Moore Tea Citizens held their monthly dinner meeting at Russell's Restaurant in Southern Pines beginning at 5:30 PM on Monday, April 8, 2013. The MTC Chair, Dee Park, presided and "emceed" the meeting. This video is of the after-dinner speakers and activities.

Included are speeches from Jay DeLancy, Voter Integrity Project of NC and from Brant Clifton, The Daily Haymaker. Both of these speakers did an excellent job and held the audience' rapt attention. These patriots are doing heroic work to restore our nation and its prosperity.


Bill Cochrane

Moore Tea Citizens held their final Saturday Seminar of 2012 at the Douglass Community Center on Pennsylvania Avenue in Southern Pines, NC, beginning at 11:00 am. Two fine speakers/moderators led the audience through discussions of politics and Christianity: Pastor Joshua Haire of the First Missionary Baptist Church of Southern Pines and Dr. Tim Johnson, Founder and CEO of the Frederick Douglass Foundation and former Vice-Chair of the NC Republican Party.

The program was most informative, enlightening, and provocative. Three videos were shown, which are embedded in this recording of the event. One of the primary messages is that Christians must vote based on Christian and Biblical principles. Christians cannot simply go to Church on Sunday and then vote contrary to their Faith on Tuesday.


Bill Cochrane

Tea Parties from across North Carolina came together at Jomeokee Park near Pinnacle and Pilot Mountain to celebrate the 225th birthday of the U.S. Constitution, to rev up for the coming elections, and to share information, tactics, strategies, plans and priorities. There were great people, great speakers, great entertainers, and lots of great chicken from Chick Fil-A!

This is the first video in a series of four of event highlights. This video is of the arrival and setup activities of Moore Tea Citizens members. For others, the three videos of featured speakers will be of greater interest.

Bill Cochrane

This is the second in a series of four videos of event highlights. This is the first video of featured speakers and entertainers including: Ramona Tims, Mike Steinberg, Timothy Johnson, Pudgy Miller, Kyle Hall, Scott Cumbie, John Tedesco, Dee Park, and Matt Dillon.

This is the third in a series of four event videos -- the second of featured speakers, including: Paul Newby, Walt Emory, William Temple, and singing by Bruce Bellott.

This is the final of four videos of event highlights. If you only have time for one video, this one is the best! Appearances by Vince Coakley, Phil Tilley, Bill Flynn, *Jan Morgan*, Ben Smith, and Kershaw Getty.

The Moore Tea Citizens September members meeting was held at Russell's Restaurant in Southern Pines on Tuesday evening, September 10. Dinner was enjoyed frrom 5:30 P.M. until 6:30, at which time the business portion of the meeting commenced.

After organizational business concluded, the invited speakers took their turns at the podium. Randy Saunders was first; he is running unopposed for Moore County Board of Commissioners from his representation district. Randy is currently the Mayor of Whispering Pines, NC.

Next, Commissioner Nick Picerno spoke to the group. Nick is currenlly serving his first term from his representation district on the Moore County Board of Commissioners. He is running for a second term and is oppposed by a Democrat candidate.

Next up was Robin Hayes, Chair of the NC GOP. He brought some others who helped him speak on the Republican Party's get out the vote and outreach efforts. He also fielded questions from the floor.

Next up was Jay DeLancey from the Voter Integrity Project who showed a newsclip and slide show to speak on that organization's efforts to reduce election fraud. He presented awards to Dee Park, Dick Kuehl, and Carol Wheeldon for their work in auditing registrations of deceased citizens in Moore County. Moore County ranked at the top of the NC counties on the Voter Integrity Project's scoring system. Jay had also spoken to the Moore Republican Women's Club earlier in the day at their September monthly meeting.

Finally, Kevin Daniels of the Frederick Douglass Foundation was re-introduced to the group. Kevin is a favorite of Moore Tea Ciizens, and he always gives a riveting and informative talk. This time was no less stiimulating.

All in all, a great monthly meeting. 127 attended, and the Russell family and staff furnished a fine buffet meal at a wonderful location.


Bill Cochrane

The Americans for Prosperity Bus stopped at Southern Pines on its NC Stop Obama tour.  The bus arrived at the Pinecrest Mall at 12:30 P.M., and a rally was held.  Jenny Beth Martin from Tea Party Patriots and Dee Park from Moore Tea Citizens joined the great folks from AFP in speaking to the crowd.

After the rally, the AFP bus continued up US Hwy. 1 to Raleigh where a show/rally tonight will feature Michelle Malkin and other great speakers.

Bill Cochrane

I suppose when you're in a government which yearns to be a dictatorship... A government which has succeeded in making the Constitution irrelevant...  One which has succeeded in trivializing and circumventing Congress...  One which is dedicated to transforming the nation into something that it has never been and was never imagined to be...  I suppose one then begins to consider any dissenting opinion as something which must be squelched.  A person with dissenting opinions must be marginalized, targeted, and isolated.  Such people must be maligned so as to set up for their eventual re-education -- or if that is not successful for the necessary political purges to begin.

No, I'm not feeling paranoid.  I'm reading the news and the new report on terrorism produced by our Homeland Security Department.  And, according to the study and these reports (e.g. this one and this one), I and all my friends, colleagues, and acquaintances are terrorists now!

It just goes to show:  You never know what distinctions you can achieve, even if you're not aspiring to them!


Bill Cochrane

Moore Tea Citizens proudly participated in the Pinehurst Independence Day Parade this year.  We had two gaily-decorated convertibles and a fantastic flatbed float sporting a huge reproduction of the billboards we placed all over the state of North Carolina.  The Declaration of Independence was read over loudspeakers with intermittent patriotic music.  The crowds reacted with shouts, applause, salutes, and lots of smiles.

A good showing on a great Independence Day!


Bill Cochrane

Moore Tea Citizens held their monthly dinner meeting at Russell's Restaurant on Highway 22 in Southern Pines on June 11, 2012.   Judge Skipper Creed gave the invocation.  Next Karen Backall discussed proper care for your spine.

Candidates and elected officials present were recognized.   First Scott Keadle, MTC=endorsed candidate for U.S.House in NC District 8 spoke.   Nick Picerno and Tim Lea, Commissioners of Moore County were recognized. Dan Forest,  MTC-endorsed candidate for NC Lieutenant Governor spoke.  Then MTC-endorsed candidate for NC Insurance Commissioner spoke, followed by Mrs. Jennifer Tedesco, wife of MTC-endorsed Mike Tedesco, candidate for NC Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Judges Robert Wilkins and Skipper Creed, both candidates for District Judge spoke.  Finally, Bonnie Doherty spoke on the She Votes organization and initiative, followed by Phil Starr speaking of the Special Operations Speaks organization.

Over 120 patriots from the area met for wonderful food, education, friendship, and activism.   Funds were raised for the Billboard Project, for educational activities, and by the candidates.  Join Moore Tea or come to the next meeting in August. mooreteacitizens.com


Bill Cochrane

After the 2010 election, I was scared that the tea party movement and the conservative resurgence had "jumped the shark", peaking too soon to attain its goal of sending Barack Obama and his policies back to Chicago.  The Wisconsin vote this past week put that fear to an end.

The midterm elections had recaptured the U.S. House of Representatives for the Republicans.  It upset in both congressional houses what had been a filibuster-proof majority, theoretically allowing a unified Democratic Party to pass any legislation it desired.  That election also brought forth the first truly Republican North Carolina legislature in more than a century.  Before Wisconsin, many Republicans, including me, were concerned that the post-Obama conservative tide had ebbed.

The Badger State became a test for modern tea party conservatism.  Scott Walker was a bold governor who dared to challenge the most stalwart supporter of the Democratic Party, organized government labor.  He did this in an effort to govern under the Republican principle that budgets needed to be balanced without excessive new taxes.  And the best way to do that was to curb the power of government unions.

He did all this in a state that had not sent a Republican electoral vote to Washington since Ronald Regan.  Such conduct was so dangerous to the left-wing power machine that it decided to make Walker an example to the nation that conservatives ought not bring their philosophy into the House of Labor.  They then decided to gather enough signatures to demand the governor's recall, along with certain legislators on whom the governor depended for support.

The result was supposed to be a stern lesson for any politician who treaded upon the sacred ground of organized government labor.  It didn't turn out that way.

The conservatives accepted labor's challenge.  It was almost like a second Battle of Gettysburg.  Conservative forces found themselves in a place unfamiliar with their cause and on ground they might not have chosen.  But the enemy presented itself there.  This time, the tea party, galloping across open ground, led a charge that could not be repelled. They made it past labor's stone wall and are now headed for Washington with the defenses of the left wing in tatters.

Some might say that the conservatives outspent the left. Perhaps that is true.  But this was clearly a battleground chosen by labor and the left.  They cannot now complain that their army was not ready for the conflict.

Moreover, each side spent enough money to educate all voters about the issues before them.  When the airwaves are saturated with mutually destructive propaganda, voters tend to tune out the noise, voting their convictions.  And those convictions were sympathetic to the 2010 conservative movement.

Now, President Obama was heavily criticized for not standing with his labor allies and campaigning in Wisconsin.  He was similarly criticized for not joining in the effort to defeat the North Carolina marriage amendment, instead opting to oppose it the day after it was passed.  Perhaps the Obama pollsters knew that the conservative resurgence that turned around Congress in 2010 is not only alive, but is continuing to expand its influence over the electorate.

Interestingly, the lesson of Wisconsin is important, too, for Republicans.  Mitt Romney, the nominee apparent, is not a tea party candidate by any measure.  His advisers often seem uncomfortable with some conservative ideas.  Yet Wisconsin proved that shaking the "Etch A Sketch" to erase Romney's conservative primary positions may not be either necessary or advisable.

Wisconsin proved that dissatisfaction with the liberal agenda runs deeper than Obama's economic failures.  Independent and swing voters have embraced conservative principles of governance like limited taxes and placing curbs on the pension and salary excesses of government labor.

Wisconsin was a state colored blue for many years past. Today it is state where the only things that remain solidly "blue" are the color of its crumbled cheese and its crumbling government unions.

The lesson of the Battle for Wisconsin is that, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of the 2010 conservative resurgence were greatly exaggerated.   Reports on the influence of conservatives in the 2012 electorate have been substantially underestimated.  It is lesson for both parties found in local tea party song:  "We Ain't Goin' Away!"

Robert M. Levy is chairman of the Moore County Republican Party.

Moore TEA Citizens held its Fourth Annual Tax Day Rally at the Southern Pines Post Office on SW Broad Street from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm. A number of candidates and elected officials stopped by and some made speeches. Tea Party Patriots, Americans for Prosperity, the John Locke Foundation, and Civitas all were represented and had speakers there.

The weather was great, the crowd was enthusiastic, and a grand time was had by all.


Bill Cochrane