Once upon a time in America, there was a plucky corporate propagandist/actor and he ran for President.
No, not Ronald Wilson Reagan.
FRED DALTON THOMPSON, SR.
As a lobbyist, "FRED THOMPSON would whore himself out for anyone that had money," said one Tennessee lawyer. Now "FRAUDULENT FRED" is running for President of the United States of America.
FRED DALTON THOMPSON, SR. is a fine American actor, whose movie and TV roles are often variations on himself.
He's played crusty good 'ole boy Establishment figures since he played himself (representing a Tennessee whistleblower in the movie "Marie"). His roles include bigoted demagogue (in an arc of the TV series WISEGUY), a reflection of his own views (talking about "special rights" in one TV interview about Gays).
Thompson has played military, corporate and civilian leaders, whose other character flaws and anti-social behaviors range from murders and mayhem (WISEGUY) to marketing autos knowing they had incendiary gas tanks ("Class Action") to interfering with Clint Eastwood's ability to protect the President ("In the Line of Fire").
Nearly everyone in America recognizes FRED DALTON THOMPSON's face. Few know him for his fierce clients, or for his family lobbying.
Today's New York Times reports how, in real life, FRED DALTON THOMPSON, SR. lobbied for anyone who would hire him, ranging from WESTINGHOUSE CORPORATION (trying to save the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Project or CRBRP), which wasted $1.7 billion in federal funds until killed in 1983. FRED DALTON THOMPSON, SR. also represented the Tennessee Savings & Loan League, weakening federal laws, allowing unsound and unsafe practices that required a multi-billion dollar federal bailout. THOMPSON also represented Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide; a Teamster pension fund; and an insurance company with asbestos liabilities.
Today's NY Times reports how FRED DALTON THOMPSON's two sons in effect joined the family business.
FRED DALTON THOMPSON, JR. a/k/a "TONY" THOMPSON and DANIEL THOMPSON are sons of FRED DALTON THOMPSON, SR.
DANIEL THOMPSON was a Xerox (R) salesman when his father was elected Senator. DANIEL THOMPSON became a state aide and then Director of the TENNESSEE BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE and now works for a charitable fundraising firm owned by Douglas M. Lawson.
FRED DALTON THOMPSON's other son, former landscaper TONY THOMPSON, is like me a graduate of Memphis State University Law School. TONY THOMPSON represented the world's largest arms merchant, LOCKHEED MARTIN, in its lengthy but unsuccessful efforts to renew contracts to operate five badly mismanaged Government-owned, Contractor-operated (GOCO) nuclear weapons, enrichment and research plants in Tennessee Kentucky, and Ohio, with 20,000 employees.
Whistleblowers won and LOCKHEED MARTIN was run out of town, replaced by other contractors at the five nuclear facilities.
While LOCKHEED watched anxiously,
in 2000, FRED DALTON THOMPSON, SR. helped enact the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act (EEOICA), a federal law to give $150,000 lump sum payment checks to nuclear weapons plant workers and their survivors. The "CONpensation" scheme involves no open hearings, no sworn testimony, no discovery, no independent adjudicators, no appeals or judicial review. Lacking basic Due Process guarantees. EEOICA is one of a series of repressive phony compensation laws adopted for persons exposed to radiation and other toxic materials from nuclear weapons, including Marshall Islanders, downwinders and uranium miners. The National Security State bought off its radiation victims cheaply (at varying rates of lump-sum CONpensation), with varying requirements, including idiosyncratic, county-by-county coverage for downwinders.
In the Oak Ridger newspaper and elsewhere in 2000, I asked United States Senator FRED DALTON THOMPSON, SR. some 52 questions about his EEOICA proposal in 2000 -- the only one he ever answered was who wrote the bill. THOMPSON admitted his bill was written by the Department of Energy. My 100-page testimony is in the March 22, 2000 hearing, but there was no time for me to speak live. Three Oak Ridge workers were given three minutes each to state their case; then Congress rubber-stamped the DOE CONpensation bill, which Energy Secretary Bill Richardson also plumped for (Richardson is also running for President).
DOE's biggest contractor was once LOCKHEED MARTIN, whose lobbyist was TONY THOMPSON.
It appears that LOCKHEED MARTIN was a major beneficiary of the EEOICA law, which forced workers to give up their right to sue DOE contractors like LOCKHEED MARTIN as a condition of getting $150,000 checks.
For more information on FRAUDULENT FRED THOMPSON's EEOICA bill, please see
1. DOE’s Toxic, Hostile Working Environment Violates Human Rights," March 22, 2000 U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs Committee,
2. Compensating Americans’ Toxic Injuries from U.S. Nuclear Weapons Production: The 106th Congress Should Reject DOE’s ‘Trojan Horse Bill, (September 21, 2000 written statement to U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims), together with three attachments: Fact Sheet, Section-By-Section Analysis and Text of Proposed Legislation Covering All DOE Victims and Repealing Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) Discretionary Function Loophole for Ultrahazardous Activities, and draft Nuclear Weapons Workers, Atomic Veterans and Residents Compensation and Health Act (NWWAVARCHA) of 2000,
3. Why Not the Best Compensation System For All Nuclear Weapons Victims? (April 6, 2000),
Today's Times quotes a New York University law professor Paul C. Light as stating, lobbying by family members is an "ugly practice no matter who the senator is, because it creates the impresion that his family is exploiting his stature and position."
For more on the ugliness that is the sequelae of the THOMPSON's influence, please see:
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