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Adele Stan

Adele Stan

Posted: July 8, 2010 11:28 AM

Clarence Thomas' Wife Makes Common Cause with Militia Guru Larry Pratt

What's Your Reaction:

Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, as a new job, running a think tank she founded to appeal to Tea Party supporters. Liberty Central, according to Kenneth P. Vogel, writing in Politico, "appears to be positioning itself as a hybrid think tank/advocacy group/campaign arm for the tea party movement." Among those who are part of Thomas's hybrid is Gun Owners of America, listed among 32 organizations deemed as "friends" by Liberty Central.

Gun Owners of America is led by militia guru Larry Pratt, who when last I saw him, appeared to be calling for war on the U.S. government at a 2nd Amendment Rally held on the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.

At the gun rally, Pratt expressed his displeasure at the attendance of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano at an Oklahoma City ceremony commemorating the lives lost in the bombing. "I look around: it's so good to see all these terrorists out here," Pratt said to the gun activists. "Janet Napolitano, she figured, as governor of Arizona, that we didn't have a border problem, but she knows who the real enemy is. Ha, ha, ha, ha. And Bill Clinton's been runnin' cover for her, too," he added, referring to an op-ed Clinton published on the day of the gun march. Pratt went on to paraphrase Clinton: "Watch out how you guys speak out there, you know, words can have consequences."

"Remember Oklahoma City?" Pratt continued. "Yeah, I do. And I also remember the Waco barbecue that your attorney general gave us. Thanks a lot...We're in a war. The other side knows they're at war, because they started it. They're comin' for our freedom, for our money, for our kids, for our property. They're comin' for everything because they're a bunch of socialists."

Is Larry Pratt's anti-government "war" the sort of activism that Ginni Thomas, CEO of Liberty Central and wife of a member of the high court, would condone?

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IMOPINIONH8D
because I want it empty...
12:37 PM on 07/11/2010
Only in America??? WTF
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chriss0114
the meanderings of a madman
11:18 AM on 07/09/2010
only morons and nuts are all they can attract to believe them so this is not surprising and is actually expected

it's the FOX "news" audience
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pbh493
It is better to travel well than to arrive.
09:35 AM on 07/09/2010
"Is Larry Pratt's anti-government "war" the sort of activism that Ginni Thomas, CEO of Liberty Central and wife of a member of the high court, would condone?"

In a word, yes.
09:32 AM on 07/09/2010
Liberty Central does something progressives aren't doing: making a case for believing in their principles:

http://www.libertycentral.org/five-founding-principles

Why aren't we?

PROGRESSIVE PRINCIPLES
Government provides the foundation for our individual rights. We wouldn’t have any rights without government.

* The first responsibility of government is to protect and empower its citizens. FDR said, "In our personal ambitions, we are individualists. But in our seeking for economic and political progress as a nation, we all go up, or else we all go down, as one people." In short, the common good is necessary for individual well-being.

* To protect the common good, we must preserve the common wealth which secures the common good: police, military, firefighters, banking and court systems. No one in our country can legally make a dime without government support.

* Opportunities created by the common wealth allow the accumulation of personal wealth. Money is kept in the common wealth to be used for the common good. As a matter of fairness, everyone has a responsibility to repay the common wealth proportional to the benefits he/she has received from it. It is unfair to take economic resources from the commons and transfer them to wealthy individuals who don’t need them.

* Deregulation and privatization do not eliminate government, they only make it unaccountable. The act of governing is merely shifted from the public sector, where there’s an ethic of protection and public accountability, to the private sector, where profit is put before citizens.
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legalgirl
Just a legal girl on a mission for the truth
09:40 PM on 07/08/2010
"'They're comin' for our freedom, for our money, for our kids, for our property. They're comin' for everything because they're a bunch of socialists.'"

