Tea Party turmoil erupts as volunteers quit

The national Tea Party convention scheduled to take place in Nashville next month — featuring Sarah Palin as its keynote speaker — fell into turmoil last week. ea Party Nation, the locally based group organizing the sold-out event, got its first taste of trouble Tuesday when a key volunteer announced he and others had quit the group. They claimed the event's $549 ticket price was designed to make a profit off the popularity of the grass-roots campaign. By week's end, the national media were putting intense pressure on founder Judson Phillips after Tea Party Nation announced that only five, right-leaning media outlets would be allowed access to the event. NBC News reported Friday, and The Tennessean confirmed, that Phillips, a Franklin attorney, had filed for Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy in 1999 and faced three federal tax liens since 2004 totaling more than $22,000. Phillips said in an interview with The Tennessean that Tea Party Nation had been set up as a for-profit company but denied allegations of profiteering. Phillips said he founded Tea Party Nation as a for-profit company mainly for philosophical reasons. The for-profit corporation lets him avoid disclosure requirements that might have forced him to reveal the identity of donors, who then could be subjected to harassment for their views, Phillips said...read more

TX Gov. Perry gives Fed’s education program the boot!

U.S. Department of Education’s “Race to the Top” program, is a $5 billion competitive fund that awards grants to states to improve education quality. The program was created as part of the economic stimulus and is part of Democratic President Barack Obama’s efforts to overhaul the nation’s educational system. “Texas won’t compete for up to $700 million in federal stimulus money for education because the program “smacks of a federal takeover of our public schools,” Republican Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday. Gov. Perry, Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott and representatives of teachers’ unions said taking the money would “force the state to adopt national education and testing standards and result in Texas losing its autonomy in educating children.”...read more

Florida Duo Claiming Rights To Tea Party Name Have History Of Alleged Political Dirty Tricks

The two-man team of Florida political activists who are claiming the rights to the "Tea Party" name have been accused in the past of engaging in political trickery for profit, including allegedly pressing opposing candidates to pay for the endorsement of their candidate. In August, Orlando lawyer Fred O'Neal registered the "Tea Party of Florida" (TPOF) as an official political party. Since then, as we reported yesterday, he and his close ally, GOP political consultant Doug Guetzloe, have asserted rights to the Tea Party name, and tried to strong-arm some local groups to drop the well-known moniker. But some Florida Tea Party activists, already incensed that the pair is trying to claim the Tea Party name as their own, have deeper suspicions. Tim McClellan, one of the activists who O'Neal has tried to pressure to change the name of his group, told TPMmuckraker that Guetzloe has a reputation for using "bribery" and "extortion." "That's his MO," said McClellan, who lists himself on his Facebook page as a Republican political strategist. "He's been doing it for years. He's a dirty player." McClellan and others fear that O'Neal and Guetzloe will employ various schemes to profit from their claim to the Tea Party name. For instance: "I don't think it's too far down the road before they start going after people and saying, 'you pay us ten thousand dollars and we'll license the name to you,'" said McClellan...read more

UN maneuvers to create “Global Gun Control”

In October unbeknownst to most of us, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the Obama administration would reverse the Bush administration’s opposition to the UN’s proposed International Small Arms Treaty. This will clear the way for the treaty to reach a vote by the U.N. General Assembly. Seven countries, led by the British, are trying to restart U.N. efforts to restrict imports and exports of small arms. The goal is to “regulate the global arms trade” and “prevent the illegal transfer of guns.” John Duncan, Britain’s ambassador for multilateral arms control and disarmament, describes the UN’s disarmament committee as launching point for a global treaty. The British believe their very stringent gun laws are the right direction for all countries. Now they intend to use the United Nations to bring their gun control model to the United States...read more

Ed Schultz: Brown Win Tuesday 'The End Of Change As We Know It'

MSNBC's Ed Schultz believes a victory by Scott Brown (R-Mass.) in Tuesday's special Senatorial election in Massachusetts would signal "the end of change as we know it." "I think it`s just an unbelievable scenario that`s playing out and don`t kid yourselves, folks, this could derail the rest of the Obama agenda for 2010 and beyond," Schultz told his "Ed Show" audience. "The way the political winds are turning right now is absolutely amazing," he continued...read more

HT: coyotered9

Class War: How public servants became our masters

According to a 2007 analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics by the Asbury Park Press, “the average federal worker made $59,864 in 2005, compared with the average salary of $40,505 in the private sector.” Across comparable jobs, the federal government paid higher salaries than the private sector three times out of four, the paper found. As Heritage Foundation legal analyst James Sherk explained to the Press, “The government doesn’t have to worry about going bankrupt, and there isn’t much competition.” In February 2008, before the recession made the disparity much worse, The New York Times reported that “George W. Bush is in line to be the first president since World War II to preside over an economy in which federal government employment rose more rapidly than employment in the private sector.” The Obama administration has extended the hiring binge, with executive branch employment (excluding the Postal Service and the Defense Department) slated to grow by 2 percent in 2010—and more than 15 percent if you count temporary Census workers.At all levels, state and local government employment grew by 13 percent across the United States from 1994 to 2004. The number of judicial and legal employees increased by 28 percent. The number of public safety workers increased by 21 percent. The number of teachers increased by 22 percent. Michael Hodges’ invaluable Grandfather Economic Report uses the Bureau of Labor Statistics to chart the growth in state and local government employees since 1946. Their number has increased from 3.3 million then to 19.8 million today—a 492 percent increase as the country’s population increased by 115 percent. Since 1999 the number of state and local government employees has increased by 13 percent, compared to a 9 percent increase in the population. The United States had 2.3 state and local government employees per 100 citizens in 1946 and has 6.5 state and local government employees per 100 citizens now. In 1947, Hodges writes, 78 percent of the national income went to the private sector, 16 percent to the federal sector, and 6 percent to the state and local government sector. Now 54 percent of the economy is private, 28 percent goes to the feds, and 18 percent goes to state and local governments. The trend lines are ominous...read more

Richard Viguerie to Deliver Keynote Speech at Inaugural 'Leadership Tea Party' Training Event

Richard Viguerie -- legendary conservative activist, direct response fundraising pioneer, and currently chairman of ConservativeHQ.com -- will deliver the keynote speech at the inaugural Leadership Tea Party training event (on the web at http://www.leadershipteaparty.com) to be held at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport Westin Hotel from January 29-31. In addition to Mr. Viguerie's keynote speech delivered on Friday night January 29, the event will consist of 11 sessions of grassroots leadership training over 14 hours on Saturday and Sunday, January 30-31. Mr. Viguerie's speech is free and open to both the press and the public, though a limited number of seats are available. You can request a ticket online at http://leadershipteaparty.com/pages/tickets/ . Some of the most experienced and successful local tea party leaders who have been part of the Tea Party Movement since its inception on February 20, 2009 will be instructors at the sessions. The Nationwide Tea Party Coalition, which sponsored both the February 27, 2009 "Nationwide Chicago Tea Party," and the April 15, 2009 "Tax Day Tea Party" is the organizer of the event. The Nationwide Tea Party Coalition is a loose, informal collaborative federation of thirty local tea party leaders from around the country who meet quarterly to discuss strategic and tactical issues. Ken Emanuelson, one of the leaders of the Dallas Tea Party, which is one of the local tea parties that form the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition, is the spokesperson of inaugural Leadership Tea Party event...read more

Florida Lawyer Claims Rights To Tea Party Name

A Florida lawyer who registered the "Tea Party" as an official political party doesn't want to share the name that's become synonymous with the fledgling grassroots conservative movement. Fred O'Neal is pressuring activists in the state to rechristen their local Tea Party groups -- and in doing so, he's become the latest figure to be charged with co-opting the movement for personal gain. In August, O'Neal, an Orlando attorney and anti-tax activist who until then had had little involvement with the Tea Party movement, registered the "Tea Party" as a new political party with the Florida Division of Elections. O'Neal has told the press he intends to recruit conservative candidates under the Tea Party banner -- an idea that hasn't sat well with many Tea Party activists, who view any organized political party with distrust. Now, according to one activist, O'Neal and his business partner "are trying to 'hijack' our movement and turn it into the thing we are protesting for their own personal gain."...read news

Can the GOP and 'tea party' activists get along?

With Senator Lincoln up for reelection in November – and besieged on many sides for, among other things, her hesitant support for national healthcare reform – the contest here will test not only the clout of the energetic but unfocused tea party movement but also how effectively the Republican establishment taps it. So far, the desire to oust Lincoln appears to be uniting tea party and Republican forces here. If that pattern holds, Arkansas could become the altar for a pivotal political marriage that refashions conservatism in America. But it may also prove to be the exception rather than the rule. Elsewhere, tea party activists and the Republican old guard have clashed. In Florida, for one, tea partyers recently helped oust the Republican Party state chairman, and the two sides back different GOP candidates for the open US Senate seat there...read more

Tea Party Candidate Wins Seat In Tennessee State Legislature

Mark White, the Tea Party backed candidate who earlier scored an upset victory in the Republican primary, last night won a resounding victory in a special election for a seat in the Tennessee General Assembly. White won the race in the 83rd District with a resounding 68% of the vote. Mark Skoda, organizer of the Memphis Tea Party, the group which backed White early on, credited the on the ground get-out-the vote efforts of local tea party members for White's primary and general election wins. CHQ

In Power Push, Movement Sees Base in G.O.P.

The Tea Party movement ignited a year ago, fueled by anti-establishment anger. Now, Tea Party activists are trying to take over the establishment, ground up. Across the country, they are signing up to be Republican precinct leaders, a position so low-level that it often remains vacant, but which comes with the ability to vote for the party executives who endorse candidates, approve platforms and decide where the party spends money. A new group called the National Precinct Alliance says it has a coordinator in nearly every state to recruit Tea Party activists to fill the positions and has already swelled the number of like-minded members in Republican Party committees in Arizona and Nevada. Its mantra is this: take the precinct, take the state, take the party — and force it to nominate conservatives rather than people they see as liberals in Republican clothing...read more

Economic Stimulus Funds Went to Climategate Scientist

In the face of rising unemployment and record-breaking deficits, policy experts at the National Center for Public Policy Research are criticizing the Obama Administration for awarding a half million dollar grant from the economic stimulus package to Penn State Professor Michael Mann, a key figure in the Climategate controversy. "It's outrageous that economic stimulus money is being used to support research conducted by Michael Mann at the very time he’s under investigation by Penn State and is one of the key figures in the international Climategate scandal. Penn State should immediately return these funds to the U.S. Treasury," said Tom Borelli, Ph.D., director of the National Center's Free Enterprise Project. Professor Mann is currently under investigation by Penn State University because of activities related to a closed circle of climate scientists who appear to have been engaged in agenda-driven science...read more

Tax expansion could pay for healthcare overhaul

Democratic congressional leaders are considering a new strategy to help finance their ambitious healthcare plan -- applying the Medicare payroll tax not just to wages but to capital gains, dividends and other forms of unearned income. The idea, discussed Wednesday in a marathon meeting at the White House, could placate labor leaders who bitterly oppose President Obama's plan to tax high-end insurance policies that cover many union members. It could also help shore up Medicare's shaky finances, and the burden of the new tax would fall primarily on affluent Americans, not the beleaguered middle class. But the concept also carries political risks: Many older Americans, one of the nation's most potent voting blocs, could see their tax bills rise because they often depend on savings and investment income in retirement...read more

Massachusetts Miracle

Unions Collect A Health Care Payoff

Big Labor carved out a tax exemption for union members' health plans on Thursday, paving the way for passage of health care reform. Call it what it is: a bribe to cronies in an increasingly corrupt overhaul. With Nebraska winning "free" coverage of its Medicare costs in the Senate version of the bill, and Louisiana getting a tax exemption of its own, what's one more bone to a favored political group on a bill Democrats are determined to pass no matter what? That's what made it easy for labor leaders, following a sit-down with the White House, to carve out a special set-aside for union members' gold-plated health benefits acquired under collective bargaining agreements. Nobody gets more special treatment from Democrats than Big Labor. So if the bill passes, unions pay nothing on their health care for years until they can negotiate new contracts, while the rest of us plutocrats shell out a 40% tax on plans worth $8,500 for individuals and now $24,000 for families. No wonder the public is liking this odious legislation less and less?...read more

Obama and the 'Fat Cat Bankers'

President Obama said last month on "60 Minutes" that he "did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street." This assertion may mollify his constituents, but it is not consistent with his administration's own policies. We are on the cusp of what is going to be the most highly visible and contentious bank bonus season in history. Bonuses are predicted to run into the billions of dollars, and many of the banks that got the most bailout money are paying the biggest bonuses. The two issues are intimately related—and as long as the administration continues down its too-big-to-fail regulatory path, Mr. Obama will stay in the business of paying huge bonuses to fat cat bankers. Here's how it works...read more

The Story Behind Tea Party Nation’s Dishonest Beginnings

Something was bothering me. The more Judson talked about Tea Party Nation internally and publicly (I want TPN to be bigger than Facebook!), the more I began to realize that he’d taken a sort of back door approach to accomplishing the big idea he’d asked me about many months before at Fido. With an overwhelming amount of tiny requests, along with the volunteer efforts of a few other gracious people, he’d managed to have me create the conservative version of Facebook that he dreamed about. Then I remembered: Judson wanted income from Tea Party Nation to replace his income from the law practice. Everything clicked, and I was steamed. The following Monday, Judson went on air for a radio interview with Ralph Bristol, the talk radio host slotted before DelGiorno in the schedule. Bristol asked Judson about the donation box on the website; I assume in order to help boost donations. If people knew how the money was being used, they would be more likely to contribute. The host also asked in a leading manner, This is set up as a non-profit, of course. Judson’s answer was that he’d decided to set it up as a for-profit corporation, and that the majority of the donations would be for “paying our web designer.” I didn’t find out about this train wreck of an interview until the following Wednesday night, but this certainly explained why donations slowed to a trickle on Monday. For-profit, are you kidding me?! This was not what our group planned, and in talking with other members of the leadership, this is not what we wanted to happen...read more

Tea Party Convention Loses Sponsor Following ‘Whistleblower’ Blog Post

The former webmaster of Tea Party Nation, the group sponsoring next month’s National Tea Party convention at Opryland, has written a “whistleblower’s” account of his experience working with the group while it was in its embryonic stages. And what he reveals apparently has led a key tea party leader to remove his group from the sponsor list. In a post on his personal blog, In Media Res, Kevin Smith, an owner of the web design company HearSAY, writes that Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips took advantage of his volunteer computer experience in the creation of Tea Party Nation’s web architecture and profited from the enterprise. Meanwhile, Smith says that after he left the group, Phillips threatened to call the TBI and other authorities, saying Smith was responsible for crashing the Tea Party Nation website, a charge Smith denies. Smith writes that every single one of the members from the tea party planning group followed him out the door after he resigned...read more

Our decision to sit out of the Tea Party Convention

Earlier yesterday we announced our support of the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville this February. At the time, we were basing our support on limited knowledge of those involved and we trusted that all was well. A deep discussion on whether or not to support the event took place among our leadership team, and it was determined that we would go forward with the endorsement. However, throughout the evening we were met with a plethora of replies, emails and Facebook messages that revealed a high level of concern across the board. At first, I personally had tried to explain that most of the concerns were based on assumptions, but later in the evening some very compelling evidence was put forth that painted a much different picture. I will not go into too much detail about the evidence. I’m fairly confident that it will present itself during the next few days. In summary, the controversy surrounding the event involves conversations about the infrastructure of the Tea Party Nation and the way its finances are channeled through private bank accounts and paypal accounts. The American Liberty Alliance will pass on being involved with the Nashville event, and we’ll ask to be removed from the sponsors list...read more

Tea Party Nation Announcement

First, we are pleased to announce that the convention has sold out and we now have a waiting list which we will continue to try to clear as opportunity presents. In this light, we have had numerous requests for press passes and the resulting expected coverage. However, as we have set expectations that this is a working convention, we have tried not to make it a media event. In fact, Tea Party Nation has received hundreds of requests for press credentials to cover this convention. Everyone from a small town newspaper in Iowa to Fox News has asked for press credentials. We have had requests from Canada, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Norway, Croatia and Japan. We have been hard pressed to accommodate all of these requests and do not have the space or resources to support the entirety of the press corp. Indeed, we have asked the hotel if they would be willing to provide a press room during the convention. However, given these practical limitations, we have approved the following press organizations: Fox News Breitbart.com Townhall.com The Wall Street Journal World Net Daily. Tea Party Nation has an Advisory Board made up of nine (9) individuals who have been with Tea Party Nation since its formation. This Advisory Board is instrumental in greeting new members, moderating the site, putting out our newsletter and making the policies and decisions for Tea Party Nation. Between last February and the present, Tea Party Nation has seen members come and go. We have tried to deal fairly with our present and former relationships, however, not without some criticism. This criticism has been unfortunate and we believe, unwarranted...read more

Tea Party Convention Drama Fueled by Emerging GOP Alliance

“Having Palin speak at the convention works to to their mutual advantage,” said Morton Blackwell, the president of the Leadership Institute, an organization that trains conservatives (program veterans include James O’Keefe, the videographer who taped damaging exposes of ACORN) and is getting a discounted sponsorship at the National Tea Party Convention in return for holding free sessions. “It’ll help them get thousands of people there, I think. And the leadership of the Tea Parties, that I’ve talked to, do not believe that they should start their own party.” Despite the negative press Palin has received for demanding so much money for her speech, there’s agreement that her presence will help convince activists that they need to work for Republicans. “Palin is actually more Tea Party than Republican Party, anyway–she walked away from the governor’s office, for crying out loud!” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform–which is still undecided on whether to support the convention, based on conflicting suggestions from local activists. “But it’s important that they realize that they don’t have to be friends with the guys they replace the Democrats with. They get them to run on their issues. That’s how you avoid third party movements.” Some of the people planning to attend the convention are still considering whether third party challenges to the Democrats and the GOP are viable...read more

Sunken tea party blamed on planner

The leader of a local Tea Party group is blaming the cancellation of a planned three-day conference on the event planner he hired. Tea Party Support, a conservative group that splintered from another Tea Party organization late last year, hoped to make a big splash with the National Conservative Symposium, a conference scheduled for Jan. 22-24 at the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort and Spa. The speaker list included former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, television host Sean Hannity and radio and television analyst Laura Ingraham. Texas Gov. Rick Perry also committed to appear on the event's final day to introduce Palin. But the event crumbled less than a month after it was announced, with Tea Party Support pulling the plug on the conference late last week. Matt Perdue, president of Tea Party Support, alleges that event planner Jennifer Ramirez-Jasiczek diverted registration payments from a PayPal account designated for the conference into one for her own personal use. Ramirez-Jasiczek disputes Perdue's allegations and says she quit working on the event on Dec. 31 because Tea Party Support was behind in its payments to her. “I worked tirelessly planning the event so that it would be a success,” she said. “Unfortunately, I have still not been compensated for the time and effort I put into it.”...read more

Palin to allow media to cover Tea Party speech

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has decided to allow media coverage of her speech at next month's Tea Party Convention at Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center. Palin's speech was initially announced as being closed to the media, but the former vice presidential candidate requested the press be allowed in after all, the event's organizer announced Wednesday. The nation's first Tea Party convention will take place Feb. 4-6 at Gaylord Opryland...read more

Glenn Beck and CPAC: Outsider steps in

Glenn Beck’s keynote address at next month’s Conservative Political Action Conference could boost Republican efforts to harness the energy behind the tea party movement, even as it seems to undermine Beck’s carefully honed image as an outsider equally unhappy with both parties. Beck’s commitment to speak to the legacy conservative conference known as CPAC comes as the Fox News talker is dabbling more actively in politics, but nonetheless marks a new level of personal political engagement. And it came only after Sarah Palin, a fellow tea party hero, spurned an invitation to deliver the CPAC keynote Feb. 20. Beck’s ratings, influence and income have all soared in the past year as he’s emerged as a leading figure – along with Palin, the former Alaska governor, and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) – in the tea party movement. It exploded onto the scene last year as hundreds of thousands of newly engaged conservative activists flocked to town halls and marches around the country to protest big-spending Democratic initiatives that are often the target of Beck’s fiery anti-Washington attacks. Though Beck has rejected suggestions that he’s leading the movement, he unveiled an organizing effort called the 9-12 Project last year that now has dozens and perhaps hundreds of local chapters around the country...read more

Obama's rapturous style versus tea party substance

But when you look back over the surges of enthusiasm in the politics of the last two years, you see something like this: The Obama enthusiasts who dominated so much of the 2008 campaign cycle were motivated by style. The tea party protesters who dominated so much of 2009 were motivated by substance. Remember those rapturous crowds that swooned at Barack Obama's rhetoric. "We are the change we are seeking," he proclaimed. "We will be able to look back and tell our children," that "this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal." A lot of style there, but not very much substance. In contrast, the tea party protesters, many of them as fractious and loudmouthed as David Brooks thinks, are interested in substantive political issues. They decry the dangers of expanding the national debt, increasing government spending, and putting government in command of the health care sector. Their concerns have basis in fact. The national debt is on a trajectory to double as a percentage of the economy over 10 years, and the Democrats' health care bills threaten to bend the cost curve up. Higher taxes could choke off economic recovery and keep unemployment up near double-digit rates for years....read more