White Fright!

By Jeff Simpson

Who would have thought, that in the year 2013, the republican party would still be overcome by fear of minorities?  

Yesterday Capper told us about Charlie Sykes new major project, the website White Wisconsin.  

At least half a dozen local, black, conservative authors, including Wonder Woma - who had stood up to Glenn Grothman's attack on Kwanzaa - offered to submit contributions to the web site. Each and everyone was turned down.

 A quick check of the news and you see this is not just in Wisconsin where prominent republicans are scared of minorities,  but it is happening nationally also.  When you have someone who likes to beat the "minorities are taking over fraudulently" drum as much as their leader reince priebus does, this is to be expected.  

Let's start in Delevan where the local school talked about "white privilege" and the state/national republicans went into a tizzy!! 

The “American Diversity” class was taught to students at Delavan-Darien High School in Wisconsin, Fox News has learned.
“They’re teaching white guilt,” one parent told Fox News. “They’re dividing the students. They’re saying to non-whites, ‘You have been oppressed and you’re still being oppressed.’”
The parent, who asked not to be identified, has an 18-year-old son who was enrolled in the class and became alarmed after she looked at some of the handouts provided to the students.
“I felt it was indoctrination,” she said. “This is a radical left agenda and ideology that is now embedded in our school.”
The parent said the students were taught “if you’re white, you’re oppressing. If you’re non white, you’ve been a victim.”

 Of course Fox news is always available for stories like this.  I am proud to say that our school district has attended the White Privilege conference in the past! 

Then there was Glenn Grothman's recent racially charged rant against planned parenthood:

Not to mention, Tommy Thompson's son Jason, an attorney at Michael Best & Friedrich, who wanted to send our President "back to Kenya".   Paul Ryan(R-ayn rand) let everyone know the only reason he is not vice president today is because of those darn "urban voters". 

Things are just as ugly nationally as they are locally.   There was the incident at the republican convention where some attendees threw peanuts at an African American camerawoman saying,"this is how we feed the animals".  To Mitt's famous 47% line to paul ryan's continuous whining about "entitlements" to Jim Sensenbrenner's critique of Michelle Obama's body.    There is also the despicable attack the republicans just commenced on Ambassador Susan Rice. 

It has become such a problem that Colin Powell felt obliged to give a national interview to address it!   All of these code words and pushing the line, helps focus on the fear and gets the base riled up, unfortunately it gets the real crazy even more crazy.   Arie Perliger of  West Point just finished a study of America's violent far right:

“since 2007, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of attacks and violent plots originating from individuals and groups who self- identify with the far-right of American politics.”

Written by Arie Perliger, Director of Terrorism Studies at the Combating Terrorism Center and an Assistant Professor at the Department of Social Sciences at West Point, the paper asserts that three distinct ideologies exist in the “American violent far right.” Those are “a racist/white supremacy movement, an anti-federalist movement and a fundamentalist movement,” the last of which “includes mainly Christian Identity groups such as the Aryan Nations.”

“Findings indicate that…it is not only feelings of deprivation that motivate those involved in far right violence, but also the sense of empowerment that emerges when the political system is perceived to be increasingly permissive to far right ideas,” it later reads.

Some of the very same people who fund these far right extremist groups also fund Scott Walker(but thats a for another post)
 

Thompsons Cash In With Company That Harmed Thousands Of Women

In my last post, I pointed how Tommy Thompson is suffering a self-inflicted political wound when his attack on Tammy Baldwin backfired badly. In said post, I pointed out how Thompson profiteered at the expense of volunteers who went to New York City after the 9-11 attacks.

Today, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin has come out with a ton of evidence that Thompson also profiteered via a company that has caused irreparable damage to thousands of women across the country.

Long story short, Thompson joined the board of C.R. Bard in 2005 as a "volunteer" status. That volunteer status ended quickly when the company gave Thompson 1,200 shares of its stock, a value of about $120,000. In fact, Thompson was given almost $1,500 this month alone in dividends from the company.

If you watch a lot of TV, you might recognize the company's name. They've been involved in numerous law suits across the country for faulty medical products, transvaginal mesh implants and hernia mesh implants, and are paying out $184 million in damages and fines. While that would be a helluva lot of money for you or me, it's not even a drop in the bucket for this company, There's been commercials from law firms involved with these cased trying to cash in on these lawsuits.

In return for their largesse, Thompson's been touting that companies, like C.R. Bard, should be allowed to bring their billions of dollars of profits back from the Cayman Islands (Hello, Mitt Romney!) tax free.

On the "bright side," Thompson does believe in sharing the wealth - with his racist son. He made sure that his son, Jason "Kenya dig it?" Thompson also cashed in by getting in on some stock options for work he allegedly did, per Thompson the elder, for an unnamed third party.

Yeah, right.

So, in a nutshell, both Tommy Thompson, and his son, Jason, got lucrative stock deals from a company that made faulty devices that have caused serious harm to thousands of people. In return, Thompson the elder has advocated that the company be allowed to keep their ill-gotten blood money tax-free.

And what of the people that were so harmed for life?

Well, I'm sure if Thompson had a brief moment of honesty and morality, he would agree with analyst Debbie Wang, who called the pittance of a pay out "a cost of doing business."

It's past the time to put Thompson out to pasture on his farm in Elroy.

Jason Cracks up the Crowd!

Not sure how good of a lawyer for Michael Best & Friedrich, Jason Thompson is, but he sure knows how to crack up the crowd!  The problem, like his father, is that he is lazy so he keeps going back to the same joke!

While Tommy denies it is happening and Jason apologizes to his law firm, he has been running around knocking them dead with his speeches.    The problem is that the sane people of Wisconsin have seen it and they are not amused.  

The question is does Michael Best & Friedrich have to issue a statement distancing themselves from Jason Thompson daily, or will they cut their losses and work on restoring their reputation?

No one has had a bigger hit to their reputation these last two years than Michael Best & Friedrich!

H/T Huff Po and Amanda Terkel:


At a "United for Freedom" rally(10/6/12), this is Jason Thompson warming up the crowd!   









Jason Thompson truly is an American idiot!


One last question, in case your wondering why this is perpetually a killer line, check out the line up of speakers and ask no more:

Senator Alberta Darling WI-8

Assemblyman Jeremy Thiesfeldt

. State Treasurer Kurt Schuller

US Congressional Candidate Dan Sebring

Jake Jacobs,

Noted Writer and SpeakerKim Simac,

Northwoods Patriots FounderPastor David King,

WI Senate CandidatePam Stevens,

WI Senate Candidate Rick Gudex,

WI Senate Candidate Tracy Heron,

Former Mayville Mayor Paris Procopis

MIke Schraa,

WI Assembly Candidate Kristi LaCroix

Santo Ingrilli

Joe Medina

One last thing, You will see some of these people on your ballot this fall. 

Vote these people OUT!  

Thompson On Thompson: Kenya Dig It?

The gentle reader already knows that Jason Thompson, son of senatorial candidate and former governor Tommy Thompson and lawyer at the official law firm of Fitzwalkerstan, Michael Best & Friedrich, played the birther card while representing his father at a Republican brunch on Sunday.

On Monday, Jason Thompson issued an apology...to his colleagues at the law firm, but not to President Barack Obama or to the voters of Wisconsin:

Jason Thompson , the son of former Gov. Tommy Thompson, has apologized to colleagues at his law firm for saying at a Republican event over the weekend that voters have the chance to send President Barack Obama back to Kenya.

Michael Best & Friedrich, the firm where Jason Thompson works, issued a statement Monday distancing it from his widely publicized remarks.

"Over the weekend, one of our attorneys and the son of Senatorial candidate Tommy Thompson made a regrettable comment at a campaign event for his father," said the statement from the Milwaukee-based firm. "We want to make it clear that the comment made at the campaign event in no way reflects the views, beliefs or values of Michael Best & Friedrich."

As if that wasn't bad enough, Tommy Thompson has been mum on the matter. Not one word:



Besides the video, the Democrats have a long laundry list of some of the various places where this comment has been discussed. Tommy isn't one of them.

Well, Tommy Thompson's silence didn't last much longer after the Democrats released that video and press release.

He came out of whatever undisclosed location he's been hiding in to make a statement on his son's racist comment. And in making his statement, he shows us who taught his son about inserting his foot into his mouth:

Thompson addressed the issue on the shop floor of Grover Corp., on Milwaukee’s south side, where he received the endorsement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“My son feels miserable about it," Thompson said. "If you looked at the video, you would have seen that somebody, he said, ‘go back to Illinois,’ and somebody in the audience, if you looked at it, somebody said the other country (Kenya) and my son responded.