Talk about unclear on the concept -- they're a bunch of "socialists?" Try a dictionary, buddy. Can Justice Thomas be impeached for this--I know, I know, freedom of association, yeah I know--just hoping, searching. Maybe he'll resign; he hates it there anyway.
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mech126
I believe government works, if you let it.....
03:26 AM on 07/09/2010
Ya know it might happen that Tomas will have to step down or she has to stop, one way or the other this has to stop.......
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
09:03 PM on 07/08/2010
Big ’possum clime little tree. - Uncle Remus
08:46 PM on 07/08/2010
Yes, it is very disturbing when these people get together. OMG, they both believe in the Constitution, what are we to do???
IMOPINIONH8D
because I want it empty...
12:28 PM on 07/11/2010
.....But they don't understand it, that's the problem.
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Carl Caroli
Give peace a chance
06:25 PM on 07/08/2010
A clear cut case of the republican party using it's minions to semi-discreetly attain it's goals. The truly sad part is, her and her husband allow themselves to be used as canon fodder in the republican quest for power and in return will be rewarded with table scraps. Keep on groveling.
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TheCommons
I didn't quit. You just bored me.
06:18 PM on 07/08/2010
So we get another right wing think tank designed to arrive at precooked conclusions. Seems mostly designed to give a certain well connected woman a chance to vacuum up some of that right wing billionaire and heartland patriot sucker money. And some people think we can't afford to throw money at nonproductive people. Imagine that.
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blackraisin
Life, Liberty, Property.
05:36 PM on 07/08/2010
I remember the Waco barbecue ... those nice government workers in their nice ninja pajamas shot up a church, laid siege to it, and the burned it down. Good times.
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ShinjiIkari
Do you understand how stupid it is to be afraid?
06:20 PM on 07/08/2010
It wasn't "a church". It was a group of buildings which was under siege for 51 days trying to get toa self-proclaimed Messiah who was humping 12 year old girls. Not a good time for anyone concerned.
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blackraisin
Life, Liberty, Property.
11:59 AM on 07/09/2010
I responded to this last night, but apparently it didn't get through. It was a church. People left voluntarily during the siege verifying that they weren't hostages. Allegations of sexual misconduct did surface until after the raid. The raid itself was only in regards to unpaid taxes, which atleast in my opinion doesn't warrant the burning of a church (or building) filled with children.
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mech126
I believe government works, if you let it.....
06:32 PM on 07/08/2010
If they were such a good church why did they need all those guns and explosives?????
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blackraisin
Life, Liberty, Property.
08:05 PM on 07/08/2010
apparently to keep the paramilitaries out ... a shame it didn't work out for them.
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seniorfellow
04:03 PM on 07/08/2010
the basis of this article is pure unmitigated unabashed sexism.....

Jan Schakowsky's husband is a convicted felon.
Nancy Pelosi's Husband has huge interests in what she pushes with his empire
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Enock Zamora
KARMA
03:58 PM on 07/08/2010
If Clarence Thomas wife fell in the river, everyone would look for her down stream, except Clarence
thomas. He would summon everyone to look [up] river, being, that they didn't know his wife, as good as he. :)
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Kiffanik
03:40 PM on 07/08/2010
Who is "they" is it the same people the tea party want "their" country back from? Other Americans? Where is the tea party going to take it if they get it?
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JDShipley
I drink coffee, therefore I am.
08:03 AM on 07/09/2010
The tea party is anti-democratic in denying the legitimacy of the 2008 elections. They are totalitarians who deny freedom of thought and expression with a narrow definition of "American" that defies the open-armed breadth of thinking of the founders.
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DevonTexas
Eternal Optimism
03:39 PM on 07/08/2010
If this was Michelle Obama, the Repub eco-chamber would be blowing its roof off with this story. It should be front-paged! THis is serious. It's the wife of a Supreme Court Justice invested with a highly poltical influence group. It's not like it's the Garden Club!
08:28 AM on 07/09/2010
Exactly. Where was the media when Taaawwwd was involved in a group favoring succession? Now that's what I call going rogue.
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matt gordon
One nation, under Canada and over Mexico...
03:25 PM on 07/08/2010
Ginni probably will receive a generous salary in this job as well. Wonder if it's a way to launder the payment for Clarence's vote to install G.W.B. as president? Maybe they were just less clever in how to get the gratuity?
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Jim Pasterczyk
Banned!
04:45 PM on 07/08/2010
The payment to Clarence came from that branch of NewsCorp that paid him an amount far in excess of any other Supreme Court justice for his ghost-written autobiography. Why this isn't seen as a form of bribery is beyond me, especially since it's well known around the Court that he was griping about how little money he had.