tfp trad family property

<div>=</div><div>sponsor donor ginni liberty central
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</div><div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2010/10/ginni_thomas_think_tank_allied_with_group_that_celebrates_spanish_inquisition/">https://www.alternet.org/2010/10/ginni_thomas_think_tank_allied_with_group_that_celebrates_spanish_inquisitio</a>n/</div><div>
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</div><div><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2647218553"><div class="body-description">In

recent days, the media has turned its attention to Ginni Thomas, wife

of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas -- not for her troubling ties

to right-wing extremist groups, but for her bizarre demand for an

apology from the woman who accused her husband of sexual harassment more

than a decade ago. Yet Mrs. Thomas' Tea Party think tank, Liberty

Central, promotes the causes of groups that take pride in intolerance,

including one right-wing Catholic group, Tradition, Family and Property,

whose founder declared the Spanish Inquisition "the most beautiful page

in the history of the Church."Earlier this year, <a href="http://alternettest.wpengine.com/reproductivejustice/147464/tea_party_think_tank_headed_by_clarence_thomas%27_wife_makes_common_cause_with_militia_guru_larry_pratt/?page=entire" class="rm-stats-tracked">AlterNet reported</a>

on Liberty Central's embrace of Gun Owners of America, whose president,

Larry Pratt -- guru to the militia movement -- unapologetically

addressed a rally of white supremacists in 1992, and more recently told

attendees of a gun owners' rally in Washington, D.C., that they are "at

war" with the federal government. We also looked at Liberty Central's

relationship with the <a href="http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/07/14/group-allied-with-ginni-thomas-think-tank-threatens-armed-insurrection/" class="rm-stats-tracked">Missouri Sovereignty Project</a>, which threatens armed insurrection against the government. Since then, Thomas has added to the "<a href="http://www.libertycentral.org/friends-of-liberty-central" class="rm-stats-tracked">Friends of Liberty Central</a>"

page on her think tank's Web site a plug for Tradition, Family and

Property, a virulently anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-democratic Catholic

group founded in 1960 in opposition to Brazilian land reform.TFP has long enjoyed ties to the far right in American politics, including the <a href="http://barthsnotes.wordpress.com/2008/02/25/some-notes-on-tradition-family-and-property-in-south-africa/" class="rm-stats-tracked">International Freedom Foundation</a>,

which existed primarily as an American front group for the apartheid

regime in South Africa during the Reagan years, according to researcher

Richard Bartholomew, and was once led by convicted felon and former

lobbyist Jack Abramoff. But TFP is better known for its role in

promoting and supporting authoritarian regimes in South America. <a href="http://barthsnotes.wordpress.com/2008/02/25/some-notes-on-tradition-family-and-property-in-south-africa/" class="rm-stats-tracked">Here's Bartholomew</a>:<blockquote>TFP

played a role in the 1964 coup in Brazil, and in Uruguay it allegedly

received explosives from the Brazilian military attaché that were used

to attack communist installations. The editor of TFP's Chilean magazine,

Jaime Guzmán, became chief ideologist for General Pinochet's regime.</blockquote>If

TFP's activities on behalf of torturers and anti-democratic forces

weren't enough to give one pause, there's its status as a cult. TFP is

an all-male organization that finds its recruits among adolescent boys,

whom it trains in the use of the combat regalia of the Middle Ages --

maces, crossbows, and the like -- according to the late Penny Lernoux's

1989 book, People of God: The Struggle for World Catholicism.

The medieval games in which the boys partake are so brutal, Lernoux

reported, that one recruit told her his arm had been broken three times

in the exercises.The medieval games continue today. Last July, TFP sponsored a 10-day "Call to Chivalry" camp in rural Louisiana, where, <a href="http://www.tfpstudentaction.org/what-we-do/call-to-chivalry-camps/chivalry-inspires-a-new-generation-at-tfp-camp.html" class="rm-stats-tracked">according to the group's Web site</a>, boys and young men took part:<blockquote>Some

new skills were learned such as medieval spear throwing and archery.

