CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
MEETING MINUTES OF
24 JULY 2012

Meeting was held at JingGianni’s Trattoria in Morehead City, NC
Meeting was called to order at 6:05 pm by Chairman BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance was led by BOB CAVANAUGH
Invocation by NORMAN SANDERSON
Attendance – 26

BOB introduced John (G), owner/proprietor of JingGianni’s Trattoria.  John said, “I am about as conservative as one can be.  I am a subscriber of Rush Limbaugh and my wife is a Glenn Beck subscriber.  (Applause) I was in Pennsylvania during the last presidential campaign, taking care of my mom and dad.  My dad was dying and all the time I was there I was paying close attention to candidate Obama and when the Joe the Plumber comment came up, I said this man (Obama) is a Marxist.  It turns out to be true.  This is a very important election for the state and the country.  Mr. Sanderson’s prayer spoke to this country’s been blessed by GOD and we need to take it back because one of the messages in our church is we are almost getting to the point of civil disobedience.  We have to fly counter to the counter culture that is in the world.  As Jesus said to overcome the world.  I thank you all for coming.  I apologize for the limited menu but I really wasn’t sure, with Italian food, it is kind of hard to prepare a lot of it in advance and have it keep as good as being plated one at a time.  I appreciate you all trying us out and hopefully you will come back.”  (Applause)  BOB introduced our waiter and waitress for tonight.

BOB introduced Norman Sanderson, our special VIP,  our future NC Senator, and asked if he had a few words he would like to share with us tonight.  Tonight is a social event, not campaigning.

Mr. Sanderson said he had told BOB that sometime at one of our meeting in August, that he could come and give a rundown on some of the things that went on in Raleigh.  Some of the things we accomplished and some of the things we wanted to accomplish and didn’t, and what we have to look forward to next year.  Maybe the first or second week of August we will do that.  This is the first occasion I have had to see a lot of you since the May primary.  I just want to take a minute to thank you for what you did.  People are still scratching their heads from Washington to Raleigh and even locally, as to how we were able to persevere in the campaign and do what we did.  Sometimes I find it difficult to explain, but when I stand and look at the people in this room I know how we did what we did.  It was because you guys worked harder than anybody that I have ever seen before.  You were diligent at the voting polls.  You were diligent on election day.  You were diligent in talking to your neighbors and friends and telling them the truth as you knew it.  And so that is why we were able to persevere as we did.  Even again, there was probably more TEA Party people at the polls in our second primary than any other group in the whole state.  (Applause)  They were voting, they were working and I can tell you without any doubt or hesitation that we have one of the best slates of state wide candidates in the election coming up in November that we have had in some time.  I wish I could tell you that the work is over but the work is just beginning.  We already see some of the fall out from what the presidential election is going to bring to our state with the negative things that we are already hearing, seeing and reading.  Believe it or not, and I know that you know it, that stuff from the top flows down to the campaigns and elections underneath it and so, people say what kind of a candidate do you have running against you in November and I say, a mighty tough one; even though very few people know him and he doesn’t spend any money or do a whole lot of campaigning, he is still a tough opponent because of the umbrella that he is running under.  He is running under a presidential umbrella that is going to spare no money and will do whatever it takes to win.  They don’t want to be in power by themselves.  They want everybody under them to be swept into power along with this president.  And so our work is just beginning.   We worked very hard in May.  We’ve got to work twice as hard in November.  We have got to help out the candidates of our choice; we’ve got to tell other people about them; we’ve got to get out and support them; financially support them; pray for them; because I am a firm believer that it is prayer that is going to bring our nation back from collapse; walking off over the edge.  I think that we are very close – our nation and our state and so I thank you again for everything that you did.  Find you a candidate, two candidates or how many you have the time for – call them up and say ‘I want to work for you.  I’ll do whatever I need to do.’  One of the things that we were really hoping to get through in the 2011/2012 legislative session was the Voter ID thing.  We tried everything that we possibly could do but we are not going to get it this year.  We are going to have to wait until we get a Republican Governor.  I feel that it will probably be Senate Bill 2, which the Healthcare Protection Act will be the first bill we pass next year; but the second bill will be Voter ID.  Once and for all take care of that in North Carolina.  This year we are going to have to be the Voter ID.  We are going to have to be sitting inside the polls, working the polls and questioning anything that we see that is out of place.  It works.  The first time I ever worked the poll on the inside and because I was sitting there, just sitting there with my pad in my hand, two people came in and they left without voting because they could not identify themselves.  So it does work.  That is what we have to do in this election coming up.  After this, maybe the law will take care of it.  Right now it is in our hands.  Being someone who has been in an election where I lost by 200 votes, I know it was stolen.  I know that that number of votes were stolen and taken but it’s GOD’s timing.  He has got us where he wants us at the time he wants us there and we are going to come through this election and we are going to put righteous men and women back in power in our state and our nation because GOD is not through with us yet.  He hasn’t given up on us yet.  Thank you all again for all that you did and I thank you in advance for all that we are going to have to do in November.  (Applause)

HOWARD GARNER wanted to know where Mr. Sanderson would be sworn in as Senator.  When he was sworn in in the House in 2010 Judge Paul Newby came to New Bern and did it in New Bern at the Palace.  HOWARD said some of us would like to be there, that is why he was asking.  Mr. Sanderson said he didn’t really know – it might be in Raleigh.  HOWARD said well if we have to go to Raleigh, then we’ll go to Raleigh.

BOB said one of the proudest moments for the Crystal Coast TEA Party was when we helped beat the snot out of Randy Ramsey.  (Applause)  Randy spent 10 to 1 against Sanderson.  Norman said it was a record for NC but not one he wanted to go through again.  BOB said a similar event took place up in Dare, Hyde, Washington and Beaufort Counties with Art Williams and Mattie Lawson.  Mattie was outgunned 8 to 1financially.  When Art did not receive an appointment he wanted from Perdue, he changed his registration to Republican last October to run as a Conservative against Mattie. The Outer Banks TEA Party and Beaufort TEA Party, worked really hard.  This shows you ‘people power’.  The most dangerous thing to a sitting politician is an informed electorate.  Speaking about people power.  You all have seen the results of the last (runoff) election.  All the candidates we supported won their races by a huge majority especially here in Carteret where we had a 4.8 percent voter turnout which is big for a second primary.  He thinks he heard we were the highest in the state.  He knows a lot of you worked the polls that day in the miserably hot agonizing heat of the day.  We manned our posts, filled our duty, passed out our recommended ballots and the number of people that showed up at the polls, with their TEA Party recommended ballots that they had cut from the newspaper (including the editorial) was absolutely amazing.  It is BOB’s opinion that the reason we had such a good turnout here in Carteret is because the people here, while not having the time to vet each candidate, knew they could depend on the TEA Party checking the candidates out and only recommending those they felt were the most conservative, thus enabling them to be able to vote with a clear conscience.  This shows the high regard many people here in the county have for us and we need to maintain and don’t violate that respect, by making sure we vet all candidates with everything we have to ensure we only support the best.  John, the owner of tonight’s meeting place restaurant, said it was because of the TEA Party’s recommended list that he and his wife were able to go vote, because they were too busy to check out the candidates themselves and he had faith in the TEA Party.  We must never stray away from our core principles.  One of the members said the main stream media was against us and what we stand for and fought us every chance they got.  BOB said there were some in the Republican Party also, that are dead set against the TEA Party.

The voter margin in Carteret County was absolutely amazing – 1927 Republican voted vs. about 320 Democrats who turned out to vote.  60% or better were greater for the people we supported.  Probably the widest margin was the Richard Morgan vs. Mike Causey.  Causey won by 70% here in the county.  As he had said the voter turnout was 4.88% but in looking at the map, for some reason Harlowe and Wiregrass precincts (all the precincts within Carteret County, when you go to the election site, shows that we had less than 10% turnout, but there was a spot that was bright red – Harlowe and Wiregrass precincts) had a 10 to 20% turnout.  HOWARD asked was that NANCY BOCK’s precincts.  BOB said he thought so, he was going to look into it and try to find out why they had such a higher turnout.  He also hoped that the results of Carteret County’s turnout and results sends a strong message to Raleigh to stay the heck out of getting involved in local elections.

