Proposed Brooklyn Tea Party Candidate Pledges

On September 12^th, the Brooklyn Tea Party will be holding a rally at the 69^th Street Pier.  We are actively seeking speakers and would greatly appreciate any recommendations and leads you provide.  I am currently pursuing representatives of The Club for Growth and Citizens Against Government Waste.

            Many candidates we have had speak to our group previously, as well as others, would like to speak at our rally.  However, to separate those we would like to give publicity to from those who would just use our credibility, I propose their acceptance of pledges be a prerequisite. 

            Below are six suggested pledges I would like to require of candidates who wish to speak at our rally.  Please feel free to criticize these and suggest others.

           Personally, I would like to add a commitment to use the words "culturism" and "culturist" to counterbalance multiculturalism and disarm the constant abuse of the word ‘racist’ by those who do not wish to discuss the negative aspects of diversity.

            Your feedback on the culturism suggestion, the pledges, and possible speakers is greatly needed and appreciated.  Thank you.

Pledges for Brooklyn Tea Party Candidates:

                1)         - Whereas the reduction of our deficit will require sacrifice;

1)             Pledge to propose legislation to cut all government salaries by 20%. 

                2)         -Whereas stimulus plans and the associated borrowing undermine our national solvency and character;

2)             Pledge to fight to have the unspent stimulus monies applied directly to the reduction of our debt and vote against any further exceptions to the Pay-As-You-Go Budget Rule.

    3)         - Whereas civic participation is weakened by national initiatives and strengthened by local community participation;

3)             Pledge to triple the tax deduction for local charitable giving.

   4)          - Whereas we have national sovereignty, are at war with Islam, and no international right exists for foreign nations to build mosques in our nation;

4)             Pledge to fight the building of the 9 – 11 mosque.

   5)          - Whereas the stability of our nation rests on the reduction of the debt and we must also ask for sacrifice from the off-spring of the greatest generation;

5)             Pledge to propose legislation to take social security and medicare away from those making over 225,000 dollars a year upon their retirement.

   6)             - Whereas unemployment is well above 10% and our nation cannot assimilate unlimited numbers of peoples from foreign cultures;

6)              Pledge to build a fence along our southern border and denounce attacks on Arizona’s laws.

Strange John Press Interview

Here is a not so great interview of me for a web channel.  If you're really bored, watch it by clicking here:

http://filmat11.tv/2010/07/tea-party-comes-to-brooklyn/

Community Hearing to STOP THE 9 - 11 MOSQUE

www.culturism.us

The Tea Party and Michelle Obama Are Culturist Not Racist

First Lady Michelle Obama made a brave culturist speech about obesity in the African – American community and the antiquated NAACP used the occasion to slander the Tea Party as racist.  The American people and the Tea Party are sick to death of this tired of the media and race baiters like the NAACP using such smear tactics.  These race baiters’ tactics dismantle our national discourse, are dangerous, and hurt minority children more than racism does.

The NAACP is not the only organization obsessed with the titillating, malicious charge of racism.  The media’s coverage of Mrs. Obama’s NAACP speech highlights their rancid guilt in this technique.  ABC’s coverage of her speech claimed that she had denounced the Tea Party as racist.[i]

Yet she never said a word about the Tea Party.  This coverage completely obscured the important culturist message she delivered.  The focus of First Lady Obama’s speech dealt with childhood obesity.   She told her audience that, “one in three children is overweight or obese.”  Yet the race-obsessed coverage took us away from the vital issue that the First Lady wanted us to discuss.[ii]

Mrs. Obama’s speech was culturist.  She laid the blame for childhood obesity at the door of cultural changes.  She told of walking to school as a child and having gym class twice a week.  Furthermore she discussed the impact of television replacing outside activity.  She also discussed the decline of family meals and accessibility of candy as malicious dietetic factors.  Her talk had nothing to do with race. It had everything to do with culture.

First Lady Obama spoke of her hope that her White House garden would “spark a broader conversation about the health and well-being not just of our kids but of our communities.” Obviously, the abuse of the word “racism” in reference to her speech and the attention on the Tea Party completely obscured her message.  It spawned virtually zero discussion of childhood obesity.  ABC and the NAACP not only slandered good Americans belonging to the Tea Party, they diminished, and thus insulted, the First Lady with their repetition of charges of racism.

We need the ability to discuss issues in terms of culture, not race.  After the NAACP accused the Tea Party of being racist, this non-issue became the focus of valuable media time.  David Webb, a prominent African – American Tea Party leader, had to spend much of his resulting media time and attention discussing racism issue instead issues he and his Tea Party brethren would rather focus on like fiscal conservatism.  Ironically, after Webb agreed to a summit on racism, the NAACP President, Benjamin Jealous, said, “there should be no debate about racism.” Exactly Mr. Jealous! It is a moot point.  Our nation is as united as any in the world on the idea of combating racism.[iii]

Mrs. Obama and David Webb are not the only ones distracted by constant charges of racism.  The Tea Party has stayed away from the vital issue of protecting our borders for fear of being called racist.  Every step of our powerful Tea Party organization becomes tepid in this environment. The drug-running criminals of Northern Mexico represent a cultural threat to America, not a racial one.  Yet the media seems obsessed with smearing those who worry about this issue as racist. The Tea Party needs to eschew this red herring of racism and talk in cultural terms if we are to feel free to discuss vital issues again.[iv]

Mrs. Obama speech itself could be called racist as it points out differences with the African - American community.  She told her audience, “African American children are significantly more likely to be obese than are white children.  Nearly half of African American children will develop diabetes at some point in their lives.  People, that’s half of our children.”  But rather than claiming racist attitudes caused this, rather than calling America racist, the First Lady highlights cultural patterns. Her “Let’s Move” initiative (www.letsmove.gov) targets "food deserts" in poorer neighborhoods underserved by major supermarkets. If she were white, the media would have called her racist.  But her analysis is cultural, not racial.[v]

Elaborating, First Lady Obama told the NAACP that “inequalities still persist - in education and health, in income and wealth.”  The NAACP considers these disparities the result of “racism.”  But, needing to use desperate race-baiting tactics to stay in the news reflects the complete lack of relevance of their analysis. Culture explains differences in achievement in health, income, and education much better than phantoms of racial attitudes.  As the media and the NAACP constantly ignore such issues and bring the focus back to racism, it robs America of an opportunity to have useful cultural discussions that could especially help the very minority groups they purport to care about.

To facilitate this transition away from constant accusations of racism, we need to supplement our vocabulary with the words “culturist” and “culturism.”  Whenever the media or the NAACP smear citizens who speak about cultural issues as racist, we need a word that clarifies our concerns. Our PC multiculturalist leaders slander all those who would point out that diversity includes less-than-ideal characteristics as racist.  But, we know that achievement gaps in education, health, and income have long been more profitably discussed as stemming from cultural maladies than reflecting the white man’s residual racist attitudes.  America and the Tea Party must reject the  race obsession of the media and the NAACP and follow Mrs. Obama’s lead in speaking in culturist terms.

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[i] http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/naacp-tea-party-civil-rights-group-considers-resolution/story?id=11144640

[ii]http://www.zimbio.com/Michelle+Obama/articles/y3d01aFzbjX/First+Lady+Michelle+Obama+Speech+NAACP+Full

[iii] http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/07/18/tea-party-leader-backs-proposed-summit-on-racism/

[iv] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100717/ap_on_re_us/us_neo_nazi_patrols

[v] http://www.montereyherald.com/health/ci_15544426?nclick_check=1

A Culturist Challenge to a Multiculturalist Politician

AN OPEN LETTER TO ASSEMBLYMAN STEVEN CYMBROWITZ

From : John K. Press, Ph.D.

President of the Brooklyn Tea Party

To: Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz

Re: Proposed Voorhies Mosque, Brooklyn, NY

You are undoubtedly aware of the controversy surrounding the proposed building of a mosque at 2812 Voorhies Avenue.  Residents worry about the same parking issue for which you bravely stood up against developer’s plans to construct a nine-story, 115 foot tall building wedged between Sheepshead Bay Road and Avenue Z.[i] Along with abnormalities in the DOB, in regards to the Voorhies Mosque, the residents of your district also have extraordinary concerns.[ii]

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the developer of this Mosque, the Muslim American Society (MAS), “has a troubling history of associations with radical organizations and individuals that promote terrorism, anti-Semitism and reject Israel's right to exist.”  Furthermore, “MAS-affiliated Web sites have featured articles advocating jihad and suicide martyrdom.” And the MAS is, “the leading American Muslim organization organizing anti-Israel activity in the U.S.” [iii]  A major officer in the MAS called the Jews, “the primary historical and religious example of those who "take the wrong path."[iv]

The Board and Standards and Appeals Chair, Meenakshi Srinivasan, has promised to render, “decisions that respect the character and context of neighborhoods.”[v]  A large proportion of the residents on Voorhies are Jewish.  Having an organization that preaches hate against Jews move into the neighborhood would greatly disrupt the neighborhood character and quality of life for the current residents.

I implore you to step into this process in any way you can to slow down the permit granting process.  This will allow you time to vet the buyer.  And, if the concerns about the MAS prove baseless, we recognize that they should be welcomed as good neighbors. 

I have attached hard-copy documentation to this petition, and here are just two samples of internet documentation that cause many of our members to be concerned about the MAS; I can offer you many others on request:

http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/44.pdf

http://www.americansagainsthate.org/press_releases/PR-EllisonMAS.php

Please do not shirk your responsibility to listen to, and act upon, the concerns of our community.  Failure to address both the issues at hand and the people who have elected you will cause me to doubt that we do, indeed, have responsive and effective representation. 

This Letter represents an official position of the Brooklyn Tea Party, and I can assure you that it conveys the sentiments of many people in your district

Thank you,

John K. Press, Ph.D.

President - The Brooklyn Tea Party

pressjohn@hotmail.com

cc: Community Board 15 Chairperson Theresa Scavo, City Councilman Michael Nelson, Board of Standards and Appeals Chair Meenakshi Srinivasan, and 9^th District Representative Anthony Weiner, Bay News, Brooklyn Voice, Sheepshead Bites, Daily News, NY Post.

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[i] http://www.sheepsheadbites.com/2010/05/community-bashes-sheepshead-bay-rd-developments/#more-7094

[ii] http://www.baypeople.org/Mosque_Opposition.html

[iii] http://www.adl.org/main_Anti_Israel/Muslim_American_Society.htm

[iv] http://www.adl.org/PresRele/IslEx_61/5687_61.htm

[v] http://www.nyc.gov/html/bsa/html/message/message.shtml

Two Culturist American Thinker Articles !!

Hey All,

    I have two articles posted on American Thinker.  Click the titles in the paragraphs below to read them!  Then go click and comment.  PLEASE !!

   The first is called "George Washington -- The Culturist Father of our Country."  It analyzes his farewell address to make the point that he was a culturist.  And he was!  On national morality, unity, and foreign policy, he thinks in our traditional culturist mode.

    The second one concerns is called, "Culturists Oppose Another Mosque in Brooklyn."  It shows how the opposition to the Voorhies mosque looks like the South when black people were not welcomed into neighborhoods or schools.  But rather than racist, this is culturist!  We cannot let the fear of racism blind us to the importance of culture.

    PLEASE GO THERE AND COMMENT!!  I hope to show that an interest in culturism exists!!

    That is one activist step you can take today.  We need to challenge multiculturalism.  Floating an alternative word is a way to do so quickly and efficaciously at very low cost.

     THANKS, John
    www.culturism.us

DIVISION WITHIN THE TEA PARTY ??!!

Acrimony within the Tea Party and important issues came from an article profiling me in the NYC Daily News. While the Daily News reporter originally contacted me due to my being the President of the Brooklyn Tea Party, the conversation quickly swung to my political passion: culturism. In this context we also discussed the Brooklyn Tea Party’s rally to stop the mosque at Ground Zero of the 9 – 11 attacks.


When I went to another Tea Party Chapter meeting to network and see how they run their meetings, the flack began. “That F’in idiot John Press” one member was exclaiming loudly in conversation when I entered the meeting. Shocked because I thought I had brought some good publicity to the Tea Party! When I finally calmed the movement leader down, I found he had some valid and interesting reasons to criticize me.

Many members have worked very hard to make the “Tea Party brand.” Being smeared as racists (the leaders who chastised me was black), fringe truthers concerned with Obama’s birth certificate, and dangerous militia folk, made people skittish about joining the Tea Party. Party strategists have, therefore, worked to make Tea Party membership only indicate a devotion to fiscal conservativism and upset over our nation's out-of-control borrowing. Eventually, we may be able to diversify into other areas of concern, the Chapter President explained, but to continue in a growth mode, making people think the Tea Party denounces Mosques scrambles the message and makes folks skittish about joining. Many national leaders believe we should never deviate from our main point.

Though he has valid points several responses come to mind. First of all, while it may not play strongly nationally, in Brooklyn people are hot under the collar over this mosque. And a large coalition already exists to stop another one being built in Brooklyn. Our ultimate local aim is to elect legitimately conservative candidates. Certain parts of Brooklyn have large pools of underrepresented and abused conservative citizens who would get active for legit candidates. And, if we wish to find legit candidates, an even stronger litmus test than whether or not they will go on record as favoring not overspending, is whether or not they will go on record opposing a mosque at ground zero and in Brooklyn. We will accrue passionate activists as well as politicians with integrity if we make stopping the mosque one of our areas of focus.

I wrote a policy paper about immigration being a Tea Party issue. Illegal immigration costs our states billions per year. Among other things, immigration is a fiscal issue. Can't immigration be a Tea Party issue?  And what about foreign policy?  I wrote another policy paper about the Tea Party using culturism to mediate the isolationism of Ron Paul and the expansionist view of Sarah Palin. Both claim Tea Party credibility despite their divergent stances. Culturism argues that we take cultural diversity seriously. Culturists agree with Ron Paul about avoiding nation building. But we culturists do so because cultural diversity dooms such efforts. So we agree with Palin that we must recognize our cultural enemies. Culturism argues that we strike our enemies hard, if we must, but then return home. The immigration issue and the culturist stance of avoiding nation building both seem intimately connected with the Tea Party message of smaller government and saving money. Are we not allowed to discuss such issues?

I asked the hostile Tea Party leader if he’d back an open-borders, pro-mosque, fiscal conservative. Having ample experience in politics, he gave me a great answer. He told me of a time where he had worked alongside an avowed socialist on the issue of driver’s licenses for illegal aliens. Politics make strange bedfellows. In the case of backing a candidate with whom many of us would disagree, he said we should never endorse candidates as such, we should endorse their economic policy. I told my disagreeing comrade that I thought that we would get more growth by taking a stance with Arizona than ignoring it. He disagreed. When I told him I thought we would soon need to choose to either side with Palin and her expansionist policies or Paul’s isolationist stance, he agreed. But, he added, the time for that decision had not yet come. To grow the movement to where it will have an impact we need numbers and that means we must stay on message.

I will bring this debate to the next Brooklyn Tea Party meeting. We will need to decide whether we entirely drop the mosque and immigration issues and just stick with the core theme of fiscal conservatism or not. I will add an argument my erstwhile compatriot did not add. As a new chapter, taking a brand others have crafted and bending it to your will is rude. If you, the reader, have any additional pertinent insights for me to bring to my chapter, please leave a comment and I will do so.

http://www.culturism.us/

Culturism in New York's Daily News

Culturism, Me, and the Tea Party got blended in this Sunday, June 13th article !  

If you are having trouble reading the article, double click the image for a larger version.

www.culturism.us

STOP THE GROUND ZERO MOSQUE WITH FARA AND CULTURISM

      We can stop the mosque at Ground Zero if we exchange the multicultural point of view for a culturist point of view and prosecute the mosque’s primary backer, Imam Rauf, under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

      Passed in 1938, FARA initially focused on “subversive” political propaganda. The purpose of FARA is to insure that the U.S. Government and the people of the United States are informed of the source of information (propaganda) and the identity of persons attempting to influence U.S. public opinion, policy, and laws. Upon registering as a foreign agent, the public has access to the foreign agent’s records concerning the publicity campaigns, lobbying expenditures, funding flows, offices activities and disbursements in support of those activities. In addition, the Act also requires that informational materials (formerly called propaganda) be labeled with a conspicuous statement that the information is disseminated by the agents on behalf of the foreign principal.

     The act was passed in response to German propaganda in the lead-up to World War II. Unfortunately, persons whose activities are of a "purely commercial nature or solely of a religious, scholastic, academic, scientific or fine arts nature are exempt. CAIR Unmasked, an organization dedicated to getting the Council of American – Islamic Relations, registered as a foreign agent, does not think religious status excuses Islamic organizations from compliance with FARA.

     The problematic distinction between religious and political activities in our law stems from our confusing our culture with supposed global culture. We assume a separation of church and state. But this is a very western notion based on Jesus Christ’s order to “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21). Muhammed, the founder of Islam, was both a political, religious leader, and a warlord. Islam has no separation of church and state or mosque and state. In order for us to properly enforce FARA we must recognize that Islam is both a religious and a political system.

     Two pieces of evidence underlay this contention. The first is the existence of Sharia courts. Sharia courts are Islamic religious courts. In Islamic jurisprudence, they decide civil as well as religious disputes. So when advancing Islam, foreign agents are also advancing a legal system. This proves that Islam is inherently political. Secondly, we must know that Islam is an expansive political system. Much like NAZI and Communist systems, we must recognize it as a competing aggressor. As evidence, we should remember that Islam nearly conquered Spain and Eastern Europe. They were only stopped from taking all of Europe by defensive military action. The very existence of the large “Muslim world” is evidence of successful military expansion.

     The proposed mosque at Ground Zero of the 9 – 11 attacks is to be named “Cordoba House.” Cordoba was the capital of Spain under Muslim domination. This is an overt reference to a desire to re-establish hegemony over western lands. The fact that it is at the site of an Islamic attack on our greatest symbols of economic and military might, confirms this assertion. Multiculturalism tells us that we have no core culture. Furthermore its directive to “celebrate diversity” assumes that no cultures are aggressive or un-American or anti-western. We must take a culturist point of view that recognizes cultural diversity and competition. We, the West, have a non-Islamic culture to protect and a right to protect it from aggressors. We need to replace the multicultural point of view with a culturist point of view.

     Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is the head of the effort to build a mosque at Ground Zero. He refuses to say where the $100 million for the mosque’s construction is coming from. We can only speculate that it must derive from Malaysia or Saudi Arabia. Were a brave politician to demand it, we could force him to register Imam Rauf as a foreign agent under FARA. This would mean that his books would be open and he would have to label his mosque as propaganda! Strengthened, FARA could then be used to forbid the mosque and the Saudi’s relentless building of mosques across America. The New York Post reports that the Kuwaiti born Rauf who is based in Malaysia has ties to the flotilla of jihadis that caused conflict with Israel. He provides a fantastic opportunity for a culturist application of FARA.

     We need to reverse our multicultural blindness to cultures in general, we need to take a culturist approach to Islam and recognize it as a hostile political system. From this vantage point we need to get disclosure from the Islamic propagandist Imam Rauf under FARA in order to stop the travesty of a mosque being built at Ground Zero.

Yesterday, in NYC, We Had a Rally Against Terrorism