Anti-Americanism is on the Decline.
Shaking my head in disbelief.
I wouldn't be surprised. They act as if they are from an alternative universe. You heard recently that P.Robertson was praying that the maladies of some of the liberal justices would force them to resign from the Sup. Court. Well, they did a poll in TX and the majority there felt it was perfectly normal to ask God to intervene in national politics.
Then there is the conservative up here who year after year since 1998 has put initiatives on the ballot cutting taxes. Two years ago, they found that he was dipping into the money raised for the initiatives' expenses for his own personal use. That was against state law and he was fined. His partners on the initiatives were appalled he would do something like that.
Two years later, he set up an org. that would allow him to take money but he stated he would only do so once the initiative[s] were on the ballot. However, this year's two initiative proposals could not get enough signatures......surprise, surprise....and now he wants to take the money anyway. And another nice surprise.......his two conservative partners who were appalled at his antics two years ago........they're on the take too and want to dip into the money. The hubris!
And then, do you remember the woman who used to live next whose father is a conservative mayor of a TX city. She's the one who ranted to me after 9/11 that I should never have voted for Al Gore. She called him a baby killer and some other choice invectives.
Well, she and her husband and two kids stopped by "to chat" unexpectedly a week ago. Yes, she's long forgotten her rant and the insults she hurled, and she was counting on me not to confront her on the issue again. They count on the civility of others to get away with their sh*t.
In any case, two years ago when they moved, they had sold the house next door for very top dollar. The house had been on the market for over a year and it had become a joke. However, as luck would have it, some people [a couple and a kid] were moving from San Franciso and their broker convinced them to make an offer. The market was hot and they ended up paying full dollar........still it was a huge rip and the couple found that out after they moved in. Within 6 mos, the couple was splitting up and the wife and the kid moved back to SF.
Eventually, the husband lost his job here and ended up going back to SF as well. However, he still harbored some hope that he and his wife would get back together so he rented out the house for a year at a great monthly loss. After a year, his wife filed for divorce and there was no hope so the guy put the house on the market for a little over what he paid for it knowing he would take a loss on the sale.
After three months there had not been an offer so he had to lower the price. Understand with this lowered price, that if it sold, it meant he would have to put money in to close the escrow. At this point he was trying to preserve his good credit. He ended up having to reduce the price one more time before it sold last week. Obviously, the purchase of this house was a total disaster for this guy from the get go.
Prior to the opening of escrow, on the day the proposed new buyer was doing his home walk through with an inspector, the woman from hell shows up with her kids and walks uninvited into the house. She knows all about the bad times the buyer of her house has gone through since he overpaid her for the house but that doesn't stop her from proceeding to tell the new buyer all the new flaws and new defects that have developed since she sold the house two years before. Not only does she pull this horrendous stunt which at a minimum probably resulted in a further reduction in price and could well have jeopardized the sale but she has the unmitigated gall to brag to me about her antics when they come by "to chat" and invite me out their new house in the burbs. She saw her action as a good deed and an example of her unfailing honesty. It was all I could do to keep from punching her in the face.
Like I said earlier, I think these people must be from some alternative universe that has no basis at least in my reality. In fact, I think the term conservative is a bit of a misnomer. I think what would be more apt is anarchist or spoiler.......and they really don't give a damn what others think. That's why Coulter can praise the likes of Nixon or McCarthy. Assuming there is a God, I imagine they are in for a rude awakening when they get to the pearly gates.
ted
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Tuesday, July 8, 2003
'Help Us' with cash, Eyman asks
He acknowledges 'taxpayers' committee is for compensation
By NEIL MODIE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Four days after his latest anti-tax initiative failed to qualify for the fall ballot, Tim Eyman yesterday abandoned his promise not to ask supporters to pay him unless it did qualify.
In an e-mail to supporters and news media, the initiative promoter and his two co-sponsors, Jack and Mike Fagan of Spokane, said the reason too few voters signed Initiative 807 by last Thursday's deadline was the trio's success at preventing the Legislature from raising taxes. His apparent rationale was that the voters therefore saw no need for it.
Given that, and despite their promise to ask to be paid only if I-807 made the November ballot, "we hope our supporters understand our decision to seek compensation anyway," said Eyman, whose e-mails often excoriate politicians for breaking promises and seeking more money from taxpayers.
"We simply can't afford to contribute our time, effort and expertise to these critical battles without being compensated for it," Eyman wrote.
Christian Sinderman, a Seattle political consultant and Eyman's most persistent critic, said: "He's the state's highest-profile panhandler ... Anyone who is truly successful isn't out making excuses and begging for money, and that's what he's doing."
With the failure of both I-807 -- which would have required a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to raise state taxes or fees -- and an earlier Eyman initiative petition, the general election ballot will the first in six years without an initiative sponsored by the Mukilteo wristwatch salesman.
Eyman's e-mail sought to put his spin on his and the Fagans' creation of a new political committee, Help Us Help Taxpayers, after the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Friday that they set it up with the apparent aim of paying themselves from supporters' donations.
"It is a compensation fund for myself and Jack & Mike Fagan," Eyman acknowledged. He said the three will seek supporters' donations to the fund in requests that "will occur regularly and will continue until the end of December." Then the three will divide the money among themselves./b>
The fund is separate from Eyman's campaign committee for his new initiative, which would reduce the state property tax by 25 percent.
Doug Ellis, a spokesman for the state Public Disclosure Commission, said the new political committee is legal, but "it's just the first time we've seen one expressly set up just to pay compensation, if that's what it is. We haven't seen any reports on it except for the registration."
When they launched the I-807 campaign, Eyman and the Fagans promised to take no compensation until and unless the initiative qualified for the ballot because "the top priority must be to use every dollar donated to get the necessary signatures for I-807."
Sinderman suggested that by going back on their promise, Eyman and his associates will be competing with their own initiative campaign for their supporters' money.
"He's slowly bankrupting his organization by enriching himself," the consultant said.
Eyman and the Fagans didn't return phone calls seeking comment.
The three registered Help Us Help Taxpayers with the state June 27, but they didn't admit until yesterday that they created it to pay themselves from supporters' donations.
It is the latest of several Eyman financial machinations designed to profit from support for his tax-limiting initiative campaigns.
The Public Disclosure Commission is investigating an e-mail Eyman sent supporters in May, asking them for checks made out to "Tim Eyman, Taxpayer Advocate." He promised contributors they wouldn't be identified because the donations were "not political donations but are for a legal-defense fund."
He asked for the donations after campaign money and signatures for I-807 had slowed dramatically from his previous years' efforts.
Last year he was accused in a lawsuit by the state attorney general of shifting $233,000 in campaign contributions into his own for-profit corporation. He was fined $50,000 and barred from ever being a campaign treasurer, but he never repaid contributors for the money he diverted.
Sinderman said Eyman's latest request for donations "continues a pattern we have seen for over a year -- a greater concern with personal fund raising than actually running successful initiative campaigns. It also explains why his overall donations are down -- no one wants to send money to an organization that doesn't do anything."
Monte Benham, a former co-sponsor of Eyman's initiatives who had a falling out with Eyman, said he was never in the anti-tax crusade to profit from it. "Never expected any, never asked for money, never wanted any."
Eyman said his supporters will understand why he made his latest request for money, "so the only people howling will be opponents who don't support our ideas anyway."
P-I reporter Neil Modie can be reached at 206-448-8321 or neilmodie@seattlepi.com |
