CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
MEETING MINUTES OF
2 OCTOBER 2012
Meeting held at Jing Gianno’s Restaurant in Morehead City.
Meeting called to order at 6:10pm by Chairman BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance led by FRED DECKER
Invocation by BOB CAVANAUGH
Attendance – 30
BOB introduced our special guests tonight….NORMAN and LINDA SANDERSON. Mr. Sanderson is currently our House of Representative member and candidate for NC State Senate. (Applause) Norman said, “I was just sitting here and the thought came into my mind that most politicians in office for the last few years would not be comfortable in this room tonight, because they do not believe as you (we) do. And I said to myself ‘GOD, it is good to sit in here among people like this” (Laughter) “I want to just thank you all for what you do, and I wanted to share something with you, if you will. This was an article, a letter to the editor in the Sun Journal come months ago, so some of you may have read it. It is from a very good friend of mind and it is called ‘Who is the TEA Party?’ Did any of you all see it in the paper. It was written by a gentleman who lives out in River Bend…name is Lewis (sounded like Call). He says, I was recently asked at a social gathering ‘Just who is the TEA Party?’ I thought for a minute about all the people I had met over the years that support the mission which is to expose and defeat those who have abandoned our Constitution. There is no shortage of candidates from both sides of the aisle that fit in this category so perhaps the question should be ‘What Is the TEA Party?’. The TEA Party…now this is who you guys are in case you don’t know….The TEA Party is a mind set, an idea, a quest, carried in the hearts and minds of those who believe in our Bill of Rights that have stood steadfast for over 200 years. Today that same document is being tested by the enemies of freedom to be supplanted by total government control over all aspects of our lives. We have constant reminders of the insidious nature of the current administration when confronted with health care, energy, and even consumer choice of food consumption. What is the TEA Party? It is a yearning for freedom and a longing for the return of the individual over the state. It is a hunger for the individual to make the decisions that affect our lives over a faceless entity sitting in Washington, DC. And who is the TEA Party? You and I. It is those who have sacrificed their lives to pass the baton of freedom on to future generations. We have a responsibility to see that it falls in the hands of our children and grandchildren and not in the hands of government. The very future of our nation rests in our hands. It is imperative that we stand for the hard right over the easy wrong.” Now that is who you guys are, who we are…..That is why we are here tonight and that is why we are all sacrificing and doing what we are doing. It is not that we want to be distinguished and walk around and people point at our hats and shirts and say ’wow’ there is a TEA Party person. That is not the reason at all because this group transcends all political classes, transcends all cultural classes, transcends all religious classes. It is a group of people who still believe that our Constitution is the most effective form of government that has ever been written and still works as good today as it did 200 years ago. We are here to fight that fight. The healing of our land is in our hands…our hands… The courts aren’t going to do it for us and I don’t care who sits in the White House next year, they are not going to do it for us. They might help us, but the healing of our land is in our hands because in Second Chronicles HE says… if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and repent and turn from their wicked ways, and pray, I will heal their lands. And that is where our healing has to come from. And so, GOD, we are fighting this fight, not for special recognition, not because we love the thrill of victory, we are doing it because we want to have something to pass on to the next generation. I refuse to be a part of the generation that passes on to the next generation less than what I got. That is exactly where we are going if we don’t. And so I am challenging you…everybody in this room….I know you worked hard in the primary and you worked hard in the last election and the results of all that hard work paid off because you can see it. But this is the hardest fight we have ever fought. This is truly good against evil. You will never see such a difference in what one side represents and what the other side represents. You have never faced this kind of…I’m not even sure that the Civil War was a divisive as where we stand right now. It is all that we need to work just as hard as we can. We have to, as my Daddy used to say, we got to work like there is no tomorrow because it is not promised to you. We’ve got to work like there is no tomorrow….because I don’t know what this nation will look like after four more years of what we have currently. It is worth every minute of sleep that we miss…it is worth every minute of relaxation or what we do for hobbies or whatever we have to give up…it is worth standing in front of a poll or working inside of a poll for four hours when you would rather be somewhere else…it is worth all of that. The very future of our nation is in our hands.
Linda and I thank you for what you have done. I wouldn’t be standing here tonight as a Senate candidate if it hadn’t been for you guys help. And so, I know beyond any shadow of doubt that what you do is right…because right is going to triumph over wrong. That is what we have to remember the closer we get to election day. We don’t need to wait until somebody calls us and asks ’can you do this’. We ought to be on the phone saying ’what can I do? I’ve got four hours, or I’ve got two hours tomorrow, or this amount on Saturday. What can I do? That is how important this is. GOD bless you all and thank you for allowing me to speak. (Applause)
HOWARD reminded BOB about the upcoming event for Norman at the Senior Center. NORMAN thanked BOB and said yes, they had a fund raiser at the Leon Mann Senior Center in Morehead City Monday night, October 8 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. It is a fund raiser but if you don’t have any funds, he does not want that to keep you away. We are going to have some special music. He thinks we are going to have a special guest that is going to be coming down to it. Please come. It helps him….if he spends all this time cooking chicken wings and meat balls, and nobody shows up, he is going to be awfully disappointed. So please come and see the support that GOD has allowed us to gather and be a part. He said they had one in New Bern a few weeks ago (BOB said ’We’re not getting the leftovers are we?) (Laughter) NORMAN said they had about 150 folks show up for that one and they had a great time. It is just a little way that we can encourage you and you can help us if you can. We don’t know what is coming these last 37/38 days in this campaign. So far he has not even seen his opponent. He has signed up to be in one or two of the forums we are going to have. He has told his finance director that he does not want one cent more than what they absolutely need for this election because he does want to take more money than we need out from the people who love us and support us.
