RALEIGH, N.C. – Nine rallies are scheduled in six different cities from Saturday through April 15 by Americans for Prosperity-North Carolina against Gov. Bev Perdue’s budget.  

will join hands with grassroots activists across the country these next few weeks to protest Governor Perdue’s steep tax hikes—totaling $680 million—proposed in the state budget intended to stimulate North Carolina’s bruised economy. 

“The taxpayer well is running dry,” said Dallas Woodhouse, state director of Americans for Prosperity. “North Carolina is tired of serving as the governor’s relief fund anytime the state cries, ‘bankrupt.’”

North Carolina taxpayers will urge Governor Perdue and other state legislators to stop increasing the size of the state budget, and start planning for North Carolina’s financial future. 

The schedule of tea parties is listed below:

Date: Saturday, March 21, 2009
Raleigh
12:00-2:00 pm
NC State Capitol (east side) downtown Raleigh

Date: Saturday, April 4, 2009
Charlotte
11:00-1:00pm 35.2176 -80.8389
Marshall Park, Second and McDowell Streets, 28204

Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Wilmington
5:30 pm
Wilmington Tea Party on the Cape Fear River: “Taxation Without Representation”
Protest at the waterfront by the Federal Building in Wilmington. Federal Building is located at N. Water Street between Market and Princess.

Then, the Tea Party will march to City Hall for a City Council meeting at 6:30 pm. One item on the agenda is a public hearing for the annexation of Monkey Junction area.
City Hall is at 102 N. 3rd Street, Wilmington, NC 28402

Date: Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Edenton
5:00 pm
Edenton Courthouse Green (Chowan County)

Note: The Edenton Tea Party was one of the earliest organized women’s political actions in United States history.  On October 25, 1774, Mrs. Penelope Barker organized, at the home of Mrs. Elizabeth King, fifty-one women in Edenton, North Carolina.  Together they formed an alliance wholeheartedly supporting the American cause against “taxation without representation.”

This event will include Revolutionary war re-enactors to celebrate the famous Edenton Tea Party. This is a once in a lifetime event to celebrate our past and protect us from a future of debt and high taxes.

Date: April 15, 2009
Raleigh
Note: Two Raleigh Tea Parties on this date—different times and locations
4:30-6:00 pm
Federal Courthouse. New Bern Avenue across from the Post Office
6:30pm – 8:30 pm
NC State Capitol at One East Edenton Street (east side)

Date: Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Asheville  
4:30 pm
Asheville City Hall and Buncombe County Courthouse

Date: Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Greensboro
12:00-1:00 pm
Center City Park (between Elm and Davie streets

Date: Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Charlotte
2:00pm – 4:00 pm
City Hall Lawn
600 E. Trade Street

Date: April 15, 2009
Franklin (Macon County)
12:00pm (Noon)
Town Square in Franklin North Carolina

WASHINGTON  – President Barack Obama’s last campaign was all about winning the presidency. Now his political supporters are throwing election-style house parties across the country to try to get people behind his economic stimulus plan.

Obama’s Organizing for America chief Mitch Stewart sent an e-mail to part of the group’s e-mail list and urged them to tell their neighbors about the president’s plan to save or create more than 3 million jobs. It’s an early test for the ability of a network of political supporters to deliver Obama’s re-election in 2012.

“Join thousands of people across the country who are coming together to watch a special video about the recovery plan,” Stewart wrote in an e-mail many supporters received Friday. “Invite your friends and neighbors to watch the video with you and have a conversation about your community’s economic situation.”

The e-mail message carefully avoided any specific action: no phone calls to lawmakers, no e-mails to opinion-makers, no letters to the editor. Obama and his aides have been clear that the organization shouldn’t be considered an advocacy group for the White House’s policy agenda.

Instead, aides say, next week’s house parties would keep millions of Obama’s grass-roots volunteers engaged.

Obama’s $825 billion economic bill passed easily in the Democratic-controlled House even though it failed to garner a single Republican vote. It looks to be on solid ground as it heads toward a Senate debate; Vice President Joe Biden says some Republicans will support it and take it to victory.

By having Obama’s millions-strong organization linked to the legislation, supporters would enjoy a sense of victory even if their actions play no role in passing the bill. It also is a way to test the organization’s data management tools, which during the campaign to track specific voters.

Obama used an extensive grass-roots organization to reach fundraising records and the White House. In recent weeks he pairedan independent campaign organization with the Democratic Party to push his agenda with an eye toward re-election in 2012.

The two groups operate separately, keeping with a theme of post-partisan rhetoric that has been part of the new administration’s work.

“The president’s plan passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday. But if it’s going to move forward, we need to avoid the usual partisan games,” Stewart wrote. “That’s why supporters are opening their homes to talk with neighbors and friends about how the plan will work – and what it means for their community.”
 
