Gentle reader, it often benefits the soul and the mind to pause in our workaday traces, heave off the yoke and reflect on the rows already plowed. Apart from the moment's rest for the body, it gives the heart comfort to survey one's present accomplishment. And such pauses serve as markers by which we may report to fellow plowmen in the morning how far we'd come at mid-day, and how far by day's end. In the spirit of providing all of us with such a pause, and to collect all of our markers in one location, I offer an anthology of this season's crop.
So tonight, fill you a Mason jar with ice and the libation of your choice, lean your chair against the barn door and reflect with me on where we've been. Tomorrow, may the sun shine and rain fall exactly as your own field desires.
Happy reading!
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"Strange fountain of money flows from Montana"
In which we make the acquaintances of Trevis Butcher, also known as Montanans in Action, and the attorney Jonathan Motl, and we observe a trail of funds issuing from Big Sky Country.
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"OK Grand jury indictments reveal National Voter Outreach tactics"
In which we make the acquaintances of Susan Johnson, president of National Voter Outreach, and review that company's behavior as described by former employee Robert Colby, via an Oklahoma grand jury deposition.
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"It's a surreal day in the TABORhood."
In which we follow Jonathan Motl's attempt to identify the sources of strange funding passing through Montana, and we find accusations lodged against Missouri law enforcement officers by NVO petition circulators, and we review an assault by petition circulator and Flordian felon Joseph Carter against a young educator in Lincoln, Nebraska.
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"MO: Why would NVO attack police, firemen as `thugs and hoodlums'?"
In which we review an affidavit submitted by Susan Johnson of NVO outlining her company's acumen and relationship to Patrick Tuohey, and various allegations of wrongdoing by Missouri's law enforcement community, all in fruitless hopes of salvaging the Missouri TABOR ballot initiative.
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"OK: Referee recommends NVO petitions be disqualified"
In which an Oklahoma Supreme Court referee begins the process of disqualifying TABOR from the November ballot, on the same day that a Missouri judge issues a ruling that effectively bars TABOR from the ballot there.
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"OR: Convicted forger, identity thief hired to push TABOR petitions"
In which we are startled at the lack of care taken by petition circulation companies in hiring signature gatherers.
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"TABOR money trail through states leads to Howard Rich"
In which we follow a trail of ballot measure funding through a handful of organizations located in Chicago, Washington and New York, all of which lead us to make the acquaintance of Howard Rich of New York City, a real estate investor, and we find the online reportage of a kindred spirit, Hart Williams, who is also fascinated by this trail.
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"Who is Howard Rich? He's buying your government."
In which we learn more about Howard Rich of New York City, including his interesting history with the National Libertarian Party, and we make the acquaintance of his associates Eric O'Keefe and Paul Jacobs, and we begin to see the real connective tissue between similarly-named organizations Citizens in Charge, Missourians in Charge, Oregonians in Action, Oklahomans in Action, Montanans in Action, Stop Overspending Michigan and Stop Overspending Nebraska.
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"Wall Street Journal hides Rich connection; others don't"
In which we are amazed that contemporaneous coverage of Americans for Limited Government by the Wall Street Journal doesn't note the fact upon which the coverage of several ballot measure campaigns across America hangs: That Howard Rich of New York City appears to be guiding its activity.
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"The Lone Ranger & Howard Rich: Not all masked men are alike"
In which we find that small media outlets across the nation are beginning to unmask the publicity-shy Howard Rich of New York City as the guide behind more than just TABOR ballot measures, but also "takings" measures that are paired with eminent domain measures, and we find that some municipal entities studying TABOR's effects begin to voice their opposition to its adoption by voters.
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"Rich's money, talking points versus TABOR facts"
In which we make the acquaintances of Howard Rich's locator, Heather Wilhelm, and Rich's campaign leader in Maine, Mary Adams, who demonstrates message discipline.
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"Oregon paper maps Howard Rich's TABOR network"
In which reporters Dave Hogan and Betsy Hammond of The Oregonian give the first statewide spotlight on Howard Rich of New York City and we learn that this year's activity on the part of Rich and Americans for Limited Government represents a quantum leap in both their commitment of funding and the number of states in which they are pursuing ballot measures, compared to their previous activity. We also see a thread connecting ALG with another organization, Americans for Prosperity, and we make briefly the acquaintance of Laird Maxwell of Idaho, one of the more colorful characters in Howard Rich's menagerie of associates.
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"TABOR, or, Howard's Rich's Immodest Proposal"
In which we examine the anti-establishment ideology shared in the 1970s and 80s by Howard Rich of New York City, and his Libertarian Party associates Eric O'Keefe, Ed Crane, and brothers David Koch and Charles Koch, which ultimately spawned U.S. Term Limits in the early 1990s, Americans for Limited Government and the Legislative Education Action Drive in the early 2000s, and which spawned TABOR and "takings" ballot measures this year. Additionally, we learn from Coloradan business leaders why they supported a successful campaign in 2005 to suspend TABOR's provisions in that for the next five years.
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"Howard Rich's wild-west pardner: Laird Maxwell"
In which we learn more about Laird Maxwell of Idaho, his unorthodox participation in local and state politics under the guise of "Citizens for Trustworthy Government," and his work on behalf of his friend, Howie Rich of New York City, in TABOR and "takings" ballot measures across the western half of the nation. We also make briefly the acquaintance of Mike Groene of Nebraska, campaign leader for TABOR in the Cornhusker State.
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"Meet Howard Rich's old friends, Charles and David Koch"
In which we look at the old relationship between Howard Rich of New York City and the brothers David and Charles Koch of Southampton and Wichita, respectively, making extensive use of archived National Libertarian Party newsletters from the 1970s and 80s.
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"Taking stock of the Koch Machine, Part I"
In which we look, in the first of an occasional series, more closely at the history of the David and Charles Koch, Howard Rich's associates from their collaboration in the National Libertarian Party, his co-founders in the Cato Institute, and two of America's wealthiest businessmen.
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"Taking stock of the Koch Machine, Part II"
In which we look, in the second of an occasional series, more closely at the history of the David and Charles Koch, Howard Rich's associates from their collaboration in the National Libertarian Party, his co-founders in the Cato Institute, and two of America's wealthiest businessmen.
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"OK: Fannie Bates exemplifies people power in TABOR/NVO case"
In which we make happily the acquaintance of Fannie Bates of Norman, Oklahoma, a retired teacher who spent part of 2006 tracking the activities of Susan Johnson's National Voter Outreach in her state, and who offered her own amicus curiae in the case then pending before the Oklahoma Supreme Court to determine whether or not TABOR would appear on the ballot. Through her brief, we make briefly the acquaintance of Rick Carpenter, the campaign leader for the Oklahoma TABOR measure.
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"Maine's police, firemen give TABOR chilly reception"
In which we learn that the public safety community in Maine - including law enforcement officers, firefighters and emergency responders - foresee damage to their effectiveness in serving citizens under a proposed TABOR, due to its certain budget cuts and restrictions, and senior citizens in Michigan realize TABOR's likely cuts in public services for seniors.
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"Rick Berman's ads `in short grass with bad camouflage'."
In which we ponder the motivation of Washington lobbyist Rick Berman and his seven-month-old Center for Union Facts in mounting a multi-million-dollar ad campaign against public employees in those states where Howard Rich's TABOR measure was also being promoted for the November ballot. And in so doing, we unfortunately learn more about Berman himself.
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"Howard Rich's secret? `It's all about the ideology'."
In which reporter Laura Oppenheimer of The Oregonian meets fleetingly Howard Rich of New York City at the first annual conference of Americans for Limited Government in Chicago, and in which Rich tells her only that, "It's all about the ideology." Additionally, we explore said ideology and its recent application to the electoral politics of several states.
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"Omaha editors search for parents of `the ugly baby'."
In which we make briefly the acquaintances of a cavalcade of entities who are variously responsible for one of a pair of ballot measures in Nebraska, and who disavow that responsibility under the questioning of reporters Nichole Aksamit and Paul Goodsell of the Omaha World-Herald, the second statewide newspaper to spotlight the direct intervention by Howard Rich of New York City and his various organizations to amend the Constitutions of several states. Watching the parade, we are introduced briefly to John Tillman, president of Americans for Limited Government; former Illinois gubernatorial candidate Steven Baer of Chicago; industrialist Barre Seid of Chicago; and, at the end of the list, Leslie Graves, the wife of Eric O'Keefe, a longtime Rich associate and now owner of Renewal Voter Outreach of Spring Green, Wisconsin, a months-old petition-circulation company.
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"Maine seniors to learn TABOR's deadly secrets Wednesday"
In which we predict the major themes of a TABOR presentation to senior citizens in Damariscotta, Maine, and in which we note with interest the challenge to Howard Rich of New York City by Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski to debate TABOR in that state.
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"Oklahoma court flushes $1.5M in Rich's TABOR money"
In which the Oklahoma Supreme Court rules to exclude TABOR from the November ballot due to "evidence of substantial illegal participation of out-of-state circulators."
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"Rich network quits Missouri but media is catching up"
In which TABOR proponents, demoralized by a sequence of judicial rulings against them and a tightening timeline, quit their campaign to place their measure on the November ballot, and in which American Spectator publishes a report on the first annual conference of Americans for Limited Government by freelance writer Shawn Macomber of Boston, whose travel expenses were recompensed by none other than Americans for Limited Government, illustrating its definition of a free press in America.
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"Check out who TABOR brought to Maine today... "
In which a Coloradan Republican legislative leader advises Mainers on the damages inflicted by 13 years of TABOR in his state, and in which former House Speaker Newt Gingrich delivers luncheon remarks at the Marriott at Sable Oaks in Portland.
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"TABOR headlines in Montana, Maine, closes in Michigan"
In which a state board in Michigan disqualifies TABOR from its ballot, and in which TABOR proponent Trevis Butcher sits through a debate on the topic on public radio in Montana, and in which former House Speaker Newt Gingrich characterizes TABOR as a "straitjacket," affectionately.
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"MT's Schweitzer challenges Rich to debate TABOR"
In which Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer issues a debate challenge to Howard Rich of New York City on the topic of TABOR - the second of two gubernatorial challenges to Rich - and in which a Montana District Court Judge takes up the questions of disqualifying TABOR from the ballot based on questionable activities by petition-circulators.
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"NV court ejects TASC, Rich bunts Schweitzer's challenge"
In which the Nevada Supreme Court disqualifies that state's TABOR clone, called TASC, from the November ballot, and in which Howard Rich of New York City declines the invitation to debate a second sitting governor on TABOR for the second time in a month.
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"Lincoln paper ignores contribution of Leslie Graves"
In which the Lincoln Journal Star profiles Mike Groene, TABOR campaign leader in Nebraska, without giving credit to Leslie Graves, whose company gathered signatures for TABOR and another ballot measure there
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"Money trail runs from the Pacific to the Atlantic"
In which we survey media coverage from Oregon, Washington and South Carolina that continues to draw connections between Howard Rich of New York City and funding for TABOR and "takings" measures in various states.
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"MT judge kills 'deceptive,' 'fraudulent' TABOR"
In which a Montana District Court Judge disqualifies TABOR from the ballot there, finding a litany of improper behaviors on the parts of petition circulators, and in which the Montana Taxpayers Association announces its own opposition to the measure.
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"Mainer agon, Montanan excuses: A Howie Rich TABOR digest"
In which Trevis Butcher offers several reasons for the disqualification of TABOR from the Montana ballot, none related to the improper activities of petition circulators, and in which more Maine leaders ponder life under TABOR.
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"ME harm predicted; Courts courted in MI, MT, NV"
In which public events serve to educate Mainers on the likely impacts of TABOR in their state, and in which appeals are filed with the Supreme Courts of Michigan, Montana and Nevada for relief of various sorts.