A tale of two rallies

Hundreds of thousands of people rallied today at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. The liberal media has called it a “controversial” rally. Only liberals would call a patriotic rally, “controversial.” Close to half a million people crowded on the memorial for the event.

Across town, Al Sharpton held a rally, where there were at least ten protestors. Sorry, I had to use media counting standards. The controversy came for this rally because this was the 47th anniversary of the famous Martin Luther King, “I have a dream” speech. Liberals went apoplectic over this. Some how, a conservative rally was going to be disrespectful of Martin Luther King.

The problem with the rally was not that it was going to be disrespectful. The problem is, conservatives were putting on a rally. When liberals put on a rally, we are all expected to fall all over ourselves about it. When conservatives put on a rally, it simply cannot be allowed.

While there were no major disruptions at this event, that is not the norm when liberals do not like a conservative events. I suspect extremely tight security stopped any planned disruptions. Of course, conservatives do not go and disrupt liberal events. Liberals show no such reservations.

Liberals show no such restrain with outrageous actions. Earlier this week, Walter Fauntroy, allegedly a reverend and certainly an idiot, said, “We are going to take on the barbarism of war, the decadence of racism, and the scourge of poverty, that the Ku Klux – I meant to say the Tea Party…. You all forgive me, but I – you have to use them interchangeably.”

Fauntroy was repeatedly elected as DC’s non-voting delegate to congress. The fact he would be repeatedly elected is proof that the District of Columbia should never have representatives in congress or even on the dogcatcher board.

Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King, said if he were alive today, he would have been at the Glen Beck rally, not at the AL Sharpton rally. King was murdered 47 years ago, so it is hard to say what he would have done. But forty-one years ago, Martin Luther King said he dreamed of a day where people would be judged by the content of their heart, not the color of their skin. The rally today featured people who believe that. The Sharpton rally across the town featured people who do not.

The contrast could not be more compelling.

Obama’s immigration bizarro world!

Cookeville, Tennessee is a pretty southern town on the Cumberland Plateau. It is home to Tennessee Tech University and now to the latest example of the Obama Regime Bizarro World Immigration scam.

In 2004, an illegal alien voted in the Presidential election. That is not shocking. The left has tried for decades to make it possible for illegals to vote, the dead to vote, liberals to vote multiple times and even those who don’t exist to vote. Any votes necessary so liberals can steal elections.

Fast forward to 2010. Putnam County, Tennessee Director of Elections, Debbie Steidl gets a letter from the Department of Homeland Security, directing her to purge this illegal alien off of her voter rolls. This is good, right? Getting an illegal alien off the voting rolls?

Wrong! DHS tells her that his name needs to be purged so it can clear the way for him to get citizenship.

In order to vote in Tennessee, this man had to present a social security number, two forms of identification and sign an affidavit, under penalty of perjury that he was an American citizen! This man committed at least three felonies: voter fraud, identity theft and perjury. What does the Obama regime want to do with him? Forget arresting and deporting him, they want to give him the greatest gift in the world, American citizenship!

As we are nine weeks out from the elections, this story is a reminder that elections matter and a reminder that we must throw out of office all of those who make this kind of nonsense possible! Pass this story along to your friends and make sure, this November, they are out voting, voting out the liberals who want to sell out our country for the sake of their power.

The Battle for Nevada

If there is one thing members of the Tea Party Movement agree on, it is that Harry Reid needs to go. What members of the Tea Party Movement do not agree on is how he is replaced.

The simple fact of the matter is, there is no Tea Party Candidate in Nevada. There are several good candidates, including Danny Tarkanian. Earlier today, Tea Party Nation issued the following statement:

While our policy has been and continues to be one of not endorsing a specific candidate in the primaries, but to have the candidates endorse the Tea Party Movement there has been so much misinformation about some races we feel we have to make a statement.

In Nevada, Sharon Angle is not the only conservative candidate running in this race. Danny Tarkanian is every bit a conservative and constitutional patriot. We can no longer stand aside and let misinformation about the Nevada race go uncontested. It’s up to the voters in Nevada to decide whom they deem their best representative.

In California this same misinformation for the Governor’s race is taking place.

Our founding fathers did not stand idly by and neither can Tea Party Nation. We believe each voter in each district should decide who best represents their values.

I do not live in Nevada, though I have some very good friends that do. I believe that the people of Nevada and the members of the Tea Party groups in Nevada are the ones who should decide who represents Nevada in the United States Senate. The claim that there is a Tea Party candidate in Nevada is simply not true. Different candidates have been endorsed by different Tea Party groups. After June 8, there maybe a Tea Party candidate, but we are not there yet. Danny Tarkanian has been unjustly maligned as someone who should not be in the race and someone who is unworthy of Tea Party support. Both statements are not supported by the facts.

I encourage my friends in Nevada to talk to the candidates and make up their own minds.

May the best conservative candidate chosen by the people of Nevada, win!,

It’s time to boycott Los Angeles

It’s time to boycott Los Angeles

In case you have been on another planet, in a coma or a monastery and have not been following the news, the State of Arizona has decided to declare war in illegal immigration.

I do not blame them. The illegal immigrants are declaring war on Arizona. While the federal government does nothing, illegal immigration brings crime and lawlessness to the southern part of Arizona that they have not seen since the frontier days. For southern Arizona, illegal immigration does not mean press “1” for English. It means murder.

Fed up, Arizona has fought back. Their first law is a new law that allows the police to ask about immigration status if there is a reasonable suspicion the person who is under arrest is an illegal alien. The next law, which is coming, will make it a crime to be in Arizona if you are not in this country legally.

Predictably, the pro-illegal advocates and anti-American, open borders crowd has gone nuts. The most recent addition to their hysteria has been the City of Los Angeles, which has voted to boycott Arizona and break contracts with Arizona based businesses.

The nuts that run Los Angeles are pretty clueless. They are all, far left, anti-America, open borders, pander to the illegals loons. There is no reason why we should suffer these fools.

My wife and I were talking about our plans for the days following the National Tea Party Unity Convention (www.nationalteapartyconvention.com) and she had suggested we spend a few days in LA.

Not after what they have just done.

Either before or after the convention, we are going to Arizona. We are going to show the kids the Grand Caynon and we are going to spend money in Arizona and support Arizona.

I think everyone who agrees with Arizona and it’s fight against illegal immigration should do the same thing. So here is a new tool in our belt to fight liberalism. Go visit the Grand Canyon and thank Arizona for what they’re doing!

Setting the record straight

Setting The Record Straight

by Sherry Phillips

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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 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 at sherry@teapartynation.com 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.

For 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.

Real Tort Reform

REAL TORT REFORM

As the debate over health care “reform” has been raging, one of the flash points for both parties has been over malpractice tort reform.

When doctors are spending over half a million dollars a year just for their insurance premiums, something is really wrong. You cannot watch daytime TV without seeing ads for personal injury attorneys, trolling for new clients.

The primary reform offered is to cap pain and suffering judgments. The most common figure is $250,000. The theory is that plaintiff’s lawyers take a cut of the recovery and the biggest part of the recovery is the award for pain and suffering, if that figure is limited, the lawyers will start looking elsewhere and there will be fewer lawsuits.

I do not like that. First, I think it is the right of the jury to decide that. A jury can punish a bad doctor with a large verdict. Arbitrary government caps interfere with the free market. Finally, what is your pain and suffering worth? If a doctor screws up and leaves me in pain for the rest of my life, I can guarantee you, my pain and suffering is worth a whole lot more than $250,000.

So what is the solution?

In litigation, there are three types of burdens of proof. The first is proof beyond a reasonable doubt. This is the burden of proof in criminal cases. In civil cases, the burden of proof is a preponderance of the evidence. All that means is, that is it more likely than not, something happened. Basically, you flip a coin.

There is a third burden of proof, called clear and convincing evidence. It is only used in a few types of hearings, but if we want real tort reform, then all we need to do is to raise the burden of proof in medical tort cases from a preponderance of the evidence to clear and convincing evidence. This would eliminate many really weak lawsuits, yet would allow juries to compensate someone who has been badly injured by true negligence.

This is a tort reform that would cost absolutely nothing.

This is simple and would be effective. Which is probably why you do not hear a word about it coming from Washington.

Folly in Monroe County

Folly in Monroe County

Last week, parts of the Internet were abuzz. A county grand jury in Tennessee was going to consider treason charges against Barack Obama. Many friends of mine repeated this on Facebook. I tried to politely tell them this one was a crock, but unfortunately, the story continued to grow. I emailed a friend who had been repeating the story and asked him what he expected out of this. He said he hoped the grand jury would return a “True Bill” and then the courts would be required to subpoena Obama’s actual birth certificate from Hawaii.

Walter Fitzpatrick decided he wanted to present this evidence to the county grand jury in Monroe County, Tennessee. Monroe County is a small Tennessee county, in the southeastern corner of the state, bordering on North Carolina. I do not know if Fitzpatrick lives there or if that was just a target of opportunity. Either way, it was a waste of time and he made a fool of himself and the movement he seeks to advance.

