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Von Brunn's Site Was Transferred Out Of His Name June 1
The registration for James Von Brunn's now-defunct white supremacist website, HolyWesternEmpire.org, was transferred out of Von Brunn's name on June 1, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The information, which SPLC obtained through a search of online records, suggests that Von Brunn was at the time planning the attack on the Holocaust Museum of which he is now suspected, and may have wanted to ensure that the site continued.
Heidi Beirich of the SPLC told TPMmuckraker that on June 1 the site was transferred from Von Brunn's name into that of Steve Reimink, of West Olive, Michigan. Searches of online records by others confirm that the site was registered to Reimink at the time of the shooting yesterday.
Reimink's email address begins "steveo1488." Both 14 and 88 are numbers of particular significance in neo-nazi culture. Von Brunn also at time used the number 88 after his name.
A woman named Patti Thompson, who is listed as a coordinator for the Ron Paul campaign in Michigan, shares the phone number that's given for Reimink in the domain records for the site -- and who appears to be his girlfriend.
Josh
Zachary
Transferring a domain generally requires consent from the recipient. So if the FBI doesn't take a serious look at what Reimink knew and when, they'll be falling down on the job with malice aforethought.
June 11, 2009 10:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
This website registration, and people involved was discussed in the TPM comments yesterday.
Apparently, one TPM commenter actually called Reimink and Thompson at the website's registed number - and made a recording.
Here's the comment:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/06/von_brunn_revered_by_some_neo-nazis.php#comment-3494678
June 11, 2009 10:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Don't bother following the link to the phone call.
A lady answers who doesn't know anything. That's about it.
June 11, 2009 11:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sunnysteve follows links and listens to recordings, so we don't have to...
Thanks, sunnysteve. ;)
June 11, 2009 12:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, great, now we Michiganians have a few more years of people thinking this state is a haven for kooks. (Sorry, self-serving I know, but it's frustrating to keep hearing about the Michigan Militia every time the media deigns to notice us.)
June 11, 2009 11:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
_FAKE_ "militia".
The legitimate militia has ALWAYS been UNDER law -- not in spite of it. That includes the militia under the Founders/Framers. See as example US Con. Art. I., S. 8, C. 15 and 16.
June 11, 2009 11:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
could it be that "Patty Thompson" is actually Steven Reimink? of the five sons listed in the obit, it looks like four of them have feminine middle names; Lauri, Tammy, Lisa and Patty.
And I found a myspace page for a neo-nazi steveo1488:
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=405772267&page=1
but I don't know if it's the same one. an interesting note is that the myspace steveo1488 has a non-white child. very odd for a white supremacist...
June 11, 2009 11:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Often in Obits spouses names are listed that way
June 11, 2009 11:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think that's the case here:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Timothy-Lauri-Reimink/702260291
June 11, 2009 11:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
So who was actually the Ron Paul coordinator for Michigan last Fall? Anyone know, or know how to find out?
And what percentage of the roughly 10% of Republican voters in the Presidential primary were these ultra-right whack jobs? Knowing that might give an objective indicator of just how extreme the Republican Party has become.
Also, what percentage of the whack jobs are also evangelicals? Those are generally two different groups, but there is clearly a lot of cross-polinization at the extreme fringe.
June 11, 2009 3:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
So who was actually the Ron Paul coordinator for Michigan last Fall? Anyone know, or know how to find out?
And what percentage of the roughly 10% of Republican voters who voted for Ron Paul in the Presidential primary were these ultra-right whack jobs? Knowing that might give an objective indicator of just how extreme the Republican Party has become.
Also, what percentage of the proto-fascist whack jobs are also evangelicals like Dr. Tilley's murderer? Those are generally two different groups, but there is clearly a lot of cross-pollenization at the extreme fringe. Certainly in methods.
And where does Michelle Bachman fit into this group? Or Florida's Katherine Harris, for that matter?
June 11, 2009 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry about the dual post. I only hit submit once, I swear. I was Previewing and editing for clarity.
June 11, 2009 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Remember "Mark from Michigan," from around the time of the Oklahoma City terrorist attack?
He's in jail, but his house was surrounded by (in addition to the dead cars and other junk) Ron Paul signage all last summer and fall.
June 11, 2009 11:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, that is weird, very interesting.
June 11, 2009 12:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, my great state's perennial crop of rightwing freaks gets in the news again. West Olive is a tiny town just north of Holland, near the shores of Lake Michigan, just west of Grand Rapids. It's an area that I'd worry about driving through, what with the Obama sticker on my car.
June 11, 2009 12:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why are you still using the picture showing the murderer as younger?
June 11, 2009 12:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've got to comment on the incredibly inadequate coverage of this story on the NPR website, and on the bizarrely uninformative coverage yesterday on the radio. By late afternoon yesterday it was made abundantly clear on TPM and other sites and blogs that Von Brunn had deep and longstanding ties with anti-Semitic and racist individuals and organizations, yet on the national 7:30 roundup of news events that ran on my local NPR affiliate, there was absolutely no mention of this. There was only the mention that the authorities were treating this as a hate crime. Gee, thanks. That really gives us a complete picture.
I then went to the NPR website wondering if they were covering the story in greater depth. There was only the barest coverage of his past extremist activities, no indication of his extensive links to white supremacist organizations, and most amazingly, it referred to his attitudes with the word "vitriol." Neither the phrase "anti-Semitic" or the word "racist" appear once in the article. It does helpfully talk about his experiences in art school, though. As of a few minutes ago, that article is still up, unchanged, and now is buried down on the NPR front page.
National Useless Radio: don't worry about leaving home without it.
June 11, 2009 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, you have to consider, NPR doesn't want to display it's left-wing bias by reporting things that actually happend.
By ignoring the right-wing connections of this particular killer, NPR is building it's "fair-and-balanced" creds.
June 11, 2009 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
And then there was the time, about twenty years ago I think, that someone blew up the NPR radio transmission tower in Dallas. That kind of thing as a long term effect on organizations.
June 11, 2009 3:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
wimps!
j/k. It actually amazes me the number of people who are willing to stand up and take a beating in the name of justice.
June 15, 2009 1:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
I would think someone would name a site Holywesternempire to trash or mock the West, but not to worship and defend it.
June 11, 2009 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
These folks are more earnest than you or I.
June 11, 2009 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
It seems that Ron Paul's Campaign For Liberty has been infiltrated by far-right extremists. A local coordinator for the Illinois chapter is a one-time member of the Legion of Justice, referred to in congressional hearings in the 1970s as a right-wing terrorist group. Here's the link: http://americanfraud.com/orvillebrettman.aspx
June 11, 2009 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Infiltrated"? It's based on right-wing extremists. Paul isn't a neo-Nazi by any means, but he's pretty far out there with a lot of the right-wing conspiracy crowd. For some reason a lot of liberals got endeared to him because he was practically the only Republican opposed to the war, but they never looked into what else he believed in. He's an outright wackaloon.
June 11, 2009 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
The big story here is Ron Paul's connections. How will he answer his association with these people? I think it is time for DHS to interview Mr. Paul. This is not the first time that Pauls name has been brought up for racist ties.
June 11, 2009 1:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fox News' coverage of these recent shooting is quite peculiar.
I think many will see this as race baiting, but I think this blogger may be on to something.
Read the this post below, and you will see, that Fox is racist when it comes to what stories they highlight.
http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=1714
I really think this idea of Fox and their coverage needs to start getting out in the mainstream
June 11, 2009 1:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
The domestic terrorist appear to be more of a danger to the country than the foreign ones. They have a strong voice in FOX News, Rush Limbaugh, Hannity, Oreilly, Malkin, Allen Keys, Hewitt, Savage and many more. Their hate is spread day after day by these un-Americans.
June 11, 2009 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
How much time should have been devoted to reporting the Holocaust Museum Shooting?
http://www.youpolls.com/details.asp?pid=5499
.
June 11, 2009 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I would think someone would name a site Holywesternempire to trash or mock the West, but not to worship and defend it.
Posted by tchamp77
these guys don't do 'nuance,' amigo. One doesn't satirize an opponent with a high-powered rifle.
June 11, 2009 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Zachary Roth wrote "A woman named Patti Thompson" but the spelling on the Ron Paul link is Patty. And the spelling of one of the sons' name in the obituary is Patty.
Unless someone has a photograph of a Patti, then I'd wager the identity of the woman who answered the door is unknown.
June 11, 2009 3:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Also noticed that Patty's email adress is PattyT04162. What is the significance of the capital TO and what is the significance of 4162? These are not 14 or 88 or 4-20.
June 11, 2009 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
According to wiki, TO is white supremacist for The Order.
Google says that 4,162 is the number of deployed strategic warheads Russia reported to have under tha 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). START expires on December 5, 2009. But that certainly may not be related to Patty's email address.
I have searched for April 1 ,1962, and January 4, 1962 in case it is a date, but I have not found any interesting coincidences.
June 11, 2009 4:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Use the internet way back machine
http://www.archive.org/web/web.php
to see many copies of the site
http://www.holywesternempire.org/
All the way back to 02/03/02
Big fun. If Bush were president, would we be invading Michigan's backwoods now?
June 11, 2009 4:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
From the 88 Precepts of white supremacists, 4, 1, 6, and 2 are not all that interesting, but take a gander at 41 and 62:
41. The folk, namely the members of the race, are the Nation. Racial loyalties must always supersede geographical and national boundaries. If this is taught and understood, it will end fratricidal wars. Wars must not be fought for the benefit of another race.
62. The organic founding Law of a Nation must state with unmistakable and irrevocable specificity the identity of the homogeneous racial, cultural group for whose welfare it was formed, and that the continued existence of the Nation is singularly for all time for the welfare of that specific group only.
June 11, 2009 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why did Zachary spell it Patti? Does he have a source to back that up or did he just think it was cuter? He links to a damned site that spells it Tammy and then writes for all of us to read the word Tammi. I have to say WTF?
June 11, 2009 4:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
More...it's not capital TO. It is capital T zero. T is probably Thompson. So the number is 04162
June 11, 2009 5:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
As someone who thought Ron Paul has good intentions, I now wonder how his campaign was really staffed?
June 12, 2009 1:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Von Brunn was also connected with (now deceased) nut-bag "Birdman" Bryant, who insisted he was a libertarian, but was basically a Nazi.
http://www.thebirdman.org/
(von Brunn mentioned in the links section).
June 12, 2009 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink