In recent months the IRS has been trying to bring the Tea Party movement to heel by attacking the 501(c)3 status of groups around the country. The Ohio Liberty Council (OLC), an umbrella organization for over 70 “liberty groups” around the state of Ohio, has been ordered by the IRS to provide intrusive information about its membership and finances. This is clearly part of the larger campaign to harass these groups. The OLC has decided to push back.

IRS.OLC.Letter

IRS.Questions

IRSInquisitionContinues

Currently, the Convention is offering a special Holiday Early Bird Special that includes a two day pass to all breakout sessions, as well as tickets for the luncheons with speakers on both Friday and Saturday for only $135.  This price is guaranteed to be the lowest price for a two day pass that will be offered for the 2012 “We the People” Convention and will expire on January 31, 2012.  Order here.

We are happy to announce that we have set the date and location for the 2012 We the People Convention based on the input from nearly 300 Patriot Group members – 54% of whom did not attend last year’s successful inaugural event. The 2nd Annual “We the People” Convention will be held at the Ohio State Fair Grounds, in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday, June 29 and Saturday, June 30, 2012.

This two day event will attempt to improve upon the highly acclaimed initial convention in 2011 that saw 1,000 Patriots gather for the first time to learn about our movement and our government, to discuss issues, to learn new technology and tactics, and to improve our leadership skills.

The 2012 Convention is expected to be at least twice as large with over 40 educational breakout sessions, speeches by nationally acclaimed experts, opportunities to meet personally with conservative elected local, state and federal officials and candidates. The full schedules of events and speaker names will be announced as they are booked. This year, we will also be able to provide RV parking on the State Fair Grounds to save on hotel cost and we are negotiating lower hotel costs as well. We will also have improved meals for all luncheons and dinners. The bottom line is that the 2012 “We the People” Convention will be bigger and better that last year and we want you to attend!

We are very pleased to announce that we were able to hold the retail price of the two day convention at the same $200 cost per ticket as last year.  Additional ticket packages and discounts will be release in January of 2012 including pricing for one day passes and group discounts. The Ohio Citizens PAC will also be offering a separate dinner package on both Friday and Saturday night. Our goal is to have the Conservative Ohio Senate Candidate for the Friday night dinner speaker and will do everything we can to get the Republican Candidate for President of the United States to be our key note speaker at a rally to be held on Saturday night.

Currently, the Convention is offering a special Holiday Early Bird Special that includes a two day pass to all breakout sessions, as well as tickets for the luncheons with speakers on both Friday and Saturday for only $135.  This price is guaranteed to be the lowest price for a two day pass that will be offered for the 2012 “We the People” Convention and will expire on January 31, 2012.

You can order you tickets online TODAY by clicking this link.

Order online and then print your tickets to give as a Christmas present to your favorite Patriot!

We have also attached a PDF of our Holiday Early Bird Special Flyer for you to download and print as well. Please see that you get a copy to people you know who would be interested in attending the convention but do not have internet access. They can mail in their orders directly and we will ship them their tickets.

If you have any questions, send me an email or give us a call. We will be making announcement throughout the winter as we line up the speakers and the rest of the program.  Thank you for your support of this important event that is essential to the development and effectiveness of our movement. We look forward to seeing you at the “We the People Convention” at the Ohio State Fair Grounds next June 29th and 30th!
Best Regards,

Tom Zawistowski
President
We the People Convention
4682 State Route 43
Kent, OH  44240
1-866-427-9257
www.WethePeopleConvention.org

The mission of the 2012 We the People Convention:  “The purpose of this statewide convention shall be to recruit, educate, and motivate Ohio citizens at the grassroots level to perform their constitutionally defined role in the governance of their townships, municipalities, counties, as well as in our state and nation, by providing opportunities, knowledge, and training to ensure limited constitutional governance.”

Call these people and do not take NO for an answer.

Speaker Batchelder warns that re-regulation will eliminate jobs, hurt Ohio’s economy

(COLUMBUS) – Ohio House Speaker William G. Batchelder (R-Medina) sent a letter to Ohio Governor John Kasich today reaffirming the importance of working together to ensure Ohio has a sound business-oriented energy policy. Speaker Batchelder said that the move is inline with the Republican Caucus’ continued focus on jobs and fixing Ohio’s economy.

Please take the time to call each of these Representatives. They told each of us they wanted to represent us so they need to hear how bad it is getting for “we the people”.

Speaker of the House Bill Batchelder
77 S. High St., 14th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215-6111
Telephone: (614) 466-8140
E-mail: district69@ohr.state.oh.us

Senate President Tom Niehaus
Statehouse
Room #201, Second Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
Telephone: (614) 466-8082
E-mail: sd14@mailr.sen.state.oh.us

Chairman Peter J. Stautberg
Public Utilities & Energy Committee
77 S. High St., 11th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215-6111
Telephone: (614) 644-6886
E-mail: district34@ohr.state.oh.us

Chairman David Daniels
Energy & Public Utilities Committee
Senate Building
Room #41, Ground Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
Telephone: (614) 466-8156
E-mail: sd17@mailr.sen.state.oh.us

Representative Andy Thompson
77 S. High St., 11th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215-6111
Telephone: (614) 644-8728
E-mail: district93@ohr.state.oh.us

Governor John Kasich
Riffle Center, 30th Floor
77 S. High Street
Columbus, OH 43215
Telephone: (614) 466-3555
E-mail: www.state.oh.us/gov

PUCO Chairman Todd Snitchler
180 E. Broad Street, 12th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
Telephone: (614) 466-3204
E-mail: todd.snitchler@puc.state.oh.us

US Representatives
Bill Johnson 6th Dist. 202.225.5705
Bob Gibbs 18th Dist. 202.225.6265

Ohio Representatives
John Carey Dist. 87 – 614.466.1366
Bill Hayes Dist. 91 – 614.466.2500
Debbie Phillips Dist. 92 – 614.466.2158
Troy Balderson Dist. 94 – 614.644.6014
Lou Gentile Dist 95 – 614.466.3735
Al Landis Dist. 96 – 614.466.8035
David Hall Dist. 97 – 614.466.2994

When: July 11 – Monday 7:00 PM
Where: Valley Harvest Church – 104 Tennis Center Drive – Marietta, OH
Panel: Robert Murray – Jerry James – Sam Randazzo

With energy being vital to our daily lives, the Marietta OH 9-12 Project is pleased to host, along with Americans for Prosperity-Ohio, an informative and action-oriented townhall meeting “Hands Off Our Energy” on Monday, July 11, at Valley Harvest Church, 104 Tennis Drive, Marietta. The meeting will begin at 7:00 PM.

The purpose of this meeting is to provide information to the public on how the potential rise in the cost of energy is going to affect every aspect of our personal lives and jobs today and in the future. The panel consists of Robert Murray of Murray Energy Corporation, Jerry James of Artex Oil Company and Sam Randazzo of McNees, Wallace and Nurick, LLC. These represent the Coal Industry, the Gas and Oil Sector, plus an advocate for the citizens. They will address attendees from their respective areas so that the public can be informed about energy resources, costs, and availability– both immediate and future. The panel will be moderated by former State Representative and AFP-Ohio Policy Director Seth Morgan. This meeting will conclude with a plan of action for those in attendance.

U.S. Representatives Bill Johnson 6th District, Bob Gibbs 18th along with Ohio Representatives John Carey Dist .87 – Bill Hayes Dist. 91 – Debbie Phillips Dist. 92 – Andy Thompson Dist. 93 – Troy Balderson Dist. 94- Lou Gentile Dist 95 – Al Landis Dist. 96 have been invited to hear the Energy concerns of Southeastern Ohio.

The public is invited to attend this energy townhall. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

Questions: info@mariettaoh9-12project.com | smorgan@afphq.org

Murray is the largest privately owned coal company in America Producing approximately 30 million annual tons of bituminous coal that provides affordable energy to households and businesses across the country. We have eight (8) underground and surface mining operations, plus 40 subsidiary and support companies. Transporting coal via truck, rail and waterways, we operate the second largest fleet of longwall mining units in the country. With a support team of 3,000 hard-working, dedicated, and talented employees in six (6) states, Murray Energy Corporation provides efficient, safe, and affordable high-quality coal to the country’s leading electric producers, domestically and abroad.

Jerry James
Artex Oil Company
President of Ohio Oil and Gas Association

Artex Oil Company has become one of the largest oil and gas producers in Ohio. Today we pay out millions of dollars per year in royalties to landowners. This would be impossible without the cooperation of numerous landowners granting thousands of oil and gas leases. Artex invests significant funds to explore on these leases using state of the art seismic and drilling techniques. These techniques greatly increase our success as well as the royalties paid to the landowners. Artex is currently responsible for the creation and continuation of at least 500 jobs in our area of operations. Our staff of professionals and supporting contractors are setting the standard for the production of oil and gas in Ohio to expand our presence and performance for many years to come.

Sam Randazzo
McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC

Sam has spent more than 25 years solving issues affecting the price and availability of communications, natural gas, electricity and other regulated services. The range of his experience includes developing Ohio’s innovative self-help natural gas program, implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, a leadership role in natural gas and electricity restructuring and chief guide on Ohio utility legislation and counsel to the Industrial Energy Users-Ohio.

July 11 we will have a Town Hall on Energy mark your calendar, if we do not stop this AEP increase or state is in will be in deep trouble.  As if we are not already! (read more)

Global Smart Grid

Proponents of Smart Grid claim that it will empower the consumer to better manage his or her power consumption and hence, costs. The utility companies will therefore be more efficient in balancing power loads and requirements across diverse markets.

However, like carnival barkers, these Smart Grid hocksters never reveal where or how SmartGrid came into being, nor what the ultimate endgame aims to achieve; perhaps most of them have no idea either, but simply repeat the mantra as if they know what they are talking about. (read more)

Does The New ‘White House Rural Council = UN’s Agenda 21?

On June 9, 2011, President Obama signed his 86th Executive Order, and almost nobody noticed. President Obama’s E.O. 13575 is designed to begin taking control over almost all aspects of the lives of 16% of the American people. Why didn’t we notice it?  Weinergate.  In the middle of the Anthony Weiner scandal, as the press and most of the American people were distracted, President Obama created something called “The White House Rural Council” (WHRC). (read more)

“Marxism in America” by Lt. Gen. (Ret.) W.G. Boykin – OAK

NOTE FROM KAREN:

We need volunteers to work 2, 3, and 4-hour shifts during the Sweet Corn Festival–Friday evening, July 15, from 5:30 to 9pm, and Saturday July 16, from 11 AM to 8:30 PM. If you can volunteer for either day–selling tickets, selling corn, etc.–call Karen at 740-516-6067.

Columbus Southern (AEP-Ohio*) Electric Rate Increases

Community action can help to inform elected officials and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (“PUCO”) about how increases in the price of electric will affect you and your community. Call, write or e-mail your elected representatives and government leaders.

1. Tell them about how the increases in AEP-Ohio’s electric prices will affect local households, businesses and the local economy.
2. Tell them that you want to maintain the opportunity to reduce your electric bills by obtaining supply from a competitive supplier.
3. Tell them that AEP-Ohio’s proposed charges will deprive you of the opportunity to reduce your electric bills by obtaining supply from a competitive supplier.
4. Ask them to support the residents and small businesses in your community by encouraging the PUCO to:
   • Require AEP-Ohio to identify the electric bill impacts of all of its proposals;
   • Reject non-bypassable charges that block off opportunities for consumers to reduce electric bills by shopping and discourage competitive suppliers from entering our region;
   • Make sure that your local economy is not disadvantaged by uncompetitive electric prices.

