this was outside the koch's desert summit in 2011, and that was an off year for politics. but that year people did find out in advance where they were going to and when they were going to be there, and there was sort of a welcome party in reverse for the kochs and trash -- their rich allies that year. that was 2011 when the kochs and their friends were presumably planning their strategy for the next election cycle. the next election cycle, of course, was 2012. a few weeks ago the "washington post" tallied up all the money the kochs and their network raised for the 2012 election cycle. and by the post's accounting, it looks like something on the order of about $400 million just for the 2012 election torn down into a warrant of -- most with seemingly unrelated names and spread out across the country and good luck sorting it out.