Blowin' in the wind

ChicagoBoyz brings us some Nantucket Nuggets. Some whistleblower turned the fundraising manual for fighting the Windmills What Wreck the View From Mansions and Yachts over to the Boston Globe.

William I. Koch, the yachting enthusiast, donated $500,000. Paul Fireman, the former chief of Reebok, gave $250,000. Michael Egan, the son of the founder of EMC Corp., kicked in $150,000.

Far from the humble world of $10 bills handed to door-knocking environmentalists, these wealthy benefactors have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the group trying to block construction of 130 wind turbines in the pristine waters off Cape Cod.

Given the target audience for the fundraising efforts to fight this affront to the Go Green Somewhere Other Than Limo LiberalLand, items like this are no big surprise:

• donations of $5,000 are frowned upon as ''token gifts" and fund-raisers are expected to net pledges of at least $250,000
• Since January 2004, the alliance has received 28 gifts of $100,000 or more
• After taking in $4.8 million in 2004, the alliance then added at least $3.7 million last year, smashing a two-year goal of $7.5 million
• 94 percent of the group's money came from 93 ''major gift" donors who gave $20,000 or more

What I found most fun was:

''The Alliance learned today that confidential internal documents belonging to one of their consultants were obtained and published on a website of a Cape Wind proponent," the statement said. ''This unethical distribution of confidential records reveals both a low standard of conduct and diversionary tactics often used to avoid talking about relevant issues. The documents made public belong to Community Counseling Service, and reflect their own interpretation and their strategy and much of it in draft form; all the facts were not correct."

How dare anyone turn over confidential information to those who oppose the Cape Cod Crusaders!