Patrick Byrne, who called Utahns Stupid, accounts for 30% of Wimmer's Fall Donations

Patrick Byrne, who famously declared on election night 2007 that Utahns had failed an IQ test (only to later say that he didn't really mean they were stupid, he meant they were crazy), donated $10,000 to Carl Wimmer's reelection bid.

That's 30% of the $33,539 Wimmer has raised since the end of August.

Oh, and it was in one payment, on October 1.

-Bob

Some things I wonder....

*I wonder just how expensive the State Board of Education races will be, especially with PCE people like Leah Barker running. And, will she lose her cool when challenged by facts again?

*I wonder how much money SuperDell will get from Patrick Byrne, the man who said he would support anyone, even a communist, running against Huntsman.

*I wonder where Orrin Hatch got that green jacket he was wearing at Monday's Jazz game. It clashed with his makeup.

Just wonderin....

New Holliday Reading List

The SideTrack sends us this from DailyKos:

The Washington Post has an op-ed from Donald Rumseld on, "The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez." Yes, because when you're looking for advice on foreign policy, you always want to go to the man who predicted the war in Iraq could:

...last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.

Coming up next week: Michael Vick and, "The Care And Feeding Of Your Dog."

And, it got me to thinking of some other books I could recommend for people, maybe the PoliSci students I work with, to read on their Holliday Break:

-The Political Brain by James Evans
-How to Win Friends and Influence People by Patrick Byrne (Sequel to How to Run a Prophet-Making Company)
-A Brief History of Time by Paul Mero
-Where's Waldo? by George W Bush
-Flop: How John Kerry Became President of the United States by Mitt Romney
-If I Did It by Larry Craig
-How To Be Funny by Rob Miller
-Where the Wild Things Are by Condi Rice
-The Scriptures by Chris Buttars
-Get Others to Pay for Your Mistakes by Greg Curtis
-No Mud on Me by Hillary Clinton

AG Shurtleff Defames Critic of Patrick Byrne

I don't know if Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com who called Utahns Stupid, which he then retracted to say they are crazy, and who is under investigation by the Security and Exchange Commission, is exactly the person you'd want to be defending if you are running for reelection in 2008.

As it turns out, defending Patrick Byrne is exactly what Utah AG Mark Shurtleff is doing. And, he's defaming a critic of Byrne in the process.

Patrick Byrne: Utahns Crazy, not Stupid

In the movie Speed, the bad guy keeps telling Keanu Reeves that he (that bad guy) is crazy, not stupid.

It's a term I have adopted. Sometimes, I use the Spainish "loco, no soy tonto."

Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne has decided that he misspoke when he said that we had failed a statewide IQ test.

What he meant to say was that Utahns had failed a sanity test. He makes that clear in an op-ed in today's Salt Lake Tribune.

He uses the bad state of Utah's public school system and the fact that out education costs will "double in the next 10 years" as evidence that Utahns were crazy (but not stupid) for voting against referendum 1 and "accepting the status quo."

I'd be willing to bet that most Utahns believe that Utah's public schools are bad at best. However, 62% of voters decided that a plan that increased taxes and put 100% of that tax increase into the private sector with minimal regulation, while giving public schools no incentive to improve (in fact, giving schools incentive to do even worse, a point Patrick Byrne conceded to me at Piper Down) made absolutely no sense.

And, let's be real. Does sinking $2.6 million of your personal fortune into a losing cause, blasting a Governor with an 80% approval rating, saying you'll help fund an opponent for said Governor even if that candidate is a "communist," and calling the residents of the state you call home (including many of your employees) either stupid, crazy, or uncaring REALLY sound like the makings of a sane man?

Pot. Kettle. Black.

-Bob

Partick Byrne: Utahns don't care about kids

Patrick Byrne just said on channel 2 that Utah voters don't care about kids.

Patrick Byrne: Utahns are stupid

Patrick Byrne, the millionaire bachelor behind parents for choice in education just said on FOX13 that referendum 1 was a "statewide IQ test."

Either he just called the state of Utah stupid, or he called us smart, and the Utah Legislature and himself stupid.

I think he meant the former. I think the truth is the latter.

-Bob

Non-Bigot Patrick Byrne says we might as well burn some kids

On Tuesday night, Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com, had the audacity to call the vast majority of Utah teachers, every Democrat in the Utah Legislature, 1/3 of Republicans in the Utah House, the KSL editorial board, and 61% of the residents of this state bigots.

Of course, this shouldn't be a big surprise. After all, look at what he said about kids who don't graduate high school:



Of course, this is from a guy who is a childless bachelor who is undergoing a formal SEC investigation.

Of course, given the kind words he had for the Utah Legislature when he didn't get his way, I'm kind of disappointed that I'm only a bigot.

And, this upstanding gentleman is funding a large sale of the effort to pass referendum 1.

-Bob

(Hat tip: Against Utah Vouchers and Gary Weiss)