Discussed Thom Tillis and Walter Jones and their terms of office.  Also discussed Onslow County needing someone to get another TEA Party group started there and why the group had folded earlier.  BOB said he thought he was going to go to Onslow and see what he can do about organizing a TEA Party there.  He was convinced that the reason we had continued when others had failed was because we meet each week.  Other TEA Party’s that he has heard about that have changed to meeting each week are now increasing in membership and activity.  Discussion on ideas for establishing a new TEA Party in Onslow County.  BOB said he was going to go to the Cape Carteret meeting tonight and discuss it with some of the members there to find a venue and day to hold the meetings.

A short question and answer was held by DAVID BEARD with copies of Patrick Henry’s speech he gave in 1775 to those who could come up with the correct answers.  A copy of a book on George Washington (by Glenn Beck I think) was also given for a winning answer.

GUY LEWIS told of seeing Glenn Beck in person.  He talked about that book on George Washington.  He said ’GOD was with every revolutionary at that time.  Had it not been for the prayers that (?) would not have come in and we would not have made that surprise attack.  It is all those that pray to GOD that make us a strong nation and those that don’t are doomed to fail.’  What a great show Beck put on and if he ever comes to North Carolina again, GUY  recommended everyone to go see his show.  It is really something to see.

DAVID BEARD said when he reads about how our armed services are going to be helped with drones; where he is pushing drones on police departments; where he has some kind of executive order where he can shut down all the media; – those are the things that Patrick Henry was talking about 237 years ago, when he could see things like this getting ready to happen.  And if people did not stand up, like the TEA Party is doing….you read those things and you know that our ’leader’ is planning something at election time.  If things look bad, he is planning on taking control of the country.

TOM HARMON said, on that same note, does anyone here get ’God Father Politics’, a news letter that comes through email?  Today, he thinks it was, said DHS is buying up more ammunition and weapons.  Now they bought a bunch up a few months back, but they just placed another order.  The weapons that they are getting aren’t what you’ll use in Afghanistan or someplace similar – they are all for urban quarters.  Just thousands and thousands of rounds of ammunition.  I don’t know what they are doing, but it doesn’t sound good.

HOWARD recommended that everyone read as much as they can on ’Council of Foreign Relations’.  This goes back years and years and they are promoting this ’one world government’ and almost every cabinet member and most of our presidents have been members of it.  He is reading a book that was written about 20 years ago, and it lists all the members.  The only one on there from North Carolina that he recognized was Terry Sanford.  Those of you who might remember, Terry Sanford feathered his nest big time as governor of NC.

JERE GEURIN said he had two real quick things to remind us of:
(1) We Care will be packing tomorrow morning (and for once he would be unable to attend) so if anyone here can possibly be there to help, please show up at the site, Sam’s warehouse.  Sam will appreciate your help.
(2) Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton will probably sign the Arms Trade Treaty.  He has written Burr, and Walter Jones (who can not vote on it) and Kay Hagan.  He received a very brief reply from Sen. Burr.  He has written Kay Hagan twice and both times she has left some wiggle room in her letter.  He does not trust her.  So, please call these people or write them tomorrow if you can and let them know that you oppose the treaty.  They are trying to take our guns away from us.  BOB said ’that to ratify a treaty it must be with a 2/3 majority of the Senate.  JERE said that he had read that it was possible that the Senate would not bring it to the floor for discussion and a vote.  Harry Reid will see to that.  And as a result of that, it will probably be put into effect by a presidential order.

VERNE THOMPSON said one thing he was concerned about was ’if the election does not go their way – what sort of mischief will the Democrats in Washington, as well as in Raleigh, might get up to.  He fully expects that if they lose the Senate in November, they will try to repeal filibuster and while some of you may not know but the guy that is heading up the effort to get the UN Arms Treaty ratified in the Senate is John Kerry.  In a recent interview, he said that the very best chance of getting it passed would be in the lame duck session.  So that is something that we need to be prepared to work against and lobby our Senators – if the Democrats lose the Senate in November.  BOB said they do not have a bullet-proof senate, because of Scott Brown.  VERNE said he thought even the Democrats will be nervous to ratify, so he thinks it will be an uphill battle, but it is worth noting that John Kerry is really going to try to push it in a lame duck session, particularly if the Democrats lose in the November election.  It will be an all out effort because they will know that they will not have another opportunity.  BOB said he has always thought that if Obama loses this election (and he believes he will), there will be rioting in the streets.  There is going to be all kinds of accusations of stolen election, etc.  It’s going to be like Florida all over again, even worse….magnified times 10.  He wanted to know if anyone knew who has the power to declare an election invalid for voter fraud?  Does that go to the Supreme Court?  VERNE said he thought it was the Federal Elections Commissions Board.  BOB asked. Who sits on that board?  VERNE said he thought they were presidential appointees.  On the point of executive order, he did not think the president had any authority at all to implement a treaty.  HOWARD said but he has already taken a lot of things he doesn’t have authority to and Congress has not called a halt to it.  Discussion on ratification.  JERE said this treaty goes beyond the second amendment.  This treaty also has to do with our sovereignty.  VERNE said the Law of the SEA Treaty is just about as bad.  We need to be ready to get on that when it comes up.  It is dead right now, but he is sure it will come up again.

BOB said he didn’t know where we were headed.  In the long run we are trying to influence the outcome of the elections and change the trajectory of the country it appears to be headed on.  Whether we are successful or not remains to be seen.  All we can do is what we can do and this coming up election is certainly the most important election in his life.  We will just have to work hard.  Any mail, email, snail mail, any communication you have with anybody in the country put a little note or add a little signature line on your email ’Get out the vote in November’…’Vote for ____’…whatever message you want to put out.  We just need to keep beating the drum…this guy (Obama, especially) has got to go.  TOM HARMON said since the TEA Party began, he has educated himself a whole lot more on the constitution and where we are than ever before and a lot of people across the country are the same way.  Before, we sat back and took whatever rolled down our way, and we are not doing it anymore.  BOB said yes, we trusted the government to do the right thing, but now we realize we can’t trust them.   BOB said what is taking place here tonight is taking place all around the country….thousands of TEA Party meetings everywhere.  The TEA Party Patriots is just one umbrella group and we are pushing almost 4000 chapters around the country.  The grass roots is working.  We are having this big influence on the elections.  2010 was a real eye opener for a lot of people.  A lot of people saw, but didn’t believe.  2012 is where the rubber is going to meet the road.  We have got to make sure that Obama gets defeated and if he doesn’t we need to be the first ones down to the store getting ammunition.

Discussion on operation of the TEA Party Patriots…ground up…no officials in charge calling all the shots….all members the same.  Began organizing in Oct 2009 right after Santelli (wall street) made his rant on ‘where’s the TEA Party’.  It caught on and caught on fast.   For more information Google ‘Tea Party Patriots.com’ (or .org,) and it will take you to the web site.  They have packages that you can order for helping organize or get a TEA Party started.  They have packages for having rallies.  That is where we get our TEA Party signs from.  They have shirts, hats and stuff like that.

VERNE said he read in the paper this morning that the guy that heads up the North Phoenix TEA Party (Arizona) has come out publicly advocating the impeachment of John McCain.  He wants to recall him.  VERNE said he had a lot of mixed feelings about John McCain but he suspects this is going to hurt the credibility of the Phoenix TEA Party by calling for his removal.  If for no other reason than McCain was just reelected.  BOB said this is what he is referring to… when you have someone rise to a little power and think they are totally running the show and begin to push their own agenda.  Recalling John McCain has absolutely nothing to do with ‘fiscal responsibility’, limited government, or free market capitalism’.  That is totally off the reservation.  There are some TEA Party groups getting organized that are anti-Muslims, Je Hadists, etc. We have to be careful of these ’far out’ pseudo TEA Party groups.  They are hurting our good name.  DAVID said he thought why the Phoenix group was upset with John McCain was because he and another Senator came out against Michelle Bachman because she had made the statement against the Muslims (Hillary Clinton’s aide who is married to the infamous Weiner).  Michelle was calling for a more definitive explanation as to what this woman’s role (her father is a leader in the Muslim Brotherhood) is with National Security issues.  McCain came out and spoke harshly about Michelle.  VERNE said he thinks this will all be moot in a few months, when the now group in power is gone.  BOB thinks this is why a lot of things that appear to be against the constitution, a lot of the legislatures, and senators, have not moved to fight a ballot on various issues because by the time they get through haggling, the elections will be over with…so just shut up, sit down, and wait.  TOM said ’that’s why they haven’t done squat in 12 months?’ BOB, probably.  The Republicans are so afraid to say anything about anything because they are afraid of alienating the independents.  TOM said he was an independent and the thing that alienated him was they were not doing anything.

DAVID COX wanted to know how many precinct polls were we able to have manned at the runoff election.  BOB said we had 12 or 13 out of 27.  DAVID asked,  What can we do to get the other precincts manned next time.  BOB said we either need to get folks from those precincts to start coming to the TEA Party meetings and get involved.  This is hard to do since some of those precincts are a good distance away (like Cedar Island).  We either need more people that are doubling up or tripling up on the local areas that will agree to go and sit at a precinct other than their own.  LYN BAKER said maybe we should have something in the paper for those who want to know what they can do.  This is something simple.  Doesn’t involve having a lot of preparation, etc.  BOB said he really would prefer that it be someone that we know who comes to our meetings regularly and is informed as to what we need done and why.  We have to be careful.  He attended a rally in the 2010 Washington rally where flags were being sold by Acorn people (little black girls) raising funds for the Acorn projects, and not the TEA Party.   You hear about the white guilt vote for Obama, well there was a lot of white guilt in buying those flags from those little black girls.   You really do need to know who you are dealing with.  There is a call for a statewide rally, but BOB thinks we need to work our local areas first.  Those attending the rallies are also the ones that will be voting anyway.  LYN said she felt the rallies kept attention on the TEA Parties.  Because we are not having as many now she feels is the reason so many think the TEA Party is dead.  RUTH PARKER wanted to know if there was not an area in the newspaper that listed area happenings.  Response – yes.  She wanted to know if we have to pay for that.  Response – don’t think so.  VERNE wanted to know if our meetings were listed there.  HOWARD said he thought they had been but had been discontinued since the Golden Corral closed (Another reason we need to find one spot for our meetings and stay there) because he had been checking to see.  VERNE said maybe we could just put TEA Party meets every Tuesday and give web address for time and place.  BOB said that is what our calling cards say.  HOWARD recommended to BOB, as chairman, to get in touch with the News Times and get something put back in (apparently someone at the paper knew the Golden Corral closed and decided to take our meeting info out for now).  We do need something back in there.  BOB said KEN LANG was our communications director and he does all that.  HOWARD said whoever, it just needs to get done.

Discussion on how much KEN does for the TEA Party, contacting and lining up our speakers,  writing letters to the editor, does interviews on the radio, does our web site, etc. and how much we owe him for his hard work….maybe a ’thankless job award’.

HOWARD said it was like when the Randy Ramsey poll worker commented on how he did not see how two old people (Howard & Peggy) could keep going like we did.  It was like we had it down to a science.  HOWARD told him “It was because we believe in what we are doing”!! and that is why.  HOWARD said he would prefer to stay back there in his garden and let the world go by, but he had reached the conclusion that he can’t – that is the coward’s way.  We have to fight all the way to the end.

BOB announced that Pat McElraft is going to be here on August 7 to talk to us.  Norman is planning to come back again sometime in August.  KEN is trying to work it out so that they both will not be here on the same day.

Vote was taken on where we will meet next week ….. John (G), has said he would love for us to come here and RUTH said Cox would love for us to go back there (sorry, they had been unable to handle us tonight, but had previously, prior to the closing of Golden Corral, booked the room we meet in there).  They have opened the slate to accommodate us every Tuesday until no longer needed….since we plan to go back to the Golden Corral when it reopens in October.  That is not to say that they (the Golden Corral) will let us meet there when they reopen.  Those in attendance voted to meet at Cox’s next week.   BOB said he would encourage us to come here to JingGianni’s with our families and support this conservative owned business.  It was suggested that we meet a couple of Tuesdays here and a couple of Tuesday’s at Cox’s.  Decision was that was not a good idea.  We need to pick one place and stay there.  It can get too confusing to our membership by moving around.  It will be hard to keep up with where we are meeting each week.
LUKE KUKULINSKI, jokingly asked if Kmart still had a snack bar.  Almost everyone in attendance said they had no idea, that they had not been in Kmart’s since they kicked us out of their parking lot for our rally.

BOB asked if we wanted to have a “Get Out the Vote Rally’ prior to November.  Most felt we should.  Problem is it will cost us about $1,000.00 to put it on (about $700.00 just for insurance, not counting all the other expenses) and where is the money going to come from since we do not have it in our treasury (only have somewhere around $600 to $700 now).  HOWARD said something we might want to consider is, if we do have a rally around the middle of the day, (if you go back many years when Republicans started to win in this county they would have a caravan on maybe a Saturday afternoon after the rally,) to drive through the county with signs on the cars, blowing their horns, attracting attention, using a PA system, asking people to get out and vote.  Let’s think about something like that.  He doesn’t know whether it will work now or not, but we might want to think about it. We will all be together for the rally, and just extend the rally throughout the county in a caravan.  BOB said back in the 50’s TV was still relatively new, they didn’t have mass media like they do now.  He remembers back when he was a kid all the cars, during election time, driving around with mega horns on the top of the cars.  He didn’t know what they were saying but it does stay in his mind about it going on.  He also remembers going with his Daddy (who was a Democrat) going around passing our little bottles of whiskey.  He was also the welfare director for the county and would go around passing out the welfare checks along with the bottles while asking for them to go and vote for various people.  That was the way New Jersey politics were run back then.  (Might still be in a little more unobvious way).  VERNON said we could get one of these message vehicles to go around with our message showing.  BOB said that costs about $800 a month.  LYN suggested we look into having ’honorary members’ who donate a certain amount of money to the cause.  We could put their names on our web site.  DAVID told about how they had utilized a robo-phone call system at Atlantic Beach prior to the runoff election from the list that FRED DECKER had made up for us.  PEGGY said to her our biggest problem was too many were not aware it was election day on the 17th.  We need to get the word out better next time.  Some said they were told that they had heard it on the radio.  BOB said his dentist came up about 6:55 to the poll where he was working and said ’thank goodness you are still here….took the TEA Party recommended ballot and raced into the voting booth.  DAVID said they had run the robo-call the afternoon prior to the election and let it run until about 5:30.  BOB wanted to know how much that machine cost.  DAVID said he didn’t think it was very expensive….maybe $25.00 to reach 600 people.  BOB said Carteret County had roughly 47,000 registered voters.  He wasn’t sure how many were Republican, Independent or Democrat.  HOWARD said he understood from KEN that DIANE had gone door to door in their neighborhood and left a copy of our recommended ballot and they had a very good turnout of voters from Stella where she lived.  He thought we might consider doing the same thing in our neighborhoods for the November election.  He thought those door hangers would be nice but  might be kind of expensive, but we could get a piece of tape and tape our list to the doors.  Why wouldn’t that work?  TOM said a couple of years ago he went up to Freedom Works and he was told if we need door knockers/door hangers to call them.  They would ship them to us.  If  we can get those, we can tape our ballot on one side while the other side states ‘get out the vote’.  TOM thinks they will provide them free for the asking.  RUTH said she had a problem where she was manning the polls with people coming up and saying they had been to two or three other polls but had been turned away and not allowed to vote.  TOM said they were supposed to vote where they had voted before.  RUTH said a couple of ladies were fuming mad saying they voted there last time but were not allowed to vote there again, but were told to go to another area to cast their vote.  (This problem was caused by the early voting being in one place and people thinking they were still supposed to vote there again ie. Where RUTH worked was for the voters in Brandywine and Wildwood, and no longer to be used by the voters from Newport.  They (Newport) were supposed to vote either at the St. James Methodist Church or Holly Springs Church).  VERNON said he would like to get a listing of the houses on his street or area.  He was told to get up with FRED.

Meeting adjourned at 7:30.
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary