For Whom The Bill Toils

While the eyes of the world were focused on Madison, Wisconsin. OK: the eyes of the nation. The eyes of the world were looking at Libya. While the eyes of a lot of people were focused on Tea Party Governor Scott Walker’s bill to strip collective bargaining rights, and in his own words from this afternoon’s press conference, cut “$165 million” from the state’s budget (these days, $165 million barely gets you a bridge), a prominent Wisconsonian and a Wisconsin native, gone to Delaware to git himself rich and moved to Wyoming to become a fake cowboy, were featured speakers at that “grass roots” Tea Party Patriots “Summit” in Phoenix, Arizona over the weekend.

And, to clear up any confusion about a Fox News reporter named “Eric O’Keefe” here’s a picture of the OTHER Eric O’Keefe, speaking in Phoenix:

Eric O’Keefe, Sam Adams Alliance Chair, Director
Wisconsin Club for Growth, Citizens in Charge, etc.

And why is that important?

Because you can  slap a name on a letterhead, fill out the paperwork, get a couple buddies to agree to serve on the board, and then, when you’ve got your 501 (c) (3) status, you can accept “charitable” donations and your donors can stick Uncle Sam with the bill as a tax deduction. And, when you’ve twinned your Hydra’s head, and gotten your 501 (c) (4) you can spend as much cash on political campaigns as you like without ever having to disclose your donors.

And, as we saw last week, if you give, say $126,500 from your C4 to your buddy’s C3, then you have successfully laundered that money from a more or less untraceable source to a fully tax deductable ‘charity.’ Sweet.

But, when you’ve got a gajillion letterheads, or, you leave one to form another, as happened in 2006, you can stay in the same office, with the same furniture with the same employees and the same phone number, only now, instead of being U.S. Term Limits, you’re the Sam Adams Alliance, well, that’s all fine and dandy.

U.S. Term Limits Foundation* gave “furnitures” and fixtures to
the Sam Adams Foundation that they paid $172,319 for
From the 2006 tax return. The furniture and fixtures
don’t seem  to have moved**

[* "In the early 1990s Eric began U.S. Term Limits," and "Eric was a founding board member of U.S. Term Limits," says eric-okeefe dot com.]

[** To wit (even the same phone number):

US Term Limits 2005 address: 20 N Wacker Drive Suite 3330

Sam Adams 2006 address 20 N. Wacker Drive Suite 3330]

Of course, Americans for Limited Government (and U.S. Term Limits) hightailed it out of Illinois, that year, because they had not paid to register with the Illinois Corporations Division, and while they claimed they didn’t HAVE to pay, left the state right before the November election. Sam Adams Alliance was organized in OCTOBER from ALG board members — O’Keefe went from Chairman of Americans for Limited Government to Chairman of the Sam Adams Alliance, and the office furniture never moved, seemingly.

The reporters who wouldn’t listen to your old bunch will now happily transcribe whatever your new letterhead has to say.

I bring this up because Mother Jones today broke a story, “unmasking” the group behind the “justifiable homicide to kill abortionists” laws proposed in South Dakota and Nebraska only managed to get as far as the letterhead:

Revealed: The Group Behind the Bills that Could Legalize Killing Abortion Providers

It’s no coincidence that bills to expand justifiable homicide laws have popped up in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa. Meet the group that launched the effort.

— By Nick Baumann and Daniel Schulman
[Mother Jones Magazine]

… That these measures have emerged simultaneously in a handful of states is no coincidence. It’s part of a campaign orchestrated by a Washington-based anti-abortion group, which has lobbied state lawmakers to introduce legislation that it calls the “Pregnant Woman’s Protection Act” [PDF]. Over the past two years, the group, Americans United for Life, has succeeded in passing versions of this bill in Missouri and Oklahoma. But there’s a big difference between those bills and the measures floated recently in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa.

While the Oklahoma and Missouri laws specifically cover pregnant women, the latest measures are far more sweeping and would apply to third parties. The bills are so loosely worded, abortion-rights advocates say, that a pregnant woman could seek out an abortion and a boyfriend, husband—or, in some cases, just about anyone—could be justified in using deadly force to stop it.

But, sadly, we don’t know a DAMN thing about whoever “Americans United for Life” is.

Which means that all we have is a letterhead.

When are the investigators going to stop falling for the masks and look at the people BEHIND the masks?

Now, who was that other former Wisconsin resident speaking at the Tea Party Patriots’ little Arizona convention?

Foster Friess.

[links to the 2010 series are here.]

(There’s more, but that’s enough for today.)

Until we know the faces BEHIND the letterhead, we cannot seek to know for whom the bill toils, but it most certainly does not toil for thee.

Courage.