Topic: Tea Party Wins

[DBA]

First off, the author makes it sound as if this is a new phenom. However, this has been an on going complaint by the NOVA municipal governments long before I moved down here 10 years ago. And this is not limited just to Fairfax County, but all of the Northern Virginia municipalities which make up the VA portion of Greater Washington. Liberal Fairfax County, Conservative Loudon County, the Cities of Arlington & Alexandria and Tea Party strong hold Prince Willam County.

I'm not disputing the facts in the article, what I dispute is the reasoning the author claims is behind it, and the spin that this is just a recent thing since the Obama Administration came on line or the Tea Party made it's presence known.

Thanks for the reply. Easier to understand where your viewpoint is coming from.

A case could be made that the Tea Party added support for bringing the issues to both more visibility and some action. They don't own the issues but are responsible for some recent action on them.

[cupper]

Thanks for the reply. Easier to understand where your viewpoint is coming from.

A case could be made that the Tea Party added support for bringing the issues to both more visibility and some action. They don't own the issues but are responsible for some recent action on them.

That would be true ifit wasn't for the fact that the state and local pols that are backed by the TP are the ones who are bringing in the policies that are being railed against.

One point to note about the VA Tea Party, they tend to be the more right wing socially conservative faction, although they are also very vocal about the fiscal conservative policies as well. However, the pols they elected this last round are also the type of GOP candidate that seems to have the miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus.

Hence my comment about reality over perception.

[Thucydides]

The other aspect of the TEA Party movement is adherence to the Constitution. Targeting members of Congress who vote for laws and regulation which are in violation of the Constitution may become a popular new tactic to express displeasure and apply pressure:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/25/1048711/-Montanans-Launch-Recall-of-Senators-Who-Approved-NDAA-Military-Detention-Merry-Christmas,-US-Senate

Montanans Launch Recall of Senators Who Approved NDAA Military Detention. Merry Christmas, US Senate
by Ralph LopezFollow

    UPDATE 12/26/2011:

    This is from a statement from Stewart Rhodes of Oathkeepers regarding Republican Denny Rehberg as a target of recall, who also voted for NDAA. 

    Here in Montana, while we will go after all three violators of the Bill of Rights, I will place special emphasis and "focus of effort" on Denny Rehberg, since he is so fond of wrapping himself in the flag and claiming to be defending the Constitution while his votes do the exact opposite.   In that sense, Rehberg is much like John McCain and Lindsey Graham, two Republicans who, right along with Carl Levin and Joseph Lieberman, are leading a sustained and relentless assault on our Bill of Rights.

Disclaimer: I am now a volunteer press contact for this campaign.

From the press release:

Moving quickly on Christmas Day after the US Senate voted 86 - 14 to pass the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011 (NDAA) which allows for the indefinite military detention of American citizens without charge or trial, Montanans have announced the launch of recall campaigns against Senators Max Baucus and Jonathan Tester, who voted for the bill.

Montana is one of nine states with provisions that say that the right of recall extends to recalling members of its federal congressional delegation, pursuant to Montana Code 2-16-603, on the grounds of physical or mental lack of fitness, incompetence, violation of oath of office, official misconduct, or conviction of certain felony offenses.

Section 2 of Montana Code 2-16-603 reads:

"(2) A public officer holding an elective office may be recalled by the qualified electors entitled to vote for the elective officer's successor."

The website Ballotpedia.org cites eight other states which allow for the recall of elected federal officials: Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, and Wisconsin. New Jersey's federal recall law was struck down when a NJ state judge ruled that "the federal Constitution does not allow states the power to recall U.S. senators," despite the fact the Constitution explicitly allows, by not disallowing ("prohibited" in the Tenth Amendment,) the states the power to recall US senators and congressmen:

    "The powers not...prohibited...are reserved to the States...or to the people." - Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The issue of federal official recall has never reached the federal courts.

Montana law requires grounds for recall to be stated which show conformity to the allowed grounds for recall. The draft language of the Montana petitions, "reason for recall" reads:

    "The Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees all U.S citizens:

    "a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed..."

    The National Defense Authorization Act of 2011 (NDAA 2011) permanently abolishes the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial, "for the duration of hostilities" in the War on Terror, which was defined by President George W. Bush as "task which does not end" to a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001.

    Those who voted Aye on December 15th, 2011, Bill of Rights Day, for NDAA 2011 have attempted to grant powers which cannot be granted, which violate both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

    The Montana Recall Act stipulates that officials including US senators can only be recalled for physical or mental lack of fitness, incompetence, violation of the oath of office, official misconduct, or conviction of a felony offense. We the undersigned call for a recall election to be held for Senator Max S. Baucus [and Senator Jonathan Tester] and charge that he has violated his oath of office, to protect and defend the United States Constitution."

Montana residents William Crain and Stewart Rhodes are spearheading the drive. Mr. Crain is an artist. Mr. Rhodes is an attorney, Yale Law School graduate, and the national president of the organization Oath Keepers, who are military and law enforcement officers, both former and active duty, who vow to uphold their Oath to the US Constitution and to disobey illegal orders which constitute attacks on their fellow citizens.  Rhodes said:

    "These politicians from both parties betrayed our trust, and violated the oath they took to defend the Constitution. It's not about the left or right, it's about our Bill of Rights. Without the Bill of Rights, there is no America. It is the Crown Jewel of our Constitution, and the high-water mark of Western Civilization."

Rhodes noted that:

    "Two time Medal of Honor winner Marine General Smedley Butler once said "There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights." Time to fight. "

Butler famously ended his career as a Marine General by touring the country with his speech and book denouncing war, "War is a Racket."Butler confessed that he had spent most of his life as a "high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers...a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism..."

Eighteen states at present have recall laws, most of which do not apply to federal officials. For these and other states to recall federal officials, state legislatures would have to first pass or amend such laws.

Rising on the House floor to oppose the bill based on the military detention provisions for Americans, Rep. Tom McClintock said before the House vote:

    " today, we who have sworn fealty to that Constitution sit to consider a bill that affirms a power contained in no law and that has the full potential to crack the very foundation of American liberty."

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said in opposing the final NDAA:

    ”This bill also contains misguided provisions that in the name of fighting terrorism essentially authorize the indefinite imprisonment of American citizens without charges.”

And in a New York Times op-ed piece by two retired four-star U.S. Marine generals, Charles Krulak and Joseph Hoar, Krulak and Hoar said that "Due process would be a thing of the past."

Montana would be the first recall drive to be launched as a result of the vote for the NDAA military detentions provisions. A number of Facebook pages appeared after the passage of the bill from locations across the country.

References:

Facebook: "Recall Every Congressman Who Voted for the NDAA"
http://www.facebook.com/...

"Recalling Senators and Congressmen"
http://www.uscitizensassociation.com/...

"How to Recall US Senators and Congressmen"
http://recallthetraitors.blogspot.com/...

[Nemo888]

[Thucydides]

A public challenge. It would be interesting to see a real debate, but I won't be holding my breath:

http://electiondayteaparty.squarespace.com/news/2012/1/12/tea-party-leaders-to-dnc-stop-lying-about-us.html

CONTACT:
Michael Patrick Leahy
michaelpatrickleahy@gmail.com
615-243-6869

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tea Party Leaders to DNC Chair: Stop Lying About Us
Challenge Ms. Wasserman Schultz to a Debate on the Constitution

January 12, 2012 - Local tea party leaders from around the country who organized the ElectionDayTeaParty.com website today told DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz that it was time to stop lying about the Tea Party movement.

"It's time for Ms. Wasserman Schultz to stop spreading her vitriolic and divisive rhetoric about the millions of Americans who support the Tea Party movement and its three core values of constitutionally limited government, free markets, and fiscal responsibility," said Mark West, President of the Chattanooga Tea Party.

"Today, we are challenging Ms. Wasserman Schultz to a debate on the Constitution," said Michael Patrick Leahy, co-coordinator of Election Day Tea Party. "We think the country is ready for direct and civil discourse on what the Constitution says about the proper role of the federal government in our lives. That's the real issue. Ms. Wasserman Schultz and the entire leadership of the Democratic Party believe that the federal government should keep taxing and spending more and more. We in the Tea Party movement think otherwise."

The first national event of Election Day Tea Party 2012 will be a celebration of the Tea Party movement's 3rd anniversary on February 25th, 26th, and 27th. On February 27, 2009, the Tea Party movement was launched with simultaneous tea parties in fifty cities which were attended by more than 30,000 tea partiers. This was immediately followed by Tax Day Tea Party on April 15, 2009, when over 1 million tea partiers participated in rallies held in more than 900 cities.

Michelle Moore, organizer of the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition in February 2009, said "The St, Louis Tea Party will be happy to host this debate on February 25, 2012, the 3rd Anniversary of the movement. We think CNN, MSNBC, and FoxNews will be very interested in covering such an event."

Lorie Medina, founder of the Frisco, Texas Tea Party and creator of the Victory in a Box Get-out-the Vote program added, "We'll put forward the Tea Party's view of the proper constitutional role of the federal government. Ms. Wasserman Schultz can put forward the Democratic Party's view of the proper role of the federal government. We'll let the voters decide which view they agree with, and which view is extremist."

 

About Election Day Tea Party 2012: Election Day Tea Party 2012 is a project of the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition, an informal federation of thirty local tea parties from around the country who work collaboratively on national projects.

[Infanteer]

Those guys are still around?

[muskrat89]

Those guys are still around?

I can say with absolute certainty that they are fairly active at local and state levels. National TP stuff I don't follow very closely; local TP groups interests are too diverse (yet with some commonalities) to coalesce into any kind of cohesive force in my opinion. A Tea Party group in Town A may have a nucleus/agenda focused on constituional issues and education. 20 miles away in Town B, the Tea Party group may be focused on fiscal matters. Town C's group may provide a forum for people to learn about candidates running for local office by giving them opportunities to present to the group.

Much to redeye's delight I'm sure - I would offer that most Tea Partiers are "amateurs" when it comes to politics. Their primary bent may be conservatism, religion, the constitution, or fiscal responsibility. They are average people who have simply become "fed up" and are galvanized to try and do something to change politics as usual.

[Thucydides]

I tend to think of these groups as the small furry mammals that will be able to adapt and survive the big changes coming in the social, political and economic ecosystem. Just because you don't see them does not mean they are not out there, quietly eating the dinosaur eggs...

[recceguy]

Those guys are still around?

I think that's what the Brits said in about 1774. Boston 1773

Wonder how they made out on that one?

[Thucydides]

Maybe not so quietly snacking on dinosaur eggs:

http://wolffiles.blogspot.com/2012/01/announcing-election-day-tea-party.html

Tea Party Leaders Launch ElectionDayTeaParty.com for 2012
Celebrations Planned Nationwide
Marking the Third Year of the Citizens' Movement in February

January 11, 2012 - Local tea party leaders from around the country today announced the launch of the ElectionDayTeaParty.com website, which will be the online information center for a series of national events that will get the tea party vote out in the November, 2012 election.

The first national event of Election Day Tea Party 2012 will be a celebration of the Tea Party movement’s 3rd anniversary on February 25th, 26th, and 27th. On February 27, 2009, the Tea Party movement was launched with simultaneous tea parties in fifty cities which were attended by more than 30,000 tea partiers. This was immediately followed by Tax Day Tea Party on April 15, 2009, when over 1 million tea partiers participated in rallies held in more than 900 cities.

“The purpose of this website,” said Mark West, President of the Chattanooga Tea Party, “is to let the country know that the Tea Party movement is focused like a laser beam on getting out the vote to support constitutional conservative candidates on the biggest Tea Party event of all - Election Day, November 6, 2012. In addition, we are re-affirming the movement’s three core values - Constitutionally Limited Government, Fiscal Responsibility, and Free Markets - so that the public will not be deceived by the false narratives about our movement that are constantly pushed out by the Left and the Democratic Party.”

Patti Weaver, who organized the Pittsburgh Tea Party in February, 2009, added that “we want tea party supporters and open minded voters around the country to visit the site and sign up so they can participate in their local get-out-the-vote efforts.”

Zan Green, organizer of the Birmingham, Alabama Rainy Day Patriots.org Tea Party in February 2009, said, “The first major event scheduled as part of the year long Election Day Tea Party project will be a national celebration of the 3rd Anniversary of the movement, which will be held in dozens of cities around the country over the February 25th, 26th, and 27th weekend. In Birmingham, we plan on coordinating our event with local radio host Dr. Gina Loudon.”

Bill Hennessy, organizer of the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition in February 2009, said “The website will be a place for volunteers who want to help get out the vote can sign up. We will put them in touch with their local tea party get out the vote efforts.”

Teri Adams of the Independence Hall Tea Party said “The celebrations won’t be rallies, but rather celebrations of the Tea Party’s three core values, American Constitutionalism, and direct citizen engagement. Each participating local tea party will have its unique method of celebration. In Philadelphia, we’ll be holding an event at Independence Hall on February 26th, where Michael Patrick Leahy, co-coordinator of Election Day Tea Party, will speak about his new book, Covenant of Liberty: The Ideological Origins of the Tea Party Movement.”

Lorie Medina, founder of the Frisco, Texas Tea Party and creator of the Victory in a Box Get-out-the Vote program added “After the wave of public rallies that dominated 2009 and 2010, hundreds of local tea party groups around the country have spent 2011 organizing under the radar to get out the vote in 2012. In addition to the takeover of the House of Representatives in 2010, the Tea Party was entirely responsible for the Republican Party’s takeover of the Virginia State Senate this past November. Tea Party 1.0 and 2.0 have come and gone. Now, we’re on to Tea Party 3.0. We’re organized and determined to win in November, 2012.”

Additional tea parties who’ve signed up to be part of Election Day Tea Party 2012 and the third anniversary celebration in February come from Tennessee, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Mississippi, New Jersey, Texas, Delaware, Arkansas, Missouri, Florida, and Connecticut. Election Day Tea Party 2012 anticipates that tea parties from every state will participate.

About Election Day Tea Party 2012: Election Day Tea Party 2012 is a project of the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition, an informal federation of thirty local tea parties from around the country who work collaboratively on national projects.

# # #

http://electiondayteaparty.squarespace.com/

[Thucydides]

The TEA Party movement and Super Tuesday. As expected, the narrative the legacy media is pushing simply does not fit the facts on the ground. I predict a lot of exploding heads come November 2012...

http://www.broadsidebooks.net/2012/03/07/super-tuesday-explodes-two-myths-about-the-tea-party/

Super Tuesday Explodes Two Myths About the Tea Party

By: Michael_Patrick_Leahy
March 07, 2012
Results from yesterday’s “Super Tuesday” Republican primaries in ten states exploded two myths about the Tea Party movement.

Myth #1 – The Tea Party is losing its political power.

The mainstream media and the Democratic Party keeping slogging the dead horse that the Tea Party movement has peaked. They point to the lack of public rallies of the sort that characterized 2009 and 2010 as evidence. Balderdash, respond local tea party activists from around the country. We’ve moved on to more important things–like organizing to get-out-the-vote.

Yesterday’s results proved that the Tea Party movement is not only live and well–it’s thriving.

The Tea Party movement claimed another victim among incumbent GOP politicians in Ohio’s 2nd Congressional District, where 4 term GOP incumbent Jeanne Schmidt was upset by tea party challenger Brad Wenstrup, 49% to 43%, despite outspending him by a 3 to 1 margin.  The  noise you hear in the distance is the fearful expectations of a pair of old GOP Senate bulls about to experience serious Tea Party challenges in their primaries–Indiana’s Richard Lugar and Utah’s Orrin Hatch.

Exit polls also showed that GOP Primary voters are strongly supportive of the Tea Party movement. 62% of Tennessee voters fit that category, as do 59% of Ohio voters.

Myth #2 – Tea Party supporters won’t vote for Mitt Romney.

Exit polls in the two most contested states provide evidence that this oft-heard claim is untrue. In Ohio, supporters of the Tea Party movement virtually split their support between Rick Santorum (39%) and Mitt Romney (36%). Gingrich and Paul lagged far behind. In Tennessee, Santorum (39%) beat both Gingrich (27%)  and Romney (25%) among Tea Party supporters. While it’s clear that Tennessee tea partiers prefer Santorum to Romney, a 14% margin is not exactly a tsunami. And Romney beat Gingrich, the only one of these three who deserves credit for helping launch the movement in 2009, in Ohio, and effectively tied him in Tennessee.

While it’s true that very few local tea party leaders have endorsed Romney, that strong opposition appears not to have translated into unbending opposition among the tea party rank and file.

With a hat tip to Mark Twain, it’s fair for those of us in the Tea Party movement to let the Democratic Party and the mainstream media in on this poorly kept secret: “Reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated.”

Michael Patrick Leahy is the editor of the Voices of the Tea Party e-book series and co-founder of Top Conservatives on Twitter and the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition. His new book, Covenant of Liberty: The Ideological Origins of the Tea Party Movement, will be published by Broadside Books in spring, 2012. He can be reached on Twitter at @michaelpleahy .

[Thucydides]

A look at what the TEA Party movement has achieved already. This is a pretty potent message to send for the downline elections in November, and to use in State and Municipal elections in the years to come. Unwinding $3-500 billion in spending in two years demonstrates that real spending cuts, elimination of the deficit and dealing with the national debt and unfunded liabilities is indeed possible, not something that you just throw your hands up over and declare impossible:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2012/04/08/the-tea-party-already-saved-taxpayers-300-billion-maybe-a-half-trillion/

The Tea Party Already Saved Taxpayers $300 Billion (Maybe a Half Trillion)

A “counterfactual” is an analysis of “what would have happened if.” President Obama’s claim that “the stimulus added as many as 3.3 million jobs” is the most famous example of this genre.

Counterfactual analysis of the effects of the 2010 election on federal spending can be executed, unlike the jobs-saved analysis, on a more solid foundation with nothing more than a pocket calculator. The procedure is simple: First, we find what the Obama administration intended to spend in 2011 and 2012 on the eve of the November 2010 election (and not knowing that an electoral disaster lay in store). Second, we compare these figures with what was actually spent in 2011 and what is likely to be spent in 2012.  For example, if the administration planned to spend $3 trillion in 2011 but actually spent $2.5 trillion after the Republicans gained the House, the “counterfactual saving” for 2011 is $.5 trillion.

According to my arithmetic, the unanticipated Republican November 2010 sweep of the House with victories of fiscally-conservative freshmen saved or will save taxpayers at least $300 billion dollars for the two-year period 2011 and 2012 alone – a figure that may understate the saving by another two hundred billion.

Let’s begin in 2010 as the Office of Management and Budget prepared the fiscal year 2012 budget for the President.  The Congressional mid-term elections lay ahead. This budget reveals that Obama, with continued strong majorities in both houses, intended to spend $3,818 billion in 2011 and $3,728 billion in 2012.

A confusing and bitter battle over federal spending followed in the aftermath of the Republican sweep of 63 House seats. Both sides negotiated stop-gap measures, continuing resolutions, and “grand bargains” with clear goals. The Republicans wanted less spending and no substantive tax increases. The Democrats fought against spending cuts and lobbied for tax increases. They floated proposals for a “second stimulus” and, failing that, for an infrastructure bank. The melee resembled two football teams playing on a foggy field in pursuit of a loose football. After numerous turnovers, they end up in a huge pile with the referee unscrambling the players to determine who has the ball.

In this case, we have a clean measure of which team ends up with the ball. We know that the Obama administration planned to spend $3,818 billion in 2011 and $3,728 in 2012 on the eve of the election. The OMB’s March 2012 figures reveal that $3,603 billion was actually spent in 2011 and estimate 2012 spending will be $3,627.

When we compare intended with actual spending, we get a “counterfactual” saving of $294 billion for the two-year period. Without the Republican victory, Obama would have spent $294 billion or almost $.3 trillion more.

By the end of fiscal year 2012, the counterfactual saving will probably be closer to $500 billion for two reasons.  First, if the Ryan Budget prevails for fiscal year 2012, it spends $98 billion less than the Obama budget would have.  Second, Democrat budgets schedule spending reductions for out years. True to form, the Obama budget called for an unlikely $92 billion absolute spending cut in 2012. Past history teaches that such promised spending cuts are forgotten when the time comes around. If we add the likely Ryan budget $98 billion saving to the fake Obama hundred-billion-dollar cut in 2012, we raise the counterfactual saving to almost $500 billion. That is a saving worthy of note.

In his first year in office, President Obama increased the federal government’s share of GDP from twenty to twenty five percent! If we add in state and local spending, government approached a forty percent share of the economy. His Obama Care and proposals for more stimulus spending and massive infrastructure investments were designed to keep the federal government at a quarter or more of the economy as a new normal.

The 2012 election will be a battle by the Republicans to roll back federal spending to its historical rate of twenty percent or below. An Obama victory would enshrine the quarter-of-the-economy federal share as a new baseline. The United States would then be on its way to European welfare state spending levels and would have to find ways of raising revenues to European taxation levels.

It is this scary scenario that gave birth to the Tea Party. The mainstream press has repeatedly tried to write the Tea Party’s obituary as out-of-touch, ineffective, and having lost its steam. That the Tea Party has already saved taxpayers between $300 and $500 billion shows its striking impact on the American fiscal scene. This insight should invigorate its members for the 2012 election.

[cupper]

OMG, Zombie Alert. I thought this topic died a slow painful death.   

[Thucydides]

If you think that you will be in for a real surprise this November....

[cupper]

If you think that you will be in for a real surprise this November....

I don't have enough faces to palm to respond to that.

 

[recceguy]

I don't have enough faces to palm to respond to that.

 

It appears you're one of those Democrats that say the Tea Party is dead, or follow their dictum anyway.

Rather than argue, he said, she said, why not just be satisfied to wait and see if they make an impact.

That way you don't have to appear so self centred and condescending.

[Thucydides]

Other Democrats appear to be taking direct action against the TEA Party movement, which should indicate that someone is taking them very seriously indeed:

http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/11/send-us-everything/?print=1

‘Send us everything’
By Eric Wilson & Toby Marie Walker   11:09 AM 04/11/2012

During a 2009 commencement address at Arizona State University, President Obama joked that he’d send the IRS after those who didn’t see eye-to-eye with him. For over 100 tea party groups, his comments are not amusing; they are a reality.

The tea party has had a profound impact on the national political debate, bringing the size and scope of the federal government to the forefront of the American dialogue. As voters increasingly connect with the tea party’s values, President Obama and Democrats have grown concerned about the movement’s grassroots energy. In a “Chicago style” attempt to smother the movement before the 2012 election, the Obama administration is using the IRS to attack tea party groups.

The Waco Tea Party submitted an application for tax-exempt status in 2010. Nearly two years after the IRS’s 90-day response window elapsed, the group finally received a reply — a list of over 50 demands. The three-year-old organization was asked to compile every Facebook post and tweet it had ever produced. It was told to submit transcriptions of its weekly radio show — a request that would cost $25,000 to comply with, more than twice the group’s annual budget. It was ordered to explain any “close relationships” with candidates. And when the Waco Tea Party asked the IRS to clarify “close relationship” and “candidate,” the IRS replied, “Send us everything.”

To make the demands even more egregious, the over 30,000 pages of demanded information was to be compiled in just 14 days.

The Waco Tea Party is not alone. While liberal organizations have been given a fast pass through the tax-exempt application process, hundreds of freedom-fighting groups have received these intrusive questionnaires, which consume time and money that could otherwise be used to protect constitutional liberties.

The IRS has demanded that an Ohio group produce a synopsis of each book it has recommended to members, along with the authors’ names, the books’ titles and details about the authors’ relationships with a local conservative activist.

Obama’s IRS has requested that a Kentucky group release information about its board’s family members — if they intend to run for office, if they have started up similar groups, if they have ever applied for a tax-exempt status.

From others, the IRS has demanded sensitive information about leaders’ resumes, donors, groups’ future plans and whether any board members are thinking about running for political office.

The IRS says it’s issuing these questionnaires to investigate whether the primary — not sole — purpose of these tea party groups is to promote social welfare, but the inquiries have dug deep into the personal lives of tea party leaders and their families.

Marcus Owens, the former chief of the IRS’s tax exemption unit, told Roll Call that the extensiveness of the IRS’s inquiries is “an overreach.”

Some members of Congress have begun to question the legality of these demands.

Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander recently said, “The government should not have what amounts to an enemies list based on what people or organizations say or believe.”

Given the true grassroots nature of the tea party, independent groups do not have the financial or human resources to properly fight back. By abusing the IRS’s authority, the Obama administration is suppressing the movement’s freedom of speech.

This is a dangerous precedent to set — and it should concern all Americans, whether someone’s a tea partier or not. As Tom Zawistowski, the executive director of the Portage County Tea Party, put it, “This is the kind of personal information that this government is going to be demanding from your church, your doctor, your hospital, your business and your favorite charity going forward.”

The tea party will fight back.

We have joined with Zawistowski and other conservative activists to launch ProtectTheTeaParty.com and form the Liberty Defense Foundation, an alliance created of, by and for the grassroots tea party movement that is meant to serve as a resource for the IRS’s tea party targets.

Obama’s IRS is unfairly working to shut down tea party groups or — at the very least — force successful organizations to turn their attention away from the important issues they fight for every day.

The movement’s voice will not be left unheard. We will take on the Obama administration, fight against its attempts to confiscate our First Amendment rights, push back against administration officials’ demands for us to send them everything, protect the tea party and ensure that all Americans can take advantage of their constitutional liberties.

Eric Wilson is the director of the Kentucky 9/12 Project, and Toby Marie Walker is the lead facilitator of the Waco Tea Party. Both groups have been involved with the IRS’s proceedings and are founding board members of the Liberty Defense Foundation (www.ProtectTheTeaParty.com).

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/11/send-us-everything/#ixzz1rl4nLZmQ

[cupper]

It appears you're one of those Democrats that say the Tea Party is dead, or follow their dictum anyway.

Rather than argue, he said, she said, why not just be satisfied to wait and see if they make an impact.

That way you don't have to appear so self centred and condescending.

I didn't say that the Tea Party was dead. I thought that this topic thread was dead, as it seemed to have not appeared in quite a while. Everyone seemed preoccupied with the Election thread instead.

The Tea Party is very alive, well, and kicking. And all of my previous comment still stand.

You appear to misunderstand me good sir. I am neither Democrat or Republican (aside from the fact that I am prohibited by law to exercise an opinion at the voting booth) for I see flaws in both parties. Just a person who feels that there is a lot of misinformation being vomited up in the media on both sides.

Unfortunately this primary season is one sided. There will be plenty of opportunities during the general election to chastise the Dems for their blunders as well.

[Thucydides]

Photo essay by "Zombie" of a TEA Party movement rally for Mitt Romney, in San Fransisco of all places: http://pjmedia.com/zombie/2012/04/16/tea-party-rallies-for-romney-in-san-francisco/

Now the TEA Partiers are probably only lukewarm for Governor Romney, but they are positively cold for the current Administration, so expect the movement to start pulling forward towards their goals (and certainly expect them to be making demands come Jan 2013).

[muskrat89]

An article on what the Tea Party is up to:  http://news.yahoo.com/3-years-later-whats-become-tea-party-205645508.html

Hoping Yahoo is a neutral enough source to quell the scoffers

[Thucydides]

No wonder the TEA Party movement is so effective; look who is running it:

http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/04/the-tea-party-the-greatest-feminist-movement/

The Tea Party: The greatest feminist movement?
Posted by Anne Sorock    Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 10:02am
 
Two standout appearances at Chicago’s Tea Party this Monday were familiar faces from Saturday’s Wisconsin event: BigJournalism’s Dana Loesch and Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch.

These two women, working moms who are relatively recent entrants into the political fray, are examples of one of the most underreported stories of the movement: the Tea Party’s empowerment of women.

It is women in particular who have embraced the movement, either in leadership roles or in behind-the-scenes work. The stay-at-home moms and working women who sacrifice family time in order to commit themselves to the movement are inspiring generations of young American females.

Dana Loesch gave a take-no-prisoners speech that had people cheering her on from the furthest reaches of Daley Plaza. And Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch’s appeal to keep in the fight–as she is having to–wasn’t lost on the scores of women who had taken time off work and mothering to travel into to Monday’s Tea Party.

Lt. Gov. Kleefisch, subjected to recall along with Gov. Scott Walker, is facing an uphill battle. While Gov. Walker’s plight has caught the attention of national media–and donor’s wallets–Kleefisch is having trouble getting noticed in the shadow of the Walker spotlight. A defeated Kleefisch would leave Walker alone in the State House; in her place would be the president of the Wisconsin Firefighters Union.

So Kleefisch–and Loesch–and countless women across the country (Toby Marie Walker’s Waco Tea Party comes to mind as a particularly feisty and effective bunch) are fighting on. In doing so, the story of women and the Tea Party grows more prominent–and more difficult to ignore.

And a forecast of how much the TEA Party movement could bring to the election. The high end numbers are the "best possible" scenario, I would look for something closer to the lower boundary based on the available time and resource base of the TEA Party groups:

http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/18/the-coming-conservative-landslide/?print=1

The coming conservative landslide
By Michael Patrick Leahy   7:38 PM 04/18/2012

Wishful liberals and Chicken Little conservatives who watch the weekly fluctuations in the presidential polls have concluded that President Obama is a shoo-in for re-election. They point out that Mitt Romney, the likely Republican nominee, can’t connect with women, has a large likability gap and is slightly behind Obama in most national polls as well as in the key swing states of Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Ohio.

The despair of faint-hearted conservatives deepens when they contemplate President Obama’s disastrous performance in office. His record of fiscally reckless extremism is unparalleled in American history. In three short years, federal spending as a percentage of GDP has climbed from 20% to 24% while the national debt has exploded from $10 trillion to $15.5 trillion. By the end of his term, Obama will have increased the national debt by a staggering 67%.

Add to this record President Obama’s continual disrespect for the Constitution, his unceasing regulatory attacks on free enterprise and small businesses, his rhetoric of class warfare, his deceptive demagoguery and his spendthrift economic policies that have fattened the wallets of his political cronies but created so few jobs that millions of Americans have simply dropped out of the labor force, and many conservatives can offer only one explanation for Obama’s current lead in the polls.

America, they conclude, must have lost its can-do spirit of rugged individualism and replaced it with what Governor Chris Christie recently called an attitude of “paternalistic entitlement” championed by a coalition of political elites, acolytes in the mainstream media, crony capitalists and an ever-growing dependency class.

Conservatives across the nation should be of good cheer, however. The United States remains a center-right nation. This November, voters will choose common sense over fiscally reckless extremism in what will be a landslide conservative victory. Republicans will retain the House, gain the Senate and win back the presidency with a 2-to-1 Electoral College margin.

The most recent Rasmussen poll shows Mitt Romney ahead of President Obama, 48% to 44%. Obama’s support has softened significantly since 2008, and opposition continues to grow on all sides. In that election, Obama defeated John McCain by a 53% to 46% margin in the popular vote. Since then, as the Rasmussen poll demonstrates, Obama has lost the support of 9% of the voting population. Much of that loss is permanent. Defectors include disappointed voters under 30 who supported him by a 2-to-1 margin in 2008 but can’t find a job in today’s lackluster economy, disaffected Catholics turned off by his high-handed tactics and virtually every small business person in the country, to say nothing of disillusioned Democrats opposed to his individual healthcare mandate.

But the polls are missing one key ingredient: the intensity of feeling and the level of determination among the 28% of American adults (66 million people) who consider themselves part of the tea party or are supportive of it. To these people, 2012 is not “just another election.” It is the defining political battle of our lifetime.

Most of these 66 million tea partiers will vote in November. But they will do much more than vote. They will also make unprecedented personal sacrifices in time and money to help get out the vote. To a person, these 66 million Americans believe that if Barack Obama is re-elected, the constitutional republic as we know it will be destroyed. They are determined not to let this happen on their watch.

Reports that the tea party movement has lost steam are entirely the creation of a mainstream media that wants the movement to go away. Recent polls show that support for the movement is higher today than it was two years ago, in the spring of 2010. The tactics of this large and growing group have evolved from the high-profile rallies of 2009-2010 to a more organized and focused national get-out-the-vote effort. Every night, the country is honeycombed with a series of local and regional conference calls among the local leaders of this dedicated group. New tea party groups — estimated at around 3,000 at the start of the year — are being formed at an accelerating rate. These new groups are smaller, more localized and highly focused on one objective: getting out the vote in November.

A national poll, of course, is not all that helpful in predicting presidential election outcomes, which are decided based on the results of 51 separate electoral contests (the 50 states plus the District of Columbia). When the 9% President Obama has lost across the board is subtracted from his 2008 results in each state, the dimensions of the coming conservative landslide become apparent.

Obama can count on winning only the 10 states he won with more than 60% in 2008 — California, Hawaii, New York, Maryland, Delaware, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Illinois. Add the three Electoral College votes from the District of Columbia, and President Obama has only 146 Electoral College votes to Romney’s 392.

To these 10 “certain” Obama states, add four “blue” states that Obama won in 2008 with 56% to 57% of the vote — Washington, Maine, Oregon and New Jersey — and Obama’s electoral count edges up to only 186, barely half of the 352 Electoral College votes Romney will receive from the other 36 states where Obama received 57% or less of the vote in 2008. But even these four states aren’t guaranteed. All four of them have active and engaged local tea parties, and New Jersey has Chris Christie, the popular governor and big Romney backer.

The only hope Democrats have of narrowing the gap is to win the ground battle. In that effort they have several advantages over the tea party movement. Unions and left-wing organizations will spend millions of dollars to pay people to get out the vote this fall. Meanwhile, the Republican Party’s get-out-the vote efforts will be laughably anemic.

Only the tea party has the enthusiasm and manpower to get out the vote for Mitt Romney, but it’s financed by the spare change found in the couches of local leaders. Nonetheless, as the critical role it played in the 2011 Republican takeover of the Virginia State Senate proved, the tea party is very effective.

The big question is whether wealthy conservative donors will wake up to face the political realities and help local and regional tea party groups finance get-out-the-vote efforts. To date, they have ignored the tea party, giving their donations instead to Washington-based organizations that are more interested in building their own brands than in building effective local get-out-the-vote capabilities.

If local grassroots activists are forced to finance their get-out-the-vote efforts from the spare change in their couches, Obama could pick up six additional states where he won between 54% and 57% of the vote in 2008 — Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Colorado and New Mexico. This would give Romney a solid, but not spectacular, 296-242 Electoral College victory.

But conservatives around the country should take heart because that’s an unlikely scenario. As we’re beginning to see, conservative donors are finally realizing that the scope of the conservative victory in November will be determined by the level of financial support they provide to local grassroots conservatives. They understand that when it comes to political return on investment, local tea party groups provide the biggest bang for the buck.

Michael Patrick Leahy is the editor of the “Voices of the Tea Party” e-book series and co-founder of Top Conservatives on Twitter and ElectionDayTeaParty.com .His new book, “Covenant of Liberty: The Ideological Origins of the Tea Party Movement,” was published by Broadside Books in March 2012. He can be reached on Twitter at @michaelpleahy.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/18/the-coming-conservative-landslide/#ixzz1sUA6D9fH

[tomahawk6]

Orrin Hatch will have to face a primary after failing to win the nomination at the convention.

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/04/21/orrin-hatch-fails-to-clinch-gop-nomination-in-utah-by-0-9/