Over the years, this blog has not been immune to legal controversy. Ignoring the toothless comment thread threats, we occasionally receive take-down demands, cease and desist letters and the like. Indeed, this blog was born out of a lawsuit. It began with Goldy’s Horse’s Ass initiative catalyzing a lawsuit brought against him by Washington’s then state Attorney General, Christine Gregoire. Goldy fought the AG and the AG won:
Siding with the state attorney general, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Gary Tabor ruled yesterday that a proposed statewide initiative declaring Eyman to be a horse’s ass isn’t a proper subject for an initiative. It isn’t legislative in nature, he said, and therefore is “outside the power given to the people.”
An initiative, the judge added, must be “for a purpose other than expressing a sentiment.”
Besides providing the seed for this blog, the only other positive outcome of the whole fiasco was giving the Seattle PI’s Neil Modie the type of multi-layered pun that a lesser journalist would kill for in the headline “A Bum Rap?”
Of course, for Goldy, the start of this blog launched him into a decade of impoverished muckrakery, living off of small donations, double digit blog advertisement revenue, and an occasional ghost-writing gig. Those were hard, if fun, years; Goldy took some scalps along the way.
Times have changed. We all have troubles, it seems. Just today we learned that farm bankrupcies are way up in the midwest.
And legal problems have finally brought down Horsesass. Fines, legal fees, court orders, high voltage! (done dirt cheap).
When I say “Horsesass”, perhaps I should say, the Horse’s Ass. Yes…the anti-government agitator, the perpetual purveyor of defective initiatives, Mr. self-identified lying liar, this blog’s namesake himself, Tim “Biggest-Lie-Of-My-Life” Eyman has filed for bankruptcy:
Attorney General Bob Ferguson has accused Eyman of secretly moving funds between two initiative campaigns in 2012 and receiving $308,000 in kickbacks from the firm that collected signatures for both measures.
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Ferguson filed a lawsuit in March 2017 seeking $1.8 million in penalties, plus reimbursement of the funds Eyman received from the firm.
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In documents filed Wednesday, Eyman reported assets of more than $2 million and liabilities of $3.2 million. He owes $77,000 in legal fees and a disputed $3.1 million to the Office of the Attorney General, according to the reports.
It’s an “own goal.” Eyman blatantly violated campaign finance laws, and thwarted court orders. And, apparently, he’s fresh out of sugar daddies.
Eyman claims the legal actions against him have caused his wife to divorce him. Yeah…I’m guessing it’s the lies! (Or maybe the embarrassing costumes?)
No word yet on whether his dog has run away.
