Tea Party Patriots to host call, straw poll with candidates
The Tea Party Patriots will host a phone conference with the Republican presidential candidates on Dec. 18, which will be followed by an online straw poll, they announced Tuesday. |
Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann have already confirmed they will attend, while Ron Paul has declined. The group, which claims 15 million members nationwide, touts itself as the largest grassroots Tea Party group in the country.
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“This is a chance for candidates to make their case to the Tea Party, and for Americans across the country to find out who will represent and advance their principles in office,” said Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin. “Just as in 2010, candidates must prove to the Tea Party they will be fiscally responsible and protect the Constitution in the White House.” |
Invitations went out Friday. Each participating candidate will have 10 minutes to answer pre-submitted questions from Tea Party groups around the nation. Afterward, participants will vote for their preferred candidate. The group is working with the other candidates on scheduling and expects more will participate. |
Tea Party Leaders: Why ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Doesn’t Compare
Mark Meckler and Jenny Beth Martin are the cofounders and national coordinators of Tea Party Patriots, America’s largest Tea Party group. |
Two groups, one “Day of Action,” vastly different results. |
According to the New York Times, more than 240 Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested in New York City on November 17; some for felony assault. As New York Mayor Bloomberg said, “some protesters today have deliberately pursued violence,” resulting in injuries to seven police officers officers. How did the Occupy Wall Street protestors pursue violence? One threw a “star-shaped glass object” at a police officer, cutting his hand so badly it required twenty stitches. Another protester threw a corrosive liquid into the faces of four police officers. And a mob of ‘Occupy’ protesters tormented a group of “little school kids trying to get to class” chanting “follow those kids!” |
By contrast, Tea Party Patriots across America visited our local representatives on the same day for what we called a “Deal in the District.” The purpose of our civilized meetings with our local representatives was to remind them that the deadline for the “super committee” to find $1.2-$1.5 trillion in cuts was November 23, and that We the People want real cuts to government overspending, not fake cuts. |
Is the tea party’s enthusiasm waning? Tea Party Patriots organizer answers [VIDEO]
It’s been over two years since the 9/12 march on Washington, D.C., and a year since the tea party movement helped change the balance of power in the nation’s capital. But has the enthusiasm of the movement since waned? |
Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin sat down with The Daily Caller’s Ginni Thomas to share her perspective. Look for the full interview Monday morning at TheDC. |
Conservative groups dance on the supercommittee’s grave
Tea Party Express Rally in Manchester, N.H.
(Associated Press)
“The media — ” Bozell stopped himself, perhaps recalling that only members of the press were attending the event. “Some of the media and the White House want you to believe the supercommittee ‘failed,’ but in a very real way that is untrue. The death of any negotiations that would lead to higher taxes…is a clear victory for our country.” |
“It’s time for Congress to quit spending so much money,” said Jenny Beth Martin of the Tea Party Patriots. |
Similarly, the Tea Party Patriots slammed the trigger for having no real teeth. “Conveniently, there seem to be no consequences for failure. The reality is that they can amend or get rid of any of the ‘triggers,’ and we expect that they do so,” Mark Meckler, a co-founder of the group, said in a statement distributed at the event. |
Likewise, both Americans for Prosperity and the Tea Party Patriots affirmed that it was important for Congress to extend the temporary payroll tax cut that expires at the end of the year — a Democratic priority that Republicans like Sens. Orrin Hatch and Jeff Sessions have balked at, arguing that a temporary fix would create more uncertainty, even if it lowered taxes. |
‘Tea Party Patriots’ walk to draw support to block Dream Act
The `Redlands Tea Party Patriots’ walked door-to-door attempting to gain support to reject the California Dream Act approved by Gov. Jerry Brown last month.
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Beginning in 2013, the Dream Act will allow eligible undocumented immigrants be accepted into state public universities and will have access to the same financial aid as U.S. residents through Cal Grants, a taxpayer program that last year gave financial aid to more than 370,000 low-income students.
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Dream Act students will have to meet certain requirements to be eligible, including having graduated from a California high school after attending school in the state for at least three years and providing documentation to show they are in the process of applying for citizenship.
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“We will go out and collect signatures and fight the illegal alien dream act,” said John Berry, organizer of this venture and one of six Tea Party Patriots he expected to take part. “We also want to introduce ourselves to people who haven’t heard of us.”
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The Tea Party Goes On Trial
Fewer than 1 percent of all civil lawsuits in this country ever make it to a jury trial. But somehow, a bunch of angry tea party activists have managed to land one. Their target? A fellow tea partier. |
 Tea Party Patriots (TPP), one of the country’s largest tea party groups, has spent the last two years and thousands of dollars of its members’ donated funds suing Amy Kremer, now the chairwoman of Tea Party Express, another tea party group founded by a GOP political consulting firm in California. Kremer was one of the original TPP board members. She was there in the beginning and even registered the group’s domain names and set up its website. But in the fall of 2009, Kremer defied the rest of the board by participating in a Tea Party Express bus tour. So TPP kicked her off the board and then sued her, trying to wrest control over the group’s email list, its trademark and other intellectual property. The fight has been nasty and, well, sort of pointless.
