1. We are getting close to nailing down a site.  We had a conference call (thanks Eric & Eric & Paula!) and prioritized what locations we will try to get.  Slight chance of good news by tomorrow, definite news (good or bad) by Sunday's meeting.  I hope.  Sigh.

2. I am SWAMPED with emails.  Sent 11 responses this morning before work and 39 more this evening. Plus the conference call, plus life.  I add each email to the mail list for sending the eventual good news updates.  BE PATIENT, please, if I have missed yours.

3. Look over the Things That Need Doing page and decide how you can help.  When I get those "I want to help with X" emails, I forward them to the appropriate committee head.  Please do NOT send me a "keep me informed" email.  Them I have in a plenty from those who don't know about the web site.

4. Kudos again to Eric for setting up the conference call and to the Paula and the other Eric for taking the time to call in and make thoughtful and WISE comments.

5.  Just wait until you see Eric's video!  (Coming soon to a web site near you!)

6. The mighty Eric has set up SATEAPARTY.INFO to point to this site.  Easier to remember and pass on--you do tell people about this, don't you?!!

7. (a morning-after update--I was tired last night)  For those who don't know Julia (AKA: Sgt Mom), see her lastest post at NCObrief.com: I'll Take Mine with a Splash of Schadenfreude on the Side.   Julia--ever done any speech writing?  I call dibs!  Also know that the mighty Alex is spending a lot of time on this to the detriment of his business, Micha-Angel Productions.  The other Alex is working hard today to secure a site.  The other Alex is a lawyer -- I told you there were good-guy lawyers.  Paula and friends have been living on the phone lately.  There's a lot of activity you don't see, but it IS happening!

Sorry, folks.  Alamo Plaza belongs to the Fiesta folks.  If I were them, I don't think I'd let some protest group use it. We are working on securing a site HARD.  We should have it nailed by the meeting Sunday, 29 March.  That's at 5PM.

By the way -- since  The Lighthouse Coffee and Cafe (the one on 1604) has been kind enough to allow us to meet there, do come hungry.  The cinnamon scone and hot Darjeeling tea I had (of course!) were both scrumptious.

My most profound thanks to the folks who managed to drop everything for a last-minute meeting.  It was VERY productive.  We made the following decisions:

VENUE:  The Alamo Plaza is out.  If we were on the Fiesta committe, we wouldn' allow a protest in our area.  Therefore, in priority order, we are trying for (1) The IRS office on Tesoro Drive;  (2) The Immigration Office at 410 & I-35; and Brackenridge Park in, like Brackenridge Park.  Other ideas if we get are the Main Post Office on Perrin Beitel (???--not familiar with it myself) and asking Cornerstone Church for permission to use their parking lot.

SPEAKERS:  We have decided NOT to have any sitting politicians as speakers.  (My apologies to those approaching folks like Cornyn and Corte on our behalf).  We are approaching some media folks.  If you know of a NON-POLITICIAN speaker, please let us know!

$$$ & PATRONS:  We may need support from someone with deep pockets.  Eric and Jeanette will approach some possible sponsors.  Eric & Robin (me) will work up using a Pay-Pal link where folks could shoot a small donation to us using a credit card.  We may also need to set up a 503-C corp.  Jeanette will look into that, plus a lawyer (yes, there ARE "good-guy" lawyers!) who just popped up, so I'll be pointing him to her.  We also need a letterhead.  We are "The San Antonio Tea Party."

SOUND SYSTEM: Both Eric and Ryan know folks with sound systems who may possibly be interested in helping.  Any others?

TELECONFERENCING:  Eric will get the committe set up so we can do phone meetings,  What a GREAT idea!

SAFTEY:  Paula and Dee know some Fierman who may be willing to be on hand for the event.

NEXT COMMITTE MEETING:  5 PM, Sunday 29 March at the same location (The Lighthouse Coffee and Cafe)

. . . and of course,I probably forgot something.  If so, will one of the committee members please let me know?

Item 1:  A chance to meet up!  Darlene has planned a meeting.  Saturday, 21 Mar 09 (tomorrow) at The Lighthouse Coffee and Cafe.  The one on Stone Oak Parkway, not the Olmos location!  SEE MAP HERE.  Come if you can!

Item 2:  We  will probably NOT get the Alamo Plaza.  There's this little thing they call Fiesta.  They'll be setting up seating for the parades.  We MIGHT get the Gazebo area, IF the Fiesta commission allows it.  Do not bet any large sum of money on that.

Think on alternate locations people!  We need a large area, with lots of parking, preferably at a meaningful place that will get the media's attention.

Still don't have the permit.

I hope we can get the Alamo Plaza!

You'll know when I do . . . .

MEANWHILE -- Darlene is suggesting a meeting to make signs & fliers on Saturday, in the 1604/Stone Oak area.  More to follow, if she send me an email with location & time.  Fliers.  What a great idea!

Wake up folks. The national debt is now $11 trillion.

$11 trillion.   Divided by a population of 303,824,640, that's over $36,000 per person, including children.  That's the debt you will leave your children. Actually, you'll add that to your children's debt when you go  (they already owe $36,000 each, too).

$11 trillion.  Recall that 1$ trillion is 10,000 pallets of $100 bills.  An over-stuffed football field's worth, and double stacked at that.

$11 trillion.  That's 110,000 pallets--a large cargo ship!--stuffed full of $100 bills.

When we announce the next "let's get organized" meeting, will you be there?  Or do you have "better," "more important" things to do?

The meeting was a bust.  As far as I can tell, one person showed (me).

Got a call from Joni Schmidt on my answering machine.  She wants me to take over the San Antonio Tea Party // coordinate with Joseph Leatherwood.

More when I've talked to Joseph.

From http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20039.html

In all, AIG disclosed payments of $105.3 billion between September and December 2008. And some of the biggest recipients were European banks. Societe Generale, based in France, was the top foreign recipient at $11.9 billion, Deutsche Bank of Germany got $11.8 billion and Barclays, based in England, was paid $8.5 billion. 

Now, think on this -- if $1 billion is ten pallets of $100 bills, then $11.8 billion is 118 pallets of $100 bills.  I'm sure the Germans are very appreciative....

I think this would be a great theme. Our mostly conservative state is voting the way we want in Washington. Let's hammer down on the state leaders to get with the program to stop accepting this tax money and keep Texas off the dole. Texas needs to quit sucking on the federal titty.

Diana writes:

I would love to come to your meeting on Tuesday, unfortunately I work until 5pm. My schedule is a little screwy so I wouldn't want any changes made on my behalf, but perhaps for future meetings we could schedule a later time. Also, I know a good number of people who would like to attend the tea party on the 15th, but it would be out of the question if it was held during working hours. Please would you consider an early evening protest for maximum attendance. Lastly, I am a person of little consequence with no clout or connections, I am also the only Conservative at work, but I am willing to help in any way that I can.

William suggets:

[Obama in uncle sam garb, pointing]

Oblablah...

saying what YOU want to hear

Tim writes:

Please ad me to your mailing list. I have many friends who are interested in attending any Tea Party in San Antonio.

Tim also suggests:

Vavosobama

I HOPE when you're done, I still have some CHANGE!

Lord, I wish I could imbed this.  But I'm in a hurry.  Go see it at Fresh Tea Daily --

The Debt Star: This is not the hope youare looking for!

Some enterprising Tea Party folks in Arkansas got the bright idea of doing a protest outside of a Pork-meister's re-election event:

During Sen. Blanche Lincoln's re-election events Saturday which included an appearance by Vice President Joe Biden, members of the Arkansas Tea Party held their own get-together. Why?  To protest.

"No more bailout! No more bailout!" crowds chanted from outside the Peabody where the Lincoln/Biden events were held.

Members had no qualms about voicing their opinion... saying the government is putting too much money in all of the wrong places.

http://arkansasmatters.com/content/fulltext/news/?cid=200641

 So, do any of our Pork-Loving congress critters have any events/appearances planned?  We could have some "Warming Up The Tea" Parties.  Practice our skills, as it were.

Bring ideas on Tuesday!

Just got off phone calls with Joni Schmidt and Joseph D. Leatherwood.  They've been working this a while and both plan to be at the Tuesday meeting.

Location, location, location?  Joni and Joseph have been envisioning getting permission to use Cornerstone Church's parking lot.  Joseph has already put in a request.  That has lots of parking and puts us near a major traffic flow.  They are concerned with the dificulty of a large event downtown.  We'd have to arrange for security.  There are positives and negatives to each possible approach.  We all three agreed that we need to really get that settled Tuesday. My idea?  Congressman Charlie Gonzalez's office is in the Federal building on Durango, just the other side of 281 from the Alamodome.  Check out the street view on Google Maps for "727 East Durango, San Antonio, TX".

Joseph has lined up some speakers.  He'll be shooting me that info tonight or tomorrow and I'll post it here.

Tuesday night, 5PM.  Will you be there?

Christine writes:

I'm glad to see someone has stepped up to start the planning of the Tea Party.  I'm a wife of a retired active duty Air Force member.  We proudly served our country for over 21 years and certainly don't agree with how things are presently going.  I believe if we start making definite plans for the Tea Party on April 15th we can get the support.  . . .   However, at the present time we are missing the four most important elements to make our Tea Party successful: how, when where, and what.  We are understand all too well the reason why. 

 

I would suggest we plan on meeting on the grounds of the Alamo downtown, the cradle of Texas Independence at about 4:00 p.m.  If we need a permit for the gathering I'm willing to volunteer to pick it up at City Hall..  I would like to see if we could arrange the re-enactment of the fall of the Alamo by the actors.  We need to see if we can get some speakers for the gathering.  We need to get some churches interested in helping us out for the gathering because they can provide the microphone system.  Maybe we could arrange some singers and bands for the gathering.  I'm also thinking the VFW and the American Legion are two organizations that would probably be willing to help us out.

 

However, the first things we need to decide on are the place and time to meet, and then we can start advertising for the support of the organizations. We should have a meeting sometime this week at a restaurant for anyone interested in being in on the organization of the major events.

I went ahead and made the following post on Facebook early Saturday morning.  I'm a wife of a retired active duty Air Force member. We proudly served our country for over 21 years and certainly don't agree with how things are presently going. I believe if we start making definite plans for the Tea Party on April 15th we can get the support. However, I've noticed the activities on Facebook are listed as TBN. As of Sunday, we will have one month to plan our activities. At the present time we are missing the four most important elements to make our Tea Party successful: how, when where, and what. We all understand all to well the reason why. I suggest anyone interested in helping organize the major Tea Party meet at the Asia Kitchen, 1739 S.W. Loop 410, Suite 201-204, San Antonio, Texas 78227  (210) 673-0662 (http://www.asia-kitchen.com/location.html ) on Tuesday evening at 5:00 p.m. I'm suggesting this restaurant because the owner is a retired Air Force Chief.

So, boys and girls, it's coming--time to decide what you will do.  Will you pitch in and help or will sit back and watch others.  Let me translate that to what I really mean:  Do you want to help or do you want to watch the corpulent pigs in government enslave your great-grandchildren with the yokes of crushing debt and soul-searing socialism?  CHOOSE!  Sharing Chinese food on Tuesday evening with those who will step up sounds good to me.

Do check out the Ideas for Signs and Things That Need Doing buttons over there on screen-left.  As I get ideas and thoughts on things, I'll update those.  

EMAIL ME YOUR IDEAS!  SHARE!

Advertise the party!  Send them this link if they're not on facebook!

Not everyone wants to join Facebook.  I started this blog as a place to advertise the San Antonio Tax Day Tea Party.  I hope it proves useful!

Our self-appointed "Masters" have decided to squander all in the name of their power.  They would beggar our great-great-grand children so that they might have a bit more money and power today.

(They really have too much power as it is!)