Republican Liberty Caucus encourages Senators to oppose Federal Hate Crimes Law

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(Chattanooga, TN - May 5, 2009) A resolution called "The Local Law
Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009" (HR 1913) passed the
House this week and is now being considered in the Senate. Under this
new federal hate crimes legislation, Americans who were previously
considered legally equal under Article IV of the Constitution and the
Fourteenth Amendment would no longer be equal under the law. This law
would create privileged groups and crimes against those special
citizens would be treated as more serious than if they were committed
against ordinary citizens. The idea of different legal protections for
different classes of citizens is fundamentally contrary to the values
of this nation.

"Our legal system is based on the idea that all people are equal under
the law and that justice is blind," said Dave Nalle, Chairman of the
Republican Liberty Caucus. "When the government starts to create
special classes of victims or criminals, it is taking the fairness out
of the system and setting some people above others, thereby declaring
their suffering more important because of who they are."

Usually federal criminal legislation applies only to federal
jurisdictions and interstate crime, but this resolution is designed to
blur the line and facilitate federal involvement in crimes within
states, following the often repeated pattern of offering federal
assistance and money in exchange for an erosion of state sovereignty
and independence. In this case, the legislation provides grants of up
to $100,000 for what are effectively incentive bonuses to encourage
the prosecution of crimes as hate crimes. As has been demonstrated in
the War on Drugs, offering law enforcement money to find more crime
almost never results in justice.

The bill also raises the concern that it may only be the first step in
a whole program of similar legislation and may lead to criminalizing
unpopular speech as has happened in Canada and many nations in Europe.
At best it is a law which criminalizes the criminal's thought
processes rather than his actions, which may open the door to
criminalizing thought or speech in other situations, as well. This
resolution is directly contrary to the tradition of common law and the
protections in the Bill of Rights.

"When the government provides select groups a superior status in the
eyes of the law, it makes everyone else a second-class citizen,"
proclaimed Nalle. "That may appear to be justice when the law benefits
you, but when it's your thoughts or your unpopular ideas which are
targeted by the government -- it's tyranny."

We encourage RLC members and other concerned citizens to contact their
Senators and ask them to oppose HR 1913.

The Republican Liberty Caucus, founded in 1991, is a political 527
organization dedicated to restoring the principles of individual
liberty, limited government and free markets to government via the
Republican Party.

How the GOP can rebuild a big-tent party

By Sen. JIM DEMINT

Sen. Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic Party this week is no reason for Republicans to cheer. But his reason for leaving -- he faced an unwinnable primary election next year -- is no cause for soul searching. There is a question Republicans do need to ask: What is it that binds our party together?

In the wake of two successive electoral defeats and the likelihood of a 60-vote Democrat majority in the Senate, what does it even mean to be a Republican today? Moderate Republicans are right to remind conservatives that they cannot build a center-right coalition without the center part. And conservatives are right to remind moderates that Republicans only succeed when we rally around clear principles.

The real mistake is that Republicans became more concerned with staying in D.C. than reforming it.

Despite notable successes at both ends of Pennsylvania Ave., it seems to me that Republicans in Congress and in the Bush administration forgot a simple truth. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, if you aim for principled reform, you win elections in the bargain; if you just aim for elections, you get neither.

No Child Left Behind didn't win us "soccer moms," but it did cost us our credibility on locally controlled education. Medicare prescription drugs didn't win us a "permanent majority," but it cost us our credibility on entitlement reform. Every year, another Republican quality was tainted: managerial competence, fiscal discipline and personal ethics.

To win back the trust of the American people, we must be a "big tent" party. But big tents need strong poles, and the strongest pole of our party -- the organizing principle and the crucial alternative to the Democrats -- must be freedom. The federal government is too big, takes too much of our money, and makes too many of our decisions. If Republicans can't agree on that, elections are the least of our problems.

If the American people want a European-style social democracy, the Democratic Party will give it to them. We can't win a bidding war with Democrats.