Communicate these messages to the officials below and also to the PUCO when the PUCO holds the local public hearing in Marietta on June 13, 2011, starting at 6:00 p.m. at Washington State Community College, Arts & Science Building, Harvey Graham Auditorium, 710 Colegate Drive, Marietta, Ohio.

Resources (right click and save to your computer):

• AEP Ohio Sample Bill (PDF)
• Example Letter (Word DOC)
• How to Testify at a PUCO Hearing (PDF)
• Marietta Customer Meeting (6-2-11) (PowerPoint PPT)

[Show as slideshow]

Thus, it is necessary to define the problem more clearly in the hope of avoiding unnecessary misunderstanding. Of course, those who will not listen will continue to project their own misunderstandings into the conversation in the service of confusion and distrust.

The underlying problem is the failure to adequately or correctly understand the Bible, and therefore to fail to understand biblical Christianity. Is there a common version of Christianity among the many competing denominations? No, there isn’t. The denominations themselves continue to prove this point. But is there a common understanding of Christianity among the many faithful Christians? Yes, there is. Describing it is more difficult because it is like beauty in that it is difficult to explain but simple to recognize.

Here’s how it works: those with ears to hear and eyes to see know it when they hear it and see it. But those who don’t, don’t. Faithful Christians work to build and establish common ground and beneficial relationships among other faithful Christians. Unfaithful Christians and others sow discord. We can see it unfold in the comments to the Times’ article on the recent National Day of Prayer.

The first commenter said, “We can only hope these prayers will be answered speedily! Prayer is our only hope for our society and our nation. God help us all!” All faithful Christians will agree with this simple generic statement.

The next commenter cites Matthew 6:5 in order to criticize the participants who “love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.” However, s/he paints with brushstrokes that are overly broad. How can this be determined? Because Jesus was not suggesting that prayer not take place in the synagogues. Nor was Jesus opposing public worship or prayer. Indeed, almost all of Jesus teaching and preaching was public—in the streets, if you will. The operative phrase in this verse is “that they may be seen by others.” Jesus was criticizing the hypocrites who pray for attention. So, if there were participants who were doing that, then this criticism would hit the mark. But to suggest that all public praying falls into this category is an error. Unfortunately, many people make this mistake because they read Scripture too shallowly.

The next commenter kicked this error further down the street. “If we teach our children how to think instead of what to think (as they do in church) there will no longer be any need for religion, as it should be.” Jesus Himself could have made this comment about the state of the synagogues of His own day. Indeed, the Pharisees of Jesus’ day were guilty of this very thing! And Jesus intended to correct it. Unfortunately, this has proven to be a tenacious problem, and in fact many churches and Christians continue to make this error today. However, all churches and Christians do not make this error. So, again, this comment has overreached its understanding of churches and the Christians who inhabit them.

But in order to clarify himself, he added in the next comment: “Nothing fails like prayer!” Since no church teaches such a thing, this person must be speaking out of personal experience. And it is true, though contrary to popular opinion, that God does not answer all prayer. The biblically astute are reminded of Isaiah 59:2, which suggests that the problem of unanswered prayer belongs to those who pray, but not to God. Isaiah said, “your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” God also said to Jeremiah, “As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you” (Jeremiah 7:16). Whose prayer does God not answer? Those who have turned their backs on Him. They won’t listen to Him, so He won’t listen to them.

This respondent then made his third consecutive comment: “For those of you who mistakenly believe there should be no seperation (sic) between church and state, maybe you should review The United States Constitution. The First Amendment,Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” This is a legitimate concern, but there is not space here to deal with. However, it should be noted that separation of church and state does not mean the separation of religion and politics.

The next respondent quoted Frederick Douglass: “I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.” Douglass was a slave who escaped and became an active abolitionist. Douglass, a Christian and Sunday School teacher, learned that slavery was wrong from the Bible. The respondent seems to suggest that Douglass didn’t believe in prayer. Not so! Rather he understood that prayer without response (legs is futile. It wasn’t that Douglass didn’t pray, but that he put legs on his prayer.

But again, this is not at all what the responded intended to suggest. We see this from his other quote: “Give a man a fish, and you’ll feed him for a day; give him a religion, and he’ll starve to death while praying for a fish ~ Anonymous.” Here the suggestion is that prayer is worse than useless because it interferes with common sense. If prayer interferes with common sense or with one’s ability to respond to God or to one’s own situation, then this criticism is valid. But where it is valid, the kind of prayer in use is neither biblical nor faithful. This comment comes out of a misunderstanding of prayer.

At this point faithful Christians must brush off such attempts to sow discord, confusion and distrust. Faithful Christians must not respond in kind, must not get angry or lash out in response. Much in these comments is true, yet they display a faulty understanding of the Bible, Christ, Christianity, prayer and the church. Thus, the proper response is not anger, frustration or retaliation. Rather, the proper response is to find sufficient love and patience to take the time to correct the errors and misunderstandings.

I will often say to those who identify themselves as atheists, “If I believed about God what you believe about God, I’d be an atheist too! But if you want to be an atheist with integrity, then you need to deny the only God who actually exists, and not the god of your imagination.” Most atheists don’t understand biblical Christianity, and have responded to some imaginary or false idea about God. Such people don’t need to be shunned, they need to be educated. Of course, they are free to deny God to their heart’s desire. But they really should deny the real God of the Bible and not the false gods of their imaginations. And no one but faithful Christians can show them the difference.

Author: Martin Luther, written in 1529.

Translated from German to English by Frederic H. Hedge in 1853. This song has been called “the greatest hymn of the greatest man of the greatest period of German history” and the “Battle Hymn of the Reformation.” This hymn was sung at the funeral of American president Dwight Eisenhower at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, March 1969.

In 1720 a remarkable revival began in a town in Moravia. Jesuits opposed it, and the meetings were prohibited. Those who still assembled were seized and imprisoned in stables and cellars. At David Nitschmann’s house, where a hundred and fifty persons gathered, the police broke in and seized the books. Not dismayed, the congregation struck up the stanzas of Luther’s hymn,

“And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us;
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us.”

Twenty heads of families were for this sent to jail, including Nitschmann, who was treated with special severity. He finally escaped, fled to the Moravians at Herrnhut, became a bishop, and afterwards joined the Wesleys in 1735 in their expedition to Savannah, Georgia.

Tune:Ein’ Feste Burg

A second form of the idol of religion, equally cavalier in its approach to Scripture, widespread and not less dangerous, is found in the more conservative ranks of the Christian Church. In his 2009, Year-in-Review Perspective, George Barna, says that “Faith remains a hot topic in America these days”, but “many of our basic assumptions are no longer firm or predictable”. Citing our culture as one “where people are busy, distracted, confused and trying to keep it all together”, he says, “there is less loyalty to a faith brand than to self. The purpose of faith, for most Americans, is not so much to discover truth or to relate to a loving praiseworthy Deity as it is to become happy, successful, comfortable and secure”—all idols that become addictions and eventually lead to bondage. “For a growing percentage of citizens, they sense of spirituality, more than Christianity, facilitates those outcomes.” Barna sums up this growing, dangerous trend saying, “…we become our own unchallenged spiritual authorities, defining truth and reality as we see fit…where nothing is deemed right or wrong and all ideas, beliefs and practices are assigned equal validity… Pragmatism and relativism, rather than any sort of absolutism, has gained momentum.” When self is elevated as god rather than Jesus, and the truth of the unchanging Word of God is compromised, the idols of pragmatism and relativism always gain ascendancy. This lawlessness under the guise of religion and spirituality, unchecked by the Word of God and the accountability of a spirit-filled congregation, portends great danger for the church and our nation.”

From Restoring Cultural Foundations: A Wake Up Call To American, by R. James Tasker, Westbow Press, 2011, p. 64-64.