MAPS III Must Not Pass

Is this the time for a tax increase?

Face it, we are facing a deep recession if not a depression. This is no time to be spending tax dollars on frivolous projects when the state is struggling. MAPS has been a non stop, forever tax increase even though it was initally sold as a temporary tax increase. FIrst passed in 1993, the tax has been a good old boys property improvement club, increasing Bricktown property values or increasing traffic to the clubs and resturants. Next the tax bought new buildings, much larger new buildings, leaving the property taxes straining to pay the increased overhead and staffing costs that went along with these new palaces.

This time, they are wanting to provide for the creation of a 70-acre park downtown, a fixed-rail streetcar system and new convention center downtown, trails and sidewalks throughout the city, state fairgrounds improvements, wellness aquatic centers for senior citizens, and upgrades to facilities at the Oklahoma River at the heart of the metro area

The tax has drawn a lot of opposition, police, firefighters, city employees, there are many that do not want this .777 billion dollar tax increase passed at this time. Of course the objections would disappear if only the politicians would throw some cash their way. The city management refused to play ball though, October 8th was the deadline for changes in the ballot, now all that can be done is to cancel the vote and pay the costs of the elections anyway.

I can find things that are true public needs in the list of projects, but there is a lot of fluff and payoffs for property developers and Bricktown. Bottom line is that this is no time to pass almost a billion dollars in new taxes, it is a good time to allow the tax to end until economic conditions improve a bit.

We have a new activist that is willing to ramrod this new effort as part of a OCA (Oklahoma Constitutional Alliance) Ad Hoc committee. If you are interested in helping out, we have less than one month to make a difference. It can be done, there are formible allies already working against it.

Not This MAPS

Let us know if you want to help staff the OCA committee and work toward this goal

The Battle For The Republic Begins

Folks, we already have the power to stop Obama in his tracks. The Tenth Amendment is the key. The Tenth Amendment is very simple and quite elegant:

‘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.”

Easy to understand, isn’t it? I would say a sixth grader could easily comprehend the Amendment. So is health care and global climate change legislation a Federal responsiblity? Article One, Section Eight of our constitution sets out 18 enumerated powers that the states granted the Federal Government.

To lay and collect taxes and duties, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States.

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the indian tribes;

To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and post roads (plain old roads needed to carry the mail between the states)

To set patents and copyrights.

To form courts inferior to the Supreme Court;

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high Seas, and offenses against the law of nations;

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy;

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To control the District of Columbia, our nation’s capitol, and to erect forts, magazines, arsenals, dock yards and other needed buildings.

To make laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers.

Conspicuously absent are any mention of health care or environmental laws, so the answer to the question of who is responsible is easy to figure out, the Tenth Amendment says it all, if it isn’t one of the 18 enumerated powers, the states and the people are responsible for those areas. What happened was the Supreme Court decided that a few words imbedded in Article One, Section Eight gave the Feds the right do do anything they wished, the “general welfare” clause and the “commerce” clause.

The commerce clause again is quite simple:

“To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.”

How the Justices could warp this into allowing the Feds to usurp States rights and our personal rights is beyond me.

The complete text of the “necessary and proper” clause is also simple:

“To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”

The Justices ignored three simple words, “the foregoing Powers”, which clearly states that the Feds can do what is needed to carry out the eighteen enumerated powers, then they warped that to allow the Feds to stick their nose into anything they wished. It is quite simple, the Feds can contract to build a post office, build roads to carry the mail, hire postmen, none of which are specifically listed, but they are necessary and proper to establish a Post Office.

So the Federal government has been trampling on our rights and State’s rights for many decades. That doesn’t mean we don’t still have those rights, it just means we need to stand up and demand the Feds stop. Last year, the Oklahoma legislature passed two Tenth Amendment proclamations, the first was vetoed by Governor Henry, the second passed in such a way that Henry couldn’t stop it. That proclamation was delivered to Obama, a shot across the bow, stating that the Oklahoma was no longer tolerating the trespass. That was fair warning, now it is time to put teeth into our demands.

Brogdon, Key, Murphy, and many more conservative Oklahoma politicians have already drafted bills to do just that but they need the people to get behind them and make sure those bills get passed.

So, the OCA will get behind these bills, we will ask our Tea Party volunteers to show up at the capitol to lobby for these bills, to take training classes so that the volunteers know how to lobby effectively. The first of these training classes will occur on the 14th of this month, a special class to “train the trainers”, who will then train others to spread out across this great state. The goal is to train hundreds if not thousands of regular Oklahoma citizens to be ready to come down to the capitol and help push these bills through.

The battle will always be local, it does no good for our OKC people to lobby a state senator from Tulsa, he will listen only to those that vote for him, those that he represents. We will need Tulsa voters to influence a Tulsa Senator.

So we need as many volunteers as possible to sign up for one of these legislative training classes as possible. The classes will begin in late November and will continue until the legislation session is ended. We don’t expect everyone to spend a lot of time down at the capitol, phone calls and emails will help, but from time to time, we will need to call out the troops, to make a mass visit to the capitol to let the legislators see our numbers. Like in the movie “Patriot” with Mel Gibson, we don’t expect you to sign up for a long war, rather we will ask you to fire three rounds for us, then go back to your lives, make some money, take care of that family till we need you once again.

So please contact us and sign up for legislative lobbying training ASAP!

Moveon.org Counterprotest at Coburn’s OKC Office

I'm tired of waiting for the nuts to drop, it is Acorn time...

Moveon.org ( or is it ogre?) is attempting to set up a protest at Senator Coburn’s Oklahoma City office on October 14th. This is part of a national effort to pressure congressmen to support Obama Care. They are sending out emails asking people to sign up to host a protest, offering to line up speakers, provide handouts, even signs for those willing to be their puppet.

Quite amazing that the Democrats rail about “astro turf” all the while they are the experts and busing people in and propping them up with a pre printed sign in their hands.

If you want to participate, we have pulled a permit so we can use a sound system, from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, so we can pre empt any Moveon.org protest. The idea is to get there early, stake out the best area, and if they do show, drown them out with a sound system. : ) We will need a few people to man the show and call in re inforcements if needed, so that most of us can go about our work till the nutty ones show up.

We can put out the word at the Sunday meeting and hopefully get plenty of people there. Coburn isn’t wavering, the idea is to show the liberals how hopeless it is to show up in Oklahoma. Plus we will get some media attention to drive more members into our group. The 912ers are offering to help out man the barricades if we pulled the permit so we ought to have a rowdy crowd to gather up the rotten Acorns.

So get a lawn chair ready, sign up for all day or part, it is squirrell time!

First Sooner Tea Party General Membership Meeting October 11th

The Sooner Tea Party will have its first open meeting for the general public on October 11th, at 3:00 pm.

Due to the short notice, the meeting will be held at my shop, The Carpenter Shop, 358 North Rockwell Ave, Oklahoma City, OK, 73127. When you get to that address, drive behind the smaller green metal buildings to where the large concrete buildings are, the ones with the truck docks running across the front. If you get lost in the parking lot, call 405-412-6233 for assistance.

We will go over what we have been doing since we organized, the July 4th Tea party, the August 22nd Health Care Rally, the March on D.C., and upcoming events and projects. The Legislature will restart early next year, and we all need to be ready to help push through the needed legislation to make Oklahoma a bastion of freedom and prosperity.

We are also hosting a statewide meeting for leaders of the other patriot groups on the 10th. It is time that all the groups started working to push through needed projects and began to share information and resources. We will have a report on the progress for the Sunday meeting.

So we would love to see you at the Sunday meeting, share some information with you and get you active in our group if you have the time to participate. Don’t expect a lot at this first meeting, we just want to say hi and tell you about what is going on. Bring a folding chair if you have one, or a lawn chair. If the weather is pretty, we will meet outside, or inside if the weather isn’t cooperating.

See you there,

Al Gerhart

Taking Back The Oklahoma Republican Party

In 1964 Barry Goldwater started a movement to return the Republican party to its roots, paving the way for the Regan revolution in 1980.

Unfortunately, George Herbert Walker Bush squandered the momentum, as did Newt Gingrich when he failed to follow up on the Contract With America.

Currently the Republican party is being controlled by liberal Republicans and that must be changed. Here in Oklahoma, starting a third party is nearly impossible ballot restrictions. Therefore, we have three choices, reform the Republican party, reform the Democratic party, or ram through ballot laws that open up Oklahoma to a viable third party.

The Democratic party is most likely too far away from us in political theory and practice and changing ballot laws is a task for a well developed political machine. That leaves us with reforming the Republican party out of necessity.

The idea of re taking the Republican party is spreading. At this website, they discuss exactly what can be gained, how precarious the establishments hold on power truly is and what it takes to get there.

Re Taking The Republican Party

We are lucky to be living in Oklahoma, the reddest of the red states, but we need to improve upon our position by helping conservative Republicans to take control of their party. This will require us to register as Republicans, then spend a few hours for a few days attending Republican precinct events.

What is to be gained is largely symbolic yet there are practical gains, the power to endorse Republican candidates, the power to educate future and present Republican party members, and most importantly, a very public bloody nose to the present Republican party leadership.

We have attended tea parties and made it clear that we have had enough, it is time to show the public that we intend to act on this. On the 10th of October, the Sooner Tea Party is hosting a statewide meeting of patriot and libertarian groups to begin to work together on projects.

One of the projects to be discussed is retaking the Republican party.  Janruary 27th is the date of the first Republican precinct election, if you miss that election, you won’t likely be able to vote in the next ones.  Some counties might have different dates for the initial precinct election so the first thing is to locate your county chairman and get in touch with your precinct captain to get the latest information.

The Message

Nobody knew what was going to happen at the Taxpayer March on Washington.  The Capitol Police didn’t know, the media didn’t know, politicians didn’t know, conservative pundits didn’t know, the organizers didn’t know, and the participants themselves had no idea.  Many who weren’t part of it still haven’t a clue what happened.

Three of us from the Sooner Tea Party left our Alexandria hotel early, under rain clouds, to meet up with the busload that would arrive from OKC around nine.  For the whole drive in I wondered how many people would be there, and I hoped it would be at least ten or twenty thousand.  I worried that it wouldn’t be.  Numbers send a message, and we had one for some people here in the capitol, I thought.

When the fifty or so of us Sooners walked away from Union Station we quickly joined a stream of groups and individuals flowing toward Freedom Plaza, the beginning point of the march.  When I reached 13^th Street and the plaza came into full view I was shocked.  From the Ronald Reagan building north of Pennsylvania to the Starbucks south of the plaza there was a mass of people with flags and handmade signs of all different sizes, colors and messages: “If you aren’t outraged, you aren’t paying taxes,” “I’ll keep my fingers, Bible, guns, and freedom – you keep the change,” “How will my children pay for all of this?”  “Clean sweep: Vote them all out.”

There seemed nowhere left for us to stand.  Rising above the assembly was the statue of the Continental Army general, Casimir Pulaski, astride his stallion, ready to lead another charge.  Someone was giving a speech I couldn’t make out and a cheer broke out, then another.  I looked around at others who were just arriving.  From the moment the streams of incoming demonstrators saw that bright and lively multitude, quizzical smiles appeared.  They relaxed, and despite the gloom of a few of the signs and the dark clouds, it became festive.

I entered the crowd saying “Excuse me,” and people made way.  We smiled and nodded in passing.  I climbed to the highest platform I could reach.  How far back did this go?  As far as I could see.  There were speakers like Kenneth Gladney and some music, but that wasn’t why I came.  I snapped photos and began talking to people.  “Where are you from?”  “Sacramento,” one couple said.  “Virginia” “North Carolina” “New Jersey” “Pennsylvania” “Ohio” and the list went on.  When I replied “Oklahoma” to that question I often got a surprised look and “Thanks for coming so far!” and I would thank them back.  In each meeting we made eye contact and there again was that quizzical look, a question expressed in a smile: “Is this really happening?  I thought I was alone, me and my family,” or “Me and twenty or a hundred friends, we thought this was our last stand.”  Then we marched down Pennsylvania to the US Capitol, singing and chanting, smiling and wondering as the clouds broke before us.

We sent a message, but it wasn’t the one we thought we had come to send.  It wasn’t a message to Capitol Hill, or to Obama, or the media, the left, or even the people back home, though some of them may have overheard a bit.  The real message became clear when we walked up to strangers and started talking. Five minutes later we had friends from some other part of the country, email addresses, new websites to check out, and ideas, crazy ideas about changing things that every ex-stranger seemed to share, and it didn’t matter how many we met.  There were always hundreds of thousands more.

The day came to a close and I began to see a new look in strangers’ eyes.  Our group kept talking to more people, briefly now, as we walked back to Union Station.  As darkness slipped across us there wasn’t much smiling, just faces like engineers and carpenters, mothers and veterans wear.  We strangers in the Capitol began saying: “It’s going to be a hard slog.”  “There’s a lot of work to do.”  “This is just the shot heard ’round the world.  Get ready for a fight.”

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This story has been cross-posted at Tea Party Gazette.

General Pulaski Smiles

Brigadier General Casimir Pulaski, Continental Army

(Why this photo?)

The March Begins

Sooner Tea Party in DC for 9/11

Brigadier General Casamir Pulaski, Freedom Plaza

Born into a noble family in Poland, Casamir Pulaski was so inspired by the American struggle for liberty that he immigrated and joined the Continental Army in 1777.  An experienced cavalry officer who had fought the Russians for Polish liberty, during his short career he was appointed Brigadier General and eventually put in command of all American cavalry forces.  He led his troops in a number of battles before being mortally wounded in combat at Savannah, Georgia, in 1779.

A number of STP members spent a great day in our nation’s capitol.  Al, Christina and I took most of the morning and early afternoon to attend a grassroots organizing seminar put on by Viguerie Marketing Institute.  There was a lot of good information, and Richard Viguerie was inspiring to hear.  Ben Hart and Diana Banister also spoke about key aspects of grassroots activism.  We learned a lot and will be bringing that knowledge back to the STP.

Al asks a question of the panel.

Then it was off to visit Congressional offices with Ethel, a fellow Tea Partier here from Massachusetts.  Al and Christina had visited the Oklahoma offices yesterday, so today we went by Joe Wilson’s to offer some encouragement, and then to Olympia Snowe’s, to tell her representatives that we hoped she would vote against Obamacare.

Later we met up with a number of other STP members for dinner.  Afterward, group of us went to the front gate of Walter Reed Army Medical Center to participate in the demonstration to show support for our wounded veterans.  My guesstimate is 150-200 showed up for it (Update: Al thinks more like 500), many carrying flags and signs of support for our troops.  Drivers passing by honked and waved.  This ongoing rally is a response to anti-war demonstrators who used to protest at the front gate of the hospital.  About 20 anti-war demonstrators had their own rally some distance away.

After that we drove back to our hotel, but even then couldn’t get away from the Tea Party — there were two busloads of patriots from the Great State of Indiana at the hotel!  There’s a lot of pretty excited Americans here tonight.

Tomorrow’s the big march!  We’ll be up early to meet our busload of spirited fellow protesters from Oklahoma and then rally with fellow patriots from around the country at Freedom Plaza.  From there, the spirit of General Pulaski will set us off on our march to restore the freedoms he and many others died for.

Transcript: Larry Goss, MD, 8/22 Rally

The following are the speaking notes Dr. Larry G. Goss forwarded the Sooner Tea Party for his remarks at the August 22nd Health Care Freedom Rally:

National Health Care or the Nightmare of Unhealthy Care

by Dr. Larry G. Goss, M.D. and Sooner Tea Party member

·       Why are we here today?

·       Why am I here today?

·       It  was many years ago during the Viet Nam war when as a scared 2nd Lt I raised my right hand and swore a sacred oath to …”preserve, protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic!”

·       When I left the Army, I was not told to raise my left hand and undo that oath.

·       Today, 41 years later, it is still as valid and honorable as that long ago fall day in 1968.

·       Today there are many enemies to our Constitution, and unfortunately, many of them are domestic.

·       And that is why I am here today, to do my duty with honor and courage for my country and for my fellow Americans.

·       That is why we are all here today.

·       It was George Washington who said “Government is not reason.  It is not eloquence.  It is force. Like fire a dangerous servant and a fearsome master.”

·       We must contain this “dangerous servant” or it will become our “Fearsome Master!”

·       I am here to talk about National Health Care or more correctly the Nightmare of Unhealthy Care.

·       That this legislation is blatantly unconstitutional is obvious.  There is nothing in Article I Sec. 8 of the U.S. Constitution that gives the federal government any authority to impose a National Health Care Plan (Socialized medicine!) on Americans!

COSTS OF MEDICAL CARE HISTORICAL AND

PROJECTED

·       Most of the current cost of medical care has been driven by government i.e., Medicare mandated bureaucratic regulations that Medicaid and private insurers also adopt.

·       It has been estimated that these burdensome requirements account for at least 75% of every health care dollar today.

·       40 years ago in Oklahoma, an office call was $3.00, and a busy physician could have a large practice with just one full time nurse, and perhaps a part-time receptionist/bookkeeper.  Now a physician is hard pressed to run his office with at least 4-6 full time employees and several more part-time employees/consultants!  These employees have little to do with direct patient care and all of these people have salaries and benefits that must be paid.

·         As just one example of current mandated costs imposed on physicians and other health care providers, ask any practicing physician about the costs of “Prior Authorizations” requirements in their offices today.  Then multiply this cost by the hundreds of thousands of physicians practicing in the United States today!

·         I would estimate these wasteful costs to be $5 to $10 million dollars DAILY for each 100,000 doctors today!

·       That the proposed Obama Health Care Plan (Socialized Medicine) is an improvement is ludicrous, and flagrantly dishonest.  This absurd legislation is going to increase the bureaucratic costs even more astronomically! (Please see Organizational Chart of the House Democrat’s Health Plan at http://www.orlytaitzesq.com/images/DemocratHealthCarePlan,.jpg)

·       NOW TO LOOK AT PROJECTED COSTS UNDER THE PROPOSED OBAMACARE.

·       HR 3200 mandates a new 8% payroll tax on employers with 10 or more employees.

·       This new tax would, in effect, force lower income employees to take an 8% pay reduction: $1,600 yearly for a $10/hour employee.

·       HR 3200 attempts to fund this draconian program by fining any individual (i.e. small businesses) with before deductions income of $280,000.

·       Political appointees would make “Comparative Effectiveness” determinations to deny medical care recommended by a patient’s physician.  These bureaucrats would be paid based on these denials. The more denials, the more they are paid!

·       It is planned to reduce physician payments by 21% in 2010 in order to save $240 billion from the government’s already astronomical budget deficit.

·       This will have an extremely detrimental effect on access to medical care in rural and inner city areas, and on small struggling physician’s offices.

·       HR 3200 also does nothing to address another of the most significant engines driving health care costs: tort reform to control frivolous lawsuits.  Malpractice insurance costs are another considerable factor driving up the costs of medical care for all Americans.

ILLEGAL ALIENS COVERED UNDER OBAMA CARE:

·       Section 246 of HR 3200 states: “NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS.”

·       However, there is no enforcement provision in this section.  This means that US taxpayers will be paying for the free medical care of illegal aliens!

·       Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., offered an amendment that would have required the Federal Government to use the same database, already in existence, to check eligibility for welfare recipients to ensure illegal aliens are not in the proposed health care plan.

·       The House Ways and Means Committee rejected the Heller amendment on July 17th in a straight party line vote!

OBAMA CARE TO SENIORS: JUST GO LAY DOWN AND DIE!

·       I heard Obama claim that this was just an ugly rumor and was not true.  However, he has also admitted that he had not read HR 3200.  We have, (hold up disc) and I am here to tell you it is true!

·        (Tell joke about bus wreck full of politicians!)

·       Section 1233 of HR 3200 mandates a government requirement for “Advance Care Planning Consultation.”  This is required “end of life” counseling for senior citizens.

·       Betsy McCaughey, former lieutenant governor of New York, and a health policy expert, states the “consultation” is “no more or less than an attempt to convince seniors to die.”

·       “One of the most shocking things is page 425, where Congress would make it absolutely mandatory, that every five years people in Medicare at age 65 have a required counseling session,” she said.  “They will tell (them) how to end their life sooner.”

·       Incredibly, it also includes a suggestion for euthanasia: withholding the “use of artificially administrated nutrition and hydration”!

·       The message is clear: “Do what is in society’s best interests, and cut your life short!”

·       Obama Care suggests that medical care be withheld from a person based on the expected years they may have left to live.  This is blatantly unethical and a total violation of a physician’s Hippocratic Oath!

·       News Flash!  I have just been handed a bulletin from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported that life expectancy in the US has reached almost 78 years, a record high!  Federal health officials also reported that the death rate has reached an ALL TIME LOW OF 760.3 DEATHS per 100,000 people!

·       Folks do we really want to destroy our current health care system that has given us such improvements in medical care and prevention in order to implement socialized Obamacare?

·       Obama Care plans to get us at both ends of Life!

·       Sec. 1714, Pg. 769-770 Federal government mandates eligibility for State Family Planning Services, which means taxpayer funded abortions.

·       To date there have been 9 amendments put forth HR 3200 and the senate version to ban taxpayer funded abortions.   All 9 amendments have been defeated.  The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that without specific language to prohibit funding of abortions in Medicaid, they must be publicly funded.

NATIONAL HEALTH CARE WILL DENY YOU MEDICAL CARE:

·       Health sections in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act gives government bureaucrats access to your personal electronic health records.  Allows these bureaucrats to make health care decisions for you!

·       Allows authorization of the “Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.”

·       National Coordinator will monitor treatments to make sure the doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective!

·       “The National Coordinator will be able to enforce his decision as to what is appropriate treatment through sanctions against health care providers!”

·       Penalties against doctors would “deter health care providers from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols.”

·       The Stimulus Law calls for a single electronic medical record for every U.S. resident by the year 2014 and provides access to those records to “… the government, and other interested parties.

·       In Sec. 163, Pg. 58-59, the government will have real-time access to an individual’s finances and bank accounts.

KISS YOUR PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE (AND THE INDUSTRY!) GOODBYE!

·       In HR 3200, is a “Limitation on Enrollment” section on page 16 which states that those who currently have private individual coverage won’t be able to change it and those who change jobs, or become self employed will not be able to obtain private medical insurance!

·       This will mean the death of the private insurance market/industry.

·       120 million or more will lose employer group coverage and be forced to accept the government plan.

·       This will also likely mean the end of health savings accounts, thus giving final and total control of healthcare to government bureaucrats.

·       HR 3200 contains 1,018 pages of new regulations that will require a person to buy whatever insurance the government demands before any other necessities of life. If you don’t you will be taxed or fined!

·       HR 3200 imposes additional income tax surcharges that will push top tax rates over 50% in 39 states.

·       HR 3200 will penalize employers 8% of average paid wages if the employer does not offer acceptable (to the federal government) coverage.  This alone has been estimated to kill 5 million American jobs!

·       HR 3200 is expected to cost over $1.6 trillion over the next 10 years, but this is probably an underestimate.

·       The new Government Insurance Company will not be subject to lawsuits, will not be subject to state regulations, not subject to federal or state taxes, OSHA regulations, EPA regulations, and on and on!

·       There is simply no way any private insurance industry can compete with the planned government behemoth.

·       And so Obama and the government gets what they wanted all along, complete control.

·         Is that what we really want? For ourselves? For our children? For our grandchildren?

THERE IS PERHAPS A SOLUTION TO THIS DILEMMA?

·       The solution to this lies within all and in each of us and also in the building 100 feet behind me.

·       We MUST remind our state legislators that the federal government is NOT sovereign over the states.  That under the US Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, and under the 9th and 10th Amendment, it’s powers are limited and confined.

·       Several States have already began moving to abolish this unconstitutional takeover of our health care by the process of state nullification.

·       This is the process that the Great State of Oklahoma MUST pursue, and quickly!

Over two hundred years ago Patrick Henry said “Give me Liberty or give me Death!”  Today, at this time and in this place, for myself and all Americans, that statement should be “I choose Liberty or I choose Death.”  It is becoming increasingly clear that those two choices are the only ones available to us.

May God Save and Bless our Republic!

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To see the transcripts of other speakers, click on the following Transcripts link and see the posts that have “8/22 Rally” in their titles. The Sooner Tea Party will be posting the transcripts for all of the speakers who agreed to allow us to do so as soon as possible.

Transcript: Al Gerhart, 8/22 Rally

The following is the complete transcript of Al Gerhart’s remarks at the August 22nd Health Care Freedom Rally:

How Far Will you Go?  The National March on Washington D.C.

by Al Gerhart, President, The Carpenter Shop, Sooner Tea Party Co-Founder

Good morning Oklahoma …

Did you ever wonder about the Hollywood movie stars, why some fall apart under the stress, sometimes ruining their lives with drugs or alcohol?  It is the anxiety that eats into their guts, the real anxiety that comes from not earning what is given to you.   Lately we are anxious and troubled with the current state of our country.  We are troubled because we have not earned our freedoms, we know that what is not earned is easily taken away. It has been there in the back of our minds, unspoken, but now we are awakening.

I’m not sure exactly what it was that made me start to wake up, it could have been listening to some of our more educated customers voicing their concerns, it could have been the economy hitting bottom, or maybe it was listening to my sweet little wife yelling at the Television set.

Once I did start  pay attention, the magnitude of this mess sank in.  The national Republican leadership is not much better than the Democrats, both are spending our children’s and our grand children’s future taxes to buy elections.  Slowly I realized just how much trouble our country was in and realized that if something was to be done, it would be up to the citizens.

Well, we the people have done well this summer.  You guys packed the Tea Parties and Town Halls and put fear back into the politician’s hearts.  Now they are looking forward to September when they think they can scurry back to Washington D.C. and get away from the heat.  What do you guys think, are we done with them yet?

I thought so.

My friends, we are not done, we are going to Washington D.C.    On Wednesday, September 9th, thousands of citizens from across the United States will begin to arrive in Washington D.C.   On Thursday, we petition our congressional members, On Friday we attend training seminars to learn how to organize.  On Saturday, September 12th, we March in Protest on the Capitol, we march in protest of the madmen in Washington D.C.

Convoys of carpools are being planned all across this great land, trains, buses, and airplanes have been reserved to carry patriots to deliver a resounding message, to stop the irresponsible spending, to stop the loss of our liberties.

We Oklahomans are going to march behind an Oklahoman flag.  Sooner Tea Party members, OKC 9-12 members, even a convoy from the Tulsa Tea Party They are meeting up with another convoy from Memphis.  But, we need many, many more Oklahomans to be there for the Protest March.   Carpools of four can make it for under $120 per person if you leave early Friday morning and drive all night.  If you leave on Thursday night, and stop for a motel a few hours outside of D.C., it can be done for less than $150 per person if four people share a motel room.  Plane tickets bought in advance are less than $300 round trip and there are $75.00 motels in the D.C. area if you are the adventurous type.  There are even D.C. area residents opening up their homes for those with limited funds, bring a sleeping bag and they will put you up for a few days.

If there is enough interest and enough money is raised, we could charter buses.  Groups of 48 people could travel for under $250 per person.  Two drivers would allow driving through the night, or $280.00 would cover a Thursday departure with a Friday night stay outside the beltway.  If we don’t raise enough for a bus, we use the donated cash to sponsor proxy car pools or plane fare.

Many of you will say, I can’t afford to go or I don’t have the time.  You might say your family comes first, that times are tough, spending money going to D.C. is out of the question.   I know, I can’t really afford to go, but if I do nothing, I wonder if there will be a middle class left that can afford my work?  This massive takeover attempt of our health care system is just the start, Cap and Trade is coming, they will attempt to regulate the small farmer out of existence, and Hyper inflation will happen once the world realizes how just much money Obama is printing.

If we do not take a stand, these politicians will destroy the very fabric of our great country.  The liberal agenda and globalization has gutted our industrial base, once we were the arsenal of democracy, generations of Europeans and Asians owe their freedom to America might and the sacrifice of our selfless veterans.  Will we be able defend liberty again?  Will we even have liberty here at home?

That my fellow citizens is why we will March on Washington D.C., for the generations to come, for our own conscience.  Who among you want live out your days knowing that when your country needed you the most, you were too busy or were unwilling to spend a few hundred dollars to defend your rights?

We need to take a couple of days, shut this state down, and just go give them a piece of our mind.  Politicians say that a dozen letters is enough to make them pay attention, what are they going to do when a million U.S. taxpayers show up on their doorstep?  They spend trillions on stimulus programs, but the best possible stimulus for consumer confidence is proof that this madness is being stopped.

I am asking every one of you to get involved in this March on D.C..  If you can’t find a way to go gather ten friends or family members and help someone else make the trip.  Twenty dollars each will send someone that has the time but no money to travel.  If you own a business, sponsor one of your employees or give all of your workers a long weekend off to attend.  If you can go but lack enough funds, we will try to find a carpool and some sponsors for you.  If there is no possible way for you to go or help others to go, make a sign, find an overpass or park your car on the side of the road and cheer on the ones that are making the trip.  Drive as far as you can with the convoy, take videos and photos to send to the T.V. station. Just do something,

We are going to send buckets through the crowd to collect donations to be used to send people to Washington D.C.  Checks are fine, any amount will help, and I can promise you the money will go for that purpose only and that we will spend your hard earned money well.  If you want to donate to our group to help out with the future Tea Parties, there are donation buckets at the sign in tables for that purpose, these buckets are for the March on D.C.

For those unable to go to Washington D.C, we are considering a watch party here in Oklahoma City.  Sign up on our email list and we will send you more details on the March on Washington and the Watch Party in the coming weeks.  In the mean time, keep calling those congressional members, go to the town hall meetings and ask the hard questions.  Please Continue saying “Enough”, continue the process of taking this country back.

I want to close by sharing the best advice I ever received in my life, that if you truly want something, pay the price and seize what you want.  My countrymen, we need to pay a price for liberty, to end the anxiety in our lives.  If we do that, freedom is ours to pass down to our children.  So please join me in Washington D.C. on Saturday, September 12th.

Thank you.

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To see the transcripts of other speakers, click on the following Transcripts link and see the posts that have “8/22 Rally” in their titles. The Sooner Tea Party will be posting the transcripts for all of the speakers who agreed to allow us to do so as soon as possible.