senate and they were left with a three billion dollar shortfall in their budget, which is required by law to be balanced. They did it without raising taxes. It took a lot of hard decisions; they took a lot of hits; a lot of criticism; were demonized; and were told everything in the state is going to die because of what they had done and he is here to tell us that none of that is going to happen. Our government had gotten so big that even government itself didn’t know how big it was. We did those hard things. We let the sales tax expire; and let the special taxes on couples who made over a certain amount of money, go away; and we did it without increasing….and he was proud of it. He had the ninth most conservative rating in the North Carolina House on his voting record last year. He will put his voting record up against anybody else’s. Any time we could reduce the size of government, he voted for it. Any time they could reduce taxes, he voted for it. Anytime they could reduce regulatory forms that were killing small businesses, he voted for it. That is the only thing that is going to turn our county and our state around is to get government out of the way. As you have heard many times ‘let business take over, cause business knows how to do it’.
Now, he wanted to talk a little bit about this race…. There have been rumblings for the last few weeks. He made up his mind several months ago because people came to him and said ‘you know there is a possibility that Senator Preston is not going to run again’. He said he had had the pleasure of working with Sen. Preston this last year. They would sit in each others office and talk about the things that affected Craven and Pamlico (which is part of her district) and also those things which affect Carteret, too. So when she made the announcement that she was not going to run, after some prayer and talking to his family, he said he felt it was just a natural thing, and if he was ever going to do this, now is the time. He already represents two of these counties and he will just envelop and bring in Carteret County because a lot of the same problems and difficulties that you all look at, they face the same thing in Craven and Pamlico. They did not know about the recruiting that was taking place because they have some people in high positions that like to pick and choose who will come in and serve. As far as he is concerned, nobody in Raleigh should pick and choose who will represent you in the state senate or house. It is not their decision. It is your decision and you are smart enough to look at a candidate and listen to that candidate, talk to that candidate and ask him questions and listen to his responses and ask him his vision and then you are smart enough to choose who it is you want to go up there and represent you. He knows we are in a battle. He has met Mr. Ken Jones over at Pine Knoll Shores. He is a fine gentleman. They had a conversation Saturday night at the Carteret Reagan Day luncheon. A campaign ought to be about issues and how they as candidates will go about solving those issues. That is what he and Mr. Jones came to in agreement. That is what their campaign is going to be about. After this is over, whoever comes out on top, we pledged each others total support that we would jump in and help the other person win this seat because we need to keep this seat in conservative hands. We know we are in a battle, because of the very magnitude of the amount of money that this third party has. Money means a lot, and it has always been in the past that he who spent the most money won the election. That did not happen two years ago when he ran against a three term incumbent who outspent him almost three to one. He took almost 70% of the vote and it was because of people out working hard and everybody played a part. Everybody did what they could do, whether it was $10.00, 50.00 or $100.00; or whether it was putting on a teeshirt and marching in a parade; whether it was working at a poll outside handing out literature; whatever it took. That’s what we did and we can do it again. I don’t care how much money this man says he has. All we would like is for him to stand up and tell us where he got it from. We feel he has to be open to you the voter. He does not need to come out here as a conservative and say we are going to Raleigh or Washington; we are going to be transparent and let you know everything we do and then go in the back room and do the same thing that has been done for the last one hundred years. If that is the way it has got to be then we are all in trouble and I don’t know where our country is going to end up. All of our victories, all of our freedoms, everything that we have worked hard for in 2010, it is on the line this year because if we lose this election in Washington; if we lose this election in Raleigh, if we don’t get a conservative governor; and if we don’t keep the conservative legislature so that we can finish those things that the governor vetoed on us, we are in trouble. Not only are we going to suffer but our children are going to suffer also. So, he said he is here tonight to ask for support, help, anyway that you can. If you would like to make a financial