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Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 10:17AM To read the press release about the Petition to Convene the Federal Grand Jury, please note we have added "PHN News" link to the top bar and moved the entry with the press release HERE
The actual Petition is HERE
Please note: You can track the developments in the Petition by looking under the top bar "PHN News." We will post all updates there.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009 at 4:35PM Congress is Served! Notes from our Journey!
Written by Chalice Jackson
August 19, 2009
On August 3rd-5th, 2009, a team of eight Patriots convened in Washington D.C. with the single purpose of serving all of Congress with documents from We the People.
This group of eight Patriots, from Patriot’s Heart Network (PHNmedia.com) and from Rise Up For America (RiseUpForAmerica.com AKA: Citizen Grand Jury,) was self funded by the Patriots and from donations generously provided by the Patriot’s Heart Network Media’s listeners. Virginia Gent, Mrs. Virginia Gent, and Chalice Jackson were the Citizen Journalists and Dr. Penny Kelso, Melissa Pehle Hill, Della Randall, David Axe, and Carl Swensson were the ones who served Congress.
The first day of the trip, August 3rd, 2009, was consumed with gathering sufficient documents to serve all 535 members of Congress. We had 535 discs, copied by PHN volunteer, SlimJim, which needed to be labeled and placed into CD containers with a cover page. We took inventory as we prepared to order supplies for the last day, then we packed things up and went down for a beer. It had been a busy and productive day, yet all of us were apprehensive on how we would accomplish the feat with such a small crew and so little time.
The goal was to serve the entire Congress in two days. The items we brought with us to serve were:
On the We the People CDs, there are over 750,000 signatures, combined with the 440,000 from the World Net Daily petition, we were in the process of serving at least 1, 200,000 voices who have something to say to Congress! Additionally, we were serving to all of Congress six charges of Treason and Fraud from six retired Military professionals. The Constitution only requires two! We took this VERY seriously!
The first day to serve Congress was August 4th, 2009. We were up early and met before departing, eventually making the decision to walk to Capitol Hill. Our day would be spent with the Senators! We had two suitcases filled with the items we wanted to serve to the Senators and we tugged them behind us as we left for the Capitol around 9am.
Arriving half past the hour, we were hot and tired. Our pace was fast and in a way, we all had nervous energy. Everyone was anticipating what would await us at the Senate. I felt confident that we would not encounter many problems at the Senate offices. Three of us had been there only a month earlier serving the original AGJ Presentments and (Ret) Commander Water Fitzpatrick’s original criminal complaint against Obama for treason and fraud. It had been a fascinating experience! This video documents it.
(June 28th and 29th, 2009: see the Video below).
In June, we had found that the staff members in the offices were generally helpful. Today’s anxiety was more for the logistics on how we would get this monumental job done!
We started in the Russell Building. There were no problems going through security with our suitcases; they scanned us and the baggage and we proceeded without incident. The security is definitely present in these buildings but the Senator’s offices are accessible to the public.
(We encourage everyone that visits DC to take the time to visit their Congressional officials.)
Still, the challenge was quickly defined as we entered the Senate building. Some of us wore Patriot Heart’s Network t-shirts asking an important question of our elected officials and the media: “Define Natural Born Citizen.”
We immediately broke up into teams. Today we were short on citizen reporters, so we adjusted the teams accordingly; Chalice, me... as a citizen reporter followed Carl and Dave, Virginia Gent followed Dr. Penny, and Melissa followed Della.
We divided the floor in half. My group went to the right side of the hallway. Two teams headed off toward the left section of the building with the plan that we would meet in the middle. These teams ran into John Kerry just five minutes into their trip. He was cordial in greeting them, but they did not record him. He personally sent his staffers to sign for the documents. This fueled everyone’s energy to have such a success on the first serve!
Within our groups we proceeded to each Senator’s office. Some staffers refused to sign the receipt and we duly noted this on each signature page and took a business card. It was not an easy sell. There we were in t-shirts saying “Define Natural Born Citizen” with two sets of documents and a CD in hand plus a receipt that stated what was being signed for: treason and fraud charges against Obama! Some staffers questioned us, some did not. Some had policies not allowing them to sign, some just refused because of the content. Most staffers did sign the receipts and the vast majority were cordial; many were quite friendly! But there was still considerable tension in the air.
We did have a number of notable incidents. Ironically the first office Dave and I visited was John McCain’s. Dr. Penny and I had served him the AGJ Presentment in June—this is now the second time he has been served papers alleging treason. This time, we served his office six retired military professional’s criminal complaints of treason and fraud. Now, the stakes are higher as the bar has been raised!
(A side note to John McCain: Americans are wondering what will you do with the signed treason charge, the US Constitution that you promise to uphold requires two!)
I was covering two people as a citizen journalist, so I was running quite a bit between Carl and David and trying to Tweet as we went. Tweeting was a challenge on my phone and I had just sent a tweet when suddenly, David looked out from Senator Bernard Sanders’ (VT) office, calling me in. The look on his face was clearly disgusted and shocked. When I went inside, Dave gestured to the staffer on the right, reporting that Lea, the staffer, had taken the papers and CD and tossed them in the garbage. She did this right in front of David! Observing the garbage and the defensive posture of Lea , I calmly sat on the couch in the office and sent out a couple of tweets, reading them aloud for the entire office to hear as I twittered them off informing the ground team what had just transpired.
(Thanks to all those who helped us Twitter this!!! Knowing you were with us meant soooo much to those of us in DC. PHN has two accounts: CrystalChalice and PatriotsHeart )
Incredulous, we left the office and moved forward discussing the audacity of this staffer to toss 1.2 million voices into the garbage! Besides being incredibly rude, was it legal?
Dave, Carl, and I proceeded forward still discussing this event. Carl had stopped at the Committee for Veteran Affairs Office to serve them a copy. They signed the receipt! They now have charges of treason from six veterans in their hands. Carl also went to the Senate Investigative Committee, but they angrily refused the papers. The other team had successfully served the Senate Sub Committee on the Constitution and they signed the receipt.
(Readers please contact members of this important subcommittee.)
Dave and I came to Senator Bennett’s (UT) office. A Republican, we found him in the office being interviewed by someone, so we served his office the documents and waited for the Senator to finish the other interview. A few minutes later, stepping out of his office to head toward a meeting, David stopped Senator Bennett and asked him if he could interview him. I flicked on the camera, nervous but focused; I had never met a Senator before, let alone recorded an interview with one! Really, it was a spontaneous and fascinating interview. The activities and sounds in the hall obviously distracting. The Senator was gracious, his staffer was on my right side politically trying to hurry the interview. The Senator did answer our questions! Senator Bennett stated misinformation about natural born citizenship and clearly did not know the definition.
We were not there to offend the Senators; we were there to get commitments from them to address the matter. We accomplished that! You can see the interview below. It is also on YouTube.
David Axe and I Interview Senator Bennett (UT)
David and I were very enthusiastic after that. Meanwhile the other teams had run into Kay Bailey Hutchinson (TX) in the hall. Melissa and Della, who are both from Texas, called out to speak with her, she turned, looked at them and then literally ran into the elevator as one of her staffers stepped between the Senator and Melissa and Della. This allowed Kay Bailey Hutchinson to move into the elevator while the staffer stopped to talk to Melissa and Della. Despite the politeness of the aide, the gals were very upset that their Texan Senator ran from them, avoiding her own constituents.
We finally completed the Russell building, stopping outside in the heat to organize our papers and discuss events and strategies. Our energy was high and we were excited and determined. Each serve had a story; some were easy, some were challenging. Everyone worked out strategies on how to complete the job with the least amount of hassle. We quickly learned to use the word “deliver” instead of “serve.” Serve has a connotation that quickly raised eyebrows and encouraged closer scrutiny, even though serve and deliver essentially mean the same thing. "We the People" were delivering documents to our Congress and getting a signed receipt to prove they were served! For the most part, we were able to time our efforts to only a few minutes in each office.
Once our stories and strategies were exchanged, we decided to split the teams between the two buildings. Virginia Gent and Melissa’s team combined together as they headed to the Hart Building while Carl, David and I headed to the Dirksen Building. The three Senate buildings are all close together, accessible through underground hallways. At ground level, Dirksen and Hart share a common meeting space, but otherwise the offices were less centralized then at the Russell Building. Logistically, this would be a bit more difficult to make sure every office was served.
We proceeded quickly, documenting each serve with receipts and with pictures in front of the offices. It took a few hours. We had not had a break all day, and we were all looking as tired as we felt. Hoping we were done, Dave, Carl, Melissa and Della went outside for a break while Virginia Gent, Penny and I sat in the air conditioning and matched receipts to the name list to make sure everyone had been served. There were a few receipts that needed to be clarified and we identified four offices that still needed to be served. Dividing up, we went to finish the job.
I headed to Orrin Hatch’s office. I quickly recalled that David had served that office, but looked in to speak with the staffer anyway. Senator Hatch came up behind me. I turned as he greeted me on his way to his personal office. I was not sure if he read the message on the back of the t-shirt, “Define Natural Born Citizen,” but I did not care. I asked if I could speak with him. He agreed, so I asked if I could record it and again he graciously agreed, provided I understood that he only had a few minutes.
With that understanding, I began to interview him. Senator Hatch answered my questions and displayed his lack of knowledge of what a natural born citizen is. He clearly said that anyone born on United States’ soil was a natural born citizen. When I was satisfied that I had solid material, my final goal was to get Senator Hatch to agree to our challenge and get back to us with a definition of natural born citizen. I was thrilled when he graciously accepted.
Interview by Chalice of Senator Hatch on Natural Born Citizen
(This makes Two US Senators on video who don’t know what a Natural Born Citizen is. This is consequential as the Senate certified the Electoral College! Please ask your Senator on video and we will post it!)
I headed back to the meeting point and we all went outside. The energy was very high; we were no longer nervous, and felt accomplished for everything we’d gotten done. Despite physical exhaustion and lack of food for the entire day, we were all excited. It really is a thrill to serve our country and to become part of the political process. We had accomplished our goals, yes, and each of us had learned something in doing so. The experience was remarkable!
Stopping in the park, we consolidated and prepared for the trip back to the hotel. Arriving back at the hotel, we stopped at Harry’s for a beer and popcorn while strategizing next steps. Back at the hotel we prepped for the next day. Finally, we went down to Harry's for a beer! We then divided up. Dr. Penny, VirginiaGent and I meeting Mrs. VirginiaGent for dinner. The rest of our group ate at Harry’s Restaurant. We had served 100 Senator offices, but the next day we had to serve 435 of them with only four teams. To make matters more challenging, both Penny and Dave had to leave Wednesday and there was no flexibility in the timing. That night we still had $1,500.00 in printing to pick up, sort and pack. 435 packets x 2 plus 435 CD’s….
Throughout the trip, our t-shirts attracted quite a bit of attention. Everywhere we went, people stopped us to discuss what we were doing. Earlier that day, while in the Hart building, we met two prayer warriors who were working on praying about the Sotomayor confirmation hearing. They were going to try to meet us the next day to help. As best we could, we tried to recruit locals to help, the next day’s job loomed in front of us!
That night, we had to pick up the printing material; fortunately Virginia Gent had a car. After dinner, we picked up the supplies and we brought them back to the hotel to sort through. Wiser from the day’s experience, we were smarter about packing our supplies and ended up with two large suitcases and two smaller ones, all tightly packed. Thank goodness they all had wheels!
We left early the next morning. We took a cab to the House buildings and were dropped off at the Rayburn Building. Mrs. Gent had joined us, so we had four full teams to start with. Conspicuously, pulling four heavy suitcases behind us and all of us wearing PHN t-shirts, we passed through security. At first there was no issue. We passed security, but as we were moving up the stairs, a security guard noted the back of our shirts and stopped us, asking what we were doing with the materials in the suitcases. He told us we had to leave and could not serve the papers unless we had a Congressional ID. He was adamant, telling us there was no compromise. He blamed it on 9-11…
There was nothing we could do but leave. Thankfully, Virginia Gent recorded the security guard tossing us out despite the fact we had passed through the security screeners. We were all on high alert. Melissa and Della called Texan Representative Louie Gohmert’s office. Dr. Penny and I moved forward with the two small bags, thinking we might get into the Longworth House building. We did slip into the building, but when we called the others to follow, they could not get in. Fortunately, Louie Gohmert’s office came down and brought the rest of our team into the Cannon House building. It took a while, but we finally connected at the Longworth building and began serving the documents.
Serving the House was very different than serving the Senate. In the Senate there was a more settled feeling, but in the House, you never knew what you might encounter! Surely, it was potentially hostile territory as they are so dominated by the Democrats. The offices are smaller and much closer together. Again, we divided the teams and met in the middle. It was going to be a long day and because of the delayed entry, we were behind already!
Earlier, after entering the Longworth Building, Penny and I were met by a “suited” security detail who observed us for a few minutes, but did not ask us to leave. We all decided we could not take any risks of being stopped so we stopped Twittering. At this point the strategy was to get the job done and we did not want to attract any attention. The House was on recess, so there was only staff in each office. We moved quickly through each office. Sometimes out of sheer necessity, we combined roles.
We all have interesting antidotal stories. Truly, it was fascinating. Walking into each office, we never knew what we would encounter, but we definitely encountered some very warm greetings and some open hostility. When I was in Diane Watson’s office (CA), the clerk Tony Bell, signed the receipt, then thought better of it and tried to grab it out of my hands, tearing the top off it. We rushed out of the office, relieved he did not follow us. In Representative Griffith’s (AL) office, a staffer swore “F’ng Birthers” to VirginiaGent’s group. As I said, we never knew what we would encounter!
Trying to avoid confrontation, we were all thrilled at our progress. We were midway through the Cannon building when security suddenly confronted us and said we had to leave unless the staffer from Gohmert’s office stayed with us. Impatiently, they gave us just minutes to get a staffer there or we were to be ejected from the building! Again, Gohmert’s staff hurried to help us. Matt from that office stayed with us through the rest of the building.
With our mission closer to being completed, Penny had to leave for her flight. We still had to complete the Rayburn building. There was a focus and steadfast push from all of us. When we visited Representative Dick’s office (WA), a staff member signed the receipt and then, realizing what they had signed, came running out calling “you guys are idiots, bigots!” The hostility at some offices was contrasted with warm welcomes at others, but we wouldn’t be deterred no matter what. Our goal was to complete serving the entire Congress, regardless of how we were received!
We completed our goal areound 5pm. We ran out of packets and missed serving four offices in the end. (We will mail them out!) Hungry and exhausted, we all headed to an Irish pub to eat. We shared stories, laughed and nearly cried in exhaustion as the feeling of disbelief that we had completed the mission set in.
On the final day, Thursday August 6th, 2009, Melissa and Della left in the morning. Virginia Gent and his wife had returned home the night before, leaving Carl and I to work on the lawsuit and other issues while we waited for our flights. He and I went back to the Senate building to personally meet with a staffer in Senator Chambliss’s (GA) office. Finally, packed up and ready to go, we also left.
What exactly did we accomplish? What is next? We have posted information from the trip HERE. We have more pictures to upload, most specifically the shots in front of each office as part of the record. The signed receipts are the other part of that record.
We The People Foundation, who is hosting their Continental Congress in November, can say that all members of the 2009 Congresses have received their seven Petitions For Redress. Those who signed the petitions asking about the birth certificate with World Net Daily now know all members of Congress have been served a copy of the petition and the online link. Everyone has been served the AGJ Grand Jury Presentment.
VirginiaGent took these fantastic notes about the trip. They are descriptive, listing our overall activities and they list by name and time all those served that he was recording as Citizen Reporter. He makes a GREAT Citizen Journalist! They are preserved HERE
Perhaps most importantly, each member of Congress has been served six treason and fraud criminal complaints. In the Constitution it says:
Section 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court. The Congress shall have power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.
Congress has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution. They have been served with six criminal complaints of treason against Obama. It is time to call your elected Congressional officials and hold them accountable.
Patriot’s Heart Network is taking this a step farther. Today we filed a petition demanding a Federal Grand Jury investigate Treason and Fraud charges against Barry Soetoro, Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean and the Main Stream Media in the United States District Court in D.C. You can read the brief HERE.