A grand jury in Tennessee is required to investigate and inquire about criminal violations that occur within a specific county. Under Tennessee law, an indictment can only be returned for violations of the Tennessee Code Annotated. Treason is not a violation of the Tennessee Code Annotated.

On December 1, 2009, Fitzpatrick, apparently ignorant of the purposes of a grand jury in Tennessee, went to present his matter to them. He became very upset when he was told he would only be allowed to present the matter to three members of the grand jury.

In Tennessee, cases are generally presented to the grand jury that originate from a law enforcement agency. Those go, with the assistance of the District Attorney’s office, which acts as legal advisor to the grand jury, directly to all thirteen members. Citizens who wish to make complaints to the grand jury may do so. Typically, when a citizen petitions to present a matter to a county grand jury, they will first be asked to present their matter to the foreman of the grand jury and two other members of the grand jury. Jurors serving on the grand jury are citizens doing their jury duty just like anyone else and this is a procedure that exists to save time and minimize inconvenience to the citizens serving.

WVLT TV out of Knoxville aired video of the event. Fitzpatrick is seen on the video becoming very agitated and being told by someone, presumably the foreman of the grand jury, to calm down. Eventually, he went in and presented his “evidence” to the three-member panel.

I really wish Fitzpatrick and his supporters had thought about what they were doing or had even bothered to get some legal advice before proceeding.

A Tennessee county grand jury cannot return a treason indictment against Obama. If for some strange reason it did, the District Attorney would immediately dismiss it as an invalid indictment, as a Tennessee county grand jury cannot indict someone for something that is not a crime under the Tennessee Code Annotated. And if for some reason the DA refused to dismiss the case, a court would do so immediately before requiring service of subpoenas. As much as I dislike Obama, I would agree with the grand jury, the DA, or the Court.

For anyone who thinks I am the one who does not know what he is talking about, you should know that I have practice law in Tennessee for almost 22 years. I spent ten years as a prosecutor and have worked with and presented to county grand juries.

At the end of the day, all that happened in Monroe County is that the grand jury had its time wasted and Fitzpatrick accomplished nothing. While I do not care what liberals think and there is nothing we can do that will make them approve of us, there is a middle ground an America that we need in order to get a majority and take this county back. This kind of foolishness will not help us win.

Using “Justice” to destroy America

Using “Justice” to destroy America

A few days ago, the alleged Attorney General, Eric Holder, announced that Kalid Sheik Mohammad and other 9/11 conspirators would be tried before a civilian court in New York. Most Americans were outraged by this. I was more than outraged and appalled. I understood this more than most Americans. You see, I am a criminal defense lawyer.

If someone wanted to truly gut our intelligence agencies and our anti terrorist efforts, there could be no better way than by putting these terrorists on trial in a Federal court, giving them all of the rights an American citizen would have. Let me spell some of this out for you.

In a criminal case, first there is the right to discovery. That means the prosecution has to turn over EVERTYTHING it intends to use against the defendant. This includes lists of witnesses so they can be interviewed and investigated. Tangible evidence. Tapes. Reports that have statements the defendant made. It covers a lot. Much of this information is classified. The courts have a system for dealing with classified information in a trial. The Classified Information Procedures Act does set parameters to try and keep classified information secret. But that assumes that all parties are willing to abide by the rules. As we saw in the case of radical lawyer Lynn Stewart, some of these radical lawyers, who support these terrorists, are quite happy to violate the rules and share information they are not supposed to release.

Does anyone remember the case of Johnny Walker Lindh? Do you know why he only got 20 years? The Bush administration agreed to a plea bargain to keep classified information from being released in a public trial. Lindh was an American citizen and his lawyers were going to put the Bush administration on trial. Now, instead of having an administration that wants to protect this country and keep our antiterrorism strategies secret, we have an administration bound and determined to destroy our ability to defend ourselves. This trial will be a gold mine for Islamic terrorists. They will know how we operate, what we are doing and where our weaknesses are.

Since a defendant has a constitutional to subpoena witnesses or items that maybe material to their defense, the list of subpoenas will be monumental. Even if the items are not presented at the trial, the defense will be allowed a fishing expedition into all kinds of classified operations.

In addition, the defendant is entitled to “exculpatory” evidence. This means more fishing expeditions. The personnel files of CIA operatives will be fair game. If you are a CIA operative, how well are you sleeping, knowing the government will turn over your personnel file to a radical lawyer, who will share it with his terrorist client?

