Thursday, February 5, 2009

Not Exactly The Year Of Bill Sizemore

Wild Bill Sizemore (easily the whitest man working in low-rent power politics today) didn't show up for his day in court. Saith the Portland Mercury:

BILL SIZEMORE'S ATTORNEY Gregory Byrne, showed up to speak on his behalf at the Multnomah County Courthouse last Friday, January 30. Sizemore, on the other hand, stayed away—a plaque with his name on it, reading "Defendant," languishing in front of an empty chair in Judge Janice Wilson's court. The last time Sizemore stood in front of Judge Wilson, on December 1, 2008, he was hauled off in handcuffs after failing to file tax documents for a Nevada charity called the American Tax Research Foundation (ATRF), created to finance election initiatives. Sizemore was released the following day, after filing the documents with the court showing he was paid $400,000 by the ATRF in the 2006-2007 tax year.

That was a thing, yo. It would seem that, tired of Bill trying to force state employees to work for a bowl of gruel and a sound whipping a day, state employee unions, knowing the foe they face, nuked him from orbit (it's the only way to be sure).

Bill is officially a criminal. But, like all snakes, he figured out a way to keep getting paid to be what he would call a "gadfly" (and what I would call an incredible arsehole) by working for a "think tank" paid for by a rather creepy self-made dental-equipment tycoon (sound a little like Ed Scissorhands, but no, not that cuddly) named Loren Parks.

While you're working just above minimum wage and making maybe $25,000 a year if you kill yourself, Bill's hobby is breaking state government, and for this he gets about $200,000/year.

Nice work if you can get it.

Well, there's a new sherriff in town, and Kroger's on the offensive against the offensive:

Now, attorneys from Attorney General John Kroger's office and two statewide teachers' unions, the Oregon Education Association (OEA) and Oregon's American Federation of Teachers (AFT), are pushing for more stringent sanctions against Sizemore than were first imposed by the court in 2003. Back then he was barred from engaging in certain
campaign activities, after he was found to be using tax-exempt funds from Oregon Taxpayers United—a charitable nonprofit—to fund his ballot initiative work. Such use of charitable funds for political purposes is forbidden under federal law.

Bill, you see, is one of those people who, when he sees a good thing, knows it, and kept sticking his hand in the cookie jar until he got caught at it.

The AFT, OEA, and Kroger, noting what Bill's done with the chance he got, want to go it one further; they want to make it so he never has a position in any nonprofit again.

I say go get him. We think the things he's done and said at unions are unforgivable, and everything he does actually makes government work worse, and make it tougher for the working people all around, not just union members.

If you think he's on your side, then take a good, hard, long look at that bland, pale face with the perpetual crooked smirk.

He's not laughing with you. He's laughing at you.

Matt Davis also has something about it ... here.
(actually, he had something about it there too. The above goes to his personal blog.)



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