Spartanburg Tea Party

A short while ago I wrote a letter to the editor in SHJ expressing my outrage that SCGOP Chair Karen Floyd and the SCGOP leadership chose to protect Jake Knotts after his racist comments rather than bring up a vote to expel him from the party.

and then … Holy Long Reaching Newspaper Batman! … Glenn McCall over in York County responded to my letter.

Exactly what happened in the closed door meeting in Columbia on June 26 … only those in the room know. I think one of the points to be made is that there WAS a closed door meeting … this was dealt with out of sight of the voters who were there, and the media. The end result lacked the dignity owned to South Carolina voters who, while they may not reside in Knotts’ district, are subject to the legislation he votes on, and are shamed by him representing our state. And it’s just too reminiscent of all the closed door meetings that Reid/Pelosi held to make deals and retain power in DC.

Several times during the June 26 meeting both Floyd and McCall called for “UNITY! UNITY!” Chairwoman Floyd even commenting during the public part of the meeting that I was in attendance for that there was “an elephant in the room” but that we should “get the November elections over, and get these good Republican candidates into office and we can deal with these issues after the elections.” Really. So more of the same Vote Republican for the sake of Unity! while ignoring the caliber of those candidates, their voting records, and their adherence to the GOP platform. Just an “R” behind their name ought to satisfy us.

Are you satisfied with that recommendation from the SCGOP leadership?

> A Republican majority in the SC Congress did not manage to get Voter ID passed.

> A Republican majority in the SC Congress did not manage to get State Government Reform passed (having major political positions all from one party, or by appointment)

> A Republican majority allowed passage of a cigarette tax, which violated some members’ “No New Tax Pledge”

> A Republican majority voted for receiving Stimulus funds

It seems to me we may have a RINO problem here in SC. What good does uniting behind the SCGOP or even candidates here in Spartanburg with an “R” if these candidates are unable to deliver to constituents these basic conservative principles of representative governing, the transparency we are demanding, and a decrease, not increase, in our taxes and state government spending? Are we satisfied in acceding to the SCGOP leadership’s plea for unity, in electing/re-electing candidates with an “R” rating and trusting their promise to “deal with the elephant in the room” after the elections? I say we’ll have lost our leverage to hold the SCGOP leadership and the RINOs accountable, to move them to the right, to pressure them to listen to our voices by November.

In the months leading up to the November elections we have the opportunity to decide whether an “R” rating is good enough, or whether there are any options in the upcoming elections to draw SCGOP leadership’s attention to our discontent in how the GOP majority in Congress failed us this past session, and how shielding one powerful GOP Senator who has shamed our state has really pissed us off.

The Washington Post has a graphic depicting Sarah Palin’s endorsements and the win/loss record.

Just thought it was interesting.

Here is the live streaming link to the three events of this weekend’s National Immigration Policy Summit in Phoenix, Arizona.

All three events will be at the link above:
– Friday’s Memorial Service and Candlelight Vigil, 7:00 p.m. on Friday, July 30th (10 p.m. EDT).
– Saturday’s Summit Seminars at Arizona State Capitol, 9:00 a.m.
on Saturday July 31st (12 p.m. EDT).
– Saturday night’s RALLY for SB 1070 and Legal Immigration, 6:00 p.m. on Saturday July 31st (9 p.m. EDT).

You can read more about this here.

Full chat will be enabled during the live streaming event. It’s a great way to connect with others. At the May 29 “Stand With Arizona” rally live stream 17,000 different users exchanged over 10,000 messages.

Use the links below to determine the start time in your timezone:
Friday Vigil

Saturday Summit

Saturday Rally

This seems to be an event chock full of drama. Please check the links below for more info, and mark your calendars, as this will be streamed live on the Internet.

From Eric Odom:

Yesterday we had a stunning response to our announcement that the Patriot Caucus and Liberty First PAC is Co-Sponsoring the national “United Border Coalition Tea Party” on the border in Arizona.

So far, our fundraiser for the event has raised about $4,000, and we had hundreds of responses overnight from folks looking for details.

Event details are unfolding as follows:

Summary – SB1070 is a common sense law passed by the Arizona legislature that enables the state to enforce federal law on illegal immigration.

The border rally is being planned to support Arizona state as well as Arizona’s rights to pass and enforce SB1070.

1) Date – The date of the border rally is Sunday, August 15th.

2) Location – For security purposes, the location will not be immediately revealed. We can say that we have secured a large scale ranch on the Arizona/Mexico border.

The ranch is about a two and a half hour drive from Phoenix. We advise that you make your travel plans or Phoenix, and plan to make an early morning drive to the location on the 15th of August.

3) Facilities – Thanks to our fundraiser, we have secured the first $1,000 worth of portable toilets. We’re currently working to provide three times as many.

The ranch has RV hook-ups (limited) and some existing facilities. There will also be vendors providing food, beverages and plenty of cold water.

4) Security – The American Border Patrol has agreed to be present and work as our security for the event. We’ve also requested law enforcement to be present for the permitted rally.

5) Day Of – Speakers such as the famous “Sheriff Joe,” J.D. Hayworth and man others will be on site. There will be live entertainment, and organizers are working to provide hot air balloon and helicopter rides.

Main events to be held from 9:00 AM to Noon.

6) Live Online Stream – The events will be broadcast live on Ustream.

Please make plans to travel to Phoenix the weekend of August 15th. The location will be disclosed within the next few days. Watch the United Border Coalition website for final updates.

Stand for liberty and stand with Arizona!

For Liberty,
-Eric Odom

US House 4 Libertarian Candidate Rick Mahler will be having an Informal Meet & Greet. Spread the word so that we can get the word out about a TRUE candidate running this election, below is from his Facegroup page.

( http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=34898517069&ref=ts )

August 7th 4-7 PM. Come on down for an informal meet & greet @ 208 N Main St in downtown Greer. This is a free event. All that we ask is that you RSVP to Rick@mahlerforcongress.com or the facebook event so that we can plan accordingly.

Thank You, and I hope to see you all.
Rick

…passed along by

–
Jamie A Steele
Spartanburg County Chairman
South Carolina Libertarian Party

http://spartanburgcountylp.org

Andrew Clark writing at Politics Daily alerts us to the August 3 vote happening in Missouri where voters will cast a vote that:

…would amend state statutes to effectively shield Missourians from complying with the federal health reform law, protecting them from fines and penalties, and would “prohibit any person, employer, or health care provider from being compelled to participate in any health care system.”

Clark’s article outlines the impact of passage or failure of this Missouri bill on overall repeal of Obamacare, Obama’s re-election, the re-energization of the Tea Party, and the current state lawsuits. His most compelling paragraph is this:

After months of rallies and protests for and against the bill, the American people have not yet had a single chance to actually cast a vote on Obamacare. August 3 will be the first time anywhere in the country that voters will be able to make their voices heard in a clear-cut fashion. As one blogger from Red State opposed to Obamacare phrased it: “We’ve been forced to speak through rallies and a diminished Republican party, until now. Now there is an opportunity for the average voter to act upon that disgust.”

I’ll keep my calendar fixed on this August 8 vote and bring you the scoop.

Ed Morrissey reports at Hot Air that with no votes from Snowe, Collins, Graham and with Leiberman out of town attending a funeral Harry Reid does not have the votes to bring this up today, and perhaps not at all … for now.

But stay diligent, this campaign finance bill has huge carve out for unions and special interests, but could cripple donations from grassroots folks like us.

You’ll notice over there … there on the right —> we’ve updated our candidate bios/websites. The primary elections are over and we now move to the November elections, so we will include the conservative third party candidates in our listings.

If you know of conservative third party candidates who are running for either statewide or Spartanburg offices, please send me their names and websites … email to info@spartanburgteaparty.org

Eric Odom has a blog, with some links from Stacy McCain, Ed Morrissey, and a few other stellar bloggers explaining why the special election to fill Joe Biden’s seat in Delaware may be the way to block all the nastiness that may lie in wait during the lame duck session.

Since this is a special election, the winner of this race will be seated IMMEDIATELY. Not after the first of the year. Not early next year when the winners of the November elections are sworn in … and when it may be too late to stop the lame duck legislation.

We’ve learned that NO politics are local anymore. The votes of the SC state senators from the low country still raise my taxes. The votes of the representatives from the state of Michigan still destroy my health care. So this election is one of those that we must win, and to do that, tea party patriots and conservatives across the country must help.

Here is Christine’s campaign website. Go donate.

Join her facebook page. Blog about her. Call your friends/family in Delaware and talk about her. Watch her interviews, and read the blogs referenced in Eric’s site above. When it comes time, work a virtual phone bank/call from home for her campaign. Leaving it up to liberal Republican Mike Castle who voted for TARP and for Cap and Trade to stand in front of the Nancy Pelosi/Harry Reid agenda is too spectacularly dangerous. Do whatever it takes from your South Carolina home to get Christine O’Connell into that Senate seat to STOP the lame duck legislation!

John Hawkins, reporting at Right Wing News has an encouraging report/interview with a few folks from the GOP Leadership.

…one question has been asked over and over again: If Republicans get back in power, will they try to repeal health care reform? In order to answer that question, I contacted the Republican leadership in the House to see what they had to say about the issue.

Minority Leader John Boehner, Republican Whip Eric Cantor, Chairman of the House Republican Conference Mike Pence, and Vice-Chair of the House Republican Conference Cathy McMorris Rodgers all went on the record for this article.

Here is a quote from Boehner:

We are going to fight to repeal this government takeover of health care and start over with solutions that focus first on lowering costs. Cutting off funding for ObamaCare is absolutely something I support. For example, I would support moving as soon as possible to deny any funding for the estimated 16,500 IRS employees that will be needed to implement ObamaCare. House Republicans will continue to stand with the American people against this unconstitutional government takeover of health care. — John Boehner

The rest of the article contains similar pledges. After November it will be up to us to recall these pledges to the Republican Congress and be diligent about contacting and reminding them, and demanding they follow through.