JOHN said he was channel surfing last Friday and found out there was a prayer conference in Philadelphia and he found it very uplifting. He is amazed how little traffic there is on the internet reporting. There was no message as to the number of people attending, and he could not tell because of the way the cameras were sat up, it would be difficult to take a guess. It was a completely joyous occasion, and not a political rally. The program was titled “American for JESUS” and the atheists are just ripping it apart. LYN BAKER said they were going to do it again in Washington.
JERE said Pastor John Hagee has asked all Christians to pray every day for the 40 days preceding the election. That 40 days started last Friday. You can pray individually, or in groups or in Churches, but he would recommend that we all pray, because there is power in prayer.
TOM AUSTIN said he heard on Lockwood’s program while driving down from Jacksonville, that a 30% increase has been requested for homeowners insurance down along the coastal counties. And they are talking about maybe a 6% increase for Charlotte. (Discussion followed)
NORMAN reported that NC-20, who is fighting insurance increases on the coast is having a meeting next week at the Civic Center on Wednesday night. Check the paper for further information and attend to find out what we can do to protect ourselves. Discussed the Causey/Goodwin debate held at the Sanitary and the obvious leaning by those in charge of the debate, toward Goodwin in apparently having received the questions in advance.
BOB reported on the newly formed TEA Party group in Jacksonville. They had their fourth meeting last night and are proud to announce they are getting a core group established that are attending every meeting. The Golden Corral, where they have been meeting, closed and so last night they met in Logan’s Steak House. A couple of weeks ago, they had a candidate for county commissioner come and talk to them. His opponent is supposed to come next week. Right now it appears that the first candidate that reached out to them has greatly impressed the attendees and will probably be supported by the group. This candidate, Tommy Thomas, is a Democrat, which demonstrates that the TEA Party supports the candidate that agrees mostly with our core principles…be he or she Republican or Democrat.
HOWARD reported that there is a law in NC that you are not supposed to burn papers in the back yard. Those of us from the country….most country folks have a steel barrel in the back yard where they burn stuff. Onslow, in their wisdom, has hired three people to go around and write citations. Think how much tax payer money that is wasting. Another example, Jacksonville recently built a new law enforcement building, jail. He thinks when it started out, it was going to cost 11 million dollars. I wound up costing 57 million dollars. HOWARD said he had talked to Tommy Thomas the night he spoke at the Jacksonville meeting and found out that after they moved into the new building, they had to buy a bunch of wet/dry vacuums because there are no drains in the floor. They put the IT Center on the first floor underneath the showers on the second floor. He asked didn’t anyone check out this architect and his competence. He was informed that the ones that had made the decisions were no longer in office.
Discussed the military absentee ballots and the biggest problems seems to be in the battleground states. Also discussed how the various candidates are standing in the polls and what needs to be done. Judge Newby is really fighting a battle against name recognition (Sam Ervin III) and needs any and all help he can get. This office is probably one of the most important on the ballot. The NC Supreme Court currently stands at one more Republican Conservative than Democratic Liberals. If this office falls to the liberals, then even if we take the House and Senate in NC, anything passed by a Republican House or Senate will be challenged in the court and will end up before the Supreme Court and all our hard work will go down the drain.
PEGGY passed out, in packets of 25 copies, 750 ballots she had prepared in advance for the meeting. Anyone needing these ballots to pass out prior to the early voting were requested to take what they thought they would need. More will be printed each week to ensure we have enough especially on election day. BOB reported that uncontested races were not listed on our ballot…not that we did not support those candidates, but we were trying to keep it short and to the point with the major races. Example: our three county commissioners are not listed since they are running unopposed.
Discussed manning the precincts on election day. Need someone for Harkers Island, Mill Creek, Merrimon, Morehead # 1, Pine Knoll Shores, Atlantic/Cedar Island/Sea Level (all one precinct now), Smyrna/Marshallberg, Stacy/Davis/Williston, and Otway/Bettie. He asked Wayne Willis, since he lived in Harkers Island to man that poll. Wayne said he did not vote in Harkers Island, but BOB could put him down to work that precinct. BOB asked if anyone else would be willing to work those polls not already manned to please contact him.
Treasurer’s Report – NANCY BOCK, Treasurer reported that we have $1,974.00.
BOB reported that we had decided last week to publish our ballot in the newspaper every Sunday during the month of October. For the week prior to the election in November, we are going to publish it on the Wednesday, Friday and Sunday preceding the election, so that will be seven times the ballot will be published in the county paper. NANCY said she thought it would run about $175.00 each printing so $175 X 7 or $1,225.00. We have not paid for the ad in the insert that will be passed out to the schools and that is going to run about $300.00. NANCY and Ken had paid the extra $30.00 to get our ad in color for the insert. Thank you NANCY.
HOWARD said we do not want to totally spend down; so every night we have a meeting, if you have a few extra dollars in your pocket that you can spare, please put it into the donation jar.
BOB read the letter from Hank Goddard, the Veteran’s Service Officer about the upcoming Veteran’s Day parade, inviting the TEA Party to take a part in the event. BOB asked if everyone was on board with having a part in the parade. All said yes. BOB wanted to know if NANCY would be available to participate with her float that we used in the parades. She said yes. Discussion on the various armed forces flags availability. PEGGY asked BOB if ‘didn’t he say at the last meeting that he would stop by Town & Country and check to see if they still had any of those flags they used to carry still available’. BOB said ‘did I say that? OK I‘ll check this week and see what I can find out.’ ‘BOB asked PEGGY to fill out the enclosed card and return to Hank advising him we would be a part of the parade. BOB asked that anyone riding on the float to please bring their own candy to throw to the crowds. HOWARD said the best time to get a buy on candy is after midnight on Halloween night at WalMart when they put it on sale real cheap.
BOB wanted to know if anyone listened to Rush Limbaugh today and the ad about infanticide and the young girl that had been a botched abortion and lived to tell about it. Infanticide is when they perform an abortion and the baby survives so they bring in a second doctor who shoves a knife in the back of the neck and finishes killing the baby. It was brought out by the young lady that Obama had voted for this procedure four times while a member of the Illinois legislature. She said there was a lot more of that taking place than people realized. She said she was one of those botched abortions and it just so happened a nurse heard her crying in the bucket and rescued her. Wasn’t that powerful!! He hopes they play that commercial over and over so everyone can hear it. It has to make a huge impression on those who do not know that Obama is in favor or infanticide.
Another thing BOB picked up on Rush today was a fellow called in about going to a Romney event yesterday and when he walked outside the building where the rally had been held, there was a group out there that had signs that said ‘Democrats for Romney’. He went over to talk to the group and wanted to know if it was real or just a joke. A young black guy in probably his mid 20’s said no, it is real. We support Romney and the turning point in the young black guys life was when he went to see the movie 2016. He said it was such a shock just the amount of evidence presented that it caused him to do some research so he started checking into the Constitution and reading some of Reagan’s speeches and stuff like that and when he was through reading all the information he could find, he could not believe that he had been that dumb to vote for Obama last time. Discussion on the movie 2016. DAVID COX said you could go to Google and punch in 2016 movie and your zip code and it would tell you where the movie was playing in your area.
LUKE KUKULINSKI recommended that everyone go to the TEA Party Face Book and check out that video that KEN LANG has posted on there on Obamacare. It is excellent. STEVE BEST said, there is a two hour documentary ’Everything about Obamacare’. He is supposed to get a free copy of it and they want everybody to watch it on the 17th. He will be glad to show it at his movie theater if we want to come and see it. BOB asked him to let us know next week if he gets the movie and we will start making plans.
A lady (sorry I did not catch your voice) wanted to know if it was true that Obama has asked companies who are planning layoffs, to not send out notices until after the election. This is in direct opposition of a law Obama passed that notices must be sent out before closings or layoffs or pay a penalty, so he is asking them to violate the law. (Anybody that gets a federal contract has to inform employees 60 days in advance of possible termination.) This will mean the tax payers will be stuck with the legal fees. Someone asked ’how can he do this’, and BOB said because nobody is trying to stop him. Democrats won’t and the Republicans are afraid of alienating the independents. They don’t want to rock the boat. BOB said he was worried about Romney trying to tip toe through the debate tomorrow night.
BOB reminded everyone to be sure if you are working the polls to inform those who stop and talk or take one of our ballots that if they plan to vote a straight ticket, they MUST vote for the president and the judges before they mark the straight ticket otherwise their vote for president and the judges will not be counted. He saw where in the 2004 election there were 92,000 presidential votes that did not get tabulated in NC. HOWARD said that might be why Obama carried NC in 2008, because of the same situation. BOB said good possibility because he only won by 14,000 votes and there is no way of knowing how many Republicans went in and voted straight party ticket. LYN said every call they made from the GOP office, they told people about this. WAYNE said we have 29,500 dead people on the NC voting rolls. This can make a big difference in the count if they are allowed to vote since we do not have Voter ID.
Meeting adjourned at 7:40 pm.
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary.