Wisconsin GOP, Iron County Want Native American Mining Protesters Out

County District Attorney Martin Lipske.

But there is nothing funny about Iron County officials again trying to drum up racist resentment against the Lac Courte Oreilles band of Ojibwe.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin front-group, Media Trackers, and its Republican writer, Brian Sikma, are attacking a wooded campsite because it's calling attention to the proposed open-pit mine, owned by Gogebic Taconite for whom Wisconsin Republicans wrote a mining bill rushed through on a party-line vote earlier this year.

Writes Lee Bergquist this morning:

An attorney for Iron County says that a wooded campsite that's been a hub for opponents of a proposed iron-ore mine is violating county ordinances by exceeding the timeline that such a gathering can take place.

Michael Pope, corporation counsel for Iron County, said Thursday that the harvest camp organized by the Lac Courte Oreilles band of Lake Superior Chippewa has exceeded a two-week limit for such gatherings.

But Paul DeMain, a spokesman for the camp, said Iron County officials have raised no questions about the legality of the tent community directly with tribal leaders. He suggested the issue is politically motivated, as debate over mining shows no sign of abating.

Wisconsin Republicans like Sikma and Iron County officials should give it up.

The Lac Courte Oreilles band of the Ojibwe operate at a level of commitment that Republicans like Brian Sikma simply cannot understand.

Harassment will be laughed off.

Iron County DA Has History of Professional Misconduct, Suspension of License for Discipline

Iron County District Attorney Martin Lipske's
law license was suspended for two years in 1990.
Lipske's  license was suspended four times
between 1985 and 1990 as well

Updated - Steven Verburg and the editors of the Wisconsin State Journal either have not vetted Iron County DA Martin Lipske as a credible source or do not care about Lipske's shady history of practicing law in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin corporate press is playing stenographer to Iron County DA Martin Lipske as Lipske makes pro-mining political statements to the press and threatens to throw the book at a mining protester as he publicly muses about prosecutions of several other Gogebic Taconite mining protesters prior to any criminal complaint or the inception of any law enforcement investigation, the latest careless move in a reckless history of Lipske's, confirmed by the State Bar of Wisconsin this morning.

To this point, the Wisconsin press has failed to report the numerous instances of professional misconduct in Lipske's legal career, treating Lipske's overheated characterization of mining protesters as credible, despite Lipske's slipshod history as an attorney in Wisconsin, as referenced by the State Bar of Wisconsin's history of Lipske's license to practice obtained this morning from the Bar in an e-mail after a phone call, and reproduced below.

Lipske as an attorney had his license to practice law suspended for nearly four years in Wisconsin, and is currently barred from practicing law in Minnesota for numerous ethical violations, including a two-year suspension for discipline involving "dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misconduct."

Lipske is getting a free political ride as Lipske takes political shots at mining protesters in the press in his apparent attempt to criminalize opposition to the proposed, massive Iron mine in northern Wisconsin.

Steven Verburg of the Wisconsin State Journal offers editorial support for the Gogebic Taconite mining interests and its allies like Lipske in his news piece today.

Writes Verburg this morning: "The details on the [alleged criminal] incident help explain why the Gogebic Taconite mining company hired heavily armed security guards from Arizona who wore camouflage and masks, Lipske said."

Is that what Lipske said?

Verburg either has not vetted Lipske as a credible source, or does not care about Lipske's shady history of practicing law in Wisconsin.

The State Bar of Wisconsin confirmed this morning the almost four-year suspension of Lipske's license to practice law from 1990-1994, after a quick phone call.

Iron county in northern Wisconsin has a population of 6,861 people.

Lipske's suspension to practice law was lifted in 1994.

Lipske was "Suspended for Discipline" for two years under the category of "dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misconduct" in 1990, it was reported in the Ironwood Daily Globe (Ralph Ansami), after consultations with the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation.

The State Bar will not provide specifics per its policy, but a press account from the Ironwood Daily Globe (Ansami. September 6, 1994) when Lipske ran for Iron County DA, reads:

Lipske was also sanctioned for failing to provide competent representation, and for neglect of several legal matters.

[Lipske] was suspended from practicing law in both Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Additionally, Lipske had his license to practice law in Wisconsin suspended four times for administrative delinquencies between 1985 to 1988.

Specifically, Lipske was suspended three times for failure to pay dues, and once for failing to obtain a Continuing Legal Education (CLE) requirement in 1985.

The history of Lipske's license to practice is reproduced below.

All of Lipske's suspensions to practice law in Wisconsin have been lifted since 1994.

Currently, Lipske is a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin in good standing.

Further information can also be obtained through the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation.

Iron County DA Martin Lipske License Status (State Bar of Wisconsin)
Atty. Martin Lipske License Status’

10/31/1985 Suspended for CLE (Education requirements)

11/1/1985 Suspended for Dues and CLE

11/7/1985 Suspended for Dues (CLE Lifted)

11/11/1985 Good Standing (All suspensions lifted)

11/3/1986 Suspended for Dues

11/12/1986 Good Standing (All suspensions lifted)

5/11/1988 Suspended for CLE

07/05/1988 Good Standing (All suspensions lifted)

7/1/1990 Suspended for Discipline [emphasis added]

1/19/1994 Good Standing (All suspensions lifted)

Mining Company Deploys New Masked Militiamen

Kate Sheppard has the piece at Mother Jones.

Corporate terror continues as Mining Company deploys new militia -  Image by Jim Limbach

WKOW TV Lets Genocide, Death Threats Fall into Equivalence Fallacy

So dedicated is local broadcast TV news to the proposition that any and all viewpoints are the same that even the Wisconsinites for Safe Mining references to "Genocide" go unmet, amid an explicit death threat now under criminal investigation.

The WKOW reporter, Greg Neumann, means well in his piece.

But what exactly has to be done and said before dumbed-down broadcast news ditches the false equivalence of Conservationists v. Mining, Corporate Militias, and now idiots who think "Genocide" is funny.

Likely, the poster of the "shoot on sight" Facebook post believes he is being funny.

Does Neumann get why it isn't?

Only one side is armed: The mining and militia side
Only one side thinks Genocide is funny:  The mining and militia side
Only one side thinks issues death threat: The mining and militia side

What has to happen before WKOW and other news sites stop treating all sides as equal?

Mining Operation's Supporters Make Online Death Threats

"Shoot on sight," reads Wisconsinites for Safe Mining Facebook page.

Someone get word to local media, this is not bad PR.

This is a reckless death threat, among other moronic chatter.

Do these people even remember who Jared Lee Loughner and former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords are?

What passes for humor among the rightwing can have deadly consequences perpetrated by the armed and hateful.

By Greg Neumann:

[One] Terry Dipper identifies Lisa Wells and three other women as making threats against the [Iron mine site] as justification for the [Bulletproof] guards.

In a post directly follow Dipper's, Wisconsinites For Safe Mining wrote:  "We have initiated a shoot on sight order for the malcontents that you have listed.  Trespassing on a mining site = genocide."

 Trespassing on a mining site = genocide? [sic]

Further comment should be unnecessary, but corporate media will find a way to present a false equivalence between death threats from idiots v. conservationists.

Dump False Equivalence of Conservationists v. Mining, Corporate Militias

Dump anything you want here, just watch the PR message

Wisconsin State Journal needs to begin thinking about the communities of Wisconsin, and forget the silly riffs on PR tactics

Not expecting rigor when I read Wisconsin State Journal editorials but its equating indignant Wisconsin citizens with armed, unlicensed, corporate, and illegal (look it up) militias is ludicrous.

The editorial from the Scott Walker rah-rah sheet concludes: "... [B]oth mining and protesting can proceed as planned."

No.

Actually, many federal laws and regulations have to be followed, and Wisconsin citizens retain their right to free speech, disregarded by Republicans after they sold out Wisconsin.


Yelling obscenities at out-of-state corporations poisoning our land and our water is self-defense.

If you don't agree, why not have your children or your parents drink the wastewater discharge that comes from huge open pit mines like that proposed up north. Personally, I don't drink anything with sulfuric acid.

Have some fish from the poisoned water, which is so predictable, Republicans actually wrote into the statute language that they expect environmental damage, so the numerous coming legal challenges can be met with the argument: We contemplated and wanted this pollution. [See "There are going to be some impacts to the environment above the iron ore body."]

The mine in fact will be stopped. The GOP's stating: We don't care about federal law; that's in the state law our party passed is in fact not an argument that will prevail in federal court.

Doesn't the State Journal have a problem with this? Is the State Journal so out-of-touch now that it can only think about Wisconsin families and communities in terms of good or bad PR?

The State Journal begins, "The message from northern Wisconsin last week was unmistakable: One giant public relations blunder can be topped only by ... another giant public relations blunder."

Firstly, the public has the right, guaranteed access, to the Iron Mine site.

Secondly, opening shop and operating as a private security firm is illegal without a license. It's the law and breaking the law is not a "PR blunder."

Since when is civil a prerequisite to stopping operations like Cline's new outfit Gogebic Taconite, coming in our backyard and poisoning the water and earth? You expect everyone to say, thank you.

No, 'get the hell out,' is appropriate for these trespassers, corporate terrorists like 'Bulletproof,' and the sick minds that would come in and poison families and their environment which they call home.

This is not about PR.

This is about preserving the environment and the health of Wisconsin families.

And these mining operations are in this for the money period.

What do you think, these are committed environmentally conscious, full-employment activists who care only about strengthening Wisconsin communities?

The State Journal needs to begin thinking about the communities of Wisconsin, and not worry about the profits of huge mining conglomerates and its political patrons.

Are you  the Wisconsin State Journal or the Republican State Journal.

Nothing wrong with being a party paper, but be honest about it.