This begs the whole question of whether these clowns can even get a conviction. In 1962, the United States Supreme Court, in a case called Mapp v. Ohio, established something called the exclusionary rule. Evidence gathered in violation of someone’s constitutional rights could be excluded at trial. Extreme and outrageous government conduct can even be a basis for dismissal of the charges. Can you imagine how much of the government’s case is even going to make it to trial with a liberal judge? And what happens if a liberal Federal Judge dismisses the case against Kalid Sheik Mohammad? Are we now going to release him?

Obama, Holder and the hard left have one further agenda item here. They want to put America and the Bush administration on trial. By allowing these cases to be heard in a civilian court, that will be what happens. Ultimately, these lunatics want to see George Bush, Dick Cheney and others hauled before the International Criminal Court in The Hague to be tried for crimes against humanity.

This whole nightmare goes back to the concept that elections matter. If there had been a good conservative nominated by the Republican Party, Obama would be a footnote in American history. Now, thanks to his election, there may not be much more American history to be written.
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Stop Socialist Health Care

Tea Party Nation
A message to all members of Tea Party Nation

As we all know, the liberals are bound and determined to destroy the best health care system in the world and replace it with a model that has been a failure everywhere. We can kill it today! Today the Senate votes on Cloture. Cloture is a motion to stop debate. it requires 60 yes votes in order to kill debate and move on to the bill. There are a number of Senators waivering on this important issue. They need to be reminded who they work for and we the people do not want this.

Call them. Melt the phones.

Sen. Michael F Bennet, Colorado
DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-5852, DC Fax Number: 202-228-5036

Sen. Mary Landrieu, Louisiana
DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-5824, DC Fax Number: 202-224-9735

Sen. Mark Pryor, Arkansas
DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-2353, DC Fax Number: 202-228-0908

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas
DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-4843, DC Fax Number: 202-228-1371

Sen. Robert Byrd, West Virginia
DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-3954, DC Fax Number: 202-228-0002

Sen. Jim Webb, Virginia
DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-4024, DC Fax Number: 202-228-6363

Sen. Mark Warner, Virginia
DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-2023, DC Fax Number: 202-224-6295

Sen. Jon Tester, Montana
DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-2644, DC Fax Number: 202-224-8594

Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut
DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-4041, DC Fax Number: 202-224-9750

Sen. Mark Begich, Alaska
DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-3004, DC Fax Number: 202-224-2354

Sen. Evan Bayh, Indiana
DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-5623, DC Fax Number: 202-228-1377

Remember, the life you save by stopping socialist healthcare maybe someone you love!

Visit Tea Party Nation at: http://www.teapartynation.com

The Arrogance of Obama

The arrogance of Obama

Obama is finally coming home after his groveling tour among third world leaders. The only exception was at the beaches of Normandy, where he at least had the good graces not to say what he really thinks about the American military, then or now.

Obama flew home on Air Force One leaving his wife and children in Paris for an extra day of shopping. Apparently no one is raising any concerns about this.

Why is it a concern if they want to go shopping?

Perhaps they should consider this: Our country is hovering near 10% unemployment. If the Obamas want to do some shopping, how about shopping in this country. How about shopping and buying American made products? After all, some of the people who made those products actually voted for the teleprompter in chief.

But more importantly and never mentioned by the slobbering Obama-media, is the cost of this. When the first family is out and about, they have security costs. I do not complain about their security, because, no mater how much I dislike them, I do not want to see something happen to them. But, those costs are a lot higher when they are overseas than when they are here at home. Just as important, how are they going to get home? Some how, I do not see Michelle and the girls flying coach on a Delta transatlantic flight. My guess is Obama is either going to send the VC-25 (aka 747) back for them or a C-32 (Aka a 757). Either way, this extra day of shopping is going to cost the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions.

When Obama is not groveling in front of third world tyrants, his arrogance towards the American people is amazing. He stiffs us with debt that we may never be able to pay off and he celebrates by inviting cronies to the White House for Martinis and $100 a pound steak. He wants a cool photo of Air Force One so his office scares the daylights out of New York at a cost of at least half a million dollars. He wants a date with Michele, so what does he do? Rustles up an Air Force plane and takes it to New York at a cost of at least $250,000 and probably a whole lot more.

Obama’s attitude is typical of liberals. He seems to confuse the term public servant. It means he serves the public, not the public is his servant. We do not live and pay taxes just so he can gallivant around and have a good time. These are tough times for Americans. The teleprompter in chief should realize that and act accordingly.

Of course, in another 513 days we will give him an education on what the American people think of his arrogance.