Tea Party Strike Led By GOP Campaign Strategist, Mortgage Lender

Produced by HuffPost's Eyes & Ears Citizen Journalism Unit

The Tea Party movement is gearing up its membership for a major nationwide action in several weeks, an initiative that they claim will demonstrate the seriousness of their cause. Their tactic: Doing nothing.

On Jan. 20, 2010, Tea Partiers hope to bring America to a screeching halt. According to the inaugural blog post by the National Strike's Operations Director Allen Hardage, succinctly titled "National Strike-We The People Strike Back against an out of control government":

"We The People will strike at the life blood of that parasitic congress by denying them the tax revenue for one day. We will not work. We will not shop, or buy anything that is taxed. We will not renew any licenses, tags, file any government filings and we will not remain silent. On This day we will fire a shot across the bow of Congress that we rule them not the other way around.

Hardage is a Republican strategist who is currently running a campaign "for his long time friend Stephen Northington," according to Hardage's LinkedIn profile. Northington is running for Georgia Insurance Commissioner and is described as "the only licensed Insurance Professional in the race for the Republican nomination." Hardage's directorship of the National Strike was announced on the strike's Ning group by the Strike 120 group's creator, Ken Cook.

Cook is a senior mortgage lender at mortgage broker AmericaHomeKey and worked from 2001-2009 at Novation Mortgage, where he specialized in "start-up real estate investors, commercial funding, super jumbo (luxury homes), and people just like you," he writes on his LinkedIn profile. In 2002, Novation, then called NovaStar Home Mortgage -- and two other lenders -- was hit with a $46 million judgment on charges of making false mortgage rate postings on the website Bankrate.com. Cook was NovaStar's Director of Operations at the time. Alongside his Tea Party duties, Cook also currently acts as National Vice Chairman for the Patriot Caucus, a conference scheduled in April to immediately follow the 2010 Tax Day Tea Party protests in Washington D.C.

Eric Odom, co-organizer of the Patriot Caucus, is executive director of American Liberty Alliance, which is a host of the 2010 Tax Day Tea Party along with FreedomWorks, a purportedly grassroots organization run by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey. FreedomWorks spent the summer working alongside American Liberty Alliance in opposing everything from the economic stimulus to health care reform. Cook is on American Liberty Alliance's Georgia Leadership Team.

On August 15 CNN's Don Lemon criticized Hardage for using the term "real Americans" to describe town hall protesters (Hardage has a series of online videos called "Real Americans with Allen Hardage"):

LEMON: Where was the outrage five years ago, ten years ago, 15 years ago? Why all of a sudden this outrage now? At least the president is trying to reform health care, so where did the outrage suddenly come from?

HARDAGE: Don, this is the second town hall he's done in the last week that I actually saw real Americans get up and ask questions. It wasn't a pre-selected group or a --

LEMON: But hang on, before you do that. Real Americans, that's another term that really sets people off.

HARDAGE: Well, let me tell you what I mean by that.

LEMON: We're all real Americans. Everybody.

HARDAGE: Where anybody can get in and anybody can ask a question. And you have seen a completely different tenor in -- in the town hall he held on Tuesday and today, than town halls we have been seeing so far in this debate. That's what I mean by real Americans.

LEMON: OK. Or maybe you know what, the whole real American thing -- can we lose that real Americans?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sure.

LEMON: Because everybody in this country, who is a citizen...

(CROSSTALK)

HARDAGE: Absolutely.

LEMON: ...we're all real Americans.

HARDAGE: Absolutely.

LEMON: And that is part of the issue that really sets people off and divides people. So let's get rid of that real Americans. We're all -- I'm real American. You're real American. Conservatives, liberals, independents, we're all poor or rich real Americans.

HARDAGE: Absolutely.

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Comments

[SirReal1]

12:22 PM on 01/08/2010

It is all too typical for those who consider themselve supporters of the "Conservat­ive Movement (s)" in this country, that they DO NOT realize what it is that they are "supportin­g".

The Al Jazerra video (http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=AXFuZwqGr­CU) is a stark reminder of where this ideology is leading, and where the "brain-tru­sts" of the movement is derived from.

These are people who believe they are "entitled to lead" based upon the pigmentati­on (or lack thereof) of their skin.

Whether you call it "nationali­sm" or "corporati­sm" or "fascism", it is ALL contrary to the true VALUES put forth in our Constituti­on, and would have been opposed by virtually ALL our Founding Fathers. The "Values" of the right wing have been fought against by OUR MILITARY in several wars that our forefather­s fought and died in, because these "values" were in direct opposition to what were considered "America's Values".

The war for America's "soul" has been going on for over 150 years (essential­ly since the declaratio­n of "corporate personhood­" was granted in the 1850's) and we are now, once again, at a critical time in this Nation.

You better choose which side you're on, and choose wisely!

[Rogo99]

11:06 AM on 01/08/2010

You know what? This Tea Party movement sounds a lot like another organizati­on that exists to disrupt government­s. They are in small cells across the country, take orders from shadowy web sites, have no central authority, and seem to take their religion and ethnicity very seriously. See where I'm going with this?

[BambooHarvester]

02:00 AM on 01/08/2010

no fox "news" ?

[MauricioC]

01:22 AM on 01/08/2010

A strike? Against what? Trailer park dues?

[TKDMike]

01:14 AM on 01/08/2010

GEE - figure the odds

[buddiecat2]

12:41 AM on 01/08/2010

Dear Teabaggers­,
We DID take our Country back. Deal with it.

[blizb]

09:00 AM on 01/08/2010

Absolutely right.

They say they are about taxes but that is a front.

Where were they during the Bush years and all of his "tax cuts for the rich"?

Where were they during Bush when Bush and the GOP shoved a highly unpopular Medicare expansion with the Medicare Rx bill that was equally as large as the one they complain about reading now? They were nowhere protesting the deficit and taxes when that happened.

The GOP is using this group and they need to wake up and understand that this group is an extremist group.

They are a new group and have nothing to do with taxes.

The GOP is going out on a limb that will break since the majority of people do not support this group and are not a part of this group.

This group is as angry at themselves as they are at anyone or anything else for how they voted for many, many years but still go for the GOP anyway even though they are being used by the GOP.

[NBD09]

10:30 PM on 01/07/2010

If they don't go into work, without a legit excuse...t­hey'll be fired. THEN they'll blame Obama for a higher unemployme­nt rate!

[Alex Brant-Zawadzki]

10:54 PM on 01/07/2010

These seem to be Americans who can afford to take time off work in order to protest.

One could call it a textbook case of the Haves railing against the Have Nots

[soldiergirl]

12:42 AM on 01/08/2010

The really sad part is that a lot of the supporters of the teabag movement are have nots that have been hoodwinked into believing that the government is their enemy, social programs and taxes are taboo, universal health care is bad, the president wants to take their guns, blah, blah, blah.
The have nots are fighting against their own best interests, and don't really seem to understand that. Some of the teabaggers that will participat­e in their "do nothing" day will be taking off work to do so, which will do absolutely nothing to improve their conditions­. But hey, as long as they can make their point, which would be...????

[buddiecat2]

12:39 AM on 01/08/2010

These people would blame President Obama for bad weather.

[Littlewords]

09:01 PM on 01/07/2010

Just too funny....

National Strike was announced on the strike's Ning group by the Strike 120 group's creator, Ken Cook.
Cook is a senior mortgage lender at mortgage broker AmericaHom­eKey and worked from 2001-2009 at Novation Mortgage . . . In 2002, Novation, then called NovaStar Home Mortgage -- and two other lenders -- was hit with a $46 million judgment on charges of making false mortgage rate postings on the website Bankrate.c­om.
Cook also currently acts as National Vice Chairman for the Patriot Caucus, a conference scheduled in April to immediatel­y follow the 2010 Tax Day Tea Party protests in Washington D.C.

Nice leadership choice, in the wake of all the bad mortgage behavior, who do the teabaggers turn to, but a questionab­le mortgage broker with a big judgment against him. And who else is helping these "grass roots tea folk," FreedomWor­ks, a purportedl­y grassroots organizati­on run by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey (who is ANYTHING BUT grass roots).

What a bunch of blind ru.bes!!!

[Horus45]

10:34 AM on 01/08/2010

Just like the guy they turn to for health care leadership­, who was fined $1.7 Billion dollars for Medicare/M­edicaid Fraud. The largest fine in US history!

[buckfushlv]

08:34 PM on 01/07/2010

the people of this nation will truly see they are nothing more a bunch of blowhards.­they a pawns and be handled by the likes of rove,chene­y .

the people in pre war nazi germany who knew how to stur up the unedcuated­, unemployed malcontent­s showed how by offering them a brown uniform and patroled streets and anyone they deemed was not worthy of being a german citizen they beat and robbed.

the likes of the teabaggers have been and will always be part of our culture.th­e real problem is

palin,fox news,certa­in senators and congressme­n/woman pump this trash up.

[Redwood Eagle]

07:33 PM on 01/07/2010

Economic boycotts -- left or right - rarely, if ever, work. Kinda like prayer. But, hey, if it makes you feel good, by all means.....­.

[CKMJr]

07:33 PM on 01/07/2010

any tax revenue not collected from them on the 20th will either be collected on the day before or day after anyway.

[MichaelMcKLA]

06:17 PM on 01/07/2010

Yawn! Wake me up if anything interestin­g happens.

[JJinWI]

07:19 PM on 01/07/2010

Nationalis­t Tea Party Streich Day

http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=AXFuZwqGr­CU&feature­=player_em­bedded

"Taking Our Country Back"

[DaveyDavey]

10:22 PM on 01/07/2010

The Republican­s already took it back to 1997, according the Dow Jones average.

[DaveyDavey]

10:23 PM on 01/07/2010

The Republıcan­s already took it back to 1997, according the Døw Jønes average.

[tmf945]

05:59 PM on 01/07/2010

Attention all job seekers: Plenty of openings, January20, 2010

[oscartucker]

11:01 PM on 01/07/2010

Great Idea! People looking for a job, your big day is January 20!

[ICanHasDemocracy]

04:41 PM on 01/07/2010

So basically they are going to sit in the dark- no internets, phones, cell phones, texts, light, heat, oil gas,....TH­EY"RE AMISH!

[Alex Brant-Zawadzki]

05:04 PM on 01/07/2010

They're not even close to Amish. They're not even Mormon on Sunday.

[JJinWI]

07:20 PM on 01/07/2010

http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=AXFuZwqGr­CU&feature­=player_em­bedded

Thanks for the reporting!

[soldiergirl]

12:45 AM on 01/08/2010

No, they're just dumb.

[ICanHasDemocracy]

04:38 PM on 01/07/2010

Will be as successful as their "die in" and as organized. A strike supported by corporate astroturf. THese people are too stupid to realize the irony.