“Talked to my son he feels terrible about it and nobody is suffering more than he is about this, and he has apologized. That is all I am going to say about it.”

Reporter: “Do you think that he needs to apologize publicly and to the president?”

“No,” Thompson said. “He has already apologized and that’s enough.”

Reporter: Do you think he wasn’t that serious about those remarks, or what?

“It was an off-handed remark that somebody mentioned it in the audience," Thompson said. "If you look at the movie, he didn’t say it, somebody in the audience said it and he repeated it and I have talked to him about it and he’s apologized about it and that’s it.”

Oh, really?

Well, here's the video again. Turn up the volume.



The gentle reader can easily tell that no one said anything until after Jason Thompson made the Kenya statement.

So, Thompson the Elder first lies about the comment, trying to blame it on some mystery problem that no one else can hear. Or maybe Tommy is just suffering from auditory hallucinations. Either way, it's not good.

But Tommy goes on to dig that hole a little deeper by calling the comment an "off hand comment." That would infer that this is something his son said without thinking about it, which would mean that this is what he really thinks.

And do I really need to point out who was one of the greatest factors in forming Jason's attitudes and beliefs.

Tommy's third strike comes when he said that his son didn't need to apologize publicly. This might seem crazy, but I don't think telling the voters that they don't deserve an apology is not the best way to win friends or influence people.

Given the fact that Tommy appears to be just as bigoted as his son, if not more so, I hope he will be able to cope with the mere thought that he will have lost this race to a homosexual woman. If Tammy Baldwin were black also, he'd never make it.

Jason Thompson - American Idiot

Jason Thompson, should be proud, he made national news!  

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Thank you to Lawrence O Donnell for pointing out the affirmative action that has guided Jason Thompson's whole career!

Jason Thompson Represents!

Capper wrote about Jason Thompson's racist remark at a republican fundraiser this weekend.  It was so disgusting that it made national media in a matter of hours!  

This morning, a press release "apology" was released from the Tommy Thompson campaign. 

In a statement, Thompson's campaign said the 38-year-old son apologized for saying something he should not have. Jason Thompson is an attorney and has represented his father's campaign at some events.

So Jason Thompson was not man enough or competent enough to get in front of a camera and actually apologize in person, he needed a PR person to write it and release it for him.   

While we know the racial overtones that were intended in this and the whole racism in the Mitt Romney for President campaign.  That is old news and with us everyday.  The questions we have to ask are:

1.  Since Jason Thompson is a lawyer employed by Michael, Best & Friedrich, are his views representative of the whole firm?   I have not seen a statement from them yet. 

2.  If Jason Thompson can not even et in front of the camera's and apologize in person or Tommy Thompson can not address this in person, is that a professional or a US Senate Candidate that you would want representing you?

Jason Thompson And Other GOP Racists

I have already written about Jason Thompson, Tommy Thompson's son. Jason Thompson is a lawyer at Michael Best & Friedrich, the official law firm of Fitzwalkerstan. He also served as the campaign finance director for Brett Davis and thus got himself embroiled in Walkergate due to his dealings with Kelly Reindfleisch.

It turns out that Jason Thompson is the gift that keeps on giving.

Look at this video that Buzzfeed posted Sunday evening:



As Buzzfeed points out:

Jason Thompson, the son of former Governor and Wisconson Senate candidate Tommy Thompson, speaking this morning at a brunch attended RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said that “we have the opportunity to send President Obama back to Chicago — or Kenya.” A woman in attendance then chimed in “we are taking donations for that Kenya trip.”

This is going to cause as much widespread damage as anything the Democrats could have ever hoped for.

Thompson the Younger has been hitting the trail a lot for both his father and for the Romney/Ryan ticket. Tommy Thompson at first denied knowing anything about it, but then sent out a message that read:

“The Governor has addressed this with his son, just like any father would do. Jason Thompson said something he should not have, and he apologizes.”

Note that in Tommy's view, it was just the saying of it that is wrong, not the attitude itself.

But that Thompson the Elder might not see anything wrong with this is not surprising. blue cheddar points out that Tommy had an issue with the American Indians when he sided with white "sportsmen" over Ojibwe hunters and fishers. Dan Bice, also covering this story, brings up Tommy calling Tammy Baldwin "anti-Jewish" even though it is he that has the history of slandering the Jews.

Of course, that is more than we have heard from the Romney/Ryan campaign yet. Like Thompson, they might not have even caught on what the problem is.

Likewise, the law firm has been mum so far as well. But at least we now have an idea why the Republicans flocked to them and made them the official law firm of Fitzwalkerstan.

It should also be noted that Reince Priebus, the head of the RNC as well as Brad Courtney, head of WISGOP, were also present. And neither of them said anything at the time nor since the video has surfaced. Hmm. I'm starting to pick up a trend here.

In fact, racism isn't running rampant in Fitzwalkerstan, but all across the nation, even though Ann Coulter thinks that this isn't true.

Former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford came off the Appalachian Trail long enough to say how he thought President Obama would be going to "throw a lot of spears." Do read the full post at that link to catch the prize of a store owner in Chris Christie's New Jersey.

I was thinking of asking a right wing blogger about all of this racism and how they could possibly defend such offensive behaviors, but then I thought better of it.

Walkergate: Walker Gets His Invitation To The Ball

When I heard that Scott Walker had been subpoenaed for the Kelly Rindfleisch trial next week, I was sure that there was some kind of mistake.

I mean this was the guy who was cooperating with the authorities. All one had to do was ask him, or his spokesman, Cullen Werwie (one of the score of people given immunity in the hearings) or his campaign and they would tell you how cooperative Walker is. After all, this is the guy that has plugged hundreds of thousands of dollars into his legal cooperation fund!

It couldn't have been a subpoena with all that cooperation. It had to be an invitation, done in the finest calligraphy and starting out with something like "You are cordially invited to..."

But, alas, I was wrong. It was a full blown subpoena.

Well, that isn't really much of a surprise. We already knew that Walker was on the potential witness list.

But there were two other things that I noticed today, which were rather interesting if not surprising.

One of these things is courtesy of the esteemed James Rowen, who pointed out this article about Walker's money grubbing from last spring. The key part, as James highlighted, is this:

The records show that Walker gave a 15-minute speech at the event, which was headlined by conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh. The trip was funded by Walker’s campaign, and he was accompanied by campaign fundraiser Kelly Rindfleisch, currently facing four felony charges for alleged illegal campaign activities while working for Walker when he was Milwaukee County executive.

Even though she was already being investigated for illegal politicking, Walker was still using her four months later to continue raking in the dough. Not only does this demonstrate Walker's avarice and lack of moral compunction, but it also lends strength to the rumor that Walker and his pals have been raising legal defense funding for his gal pal, even if not as conspicuously as he was doing for his own.

The other thing of interest is that the prosecution's witness list has been made available, via the Wisconsin State Journal.

Most of the names on the list, as I had surmised, are either investigators or keepers of the information of various agencies and companies, such as human resource and technical support for Milwaukee County or representatives from Google and US Cellular.

Many of the other names are ones we have discussed before, including Cullen Werwie, Brett Davis, Michael Huebsch, Keith Gilkes and Jim Villa.

But there are three names not previously mentioned in the news which are worth noting.

One is Timothy W. Lightner, who is presumably the mysteriously "Timothy L.," who is scheduled for a deposition on October 11. Lightner is described as an event host, or in other words, someone that hosted a campaign fund raising event.

Another name to note is one that I had thought they might have omitted. That name would be Andrea Boom, one of Rindfleisch's BFFs. Boom sold Rindfleisch out for a mere $47.60.

A third name to note is Mark Graul. Graul is a Republican strategist who ran Mark Green's campaign as well as the campaign for the corrupt Annette Ziegler. It shouldn't be a surprise that Graul's name pops up. He seems to have a certain affinity at getting caught in politically compromising fixes.

Walker practices his
"Who, me?" look.

The final name that I'd like to point out is Jason Thompson, who was Davis' campaign finance director. He also holds significance in other aspects, as I pointed out when I first broke the story of Rindfleisch, five days before she was arrested and charged:

As a point of interest, and to further cement the ties that bind, Davis' campaign treasurer was Jason T. Thompson, son of Tommy Thompson, and currently an attorney at Walker's favorite law firm, Michael Best & Friedich.

Yep. Not only is Jason the son of Tommy Thompson, former governor and current failing and flailing senatorial candidate, but he is also a staffer at the official law firm of Fitzwalkerstan.

You know, I am getting the feeling that if John Doe keeps pulling on the right threads, he could end up unraveling all of WISGOP and maybe even a major part of the national Republican party.

Now wouldn't that just be something?