On the group’s Web site, it posted an interactive map that promises a 329,550 jobs saved or created in Florida; 171,750 in Ohio; 158,190 in Michigan – all three swing states.

By using his Organizing for America as a political bully, Obama will be able to keep his hands nominally clean of any messy lobbying of Congress. He’ll be able to attribute it to his supporters.

Wake County leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties plan a protest rally at the Cary Towne Center and Triangle Towne Center malls.

WASHINGTON – Private markets fail, politicians from both parties jump to their rescue, and taxpayers get stuck with the bill. Libertarian candidate Bob Barr couldn’t have scripted a better story line to argue that Republicans and Democrats are interchangeable – with a helpless addiction to spending.

Can Barr capitalize on it during the closing weeks of the presidential campaign?

Polls so far aren’t registering a shift to the Libertarian candidate in spite of widespread outrage over the $700 billion rescue package. The former GOP congressman from Georgia is languishing with about the same 1 percent share of support he’s had for months.

But Barr is sharpening his attacks on Republican nominee John McCain, hoping that fiscal conservatives frustrated over McCain’s support for the bailout will join his anti-government campaign. Barr says traffic on his Web site is spiking, donations are picking up and the campaign is getting angry calls from Republicans who feel betrayed.

“McCain just seems to make it worse and worse,” Barr said in an interview this week. “In the debate he gave this muddled answer about increasing government purchases of troubled mortgages. This is a self-described conservative Republican urging the Department of the Treasury to buy people’s mortgages.”

“This illustrates just how far the Republican Party in particular has slid,” Barr said. “One would expect it from the Democrats, but for Republicans to be championing this massive government intervention down to the level of purchasing individual mortgages is unbelievable.”

Brian Rogers, a McCain spokesman, said the campaign is not concerned because McCain has a consistent record of fighting wasteful spending and supporting what is in the national interest, not “what’s politically expedient.”

“We feel very strong about the McCain-Palin ticket’s support among fiscal conservatives and Republicans at large,” Rogers said. “There’s a big choice in November and they recognize that he’s the
better choice.”
  
Barr doesn’t mind criticizing McCain in personal terms. Earlier this month, he issued a statement saying, “Sen. McCain claims he can act in a bipartisan manner, but his actions on the Wall Street bailout bill shows he acts in a bipolar manner.”

Since he won the Libertarian nomination in May, Republicans have been worried about Barr’s impact on the race because his fiscal positions align more closely with McCain’s.

Yet Barr, who built a national following in the 1990s for relentlessly pursuing President Clinton’s impeachment, has been overshadowed by unusually competitive party primaries and a historic general election featuring the first black nominee from a major party and the first Republican woman nominated for vice president.

A national Associated Press-GfK poll taken Sept. 27-30 found Barr with just 1 percent support. In recent polls in swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, he has less than that.

But even tiny percentages for third-party candidates could have an impact. In Florida, a CNN poll released Oct. 1 showed Obama at 51 percent to McCain’s 47 percent in a head-to-head matchup. McCain’s support fell to 43 percent when Barr was listed along with independent candidate Ralph Nader and Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney.
 
Not even Nader can make sense of why he would appeal to potential McCain voters rather than Obama supporters.

“I have no idea,” said Nader. “You have to ask the pollsters. It really is counterintuitive.”

Unlike in 2004, when lawsuits in 18 states challenged Nader’s right to be on the ballot, Democrats have yet to file a challenge this year. They recognize it’s in their interest to include third-party candidates, said Jason Kafoury, national coordinator for the Nader campaign.

Nader – also an opponent of the financial bailout – is on 45 ballots, one more than he was in 2000 when he won more than 2.7 percent of the vote. He was on just 34 ballots four years ago when his vote total fell to 0.38 percent.

In Barr’s case, the bailout could marginally boost his campaign, said Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist who studies presidential politics at Emory University. But he said Barr needs to get his message out more effectively to make any gains.

“It’s the kind of issue that should work for him. I’m sure that some die-hard conservatives are very unhappy with McCain over his support for the bailout,” Abramowitz said. “But as far as it having much impact, I don’t think Barr is visible enough at this point.”

David Winston, a Washington-based Republican pollster, agreed and said many voters who initially opposed the bailout have come around to it after seeing the stock market drop and the financial crisis spread globally.

“My sense is it’ll get Bob Barr some publicity, but ultimately voters who had difficulty with the idea, as much as they don’t like what happened, they also recognize at a practical level that some action had to occur,” Winston said.

There are several debate watch parties in the area tonight geared toward John McCain supporters.

Find one near you.