Top Ten Reasons Why Congress Hates the Tea Party & Patriot groups (and why you should register for the Oct. 8-9 Virginia Tea Party Patriots Convention at www.vateapartyconvention.com):

10. Most Tea Party & Patriot group supporters actually work for a living, and it’s human nature not to like people who are so very different from you.
9. One word: emails.
8. Tea Party & Patriot group supporters won’t shut up and eat their cake.
7. Qualifying for a lifetime pension the day they take office apparently isn’t enough for members of Congress.
6. Two other words: phone calls.
5. Tea Party & Patriot group supporters APPARENTLY ARE NOT READING THE FORM LETTERS THAT THEIR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS ARE SENDING THEM.
4. Tea Party & Patriot group supporters are crazy lunatics obsessed with things like the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
3. Tea Party & Patriot group supporters act like Congress works for them. What’s up with that?
2. How can anyone who doesn’t have a personal driver know anything about how the country should be run?
1. Tea Party & Patriot group supporters seem to think that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Want to really aggravate Congress?
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• See nationally known keynote speakers like Lou Dobbs, Dick Morris, John Fund, Herman Cain, JennyBeth Martin, Ginni Thomas and Bishop E.W. Jackson.
• Attend Seminars on Constitution, Public Policy and Grassroots Training.
• During the National Policy Forum, hear from policy experts such as Congressman Ron Paul, Congressman Steve King, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, former Virginia governor and U.S. Senator George Allen, and others.
• Take part in the first Presidential Straw Poll of the 2012 campaign – WHO DO YOU WANT TO GET A JUMP START ON UNSEATING THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION? MAKE IT HAPPEN HERE!!
• Party hard at the Friday Night Freedom Lovers Extravaganza (only $20/ticket)!

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The Virginia Tea Party Patriots Convention is being presented by the Virginia Tea Party Patriots Federation. For more information, go to www.virginiateapartypatriots.com.

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For sponsor / vendor information: sponsors@vateapartyconvention.com

To leave us a message via phone, please call: (888) 567-6896.

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I bring you two excerpts that make me wonder if Republicans – who were clobbered in 2006 and 2008 for their big government policies – have learned anything from their defeat. First, an article from The News Virginian discusses the possibility of the Tea Party being absorbed by the Republican Party in order to stay effective after the November elections. Former Virginia Governor and Senator George Allen (R) said that made sense, but RTP President Jamie Radtke disagreed:

“People are just as nervous if the Republicans get in there,” Radtke said. “They are afraid they will act just like the Bush years. Neither party has proven to be trustworthy.”

Sam Adams Alliance Research Director Anne Sorock said her group’s work shows Radtke’s sentiment is widely held by tea partiers.

“It won’t be a fix to simply elect Republicans,’’ she said. “There is a sense that there is a Republican class, and that class is not listening to the people.”

And second, this article states that our own Congressman Eric Cantor said that if the Republicans retake the house (which he expects to happen), they “may roll back their ban on earmarks, as long as the spending items have ‘merit.’”

Amazing. I guess it’s cool to aggressively oppose all earmarks when you’re not the party in power and have no ability to advance legislation, then as soon as you are back in power, start trading pork for votes again. If an earmark has “merit,” why can’t it stand on its own instead of being inserted into some other bill it has nothing to do with?

That’s exactly the kind of governing that landed Republicans in the minority. This, along with Governor Allen’s statement about absorbing the Tea Party (as if we want to be absorbed by any political party), makes me think that the Republicans still don’t understand the mood of the country and if they do regain control, we’re in for much the same old, same old.

What they don’t realize, of course, is that voters will no longer tolerate that type of nonsense. Sooner or later, one way or another, politician by politician, We the People will control our government again and no longer be ruled by it.

Rep. Eric Cantor has decided against joining the House Tea Party Caucus established by Rep. Michele Bachmann. Here’s his explanation:

The second-ranking House Republican told POLITICO on Tuesday that he’s not joining the group started by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) because he sees it as more of an organic, grass-roots movement rather than a Washington entity.

Cantor praised Bachmann for providing “another avenue for people to have their voices heard” but said he thinks the tea party is better left outside Washington.

“I met with several of groups that operated under that moniker in Virginia; they’re not all uniform,” Cantor said in his third-floor Capitol office. “That’s part of the beauty of the tea party movement; it’s organic. And it’s certainly not Washington. So I think it’s better left with the people.”

Honestly, I didn’t expect him to join. Best I can tell, he’s not a big fan of the Tea Party movement. You can decide on how sincere or valid you think his explanation is, but I want to keep you informed on this topic.

You may have heard that Rep. Eric Cantor has decided to sign Rep. Steve King’s discharge petition to repeal ObamaCare. I’d like to say, “Great!”, but unfortunately, there may be reason to believe his true intentions are hidden and completely different from what he’s publicly stating. 

Erick Erickson from RedState offers his stark analysis of the situation:

Today, Eric Cantor and John Boehner are announcing that they’ll sign King’s discharge petition, but they’re also going to go with one by Congressman Wally Herger that would repeal Obamacare and replace it with a Republican alternative.

Notice that Cantor and Boehner were absolutely silent on Rep. King’s efforts until they had Wally Herger’s discharge petition ready to go. Why? Because they want to bully Republican House members into signing the Herger petition and undercut the repeal effort with a “replace and replace with lame legislation” effort. In effect, this undercuts a unified repeal effort and muddies the waters.

…

Tea Party activists and others should pay attention here: Eric Cantor and John Boehner are implementing a strategy that makes it look like they are on your side, but are in fact stabbing you in the back.

Cantor and Boehner are spinning this as a good thing. But it is not. It muddies the water and gives Democrats an escape from being forced to take action.

Is Erickson correct? I don’t know. You’ll have to read his entire piece and decide for yourself. Regardless, we must let Rep. Cantor know we expect straightforward repeal of ObamaCare and will not tolerate any games.

News reports all week have talked about President Obama’s invitation to Democratic and Republican leadership to come to the White House on February 25 to discuss the Health Control Bill. Mind you, this bill has been in Congress for a year now, and no serious effort has been made to include Republicans, Independents, or the American Voice (AKA the Tea Party) in this discussion. However, if you are a union member…they will be happy to give you VIP seating. We have held local protests at our legislator’s offices, emailed and called, held rallies, marched on DC multiple times, met with our legislators, gathered petitions, and lobbied our State legislature…only to be ignored by the President and Congress. Furthermore, recent elections in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts should have been huge neon lights to Washington DC.

So why the sudden change after ignoring milions of people voicing their displeasure over the last year? On one single day in September over a million patriots marched on Washington DC and the White House didn’t even acknowledge our presence. So why now? For two reasons: 1) ELECTIONS. In nine months Congressman will have to face the music. As campaign season approaches and the ever-unpopular health care bill is still outstanding, politicians are fearful of the consequences of supporting a bill that more than half of Americans and Virginians DO NOT WANT! 2) POLITICAL CAPITAL. President Obama has wasted so much of his own personal capital on health care control that he is now in a position of needing to do “whatever it takes” to get “something” passed. They perceive it as a nail in the coffin to end up with nothing after insisting that they new better what the American people want and need. To fail now would show him to be incompetent and lacking leadership.

So the question stands, given that we know the reason and motives for why the President NOW wants to meet after a year of begging by everyone, should Eric Cantor meet with President Obama on Feb 25? What do you think? If he does decide to meet with Obama, what message would you like Eric Cantor to take to the President. We strongly encourage you to email/call Cantor’s office and tell them what message you wanted delivered on your behalf should he choose to attend the meeting. But perhaps Eric Cantor should just tell the President…”too bad, too sad, too late!” What do you think?

Eric Cantor Contact Infor

I came across an interesting memorandum that Congressman Eric Cantor put out yesterday.  He seems to believe we can still kill the health control bill.  Here is an excerpt:

Millions of Americans have made clear their opposition to the Democrat take-over of our nation’s health care system. Together with my Whip Team, I have identified 37 Democrats who – we believe – can be persuaded to vote against a final health care agreement. Because each of these 37 Democrats voted for the House bill, we only need to turn 3 votes to prevent a final agreement from passing. Below are the 37 Democrats we believe are in play, and the issues that drive their final vote.

If we can convince enough of these 37 Members (along with the 39 Democrats who already voted no) to reconsider and switch their position on the bill, I know that we can defeat this government take-over of our health care before it becomes law.

Cantor goes on to conclude:

Democrat Leaders are telling the press and pundits that the hardest part of the process toward enacting their government take-over of our nation’s health care system is past them, but long-time students of the legislative process know better.

Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid can no longer promise to address a wavering Member’s concerns later in the process. They can no longer make contradictory promises to different Members. And because of the work of the American people [that would be us tea party people!], they have hardly any margin for error in keeping 218 House votes and 60 Senate votes in lock-step.

Keep up the calling and emailing.  We know that Senator Webb is nervous.  He hosted a last-minute tele-town hall last week where he tried to justify his health care vote.  Do we look THAT stupid?  We won’t stop until the end! Persevere!

To read the entire Eric Cantor Memorandum, go here: http://republicanwhip.house.gov/floor/CantorHCMemo.pdf

RTP collected over 5,000 petition signatures against nationalized health care and we were unable to get a 5 minute meeting to present them to our legislator directly. See what 5,000 signatures looks like spread across a football field!