That was my takeaway from Thursday evening’s meeting of the Clear Lake Tea Party. Not satisfied with past victories, the group wants to increase pressure on their elected officials to push an agenda that ranges from Voter ID to “reasserting the 10th Amendment” and points in between.

After the usual prayer, pledges to the flags, and national anthem, board member Dale Huls gave a presentation of the victories achieved in 2010. Dale pointed to the changeover in the US House, the better position of Republicans in the US Senate, the huge gains in the Texas House, and Galveston County Commissioners Court turning from Democratic control to Republican for the first time since reconstruction, saying each of these were examples of Tea Party success. He also left no doubt, if there ever was doubt, that the Clear Lake Tea Party is a Republican club, even if it doesn’t carry the Republican brand.

Next up was founder Robert Gonzales. Robert reported that Sen. Dan Patrick had picked him to be on the Tea Party Caucus Advisory Committee, as well as on Rep. Pete Olson’s “sounding board”. That was the first I’d heard of Pete’s effort to reach out, I’ll try to find out more about it. But Robert assured the crowd of about 150 that he had Dan’s ear. Heh, we’ll ask him about that “ear” a year from now and see how it went. Dannie does Dannie, period.

Robert said that he had met with the Alvin and Galveston County Tea Parties and that together they came up with a list of 33 priorities to give Dannie when their committee meets. He outlined 10 of them at the meeting:

1. Voter ID : all votes must be cast by someone with a photo id
2. Reject Obamacare
3. Reinstate Judeo-Christian Values: he specifically mentioned putting prayer back in the schools and hanging the Ten Commandments in public buildings. I wonder if this is one of the values they want established: Jubilee. Or this.
4. English as the official language: immersion, save printing costs
5. Close the borders to people entering illegally, deport all illegal aliens, post the army along the border, repeal all state benefits for illegal aliens, enact Arizona style laws, tough sanctions and enforcement for employers.
6. Repeal property taxes
7. Change date of Texas presidential primary, moving it up. Also change off year primaries to June.
8. Modify legislative voting procedures : members cannot cast a vote if they aren’t present, require speaker to give30 minutes notice before each vote (not sure how that is going to work with 3,000 votes x 30 minutes = 1,500 hours or 10 hours per day in 140 day session).
9. Intra-state gun legislation like Montana
10. Reassert State rights under 10th Amendment: eliminate funding for EPA, education.

One of the attendee’s asked him to put all 33 priorities online and he said he would do that.

Finishing up the presentations, Mary Huls outlined their new Watchdog program, which is the core of their awareness program. In a nutshell, they are enlisting volunteers to be “watchdogs” over one of several things: specific legislation, committees, or specific elected officials. She gave a basic overview of the Texas Legislature Online website, how to track bills, etc. They will be having training classes starting this week; you can contact them at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you are interested in helping. Better watch out, John, someone will be looking over your shoulder! You too, Larry, Randy, Craig, and Mike.

There was an open mic after the presentations but it wasn’t very well organized and the crowd started leaving. The first speaker, John Gay, whom I first met here, looks like he is going to be a perennial candidate because he took about five minutes telling us that Ron Paul’s wife said she would have voted for him if her husband wasn’t running.  When Mr. Gay was finished, Suezette Griffin and Carrie Lund Atkins announce the formation of the Pearland Tea Party. Their first meeting will be this Sunday, details on Facebook. I was hoping to catch a few people on video but like I said it wasn’t very organized. Maybe next time.

All in all, another successful meeting for CLTP.