J. Timothy Gratz

[John Simkin]

My page on "J. Timothy Gratz" is now number one at most of the search-engines. However, Tim has not replied to my email inviting him to join in this debate. Nor have I heard from Tim's lawyers.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKgratzT.htm

[Pat Speer]

My page on "J. Timothy Gratz" is now number one at most of the search-engines. However, Tim has not replied to my email inviting him to join in this debate. Nor have I heard from Tim's lawyers.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKgratzT.htm

Tim sent me an email complaining that he'd tried to sign on but was unable. I assured him it was a mis-communication. Does he need to respond to your email before he can sign on?

[John Simkin]

Tim sent me an email complaining that he'd tried to sign on but was unable. I assured him it was a mis-communication. Does he need to respond to your email before he can sign on?

No, he just logs in the same way as he did before.

[Shanet Clark]

He threatened to sue me in federal court for libel........

He wasted a lot of our time and energy and I am not interested in

reading his long, boring and insipid postings about how

the communists killed Kennedy.

Beware...........

[John Geraghty]

Any word on Tim's return?

John

[John Simkin]

Any word on Tim's return?

John

No, he has not accepted the invitation to rejoin the forum.

[William Kelly]

Any word on Tim's return?

John

No, he has not accepted the invitation to rejoin the forum.

I heard from him back in February, when he said he was putting together a fundraising event for an anti-Slavery coalition that was held in late March, and he would be busy until then. (Did you know that 40% of the world's chocholate comes from Africa where the factories are full of enslaved children?).

He said he kept monitoring the forum however.

While we are on different sides of the political fence, I get along with JTG.

BK

[Greg Parker]

Any word on Tim's return?

John

No, he has not accepted the invitation to rejoin the forum.

I heard from him back in February, when he said he was putting together a fundraising event for an anti-Slavery coalition that was held in late March, and he would be busy until then. (Did you know that 40% of the world's chocholate comes from Africa where the factories are full of enslaved children?).

He said he kept monitoring the forum however.

While we are on different sides of the political fence, I get along with JTG.

BK

Bill, whilst that anti-slavery message sounds all warm and cuddly, it is being used by certain groups as a "front". The real targets are the usual ones of the religious right: abortion, gay marriage etc.

I have a sneaking respect for the Timster, too... but it's always the same old game with certain groups...

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/states/south_dakota/

[Terry Mauro]

Any word on Tim's return?

John

No, he has not accepted the invitation to rejoin the forum.

I heard from him back in February, when he said he was putting together a fundraising event for an anti-Slavery coalition that was held in late March, and he would be busy until then. (Did you know that 40% of the world's chocholate comes from Africa where the factories are full of enslaved children?).

He said he kept monitoring the forum however.

While we are on different sides of the political fence, I get along with JTG.

BK

******************************************************************

"I heard from him back in February, when he said he was putting together a fund raising event for an Anti-Slavery coalition that was held in late March, and he would be busy until then. (Did you know that 40% of the world's chocolate comes from Africa where the factories are full of enslaved children?)."

Now, that's a noble stance for someone to take. And, very un-fascistic, characteristically speaking. See, I knew we'd eventually have a good influence on T.G. Good for him!

"While we are on different sides of the political fence, I get along with JTG."

I feel the same way. I've always respected his opinion regardless of whether it was different from mine simply because he was polite, articulate, and intellectually astute in getting his point across without resorting to hysterical rebuttal. I actually learned a great deal from reading T.G.'s posts. He also had a great sense of humor, as well. I thought he had shown great promise in his willingness to acquiesce and see the other side of the coin when successfully refuted. He was a gentleman debater of the first degree. And, if someone had been taking pot-shots at me concerning my career, I'd have wanted to sue them for slander and libel, as well. Rock on, T.G.!

[Greg Parker]

Any word on Tim's return?

John

No, he has not accepted the invitation to rejoin the forum.

I heard from him back in February, when he said he was putting together a fundraising event for an anti-Slavery coalition that was held in late March, and he would be busy until then. (Did you know that 40% of the world's chocholate comes from Africa where the factories are full of enslaved children?).

He said he kept monitoring the forum however.

While we are on different sides of the political fence, I get along with JTG.

BK

******************************************************************

"I heard from him back in February, when he said he was putting together a fund raising event for an Anti-Slavery coalition that was held in late March, and he would be busy until then. (Did you know that 40% of the world's chocolate comes from Africa where the factories are full of enslaved children?)."

Now, that's a noble stance for someone to take. And, very un-fascistic, characteristically speaking. See, I knew we'd eventually have a good influence on T.G. Good for him!

Terry, if you believe that, I have a bridge and an opera house for sale in Sydney at bargain prices. They are using the "anti-slavery" message to push their real agenda: abortion and gay marriage.

"While we are on different sides of the political fence, I get along with JTG."

I feel the same way. I've always respected his opinion regardless of whether it was different from mine simply because he was polite, articulate, and intellectually astute in getting his point across without resorting to hysterical rebuttal. I actually learned a great deal from reading T.G.'s posts. He also had a great sense of humor, as well. I thought he had shown great promise in his willingness to acquiesce and see the other side of the coin when successfully refuted. He was a gentleman debater of the first degree. And, if someone had been taking pot-shots at me concerning my career, I'd have wanted to sue them for slander and libel, as well. Rock on, T.G.!

Edited April 13, 2007 by Greg Parker

[Dixie Dea]

Count me in too! I also like JTG and found him to be all that Terry mentioned. I do not agree with all he says, but the same goes for a few others here. Yet, that does not mean that I disagree with all things they say. I have missed Tim too.

____________

Dixie

[John Dolva]

There are likely other factors at play behind this.

When one talks Cocoa in Africa it is basically the Ivory Coast.

There is ethnic tension there.

90% of the cocoa is produced by small farms. Over the past half century there has been a drift to the Ivory Coast and "who is a citizen" is an issue. The slave children seem to be from outside the Ivory Coast (Mali) and even through repatriated in some degree, they (apparently) willingly make their way back to the work they had in the Ivory Coast.

FACTBOX-Key facts on Ivorian rebel leader Guillaume Soro

Sat 7 Apr 2007 9:51 AM ET

April 7 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's President Laurent Gbagbo named a new government led by rebel leader Guillaume Soro on Saturday under a deal to reunite the country after a civil war.

Following are some key facts on Soro:

* Born on May 8, 1972, to parents of modest means in the village of Diawala, in the far north of Ivory Coast, near the border with Mali. His full name is Guillaume Soro Kigbafori and he says that his last name means invincible in his native Senoufou language.

* As secretary-general of the FESCI* student federation, he spent a short term in prison in 1997 after being arrested for inciting student "disobedience". Later Soro went to France to study law. * In 2000 he returned to Ivory Coast and was asked to head the youth wing of the political party of the man who became his arch enemy, current President Laurent Gbagbo.

* After a September 2002 rebellion against Gbagbo which triggered the civil war, Soro was named secretary-general of the rebel Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI).

-- In December 2002, Soro's MPCI combined with two other rebel groups -- the Ivorian Popular Movement of the Great West (MPIGO) and the Movement for Justice and Peace (MJP) -- to form the Forces Nouvelles (New Forces). Soro became secretary-general of the group.

* Interim Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny included two rebel leaders in the government in 2005. Soro was named minister of reconstruction and reinsertion while his deputy, Louis Dakoury Tabley, was made minister of war victims.

* Soro and Gbagbo signed a peace deal in March 2007 and agreed to appoint a new transitional government within five weeks. Gbagbo named Soro prime minister, replacing Banny.

*FESCI - A recent U.N. report name the FESCI as one of several pro-government militia groups that took part in the brutal repression of an opposition demonstration...More than 100 people were killed in the violence that the United Nations blames on Ivory Coast's highest authorities.

Some students have tried to set up their own associations, acting at their own peril.

One of the organizers, Habib Dodo, who was also the head of the youth wing of a communist party, was found dead (June 2004) last month at a side of a road, his body stuffed into a cocoa bag.

[Terry Mauro]

Any word on Tim's return?

John

No, he has not accepted the invitation to rejoin the forum.

I heard from him back in February, when he said he was putting together a fundraising event for an anti-Slavery coalition that was held in late March, and he would be busy until then. (Did you know that 40% of the world's chocholate comes from Africa where the factories are full of enslaved children?).

He said he kept monitoring the forum however.

While we are on different sides of the political fence, I get along with JTG.

BK

Bill, whilst that anti-slavery message sounds all warm and cuddly, it is being used by certain groups as a "front". The real targets are the usual ones of the religious right: abortion, gay marriage etc.

I have a sneaking respect for the Timster, too... but it's always the same old game with certain groups...

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/states/south_dakota/

*********************************************************

"Bill, whilst that anti-slavery message sounds all warm and cuddly, it is being used by certain groups as a "front". The real targets are the usual ones of the religious right: abortion, gay marriage etc."

We must've been posting at the same exact time, Greg. I never saw this before posting my reply. If this is the case then that's too bad. I just wish T.G. would come back clue us in, but why should he even want to bother. I guess we're probably "small time" to him by now, anyway.

[Pat Speer]

Any word on Tim's return?

John

No, he has not accepted the invitation to rejoin the forum.

I heard from him back in February, when he said he was putting together a fundraising event for an anti-Slavery coalition that was held in late March, and he would be busy until then. (Did you know that 40% of the world's chocholate comes from Africa where the factories are full of enslaved children?).

He said he kept monitoring the forum however.

While we are on different sides of the political fence, I get along with JTG.

BK

Bill, whilst that anti-slavery message sounds all warm and cuddly, it is being used by certain groups as a "front". The real targets are the usual ones of the religious right: abortion, gay marriage etc.

I have a sneaking respect for the Timster, too... but it's always the same old game with certain groups...

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/states/south_dakota/

*********************************************************

"Bill, whilst that anti-slavery message sounds all warm and cuddly, it is being used by certain groups as a "front". The real targets are the usual ones of the religious right: abortion, gay marriage etc."

We must've been posting at the same exact time, Greg. I never saw this before posting my reply. If this is the case then that's too bad. I just wish T.G. would come back clue us in, but why should he even want to bother. I guess we're probably "small time" to him by now, anyway.

I can assure those in doubt that Tim's commitment to the anti-slavery cause is genuine. He's been telling me about it for months. The links he's sent me have mostly been related to the film "Amazing Grace," an historical epic about William Wilberforce's campaign to end the slave trade in England. While some of the supporters of the anti-slavery cause are right-wing churches, with an anti gay and anti-abortion agenda, none of the links he's sent me have said anything about this.

See for yourself:

www.freedomdaykeywest.com

www.onevoicetoendslavery.com

www.ijm.org

[John Simkin]

I was also taken in by Tim Gratz’s “Southern Gentleman” image when he first joined the forum. His brand of “compassionate conservatism” that was at the time being promoted by his leader, George Bush, was fairly convincing. However, he found it difficult to play that role for any length of time. Every so often he revealed his right-wing, religious fundamentalism. For example, when the 16 year old Nic Martin mentioned that she would consider having an abortion if she got pregnant. His attacks on her drove her from the forum.

Then there was the defence of the South American death squads. According to Tim, as long as you could label the victims as “communists” it did not matter.

His postings about the communists being behind the assassination of JFK were very entertaining but they no doubt had some influence on the politically illiterate who read the forum.

Tim took every opportunity to express his sympathy for the plight of black Americans. But where was he when it mattered. He was a member of the Young Americans of Freedom who during the 1960s attempted to label civil rights leaders as “communists”. This was an organization that considered Richard Nixon as left-wing and the main objective of the organization was to get Barry Goldwater elected so that he could start using nuclear weapons in Vietnam. As the recently published correspondence of its founder William Buckley show, the purpose of YAF was to promote neo-fascist governments in the Americas, in an attempt to destroy the threat of communism in the US.

Some members of the forum carried out research into J. Timothy Gratz. It was no real surprise to find out that in the 1970s he was involved in dirty tricks campaigns against the Democrats and that he was eventually debarred as a lawyer because of his dubious behaviour.

When this information was posted he threatened members with legal action. He also made similar threats against William Turner, the journalist who originally provided the information to Richard E. Sprague (The Taking of America) that Tim was involved with Donald Segretti and Dennis Cassini in supplying money to Arthur Bremer before he attempted to assassinate George Wallace.

My posting of this information led to more threats of legal action. Of course this never happened. If you type in “J Timothy Gratz” in Google you will find my page on Tim as number one. Yet, I am still to hear from Tim’s lawyers.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKgratzT.htm

However, I suspect the real reason Tim does not return is that he is no longer able to defend the policies of George Bush. Do you remember his endless posts about his support for Bush’s invasion of Iraq? No wonder Tim is in hibernation. He is lying low until the next election when he will return to smear the Democrat candidate (don’t you remember his posts about John Kerry in the last election).