Freedom will mean different things to different Republicans, but it can tether a diverse coalition to inalienable principles. Republicans can welcome a vigorous debate about legalized abortion or same-sex marriage; but we should be able to agree that social policies should be set through a democratic process, not by unelected judges. Our party benefits from national-security debates; but Republicans can start from the premise that the U.S. is an exceptional nation and force for good in history. We can argue about how to rein in the federal Leviathan; but we should agree that centralized government infringes on individual liberty and that problems are best solved by the people or the government closest to them.

Moderate and liberal Republicans who think a South Carolina conservative like me has too much influence are right! I don't want to make decisions for them. That's why I'm working to reduce Washington's grip on our lives and devolve power to the states, communities and individuals, so that Northeastern Republicans, Western Republicans, Southern Republicans, and Midwestern Republicans can define their own brands of Republicanism. It's the Democrats who want to impose a rigid, uniform agenda on all Americans. Freedom Republicanism is about choice -- in education, health care, energy and more. It's OK if those choices look different in South Carolina, Maine and California.

A Republican recommitment to freedom and limited government will foster an agenda that will strengthen and invigorate our party. Freedom has worked for our party and our country before. It will again, if we let it.

Bay County Republican Roundtable 12 May 2009

Next BAY COUNTY
Republican Roundtable
will be 12 May 2009
___________________________________________________________

Please make May 12 meeting dinner reservations
The next meeting of the Roundtable will take place on Tuesday, May 12, at the St. Andrew Bay Yacht Club in Panama City. A buffet dinner begins at 6:00 p.m., and dinner reservations are necessary so that the Yacht Club can plan for adequate food and staff. Please make your dinner reservations with 1st Vice President Vicki Doolittle at

319-0105 or gerald.vicki@gmail.com

The program for the May meeting is a free-for-all discussion, beginning with a look at the recent advisory released by the Department of Homeland Security regarding right-wing extremism. (As if we needed a conversation starter.)

April meeting examines nationalized health care
Roundtable members and guests were the lucky beneficiaries at the April 14 meeting of Dr. Michael Reed’s lifetime of experience, research and analysis in the field of medicine. Dr. Reed focused his presentation on the looming prospect of socialized medicine in the U.S., and his comments drew numerous questions from the audience.
We thank Dr. Reed for his efforts and hope he will join us again.

DVDs, CDs needed for soldiers
2nd Vice President Richard Plantec, who chairs the Roundtable’s Projects Committee, reports that more than enough books for our overseas soldiers have been collected, but DVDs and CDs are still needed. For more information, contact Richard at 890-1766 or rgplant1@aol.com.

Planning for next Tea Party underway
Tired Old Man Glen Leirer is working hard on the next Tea Party, which will take place in Tallahassee on Saturday, May 16. A caravan of Tea Partiers from Bay County will attend. Also, Glen is making arrangements for Bay County’s Tea Partiers to take part in the national Tea Party effort on July 4. For more information, contact Glen at 230-9118 or 276-2168 or geleirer32@comcast.net.

Relay for Life plans change a bit
Sue Bynum, organizer of the Republican entry in Panama City Beach’s Relay for Life on May 1 and 2, has asked that walkers report to the Property Appraiser’s station at the Relay. You may wear your Republican shirts in the walk. For more information, contact Sue at 271-4092 or mikespeaks@knology.net.

Roundtable t-shirts available soon!
Thanks to the tenacious efforts of Treasurer Melissa Thompson and Glen Leirer, the Roundtable soon will have t-shirts available to members at the cost of $10 per shirt. The shirts will feature a large version of the club’s logo on the back and a smaller version on the front.

* * * * *
Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises.
~A. Lincoln, Edwardsville, Illinois, Sept. 11. 1858

Chairman Greer Marks First 100 Days

Chairman Greer Marks First 100 Days

Tallahassee–Chairman Jim Greer today marked the conclusion of the first 100 days of his second term as Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida. Chairman Greer was elected to serve a second term at the RPOF’s Annual Meeting on January 10, 2009, with 77 percent of the RPOF State Executive Committee’s vote.

“I realize that the honor of serving as Chairman comes with a great responsibility to lead our Party with energy, new ideas and an unwavering commitment to our Party’s longstanding values and principles of less government, less taxes and more freedom,” said Chairman Greer. “Over the last 100 days, we have made great strides towards reaching the goals I laid out during my campaign, and I appreciate the great support members of the State Executive Committee and Republicans across Florida have provided as we move forward with this effort.”

“I am grateful to the members of the State Committee and to Florida Republicans for putting their trust in my leadership at this critical time in the history of our great Party,” said Chairman Greer. “I am humbled by their confidence and look forward to working hard to build our party and elect Republicans throughout the rest of my term.”

Please see below for a summary of Chairman Greer’s First 100 Days:

RNC Transition
Chairman Greer was a strong supporter of current RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s candidacy. Chairman Greer endorsed Steele and served as a whip during the RNC Chairman’s Election. Chairman Greer later served as a Co-Chairman of Chairman Steele’s transition team, overseeing the transition of the Communications Department.

RNC Regional Roundtable
Florida hosted the Southern Regional Roundtable for the Republican National Committee, showcasing the close relationship Florida will have with the RNC moving forward.

Youth Outreach
Chairman Greer recently appointed Tim Nungesser and Kathryn Salerno to serve as RPOF Youth Outreach Coordinators to implement the RPOF Youth Outreach Initiative. The RPOF Youth Outreach Initiative is a comprehensive program aimed at encouraging young Floridians between the ages of 15 and 35 to consider joining the Republican Party. The program includes multiple voter registration and technology components and will culminate with a statewide conference this summer. Outreach to younger voters is one of the Republican Party’s highest priorities for 2009.

Finance
In late January, Chairman Greer announced the appointment of Ambassador John Rood as the Party’s new Finance Chairman. Ambassador Rood is both a longtime supporter of the Party and a successful entrepreneur. Ambassador Rood and the RPOF Finance Team are working to secure the resources necessary to elect Republican candidates across Florida. Chairman Greer also appointed Steve Burton who will serve as Co-Chairman of the RPOF Statewide Finance Committee during the 2008-2010 Election Cycle. Steve has been an active member of the RPOF Statewide Finance Committee for the last two years and is a longtime supporter of the Party. Steve has a great deal of experience in organizing and coordinating major fundraising events.

Minority Outreach
Chairman Greer recently hosted an organizational meeting of the African American Leadership Council for the 2010 Election Cycle. Led by Representative Jennifer Carroll (R-Jacksonville), the Council worked to develop a strategic plan for the 2010 election cycle. The plan incorporates numerous events across the state during the coming months.

The RPOF held a grassroots event with RNC Chairman Steele and Co-Chairman Jan Larimer, during which Chairman Steele, Chairman Greer and Co-Chairman Larimer met with over 100 Miami residents to unveil the Republican Party’s efforts to forge coalitions in South Florida’s communities as a means of spreading the Party’s message and winning elections in the state.

Chairman Greer also held a strategic planning session to discuss Hispanic outreach efforts. The planning session focused on cultivating relationships with Hispanic voters by expanding the Republican message in Florida’s Hispanic population through community service based grassroots initiatives.

Also, the RPOF sponsored a bilingual event during which Osceola Pastors’ Coalition met with Attorney General Bill McCollum to discuss consumer protection issues. The event helped to raise awareness of fraud, an ongoing problem in the Central Florida Hispanic community. The RPOF believes that faith-based organizations are a critical component of maintaining an awareness of this type of crime in communities across our state.

Business Leaders Fly-In
Chairman Greer and the RPOF recently hosted the RPOF’s Third Annual Business Leaders’ Fly-In and Forum, providing an opportunity for business leaders from across Florida to gather in Tallahassee and meet with lawmakers for a dialogue on issues important to Florida’s business community. This event is always a great opportunity to thank Florida’s business leaders and to introduce them to Republican leadership in state government and the Florida Cabinet. For the third year in a row, we more than doubled the number of participants, confirming that Republicans’ support of entrepreneurs and efforts to promote a healthy business climate continue to resonate in Florida’s business community.

Board Workshop
The RPOF hosted a Saturday workshop for the RPOF’s Executive Board. The board received briefings from each RPOF department and participated in a strategic planning session that focused on technology, voter registration, messaging and Hispanic outreach. It is imperative that we continue to energize and empower the local Republican Executive Committees in each county to work with the State Party and build their memberships.

