It really is amazing how many pies far-left zillionaire George Soros has his fingers in. He has a passion for funding Astroturf advocacy groups that churn out biased studies and ginned up protests against conservatives.

I like to think I can spot those phony groups a mile away. They always have some name designed to reassure you it's good people against something bad, they always oppose conservatism, and they always get quoted in newspapers without mention of their radical ties.

While reading the Star's coverage of Dick Cheney's speech in Simi Valley this week, I noticed the closing quote was made by an organizer from the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

Before the talk, about 25 local supporters of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture protested Cheney's visit at the library's entrance on Presidential Drive. The campaign has criticized the arguments Cheney conveys throughout his memoir -- that torturing detainees is a useful and acceptable means of punishing and gathering information from them.

"Torture carried out by the past administration has caused one of the darkest stains on our nation's history," said Virginia Classick of Woodland Hills, who organized the protest.

End of story. Call it my reporter's instinct, but something told me that the National Religious Campaign Against Torture isn't some apolitical group made up from run-of-the mill pastors who are concerned about people getting tortured. The name fit the typical Soros organization--National Religious Campaign Against Torture sounds like some concerned citizens making their voices heard.

Strike 1 against the group.

They were demonstrating against a conservative.

Strike 2.

There was no mention of political affiliations. Strike 3. My radar is up.

Two minutes of Googling yielded that Soros gave the group $210,000 in 2010. Suspicions confirmed.

What is the importance of this overlooked detail? Simply that Cheney may have been protested by people with a political ax to grind rather than clergymen with no agenda.