CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
MEETING MINUTES OF
22 JANUARY 2013
Meeting was held at Roland’s Barbecue Restaurant in Beaufort, NC
Meeting was called to order by Chairman BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance was led by BOB CAVANAUGH
Invocation by STEVE BEST
Attendance – 18
BOB said the Golden Corral was now open and he would like to make the first order of business tonight the option of either start holding our meetings there next week or wait until the first meeting in February. HOWARD moved that we start next week. Several seconds. BOB said he did not see any reason for further discussion. It was apparent. RUTH PARKER said she would give the manager, Joey, a call on the way home. BOB also asked her to tell the folks here at Roland’s that we will not be back. (A lot of laughter and comments about someone being chicken and not having the ____ to take care of that business but passes the buck.) BOB said that was called ‘delegating‘. HOWARD said it was also called ’passing the buck’. BOB said he would give her a buck if she would tell them, but she had to wait until he leaves (give him a head start out the door). KEN told RUTH to tell them that “that guy just said to tell you we wouldn’t be back.”
BOB said BILL GRIFFITH informed him that the Republican Precinct meeting is going to be on the 23rd of February….times and places to be announced. Each precinct has a different place and time. BOB said to check with your precinct chairman. It should be advertised in the paper. BOB said he would try to get the list and promulgate the information. KEN said he would post the information on our website (or an email) just as soon as he gets it.
Discussion on getting informed, involved, getting to know other members, attending meetings, and helping the party grow stronger.
KEN said he had talked to “Bubba McClain” and “Mark Mansfield” newly appointed members of the County Board of Education about coming to speak to the Republican Men’s Club meeting sometime in the next few months (probably June or after) about what they are finding out about the Board of Education and what they think needs to be done. He will let us know when that meeting is to come about and encourages all to make arrangements to attend. He also encouraged everyone to try to attend the next County Commissioners meeting (February 18 in the Commissioner’s Boardroom upstairs in the County Administration Building) and support JENNIFER HUDSON who plans to speak on gun control. Opposition to gun control must begin with us, the grassroots individuals, and action begin at the local government level. It will be nice if we can make a good showing in her support.
BOB said he had gotten a report from Bill Moore on the first district Republican meeting which was held on the 19th of January, where a motion was passed to support the Beaufort resolution against federal restriction on the Second Amendment Rights and the resolution will send a message from the first district to Raleigh asking them to (1) Nullify any requirements to restrict 2nd Amendment rights, (2) Pass a law notifying any state employee that they may not participate in any such federal attempts to enforce it. Those actions will not be funded by the state (3) Ask all counties in the first district to have similar resolutions passed by their county commissioners and (4) it was pointed out by the tenth amendment center was available to help draft such resolutions. He told KEN he might want to get in touch with Jennifer and let her know about the tenth amendment center to help her craft the wording or something like that.
BOB said a couple of other things that came out of the first district Republican Party meeting: they were talking about what is going on in Raleigh. The Republicans in Raleigh are working on a tax reform bill option being considered would eliminate personal corporate income taxes and replace them with a service tax….haircuts, lawn services, etc. They anticipate that revenue raised would balance loss from income corporate taxes. Another thing they are working on is closing a loop hole that allows people to relocate to a different state and still collect unemployment from NC. In addition since our current maximum unemployment is $535.00 per week, they are looking at lowering that. That rivals New York, New Jersey and our cost of living is no where near that. They are also looking at a voter ID with picture requirement and lowering the number of days for early voting. HOWARD said he understands they want to cut the length of time for unemployment also. BOB said they just extended it with the fiscal cliff deal, didn’t they? He said he read somewhere that in Germany there is no time limit. When you decide you want to go back to work, you can just do so. Until then, you can just keep on keeping on.
FRED DECKER said he understands that when your unemployment runs out, they just put you on disability.
