[Rhodes22-list] Politics - How Much for the White House?

[petelargo]

newsmax has been cited just in the last 6 months for two completely
fabricated and embellished articles.  in other words, as you put it, pure
puff...


Brad Haslett-2 wrote:
> 
> Pete,
> 
> Age old debating trick, if you can't attack the message, attack the
> messenger.  The MSM, especially the NYT's, is in the tank for O.
> Obama's record as a legislator is puff, nothing there to examine.  His
> record as a reformer? Nothing there either, it hasn't happened.  He's
> been a get-along, go-along, I see nothing Chicago Machine politician.
> Some of us who have spent time up close and personal with powerful
> people understand they are humans. They fart and belch, they pick
> their nose when no one's looking, they say g-damnit when they stub
> their toe. They are not divine!  Obama has a long documented record of
> turning a blind eye to dirty money.  You think he gives a rat's ass
> where this money is coming from?
> 
> In the long run, none of this probably matters.  What Rezko has to say
> to Fitzgerald over the course of the next 30 days is probably what
> matters, and he's tired of jail.
> 
> Brad
> 
> On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 7:05 AM, petelargo <petelauritzen at earthlink.net>
> wrote:
>>
>> newsmax? really? you can't find a more reputable source like maybe the
>> KKK
>> gazette. I guess we can put this in the obama is a secret muslim-obama is
>> a
>> secret communist-obama is a secret terrorist-obama eats the white filling
>> out of oreos nonsense. more yawn.
>>
>>
>> Brad Haslett-2 wrote:
>>>
>>> Isn't this special?  All this time some of us were focusing on the
>>> Rezko type big donors (and their ties to the Middle East) but it turns
>>> out it is the "little guys" we should be concentrating on.  No wonder
>>> he turned down public financing. Brad
>>>
>>> -------------------------
>>>
>>> Secret, Foreign Money Floods Into Obama Campaign
>>>
>>> Monday, September 29, 2008 9:23 PM
>>>
>>> By: Kenneth R. Timmerman      Article Font Size
>>>
>>>
>>> More than half of the whopping $426.9 million Barack Obama has raised
>>> has come from small donors whose names the Obama campaign won't
>>> disclose.
>>>
>>> And questions have arisen about millions more in foreign donations the
>>> Obama campaign has received that apparently have not been vetted as
>>> legitimate.
>>>
>>> Obama has raised nearly twice that of John McCain's campaign,
>>> according to new campaign finance report.
>>>
>>> But because of Obama's high expenses during the hotly contested
>>> Democratic primary season and an early decision to forgo public
>>> campaign money and the spending limits it imposes, all that cash has
>>> not translated into a financial advantage — at least, not yet.
>>>
>>> The Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee began
>>> September with $95 million in cash, according to reports filed with
>>> the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
>>>
>>> The McCain camp and the Republican National Committee had $94 million,
>>> because of an influx of $84 million in public money.
>>>
>>> But Obama easily could outpace McCain by $50 million to $100 million
>>> or more in new donations before Election Day, thanks to a legion of
>>> small contributors whose names and addresses have been kept secret.
>>>
>>> Unlike the McCain campaign, which has made its complete donor database
>>> available online, the Obama campaign has not identified donors for
>>> nearly half the amount he has raised, according to the Center for
>>> Responsive Politics (CRP).
>>>
>>> Federal law does not require the campaigns to identify donors who give
>>> less than $200 during the election cycle. However, it does require
>>> that campaigns calculate running totals for each donor and report them
>>> once they go beyond the $200 mark.
>>>
>>> Surprisingly, the great majority of Obama donors never break the $200
>>> threshold.
>>>
>>> "Contributions that come under $200 aggregated per person are not
>>> listed," said Bob Biersack, a spokesman for the FEC. "They don't
>>> appear anywhere, so there's no way of knowing who they are."
>>>
>>> The FEC breakdown of the Obama campaign has identified a staggering
>>> $222.7 million as coming from contributions of $200 or less. Only
>>> $39.6 million of that amount comes from donors the Obama campaign has
>>> identified.
>>>
>>> It is the largest pool of unidentified money that has ever flooded
>>> into the U.S. election system, before or after the McCain-Feingold
>>> campaign finance reforms of 2002.
>>>
>>> Biersack would not comment on whether the FEC was investigating the
>>> huge amount of cash that has come into Obama's coffers with no public
>>> reporting.