Club Re-Chartering
Organizations using the name “Republican” must re-charter with the RPOF every two years. Thus far, we have re-chartered close to 200 clubs and other organizations – up from previous years.

Voter Registration Task Force
RPOF is preparing to deploy teams of Voter Registration trainers into all 67 counties. The goal is to hold a voter registration event in each county by the end of the summer. The trainers will work with Republican leadership at the county level to provide local grassroots activists the tools they need to carry out voter registration initiatives once the RPOF team has moved on.

Technology Task Force
Chairman Greer appointed a technology Task Force to work on a variety of programs to upgrade RPOF’s website and new media capabilities. The Task Force is also working to re-launch a Spanish language site that will be more user friendly.

Tea Party letter to the editor

By Teresa Eaton

Kelly Miller, in an April 15 letter to the editor (“Tax protests were fake outrage being aimed at invisible issues”), characterized the Tax Day Tea Parties’ organizers as believers in an “extremist ideology.” I was an organizer of the local Tax Day Tea Party, and the beliefs that drove me to help organize this event are freedom, less government and lower taxes. If that’s an extremist ideology, then I proudly embrace it, since this also was the extremist ideology of America’s founders.

Miller mistakenly asserts that the organizers of the local Tax Day Tea Party followed the lead of Fox News. In fact, we, like thousands of our fellow citizens across America, followed the lead of our consciences. Fox News simply jumped on the idea months after it had taken root. Miller further asserts that the purpose of the Tax Day Tea Parties was “to stir up populist rage with no direction” and to “direct that anger at Obama.” Untrue.

The local Tea Party organizers met in late February to discuss what was happening in Washington, D.C. Anger was not the overriding emotion of the organizers. Rather, we were deeply worried, and still are, that our children’s future has been mortgaged in the trillions of dollars spent on pork disguised as crisis relief. Miller may believe that the coming decades of onerous taxation are “a lie,” but the local Tea Party organizers knew the lessons of history.

Miller opines about supposed conservative “heroes” like Bush and Cheney, asserting that Tea Parties are “really a move to fire up conservatives AGAINST the current administration.” First of all, conservatives don’t worship politicians; we cherish freedom. Second, if conservatives take to the streets, it’s because their freedoms have been threatened. And third, if President Obama is the leader of a government bent on burdensome regulation and taxation, conservatives will not shy away from holding him accountable for the subsequent erosion of freedom.

Miller objects to “a news network like Fox leading a protest and lying to its constituency.” Elected officials, not news networks, have constituencies, and those elected officials have been lying to people a whole lot longer than news networks have. Conservatives cast a wary eye at all “news” media and simply turn off their TVs if they think someone is lying to them. Unfortunately, lying elected officials who tax and spend their constituents into bankruptcy are not so simply turned off.

However, it is touching that Miller is worried about Fox News lying to unwitting conservatives. Maybe she should write to President Obama about that, and maybe he’ll yank Fox News off the air. Then we could all go back to the good old days of national unity when CBS’ Walter Cronkite assured us every evening, “And that’s the way it is.”

Tax Day Tea Party in Panama City April 15th

Tax Day Tea Party organizers Glen and Alice Leirer were the first on the scene to set up Command Central out of the back of their truck directly across the street from the Sherman Avenue post office. They had a sign-in table, iced tea and a truck bed full of signs and American flags, and by the start of the Tea Party at 3:00 p.m., about 200 people had already signed in and assembled along Sherman Avenue.
The media arrived at the beginning of the Tea Party, and by the time they left, around 4:00, a hundred more people had already poured out of their cars to join the Tea Party. This is why the media under-reported the Tea Party attendance. From the very beginning, something dynamic clearly was happening, but the media chose not to stay for the entire event, or even a third of it, and they chose not to return to the scene later in the afternoon to see if and how things had changed.
In fact, things HAD changed, and dramatically so. By 4:00, organizer Glen realized that the rapid growth of the crowd was soon going to overwhelm the post office block of Sherman Avenue. Thus he took to a megaphone to ask the Tea Partiers to spread themselves out over three blocks on Sherman Avenue and to start another line of sign-waving on 15^th Street. And spread out they did! At the height of the Tea Party, people were on both sides of 15^th Street for several blocks.
Around 5:00 p.m., the Sheriff’s Deputy assigned to keep order at the Tea Party reported to Glen that attendance had reached, by his experienced count, some 1,400 people. By that time all the sign-in forms were full, and Glen and Alice were having people sign in on the backs of the forms. Plus, the iced tea had run out, and they had had to call Melissa Hagan to bring in a fresh batch, which she gladly did. Long story short: No one had to tell Glen that the Tea Party crowd had mushroomed!
For almost four hours, the Tea Partiers politely but emphatically made their case for freedom, less government and lower taxes. Some arrived in American Revolutionary garb. Others handed out tea bags, and a few even WORE tea bags. Hundreds held American flags and homemade signs, waved and smiled to motorists, chatted enthusiastically among themselves and made connections that no doubt will produce far-reaching waves beyond Tax Day.
A few of us joined Glen and Alice for dinner afterwards at Sonny’s (whose owner, Wayne Lindsay, has been a stalwart supporter of and good friend to Bay County’s conservatives). After all of us had ordered and finally caught our breath, we just looked at each other and said, practically in unison, “I can’t believe what just happened. Was that awesome or what?!!!” What a gratifying experience it is to see the love of freedom so enthusiastically demonstrated by so many.
Tea Party volunteer Melissa Thompson is doggedly working her way through the sign-in sheets to create an email blast list for announcements about future Tea Parties in Bay County, Tallahassee and Washington, D.C. It’ll take a little time for her to do that, and for the new names to be incorporated into our email blaster’s system, so I hope our Tea Partiers can keep their fires burning in the meantime.
This was truly a grassroots phenomenon. Fourteen hundred citizens, who have been sitting in front of their TVs fuming for the last three months, made a decision on April 15 to exercise their rights to assemble and to speak freely of their disappointment, dissatisfaction, and disgust with their government. This is still a free land where its citizens can peaceably assemble to criticize their government without fear of government retaliation.
Tea Partiers, thank you for your courage, your help, your encouragement, your support. Keep spreading the Tea Party message, and Glen and his team will keep working on the next Tea Party. Hope to see all of you, and many, many more, at the next one!

Roundtable April 14th

Bay County
Republican Roundtable
Tuesday, April 14
6 p.m. Dinner / 7 p.m. Meeting
Program: Socialized Medicine
Guest Speaker: Dr. Michael Reed
Dinner Buffet $15.00 per person
Please make dinner reservations!*
Contact Melissa Thompson

527-7384 melissa@efileamerica.com

Tea Party April 15 in Panama City

• A Rally to Preserve Our Constitution & Stop the Move to Socialism·
  
• 
  
• Our right to bear arms· Our right to free speech· Our right to less and fair taxes·
• Our right to limited government

Join the Resistance!

At a Panama City Tea Party.

Post Office

1336 Sherman Ave

3 PM to 6 PM, Wed. 15^th April

Together we can make a difference!

For more information and to join the resistance,

www.bayrepublican.org

2009 Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner invitations in the mail

Fellow Republicans,

Your invitation to the 2009 Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner should be in your mailbox early next week!

This morning 13 volunteers met at the Republican Headquarters to label, address and stuff over 1,100 invitations. We’d like to thank the following volunteers, whose cheerful help made it possible to finish the job before noon: Rita Acoba, June Anderson, Doris Collins, Linda Dillenschneider, Ken Ford, Alice Leirer, Floy McKenzie, Jean O’Neal, Lisa Parris, Richard Plantec and Carol Potter.

We owe a special thanks to BCREC Chairman John Salak, who printed almost 1,000 address labels for us, and Anita Salak, who spent the better part of last week plowing through the master list updating names and addresses. Also, LRDD Chair Dennis Dillenschneider ran down some sponges for us this morning for envelope sealing, and State Committeeman Jonathan Hayes dropped by to thank everyone for their help.

If you do not receive your LRDD invitation within the next few days, please contact us. A few dozen extra invitations will be available at the Bay Co. Republican Executive Committee meeting this coming Monday, March 23, 6:00 p.m., in the School Board meeting room at 1311 Balboa Avenue .

We hope to see you at the LRDD on April 10!

