| In
response to repeated liberal media attacks and other criticism of the
National Tea Party Convention, the organizers in Nashville at
Tea Party
Nation recently broadcast the following
message to supporters of the Tea Party movement to set the
record straight.
SurgeUSA enthusiastically supports this event, as it
has from the earliest stages of planning.
The critics are just attacking it now because, after the Massachusetts
election, the statists are starting to realize that the Tea Party
movement is a real and growing threat to their progressive agenda and
power in 2010.
Instead of the prior media template about Tea Party
groups being a bunch of irrelevant, quarrelling, right-wing white racist
wackos or idiots doing the "astroturf" bidding of special interest
groups or Republicans like Dick Armey, Newt Gingrich or others, the
attacks are becoming even more vicious. They keep looking for
individuals to isolate and attack. Where have you
heard about that strategy before?
The political threat to their power is now perceived
as greater than when it was just a bunch of big protest rallies last
year. They don't fear very well-behaved crowds of conservatives.
They fear losing power if millions of conservative voters finally get
organized behind candidates who can defeat them in November.
There are many really smart Americans outside the Beltway.
Hundreds will meet in Nashville to get even more organized and
collaborate for victory by supporting good candidates in primaries and
on November 2. This event is sold out, with a long waiting list of
people who would have wanted to be there, including news media who were
never invited or the focus of this event. This event is about
getting individual local Tea Party organizers together, as the real
leaders of this movement, to share ideas and improve their impact.
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A message to all
members of Tea Party Nation |
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Setting The Record Straight, by Sherry Phillips |
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Judson and I have stayed silent in the face of intense media scrutiny
and attacks by former members. As a wife and a mother, I have stood by
my husband and family and stayed strong in the face of many baseless
accusations and criticism.
We have refrained from responding to many of the
attacks that have been thrown at us from other "Tea Party" groups, in
the belief we did not want to spread the divisions that are already
hurting this movement even though that does not seem to be the
consideration of some others involved in this movement.
Because of the many TPN members' requests and
encouragement, I have decided to provide comment about Tea Party Nation
and the National Tea Party Convention. We will stay silent no longer. I
hope my comments and the issues I deal with in this note will provide
some clarity. |
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American Liberty Alliance - Eric Odom's American Liberty Alliance is
a for profit company that takes donations. We agreed to a sponsorship
exchange where ALA would be a gold sponsor of the convention and we
would be a gold sponsor of the Tax Day Tea Party. Shortly after agreeing
to this exchange, Eric emailed Judson and me privately saying he was
supportive of us and this convention and did not want to pull out,
because he thinks this convention is going to be a huge success;
however, some his "influential supporters" were not happy about ALA's
participation in the convention and asked Eric to withdraw.
SurgeUSA.org Editor's note: Sherry neglected
to mention that Eric Odom and his supporters are behind the "Patriot
Caucus" initiative launched in December (after the convention in
Nashville was announced), in addition to their
Tax Day Tea Party
preparations in Washington DC, and are promoting a related convention
for their supporters in
Valley Forge, PA. That's OK - but in the interest of full
disclosure, media critics who have quoted Eric Odom as though he were a
critic of the Nashville event should be aware of such plans. Eric
and his Libertarian friends as well as former Ron Paul supporters are
among many who have done some very good work to build up the independent
Tea Party movement in 2009, and he was therefore personally invited to
participate as a speaker in the event in Nashville, but declined to do
so.
Those who favor having another big rally on 4/15/10
in Washington DC like the one that was ignored on 9/12/09, or the book
launch which Glenn Beck is planning there for August 2010, should ask
themselves how much money the hundreds of thousands of participants will
be spending to be there. In short, it adds up to millions of
dollars in travel and other costs, plus valuable time, just to hold a
big rally in Washington DC as an ego trip. By contrast, the
Nashville event was designed from the start to bring together a few
hundred organizers who could then focus on results as they plan 2010
initiatives in their own communities.
Some people have touted plans for "thousands" of
protest rallies across America in 2010. Is that really the
objective? If allies or town halls are ignored by politicians, why
not focus instead on what will get their attention? Tea Party
Patriots recently published an estimate that over 4 million Americans
participated in thousands of Tea Party events in 2009. What if
they each contributed something to better candidates, as in the recent
election in Massachusetts? That election certainly got attention
quickly in Washington DC!
What impact would it have if those at the rallies
supported the candidates of their choice instead? In short, is it
really a wise use of their money to travel to Washington DC again to be
ignored by politicians, instead of investing in their replacement by
better candidates? Those who have criticized the cost of the
Nashville event are free to spend their money however they please.
They should think twice, however, about who is really the beneficiary if
conservatives choose to waste their time and money on futile protest
rallies. That was a tactic in 2009 to draw attention to the
legislative atrocities, but if we don't "pivot" and focus on replacing
the incumbents who have created these problems, we won't have the
desired impact in 2010. |
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American Majority - After stating in the beginning they wanted to
co-sponsor the convention, they never answered repeated emails sent
asking them for confirmation of their attendance. They did not promote
the convention and did not put the convention on their calendar.
In fact Ned Ryun spent 5 minutes in an interview on Fox
News talking about the Tea Party movement and did not mention the
convention at all. Meanwhile, another training organization
contacted us asking if they could become a sponsor and if they could do
a breakout session. We gladly accepted and gave them American Majority's
spots. On January 6, Ned's assistant sent an email stating she was
making travel arrangements for them to come and participate in the
convention and asked when did we have their breakouts scheduled. I told
her because of their non-response, we gave American Majority's slots to
this other organization. They then requested that their logo be removed
from the Convention website. We complied with their request. |
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Tea Party
Express - This group has been very supportive of us. They
intended to do a small tour, culminating in an event Saturday afternoon
prior to the banquet. Because of their efforts in the Scott Brown race
and their intent to go after Harry Reid in Nevada, they simply cannot
make the trip. We received a very nice email from them explaining their
actions and restating their invitation to join them when they kick off
their next tour in March. We will be there. We fully support their
endeavors as they open their next tour in Nevada this spring. SurgeUSA.org Editor's note:
Tea Party Express has also come under media attacks recently, including
smears related to the fundraising and spending by the Our Country
Deserves Better PAC, such as fees paid to a law firm behind the
organization. Tea Party Express ads on behalf of Scott Brown in
the final days of the Massachusetts election also helped to promote Tea
Party Express in the process. Like the Convention organizers in
Nashville, such media criticism of Tea Party Express may reflect growing
fears in Washington that this PAC may actually have an impact on key
races - including Nevada and others.
Where is the media scrutiny and criticism of
Democratic PACs? For example, what about the new website in
Illinois which was set up to attack Tea Party groups here and several
Republican primary candidates in the 10th, 11th and 14th Districts with
funding by a front group which received $60,000 from the Democratic
Governors Association in 2008, plus various law firms? Isn't that
what Pelosi calls "astroturf" - as an artificially fabricated grassroots
"movement"? Wake up, folks. The attacks on the Convention,
Tea Party Express, and other conservative groups, Tea Parties, or
individuals do not reflect real journalism. |
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Campaign for Liberty - We actively sought out Campaign for Liberty
as a sponsor of this convention. We were contacted several weeks ago by
the TN Director for CFL who wanted to co-sponsor the convention and
I put him in touch with our Sponsorship Chair. We have not heard
anything from them since. |
Former Tea Party Nation Members - Several former members were
unanimously banned from our site for reasons running the gamut from
antagonism to passing on confidential information. These members have
been blogging, as well as discussing their association with liberal
media outlets and conspiring with each other to, "Take TPN and this
convention down".
In one of their more egregious statements a former member wrote that
Judson stated, "I want to make a million dollars from this movement."
Judson has never made this statement. He has stated on numerous
occasions that he would like TPN to have a million members all fighting
for the cause of conservatism!
SurgeUSA.org Editor's note: I met Judson
Phillips and discussed his motivation and financial issues related to
the planning of this event last fall in Nashville. Some critics
are spreading lies about him, or are being suckered into making negative
statements which are then quoted out of context by the media.
Those who think that this event should be free, or very cheap, are just
demonstrating an arrogant and egotistical unwillingness to check their
facts, or their ignorance of the costs of organizing any such event.
If they are offended by the idea that this event
might actually earn a small profit, after taking many chances and
risking a loss to pull it together, then they should join the socialist
progressive critics rather than pretend to be conservatives.
Profits are not evil. True "Tea Party" patriots should recognize
that.
The progressive critics of this event are duping
too many Americans into believing than any profits are evil, and that
only non-profit organizations are worthy. Wake up. Profits
reward prudent risks and make it possible to invest in achieving the
better results we need to achieve. This isn't an attempt to
profiteer from the movement. On the contrary, it is an investment
in making it stronger - which is why the critics are so viciously
attacking it as a threat now that they perceive the danger to their
progressive agenda and power. |
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Bill Hemrick - Mr. Hemrick made a business loan to Tea Party Nation
at a commercial interest rate. This loan has been paid back in full.
That is the full extent of any relationship we have had with Mr. Hemrick.
SurgeUSA.org Editor's note: I met Mr.
Hemrick, talked to him about this event, and respect his motives and
initiative at helping to make this important event possible. Thank
you once again, Mr. Hemrick. |
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Congressmen
Bachmann and
Blackburn - Both Congresswomen have large targets on their backs
and are rightfully concerned about backlash they will receive from the
left-leaning Democrat controlled House Ethics Committee. Because of the
complexity of the Ethics Code regarding House Representatives, we have
no doubt the Democrats would have found something in that code to cause
them problems once the convention was over. We were also informed by
Rep. Bachmann that both were being told two different
things by the House Ethics Committee in regard to their participation.
This of course sent up red flags to everyone involved. We do not blame
either Congressman for their decision to withdraw from the convention
and maintain a strong relationship with them both.
SurgeUSA.org Editor's note: If you
follow the above links to the official websites of Representatives
Bachmann and Blackburn, you will find no references to their decisions
to withdraw as speakers at this convention - contrary to various media
reports which alleged that they had published statements in which they
expressed concern about the convention or the fact that TPN is organized
legally as a for-profit entity.
The
Michele
Bachmann for Congress campaign website also has no such press
release or statement. Do you still trust the liberal news media to
check their facts and not distort them? Did the editors actually
confirm that the alleged statements were made? If so, where is the
evidence to prove their assertions? |
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Tea Party Nation - Last February after Judson held one of the first
tea parties in the country in downtown Nashville, he came up with the
idea for a social networking site for conservatives. Judson and I
created Tea Party Nation. We formed the corporation. We financed the
corporation. We bought the domain name
www.teapartynation.com , we
purchased the servers and we pay for the monthly expenses. We are a
C-Corp and do not accept donations. Tea Party Nation charges nothing to
be a member and is run entirely by volunteers. Recently, we have
been able to start charging for advertising on the site to help defray
the costs of running the site.
As TPN has stated since its formation, we are not a
non-profit. We prefer to offer free membership to conservative patriots
so they may participate in the political process of restoring this
nation to its founding principles without financial burdens, hardships
or roadblocks to prevent their participation. Members are then able to
choose their own way to spend their money without any involvement from
TPN. |
PayPal Account - We are using a business PayPal account for the
convention. An email address is required to notify a contact when
payment is received and we are using my TPN email account as that
notification email address. All money in that account is transferred
directly into the TPN business bank account.
We fully expect to break even during this event. We may even make a few
thousand dollars to cover local operating costs of TPN. We have
made the best of a tight budget and scaled back the price of attending
this convention as much as we could without putting TPN into bankruptcy.
The convention is sold out and we have a waiting list of over five
hundred people. We never did this to make us rich or famous. Quite the
contrary, we are patriots who love our country, our members and the
people who are coming to Nashville to attend this great event. |
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all of you who will be attending, we look forward to meeting you this
upcoming week and we thank everyone for the support and patriotism in
this fight against liberalism. God bless you all and I thank you for
your prayers and words of encouragement. |
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