Jane Bilello

VOTER REGISTRATION

Jane Bilello
Chairman of the Asheville Tea Party

Liberty Dollar

Liberty Dollar creator convicted in federal court
Clarke Morrison | Asheville Citizen-Times | Mar. 19, 2011

The leader of a group that marketed a fake currency called Liberty Dollars in the Asheville area and elsewhere has been found guilty by a federal jury of conspiracy against the government in a case of “domestic terrorism.” Bernard von NotHaus was convicted Friday at the conclusion of an eight-day trial in U.S. District Court in Statesville. The jury deliberated less than two hours, according to the Department of Justice. Charges remain pending against William Kevin Innes.

Liberty Dollar founder convicted on federal charges
David Forbes | Mountain Xpress | March 18, 2011

Liberty Dollar founder Bernard von NotHaus was convicted today on federal charges in Statesville. The case has local implications, because Asheville Liberty Dollar head Kevin Innes also faces trial. Innes has asserted that he is innocent of any wrongdoing, and sought local support.

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LTE: Equality Resolution

Letter to the Editor
Asheville Tribune | March 17, 2011

Dear Editor,

Contrary to the editorial position of the conservative Asheville Tribune, imposing a Christian version of Sharia law on free Americans in a pluralistic society is thrice-times wrong.

Marital union is a voluntary, peaceable and rightful contract between free adults; often involving property, reputations, assets and even children. Just as in any promissory contract, it is the proper role of the government to adjudicate contestable disputes should they arise. Sadly, our gay citizens are prohibited by law from entering into these romantic contracts. This is a violation of individual rights and a proper government should stand against these prohibitions; as the Equality Resolution does.

In the state of North Carolina, heterosexual couples can legally marry. This qualifies them for certain privileges and legal recognition. Homosexual couples are immorally prevented by the government from getting married, according to the dictates of their best judgment. This is a violation of individual rights. To compensate for this objective injustice, the City, among other things, will create a registry of gay couples, who are forced to remain single, that meets certain criteria for a civil union in the event that institutions are inclined to recognize and respect their rights. Were gays able to exercise their natural born right to marriage, none of this would be necessary.

To cavalierly suggest, as the Tribune does, that gay men are free to marry lesbian women, or vice versa, is an appeal to illogic and oppression. It is like saying that you are free to practice religion so long it is the religion of Islam. Whoever agrees to the one, must agree to the other.

TIM PECK
ASHEVILLE

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RELATED

Asheville council errs with OK of gay rights intrusion
Editorial | Asheville Tribune | March 10, 2011
It was disappointing, but certainly not surprising, that Asheville City Council voted 5-1 on Feb. 22 in support of equal rights for same sex partnerships.

Letter to the Asheville Daily Planet
Tim Peck | March 2011
Equality resolution OK praised; mayor lambasted

Letter to the Asheville Tribune
Tim Peck | March 3, 2011
Equality resolution approval praised, but mayor lambasted.

Atlas

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Atlas Shrugged movie review
by C. A. Wolski | The Objective Standard
Although Ayn Rand published her epic novel Atlas Shrugged fifty-four years ago, and although it has consistently sold hundreds of thousands of copies annually, Rand’s magnum opus has spent decades mired in Hollywood “development hell.”

Atlas Shrugged movie questions

From Kevin Rollins:

I'm putting together a story for Tea Party Review on the Atlas Shrugged movie. Would you mind sending me written answers to a few questions? I will be happy to quote you and list your organizational affiliation.

QUESTION: As an Objectivist and a Tea Party member, are you excited about this movie coming out in a few weeks?

Yes. I am very exited. I've seen mixed reviews but so far no one has said that this is a bad movie. Consequently, it will garner interest and provide an opportunity to the viewing public to engage in discussion of Rand, Objectivism and the proper role of government. As a libertarian, this will likely advance my values.

QUESTION: What in your view is Objectivism and how does it relate to the message of the Tea Party?

Objectivism is an integrated, comprehensive philosophical system that incorporates politics. The politics of Objectivism is unregulated laissez-faire capitalism and its corollary of political freedom. The tea party's message ought to be and in many cases is, individual rights, limited government and free markets. The connection between Objectivism and the tea party movement is weak but promising. The tea party movement has no intellectual foundation. Objectivism provides it and I have promoted Objectivist principles in our tea party organization.

QUESTION: How important is Atlas Shrugged to understanding Objectivism?

Atlas Shrugged is foundational to the understanding of Objectivism.

QUESTION: Do you think we have a problem of too many Jim Taggarts and Wesley Mouches running around DC?

We have too many Jim Taggarts and Wesley Mouches in our culture generally. Politics follows culture. If we have these types in DC, it is because their mentality prevails in the culture. It is culture that must change first, then the quality of politics will follow suit.

QUESTION: Are people in Asheville trying to get the movie screened locally?

I am the only Objectivist in Asheville. No one I know is trying to get this movie screened. I expect it will be screened at our local art house when it is released.

QUESTION: If you have anything else you think I should include, please fire away.

This movie will be virulently attacked by ideological left in Hollywood, the partisan press and academia. It is vitally important that we are prepared to defend the values and principles represented in this movie and the book upon which it is based.

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Art

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Erika Conrad Franzi

Equality Resolution Latest

In the meantime, we have some developments.

The principles of the Asheville Tea Party are:

"ATP/PAC has and will continue to support our local and state representatives to pass legislation that advances our core values, specifically, the promotion and preservation of individual rights, Constitutionally-limited government, fiscal responsibility, and free markets."

Here is the question I put to the chairman of the Asheville Tea Party, Jane Bilello:

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What is the Asheville Tea Party's position on Asheville City Council's Equality Resolution?

Thank you.

TIM PECK
ASHEVILLE NC

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Cecil Bothwell wrote:

On Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 7:31 AM — Thanks for the query, Tim. I'm eager to hear a response

Gary M. Shoemaker, Buncombe County Republican Party Membership Chairman, tea party member and leader of Buncombe Forward wrote:

Mar 4, 2011, at 8:35 AM — Speaking for myself... Yawn. What position?

Erika Franzi, former Asheville Tea Party Chair wrote:

Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 9:39 AM — Not to be a troublemaker, but it seems to me that an organization dedicated to the rights of the individual should have a position on this issue and it ought to be fairly easy to produce when asked.

Here is an exchange with city council member Cecil Bothwell and George Danz, recently resigned (Mar 4) from the Asheville Tea Party Board of Directors over his disagreement with Chair Jane Bilello about his right to respond to my original question. Here George comments as a former board member and Bothwell replies:

George E. Danz: Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 10:58 AM — Why does the Asheville City Council continue to outdo our own Federal Government’s reckless spending programs and efforts to produce equality of outcome instead of equality of “opportunity” when all of us here know that the city is flat broke?

Cecil Bothwell: Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 2:00 PM — I'm not at all clear what "reckless spending programs" you are referring to. None of the four items in this resolution involve expenditures. None of them are aimed at producing "equality of outcome."

George E. Danz: Why does Council continue to pay its itself far more for the work they do than similar councils all over the state?

Cecil Bothwell: To the best of my knowledge our compensation is fairly comparable to NC cities with 100,000+ population. Given that we have a daytime population of about 120,000, I don't see that as much out of line. I do know that I put in well over 20 hours per week on the job, and it is terribly disruptive of other work because committee meetings and meetings with constituents, welcoming addresses to visiting convention and business groups, etc. are scattered through the week. The question of compensation becomes one of whether we only want rich people or people with a profitable angle on pubic policy to run our government. I'd be willing to hear arguments either way on the matter.

George E. Danz: What do the 4 resolutions below have to do with the State or Federal Constitutional powers? For example, our US Constitution in Article I, Section 8 lists only 16 powers of the Federal Government. Nowhere in those 16 are there provisions for ANY of the council’s 4 resolutions. Most state constitutions are modeled after the Federal, except insofar as the 10th Amendment provides the states powers to act not included in Article I, Section 8, I would be highly surprised if the state or city charters allowed council to act in favor of the council’s 4 resolutions below.

Cecil Bothwell: A resolution is a "sense of the legislature" statement. It is not an ordinance.

1. Adding gender orientation to the list of those protected under our employment rules should be unnecessary, given that we are all guaranteed equal treatment under the law. Sadly, we have had to specify that discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, color are not permissible, in order to remind people that "everybody" means "everybody." This simply reinforces what should already have been regular practice.
2. Bullying should be covered under assault laws. But again, emphasizing such specific acts has proved helpful in other municipalities. The resolution commits us to attempting to fashion a meaningful ordinance to protect people, particularly children, on City property. Such an ordinance will be debated in the future.
3. The domestic partner registry we endorsed is completely legal and will pay for itself through fees. While it carries no legal strength, it has been found in other municipalities that registration in such a public record is helpful when partners are in the hospital, for example. Hospitals tend to grant partners the visitation rights usually accorded marital partners, for example. And many employers now provide access to health insurance plans for domestic partners. Registration can be part of the proof offered that the person in question is indeed a long-term partner.
4. It is entirely legal for the City Council to have a legislative agenda. We routinely ask our local delegation to support this or that bill. Asking them to endorse same-sex marriage is no different than asking them to approve a food and beverage tax or secure funding for the Civic Center.

George E. Danz: Has council carefully and fully calculated the cost to Asheville taxpayers for implementation of these 4 resolutions?

Cecil Bothwell: There is no cost whatsoever to the resolutions themselves, because they are simply resolutions. There will presumably be some legal staff time involved in contacting the School of Government for model bullying legislation, but since we ask Staff to investigate multiple ideas each month, breaking out which hour is spent on this or that is fairly intangible. I can pull up model legislation in about 15 minutes online, so I can't imagine this is a really difficult task. And, as I said above, the Registry will be priced to pay for whatever time and record keeping it entails.

George E. Danz: My guess is they have NOT! And finally, doesn’t council owe it to its citizens an opportunity to vet resolutions that surely cost taxpayers and over-reach their understanding of the just powers of the city council BEFORE they go off half-cocked on resolutions such as the 4 council has made?

Cecil Bothwell: We do. This resolution has been examined by Staff and Council for at least a month, while elements of the resolution have been under consideration for well over a year.

Stay tuned... This could take a while...

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Erika Franzi, Tim Peck Resign From Asheville Tea Party
ThunderPig | November 15, 2010
It is with great reluctance to announce that Founder, Erika Franzi, and Board member, Tim Peck have resigned from Asheville Tea Party and Asheville Tea PAC. It has been Erika's vision, leadership and unwavering belief in our mission that propelled the Asheville Tea Party and the Asheville Tea PAC to its successes, presence and influence.

Equality Resolution
Tim Peck | Feb 23, 2011
Congratulations to Asheville City Council for adopting the resolution in support equal rights for all Asheville citizens.

Tea For Two
Verve Magazine | October 2010
On the national political scene, everyone’s talking about the Tea Party. What is the “party” up to locally? We asked its leaders.