A couple of exciting pieces of information about the Tea Party. In case you didn’t know it, up until recently the Tea Party was little more than a collection of concerned citizens meeting in basements and restaraunts. While we aren’t much more than that, we are an Incorporated entity now. We did this to protect our brand. According to recent polls, Tea Party’s are more trusted then either political party. (Based on the performance of both parties recently, one could hardly be less trustworthy)

The tea party name has, for better or worse, value. There are examples of the GOP trying to create their own “tea parties.”  While there are some in the GOP that share our values, there are some that do not. And our organization will not be beholden to any party. So we felt it necessary to protect the brand. We also need to be able to handle money effectively. Before, transactions were done on a person to person basis which is bad for everyone involved.  Now we can write checks to the Roanoke Tea Party. This is goodness.

We will be moving away from protests in 2010 (although we will still need to do some of that) and towards

• Endorsing and supporting local candidates
• Pushing for or opposing legislation
• Monitoring and reporting on adherence to our core principles

I was called naiive today, but we should expect our elected officials to support the Constitution, fiscal responsibility and individual liberty without close scrutiny. Since that doesn’t seem to work right now, our organization will be committed to holding politicians feet to the fire all year round.

We will hold our first formal members meeting on Feb 4^th 6:30-8:45 PM at the main Roanoke Library located at 3131 Electric Road SW, Roanoke VA 24018. We will be discussing our by-laws, organization and other internal issues as well as organizing for future events. If we want to keep this movement together for the long haul, we need to ensure we have the structure to make that happen. We are exploring several ideas in this regard and will cover them in detail on Feb 4.

We will have a shop open soon on the site for T-Shirts and other items. This stuff costs money. So far we have depended on the kindness of  our members and the generosity of our leaders to pay our way. This won’t work long term, as we need to be able to advertise, endorse and contribute to candidates who support our values. We will be discussing thorny money issues on Feb 4th, because we need to be transparent (really transparent unlike the faux transparency of our President) if you are going to trust us with your hard earned money.  The more money we have to work with, the more impact we can have on policy.

We are focusing our main protest efforts right now on the January 18th rally in Richmond. We will be putting much more out on this soon. We will be having bus trips to Richmond for a nominal cost (around $25 a head).  We can make a big difference in Richmond with a friendlier legislative enviornment. We will be joined by every major tea party group in Va. on that date so it should be quite a show.

Keep the faith and keep checking the site for updates.

Click here to reserve your seat today! If you have questions email me at chip@roanoketeaparty.com

Please contact your local representative. There is information on the first link for your Delegate and Senator. Since both of  our US Senators voted for the health care reform bill during Monday mornings vote, we are going to have to depend on our state to fight this monstrosity. Warner and Webb aren’t up for election till 2012…but we won’t forget this.

Here is a copy of the email I sent to each local delegate. I also sent a similar letter to our State Senators. I’ll keep you posted on the results.

I am a board member of the Roanoke Tea Party. I would like to solicit your support in regards to a piece of legislation that will be considered in January.

The Federal government is intent on a complete health care take-over that will drastically transform the health care system, cost the taxpayers trillions of dollars, and will result in the greatest power grab to threaten individual liberty and the free market in the history of this nation.

Delegate Bob Marshall has introduced HB10, Virginia Healthcare Freedom Act (VHFA). I ask that you please support this important legislation to protect our state’s rights and our freedom of choice over our own health care, our right to choose whether to carry health care coverage and the type of coverage we choose to carry.

Many of our members will be attending the January 18 rally in Richmond in support of HB10 and other legislation that support Virginia’s rights under the 10th Amendment of the US Constitution.

Please let me know, on behalf of our membership, if you intend on supporting this legislation. If you support HB10, we would love it if you joined us at the rally being held at the Capital Bell Tower from 10 – 11AM on January 18. Tea Party members from your district (and across the state) will attend and would appreciate your support of this critical piece of legislation.

Sincerely,
-
Chip Tarbutton
Roanoke Tea Party

I continue to get busy signals when I call both Senators. Job well done. Keep it up.

The Tea Party Patriots site is suggesting that you add your local media outlets to the calling list.

We think that is a great plan. You simply can’t get through on the phones (even prior to the snowstorm) and Webb’s local office has been closed up for several days. 

Sounds to me like thats a big story since our elected officials seem reluctant to here from the people they are supposedly representing.

Here are the contact numbers for the local TV and papers.

WSLS10: 540-981-9126 (Direct number to the news room)

WDBJ7: (540) 344-7000 (Ask for the news director)

I got through to both news directors and they are “thinking” about some coverage, despite other big local stories. Perhaps a flurry of calls to them may convince them to cover this story more fully.

I didn’t bother calling the Roanoke Times, they are irrelevant anyway…but if you are so inclined knock yourself out.

We all feel the same. If it hadn’t been for us, it would have passed a long time ago. That’s small consolation now, but the fight is not over. The best thing we can do now is fight this in the state, under the grounds the bill violates the US Constitution. HB 10, which will be up for consideration this session in Richmond, would do just that.

We are looking to put together one final protest at the Senator’s offices here in town.  We hope we get a good angry crowd. We will solicit people at this rally to come to Richmond with us to help us ensure this bill gets passed.

Information on the Jan 18th rally is here.

More info soon on a final rally at the Senator’s office. They need to know that we won’t forget this in 2012 when Warner and Webb are up for reelection.

We are working to better coordinate our actions with other tea party groups in the state. To that end…

On January 6th, Tea Party Groups from as far away as Staunton, Rockbridge and Lynchburg have been working with us to put together one last protest to ensure that Senator Webb and Warner know what we think about their vote for the Health Care “reform” bill.

January 6th from noon – 2PM, we will gather outside of Senator Webb’s office at

3140 Chaparral Drive
Building C, Suite 101
Roanoke, VA 24018

This is a large office park and there is a lot of parking around the area. We want to focus our resources in one area, plus Warner’s office has lousy parking and is not in a high traffic area like Webb’s office. Warner/Webb and the media should  get the message that we will not stand for this unconstitutional legislative monstrosity.

If the office is open (which is doubtful since Webb’s offices consistently close their doors to avoid having to defend Webb’s indefensible support of the health care reform bill) we will enter and demand to know how they can support a bill that will make the current problems with health care worse, not better. For an outstanding analysis of the Senate bill, read this…

This doesn’t even address the core issue that the Federal Government requiring citizens to carry health care insurance is patently unconstitutional.

In between trying to chat with Webb’s people, we will march. Bring signs as this is a highly visible area. Here are some sign ideas. We will be sending out a press release so we hope to garner some press coverage. We will be using this protest to get the word out about our January 18th Rally in Richmond.

Webb admits the bill isn’t “perfect.” But feels that these “improvements” made the bill necessary. Really?!?Voting for a bill this broken just to say you did something is why our country is in the mess it is in.

See you there…any questions? Please email me at chip@roanoketeaparty.com

Here’s a Google map.

Directions to Webb’s office for those outside of Roanoke

Get on I-581 (the main exit for Roanoke off of I-81)

Continue for 9.7 miles to VA-419 N/US-220 BUS/Franklin Rd

Take immediate right on to Electric Rd/VA-419 N

Continue .8 miles and turn left on Starkey Rd

Take the 1st right onto Penn Forest Blvd. Destination will be on the right

Attached is a letter from Donna Holt, head of the Virginia 10th Amendment group who is helping to organize the January 18th rally in Richmond.  We still have room on our bus for this trip. Please take the time to either come with us or join in Richmond on Janaury 18th. More information  can be found here. Now we can fight for our 2nd Amendment rights as well on MLK day! Read on. It’s good to see our state legislators stepping up and reacting to the growing tyranny of our Federal government.

 Dear Friends of Liberty,

Recently, according to an NRA news release, Hilary Clinton mentioned the Obama administration’s intention to negotiate a new small arms treaty with the UN. In late October of this year, the U.S. joined a nearly unanimous 153-1 U.N. vote to adopt a resolution setting out a timetable on the proposed Arms Trade Treaty, including a U.N. conference to produce a final accord in 2012.

The proposed Small Arms Treaty will make it more difficult for Americans to legally buy firearms. The Treaty will do that by creating higher financial costs and complicated bureaucratic licensing processes. The Treaty will also create an international gun registry scheme that will eventually ban guns nationwide.

If Obama meets UN expectations to adopt the Small Arms Treaty for domestic and international considerations, Obama will be violating our Second Amendment rights. The UN Treaty requires that the US government confiscate guns from law-abiding Americans—something Obama wants.

That is extremely wrong since the Second Amendment is justified by our natural right of self-defense. Since guns help us implement that right, the second amendment is just and must not be violated—not by our government nor by the UN.

Furthermore, the Founding Fathers viewed our Bill of Rights as representing “natural rights.” That is, rights we have by nature which exist prior to, or independently of, the existence of government. Therefore, a government can not justifiably “give” or “take away” our rights, including our Second Amendment right. If the Obama administration signs the Small Arms Treaty and submits to UN rule, the second amendment stipulation becomes wrongfully nullified.

Moreover, our Founding Fathers fought to make us Independent from rule by a foreign power. Whereas it was King George’s dictatorship during the 1700s, it is now the UN. America’s current administration must respect this tradition of Independence and keep America free from unconstitutional influence –let alone conquest—by foreign institutions and nations.

Delegate Bill Carrico has taken a stand against this unconstitutional confiscation of our guns with HB69, the Virginia Firearms Freedom Act, to challenge the powers of the federal government under the commerce clause to regulate (or seize) any firearm, firearm accessory, or ammunition manufactured and kept in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Montana and Tennessee have already passed a similar law and there are 24 other states following their lead with a FFA either already introduced or intended to be introduced in their next legislative session. 

As a suggested script to your legislators, you may copy and paste the body of this email and address it to your representatives along with the added paragraph below.

I ask that you  please support and cosponsor Delegate Bill Carrico’s HB69  to preserve our second amendment rights in Virginia and reassert our sovereignty under the 10th amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Yours in liberty,

Donna Holt

Administrator

VA 10th Amendment Revolution

www.va10thamendment.org

Follow this link if you wold like information on the January 18th event

Follow this link if you would like to sign up for our bus trip to Richmond. It’s only $25. You can pay and register on line here.

I will be on Freedom and Prosperity radio at 8 PM Sunday evening on 960 WFIR. Here is there site. The host, Brian Gottstein will play several clips from the Webb visit and talk about January 18th with me.

With no further ado, here are the clips. Thanks for all of you support.

Chip Tarbutton

Information is power. Learn about these great bills below.

HB 10:  The VA Health Care Freedom Act

“No law shall restrict a person’s natural right and power of contract to secure the blessings of liberty to choose private health care systems or private plans. No law shall interfere with the right of a person or entity to pay for lawful medical services to preserve life or health, nor shall any law impose a penalty, tax, fee, or fine, of any type, to decline or to contract for health care coverage or to participate in any particular health care system or plan, except as required by a court where an individual or entity is a named party in a judicial dispute. Nothing herein shall be construed to expand, limit or otherwise modify any determination of law regarding what constitutes lawful medical services within the Commonwealth.”

Full text of  HB10

Q & A Challenge to Obamacare

Reasons to Vote For HB10

HB 69: VA Firearms Freedom Act

An Act exempting from federal regulation under the commerce clause of the Constitution of the United States firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition manufactured and retained in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Reasons to Vote For HB69

Questions? Contact me at chip@roanoketeaparty.com

We then visited delegates and Senators at their offices to solicit their support. According to Delegates we spoke with, this is the largest crowd ever at a Richmond Lobby day. At this point:

Senator Ralph Smith, Delgate Morgan Griffith and Delegate Lacey Putney support HB 10 and HB 69. Please take time to thank these patriots for their support of these critical pieces of legislation.

The speakers and the crowd were energized. It was nice to have political leaders, in a position of power, who were supportive of our initiatives. 2 videos are below that capture the spirit of the proceedings. Cuccinelli’s speech is brilliant, but Bob Marshall drops a bombhell concerning his conversation with an unnamed US Senator from Va. 

According to Delegate Marshall, this US Senator agreed that forcing citizens to purchase health care coverage, or face fines and imprisonment, was probably unconstitutional. But that was not his primary concern?!? Senator’s swear an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution and this attitude should be disturbing to anyone who cares about the Constitution.

In a just world, the US Senator that said this nonsense (either Warner or Webb) should be removed from office. Check out the videos below. And please contact your Delegate or State Senator and make sure they are fighting for HB 10 and HB 69.

WDBJ7′s report. From Charlottesville’s NBC affiliate.

There will be an open meeting like this each month from here on out, and we hope that you will make a point to attend as often as possible.

The primary purpose of the 2/4 meeting is to outline the structure of the organization now that we are incorporated in the Commonwealth of Virginia. We chose not to seek a non-profit status, as that places very strict limits on political activity. Instead, we are organized as a membership-based group, with leadership chosen in regular elections.

Our current board members have agreed to serve as the interim officers of the organization, but elections will be held once we have things properly laid out. There will be two levels of membership: regular members can join at no charge, but only voting memberships will be able to take part in elections. There will be a nominal fee to become a voting member.

We have a lot of plans for 2010, and we want your feedback and input. Fundraising will be a big part of what we do moving forward, as the membership fees we collect will not support much in the way of promotion or advertising.

Please make a point to attend this meeting. We need to start planning very soon for another Tax Day Tea Party protest on April 15, and will need volunteers and organizers for much of the work that’s yet to be done.  We want this year’s event to be even bigger than in 2009!
We also want to begin taking over local political parties with an influx of Tea Party members. Your help is sorely needed! Any questions…contact me at chip.tarbutton@gmail.com

HB 10 has ben given a committe assignment. This Health Care Freedom act is an important step for Virginia to start standing up to the Feds and asserting our 10th Amendment rights. Info on HB10 is here.

The bill has to get approved through this committee to get to the floor of the State Legislature. If you could contact these committee members and urge them to support the bill, that would be helpful. By having 2,000 Tea Party members show up on lobby day, we have made this bill a top priority. We need to keep the pressure on!

Delegate Timothy D. Hugo (R)
> (804) 698-1040
> email: DelTHugo@house.virginia.gov
> Delegate Harry R. Purkey (R)
> (804) 698-1082
> email: DelBPurkey@house.virginia.gov
> Delegate Thomas Davis Rust (R)
> (804) 698-1086
> email: DelTRust@house.virginia.gov
> Delegate Daniel W. Marshall, III (R)
> (804) 698-1014
> email: DelDMarshall@house.virginia.gov
> Delegate Benjamin L. Cline (R)
> (804) 698-1024
> email: DelBCline@house.virginia.gov
> Delegate Jackson H. Miller (R) (Co-Patron HB10)
> (804) 698-1050
> email: DelJMiller@house.virginia.gov
> Delegate G. Manoli Loupassi (R)
> (804) 698-1068
> email: DelMLoupassi@house.virginia.gov
> Delegate Joseph P. Johnson, Jr. (D) (Co-Patron HB10)
> (804) 698-1004
> email: DelJJohnson@house.virginia.gov
> Delegate Kenneth C. Alexander (D)
> (804) 698-1089
> email: DelKAlexander@house.virginia.gov
> Delegate Jennifer L. McClellan (D)
> (804) 698-1071
> email: DelJMcClellan@house.virginia.gov
> Delegate Delores L. McQuinn (D)
> (804) 698-1070
> email: DelDMcQuinn@house.virginia.gov

If you can make it to Charlottesville Friday, please do. More below from Mark Lloyd from the Lyncburg Tea Party. We need to get Periello out…and a Conservative in….

Patriots of the Virginia Federation,

I know many of you rallied yesterday in Richmond and made the legislature sit up straight and take notice.  Great job!

However, this fight is only just beginning.  THIS IS A CALL TO ACTION!!!

WE NEED YOU HELP IN CHARLOTTESVILLE!  We have the attention on national media in this upcoming GOP primary and in our efforts to unseat Tom Perriello (Pelosi-ello).

THIS FRIDAY, January 22nd, we are hosting the first of our three TEA Party GOP Debates.  We will have NATIONAL MEDIA present and we MUST show a BIG CROWD!

Please send this to all your friends.  I would like to see this event turn into  TEA Party rally.  The media MUST see that we are engaged in the process and are a MOVEMENT with MUSCLE!

If at all possible please join us and LET THEM SEE YOU JOIN US!  We need your bodies on camera and your voices being heard.

Date:    THIS FRIDAY, January 22nd
Time:    7PM
Location:    Lane Auditorium
            401 McIntire Rd., Charlottesville, VA, 22902

I know this is a sacrifice for many of you, but this is going to send a message to be heard not only in Virginia, but all across the nation.

If you have any questions please contact me mklloydva@gmail.com or Carole Thorpe patriotista@aol.com .

Come on and join us.  Charlottesville is Thomas Jefferson’s home town and I know you will feel his spirit when you show up and help take back the country he worked so hard to build.

In Liberty,
Mark Lloyd
VA5th TEA Parties
Lynchburg TEA Party