Our group of four citizens from Roanoke met in person with Tom Perriello yesterday in his office in DC. We were part of a group of about 30 from Charlottesville and Bedford who waited outside his office to speak with him after the rally. Our meeting lasted about 12 minutes.

Sadly, I do not think we did much to change his mind on his vote. He probably will vote for the health care bill in spite of the opposition we and others expressed to him. There were thousands of letters stacked and unopened in his office, which you and I have sent to him voicing our opposition. I doubt seriously if any will be read and counted prior to the vote scheduled this weekend.

In other words, what we have done all summer and fall will probably amount to nothing with Mr. Perreillo. I think that whatever he does, his career is over. If he listens to his constituents and votes against this bill, the Democratic leadership will make it very hard on him. If he votes with them, his elected career is over, as he will probably lose his next bid for re-election.

Sorry to say, I think with Mr. Perriello, we gave it our best shot, and came up missing him. Our only hope at this point is prayer.

Another observation- Yesterday in the Metro station, there was a sign that read:

How much is a trillion??

To spend One Trillion Dollars at one dollar per second would take over 31,000 years.

National debt with this bill will exceed $12 trillion. What will we do???

Call your Congressman today and plead with him/her to vote no to health care bill.

Don’t give up the ship.

Killing the bill in the House was always a long shot. And we came within 5 votes in a Democratic Congress with a huge majority. Obama and Pelosi had to expend a lot of capital to ram this monstrosity through. This wouln’t have even been close without all of the hard work done by community activists like us…

The real fight on Health Care Reform and Cap and Trade is in the Senate. That’s where we have the only chance left to kill both of these job killing/freedom robbing/economy destroying/Constitution destroying bills. And it’s our best chance.

Please don’t let up. Call Senators Webb and Warner and make your voice heard. This can be stopped in the Senate.

Tired of these games yet?  I am. The only way to stop this madness is to vote in politicians in 2010 and 2012 that will support free markets, the Constitution and common sense. In case you don’t know, Tom Periello voted for Cap and Trade and Health Care Reform. If we don’t boot him out of office next year, we have only ourselves to blame.

And the only way to keep new politicians on the right path is for us to be vigilant and vote them out when they start being swayed by the belt way mentality.

That will be the long term goal of the Roanoke Tea Party.

But in the short run keep the heat on Webb and Warner. Let them know that their fate and Creigh Deeds fate will certainly be the same if they vote for Cap and Trade or Health Care Reform.

Here is the Contact information for our Senators. Keep fighting!

This event is not listed on the AFP web site, but details were shared via email. Times and places for these rallies is below:

Monday, November 9, 2009

10:00 am Martinsville Event
Office of Congressman Tom Perriello
10 East Church Street
Suite K
Martinsville, VA

1:30 pm Danville Event
Office of Congressman Tom Perriello
308 Craghead Street
Suite 102
Danville, VA

5:30 pm Farmville Event
Office of Congressman Tom Perriello
515 South Main Street
Farmville, VA

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

10:00 am Charlottesville Event
Office of Congressman Tom Perriello
312 2nd Street SE
Suite 112
Charlottesville, VA

All are invited to attend.

Old News: In Case you Missed it…

First no news….the McDonnell Administration has been completely mute about our governor’s role in Obama’s Council of Governors. Not a return call or email to be found from anyone that I know, other than to confirm he is participating.  More on this issue here.

In case you missed it, a review of legislative successes in Richmond and our March Meeting is set for March 8.

New News

Looks like Pelosi/Reid/Obama Health Care Reform measures will be back up for a vote again soon. More information here. Get ready for action.

To McDonnel’s credit, he’s taking the difficult steps needed to reign in our budget. Tough decisions are absolutely going to have to be made.

However, this is a bad idea. This is touted as an “alternative to property tax increases.” If you believe that other taxes will be reduced if this goes through, you are a much more trusting soul then I.

And this is another bad idea. How about the governor get out of the way and not waste money on Obama inspired “jobs” legislation. Want to create jobs? Lower regulations and taxes and get the government out of the way.

Make sure you have these facts when your liberal friends try to link the idiot that flew his plane into the IRS building to the Tea Party movement.

Some information on the interesting race in the 5th Disctrict for their Congressional seat. Right now you have Tom Periello, who has voted in lock step with the Obama/Reid/Pelosi agenda and a dopey RINO named Robert Hurt. Virgil Goode….please come back!

Our role is to be a watchdog group for the principles that make the USA great. This article is exhibit one in why the GOP needs that oversight too. Hatch (and many other GOP members)  just don’t get it.

As a follow up to John’s excellent post on Keith Olberman,  here is more on MSNBC.

Lastly, if you don’t know Lisa Miller, she is the head of the DC Tea Party and an excellent advocate for our cause. She attended the Michael Steele Tea Party meeting and gave this excellent interview. She’s on Facebook and her posts are fantastic.

The slaughter solution has passed. And now the Democrats are bribing and cheating their way to a 216 person vote in the House. So the Democrats are willing to destroy the Constitution to pass this bill. The process is unconstitutional, the bill is unconstitutional. The result:

Your freedoms are in peril.

The specifics of the bill aren’t important now…though we all know that this isn’t going to help anyone but Democrats who are trying to seize power. If the government can subvert the Constitution to create laws without the consent of the people, our Republic is in an unparalleled crisis.

Thanks to Congressman Goodlatte for his support of the Constitution. From a message that Goodlatte sent to the Roanoke Tea Party yesterday.

“I wanted to let you know about a resolution that the Congressman co-sponsored which would prevent the speaker from bringing a rule to the floor unless it allows for an up-or-down vote on the Senate health care bill, and additionally he gave a speech on the house floor yesterday along with 124 other members of the Republican caucus against not only the health care bill itself, but also against the process by which the Democrats are trying to ram this through the House.”

We also appreciate Tom Periello for his courage in crossing over and voting against the Slaughter Solution. Yet he is going to vote for the bill? What sense does that make?

However, Rick Boucher went along with the Slaughter Solution. Congressman Boucher, you voted against the bill the first time around…and now you vote for the unconstitutional procedure to pass the unconstitutional bill you originally opposed? What?!?!?

The root cause of this problem is that we have progressives who are either too incompetent to see the constitutional issues with this bill, or willing accomplices to the greatest constitutional crisis in this nation since the Civil War.

So what do we do?

There is a rally in DC today at noon at the Capitol.  I am watching it now. At some point, I think these rally’s are losing their effectiveness. I prefer hounding your Congressman, Leave Goodlatte alone, or thank him for showing leadership on this…but if you are in Boucher or Periello’s district

Call him

Call him

Call him.

“All politics is local”…make them fear for their jobs.

Governor McDonnell, we need every voice now. Sign the Health Care Freedom Act and join the fight! It has been sitting on your desk for over a week. What are you waiting for? We could have been the first state to approve nullification. But Idaho has beaten us to the punch.

Thanks to AG Ken Cuccinelli for his leadership on nullification and his willingness to fight for the rights the Federal government are trying to steal from us.

All of this is just, in the words of Ken Cuccinell, a rear guard action. If you were uncertain about the direction of progressives in DC, events of the past few days should have removed all doubt. The latest Gallop Poll shows  Congressional approval at 16%. The question remains: what we are going to do about it?

The answer is we have to change the equation. It’s simple.

Step 1:

Get the current crop of progressives out of DC and Richmond.

The GOP is flush with confidence and joy as they feel they will sweep back in to power in November. We want to help that happen. Not to mention in 2011 when every State Senator is up for re-election. With the current environment and our active support, we can make this happen. As a local group we need to focus primarily on local races and get good men and women into office. But here’s the rub…

What are the new politicians going to differently? If it is the same economic policies that the GOP Congress and Bush pursued from 2000 – 2006 when they had a majority, we will end up in the same place we are today…with the people getting frustrated with the GOP and voting Democrats back in…

Is that really what we want? Is that what we are fighting for. Never Again.

Step 2:

Whoever is in power needs to be accountable to:

Support the Constitution

Show Fiscal Responsibility

Defend Individual Liberties

Support the Free Market

The Roanoke Tea Party does not care what your party affiliation is…but we do care deeply if you defend these basic principles. We are looking at Bob McDonnell just as critically as we would look at any Governor. He’s not getting a pass because he has an R behind his name. For those who put party loyalty above our principles, the Roanoke Tea Party is not the place for you.

Lastly, as the Roanoke Tea Party continues to grow, we need to continue to focus most of our energy on issues that are local to us…The Roanoke Valley, The New River Valley and Bedford/Lynchburg. We need to ensure that good candidates are representing us at every level of government: from school boards to Congress. From House of Delegates to the US Senate.

If you really support these basic principles, you can look at a piece of legislation and know that it violates these principles. Never mind that McDonnell’s a Republican. If you look at his original Jobs bill, it is full of tax breaks for “Green Jobs.” By doing this, the government is subverting the free market by targeting tax breaks to the businesses the government deems as good.

That does not support Free Markets. And we should oppose it.

Step 3: Repeat Steps 1 and 2 forever

We all have to get past party issues and look at how well are elected officials are upholding their principles. Forever.

The other advantage of acting locally is that no one knows what will happen to the economy. With the oppressive debt both parties in DC have piled up over the past few years, Moody’s is considering downgrading the USA’s bond rating. Did you hear that? The USA, the greatest economic force in the history of the world, may being downgraded!

Glen Beck picked up on this last night. If the federal government goes bankrupt, we may be faced with a historical shift in this nation. Everyone likes to say “when things get better…we’ll be fine.” But please note that the Moody’s report also predicted unprecedented social upheaval when the US government finally starts to address the fiscal mess. What does that mean? No one knows for sure.

We have a Federal Government that is bound and determined to push us into a socialist society and destroy the basic tenets of our nation. What does that mean long term….No one knows for sure.

All we can really control politically is our local elections. When our local/state /Federal officials are faced with crucial decisions soon that could alter the very direction of this nation…we must have leaders who are up to this challenge.

As a local group, we need to be educated, prepared and ready for any eventuality. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst is always good advise. At some point very soon, our state and local officials are going to have to stand up to the Federal Government and say NO. And unless we are pushing them to do that…it will never happen. Being an effective voice locally has NEVER BEEN MORE CRITICAL THAN AT THIS PIVOTAL MOMENT IN HISTORY.

As a group, we need to stop being slaves to our current system. The system we have in place can be changed if we have the courage to stand on our convictions.

When the 10th Amendment is always respected, when we always allow for a truly free markets, when we always respect individual liberties and when the government is always thrifty;  we will see this nation flourish economically and are freedoms will be secured.

Keep your powder dry people, whatever happens in DC over the next few days is only the first battle. The real battle will be in November, when we start to replace politicians and hold new ones accountable.The sad part is that the battle will never be over…we will always need to be vigilant because people, being people, are going to disappoint us.

That’s why are founders created this government to ensure our God Given rights are protected.That is our mission and for the sake of our children we cannot fail.

Don’t get down. The fact that the Democrats will have had to commit political suicide to pass this bill is a direct result of your efforts in Roanoke, and from Patriot groups across this nation.

Now what?

As we’ve stated numerous times, it is time to move from protests and transition the Roanoke Tea Party into a political force that can force our 2 parties to uphold the Constitution. Please join us for our business meeting at the Voice Of The Blue Ridge at 6:30 PM on April 1. Here are directions.

We fully expectVA Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to file suit to stop this legislation if it passes. 36 other states are likely to join in this effort. Obviously, we appreciate this support of our Constitutional Rights. Other private groups will likely file as well.

We expect Bob McDonnell to sign the Healthcare Freedom Act, which can be used to nullify the unconstitutional aspects of this bill. If he doesn’t sign the bill Monday, we need to start pressuring the governor to do so. The Roanoke Tea Party and other state groups worked very hard to get bi-partisan support in Richmond for the Health Care Freedom Act in the event Washington passed a bill like this…We need this bill signed ASAP.

We need our leaders in the state of Virginia to stand up to the Federal Government and protect the rights of Virginians. We expect our leaders to draw a line around this state and say HELL NO to this blatant violation of our 10th Amendment Rights.

Lastly, we need to focus on removing from office those responsible for this crime against the nation. Tom Periello must be defeated in November. The Lynchburg/Danville/Charlottesville Tea Parties are already working actively to defeat Periello.

Most of our members have Bob Goodlatte as a Congressman. He has worked hard to defeat the bill and has never waivered in his opposition. His support is greatly appreciated.

There are several Tea Party Groups forming in the NRV area that we will be working with to try and find ways to unseat Rick Boucher.  While he voted against the Health Care bill, his vote for Cap and Trade was already a deal breaker. (Periello voted for Cap and Trade too)

A vote for Cap and Trade is  bad for any Congressman, but particularly for Boucher, who represents areas where Coal Mining is the major industry. Cap and Trade would further gut this industry, kill jobs in his disrict and further our national  shortage of domestic energy sources.

Getting Boucher and Periello out of office becomes job # 1. Job 1A:

Make sure their replacements support

The Constitution

Free Markets

Individual Liberties

Fiscal Responsibility

That starts the long road back to sanity in DC. And don’t think we have forgotten about Webb and Warner. You are complicit in this crime too….and your unelection will come as soon as possible.