Mock sword battles with padded weapons were a great success as were

paintball wars in the thick tropical-looking forest surrounding the

property. An exhausting hike in the Tunica Hills Park taught a poignant

lesson of endurance.</blockquote>At the time Lernoux was

reporting, recruits were taught to worship not only the Blessed Virgin

Mary, the holiest woman in Catholicism, but also the flesh-and-blood

mother of TFP founder Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, whom he referred to as

Santa Monica. Oliveira, who died in 1995,  loved the Spanish

Inquisition, he wrote, "because, while it went on, the Catholic Church

managed to cleanse itself of heretics." (Never mind that many of those

so-called heretics were Jews who wanted nothing more than to practice

their own faith, or people whose politics were inconvenient to the

Spanish throne.)I first learned of the American branch of TFP by

stumbling upon one of their demonstrations in midtown Manhattan in the

late 1980s, when the group was coddled by the late Archbishop John

Cardinal O'Connor. They often assembled on the sidewalk near St.

Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, decked out in red polyester sashes

emblazoned with a yellow lion. Their big issue at that moment was the

criminalization of flag desecration, which was a lure for collecting

names and addresses on petition forms. I remember feeling disconcerted

by their need to videotape each interaction they had with those they

were trying to attract.The group remains active in New York,

though its red-sashed members are as likely to be seen in lower

Manhattan than around the cathedral.The Catholic crusades against

the Muslim world are viewed as a time of glory by the devotees of TFP.

Roberto de Mattei, who wrote a friendly biography of Oliveira and is

said to be close to TFP, presented his revisionist history of the

crusades at a <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/european_football/article743063.ece" class="rm-stats-tracked">2006 conference</a> at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome. TFP is expressing its embrace of the medieval crusades in the <a href="http://www.tfp.org/tfp-home/fighting-for-our-culture/the-ground-zero-mosque-and-the-clash-of-symbols.html" class="rm-stats-tracked">chorus of intolerance</a>

raised against the Parc51 Islamic cultural center planned for lower

Manhattan, dispatching student volunteers to a September protest at the

site where the World Trade Center once stood. (TFP video <a href="http://www.tfp.org/current-campaigns/2010/america-says-no-to-mega-mosque.html" class="rm-stats-tracked">here</a>.)TFP maintains a presence on the campuses of U.S. Catholic colleges, and currently sponsors a petition drive to <a href="http://www.tfpstudentaction.net/campaigns/chronocontact/protest_1001.html" class="rm-stats-tracked">purge them</a> of LGBT rights groups. It describes a Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas,

the suit that struck down anti-sodomy laws, as America's "Moral 9/11."

Clarence Thomas, incidentally, joined Antonin Scalia's dissent in that

case, which accused the court's majority of having "largely signed on to

the so-called homosexual agenda."Related stories:<a href="http://alternettest.wpengine.com/reproductivejustice/147464/tea_party_think_tank_headed_by_clarence_thomas%27_wife_makes_common_cause_with_militia_guru_larry_pratt/?page=entire" class="rm-stats-tracked">Tea Party Think Tank Headed By Clarence Thomas' Wife Makes Common Cause With Militia Guru Larry Pratt</a><a href="http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/07/14/group-allied-with-ginni-thomas-think-tank-threatens-armed-insurrection/" class="rm-stats-tracked">Group Allied With Ginni Thomas' Think Tank Threatens Armed Insurrection</a><a href="http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/10/22/will-clarence-thomas-wife-demand-apology-from-latest-accuser-its-his-ex-girlfriend/" class="rm-stats-tracked">Will Clarence Thomas' Wife Demand Apology From Latest Accuser? (It's His Ex-Girlfriend)</a></div>

    </div></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div><div><br /><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text "><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence

Thomas, has a new job, running a think-tank she founded to appeal to Tea

Party supporters. Liberty Central, according to Kenneth P. Vogel, <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39426.html#ixzz0t2kdhGzl" class="rm-stats-tracked">writing in Politico</a>, "appears to be positioning itself as a hybrid think tank/advocacy group/campaign arm for the tea party movement."Thomas herself explained it this way to Human Events magazine, Vogel reports:<blockquote>“I’m getting to know the Tea Party groups and the new citizen activists,” Thomas <a href="http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37683" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">told Human Events</a> late last month. “What I think I can bring to the table is a connective (t)issue between the new people and the old people.”</blockquote>On the Liberty Central Web site, visitors are urged to sign a "<a href="http://www.libertycentral.org/pledge-to-activism" class="rm-stats-tracked">pledge to activism</a>" that states the organization's commitment to small government, saying, in part:<blockquote>In

an effort to hold their government accountable to its constitutional

limitations, many Americans have voiced their opposition to a “Big

Government” agenda through protests and election upsets only to be

blatantly ignored by many elected representatives,Therefore, I

pledge to be more informed and more active, and encourage others to do

likewise, in order to maximize my impact and influence in preserving,

protecting and promoting liberty, freedom, and limited Constitutional

government in America.</blockquote>Call it the Great Convergence,

this coming together of old-guard groups and extremists under the Tea

Party brand -- something perhaps that only someone close to a major

power center in the U.S. government could pull off. Unlike grassroots

Tea Party organizations that struggle for donations, Thomas got off to a

quick start last year with two large donations, according to Politico

-- one for $50,000 and another for $500,000 -- whose sources the group

declines to disclose. (One imagines that for certain players on the

legislative field -- especially those signing on to cases that might

come before the high court -- saying "I gave at the office" to the

spouse of a sitting justice might not come so easily.)AlterNet

took a spin through Thomas' Web site, to see if we could get a sense of

who might be showing her some love. What we found was a cadre of groups

listed as "friends" -- ranging from the typical Tea Party Inc. types,

such as FreedomWorks, to the downright radical, like Gun Owners of

America, led by executive director Larry Pratt.In our ongoing chronicle of right-wing events, we last left <a href="http://alternettest.wpengine.com/news/146544/low_turnout_at_gun_march_the_nra%27s_fault,_organizer_says?page=1" class="rm-stats-tracked">Larry Pratt at the 2nd Amendment March on Washington</a>,

where he appeared to be calling for war against the U.S. government.

The 2nd Amendment March wasn't really a march at all, but a rally on the

grounds of the Washington monument of some 2,000 gun owners that took

place April 19 -- the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing by

self-styled militiaman Timothy McVeigh. (The bombing of the Alfred P.

Murrah federal office building took the lives of 168 innocents,

including 19 children under the age of six.)When Pratt took the

stage on the grounds of the Washington monument about 15 years later, he

could barely contain his ire for former President Bill Clinton, who was

in office at the time of McVeigh's act of mass murder. On the day of

the rally, Clinton published an <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/opinion/19clinton.html?_r=1&ref=opinion" class="rm-stats-tracked">op-ed</a>

that seemed to be aimed at the gun owners convening on the Mall in

which he urged readers not to forget that McVeigh's act was born of the

belief that government is the enemy. "[W]e must all assume

responsibility for our words and actions before they enter a vast echo chamber and reach those both serious and delirious, connected and unhinged," <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/opinion/19clinton.html?_r=1&ref=opinion" class="rm-stats-tracked">he wrote</a>.At

the gun rally, Pratt expressed his displeasure at Clinton's admonition,

and 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. 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? [YOU BETCHA]
It is highly unlikely

that Pratt's bitter rhetoric is a secret to Ginni Thomas. Pratt is no

stranger to controversy. He's an unabashed supporter of the militia

movement; his 1990 book, Armed People Victorious, is viewed by many in the movement as an inspirational text.
In

1996, Pratt was forced to resign his role as an adviser to Pat

Buchanan's presidential campaign when it was revealed that, in 1992, he

addressed a gathering of white supremacists in Estes, Colorado. Included

on the roster of speakers that day were neo-Nazis and militia

advocates, including Louis Beam, a former Texas Grand Dragon of the Ku

Klux Klan who had taken his cause over to the Aryan Nation organization.

The meeting had been called by Pete Peters, then leader of the

Christian Identity movement, whose theology states that black people are

subhuman and Jews are the spawn of Satan.Pratt came to make

clear his advocacy for unfettered gun rights. "The Second Amendment

ain't about duck hunting," he told the crowd, according reporter Leonard

Zeskind, <a href="http://www.rickross.com/reference/militia/militia7.html" class="rm-stats-tracked">reporting in Rolling Stone</a>.

Pratt explained that he bought his first gun during the 1968 riots that

engulfed Washington, D.C., in the wake of the killing of Dr. Martin

Luther King, Jr. "If they'd had that assault rifle, so-called, for sale,

and I'd seen that big old magazine there at the time, that's exactly

what I would have bought," Pratt said, according to Rolling Stone.Pratt

represents a kind of pivot point between the right-wing extreme and the

right-wing establishment. While Pratt is cozy with Howard Phillips, the

Christian Reconstructionist founder of the Constitution Party, he's

also friendly with former House Majority Leader Richard Armey, the

chairman of FreedomWorks, the kingpin of Tea Party Inc. astroturf

groups. Armey once served on the advisory board of the now-defunct

Family Foundation, an organization founded by Pratt, that housed an

anti-immigrant group, English First (which still exists). Ginni

Thomas worked as an aide to Armey when he served in Congress in the GOP

leadership, according to Politico. Today, Armey chairs FreedomWorks, the

powerful Washington, D.C., organization that helped organize last

summer's disruptions of town-hall meetings conducted by members of

Congress about health care reform legislation. FreedomWorks also

sponsored the stage program at the conclusion of last fall's 912 march

on Washington, and an anti-health care rally on the grounds of the U.S.

Capitol last spring. Ginni Thomas also worked with FreedomWorks

President Matt Kibbe when both were on staff at the anti-regulatory

lobbying group, the Chamber of Commerce. Like FreedomWorks, in last

month's GOP primary runoff for Utah's U.S. Senate seat, Thomas' Liberty

Central endorsed Tea Party candidate Mike Lee (the only candidate

Liberty Central has endorsed so far).Gun Owners of America is

hardly the only eyebrow-raising friend listed on Liberty Central's Web

site -- just the most extreme. Also nestled amid the group of 32 largely

establishment outfits such as the Hudson Institute and the National

Taxpayers Union, is Concerned Women for America, which has been on an <a href="http://www.cwfa.org/articles/18936/CFI/nation/index.htm" class="rm-stats-tracked">anti-gay tear</a> for the last two decades, and ParcBench.com, which currently features a <a href="http://www.parcbench.com/2010/07/03/obama-commits-high-treason-if-you-say-nothing-youre-an-accomplice/" class="rm-stats-tracked">post alleging</a>

that President Barack Obama committed treason when he presided over a

session of the U.N. Security Council last fall -- and that his

administration <a href="http://www.parcbench.com/2010/07/07/o-ministration-dont-prosecute-vote-crimes-where-whites-are-the-victims/" class="rm-stats-tracked">won't prosecute violations of voting laws</a> committed when white people are the victims.Gun Owners of America frequently participates in lawsuits headed for the high court, and its attorney, <a href="http://gunowners.org/a070210.htm" class="rm-stats-tracked">William J. Olson, testified</a>

against the nomination of Elena Kagan to the bench of the high court at

last week's Senate hearings. Likewise, Concerned Women for America also

features an <a href="http://www.cwfa.org/articles/19135/LEGAL/scourt/index.htm" class="rm-stats-tracked">anti-Kagan post</a>

on the front page of its Web site. Not that people aren't entitled to

their opinions, but it seems a bit untoward that the spouse of a sitting

justice is running an organization that forges alliances with groups

arrayed against her husband's next new colleague.But more

disturbing than that is the fact that Ginni Thomas, who shares her life

with one of the most powerful men in the United States government,

should use her social standing to recruit people to rage against the

government in the company of the likes of Larry Pratt.</div></div><div>
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