GLADYS SUESSLE said she had an interesting conversation with Asa Buck (Sheriff). She had wanted to let him know that by supreme court decision that he is the highest law enforcement officer in the county. If something happens with gun rights and he doesn’t like it, he doesn’t have to enforce it. He can say “I will not comply”. He was very well aware of it. He is right on the same page as Gladys about gun rights and that kind of thing. She is a member (new secretary) of the Craven County Tax Payers Association and they meet the third Tuesday of the month. They meet at the Bridgepoint Hotel in New Bern. They are having a meeting the third Tuesday of February and it is going to be all based on the second amendment and gun rights. They are inviting the Sheriff of Craven County, Sheriffs from surrounding counties, and she had invited Asa to go. They are also having gun store owners coming in and talking about the state of what is going on there. It should be a very, very interesting meeting. They had passed out about 200 cards at the Gun Show, so they anticipate a large crowd…normally about 60 or 70 come to the meetings so they are looking for several hundred coming to this one. She would like to invite any of us here tonight (or any that we know would be interested) to come to this meeting on February 19 at 7:00pm. BOB wanted to know if you could take your concealed weapon with you and Gladys told him absolutely, she carried hers every time. She said two young marines had come to the last meeting and had asked at the door if they were allowed to bring their guns to the meeting. Don Murdock, the membership person who sits at the door, said 90% of the people here are carrying right now.
KEN said he had talked to Norman Sanderson at Jean Preston’s memorial service and he is all for the state doing something similar to the first District’s resolution. Mike Speciale is also in agreement. He did not get a chance to talk with Pat McElraft, but he is sure she is on board with it also.
KEN said he is under the impression that Pat McCrory has softened his position on the Voter ID law somewhat. As KEN understands from Norman they are still going to push a photo Voter ID and McCrory said that he would sign something for a Voter ID that did not involve a photo. (This brought on a lot of unhappy remarks and comments.) KEN said the first thing we need to do is contact McCrory’s office and inform him that we/you do not agree with him changing his stance because during the election he was all for it and that was one of the reasons he got elected. BOB said if McCrory backs away from the photo ID after campaigning for it, then it will give the TEA Parties the incentive to one heck of a rally with a petition to recall the governor. He bets we would get thousands of people to show up and probably fill up our piggy bank too. If those we elected who ran on supporting the photo ID back out, then they are going to make people mad, I mean really mad. We want a Photo ID, nothing but. HOWARD said he had discussed with Norman, another situation (the health care mandate) that McCrory seemed to be backing down on and let him know we will not tolerate this lack of backbone in our politicians. KEN said what we want is the same kind of bill they passed in Georgia because it has already passed muster with the Department of Justice. He thinks McCrory will sign whatever bill the Legislature puts before him, but he doesn’t want the Legislature diluting a bill just to get it signed.
BILL GRIFFIN said he understood that a drivers license is a valid ID and now they are planning to give illegal aliens drivers licenses. They need some type of difference in approving them (like a stamp ‘not approved for citizenship’) so they can not be used for voting. BOB said ‘if they have a visa they can get a license’. BILL said he did not want them to be able to use that drivers license as a valid ID for proof of citizenship for voting though. Several were opposed to giving illegals drivers licenses, but that had been blocked and we were forced by our Attorney General (NC) to give them the licenses whether we liked it or not. Someone said that was just another way of Obama getting his amnesty passed. ED SUESSLE thinks we should have a color coded Voter ID license so it can be identified from across the room.
BOB said he had never been excited about McCrory because he had been mayor of Charlotte and Charlotte was about as liberal as New York, but we didn’t have a lot of choice when it came to election day. Either McCrory or Dalton. You had to be leaning toward the left to get elected in Charlotte so that should have told us something.
BOB said Buzz Cayton had let him know that they had just had Sue Myrett come and speak to them on voter rules and voter fraud. One interesting statistic that she pointed out was the average age of poll workers in NC is 72 years old. We need to be looking for younger people willing to be trained and ready to stand up in our next elections. Since the Republicans now hold the majority we will be needing more poll workers, judges, etc at the polls. We are going to have to come up with 27 more judges in addition to what we already have. We need to be thinking about getting young people interested in the TEA Party and get involved with us and the Republican Party.
