CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
MEETING MINUTES OF
7 AUGUST 2012

Meeting was held at Jing Gianni’s, 4050 Arendell Street, Morehead City, NC
Meeting was called to order at 6:00 pm by Chairman BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance was led by BOB CAVANAUGH
Invocation by Norman Sanderson

BOB said he wanted to thank soon-to-be Senator Norm Sanderson and Lady Sanderson for coming and speaking with us tonight.  We also have soon-to-be’s Judge Rowe, and Judge McFadyen among our distinguished guests tonight.  (Applause)  “In case you all missed it, Judge McFadyen’s competition decided to drop out of the race (Applause).  That saves Dave’s friends a lot of money.  (Laughter)”   Someone asked what happened to Smith and why did he drop out of the race.  David said they had had a long talk (great conversation) and Kirby felt it just wasn’t in his best interest to stay in the race.  He respects everything Kirby had to say to him…he respects his rationale…to be honest with you, if the shoe were on the other foot, he probably would say the same things.  He appreciated his candor.  It does mean the race changes a little bit, but, said  his name is still going to be on the ballot and for that reason we will still have to get the vote out.    BOB asked ‘what happens if he gets more votes than you but has dropped out of the race before the election?’  David said,  ‘then he will win and tell you all that the people have spoken.’  Therefore we need to get that vote out in November, so something like that will not happen.  He did appreciate the article in the News Times.  It kinda spelled the situation out a little bit better than he could.  If you have not read that article, please go on line and read it there.

Pat McElraft arrived and was warmly greeted.  She apologized for being late.  She had run into some people she knew and stopped to talk to them.  She didn’t mean to be late.

BOB said he would like to talk about last week and update those who missed the meeting and possibly were unaware of all the situations that occurred.  We had to relocate our meeting place, once it became public knowledge that this Terry Jones was going to come down and speak to us.  He was invited down by Steve Best and BOB  knew about this in advance but he was gas lighted.  He said, ‘I recognized the name but didn’t know or think anything about who this guy was.  I did an internet search on this guy on Thursday, so I could do a proper bio and then I found out who this guy really was and I went “Holy —–”!  This is a land mine.  So, anyway, Sally Jesse Raphael had a real good saying of ’when you are handed a lemon, make lemonade’.  Several recommended that we  cancel the thing but I decided I would really like to have this guy come down so I could tell him to get out of the race.  He doesn’t take any responsibility for those thirty people that were killed in the rioting following his Koran burning back in April of last year.  I wanted to lay the blame squarely on his shoulders and tell him he had no moral basis on which to run for office in any capacity.  And as I read further on this guy, he has another thing planned September 11of this year, where he is going to put Mohammed on trial and I read on the internet where he planned to burn some more Korans plus burn effigies of Mohammed.  You know with the Muslims, you are not even supposed to draw a picture of Mohammed.  So, I was going to ask him to do a trade off, a good will gesture, that he would put off this trial of Mohammed in exchange for the Iranians lifting the death sentence off of the Pastor, (the Muslim that was converted to Christianity and was trying to start a Christian Church in Iran), that got locked up and sentenced to death for rejecting Islam.  After a world outcry, then they had changed it to ‘sentenced to death for rape and murder‘.  Anyway, I anticipated a very low profile attendance at this meeting…just the TEA Party members and this guy.  What I didn’t anticipate was that he was going to release press releases to the local papers….but being new to all this, still I should have anticipated that.  But a good lesson learned there.  When he put the press releases out, Ben Hobwood, reporter for News Times, (matter of fact Ben got four press releases from this guy) Ben called me during…I think it was Friday prior to the weekend, left a message on my cell phone, while I was working.  You know I work around a lot of noisy equipment…mowers, weed eaters, and stuff like that.  So, I got his message late, called him back and left a message on his cell phone.  He had wanted confirmation that this pastor, Terry Jones, was coming down.  I left a message that ‘yeah I can confirm that he is coming down here.  Give me a call when you get this message and you get a chance where we can talk‘.  But he never called and then ‘boom’ Sunday’s newspapers’ article came out without any background information and really misconstrued the purpose of what his visit here was for.  So KEN and I had to go into damage control on Saturday and Sunday.  First thing had a talk to Mr. Cox.  He was very upset because of the newspaper article.  Ken Humphries was trying to agitate the Democrats via email to get a crowd to show up at Cox’s and have a big demonstration.  We did not want that happening to the Cox’s so we asked for permission to bow out and relocate this thing elsewhere.  KEN LANG and I talked and decided to move it to STEVE BEST’s house…if STEVE would host it rather that bring it ‘here’ (Jing Gianni’s) or to some other establishment and cause someone else problems.  STEVE’s address was posted on the website for anybody that wanted to attend the meeting.  We really did not want it publicized.  We really did not want the Democrats showing up and protesting because this Terry Jones, he feeds off of protests.  He wants it in the news of people getting arrested and draws off of that.  He thinks it increases his popularity or so he thinks.  Anyway, he came down…we met….I told him basically why he was down there and he protested,  saying he thought he was invited to speak to us about his campaign.  I said that might be your understanding of why you came….that might be the pretext on why STEVE invited you, but that is not what is going to happen tonight.  Our purpose of having you here is two fold …number (1) to ask you to drop out of the race.  If you are so adamantly opposed to Obama, why are you muddying up the waters.  Any vote for you is a vote for Obama.   (BOB asked those in attendance tonight if they knew the name of the lady who questioned Jones at that meeting…. He thought her name might be Barbara..  HOWARD said she did a really good job in questioning him.)  Boy, she jumped all over him (Terry).  I also told him to think about putting off this trial of Mohammad’s in September…and as a good will gesture I said if you believe in fighting fire with fire….it’s not fighting fire… you are fighting hate and you fight hate with love.  I was wondering if this would have any influence on the pastor….cause what he was intending to do would have just the opposite effect.  Anyway, he wanted to know if he was going to have any opportunity to speak about all this false information I was disseminating.  I said ‘by all means…take the floor‘.  Well, he started going right into his stump speech talking about the moral corruption of the country… and how Romney was a pancake and Obama was worthless and how the American people had gotten lazy and not involved in the political process…..I interrupted him and said ‘what do you think we are doing?  You are preaching to the choir.  We know all about the moral corruption…we know about the overspending.  We want to know why are you running for the office of president.  He said that was what he was trying to explain.  Then this Barbara? jumped all over him again.  So Mr. Jones said well if you all aren’t going to let me speak, I’ll just pack myself up and leave.  There was a lot of commotion going on, but no one said ‘no, please stay’.  So he packed his stuff up and left.  I guess the whole thing lasted maybe five or ten minutes and he was gone.

Prior to the meeting Ben Hobwood showed up for photographs and this and that and I had a big piece of his butt over the way he wrote the article and how it caused Cox’s Restaurant to receive death threats called in against them.  I said there is such a misconception on why this Terry Jones is coming.  He had gotten the impression that we were welcoming this guy with open arms and wanted to hear what he had to say.  We had no interest at all in what he had to say.  Ben was quite shocked and following the meeting I called Lockwood Phillips and said ’look, one of the waitresses that works at Cox’s is here tonight and she confirmed that Cox’s was getting death threats.  Ben Hodwood has that information but we had requested that he not publish that.  We do not need people shying away from Cox’s Restaurant for fear of getting blown up or shot or anything like that.  Lockwood and I had a lengthy conversation and he said he would take care of it.  I had a couple of letters to the editor all prepared, ready to go and so did KEN.  We were anticipating a big deluge of letters in Friday’s paper, following our meeting Tuesday.  The Wednesday paper was published about our meeting and I thought it was very even handed.  I thought it was a very good report and it kind of did some backfilling on some of the missing blanks like how Cox’s had no idea about what was going on and also explained what our purpose was in having the guy come down.  I am the chairman of the group but that doesn’t give me any power other than to pound the gavel when someone gets noisy.  We are a bottoms up organization.  Everybody here has an equal right to invite whoever they want to speak to us, but I think if we are going to have, or you are entertaining having, a controversial figure…someone who is not a mainstream candidate…third party, fourth party or whatever and you want him to speak to us, I want you to get up before the group and explain who this person is and why you think it is relevant you think he come and talk to us on these non-mainstream issues,  so we can make a decision as to whether we want this person to come down.  Don’t fault STEVE for inviting this guy.  I take responsibility cause I knew he was coming and even on Thursday when I found out who this guy was it was my decision to go forward with it.  I did not anticipate the press was going to blow this thing up the way they did once they got wind of it.

BOB recognized VERNE THOMPSON.  He said ’well, if you remember, we did take a vote to confirm the invitation and I was one of the ones who voted to have the guy.  I kind of think this is a live and learn…and I think we may need to vet people a little better in the future.  Out of curiosity….did this guy drive all the way here from Florida?  BOB said he spent nine hours driving to come up here and talk to us, overnighted in a motel on Highway 70 in Newport, and turned around……VERNE asked ’Did you ever find out what in the world was so important for him to do that?’  BOB said ’obviously this guy is starving for places that will have him talk.
Any time we get to waste a whole day and the money of somebody like that, it is a good day.  HOWARD said he had thanked BOB last Tuesday, but there are a lot more people here tonight than there were there Tuesday; that he wanted the whole group to know that he thinks that BOB and KEN did an outstanding job in trying to smooth things over.  He (HOWARD) truly appreciated the job they did on it.  (Applause)  BOB said he appreciated HOWARD’s kind words and he would pass it on to KEN later tonight when he visits their meeting.  Like I said when I started out….when you are handed a lemon, you make lemonade.  If we had cancelled that darn thing after the press had gotten wind of it….I think the next headline would have said ‘TEA Party caves under local pressure’…and that would have looked bad and the misconception would have still been left in people’s minds, so it was best to go forward with this thing….have it out and get it all cleared up.

RUTH PARKER said she had had several customers at Cox’s this week say they thought we handled it like it should have been handled.  They were very glad that we handled it like we did.  They had been very upset to start with but they got over it.  BOB said that misconception was because the press had run an incomplete story and left a false impression in peoples’ minds.  PEGGY GARNER said she had received several emails from people who were not TEA Party members who said they were surely glad to see that second article.  They were afraid of what might happen to such a dedicated and active organization.  They had really been upset with the first article and the TEA Party itself.  They said they had a lot more respect for the TEA Party after the second article.  BOB said he had had a long conversation with Lockwood and had anticipated lots of letters to the editor on Friday.  When there were no letters on Friday, then he thought surely they will be there on Sunday and when there was nothing on Sunday, KEN and I, having been holding our letters back, decided to let a dead dog lay.  We talked to Lockwood and he said after a couple of news cycles and nobody is raising a stink, then let it go away.  KEN did publish a press release that I think got published on line.  Anyway, good lesson learned there.  I think we solved the situation.  BOB said that those women that we could get the word to, we asked that they not show up for the meeting with this guy, because every eman in the far east had a death warrant out for him, plus not knowing what crazies in Carteret might come out of the woodworks.  BOB said he couldn’t tell you how many nasty emails he got and KEN got plenty also.  There were a couple of responses to the letters to the editor that were negative.  One of them was Hilda Davis.  She used to attend our meetings but got upset when we allowed CATIE  MCCABE (HOWARD and PEGGY’S great granddaughter who had been coming to our meetings ever since we began, almost.)….anyway we had appointed CATIE to serve on the rules committee and Hilda thought she should not have been asked to serve.  She was too young.  CATIE had been more active than most of our other members back then.  PEGGY apologized for there not being any minutes last week.  She had been asked not to attend since the other officers were concerned about the possibility of violence and so she had given KEN her recorder to record the meeting.  Apparently either KEN had left the recorder on outside the building, or the conversations never got loud enough to understand enough to be able to type up the minutes.

BOB said before we get to our distinguished visitors tonight WAYNE WILLIS needed two minutes to impart everything he knows to us.  (Laughter)  WAYNE said it would really not take two minutes to tell everything he knows (joking among attendees about WAYNE and his down east brogue).  WAYNE said for those who do not get the “Carolina Journal” (he recommends that you do subscribe, it is very informative – plus it is free and it has news in it about what the Republicans are doing in North Carolina)  The front page story that came out today, is something of general concern because you are a citizen of North Carolina and you may be aware of an episode that started a number of years ago relating to this ’North Carolina Ports Authority lost an effort to build what it called America’s next great port‘.  I’ll bet there is two or three in here that knows what I am talking about.  Well, turns out that without any approval of the legislature and just passing support from Mr. (? Coughing covered name) the ports authority borrowed two million dollars in 06 to buy….what was it….12 acres of land in Wilmington….no – 600 acres.  They have decided, being the two candidates for governor, that neither one of them wants to support this project, which is a good thing because they had admitted it was going to cost Billions of dollars if they really did it and now the only fall the state of North Carolina is going to take is for the 30 million dollars that the ports authority borrowed for a piece of property that Brunswick County says is only worth 12.7 million dollars in tax revenue.  HOWARD said they also spent 2 million dollars on a study.  He had read the article last night.  WAYNE said he knew some of you all had read the article but this was for those who had not or didn’t get the paper.  Anyway there is a picture of this woman standing on the edge of this piece of property holding a No Trespassing sign that says This is Property of the Ports Authority.  The other thing, along that same line, but is not quite as good a news as that, is on page 4, about the public debt that North Carolina has got which is something we all have to deal with….and you all probably already know more about this than I do, but the best I can tell from this print that in 2010 the state had obligated the taxpayer 60.7 Billion while only having 20.1 Billion in assets to pay it with.  That ain’t good bookkeeping, I don’t care who you are.  Another thing I wanted to pass on to you is local.  None of you care about this probably….since none of you live down east, but there is a line been put on a piece of paper by the Department of Transportation that may someday be a study to do a project called “Paving the Open Ground Road”.  The excuse for it is it being an evacuation route in case of hurricanes people down east can get away.  I would love for that to be a four lane highway so that the ding batters would stay out of my yard.  (Laughter)  BOB said thank you for all that WAYNE.  BOB said he also recommended that if you were not already subscribing to the Carolina Journal, you need to do so.  HOWARD said that five days a week you could also get it on line with some outstanding information available.

BOB said TOM AUSTIN went to the Americans for Prosperity summit meeting and he brought back several mementoes (trillion dollar bills, cards for sending a pig to your representative, etc.)  He asked TOM to give us a rundown on the meeting and worthwhile things we should get out of it.  TOM said, “It was the Americans for Prosperity Defending the American Dream Summit.  It started Thursday night (we got in Friday morning) and it was over Saturday evening.  North Carolina had its own delegation up there where we had an ice cream social at the end.  We also had a breakfast and a luncheon.  They had the Civitas and John Locke come in and give us a talk on what they will do to help us…how they do their polling….and a lot of other good information…most of it you can get on line.  They said they will come in anytime we needed their help in anyway shape or form….classes, show us how to do the canvassing and every thing else.  They were very helpful.  The first breakout session that I attended was with the AFP of Wisconsin.  They are the ones that took on all the unions and everything up there and defeated them not once but twice.  Governor Scott Walker, with their help, actually got more votes the second election than he did the first.  After it was done and they tallied things up they actually have more activists…conservative activists on the ground up there now than there are union members in Wisconsin.  (Applause)  They work with two main points….one is accountability… they say speak the truth….don’t go telling weird tales projecting into the future, just speak the truth on who is responsible for things and what you think needs to be done to correct it, and what your candidates are going to do.  Don’t sit there and get weird on stuff, but just point out…this is a fact…you can check it.  This is who caused it…check that.  This is what our people are going to do to correct this matter.  Another is ‘let the elected know that they will be held accountable once they are in office.’  But by doing this we have got to have their backs.  We can’t say ‘go up there and do this for us’ and then turn around and walk away.  We got to know when people are coming down after those that we have supported…that we had tried to get into office that support what we have to say…that we are going to have their backs.  If we are not going to support them, we fail them, watch it and they fail us.  So it is a two way street on that.

Another thing that they said was that they have new directions that they are going in.  They went through what they did….now these people up there in Wisconsin, I don’t know if we are doing this down here or not….they got sneaky.  The prison guards up there are all unionized.  And what they would do with their sick leave is they would call in sick for their shift…get paid full time…. it is part if their 40 hours…and then they go in in the afternoon and work their buddy’s shift…for which they get paid for there; so they are getting double time for working an eight hour shift that they ought to do anyway.  They said once they corrected that problem…quit what they called ‘time stacking‘…that they were actually able to save enough money to hire more prison guards to get the job done.  I don’t know if our prison guards are unionized or not, or if they have been trying this…or what.  They got up there and did a lot of work with the local people.  And the local people know their neighborhoods.  They go out there and if you do not know 4 blocks down the street, OK don’t go there.  Go around the neighborhood you work or live in….knock on their doors… and if you know this person is a ’die hard liberal’ and supports mostly Marxism and all the other hard core liberals, don’t knock on his door.  Don’t waste your time.  You got a Republican or Independent down here, knock on their door.  If they say they don’t want to hear it then just say ‘well, here will you take this?  If you have any questions, please fill free to call‘.  Shake their hand, wish them good, and go away.  How many of you saw that video of the girl at Chick Fil A?… where that piece of garbage was chewing her out?  You saw that?  That is their attitude. Her attitude is the attitude you have to have.  Don’t let them get mad at you.  Don’t let them change the subject.  If they want to talk about bananas and you are talking about apples, just say, ‘I understand about the bananas but we are talking apples here‘.  And carry on with it.  They stay with the issues.  Personal contact was their strongest method.  They did a lot of the door hangers and they did done this.  They actually had people come up from Texas to help out.  One of the things that they did some work with the people there.  We’ve got people from South Carolina who know their counties are secure.  They know what they are going to be doing.  So they are going to be coming up into North Carolina counties down around the Charlotte area and are there to help  the TEA Partyers out.  So we’ve got some stuff going there.  Like I said, ‘don’t roust out the opposition.  Don’t go knock of these peoples doors that you don’t want voting cause you know they are going to vote the wrong way.  Let sleeping dogs lie.

Some more information they handed us can be found on ‘www.reforms.gov.  The information is on their web site. (I missed that session – I took a nap, I was tired.)

The dinner was good food, small quantities – like 3 asparagus and a piece of chicken about the size of a quarter – just doesn’t cut it.  Not for North Carolina.

The speakers – we had Scott Walker, Gov. Bob McDonnell from up in Virginia, Dicky McKenney, and Michelle Malkin….and I am telling you….she only stands this high but she is a fireball.  She could walk past a forest and there would be a fire.  Several people at my table were from South Carolina and North Carolina TEA Parties.  I went up by myself, so I was meeting anyone who would stop long enough to shake my hand.  Lockwood got to interview Scott Walker.  I don’t know if you all heard the interview.  I didn’t.  I was eating.  He interviewed Scott Walker last Friday on Viewpoints. As I said the North Carolina breakfast….we were thinking bacon and eggs and they had melon and bagels.  (Laughter)  It was a continental breakfast.  It was hosted by the Pope, John Locke, and Civitas.  They gave out outstanding information.  Laura Ingrahams was there.  So that went really good.  Also had the people that are putting out the Atlas Shrugged movie people.  If you want to go to that it will be out in a few weeks.  They talked about all the problems that they had with Hollywood trying to block them.  Let’s support them and go see the movie.  Even if I have to drive another 100 miles to go see it by myself because no one wants to go with me again.  BOB said after seeing Part I, he would drive 100 miles to see Part II.

TOM said ’another thing he went to after that was the property rights or Center for Prosperity session.  This problem is primarily out west.  I didn’t realize it until they put the maps up just how much of other states…the government has seized the land because they could not sell it off to people.  The state was supposed to sell it and the federal government said, this is your land and if you do not sell it, we are going to take it back.  They did not sell it at a dollar and fifty an acre and they ended up having to turn it back over to the federal government.  They are having to sue the federal government to get their land back.  It is like 70% of Nevada belongs to the federal government.  60 to 70% of Utah.  We are thinking this is a major problem out there.  However, if your back lawn gets flooded, guess what?  It’s a duck pond.  It is wet lands.  They will then tell you what you can build there.  Another thing that they brought up…the EPA is starting now, is called Intermittence Streams…where it is only a stream part time.  A roadside ditch is a good example.  They are seizing control of these.  They have an area out there by Salt Lake City where they were building a highway going out to the airport. The airport had already been built and they are building a highway out there and the EPA stepped in and said excuse me, you can’t build out there.  This right here is an intermittent stream.  There hasn’t been any water here in years.  Well, yeah, but if it rains, it’s going to fill up.  So they blocked the highway construction and made them reroute and build a bridge through the area which cost millions of dollars.  So the EPA is becoming a Gestapo-like organization.  You need to look out for it down here.  How many of us know people, if we haven’t ourselves, had them come into our yards and say you can’t extend your yard or drain that because it is wet lands and you are going to kill off this fish that we’ve got a zillion of anyway.  ERIC BROYLES said you mean to tell me that if we have a hurricane and we get an inch or two in our yards, they can come in and declare it wet lands?  TOM said they can come in and declare wet lands.  They are doing it.  HOWARD said an example…in New Bern where Target store is….EPA went in and found a few plants and claimed it was wet lands so, the guy that owns Target built it anyway….went up around Cove City and bought several acres and transferred that into wet lands up there.  TOM said look at our WalMart down here.  I’ve got no idea how they got that.  Over half of that was wet lands.  They could have done the same thing.  This property that you think you own…you don’t.  If you pay taxes on this stuff that means the federal government can come up, put a gun to your head and say give us some money and then you can live there.  A little extreme in saying but that is what it is.  You got to pay taxes on it – you don’t own it.  Yeah, I get a little upset about that.  I just bought a house and nobody told me about the taxes.

After that we had another session.  Some of the things that came up in general discussion were:
Don’t take no over mediocre things.  If you are going after reforms, go for the bold reforms that catch people’s eyes, that get people moving, makes it exciting to get up and go do things.  Explain while you are doing it, explain how you are going to achieve those reforms.  Don’t just say, I want to do this.  Tell them how you are going to do it.  When you are talking to people about political subjects keep it personal.  Explain how it is going to affect them.  Like with the EPA.  They are going to take your land or tell you how you can do something with it.  That affects everyone of you.  Listen to the people you are talking to.  They want to be heard.  You want to be heard.  You discuss Obamacare.  This is a big thing.  You are going to turn people off right there…Obamacare.  You should refer to it as the Affordable Healthcare Package.  That is the correct name.  Then people will listen to you.  Have you heard about the Affordable Healthcare Act?  No?  (If you come up and ask about Obamacare, you get ’I’m tired about hearing about it’.)  If you hear anybody talking about Paul Newby’s campaign and he is running against Sam Irvin, please explain to them this is not ‘Sam‘.  This is his grandson.  Sam is dead.  His grandson is a liberal.  The loss of teachers in this state as well as in Wisconsin was from lost of federal funds.  In Wisconsin, once they got through, they actually hired more teachers than they had before on the state payroll.  The teachers they lost were only temporary from money they had received from the federal government which was not renewed.  Make that clear to people.  Another objective, when you are talking to people, make it clear that you do not allow the subject to be changed.  Get the grass roots people out there…that’s you, me and everyone….knocking on doors…putting up door hangers….things like that.  Early messaging.  If you wait until the last minute to tell somebody something, somebody else has already told them something else.  Let the candidate that you support know that as long as he keeps his word, you’ve got his back and you will continue to work for him.  It gives the candidate an added incentive to get out there and keep their promises.  Now there is two things, one – if they start talking racism, you want to avoid this subject like the plague.  But if somebody comes up and starts talking it, let them know and remind them that the KKK is a product of the Democrat party….not the Republican party.  Part of the original purpose of the Klu Klux Klan was to keep the freed slaves in place and kill all the Yankee Republicans.  That was their stated goal.  Also let them know about the Wilmington riots.  A total Democrat objective…totally put on by the Democrats with the use of the Klu Klux Klan and until this day was the bloodiest riot to have happened in the state of North Carolina.  They had bodies floating down Cape Fear River for three days after it was supposed to be over.  So if they want to talk racism with us, hand it back to them….but it’s better to avoid the subject at all costs….other than just turning around and walking away.  An audience member said the civil rights act of 1965 would not have passed without Republican support.  TOM said it was primarily a Republican effort to get that done.  If you get a chance to go to this thing (attend this meeting) next year, do so, if for no other reason maybe I won’t get stuck with a room mate that only has bad things to say about the Marine Corps.  He got dropped from OCS and is still mad.  TOM asked if there were any questions and thanked us for listening to him tell about what he had learned on his trip.  Discussion on TOM trying to get something going in Onslow county with either the AFP or TEA Party.

Discussion on GOP Headquarters, hours open and who is in charge of operation and getting people to help.

BOB welcomed Pat McElraft.  For those of you who do not know, Pat is our representative in the North Carolina State Legislature.  (Applause …. Comment ‘and a good one too‘.)   BOB said Norm Sanderson was our candidate of choice in the Senatorial race to take Jean Preston’s place and he had an election coming up this November, along with Pat.  BOB said they knew they didn’t have to use up their time coming down to speak to us because they both knew we were already with them all the way anyway.  However, they were always welcome and so if you will tell us what can we do to help you all.  You know we are going to have our TEA Party ballot again and we will be manning as many polls as we can fill in Carteret County….passing out our voter recommendations.  One of the things I understand you are interested in talking to us about is, us plus several other TEA Parties in the state that are really, really concerned about folks in Raleigh getting involved in trying to hand pick who our legislatures are going to be down here.  We really took offence to the Randy Ramsey thing and some of us worked quite hard with Mattie Lawson up in House 6, to get Art Williams defeated.  We are not quite sure whose fingerprints are all over that but Tillis, and Burger and Harry Brown’s names keep coming up.  Some of us are really thinking about organizing to try to get Tillis and/or Burger or whoever needs to be ousted out of their seat.  So with a grass roots thing going through the House or Senate members before the election.  Anyway, if you can give us any background on that, where we are wrong or where we are right or none of our business, stay the hell out of it…..Anyway, we welcome your position on this matter.

Pat said, “I want to speak on that subject, if I could.  First of all I want to tell you…you know why the guy from Florida wanted to come up here?  Because you all have the most incredible name all over the state of North Carolina.  Our TEA Party is respected by everyone.  In fact, I didn’t do any DNA testing but I talked to Senator Harry Brown and he promised that he was not involved in the Randy Ramsey thing, so I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt, because we need him there.  Coastal Carolina needs Senator Harry Brown and he is a good guy.  He said to me, your TEA Party has the most influence of any TEA Party or anyone in the state of North Carolina. He was amazed….and I said the others need to do exactly what our TEA Party is doing…make the list….get out and work those polls because people here come to the TEA Party for their information.  You noticed that when they went to the polls in the primary they depended on the TEA Party for information.  In fact, my husband was asked on the golf course, who does Pat recommend?  He said, I’ll give you the TEA Party list…and they said that will be even better.  Anyway, you all, keep doing what you are doing and spread it out to other TEA Parties.  Let me tell you, what Carteret County did for the judges, we have got to continue….because if we lose that Supreme Court seat, we are gone.  I want to speak real quickly on the sea level rise thing.  You talk about environmental…you talk about extremists and hate and lies and deceit…these environmental extremists who are lined up right with the extremists EPA of the Obama administration have come to North Carolina.  In fact, they were in the plans of North Carolina before we took over.  You can ask Norman Sanderson.  I mean the environment laws in North Carolina were stricter than anywhere else in the whole United States.  And this sea level rise thing was getting ready to cost you all insurance increase.  They were talking about the sea in a hundred years…Now tell me, why we are even talking about one hundred years from now.  Sea level rise is not actually on the incline. It actually is like in a holding pattern.  It has not gone up in the past 40 or 50 years.  Yet they, all of a sudden, want to say it is going to rise 3 feet.  What that does is takes people two miles away from the beach and the sound and put them in a flood zone.  Don’t you know the federal government is involved in that…because they want everybody to be in that flood zone, so you can start paying flood insurance.  So that they can bail out all these other people.  So, I wanted you to know that environmental extremism is alive and well in the United States….and alive and well in North Carolina.  So we got ridiculed…we got hate mail… I get Google alerts every day on some blog saying ‘I have a fourth grade education’.  Anyway, I hope I have not embarrassed you but we have stood up for what is right for Coastal Carolina. (Applause)  ERIC BROYLES said, that is a study, right?  Pat said, It is a study…it is to continue the study because the study that they did was just to take the most extreme case out there and extrapolate from it and they wanted everybody to start using it for planning and everything else.  What it is…it is taking away your property rights.  BOB said we saw all of this as part of the UN Agenda 21.  Pat said, Absolutely.  Anyway we want you to know we are aware of it.  We have done regulation reform…we did a lot this year in the House and the Senate and said no North Carolina law can be more extreme than a Federal Law.  If there is a Federal Law then we can not be anymore extreme….because we are right now.  Anyway, wanted to let you know we are going to keep the environment clean.  My motto is ‘Clean, Green, and Not Extreme’.  That is where we have got to come in and make sure we protect your environment but I am not going to let them take away your property rights.  You all know what I stand for.  My husband was a 30 year Marine.  I am running for my 4th term.  I was a county commissioner for a while and an Emerald Commissioner for a while, so you know my record.  I’ll stand up for you and I want to hear from you, because I represent you and not me.  We had the pro-life thing.  I was primary sponsor on the 24 hour wait on the ultrasound.  We are so proud of that.  We are not stopping on just economic things….we are also doing some social things that are really important I think to Conservatives.  I want to thank you for your support and thank you for always being there for me and if I can help with anything… and Norm and I are going to work well together.  I know he will be elected and I hope I will be too.

BOB asked Pat if she came up with that motto ‘Clean, Green and Not Extreme’ or did you borrow it from somebody.  Pat said, ‘You know what when I was a commissioner in Emerald Isle we had some extreme environmentalists on there and I accidentally got on the board.  I had a slate of guys that said we know you are not going to win because you are new here but we need a woman to run on our slate.  Well, you know what…I was the only one of those five that got elected….and it was only because I was a woman and they said ‘she’s not going to do anything’.
I took two of the other board members and we started being the majority on that board and we got rid of the environmental extremists.  Our motto was ‘Citizens for a Balance Government, Clean, Green, and Not Extreme’.  That is my philosophy all along.  I did come up with the motto but it was for the Emerald Isle Commissioners.  VERNON said he understood why those environmentalists used 100 years.  It is worth noting that the answer to that is because it is irrefutable.  Nobody knows what it is going to be 100 years from now, so if it is irrefutable, they take the attitude ‘we have to assume the worst case scenario’.  Pat said, In the 70’s we were so worried that the ice age was coming back.  If we had planned for the ice age what would have happened to all this global warming.  I am not going to be intimidated by anybody.  My poor old way has been cussed at….you would not believe the stuff we have gotten from people…I have gotten emails every day….’how stupid are you?’….where did you go to school? …but I don’t respond to them.  Anyway, thank you for letting me serve you.  It has been my pleasure.  (Applause)

ERIC thanked Pat for letting the study go forward on fracking, to see if it was worthwhile.  Pat said we were the only state where fracking was not legal.  What we did was make it legal and then take a two year moratorium to set up all the regulations to make sure we do it environmentally friendly.  We learn from the other states.  We don’t pollute anyone’s wells.  We do it the right way. But you would have thought we were getting ready to put fracking oil in the ground…it is not going to happen for at least 2 years.

TOM AUSTIN     said he hated to interrupt but he wanted to drop this on you all…I work down in Camp Lejeune.  I have two people on my team that I work with that grew up in the Camp Lejeune area.  They are older people and they told me that they came down there and about 1960, they don’t remember exactly when, a test run was made (a test drill).  They hit oil down there near Hall Run Road.  They put in a drill, hit oil, backed off, and capped it.  It is now on state property and everybody has forgotten about it.  But there is oil down there.  Pat said and natural gas also.  TOM said at that time it was not financially feasible for them to be pumping the oil out from that location.  So if anyone says there is no oil….they lie.

BOB asked Norm if he had any comments.  Norm said ‘I never miss an opportunity‘.  (Laughter) Need to stay in practice.  I just want to echo what Pat has said and I just want to thank you guys for allowing us to come.  And I want to thank you for the support you gave us in the primary.  There is no doubt in my mind (and a lot of other people’s minds) that without the support of this group….without the hard work that you all did, I would not be standing here in front of you today.  It would be my opponent, Mr. Ramsey….that is if you all would have allowed him to come and talk to you.  BOB said he wouldn’t talk to US.  Norm said, what happened in the last approximately 8 months in the last 2 years, what we have been able to do in the conservative control of the legislature is just a ripple on the water.  There is a whole lot more that has got to be done.  I knew going in two years ago, that 2010 wasn’t the election that we had to worry about.  It was this election coming up.  This is going to be the report card of what we have done as Republicans in North Carolina Legislature.  Just as this is going to be the report card of what has happened in Washington, DC in the last 4 years.  I know that somebody is going to stand up and tell you that every election is the most important one.  And I know that everybody that is in this room tonight knows in their heart that that is true.  Our nation is headed for a place that I am not sure that we can ever come back from.  Our state is pretty close behind on the heels of it.  A good Legislator is somebody that uses common sense and they bounce common sense off of what our Constitution allows us to do….to come up with good laws that benefit 99.9% of the people in our state and our nation.  I think that is what you have.  Everything that I look at, first I bounce it off  GOD’s word.  It’s gotta come through that first.  But then I think to myself does this make common sense?  Because so many times in Raleigh (and in Washington) we’ve done things that make no common sense what so ever.  If it passes those two tests…. then I say ‘is it going to benefit or hurt the people in my district.  When it goes through all three of these tests then it is either good or it is bad.  That is what I go by.  As Pat said, what you guys did, your reputation has gone all over the state.  There are people in Raleigh still scratching their heads and wondering how in the world you all pulled off what you did here.  They have no clue whatsoever.  That is not the way it was supposed to come out.  Let me just say, while I am here, I understand to some degree….I was in the mist of that battle….I took all of it about as personal as I could as far as who was behind this…how did this happen….and where was the money coming from….and all of that.  I lived with that every single day…every single night….for months and months.  But let me tell you now how I feel.  I’m not going to tell you all what to do, this is your business.  That is behind me.  For me, what is important is what happens from this point forward.  No matter what happens, what somebody got behind and what their idea was and maybe they thought they knew better than we knew.  I think what you have done has really taught some people a huge lesson.  And I think what has happened in this past primary, I don’t think you are going to see happen again.  They may be calling down here wanting to know who do YOU think is the best candidate.  (laughter)  I think you all taught some people a lesson.  Let me just tell you, because I’ve been running for office since 2006 and I know  that the Republican party in the 2000’s and 1990’s, they had to shake every bush in North Carolina to find candidates that would even put their name on the ballot…because candidates did not want to go out and get embarrassed and lose like Republican candidates used to lose.  And so it is kind of hard to get out of that mindset after the first time.  But I think you guys have got the best slate of …I’m glad that I am on your list….because I believe you have the best slate of state-wide candidates from the top (governor) right on down.  You have the best slate for North Carolina and probably any state in this country.  I have met most of these guys personally.  They are common sense, down to earth, hard working people and have the best interest for citizens of this state and that is what is foremost on their minds.  So I think if you will continue to work like you did before…when I think about what you guys are doing I always remember about all the stories that I used to read in the Bible when I was coming up in the Baptist Church…and they talked about GOD and said every time his favorite people were in jeopardy of losing something then GOD would raise up a standard….he would raise up a leader… he would raise up a group of people to bring his nation out of the danger they were in.  Let me tell you something guys, you are it.  If you think you are hearing this just because it seems like a good idea…GOD has ordained you to be here at this time to help save this state and help save this nation because we are still a favored nation.  We are still the nation that spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world more than any other nation in the history of our world and I think that our best days are ahead of us.  You are here for a very specific reason and you get to enjoy all the other benefits in the process.  I don’t think anybody in this room would be anywhere else tonight except right here.  We have got to work hard and let me tell you when we get through 2012 – 2014 will be just as hard.  We can run the liberals off to the other side of the hill, but they are not going much farther.  They are going to lay right there and wait until we lay our guard down and then they will come storming right back.  And so, we are going to have to fight for this state and fight for our nation from now on.  It is not going to be easy with what other people want to force on us but if we will keep our guard up and if we will fight and we will work hard then we will have something to pass on to our children and grand-children and generations to come.  And it is not going to be a bunch of debt.  OK!   One of the biggest things that we will do next year in North Carolina is re-write our tax laws and make them simple.  But the first thing we have to do is pass a Tax Payer Bill of Rights which will protect you all and guarantee that we don’t spend everything that comes to Raleigh, because there are people up there that want to do that.  Pat and I have got to go back next year and regardless of who is elected President of the Senate or Speaker of the House, they are just a person.  I want you to understand that if everything goes right in the Republican House caucus the 67% of the elected Republicans in the House next year will be either freshmen or second term legislators.  That is a lot of new blood.  That is a lot of new ideas.  It is a lot of anticipation of people wanting to do what is right for our state and you are going to see a whole lot of changes when we don’t have to fight every single day with what is over in the Capital Building.  We have got to elect a Republican governor, keep control of the House and Senate and you are going to see a lot of good things happening in the state of North Carolina.  We fight hard.  Whatever you did last time…whatever you did in the primary…you just got to fight twice as hard in the general election.  People ask me ‘how do you feel about your election?’ I tell them I feel like I am 20 points behind and I have to work every single day….every single hour…that I possibly can win.  So that is what we have got to do to keep the feet to the fire.  We will do our part.  Don’t send us up there to Raleigh like has been said and leave us.  Don’t do that.  What I like is about 10 of your email addresses and when I get those ugly emails, I can just forward them on to you and you take care of them.  (laughter and applause)

Pat asked, Could I say one more thing and I hope I’m not putting you on the spot.  Speaker Tillis is a good conservative.  He is a good leader.  Some people have been against him from the very beginning.  I don’t know if that is where this all started.  Maybe his DNA and fingerprints are on the other election.  I talked to Mattie…she has talked to Speaker Tillis.  We need to keep him, I truly believe, as our leader because he has been through it.  He knows how to negotiate.  He is professional.  I’d love to get him down here to talk to you all.  In fact, I am going to have a couple of fund raisers…barbecue and stuff….and I am hoping that we ( me and Sanderson) are going to have one together.  But we need to get him down here and really talk.  It is up to you all what you want to do but we need to be unified here and I truly believe he is going to be our next Speaker.  If we start pounding on him then the Democrats are going to see us as weak..  If we had had the same thing the Senate did…the override…..without having to get Democrats, I think you would have seen some different things.  He did not try to weaken the Voter ID bill, like he has been accused of doing.  Like I say, I don’t know if he was involved in Mattie’s race, but if he was, or if anyone was, that is just like Norm said, it is behind us now.  I hope we can all get behind whomever we select and all work together to defeat the liberals.  BOB said he was all in favor of that and as the old saying goes ‘if you ignore history, you are bound to repeat it’.  If Tillis, and Burger and whoever else was involved, and the candidates want to bury the hatchet over that…that is fine.  It is all between you and them.  As far as the TEA Party is concerned we are not going to forget this.  We just do not want them involved in trying to handpick who the heck we are going to have, so you tell them to back off because what they saw in this election was just a shadow of what is going to come at them if they mess around with this stuff again.  Politics is local so leave it local.  BOB said the way they intimidated that poor girl from the western part of the state at the convention about the handouts she was passing out…anyway, just tell them we are watching them.  HOWARD said ‘Forgive your enemies, but remember their names’.   FRED said these lists that they send out of who is a gold, silver, platinum donor….on Randy Ramsey’s event they had in New Bern with the car dealers, Thom Tillis was on there, Phil Berger was on there, Harry Brown was on there, Scott Thomas, Joe Alcoke, and many more.  I also know that when Thom Tillis ran the last time, Arthur Williams gave him a $1,000.00.  BOB said there was more than that….there were some phone calls that we were privy to.  Anyway, the dog is dead and we will let it lay for now, but (someone said – ‘if it gets up again, shoot him’.)  BOB said it is true we do have one of the strongest TEA Parties in North Carolina.  Everyone keeps asking me why?  I keep telling them the secret is having your meetings weekly.  If you do it weekly it becomes a night when you take your wife out, or the one night a week you get out, and you are doing things of interest.  By meeting weekly…people can’t remember if it is the third Tuesday or the second Tuesday every other month….if you know it is every Tuesday and they can’t make it every week, they can at least make as many as possible.  Several TEA Party groups that I have had contact with are now starting weekly meetings.  September 10th the TEA Party leaders are meeting with the Romney people and coming together to come up with some kind of plan.  I am going to go to that and find out.

Pat, Norman and Linda left to go to Cape Carteret to meet with the TEA Party group there.

BOB recognized ERIC to give us some information on an upcoming meeting from NC Fire.  It is an organization that has information on how illegal immigration is impacting our state.  August 10 they are having a movie presentation and the 11th  they are having breakout sessions all day.  It is going to be in Wilmington at the Northeast Public Library.  The movie starts around 6:30 tomorrow night.  Saturday will be the most informative part because they are going to have numerous speakers.  They are going to be talking about different issues on immigration….what we can do as citizens to try to stop this flood of illegals into our state.  They are impacting jobs, the budget…..BOB said the first thing we have to do is elect a new president.  Then we have to put pressure on the new president and legislators.  ERIC said he thinks this will be a good informative session.  I plan on going as of right now to at least the Saturday session.  If anyone wants to go with me, please let me know.  Another thing I want to talk to you about…I believe is on August 15…the Dreamer Executive Order issued by Obama takes effect.  This is where they are going to allow illegal immigrants to pay like $467.00…as long as they do not have a serious criminal record…course I don’t see how they get around the fact that they are here illegal… I guess as long as they don’t kill someone…they can get their status raised from illegal to legal and be issued work permits.  I encourage everyone to call their senators and congressmen and really speak up about this….we want this stopped….whatever you have to do to stop it. Remember, it goes into effect August 15, so call now.

BOB recognized David McFadyen…one of our judge candidates.  David said, I would just echo what Pat and Norm said and I think I have come down and thanked you before but obviously the announcement that was made by my opponent last week was in large part due to your efforts down here.  I can’t thank you enough.  It proves to me that hard work does pay off.  I just can’t thank you enough.  However, his name is still going to be on the ballot and we are going to have to run a campaign just like we did before.  Maybe with a little less stress this time because he is not in it but people can still vote for him and he could still win.  So we still have to run a campaign.  I ask you all again for your support.  Trust me, it means a lot to me.  Clint is probably going to tell you this, but let me tell you, he is going to say it again too, this is where it matters about going to the bottom of the ballot and this is what we need to let people know.  In addition to letting them know who we think they should vote for, we have got to remind them that if they mark that straight party ticket, whichever one it is, if they do not go down below and fill in the circle by the judges names, then they have not voted for the judges.  That is probably the most important thing we need for you to tell them if they want to vote for the judges.  Clint said he thought for the district it dropped from 95,000 to 55,000 the last time there was a judges race.  A third of the population that voted did not vote for the judges.  Either they weren’t interested in voting for the judges, or did not know they had to separately mark their ballot for the judges.  Thank you once again and I will see you many more times before November.  I am going to head down to Cape Carteret too, but I am going to wait for Clint.  David was asked ‘is Kirby going to take all his signs up?’  He said ’we are working on that.’  PEGGY said we went to Greenville today and everywhere you looked his signs were still up.  David said, I talked to him about taking his signs down and told him I would help him do it.  We try to be helpful to everybody. (laughter) Thank you all again.  I’ll let Clint talk to you now and then we are going to hit the road.

Clint Rowe said, I have taken Kirby’s signs one step further.  I have offered to buy all his frames from him.  All those property owners, I figure they don’t want to fill all those holes and would just as soon just change the name.  Kirby said he had to talk with his wife.  If I hear anything I’ll let you all know.  I’m disappointed in you all, because my opponent didn’t drop out.  (laughter and comments about give us time, we are working on it).  I’m just kidding you know.  I do appreciate all your support.  I also ran into someone who was working the poll for Randy Ramsey and she said she had worked the polls a lot in the past, but this is a big waste of time.  People won’t even talk to me.  They went straight to the TEA Party people and asked for their ballot. That is a testament to not just that day’s work but a year’s work.  I commend you all on that.  When you earn the trust of the citizens where they are seeking you out for your advice… that means your opinions are respected and you have worked hard and I commend you on that tremendously.  Again like David said, please remember to tell everyone to go down and mark Clint Rowe and David McFadyen.  I was talking to someone the other day and they were telling me about a case…I told you about how slow Judge Spector is in issuing decisions, and I usually talk about money but recently I talked to an attorney in this case.  I had gotten an email from a person who had gone to trial on custody of their 7 month old baby.  It was over 6 months later before they got a decision.  If that is the kind of efficiency you want don’t vote for me.  I think that is extremely unfair to somebody to leave a 7 month baby in limbo for basically half of their life.  That is not what our court system should be.  I have heard both sides of that case…one thought it was a good decision and one thought bad.  Bottom line is the bad part is it took 6 months.  I can assure you that I will not do that to people.  I can’t  imagine anyone being put through that.  BOB said that is an area where judges can really affect fiscal responsibility by keeping cases moving rather than just clogging up the court…tying up more time….more judge’s time, more deputy’s time, more jurors time, more of the whole system at the cost of the tax payers.  Clint said ’absolutely.’ I told you before that I plan on running your courts efficiently.  I don’t think your job is just to get it out of there, but the same time, as a judge, it should be done at once.  A lot of time bailiffs and other court personnel are part time.  If they are working pass one on a day you should have been done by one, all you are doing is punishing every tax payer in the county for no reason.  I will not do that to you.  Please vote for me.  I appreciate your time and effort.  I, too, am going to run down to the other TEA Party meeting in Cape Carteret.  Thank you all.  (applause)

BOB asked if there was anything from the floor.  I want to thank John for letting us come back here and our meetings will be here for the foreseeable future.  The whole deal with the Golden Corral is up in the air.  We don’t know if the new management will want to be associated with the TEA Party.  John said he was proud to have you all here.  BOB wanted to know what was going to be on the menu for next week.  John asked what did he want?  Several suggestions were made….including melon and bagels.

BOB asked TOM AUSTIN to mention “Women for America”. TOM said, One of the best speakers they had up there was Penny Nance.  I had never heard of this organization.  It is the “Concerned Women for America”.  She is an outstanding speaker.  She was on Lockwood’s show this afternoon.  They are having rallies in North Carolina, down in Wilmington, Greenville, Greensboro today, and others throughout the state.  Richmond tomorrow.  You might not be able to get up to them right now, but if you have friends in those areas, you might want to let them know.  She speaks to the women about who they are in the political realm and why they need to be more involved.  Sounds like a good organization.   So if any of you all want to get involved in it, just wanted to give you a heads up on it.

Discussed having a phone bank set up for us by AFP.  Those who spoke up said they had gotten lists of names to call for the last election and calling from our homes seemed to work quite well.  Didn’t seem to be much interest in the offer from AFP.

HOWARD said he didn’t know how many saw in the paper where the two ladies had gone before the Board of Elections and complained about where they  held the elections…(where the church had posted on their bulletin board about Vote FOR Marriage Amendment)….and thought we should change locations in the future….that they should not have used that as a polling place.  HOWARD thinks it is the same two ladies that we ran into working the polls.  He called Bill Henderson yesterday and told him that those women were angry.  He told him he didn’t think he really needed to be concerned with them.  ‘You are never going to make everybody happy and the people I am rubbing elbows with are well pleased with the way the election was run.  The poll workers that I worked with at early voting and at Holly Springs were nice and I thought they did a good job‘.  HOWARD said he found out one of the ladies who had complained and rode by her house.  On the back of her car was a sign that read “Several million out of work because the Republicans wanted to put one man out of a job”.  One of these ladies told PEGGY at the primary, why she was opposed to the Marriage Act.  When PEGGY started to explain why she was in favor of the Act, the lady walked away stating she didn’t talk politics.

John asked if the TEA Party or any other Conservative group is working to countermand the information being distributed by the liberal media.  He could not believe that 42% of the people still believe all that garbage.  TOM AUSTIN said a lot of that propaganda that they are coming up with, different groups like Civitas and John Locke are pointing out that the polling they are doing, such as up in New York, is skewed.  They will go through and they will poll like 70% Democrats, 10% Independents, and the rest Republicans.  Then they will turn around and say 60% will support this or that according to our polls.  Which tells me that 10% of the Democrats don’t support it.  It is the polling they do and now not just John Locke, Civitas and other Conservative Organizations, but some reporters are reporting on how the polling is being done.  It is not real.  This information is not factual.  The sad thing is ’those that want to believe that will not listen to the truth’.  LUKE KUKULINSKI said a good example was Scott Walker and the polls stating he was losing or they were running neck and neck and when the vote was counted Walker had won by something like 15 points.  HOWARD said most reporters were liberals, having attended liberal universities, including those who work for conservative companies, so it is hard for conservatives to get a fair shake.

BOB said, ‘Getting back to your question, John, the TEA Party is basically a voter education group.  We have three core principles….fiscal responsibility, limited government and free market capitalism.  We support those principles by trying to elect public officials who also believe in those principles and the way we get them elected is by educating the voters.  So we have to overcome the media bias that is out there.  Luckily we live in a very conservative area and we are served by a conservative newspaper.   The way we educate voters is by having weekly meetings that are open to everybody.  We hold rallies.  We do letters to the editor.  We vet the candidates and we offer voters a ballot recommendation.  Most people don’t take the time to read or come to rallies or meetings but they are conservative at heart.   They know that we support a lot of the things that they believe in, so they seek out our ballot and knowledge.

BOB said, “Having said that, do we want to have a rally to get out the vote this fall.  LYN BAKER said she thought we would make out better by putting our time and effort in calling people and encouraging them personally to get out and vote.  PEGGY said she thought since our funds were so low and the cost of a rally was great, maybe we should come up with other less expensive ways of getting our message out.  ERIC said he thought we should think about using the few funds we have to pay for publishing our voter ballot.  TOM AUSTIN said, ‘people are forgetting about us and we need to remind people that we are still here and active and a rally is probably the best way to do that. There are people in Onslow County that don’t even know there is a TEA  Party up here anymore.  They don’t have one in Onslow because people were not getting out.  Even if I have to have meetings at my house, I plan to get something started in Onslow again.  If you are not visible, other than just at the polls, then they are going to forget about you‘. LYN said our most successful rally was the one down at Kmart.  Several said ’that was also our first and was considered unusual at the time.’  TOM HARMON said we have participated in the local parades and received very favorable reception.  TOM AUSTIN said he particularly liked our statement on the ballot that instead of us saying we support these candidates, it reads these candidates support our principles.  ERIC said he thought our handing out the pocket constitutions at the parade and other places is also important.  It says more about our group…that we live by the constitution…and its founding principles and that touches the hearts of the citizens.  Discussion on whether people actually read the constitution once we give it to them.  VERNON said maybe they don’t sit down and read it through but will keep it for reference.  BOB said that was true, he carried one with him most of the time in case he needed to check something out.  He finds he refers to it to check out certain amendments, or sections pertaining to some subject.

Discussion on events occurring during the primary and Randy Ramsey’s campaign.  Most stories told were similar.

RUTH PARKER said she had gotten an email that there was going to be a rally Friday morning on the other side of Swansboro where the new TEA Party sign is on display.  Be there at 11:00 Friday morning.  The Moore County TEA Party that came up with the idea of signs throughout the state (and we had donated $400.00 to have this one located here on the crystal coast) will meet us there for pictures.  They are going to each sign location to meet with the sponsors of the signs and taking pictures of the local TEA Party groups with the signs.  They want the people there when they are taking the pictures.  That is 11:00 Friday morning, right on Hwy 24 on the other side of Swansboro near the Hubert turnoff.  Coming from Morehead it will be on the right hand side.  It is one of those changing signs (advertising two other patrons).  Bring your signs.

BOB asked RO THOMPSON and LYN BAKER to come up with a short comment on what to say when we hand out the ballot on election day about not forgetting to vote for the judges.  We also need to make sure it is included in the ballot we have published in the paper.

PEGGY reminded BOB about getting the door hangers.  We don’t want to wait until the last minute.  TOM HARMON said AFP will furnish them free.

TOM HARMON said they have a new campaign out now.  If you are a Romney supporter then you turn your lights on during the day and if you are an Obama supporter then you turn your lights off during the night.

On that note, Meeting adjourned.
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary.