Author Archives: taterheaptom

(Creatively done – we got a kick out of it. – promoted by Colorado Pols)

*UPDATED*Now with more retrospective from our darkest days!  the Winter of 2010!  

It may be that I don’t quite recall all this correctly.  It comes from the fuzzy times.  Back before.  But you know, 4 years, 8 months, 2 weeks, 4 days and 127 minutes.  One-frickin-day-at-a-time.

But I was there, back in aught-seven before I quit drinking, in the Founding Father heady days of the Bears-in-the-Woods-Patriotic Muffets,up CraigAmerica way.    

And since then Bears-in-the-Woods Patriots have forged ahead.  Well, after the disastrous Winter of 2010, kind of our Valley Forge–there at the Holiday Inn out on HWY 40.

In its infancy, the local tea party experienced rapid growth and was widely supported.

But, a decision to publicly support certain candidates during the 2010 midterm elections caused a rift in the group’s membership and a number of once dedicated members walked away.

Remaining members said they learned from the mistake and the group now prides itself as being unaffiliated from any political party.

The battles were fierce in that Winter, as our brave correspondent from the Statesman noted:

Tipton vowed to cut spending and the size of federal government by 50 percent. McConnell called for repealing “the morass of federal legislation that bogs down small businesses,” and redefining “endangered species (as) farmers, ranchers, truckers, and drillers.”

…On either side of the assembly hall were the candidate’s banners – Tipton’s “Common sense for Colorado;” McConnell’s “We the people, by the people, for the people.”

The candidates courted Republicans and “Tea Partiers” – the latter made up an estimated 40 percent of the 617 congressional assembly delegates. Tipton was endorsed by the board of directors of the Western Slope Conservative Alliance. McConnell captured nods from Grand Junction Results, Bear’s Ears Patriots and the Southern Colorado Tea Party groups.

I’m not saying it did or it didn’t. Didn’t drive me away that is.  I’m not saying that. But things didn’t get better right away.

There’s a deep chasm between that GOP wing and mainstream Republicans, who are more often called “elitists” or “old guard” than “grassroots” party members.

So we got behind the wrong cart once or twice and pissed off some elitist old guard.  Alwright by me. Yeah it was hard then, back in ’10.  But that’s ancient history.  We have re-embraced our roots

We as Tea Party Patriots stand for:

a. The support of the American Constitution as set forth by our founding fathers.

b. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

c. Fiscal responsibility

d. Limited government. As stated by our Constitution.

e. in God we trust

So, now we are more the Bears-in-the-Woods Tea Vetters, but we do know our history. And we’re doing some vetting.  So we even invite Democrats and RINOs to our vettings.  

More recently, the tea party hosted Tisha Casida, an Independent candidate running for Colorado’s Third Congressional District seat, and Ron Roesener, a Republican candidate vying for Colorado House District 57.

A slate of candidates are also scheduled to make appearances before the group in coming weeks, including District 8 State Sen. Jean White, R-Hayden; HD 57 Rep. Randy Baumgardner, R-Hot Sulphur Springs; and Bob Rankin, Republican candidate running to replace Baumgardner in HD 57.

Winey said the group has also extended invitations to CD 3 Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo., and his Democratic opponent, Sal Pace.

“It goes back to our philosophy of trying to be welcoming of people and candidates of all views and political affiliations,” Haskins said. “Everyone is welcome to attend our meetings.”

And vetting brings some good times.  

Ron Roesener, a Republican candidate for Colorado House District 57, opened the meeting by outlining his position on regional issues such as the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, the BLM’s obstruction of the energy industry, water, and environmental protections of species like sage grouse.

Roesener said he is opposed to the federal government’s restrictive management of public lands through the BLM.

…”It’s about we the people. We own that land. It’s not the federal government’s, it’s not Kenny Salazar’s and it’s certainly not Barack Obama’s.”

Roesener is a fourth generation Coloradan and comes from a family experienced in public service. His great-grandfather, Richard Morgan, was a former Arapahoe County judge, state legislator, and owner of the Simpson Coal Mine.

“If you take a tour of the state capitol, when you get to the legislature you’ll see three bullet holes in the ceiling,” Roesener said. “That was my great-grandfather in 1903 and his way of expressing that he was not going to support the unions.

“I have that passion.”

Yee-Haw! That’s what I want to see. “Passion.”

It all began that way, of course, when our Foundlings committed an act of industrial sabotage not entirely unlike a bunch of rowdy Occupiers out huffing paint late at night and smashing Walmart windows. If say Walmart were imposing a property tax and you were not a shareholder.  Or more like Bentonville was imposing a surtax and King Sam was a convenient scapegoat for your anger.

But look where that one act of vandalism got us now, like I said, we know our history.    

the Boston Tea Party is credited with initiating the convention of the First Continental Congress, the American Revolutionary War, the Declaration of Independence, and ultimately the U.S. Constitution.

Well, not now exactly.  Now we’re kind of screwed.  Usurped. Socialized. Collectivated.   The great ‘was then’. When America was still great, back then.  Sometime before it no longer was, but well after we were doing all that horrible stuff.  Around the time when the Founding Fathers were freeing the slaves and all that greatness, like defeating the UN.  

Would the Founding Fathers recognize today’s U.S. government? Would those who lived in the 13 states that ratified the U.S. Constitution?

I’ve become a better student of American history since the 2008 national elections than I was during my high school years, and my answer to these questions is a resounding NO.

…I believe, as you study the grievances Americans of that time period had against the British, you will see a British government similar in many ways to the government we have now. Our Founding Fathers opposed this form of government so vehemently they were willing to lose life and property and go to war against it.

Here are a few grievances from the Declaration of Independence and perhaps their modern day equivalents…

• He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. (Agenda 21 and the Environmental Protection Agency)

• He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended Legislation. (United Nations)

Luckily, although those decades between high school and now were probably OK I guess, thanks to that fateful day after a damn fine bender somewhere off Victory Way, when a kind soul handed me a pimento cheese sandwich and a Gadsen Flag and we marched on that courthouse just as bravely as did our boys at Bunker Hill.  Or Paul Revere fighting the British for our Second Amendment rights.  And as the wise wizzened one suggested, I find this summed up quite well…

Thankfully, times are different from when America went to war against the British.

We indeed have the right to vote given to us by our Founding Fathers.

But, I believe our country is at a crossroads.

Are we going to try and gain back the form of government the Founding Fathers created, or will we keep progressing into a form of slavery that was detested by them?

Yes, yes, at a cross roads.  Just as our Founding Fathers detested slavery we must defeat the UN with our votes.  In Maybell!  In Dinosaur!  Even in faraway Meeker!! (If you can trust a Rio Blancan, which I would not go so far as to say you can).  So while it is true in sobriety I had to wander south and Elsewhere, I cannot forget the kindness of a stranger and those wild times, it was like tossing tea in a harbor.  We thought we could change the world man.  Crazy, crazy days.

A Craig resident poses a question to Tisha Casida, an Independent candidate running for Colorado’s Third Congressional District, during a March 1 meeting of the Bears Ears Tea Party Patriots … from Crag Daily Press

http://www.craigdailypress.com…