Discussed the Newport Pig Pickin’. RON and BELVA MANNING said the Warriors for Christ Bikers of the Mill Creek Reeses’ Chapel have volunteered to cook our pig. They also have their own cooker so we do not have to be concerned about having to get one. Motion was made to accept their offer and motion carried. Thank you RON and BELVA. BELVA said she would get all the paperwork needed filled out and submitted. BOB said in appreciation for their offer, we will provide the cooks with TEA Party tee shirts. (Also we need to check to see if we can set up a table and take orders for our TEA Party shirts.) RUTH PARKER asked if we would put a ‘donations’ jar at our booth. BELVA said she thought sure we could. The event is all night long Friday night and people are coming and going the whole time.
Discussed the voter fraud during the last election and what we thought would come of it….nothing. Just like Allen West in Florida. We all know that he should have won but too much hanky panky went on causing him to lose….but how much has been done to counter this abuse of power. Instead of anyone working to correct this obstruction of justice, everyone in the Republican party, it seems like, have thrown up their hands and said there if nothing that can be done about it…and slinked away rather than stand up and fight. A lot felt that Romney should have done more. People had donated a billion dollars and BOB said if he was one of those super pacs that had donated so much money, he would be raising hell.
HOWARD said he had also read this week that George Soros was a big investor in Time Warner. (Makes you wish there were more options for cable here in Carteret.)
KEN talked about the 30 or 40 minute talk that Sheriff Asa Buck had given at the last County Commissioners meeting on doctor shopping and prescription drug abuse. Believe it or not but Carteret County leads the state in the number of illegal prescription drugs (abuse) used in the state of NC. Theft is also a big thing with prescription drugs. Asa has led the state in trying to revise state laws to address this problem. Asa has a seminar coming up at West Carteret High School. The public is invited. Call the Sheriff’s office to find out the details. What he is trying to do is raise awareness of consumers, doctors, pharmacists, as to how bad this problem is and what they need to do and try to limit the illegal use of these prescription drugs. He told of a service guy (pesticide company) that came to do some work for this lady. He wandered all through the house checking and going through her cabinets and drawers and spent quite a bit of time there. After he left the lady realized several bottles of her medicine were missing. This guy was caught but we all need to be careful about letting someone have free range wandering through our homes. We need to keep a better eye on them. Asa said the worst place you could keep your medications is in the medicine cabinet. That is the first place someone looking for meds to steal will go. It is the elderly who usually are the victims of these people because we are the ones who take the most prescription medications for pain. Also if you have medicines for your pets, the thieves will also steal them. They don’t care who or what pain meds are for. Another thing we need to know is: If you have old prescription drugs, it is hard to get rid of them. We used to flush them down the toilet or drains but now we know that is a no no. Asa has arranged for drop off points where you can take your outdated meds and they will dispose of them for you. These drop off points are only set up a few times a year, but he has a permanent drop off box right at his office. KEN also told about going to Ribeyes in Cape Carteret one night and the place was like an oven. He asked the manager what was wrong with the air conditioner and was told some kids had vandalized the air conditioner so they could sniff the Freon. The kids got high, left and now there was a hole in the tubing and compressor kept running and the Freon continued to escape, and it took several weeks to get it repaired.
HOWARD said after Asa spoke to us that night at the Commissioners meeting the next day the Jacksonville paper reported a deputy sheriff in Onslow County was arrested for doctor shopping.
HOWARD said Asa had changed his mind. He had been opposed to the sheriffs personnel being able to go to the drug store and find out what he was buying. But he found out the only person who can do that now is a SBI Drug Agent and he has to cover 10 counties. There is no way one man can follow up on the number of prescription drugs being dispensed in those counties. This means there is only 10 SBI Drug Agents in all of NC to check to see how many people are doctor shopping, which pharmacies are playing footloose and fancy free with prescriptions. GLADYS said that Asa had told her during their conversation that a quarter of his DUI’s are from prescription drugs…. that they are not aware that they have a problem with a drug the doctor had prescribed. Jimmy Farrington told KEN after the commissioners meeting that Carteret County also has one of the highest suicide rates in the state also. The reason is that people from other counties are coming to Carteret County to off themselves. It is sort of a psychological thing…they go out to the ocean – it is the end of the earth and end of the road – they are at the end of their road and so it is kind of a statement for them; but we are becoming the suicidal capital of the state of NC. Often times it is with prescription drugs also.
LYN BAKER told of the problems now being encountered in group homes with new regulations impacting on the residents. There are people in the homes that have no money, other that social security or disability and they are going to be turned out and a lot of them have mental problems. It is a horrible thing to do to these people. HOWARD said he and PEGGY had attended a meeting of the Adult Home Community Advisory Committee (of which we are members) and they were talking about the same problems. It appears that no one knows what is going on. One instance they talked about was a new system they had to go on on a certain date. When the time came there was no paperwork available to submit (had not even been made up for preparation) and everyone was running around trying to find out what to do. Just a complete mess. HOWARD said another problem for the doctors, and why they are either retiring or combining with other doctors or the hospital, (and he got this from a friend who is a medical rep in Indiana) is the requirement to purchase a computer system that costs $100 thousand dollars and $10 thousand a year for updates. So a single doctor can’t afford it or think what it will add to his office calls. BOB said to him this is just one more step to euthanasia. If you live beyond say 65 years then you are a burden on the government because now you are starting to cost them money.
Getting abortion in there was the first step. They are slowing moving the country away from Christian morality and the sanctity of life. RUTH said she thinks it is all a part of Agenda 21.
KEN asked if anyone had seen the cover of News Week Magazine “The Second Coming”. So many of our media reporters actually have begun to believe this. KEN said what is even worse than it being titled “the Second Coming”, is that Obama thinks so much of himself that he posed for that picture. What does that tell you about what he thinks of himself.
BOB said, speaking of abortions, Rand Paul is introducing a “Life at Conception” act. It is a way to legislatively get around Roe v Wade because when the supreme court ruled on Roe V Wade, they said that they could not make a determination as to when life begins. When that determination is made then that life is guaranteed protection under the law. So Rand Paul is going to introduce legislation to legislatively decree or legalize that life begins at conception. He does not see that going through the senate with great ease but it is going to get all them people…they are going to have to put their names out there in the open that “I am for this” or “I am against this”. KEN said that Dan Forest (Lt Governor) was also looking into something similar to this.
GLADYS wanted to know if anyone else was upset about calling Medicare an entitlement. We pay into that system as well as our employers and to have it referred to as an entitlement like Medicaid was a slam to her. Social Security is another that is being referred to as an entitlement, when we paid into that also.
EULA PARKIN reported on a pamphlet that she thought we might be interested in called “Black Skin Privilege”. She read a couple of items of interest – “Two months after Travon Martin’s death at least 14 known attacks against white victims where the avenging youths mantra was for the fallen youth. At least 6 youths beat a 78 year old white man while shouting ’this is for Travon’. In Gainsville, 5 beat a 27 year old man who had tried to retrieve his companions purse. In Chicago, 2 black teenagers beat and robbed a 19 year old man because they were angry. Matthew Owens was brutalized in Mobile by 20 African Americans armed with brass knuckles, bricks, chairs, bats and steel pipes after he had asked them to stop playing basketball in front of his house and they called their attack ’justice for Trayvon’. How much of this have you read in the newspapers or seen on TV? She also showed us a flag (Don’t tread on me” with information on ordering copies. If we buy as many as 100 we can get flags (3’x5’ which normally sell for $9.95 each) at $2.00 each. Discussion followed. Some thought we should buy them and sell them to help raise funds. BOB wanted to wait and talk to NANCY BOCK before we made a decision. BOB asked FRED to check and find out about renting tables and what types of merchandise was approved for sale.
BOB reminded everyone that our next meeting will be held at the Golden Corral in Morehead City. Meeting starts at 6:00. (RUTH said we will meet in the same room we used to.)
Meeting adjourned at 7:35pm.
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary.