Posted on 08/25/2010 7:36:20 PM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER
I just heard an ad for this site on the radio, not much meat on the site. Does anyone know who is behind this effort?
We need to spread the word. If they are on the level it won’t hurt them.
It's the 'bad guys' that that need to worry.
I can use a .308 as well as I can a Yashica DLR.
So, yes spread the word, November is coming.
[not that 'they' know what a .308 or a Yashica DLR are;
just keep them scared and wondering.]
elaswhere...
~or~
If you’re feeling frisky, here’s a program I use.
http://rapidshare.com/files/33955990/NeoTracePro325.rar
There are a lot of shareware versions around, but I don’t think this is crippled.
We don’t need loose cannons claiming to be tea party and scamming people. If that is what this site is doing they need to be exposed. I plan on hitting the phone in the morning.
It looks like this blog was started to look in to the validity of our organization. First of all I want to thank those that are skeptical when looking at organizations of the tea party movement. The more these things are checked on and verified, the better for the movement. We are a national nonprofit 501 c4 organization for the tea party movement. All our records are public and you can see that the majority of the donations taken in go right back out to promote and recruit for the tea party movement. Our opponents are set on destroying our movement because of the successes we have achieved at the ballot box and other efforts. In a nutshell, our movement is about limited government, free markets, following the original US Constitution as the founding fathers intended and individual responsibility. We welcome anyone in to our movement from all races, creeds, colors, backgrounds and political parties that support these same core American principles.
When you are a conservative minded group, I have found that the liberal media views you as an enemy and will look to attack you without any basis if they think they can hurt you in any way. I am just an average middle America dad trying to do what I see best for my country and my family. I never thought the liberals and liberal media would go after a non celebrity like me, but they do. It will not stop us though. In fact it does the opposite and makes us even more determined to help save this country.
To get more specifics on our organization and the tea party movement in general, go to our website of www.theteaparty.net. We have specific information on what donations are used for, what the tea party movement is about and much more. Every tool on the website is free to anyone that wants to get involved in the movement. Free tea party websites, free blog, free newsletter, free event information, free online register to vote, etc. We are funded 100% by voluntary donations from those willing to give to support the tea party movement. Moms, dads, grandma's, grandpa's donate. Our average donation amount is about $50. We invest the majority of our donations to recruit as many Americans to the tea party movement as possible and educate them on the movement and events. We aggressively market the movement in places such as Fox News, Drudge Report, Google, Newsmax and more. This helps us average about 15,000 new people every week that join the tea party movement through our website. We also provide some donors who donate $100 or more tea party items when they donate free of charge.
We also have used donations for events like our bus tour for 9/12 last year that started with senate candidate in Nevada Sharron Angle and ended at the US Capitol on 9/12. We were also one of the largest sponsors at CPAC this year in Washington DC where we had a booth and lots of behind the scenes involvement with conservatives at the annual convention. We are currently planning more events including a town hall meeting with republicans prior to the Iowa caucus and even involvement in co sponsoring republican presidential debates.
Anyway, I hope now you see that our organization and my personal motives are sincere to helping the tea party movement. I am a father of two little girls and felt compelled to start an organization to help my country and my girls in the process. I hope you will all be compelled to do the same as I did.
I invite any of you still skeptical to visit our website of www.theteaparty.net and sign up for the free newsletter, event calendar, websites and more. Remember, 90% who join, join without donating a cent and those 10% who are able to donate are very much appreciated. Our liberal opponents are well funded and we have to stay in the media as much as possible to combat their unfounded attacks on the tea party movement and liberty in general. I am confident when you get involved with us on a day to day basis that you will see that our motives are sincere in helping this country.
Thank you all for inquiring and God Bless.
Todd Cefaratti
Executive Director
TheTeaParty.net
Heh. I used to live about 3 houses west of there....
"We also have used donations for events like our bus tour for 9/12 last year that started with senate candidate in Nevada Sharron Angle and ended at the US Capitol on 9/12."Could you tell us a little more about your bus tour last year?
Some links of news reports would be helpful.
Thanks.
This is all very interesting. I am a co-founder of Greater Phoenix Tea Party, and have never met Todd Cefaratti to my recollection. I helped host the Tea Party Express bus both times and worked directly with that organization, and because I live in Gilbert, you would think they would refer me to Todd if he indeed was one of their associates.
I have been active in the tea party for two years, and have yet to see or hear of any event put on by this organization. Because Todd Cefaratti has stated that part of the monies were used in helping with the tea party express bus, I must conclude that this is a front operation.
I appreciate your illuminating this issue and will be investigating immediately.
In the name of liberty and integrity,
Kelly Townsend
I'm still waiting for his reply to my questions.
His phrase “our bus tour for 9/12” inspired me to ask him about it. I know about the Tea Party Express Bus Tours but am not familiar with his.
Let me know what you find out.
The bus tour that started with Sharron Angle event and ended in DC for the 9/12 march was with the Liberty in America bus and founder Beth Powers and the Contract From America organization and the founder Ryan Hecker and not the tea party express organization (although we have attended tea party express events and are currently working with them on future events). We started with a campaign rally in Las Vegas with Sharron Angle speaking and did several tea party events across the country along the way and ended up in DC for the 9/12 march in 2010. We do know people in the tea party express organization and will be working with them on future events. Myself and my operations manager were also involved in the Tea Party Express event in Searchlight Nevada.
The bus tour we did with Beth Powers organization “Liberty In America” bus again began in Las Vegas at the Sharron Angle campaign event we co did with her and we made stops in Kennesaw, Georgia, Harrison, PA to name a couple along the way. We carried a 10 foot version of the Contract From America from Ryan Hecker’s Contract From America organization and had Americans sign it along the way and delivered it in Washington DC for the 9/12 march. We had thousands of signatures on it and have it archieved now. You may contact both Beth Powers from the Liberty In America organization http://www.libertyinamerica.org/ (go to their site and you will even see pictures of the tour) and Ryan Hecker from the contract from america organization http://www.thecontract.org/ for references on our organization and myself. Both are good friends and very involved as well in the tea party movement.
Rusty Humphries the national conservative talk radio show host is also a good friend and was on the tour with us as well as the MC. He is also a reference for our organization. Here is a link referencing Rusty on our tour as well http://teaparty.freedomworks.org/events/the-rusty-humphries
We also have a tea party radio show that I co host with Bill Thompson and many other things in the works.
Hi Kelly, well I have never heard of you either. It doesn’t make me question your motives as being sincere in the tea party movement or not, so I am curious why you immediately assume we are a “front” organization as you call it without any evidence of that whatsoever?
Why don’t you contact Amy Kremer herself and ask her about me and our organization? I just met with her personally two weeks ago at CPAC in Washington DC discussing a town hall event we will likely be co hosting soon together and other future events. Also, Dustin Stockton who used to work for Tea Party Express works for our organization now as our event manager. In case you don’t know who Dustin Stockton is, he was the tea party express social media coordinator and tour coordinator. He was there all during the Searchlight Nevada Harry Reid bus tour. He is also the founder of Western Representation PAC which is a partner PAC we work with.
Some other top tea party people you are free to call for references on our organization and myself are Beth Powers the founder of Liberty In America organization and Ryan Hecker the founder of the contract from America organization. We have done many events with both of their organizations as well.
Thank you all and have a great week.
One more thing. We were one of the major sponsors this year at the annual CPAC event in Washington DC Kelly. Funny but I didn’t see you there or your name sponsoring the most important conservative event of the year. Don’t worry though, I still believe you are sincere in the conservative movement. :)
Here is a link to the CPAC website to show you theteaparty.net sponsorship.
http://www.conservative.org/cpac/sponsors/
Our logo even appeared on stage next to the speakers. Surf YouTube also for speakers at the 2011 CPAC conference and you will see our “TheTeaParty.net” logo on the sign to the left and right of the stage.
Thanks again Kelly and above all, thank you for supporting the movement! I hope everyone can learn to stick together in the tea party movement as it is so important we all do as we have a very well funded angry opponent in the progressives that we do have to fight.
CPAC isn’t the greatest selling point with us right now.
“CPAC isn’t the greatest selling point with us right now.”
Wow, you are tough to please. We have many volunteers out there trying to promote the tea party movement and CPAC is a national event where we were able to have dialogue with conservatives that represent us in Congress. At the two banquets at CPAC, Speaker Boehner, Governor Mitch Daniels and others constantly thanked and praised the tea party movement and we and Freedomworks were the only two tea party groups there to represent the movement. I was also thanked personally several times by Col Allen West, Michele Bachman, David and Donna Keene and others for our efforts in support of conservative values and the tea party movement.
What could you possibly see to criticize in that? I wonder if some on this blog aren’t actually progressives doing their best to tarnish anything positive in the tea party movement.
To all the true conservative tea party movement people out there. We need to stand strong, stand together against our well funded progressive opponents. This is going to be a long difficult battle and an infighting in our movement only stands to benefit the progressives. Please don’t fall for the liberals and liberal media attacks. They will continue the more we are successful so we have to stick together.
Stay strong all, thank you for supporting the movement and God Bless!
First, FR is not a blog. Second, that assesment is stunningly unoriginal. Thanks for playing.
I've been a conservative activist for over a decade. Was out in the streets protesting long before the Tea Party came to pass. I'm glad to see all of the new blood, but I also know that with new movements comes new opportunities to fleece people.
Also, I'm not asking anyone for donations. You are. So you have a much higher standard to meet here to explain where those donations are going than I do to explain my conservative bona fides.
And I've worked for a non-profit in the past. It actually raked in some good money and paid good salaries. Non-profit means nothing to what those within it can make from it.
So there have been some serious allegations levelled here. And I really haven't seen anything that you've posted that significantly addresses those allegations. How much of your budget goes towards salaries? Towards marketing? Towards advertising for donations? Towards fundraising?
Versus how much goes towards the sponsorships and activism you speak of?
Doesn't have to be a complicated accounting - just simple line items will do. Salaries. Marketing. Fundraising costs. Activism. As percentages of your budget.
Also, if you have it, a link to any filings you may have made publicly to support those percentages.
Prove the critics wrong. I am more than willing to evenhandedly review the evidence. Present some that is more than talk. Give us the kind of numbers that are routinely used to evaluate the efficiency of charities and non-profits in how donations are sued.
All you have to do to see what we use our donations for is go to our website of www.theteaparty.net and click on the button on the right hand column labled “What donations are used for”. Yes, we have actually posted what we use our donations for on our website since nearly the beginning. I challenge you to go to most other nonprofit organizations and see a page like that offering the specific information to anyone who would like it. We have nothing to hide and are certainly not ashamed in asking for and receiving donations to help us advance the principles of the tea party movement. Our progressive opponents are well funded and it takes a great deal of funding to combat their power structure and attacks on our movement. Just because we are successful at getting donations because people see the value in what we are doing is not a reason to attack us. Again, people can join and use any service on the website absolutely free and the majority who do join, do so without donating a cent. In fact 90% of the people who join do so without donating. That is averaging about 15,000 new members every week that we are bringing in to the tea party movement. I challenge any individual or tea party organization out there that is even bringing in a fraction of new members of what we do into the movement. To do that we have to be aggressive in our marketing to bring people into the movement by appearing in Fox News, Newsmax, Drudge report to get out the word. Even though we are nonprofit, these organizations expect to be paid to get the word out for us. Backyard tea parties of 50 people are nice and needed in the movement but if we are going to succeed, our success will come from major promotion and recruiting campaigns which we do. Our success as a movement will come from our numbers, our growth and our resolve to recruit new people into the movement and educate and inform them and do it free for the people. Donations are purely voluntary.
If anyone had really researched our organization completely by going to the website of www.theteaparty.net as I have recommended several times, they would have seen where we offer on the site the information on how donations are spent. Approximately 70% of the donations we take in are spent on marketing and recruiting new people into the movement and then continuing to educating and informing them on a daily basis and live events and sponsorships we do like CPAC. About 30% go administrative costs in running the organization. We have a full time webmaster, event coordinator, treasurer, social media person, radio, newspaper and television media rep, radio show manager, secretary. Our website development alone has cost well over 6 figures. And again, all these services are given to anyone who wants them in the tea party movement, even if they are with other organizations. It takes money to provide all this free stuff to people who want it in the movement. But that is the only way this movement will grow to huge levels we need to achieve our objectives of preserving the constitution, limited government, free markets and individual responsibility. Your way of doing that may be holding a backyard tea party for 50 people. Our way is holding an internet tea party to 300 million people.
You say our organization has a “higher standard” because we get donations. Yes I agree, to prospective members who join with or without donating we certainly do. People can go to the website and see what we have done and what we are doing for the tea party movement and all the free services and help we are offering anyone who wants to get involved seriously in the movement. If they don’t think we have value then they will not join or donate. That is how free market capitalism works and that is what we are all about. Well, 15,000 new people a week are judging us and joining and that is the proof in the pudding. I challenge you to find any tea party organization across the country that is adding that many new people to the movement every week. If you find another one then please let me know.
Have a great week.
30 percent admin is not out of line. Now, the marketing costs - once again, do any of your vendors have a fiduciary or direct relationship to principals in TheTeaParty.net?
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