donation, he just happens to have some financial donation envelops. Every bit helps. Don’t think that what you can do is not going to make a difference because it will. We have got to really dig this year and do everything we can folks, because you know what is going to come in here during the Presidential election. We know what is going to happen when the Democrats come to Charlotte for their convention. There is going to be more money spent in North Carolina because he thinks North Carolina will be a key state. The people who have it now will not want to give it up and they will not give it up without an all out fight. We are here and hopefully ready for that fight because our future’s at stake. He said he would be glad to answer any questions. ERIC BROYLES said “Norm, you say you are for the reduction of taxes. What can you do about the gasoline tax?” Norman said that is why he wants to go to the Senate. The House voted to cap gasoline tax but they could not get it through the Senate. The House were going to hold it where it was before this last forced increase and don’t think that it won’t go up January again unless we can do something with it. One thing he has to say about the gas tax is ‘we have the highest one but most people don’t understand why’. We have the highest gas tax in the southeast because North Carolina’s DOT does all the maintenance, all the repair work, and all the new construction in the state and we don’t charge the local county anything. A lot of these states who have lower gas taxes makes the counties raise their property taxes so they can do the maintenance on local roads. We don’t do that in NC. It does level it out a little but it is still too high. ERIC said ’when gasoline goes up a dollar, it is not fair.’ Norman agreed. ERIC said going up in relationship with the cost of living that is a different issue. Norman said they say it is based on cost of oil. Asphalt is a petroleum product and so when oil goes up so does the cost of asphalt. We have been looking for years for a different formula, but so far nobody has been smart enough to come up with one. He knows there is one out there we just have to keep looking. Our gasoline tax should not be tied to what foreign countries charge us for petroleum. ERIC said we need to get an energy bill passed.
JEFFERY CRANE said he was a little confused about the gas tax is for the DOT? Norman said the DOT gets most of their money from our gas tax and from the fees that we pay for highways. JEFF said he was driving down 101 the other day and there were some people on a curve and they were mowing the grass. Usually they have people out there to slow you down and flag men, etc. because it was a dangerous situation. They said they did not have enough money to have flaggers when they are doing projects like that. He was curious as to what Norm thought about this. BOB said his question was why were they mowing grass in February? Norm said Tell you what we have to do, and it is just as important as the presidential election or the election of a Republican governor. When and only when we elect a Republican governor can we change the departments in NC from the top down and put people in there that are going to do better at running things. Someone said ‘with common sense”? Norm said right.
Someone (did not recognize the voice) said he would like to speak on Norman’s character. He had known him for forty plus years. He had lived across the ditch from him. He is the most straight forward, honest, upright person you will ever meet in life. He is a good Christian also. They go way back. Norm said thank you Will (so I presume the speaker was Willie Austin.) ERIC said he would also like to give Norm a compliment on what he did January 5th? They over road a governor veto to control the way monies are collected by the school’s unions/non-unions/teachers associations, (NCEA) whatever you want to call them. ERIC wanted to commend them on that, because he didn’t think anyone should be compelled to pay fees. Norm said we could spend a half day talking about that but we don’t have the time tonight. It is an organization that the state does not need to be helping in any way what so ever. Someone spoke up about the film industry in NC has gotten quite a bit of pull somehow. They are getting millions of dollars off the state now. Norm said he thinks it is an absolute waste. He has not seen anything come out of Hollywood in the last 15 years that he thought was worth anything. That was Gov. Perdue. She has gone and courted the film industry to come to Wilmington and a couple of other areas and she has lured them here with a whole lot of tax payer incentives. He doesn’t think anyone of them can show where it benefits…after we pay what we have to pay to get them here, he doesn’t see where it benefits the state. They bring in their own people, their own equipment…..we get a little bit of stuff around when they are eating, sleeping and housing…but then they are gone and take everything with them and we have given them a lot of money to make junk. Cause that is what comes out of it. BOB said they are part of the union so they are forced to hire union employees and we are a right-to-work-state.
BOB said he was going to cut this short because some of us have to go to Beaufort to the court house. He asked Norm to leave some of his donation envelopes with those who remain. BOB told Robin Comer that he wasn’t running against anybody, but did he want to say a few words before they left. Robin thanked him but said not at this time.
BOB said the TEA Party Patriots, Jenny Beth Martin and Mark Meckler, have published a book and all the proceeds go to the TEA Party Patriots. He had a free complimentary copy which he is putting in our library. Anybody can check it out free of charge any time you want. Someone asked if we also had a video library. BOB said we have a video library and STEVEN BEST, President and CEO of the Best Productions Corp., also known as The Cave, operates his home movie theater that seats 45 with various videos he has purchased and found. The next event will be this Saturday, February 18th at 3:00 pm at which time two movies will be shown, “Iranium” and “Agenda, Grinding America Down”, about communism in America. Call STEVE at 723-0493. Hoping to have a pot luck meal also. (So, if you would like to attend and bring something to eat, please fell free to do so. It will be appreciated.)
FRED said he wanted to tell Norm one thing…. during the primaries parties do not have people at the polls. The TEA Party does. Our plan is to work every one of them or at least as many as we can.
BOB called on EULA PARKIN. EULA said she was not going to talk about Muslims this week. She was going to talk about the owls. She had bought copies of booklets and wanted to read a couple of clips from them. If you are interested in the book, it costs $1.00, however, if you want to give more than $1.00 it will be appreciated. On page 29, “the organizers for OWS worked hard to portray their movement as being composed of people who live next door to you and have been financially blindsided by the 1% who allegedly control America. But New York magazine revealed a very different reality in a story published on October 2, 2011. A poll it conducted with 100 protestors in Manhatten disclosed that half were in their 20’s and 35% were of the opinion that the US government is no better than Al Quida. While 45% said Capitalism can’t be saved and is apparently immoral. Another survey of 200 OWS protestors 65% said the government has a moral responsibility to guarantee all citizens access to affordable health care, a college education and a secure retirement regardless of the cost. 77% supported tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans…52% had participated in political movements before…98% endorsed breaking the law to achieve their goals….and 31% said they would support violence to promote their agenda. Doug Shown(?) the Democratic pollster whose firm conducted the survey concluded that the OWS activists hold values that are dangerously out of touch with the broad mass of the American people and are bound by a big commitment to radical left wing policies.” She then read from the last two pages of the book: Barbarism vs. Civilization. As a way of normalizing Occupy Wall Street, it’s supporters have tried to suggest that it is the opposite side of the coin to the TEA Party demonstrations. President Obama has helped to propagate this view of observing that ‘in some ways the OWS demonstrations are not that different from some of the protests that we saw coming from the TEA Party. According to Vice President Joe Biden, OWS and the TEA Party have a lot in common, since they both think the system is not fair. But the TEA Party demonstrations resulted almost no arrests in contrast to the 4,800 that took place in the first two months of OWS and the TEA Party had no rapes, no deaths, no defecations and no $13 million dollar bill for police overtime and cleanup afterward. The OWS can be said to be the opposite side of the coin to the TEA Party only in the sense that barbarism is the opposite side of the coin to civilization. She bought 25 copies of the book and if you would like a copy just drop your dollar or whatever you wish to donate in the jar and pick up a copy. One more thing, EULA asked, how many of you shop at Food Lion and use your card for discounts? If you get on the internet, www.foodlioncentralnorthcarolina.orgdonate and enter the number on your card. A portion of whatever you buy goes to the food bank of central and eastern North Carolina. There are 500,000 people in this area that need help. All you have to do is go to this web site and sign in with your card number (the number between the 0‘s) .
BOB turned the rest of the meeting over to ERIC (and my recorder left with the group going to Beaufort to the Court House. Thus the minutes end here. Will have to talk to ERIC to find out what happened after we left.)
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary.