Eccentric Letter from Republican Gets It Wrong

This letter from a Republican tries again to tie me to MoveOn.org and even tries to trot out the idea that my activities are "well-funded" by MoveOn. So, just to set the record straight, I am a member of MoveOn. However they have not given me one penny. I have no connection to MoveOn other than being on their mailing list and I have hosted several of their events at my home and at Joe Knollenberg's office.

These Republican attacks are so ridiculous they border on the insane. But what is one to expect from the party of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John McCain and Karl Rove? Dirty tricks, unfounded attacks, torture, warrantless wiretapping, endless war in Iraq. If you aren't outraged, then you aren't paying attention.

A bumpy ride

Your opinion page of April 17 has another letter from Bruce Fealk bad-mouthing Rep. Knollenberg. It is reported that he is well-funded by MoveOn.org, which is backed by George Soros, not exactly friendly to America.

Its goal is to target Knollenberg and others who don't agree with its ultra-liberal biased agenda. So we know what to expect from here to election and as expressed by Bette Davis in one of her movies: "Button your seat belt. We're in for a bumpy ride."

Julius A. Becker

Fealk Wins Progressive Activist of the Year Award

Yesterday at the Michigan Progress Summit in Lansing, Christine Barry and Jim Hightower presented me with the first annual Progressive Activist of the Year Award. I'm honored to be the first recipient of this award. The award was created by Blogging for Michigan.

Michigan Messenger covers the 9th District Race

Democrats target Knollenberg in the state's hottest congressional race
by: Kevin Shopshire
Tuesday (04/15) at 19:30 PM

The U.S. congressional race for Michigan's 9th District is shaping up as a microcosm of the presidential election in Michigan: an evenly divided red-blue battleground whose recent voting patterns closely follow national trends. The contest has already seen angry confrontations between the candidates' supporters, dueling videographers seeking damning footage, and now a candidate with the nickname "Dr. Death."

The incumbent, U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Bloomfield Hills, is seeking his ninth term in the House. He faces a challenge from Gary Peters, a Democratic former state senator and lottery commissioner. Dr. Jack Kevorkian, famous for assisting more than 100 patients who wanted to commit suicide, announced in March his intention to run as an independent.

The district lies in Oakland County, a suburban area northwest of Detroit that also encompasses the city of Pontiac.

"Oakland County has been considered Republican, and most of the county commissioners are Republicans," said Glenn Clark, chair of the Republican party in the 9th Congressional District. The decision by Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama not to campaign in Michigan for the primary, coupled with the decision by the Democratic National Committee not to seat Michigan's presidential delegation in retaliation for moving up the presidential primary in violation of party rules, has further encouraged Knollenberg supporters.

"The district went for [Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John] Kerry in the last election," counters Democratic activist Bruce Fealk."It is definitely a swing district."
CLICK HERE for the rest of the story

Political activist facing charges

Bruce Fealk's testimony in front of the State Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education Funding

On Friday, February 22, 2008, I drove 4 hours round trip and spent approximately 3 hours on campus at Alma College to have an opportunity to respond to Dennis Lennox's ridiculous assertion that the state delay funding CMU's education budget in response to the hiring of Gary Peters as the Griffin Endowment professor in the political science department.

West Bloomfield Eccentric: Congressional Election Could Hinge on Outsiders

Congressional election could hinge on outsiders
By Annette Kingsbury
STAFF WRITER

In the 1860s, Abraham Lincoln suffered the slings and arrows of nasty political cartoons. In 1964, a black-and-white TV ad showed a mushroom cloud over a child picking daisies, implying that presidential candidate Barry Goldwater would use the nuclear bomb in Vietnam.

In the digital age, you don't have to have money, access to the media or party connections to make waves in politics. Anyone with a camera phone and Internet access can get involved in a big way.

Rochester Hills retiree Bruce Fealk has forced people to pay attention to his campaign to unseat incumbent Congressman Joe Knollenberg, R-Bloomfield Township. A liberal, Fealk has put up his own Web sites, hosts a cable TV show and engages in good old-fashioned demonstrating, such as showing up at the Rochester Christmas parade in a big papier mache likeness of Knollenberg.

Michign Progress

Retire Joe Knollenberg

CLICK HERE for the rest of the story.

Detroit News notes Albright hire by Knollenberg

This article appeared on January 2 in the Detroit News, noting Trent Wisecup's run-in with a camera wielding anti-war activist (me) and gives the link to the video and quotes Joe as saying Craig Albright is a professional, maybe implying Trent wasn't so professional?

It looks like rather than take a new tack, Joe prefers to stick with someone he knows. I expect that we'll see more of the same from Joe, rather than learning from his mistakes of the past. That's good news for Gary Peters, his expected opponent in the 2008 general election. This being Joe's last campaign, I'm glad Joe at least isn't going to turn into a Mitt Romney flip-flopper. Oh, did I mention Joe endorsed Romney?

Rep. Knollenberg hires top aide

U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Bloomfield Hills, announced today that he's hired a new chief of staff, Craig Albright, who's worked in Republican politics since the mid-1990s and who's also getting ready to be a first-time dad.

Knollenberg is expected to face another barnburner of a race. He's targeted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He'll face the winner of the Democratic match between former Michigan lottery commissioner Gary Peters and Nancy Skinner, who held Knollenberg to an unimpressive 52-percent victory in 2006.

The already hot feelings in the race were captured on video and posted on YouTube in October. Knollenberg's chief of staff at the time, Trent Wisecup, got into a testy exchange with a camera-wielding anti-war activist. The video has now been watched 47,696 times. Afterwards, Wisecup announced he had gone on paid medical leave to seek treatment for a mood-swing disorder. Knollenberg's office said Wisecup is no longer employed either on the congressional or campaign staff.

"I'm excited to have Craig on board," Knollenberg said in a statement. "He's a true professional and effective at getting things done. It's rare to find someone with extensive knowledge of both my congressional district and Washington, DC."

Albright grew up in Birmingham and has a BA in economics from Michigan State University.

He worked as a legislative aide in the Michigan state legislature before Knollenberg hired him from 1997 to 2005 (including as campaign manager in 2002). He then worked for Vice President Cheney as deputy assistant for legislative affairs and for President Bush as special assistant for legislative affairs.

VIDEO: Joe NOllenGrinch at the Rochester Christmas Parade

Sorry this is a little out of order, but my computer was sick. Here's some video from Joe NOllenGrinch's visit to the Rochester Christmas parade on December 2. We also passed out flyers, urging people to send in a form to Joe's campaign office urging him to change his vote on children's health care.

Eccentric: The Strange saga of the 9th District U.S. House Race

This article appeared in the 11/15 edition of the Birmingham, Troy and West Bloomfield Eccentrics. There is one factual correction in regard to the web site that my brother complained about, the e-mails I sent went to my personal e-mail list and it was an invitation to a protest at the Republican debate in Dearborn on October 9. Otherwise, it's kind of amusing and reads like a soap opera. However, I'm glad Greg Kowalski focused on the issues and the fact that Knollenberg has a 33% approval rating and Gary Peters' robust fundraising efforts and his endorsement by the entire Michigan Congressional delegation.

Trent Wiseup's Outburst Covered on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann

Bruce's Letter in Farmington Eccentric

Un-American?

Recently, I had a run-in with Congressman Joe Knollenberg in a local drugstore in Rochester that made it into the local and national media.

I wanted to ask Knollenberg about issues, namely his votes to continue to fund the war in Iraq, even though more and more evidence comes out every day that there is no military solution to the debacle there.

Secondly, I wanted to find out why he voted against expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program that would provide affordable health care to the low end of middle class citizens' children. Joe basically brushed me off and his chief of staff, Trent Wisecup, engaged me and proceeded into a tirade telling me I was un-American and that I was not a citizen, but a "political hack" due to my activism.

Since when do we lose our citizenship for being politically active? In the old days, dissent and activism were revered and admired. Not any more, at least not by Republicans, who think we should all just follow our leaders. Not in these days of the unitary executive (translated dictator) where the president claims more and more power and dissent is now considered un-American.

The Republicans in Michigan assail the governor for Michigan's job losses. Yet, Wisecup in his tirade attacked me, saying I want Toyota to win. Fact is, Toyota is a Michigan employer. Toyota employs 677 people at their York Township facility and Trent's rant attacked a major Michigan employer. Toyota employs several thousand people in the United States and they invested $150 million in their research facility in York Township, Michigan in 2005. It doesn't seem like a good idea, to me, to attack a company with that many good paying jobs that are so hard to come by these days in Michigan.

Joe and Trent are on the wrong side on almost every issue facing middle class Americans. A new poll from CBS News reveals that 81 percent of Americans support expanding SCHIP. Over 70 percent think America should responsibly withdraw from Iraq, but not Congressman Knollenberg, Trent Wisecup or George W. Bush.

I hope more of you will join me in getting up off your butts and make Congressman Knollenberg, Trent Wisecup and those of their ideological ilk accountable to the voters. Joe Knollenberg was elected to be our representative, and he works for us, not the other way around.

Bruce Fealk

Rochester Hills

Keith Olberman covers Trent's rant

Last night on Keith Olbermann's show on MSNBC, Countdown, Keith Olbermann did a feature story about Trent Wisecup's rant in Rochester on Saturday.


Great job Keith and Rachel Maddow from Air America.

Bruce on The Young Turks

I made an appearance on The Young Turks this morning. Here's the video.

Trent Wisecup tells us what it means to be an American

October 15, 2007Read More: Campaigns
Trent Wisecup tells us what it means to be an American
from Politico.com

Fresh off his confrontation with Bruce Fealk, an anti-war activist with MoveOn.org, Trent Wisecup, chief of staff to Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-Mich.), has responded to The Crypt's suggestion that he was not the person to decide what is and is not "American." See the previous post and video to see why this (unbelievably) is an issue. And yes, it is still 2007, you are not flashing back to1967.

So here is Wisecup's view on what is "pro" and "anti" American, and please remember, he came up with this list on his own:
"Per Politico’s blog on my run-in with Moveon.org, I will define what’s un-American for you. It’s un-American to wage a political protest of a congressman’s wife at her home. It’s un-American to disturb a congressman’s neighbors with weird anti-war tactics while our soldiers are deployed overseas fighting radical Islam.

It’s un-American to cheer for the imposition of $85 billion of Nancy Pelosi CAFÉ mandates that would destroy the American car companies and the good-paying UAW jobs they provide. It’s un-American to use bullying, gotcha political tactics that scare female congressional staffers. It’s un-American to use stalking and harassment as a means to score cheap political points. True Americans make their political arguments with vigor, honor and pride. I have looked the Moveon.org movement in the eye and I speak with certainty that this element does not want America to win in Iraq. It does want Toyota to beat GM and the other American car companies. And it wants all Americans to pay higher taxes to support more government welfare.
Higher taxes + more government welfare = a weaker America.

I was raised by grandparents who revered FDR and Truman. They lived through the Great Depression. I know how great the Democratic Party used to be. It’s not meeting that standard today. And they have Michael Moore, Daily Kos, and Moveon.org to thank for it. Let the battle for the definition of what it means to be a true American be joined. You have my two cents. Let others weigh in on the Internet. I am copying Congressman Knollenberg’s staff on this email … because they’ve been pushed around by these Moveons for the better part of two years and they don’t want to take it any more."

Bruce is interviewed on The Big Show, WJIM

I was interviewed on WJIM this morning regarding the giant head of Joe Knollenberg and our town hall meeting on August 28 at Pontiac Central High School at 7 p.m.
Here's the first part of the interview.

Then Mark Brewer and Saul Anuzis debated the tactic and other incidents with the Republicans. Click here for the audio of the debate.