Sarbanes-Oxley for Government (a.k.a. Government Accountability)
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Corporate Responsibility Act, requires for all companies filing a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that the principal executive and financial officers certify in each report: (1) The signing officer has reviewed the report; (2) The report does not contain any untrue statement of fact or omit to state a material fact; and (3) The financial information in the report, fairly present the financial condition and results of operations.
There have been several controversial government activities and
dubious government contracts recently for which no government official has been willing to accept responsibility and the amorphous nature of the federal government and its operations makes it difficult to determine who authorized the questionable activities.
We need a federal government where officials responsible for controversial operations and dubious contracts can be held accountable.
We need a federal government equivalent of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requiring the authorizing federal official for all operations and all purchases involving an expenditure of $100,000 or more to sign an authorizing document stating: (1) The reason the expenditure is necessary; (2) The results of a cost/benefits study showing the benefits of the expenditure; (3) The source of the funds in the budget; and (4) The controls in place to assure the funds are properly spent.
And the perjury laws should apply to the federal officials’ statements
We can call it the Federal Government Reform and Government Responsibility Act.
What is good for private industry should be good for the federal government.
Herman Cain at Presidency 5
County Sets Tax Rate for 2012
Gold Rush Tea Party Social
The Palm Beach Party Tea Party is a non-profit organization supported by our members. To raise money, we hold drawings and sell various merchandise at our meetings. Although we do accept simple donations, we want to make our fundraising fun and a win/win for all.
To this end, our members, Barb & Mel Grossman, are hosting a Gold Rush Tea Party Social on Thursday, October 6th from 2pm to 5pm. To contribute simply come laden with all your unused or broken gold jewelry. A professional buyer will pay you top dollar for your gold and share her commission with the Palm Beach County Tea Party! Party size limited to 20 participants. Location and directions will be provided when you RSVP. Please RSVP by Tuesday, October 4th.
Herman Cain wins Florida Straw Poll!
Fifteen members of the Palm Beach County Tea Party along with several members of the South Florida 912, the Palm City Tea Party and many other groups across the state traveled to Orlando for the Presidency V and Florida CPAC conferences this past week. With over 3000 registered Republican delegates voting in the straw poll that culminated the three days, the hype from the media before and during the conferences focused on the significance of the outcome in the presidential race. Historically the winner of this straw poll has won the Republican nomination.
This historical precedent and significance was quickly forgotten by the mainstream media when Herman Cain was the clear and decisive winner of the straw poll, amassing many more votes than Rick Perry and Mitt Romney put together. Mr. Cain took 37% of the votes with Gov. Perry a distant second at 15%. Nipping at Perry’s heels was Gov. Romney at 14%.
In fact, most of the major media outlets have essentially ignored this outcome with little or no mention. “Fair and balanced” Fox News announced Mr. Cain’s win but, but not without immediately discounting his win by declaring that this continues to be a two-man race between governors Perry and Romney.
Not mentioned, too, is the fourth place position of Senator Rick Santorum beating Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, John Huntsman, and Michelle Bachman who finished in that order.
The delegates who voted for Herman Cain did so because of his plan for implementing a flat tax called 9-9-9 that will provide the tax revenues and the economic growth engine needed to put the brakes on our failing economy and begin a true economic recovery.
The delegates were also impressed with his business experience as CEO of Godfather’s Pizza and his common sense solutions approach to improving our economy. He was adamant in his support of our military, his staunch defense of the the free-market system, and recognition of the need for a long-term energy plan. The voters were also impressed with his strong support of “legal” immigration, and equally strong stance against amnesty.
The 15% of the delegates who voted for Rick Perry were impressed with his job growth record in Texas. However, the majority were unimpressed with many of his responses in the Presidential Debate on Friday night. He ignited voters against him when he said that those who did not like his pro-illegal immigrant actions “did not have a heart,”
Many of the Florida straw voters, liked Mitt Romney’s performance in the debate on Friday night. The 14% of the voters who chose Romney in the straw poll did so because of that performance and because they feel he is “presidential” and will be a formidable candidate against Barack Obama. The majority, however, are concerned that he will not work to repeal Obamacare based on his support of a similar healthcare system in Massachusetts. This is despite his declaration in the debate that he will abolish the misguided legislation.
What is the Tea Party? An Inside Look
Created by Heather Gustafson
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Taking Action Starting Today!
A week ago I woke up at 1:30am sitting on the couch with the television blaring, my headsets still on, and a stiff neck. But all was ok because the first words I heard were “Two for two”. That is, conservatives won the 9th Congressional seat in New York and easily kept the House seat in Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District.
I am sure that all of you have read and heard about both of these big wins so I won’t bore you with restating the facts. However, I do want to take this moment to congratulate all of the estimated 30 to 40 million tea party members and followers who are voicing their opinions and will not be silenced. This was not just a New York moment, this was a “tea party moment” and we need to savor it.
Ok, now we have finished savoring and we need to start thinking and planning for 2012. We need your help! There are so many things that you can do — whatever your circumstance. Here are a few Palm Beach County Tea Party teams that I hope you will consider joining:
- Oversight Team (federal, state, or local) — Pick an elected official, a legislative body, a candidate, or an issue you are interested in and track them like a bloodhound. Share any news and/or blogs you consider important. When you find information we should know, send it to us and we will send your information out to our membership, post it on our websites, facebook, etc..
- Media Contact Team — This is an exciting new team where you will interact with specific media! You will follow and provide responses to articles, posts, etc.
- Connect Team — This is a critical team where you welcome new members and integrate them into PBCTP. Its a great way to meet new people and tap into their passion directing them to the right activity within the Tea Party
- Social Media Team — Help plan and implement training courses for our members so they are more savvy tapping into social media tools like facebook, twitter, and our website. Create strategies to effectively use these new media to effectively get our message out.
- Newsletter Team — We are putting together our first Palm Beach County Newsletter. If your passion is writing, we need you!
- Operation Reach Out Team — Reach out into the business community, colleges, nursing homes, and special shows like Antique Shows, meeting with private organizations, etc.
- Fundraising — We have a robust fundraising team that is working on two big fundraisers, a Gold Party and Fashion Show. We need more ideas and help on implementation of ideas.
- Event Planning Team– Help plan monthly meetings, candidate forums, special movie nights, rallies, etc.
To get more information about or to join one of these teams, please email us at info@palmbeachcountyteaparty.org.
Lastly, someone told me the other day that:
“There is not a Tea Party person that cannot take on a significant role to help move us to victory in 2012.
If you cannot join one of the above teams, you can always join the Donor Team!”
To join the Donor Team, simply hit the Donate button below!
Testimony Tampering?
Why does a General Risks His Career Reporting Testimony Tampering?
The media is all concerned about the dustup involving Air Force 4-star General William Shelton, who heads the Air Force Space Command, testifying the White House pressured him to change his testimony in a classified briefing to a U.S. House oversight committee.
The media is all concerned about the White House pressure, which is serious enough, but nothing is said about the far more serious problem, the one the general was willing to risk his career to preclude.
It involves a company, LightSquared, and its attempt to build a wireless 4G satellite network that would broadcast in the frequency band used by the military GPS system and potentially jam GPS to make it inoperable. The LightSquared majority owner Philip Falcone and CEO Sanjiv Ahuja are big Democratic Party contributors.
To understand the significance of what President Obama is doing, it is helpful to review a little background information.
Because there would be chaos if anyone could operate a radio transmitter at any place, any time and any frequency without regard for others, the world realized there was a need to regulate such transmissions and long ago (as part of the League of Nations) created the ITU (International Telecommunications Union). It is a United Nations entity with 170 member countries that allocates
the frequency spectrum to the various radio services.
In this country it is illegal to turn on a radio transmitter without a license. The international allocation of frequency bands to radio services is replicated in the U.S. in national frequency allocation tables. Commercial service transmitter licenses are given by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and government services are approved by the Office of Spectrum Management in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration of the Department of Commerce.
If you look on any device you have with a transmitter (cell phone, wireless router, garage door opener, etc.) you will see a notice that the device complies with FCC rule 15.
In this country the government and commercial services are separated into different radio frequency bands to allow each to have widespread geographical operations without interference. The documents indicate the FCC has ignored the concerns of the Department of Defense (Document DA-11-133A1) and allowed LightSquared to operate in a band that could interfere with the GPS system. The FCC is chaired by Julius Genachowski A longtime Obama friend and a top 2008 campaign fundraiser,
The GPS is not just used by civilians to find their destinations. It is incorporated into a myriad of automated military systems that use position information. Making it inoperable would not only negate the $billions spent on its deployment, it would be a serious blow to the ability of the military to protect us.
Admiral David Glasgow Farragut is remembered for his Civil War command “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”
Perhaps that is a metaphor for a present day Obama command “Damn the country, full speed ahead!”
Wellington Chapter Meeting Inspires New Member
The following was written by Janeen Capizola. The pictures at the end are from Ed Wolff.
I am Janeen and I am a Tea Party Patriot. I didn’t need to admit it, I needed to understand it. So no one is happier than I that I attended my first meeting of the Wellington Chapter of the Palm Beach County Tea Party Patriots Tuesday evening to hear TP Patriots Cofounder and National Coordinator, Mark Meckler, and State Coordinator, Dawn Wildman, speak about the Tea Party.
My story goes like this: I stood in a very long line on a cold, dark morning to early vote in the 2008 General Election. Hundreds of people were out voting for Obama and I was seething, thinking, “Dear Lord, they know what they do.” That’s when I began yelling on Facebook. I figured I had two years to simply get one apathetic voter to care and pay attention before they ever went out to vote again. On April 15, 2009 in downtown West Palm Beach, in the pouring rain, I stood passing out American flag stickers I purchased on my own for the Anti-Tax (Tea Party) Rally. When I saw the crowd, I never felt more at home in my life. Like-minded thinkers, fighting the same fight as I. Back to my comfy couch and Facebook where I immediately “Liked” the Tea Party Patriots and continued to yell through the 2010 elections up until today. Recently, I got off my couch and joined the Palm Beach County REC, a bunch of Republican Clubs and thought, “well, of course, I “identify” with the Tea Party, so I’ll join them, too.” After all, for the past two years, I’ve been trying to explain that the Tea Party is a “movement,” not a political party; that the Tea Party is NOT a “wing,” “branch,” or “arm” of the Republican Party; that the Tea Party is a force to be reckoned with and don’t underestimate the power of the people. But that is pretty much all I knew about the Tea Party Patriots. I know now that I don’t “identify” with the Tea Party, I AM a Tea Party Patriot!
Dawn Wildman spoke first and she was a hoot! She immediately started with, “the Tea Party is not about Democrat vs. Republican,” it’s not about liberal vs. conservatives, it’s about “looking at the values” of our elected leaders and candidates who run for office. The Tea Party is about finding people with “common interests and principles” and not about a particular political philosophy. And so you see, it is because the Tea Party can’t be LABELED that SCARES the heck out of those who resort to calling us terrorists and telling us to go straight to hell. She spent some time talking about how the movement is sweeping Europe. She said every region in Italy now has a Tea Party chapter and that hit home for me as an American of Italian decent. She told us, and we laughed out loud, to stop screaming at our TV’s and get involved. And I plan to do just that! Thanks Dawn, message received.
Mark Meckler spoke next and this man was born to lead. He explained the history of the Tea Party, starting with the famous February 19, 2009 Rick Santelli rant on CNBC where he called for another Tea Party on the 4th of July. That rant set the Twitter world abuzz and Mark, Dawn and 20 others, all strangers to each other, said, “why wait?” and they got to work promoting on Facebook. All over the country, Tea Parties were held one week later, February 27, 2009. Mark says he was stunned to see hundreds of citizens “standing against the government” at these rallies. After such a huge turnout and overwhelmingly positive reaction to the first Tea Party rallies, Mark called Dawn and others around the country to plan some Tax Day rallies figuring, “well, everyone’s angry on tax day!” Again, here were regular people simply posting on Facebook promoting these rallies and it wasn’t long before there were 850 planned tea parties posted on their site. Well, Fox News, and only Fox News, picked up the buzz and began covering what was being planned for April 15, 2009 across the land. Once that happened, Mark said the “lid just blew off!” He started receiving approximately 1000 emails an hour, more rallies were planned, and this was happening as Mark again said, “with no official ‘organization,’ no money, no one with any particular skills, and no marketing.” He says it took awhile to get some estimates and numbers, but they know now that 1.2 million people attended rallies across America on April 15, 2009. Wow! After that enormous success, the big question became “what now?” They named the group the Tea Party Patriots. And when asked by the media, (my words) “oh how clever of you to use the word ‘Patriot’ in your name, after all everyone is a Patriot, right?” Mark’s response was, “well, actually we just thought ‘Tea Party Patriots’ sounded cool.” I found it particularly striking that Mark and the others specifically chose to use the term “fiscal responsibility” over the more commonly used, familiar, “fiscal conservative” because they did not want to be seen embracing any political philosophy.
Fast-forward to September 12, 2009 where 1.7 million people marched on D.C. and even cleaned up after themselves! Another bit of information I had never heard and thought was super cool when Dawn mentioned it: the Smithsonian asked for a tee-shirt and sign from that day because they knew history was being made! Mark went on: As the Tea Party Patriots continued to grow, we all saw what was accomplished in November 2010: “the largest turnover in the House of Representatives since 1938.” I loved how Mark told of the Freshman Member Orientation where he and Jenny Beth pretty much “demanded” the freshman members attend. Mark said two things were said to the new members: 1)”We are here for you. We helped get you here from all over the country. We expect you to vote your conscious. And if you do, you have an army of people to back you up.” 2)”And if you don’t, we will send you all back to where you came from.”
What has been remarkable to me, a Patriot watching from the sidelines, is instead of fizzling out or dying as many movements usually do after an election, the Tea Party Patriots has continued to grow. Mark says there are now over 3,600 chapters, with approximately 22-23 million members, across the country and every single one is organized differently depending on what the need in a particular town, city or county is. An interesting statistic Mark gave, and he said they simply go from their Facebook page demographics, about half the members are under the age of 45 and half the members are over 45, with the under 45 crowd being active on Facebook and the over 45 crowd being active in meetings.
Let me end by saying I have thoroughly enjoyed my two recent Tea Party events, the Labor Day BBQ and the Wellington meeting. Every member has been so unbelievably welcoming to me, a newcomer. All of you have an enthusiasm and a passion for the 3 core values fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and free markets, that make us all Patriots. When I attend a Tea Party meeting, it doesn’t matter what political party I belong to, what my thoughts on social issues are, what my religion is, and not only doesn’t it matter, no one cares since we are all Americans who want the same things for America! I am so happy the Tea Party is there for me and it is going to be my pleasure working with all of you as we prepare for November 2012.
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County Tax Rate Comes Closer to TAB Target
Last evening at about 11:00pm, the County Commission voted to set the county-wide tax rate at $4.79 per $1K valuation, up 0.8% from last year. While still technically an increase, it is much better than the number set in the July meeting and an indication that all the work of the last few months has had an effect.
Thank you to those who attended or wrote letters and emails, but a very special thanks to those who stood up at the meeting and spoke their mind. Of the 80 people speaking at the meeting, 75% were there to protect “their” county funded programs, but 25% were on our side, a rising tide.
From South Florida 912, speakers included Marianne Polulack, Iris and Fred Scheibl, Rita and Jim Boger, Victoria Theil, Albert Key, Alison Rampersad, Nancy Hogan, Mike Lameyer, Shannon and Doug Armstrong, and Jason Shields.
Palm Beach County Tea Party was represented by Anita Carbone.
For a synopsis of the meeting and what the tax decision means, see: A Surrealistic Budget Hearing on the TAB website.