Vicki Doolittle 784-4772 home / 319-0105 cell

Teresa Eaton 271-3773 home / 832-5689 cell

Text of Anti-stimulus bill resolution passed

BAY COUNTY (FLA.) REPUBLICAN EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
RESOLUTION 2009-001


ASSERTING THE BAY COUNTY Republican Executive Committee's RESOLUTION AGAINST THE HR1 “SO-CALLED STIMULUS BILL”

WHEREAS all Republican Congressman voted against the Stimulus Bill. and

WHEREAS all but three Republican Senators voted against the Stimulus Bill. and

WHEREAS the Florida Legislative body is, in the majority, conservative Republicans who oppose the Bill. and

WHEREAS the Bay County Republican Executive Committee overwhelmingly rejects the concept and content of this exorbitant spending bill, recognizing it as an unprecedented extension of government control into the lives of us average citizens, and the largest single deficit increase in the history of our Republic, and

WHEREAS the content of the “Stimulus Bill” will enable the Democrats who now control the Legislative and Executive Branches of our Federal Government , to change our Nation from a free-enterprise democracy to a government-controlled socialist society, and to achieve control of many aspects of our daily life without debate or recognition in the normal legislative process,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE BAY COUNTY (FLA.) REPUBLICAN EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, IN REGULAR SESSION hereby records a strong objection to Governor Crist's actions and speech in supporting President Obama's plans and the “Stimulus Bill” by his appearance with him at the Fort Myers Town Hall, and requests that the Florida Legislature thoroughly examine the terms and conditions of any funds offered to the State as part of the Stimulus Package to be assured that requirements for ongoing funding by the state or further Federal intrusion into the affairs of Florida are not part of the funding package.

Save our Secret Ballot

By Joe Eaton

Soon the U.S. Congress will try again to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
With Democratic majorities in both house and President Obama on record as
supporting this legislation, chances of success are high. I object to this
legislation for two reasons.


First, sponsors and supporters of this bill tout that it will take away the
"advantage" corporations have over union organizers. I have first-hand
knowledge of this process. I worked for 33 years in manufacturing, 26 of
those in a union environment and 7 in a union-free environment. I have
participated on negotiating teams for bargaining agreements. As plant
manager of the Trane plant in Lynn Haven, I represented the interest of the
company in a union-organizing attempt.

Under current federal law concerning union elections, once a union gets 30%
of the work force to sign a card saying they want a union, the NLRB,
National Labor Relations Board, calls for an election. Workers vote using
secret ballots, and if more than 50% vote yes, the union wins and is
authorized as the bargaining unit for the workers.

During this organization campaign, federal law places strict limitations on
the company and its management, which cannot comment or take any action to
spy, promise, interrogate, or threaten employees. Union organizers and
sympathetic workers watch this very closely and are happy to report any
violation to the NLRB. If the NLRB determines a violation has occurred, the
penalty to the company is severe. A federal judge can even award the union
a victory because of a violation--without an election. Needless to say, the
entire management team has to be extremely careful in what it does or says.

Do the same rules apply to the union organizers? No. They can promise huge
raises, twist arms, visit employees in their homes, have co-workers put peer
pressure on them, and even make misleading statements about what signing a
card means. During our campaign in Lynn Haven, many employees came forward
to complain of threats made to them by union organizers. If anyone tells
you that the company has the advantage during a campaign, be sure to ask
them how so. See if what they tell you complies with the rules spelled out
by federal laws in place today. I have read comments by several congressmen
supporting this legislation. They are either not familiar with the law, or
they are flat out lying.

Second, the sponsors of the bill have given it a misleading name. They call
it the Employee Free Choice Act, but in effect it does just the opposite.
It takes away the secret ballot vote. The secret ballot vote is a
time-honored tradition in democratic societies, put in place for the
specific purpose of avoiding intimidation. Those who want to take away the
secret ballot must, by default, want to use intimidation to achieve their
ends. Otherwise, why do away with it? I am suspicious of this legislation
precisely because its sponsors have to use a nice sounding title to hide its
true intent. Pretty disgusting.

This bill's sponsors are confident that they can get away with this
diabolical scheme because they know their voters. As for me, I won't
support a politician, nor his deceitful legislation, who thinks so little of
me.