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The Atlanta Tea Party, which is associated with Jenny Beth Martin, recently filed a new lawsuit against Kremer and her boyfriend, who they allege collected money for a tea party event in 2009 but failed to turn it over to the group’s leaders. Now, they’re suing to get it back. Given all the litigation between these tea party factions, it’s entirely possible the lawsuits could outlive the movement itself. |
Whether You Occupy or Tea Party, Know Your Rights!
The United States was founded on a strong tradition of protest, and the founders thought that tradition was so important, they protected it in the First (first!) Amendment. Two hundred and thirty-five years later, that tradition is alive and well. Whether you choose to protest with the folks who Occupy Wall Street, the Tea Party Patriots or the Rally to Restore Sanity, the Constitution protects your right to make your voice heard! |
That’s why we’ve just released (with a big assist from the ACLU of Massachusetts), a new Know Your Rights: Demonstrations and Protests, explaining your right to freedom of speech, to peaceable assembly, and — oh yes — petition your government for a redress of grievances (‘cause they sure didn’t dress them very well the first time)! The guide covers such topics as where you can march, when the government can require permits, whether you can distribute leaflets and more. |
Tea party isn’t like Occupy protesters
TEA PARTY ISN’T LIKE OCCUPY PROTESTERS Recent national media coverage has been comparing the OWS protesters to the Tea Party Patriots. Yes, “the American people are justifiably frustrated with poor decisions from Washington & Wall Street but the OWS agitators continue to disrupt business and break laws across the country as part of the “occupy” protests. (Todd Cefaratti, The Tea Party.net, Oct 23) “Unlike the Patriotic Tea Party Movement where Old Glory flies proudly and participants sing patriotic songs” and “recite the Pledge of Allegiance with thunderous respect, the exact opposite goes on at OWS.” The OWS protesters “hate America. You won’t see them pledging allegiance to this country.” (You can check out images and videos “this cabal has spawned” on Google and “tell me these protesters love this land”. Doug Giles: “Four Habits of an OWS Occupuss”, Oct. 24) For the national media to continue to compare the peaceful law-abiding Tea Party Patriots, who secure permits for rallies, leave places where they are held cleaner than they found them, and then return to their jobs, is a sure sign of dirty politics. Hilton Head |
Defamation Suit Against Tea Party Group Part Of Ongoing ‘Family’ Feud
The Tea Party Patriots say that a defamation lawsuit filed against them is just part of continued “animosity” from Amy Kremer, now the chair of the Tea Party Express, who was ousted from the Tea Party Patriots in 2009. |
In a statement Tuesday, the Tea Party Patriots’ attorneys said the group “denies all allegations in new suits, and vows a vigorous defense.” |
Deborah Ausburn, who is representing Jenny Beth Martin, Lee Martin and the Tea Party Patriots, said in a statement that the suit is part of a continued grudge against the TPP by Tea Party Express Chairman Amy Kremer, who was ousted from the TPP Board of Directors in 2009. |
“The new litigation is the next chapter in Ms. Kremer’s long-standing animosity against Tea Party Patriots,” Ausburn said. “As with her past claims, Tea Party Patriots, Inc., denies all allegations in the suits and will vigorously defend itself in the forum that Ms. Kremer has chosen. It is easier to make claims in a complaint than to prove those claims in court. Tea Party Patriots is confident of vindication at the end of the legal process.” |
A Tea Party Facebook Spat Turned Really Nasty
Two lawsuits by two former Tea Party Patriots workers claim the group’s founders defamed them online with some pretty nasty language, including allegations of rape and child molestation through a fake Facebook account. The site Courthouse News Service noticed the lawsuits earlier on Tuesday, both of which charge Virginia-based Tea Party Patriots founders Jenny Beth and Lee Martin with libel and slander for allegedly writing horrible things about James Lyle and Kylie Kremer on Facebook under the alias Dale Buttersworth. According to Talking Points Memo, “Kremer was listed as an intern in a 2009 on a posting on the Tea Party Patriot’s Facebook page, and Lyle is an organizer for the Tea Party Express.” Courthouse News summarizes the situation: |
Lyle claims that in October 2010, Dale Buttersworth posted on “a public group in Facebook” that “Lyle was guilty of having raped the minor daughter of his girlfriend and was a child molester”.
In her complaint, Kremer claims that on the same day, Oct. 5, 2010, Buttersworth also “asserted that plaintiff Kremer had been raped, reported the rape to the police and was kicked out of her home by her mother and her mother’s boyfriend as a result of reporting the rape”.
Kremer and Lyle both claim that Dale Buttersworth is actually Jenny Beth and Lee Martin: “The Internet Protocol Address, cell phone and email addresses on file with Facebook for the user, screen-name of alias ‘Dale Buttersworth’ belong to both Jenny Beth Martin and Lee Martin,” according to both complaints. |
Neither the Courthouse News story nor the legal complaint elaborates why the Martins would want to attack Kremer and Lyle online, but regardless of their motive, it looks like a nasty internal fight among members of the right-wing activist group has now turned into a nasty legal one. |
