Veteran ballot initiative activist Bill Sizemore was handcuffed and jailed Monday after a Multnomah County judge found him in contempt of court for a fourth time in his long-running legal battle with two Oregon teachers unions. Multnomah County Circuit Judge Janice R. Wilson ordered Sizemore jailed until he signed and filed federal and state tax forms that charitable organizations are required to complete to maintain their tax-exempt status.... In a scathing conclusion to her findings, Wilson said Sizemore's violations of an earlier court injunction "are disturbing because, together with Mr. Sizemore's willingness to lie under oath, they reflect not merely contempt of court in the legal sense but contempt for the court, the judicial branch of government and its processes and judgments -- indeed for the rule of law. Mr. Sizemore is so blinded by his hatred of the unions who are plaintiffs in this case that he seems to have concluded that he is not required to follow the law."
I generally try not to take enjoyment out of the suffering and/or downfall of others, but there are a select few for whom a heapiin' helpin' o' Schadenfreude brings a satisfied smile to my countenance and a warm, tingly feeling from head to toe. So it is with Bill Sizemore, who in his self-absorbed, self-promoting career as a self-appointed Conservative crusader, has wasted more tax dollars than he could ever have hoped to conserve through his brain-dead misguided initiatives.
Sizemore's hatred of teacher's unions is no great secret to anyone familiar with Oregon politics. The founder of Oregon Taxpayers United, which consists largely of Sizemore and his own inflated ego and overheated sense of self-importance, Sizemore has made a career out of being an @$$hole. This time, he's gone so far off the reservation that he's apparently engaged in fraud and numerous violations of federal tax laws in order to advance the cause...but it's all for the Greater Good, no?
Neither Sizemore nor the teacher's unions leave this ring with clean hands, but Sizemore seems to have determined somewhere along the line that any available means were permissible if it furthered the achievement of his desired end. Hey, you can't make on omelette without breaking a few eggs....
Wilson devoted much of her 42-page ruling to a description of a dizzying array of organizations that she said Sizemore used to conceal the source of his funding. She cited $569,000 that went to Sizemore or his wife, Cindy, and said that did not include more than $13,700 in ATRF-paid personal expenditures at Fred Meyer and other grocery stores, restaurants and convenience stores and gas stations.
"The inescapable conclusion is that ATRF was a sham charitable organization set up to pass money provided by Loren Parks and Dick Wendt to compensate Mr. Sizemore for his work on initiative measures," Wilson said.
In the end, Bill Sizemore is no different from so many Conservative wingnuts who feel that, since they're pursuing a "greater good", the law simply doesn't apply to them as it does to other lesser mortals. Therefore, any method, no matter how reprehensible or self-interested, is available to them...because when you're fighting Evil, you don't want your hands to be tied behind your back, eh?
Coming soon to an Internet near you: Bill Sizemore's entry in Dickipedia....
