Tea Party Patriots Ordinary citizens reclaiming America's founding principles.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Ohio One of Twenty-four States to Join Lawsuit




PRESS RELEASE
December 12, 2014
For Immediate Release
Contact: Arzella Melnyk - Coordinator
440-256-1446



Plain and Simple - It's the LawOhio One of Twenty-four States to Join Lawsuit


Lake County, Ohio - With the Constitution being trampled, Governors and Attorney Generals from twenty-four states have joined in filing a lawsuit against the current administration.   

"As an Ohio citizen, I am glad to see Ohio has joined in the fight," stated Arzella Melnyk of the Grassroots Rally Team of Ohio. "As the open border/amnesty groups complain, and are trying to urge Governor Kasich to withdraw, they need to read the lawsuit which states 'This lawsuit is not about immigration. It is about the rule of law, presidential power, and the structural limits of the U.S. Constitution'." 

In joining this lawsuit, Attorney General DeWine clearly stated his reasoning when he said his decision had "nothing to do with immigration policy. It has everything to do with preserving our Constitution's separation of powers and combating the current administration's consistent efforts to expand presidential authority..."

"It's really quite simple," stated Marianne Gasiecki, Tea Party Patriots State Co-coordinator (OH), "either you understand and respect the rule of law or you don't. If you don't, how can you call yourself a United States Governor, let alone a President?" 

"When the President took an oath to faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States and he is to take care the laws be faithfully executed, but then in turn suspends the immigration laws Congress has in place," stated Julie Aldrich President of Ohio Citizens for Sensible Immigration, " there really is no other option than to take it to the courts.  Our Forefathers wrote the Constitution to provide for a separation of powers so there would not be a power grab by one individual or branch of government."  

"While we rarely find ourselves in a position to applaud Mike DeWine - especially when it come to illegal immigration in Ohio, our tri-corner patriot hats are off to him for joining this lawsuit in defense of the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution," added Ralph King, Tea Party Patriots State Co-Coordinator (OH).  "We can only hope Governor Kasich shows the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution this same compassion and respect."
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Monday, December 8, 2014

ACTION ALERT: Calls Needed to Stop Obama's Executive Action Amnesty



Action Alert


The House is about to leave for their Christmas break without doing a thing to stop the President's executive amnesty. Yes, that's right... after they ran for re-election on the promise to do everything they could to stop it!

We MUST ACT TODAY and TOMORROW 
to get them to KEEP their PROMISE!

Tea Party & Liberty groups across the country will be making calls today and tomorrow to ALL of the below squishy members of Congress. While calls need to be placed to all of the targeted congress members, in Ohio, we need calls and pressure put on;

Speaker Boehner


DC PH: 202-225-6205
District PH: 513-779-5400
District PH: 937-339-1524
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Jim Renacci


DC PH: 202-225-3876
District PH: 330-334-0040
District PH: 440-882-6779
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Dave Joyce

DC PH: 202-225-5731
District PH: 440-352-3939
District PH: 330-425-9291
Contact: Click Here 

We know that Christmas is just a few weeks away and you are busy preparing for the holidays, but that's what makes this lame duck Congress so dangerous for America. Congress also knows we're busy with the holidays and they're hoping we don't notice their broken promises. WE NEED TO MAKE SURE EVERY MEMBER OF CONGRESS FEELS THE HEAT AND KNOWS THAT THEY MUST STOP EXECUTIVE AMNESTY!



Tell them to keep their promises and use the spending bill to stop the funding for the President's executive amnesty. Pass the list of targets in your state on to your lists and ask them to do the same.

If your representative isn't on this list, call them as well. You can find their contact info on our website at this link:
http://www.teapartypatriots.org/category/my-government/my-legislators/

Friday, December 5, 2014

Will Governor Kasich allow the Ohio Legislature to put Pay Increases in Front of Health Care & Education?



For Immediate Release

December 5, 2014

Contact: Marianne Gasiecki
State Co-Coordinator (OH) - Tea Party Patriots
(419) 961-4439


Pay Increases for Ohio 
Legislature Fast Tracked

Salaries More Important than Health Care and Education

Ohio - In a bold display of narcissism and selfishness, the Ohio House has fast tracked an amended substitute bill (Sub HB 661) through House Committee hearings in one day to give themselves a yearly "Cost of Living" increase. 

Meanwhile important bills such as the Health Care Compact (HB 227), which would put the destiny of Ohio's health care in the hands of its own citizens, and the bill to Repeal Common Core (HB 597) are pushed aside and allowed to sit idle.

From the time Sub HB 661 was introduced, the Ohio House has managed to pass this bill for their own salary increases through committee hearings and on the floor for a full vote - in less than one weeks time.

This is the same legislature that is reported to be cutting this legislative session short, leaving important bills, such as the previously mentioned, to die at the end of this session.

"Where is the outrage, when people who are paid with our taxes, can't find the time to address important legislation, but in less than a week, can pass their own pay increases?" asked Marianne Gasiecki, Tea Party Patriots State Co-coordinator.

"Since they were able to find time to give themselves pay increases," stated fellow Tea Party Patriots State Co-Coordinator Ralph King, "one would expect that in the spirit of good government, the Ohio legislature would remain in session and actually do their job."

We respectfully request that Governor Kasich take a stand for good government and Ohio citizens by calling on both Ohio legislative bodies to do the responsible thing and stay in session until both HB 227 and HB 597 have been given a full vote by both bodies, added both King and Gasiecki.

Governor Kasich - the Nation is watching!

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Left’s latest assault on free speech


Art credit: rslblog.com


Left’s latest assault on First Amendment nothing new

By Jenny Beth Martin

During the last week of October, when media attention was focused on the impending midterm elections – and President Obama’s forthcoming executive action on amnesty – an issue of critical importance slipped almost unnoticed into the news cycle. Democrats on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) are getting serious about stifling free speech on the Internet. 
At issue is an obscure anti-Obama ad from Ohio that wound up on YouTube. Because the spot was placed for free, it fell within the “Internet exception” the FEC has recognized – across party lines – since 2006. Internet ads of a political nature would seem the very embodiment of “free speech” contemplated by the Founders in the Bill of Rights. Democrat members of the FEC – and the American Left in general – see criticism of their Dear Leader as a serious matter, however, and in need of government regulation. They’re going to need to see your papers. 
The Obama Machine, whether in campaign or governing mode (is there really any difference?) has long viewed the First Amendment as an impediment to its agenda of “fundamentally transforming” the country. During the 2008 campaign, Democrat prosecutors in Missouriannounced the deployment of truth squads to “immediately respond” (in an ominous, yet unspecified way) to any derogatory information about then-Senator Obama. They backed down after being called out for their “police state” tactics by the then-governor. 
Once elected, the post-partisan president let it be known he’d brook no second guessing, let alone dissent. In 2009, vocal critics of the healthcare takeover could’ve found themselves on the flag@whitehouse enemies list, had they spread information deemed “fishy” by the administration.  After Robert Gibbs’ feeble insistence that of course the White House wasn’t keeping names and email addresses, the site was dismantled. 
Obama uses the bully pulpit to let his subjects know what a danger the First Amendment poses to his post-partisan agenda, and the 2010 State of the Union address was an ideal setting. Displeased with the recent Citizens United ruling, he took the unprecedented step of rebuking Supreme Court justices as they sat on the front row. Separation of powers and even basic rules of courtesy and decorum take a back seat, when the Cult of Personality needs to see its enemies’ donor lists. 
Following his 2010 mid-term “shellacking,” (and while his IRS was systematically targeting his perceived enemies), President Obama stepped up his assault on dissenters. In an absurd, "middle school hall monitor meets police state" story, Attack Watch was born. Concerned supporters of the president everywhere were asked to monitor and report any and all derogatory information. Knowledge is power, especially when informing on your neighbors.  And again, they certainly kept no list of names…not the folks who ask folks to document the content of group prayers. 
While it’s comforting that Attack Watch died relatively quickly (and mostly from ridicule), the sentiment behind the buffoonery is both serious and scary. The Left views criticism of their president as dangerous; the Bill of Rights is secondary. 
Democrat FEC Vice Chairman Ann Ravel is unambiguous about both the perceived threat to her president and the way to combat it. When her attempt to overturn the 2006 “Internet exception” ruling failed on a 3-3 party line vote,  Ravel took serious offense. Because the FEC wouldn’t force free Internet advertising into the same classification as paid ads on radio or television, she needs to shake things up. “A reexamination of the commission’s approach to the Internet and other emerging technologies is long overdue,” she said, as if regulating political speech is the logical next step. 
This is not Ravel’s first attempt to wipe her feet on the Bill of Rights.  Two years ago in California, she attempted to bring bloggers and "online commentators" under state regulation. Unbowed by her failure at the state level, she now wants to take her speech-stifling act national. If Ravel and her Democrat FEC colleagues have their way, bloggers and websites like The Drudge Report will answer to the federal government. Attack Watch was silly; these proposed new regulations are deadly serious. 
Ultimately for the Left generally and for Obama in particular, this is about control. Their nationalization of the health care system was a means to get the government more involved in people’s individual lives. Things that get in the way of that control – like the Constitution – are mere impediments to be dealt with. The President shredded Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution so he could control immigration. 
Does anyone think he sees the First Amendment as an obstacle to his controlling the Internet? 
People are criticizing him, after all. 

Martin is co-founder of Tea Party Patriots.
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Sunday, November 30, 2014

Is the Professional Sporting Event Ticket You Buy Really Yours? Nope!


Now that the election is over and our groups have had a chance to regroup from the election season there is an issue that may not be on your radar, but deserves some serious attention. 

Did you know that most ticket companies, team owners, venues, and artists they work with don’t believe that the ticket you buy to their event actually belongs to you? As a fan, a ticket, like any other product you buy should carry with it inherent ownership rights, including the right to sell, give away, or donate that ticket. When you purchase a ticket, the ticket becomes your property. Once you buy it, you own it!

A recent op-ed by Cleveland State University Law professor Christopher Sagers exposes some of the most egregious acts by the highly subsidized NFL and NBA franchises in Cleveland. Serial government handout seeker, and owner of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, Dan Gilbert, and convicted fraudster and Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, are two of the biggest abusers of Cleveland taxpayers.

The article mentions several examples of anti-competitive practices that are anti-free market and place undue restrictions against ticket owners. For example, the Cleveland Browns impose an arbitrary price floor on its affiliated resale website, Ticketmaster’s TicketExchange.

The use of a hidden price floor on the official resale site of the Browns should concern taxpayers in Cleveland and around Ohio. The Cleveland Browns stadium is owned by the city of Cleveland and leased to the team. Taxpayers have contributed heavily to the upkeep and renovation of the stadium. 


According to a November 2013 report by Cleveland.com renovation on the Browns stadium, approved last year, will cost upwards of $120 million and of that $30 million will be paid for by the city at the expense of taxpayers.

The Browns are not the only one using taxpayers. Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavs, who has received millions in tax payer handouts and supported the extension of the sin tax, to the tune of a $1.8 million collective effort is a proponent of restricting the resale market. 


Instead of competing for a chunk of the $10 billion a year resale business Gilbert wants to destroy the entire market by restricting fans to only use the resale Flashseats, the resale platform operated by his ticketing company, Veritix. 

Fans who are unaware of the restriction and use any other platform have been stripped of their season tickets and threatened with further action. Rather than compete against other platforms, Glibert is seeking to prevent competition and the end result will be higher ticket prices for fans.

The amount of money taxpayers shell out for all three major teams is astronomical. The Browns, Indians and Cavs cost the taxpayers millions annually. This was compounded by the extension of the Sin Tax which was extended to the tune of $260 million last year.

Whatever your political leanings may be, this issue is about personal property rights, your right as a ticket buying consumer and rigging of the free market. Gilbert, Ticketmaster, and others are using their power and influence to destroy the market and strip fans of their basic ownership rights. Ticket resale should be protected and consenting adults should have every right to sell their tickets where they choose and for a price they agree on, without restriction.

That is why you will soon see a broad coalition of grassroots activists from the left & the right, think tanks, nonprofits and consumer groups are teaming up to call on Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine to look into these anti-competitive practices and put a stop to them.


As taxpayers we should have a voice against these abuses. Attorney General DeWine should know that these issues exist and do whatever it takes to stop them. We hope you will join us as we continue to push forward with this fight and look forward to working with you to protect the free market and personal property rights of fans.


Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Giving thanks for abundance is giving thanks for free enterprise






Photo credit: en.wikipedia.org

What Thanksgiving really means To Americans

Reposted from 2013: 
A couple of years ago, Jerry Bowyer, writing inForbes Magazine, recounted the real significance of Thanksgiving, a significance that is too often lost among the turkey dinners, football games, and stories about Indians who befriended the early settlers.
In 1620, the Plymouth pilgrims based their original community on Plato’s Republic, a collective model that appealed to their religious convictions and morality. But the communal model didn’t work for them. After over two years of failing harvests and resulting malnutrition, disease, starvation, and deaths, the pilgrims replaced the communal model with a model based on private property. The ensuing harvest was abundant, with surpluses available for trade.
Their Thanksgiving celebrated the triumph of the individual, private property, and incentive, over collectivism. At first, the pilgrims were guilty because they were putting self-interest over the seeming altruism of socialism. Yet the devout survivors had learned two lessons: 1) that a theoretical and utopian collective society fails, and (2) in real life, private property and capitalism produce prosperity. For them, God, not Plato, knew best. Accepting the principles of private property and self-interest was God’s way of harnessing self-interest to the greater good. We know all of this because an elder of the Plymouth plantation, William Bradford, kept a journal and it survives today. Mr. Bowyer’s earlier article, with additional historical background, is here.) 


It’s wrong to say that American was founded by capitalists. In fact, America was founded by socialists who had the humility to learn from their initial mistakes and embrace freedom. One of the earliest and arguably most historically significant North American colonies was Plymouth Colony, founded in 1620 in what is now known as Plymouth, Massachusetts. As I’ve outlined in greater detail here before (Lessons From a Capitalist Thanksgiving), the original colony had written into its charter a system of communal property and labor.

As William Bradford recorded in his Of Plymouth Plantation, a people who had formerly been known for their virtue and hard work became lazy and unproductive. Resources were squandered, vegetables were allowed to rot on the ground and mass starvation was the result. And where there is starvation, there is plague. After 2 1/2 years, the leaders of the colony decided to abandon their socialist mandate and create a system which honored private property. The colony survived and thrived and the abundance which resulted was what was celebrated at that iconic Thanksgiving feast.

As my friend Reuven Brenner has taught me, history is a series of experiments: The Human Gamble. Some gambles work and are adopted by history and some do not and should be abandoned by it. The problem is that the human gamble only works if there is a record of experimental outcomes and if decision makers consult that record. For many years, the story of the first failed commune of Plymouth Bay was part of the collective memory of American students. But Progressive Education found that story unhelpful and it has fallen into obscurity, which explains why (as I alluded to before) a well-educated establishment figure like Jared Bernstein would be unaware of it.
I’m often asked why our current leadership class forgets the lessons of the past so often. They are, after all, very smart men and women. Don’t they know that collectivism will fail?
No, they don’t. Not anymore. For much of our history, our leaders were educated in the principles which were to help them avoid errors once they have joined the ruling class. They studied to learn how to not misuse power. Now our leaders learn nothing of the dangers of abusing power: their education is entirely geared to its acquisition.  All of their neurons are trained on that one objective – to get to the top. What they do when they get there is a matter for later. And what happens to the country when they’re done with their experiments is beside the point: after all, their experiments will not really affect them personally. History is the story of the limitations of human power. But the limits of power is a topic for people who doubt themselves and their right to rule, not the self-anointed.
That’s how it is now, and that’s how it was in 1620. The charter of the Plymouth Colony reflected the most up-to-date economic, philosophical and religious thinking of the early 17th century. Plato was in vogue then, and Plato believed in central planning by intellectuals in the context of communal property, centralized state education, state centralized cultural offerings and communal family structure. For Plato, it literally did take a village to raise a child. This collectivist impulse reflected itself in various heretical offshoots of Protestant Christianity with names like The True Levelers, and the Diggers, mass movements of people who believed that property and income distinctions should be eliminated, that the wealthy should have their property expropriated and given to what we now call the 99%. This kind of thinking was rife in the 1600s and is perhaps why the Pilgrim settlers settled for a charter which did not create a private property system.
But the Pilgrims learned and prospered. And what they learned, we have forgotten and we fade.  Now, new waves of ignorant masses flood into parks and public squares. New Platonists demand control of other people’s property. New True Levelers legally occupy the prestige pulpits of our nation, secular and sacred. And now, as then, the productive class of our now gigantic, colony-turned-superpower, learn and teach again, the painful lessons of history. Collectivism violates the iron laws of human nature. It has always failed. It is always failing, and it will always fail. I thank God that it is failing now. Providence is teaching us once again.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Monday, November 24, 2014

Health Care Compact and Common Core Alerts


Photo credit: the pomoblog.com


The end of this legislative session is coming fast, and any Ohio House bills, even if passed out of committee, that have not been brought to the floor for a full vote by December 31st, will be null and void.  
Therefore, there are two House bills that need our immediate and unrelenting attention - Common Core Repeal Bill (HB 597) and the Health Care Compact Bill (HB 227).
It's time our legislators stop hiding in the shadows and show us they stand with the taxpaying citizens of Ohio. 
The Health Care Compact
The Nail in Obamacare's Coffin
After fighting Obamacare for over 4 years, and Ohio citizens' overwhelming support of the Ohio Health Care Freedom Amendment - it is inconceivable that a GOP elected official from Ohio could be undecided on the Health Care Compact, but such is the case.
Please take a few minutes out of your day and call and email ALL the below GOP Ohio House members that are either "Leaning Yes" or "Undecided" on whether they want true health care freedom, and the ability to remove Ohio from the clutches of Obamacare, once and for all.
Your message can be short and to the point: -
"Citizens of Ohio voted in support of Health Care Freedom. We can only achieve this with your support of HB 227, the Health Care Compact."
Let's make the calls & emails and win this fight against Obamacare in Ohio! 

"Lean Yes"

Rep. Peter Stautberg / District 27
Phone: (614) 644-6886
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Stephanie Kunze / District 24
Phone: (614) 466-8012
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Timothy Derickson / District 53
Phone: (614) 644-5094
Contact: Click Here


"Undecided"

Rep. Richard Adams / District 80
Phone: (614) 466-8114
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Marlene Anielski / District 6
Phone: (614) 644-6041
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Ron Amstutz / District 1
Phone: (614) 466-1474
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Nan Baker / District 16
Phone: (614) 466-0961
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Tim Brown / District 3
Phone: (614) 466-8104
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Mike Dovilla / District 7
Phone: (614) 466-4895
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Terry Johnson / District 90
Phone: (614) 466-2124
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Ross McGregor / District 79
Phone: (614) 466-2038
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Dorothy Pelanda / District 86
Phone: (614) 466-8147
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Gary Scherer / District 92
Phone: (614) 644-7928
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Bob Hackett / District 74
Phone: (614) 466-1470
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Michael Henne / District 40
Phone: (614) 644-8051
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Bill Hayes / District 72
Phone: (614) 466-2500
Contact: Click Here

For more information on the HCC you can go to: 


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