>>>
>>> But Massie Ritsch, a spokesman for CRP, a campaign-finance watchdog
>>> group, dismissed the scale of the unreported money.
>>>
>>> "We feel comfortable that it isn't the $20 donations that are
>>> corrupting a campaign," he told Newsmax.
>>>
>>> But those small donations have added up to more than $200 million, all
>>> of it from unknown and unreported donors.
>>>
>>> Ritsch acknowledges that there is skepticism about all the unreported
>>> money, especially in the Obama campaign coffers.
>>>
>>> "We and seven other watchdog groups asked both campaigns for more
>>> information on small donors," he said. "The Obama campaign never
>>> responded," whereas the McCain campaign "makes all its donor
>>> information, including the small donors, available online."
>>>
>>> The rise of the Internet as a campaign funding tool raises new
>>> questions about the adequacy of FEC requirements on disclosure. In
>>> pre-Internet fundraising, almost all political donations, even small
>>> ones, were made by bank check, leaving a paper trail and limiting the
>>> amount of fraud.
>>>
>>> But credit cards used to make donations on the Internet have allowed
>>> for far more abuse.
>>>
>>> "While FEC practice is to do a post-election review of all
>>> presidential campaigns, given their sluggish metabolism, results can
>>> take three or four years," said Ken Boehm, the chairman of the
>>> conservative National Legal and Policy Center.
>>>
>>> Already, the FEC has noted unusual patterns in Obama campaign
>>> donations among donors who have been disclosed because they have gone
>>> beyond the $200 minimum.
>>>
>>> FEC and Mr. Doodad Pro
>>>
>>> When FEC auditors have questions about contributions, they send
>>> letters to the campaign's finance committee requesting additional
>>> information, such as the complete address or employment status of the
>>> donor.
>>>
>>> Many of the FEC letters that Newsmax reviewed instructed the Obama
>>> campaign to "redesignate" contributions in excess of the finance
>>> limits.
>>>
>>> Under campaign finance laws, an individual can donate $2,300 to a
>>> candidate for federal office in both the primary and general election,
>>> for a total of $4,600. If a donor has topped the limit in the primary,
>>> the campaign can "redesignate" the contribution to the general
>>> election on its books.
>>>
>>> In a letter dated June 25, 2008, the FEC asked the Obama campaign to
>>> verify a series of $25 donations from a contributor identified as
>>> "Will, Good" from Austin, Texas.
>>>
>>> Mr. Good Will listed his employer as "Loving" and his profession as
>>> "You."
>>>
>>> A Newsmax analysis of the 1.4 million individual contributions in the
>>> latest master file for the Obama campaign discovered 1,000 separate
>>> entries for Mr. Good Will, most of them for $25.
>>>
>>> In total, Mr. Good Will gave $17,375.
>>>
>>> Following this and subsequent FEC requests, campaign records show that
>>> 330 contributions from Mr. Good Will were credited back to a credit
>>> card. But the most recent report, filed on Sept. 20, showed a net
>>> cumulative balance of $8,950 — still well over the $4,600 limit.
>>>
>>> There can be no doubt that the Obama campaign noticed these
>>> contributions, since Obama's Sept. 20 report specified that Good
>>> Will's cumulative contributions since the beginning of the campaign
>>> were $9,375.
>>>
>>> In an e-mailed response to a query from Newsmax, Obama campaign
>>> spokesman Ben LaBolt pledged that the campaign would return the
>>> donations. But given the slowness with which the campaign has
>>> responded to earlier FEC queries, there's no guarantee that the money
>>> will be returned before the Nov. 4 election.
>>>
>>> Similarly, a donor identified as "Pro, Doodad," from "Nando, NY," gave
>>> $19,500 in 786 separate donations, most of them for $25. For most of
>>> these donations, Mr. Doodad Pro listed his employer as "Loving" and
>>> his profession as "You," just as Good Will had done.
>>>
>>> But in some of them, he didn't even go this far, apparently picking
>>> letters at random to fill in the blanks on the credit card donation
>>> form. In these cases, he said he was employed by "VCX" and that his
>>> profession was "VCVC."
>>>
>>> Following FEC requests, the Obama campaign began refunding money to
>>> Doodad Pro in February 2008. In all, about $8,425 was charged back to
>>> a credit card. But that still left a net total of $11,165 as of Sept.
>>> 20, way over the individual limit of $4,600.
>>>
>>> Here again, LaBolt pledged that the contributions would be returned
>>> but gave no date.
>>>
>>> In February, after just 93 donations, Doodad Pro had already gone over
>>> the $2,300 limit for the primary. He was over the $4,600 limit for the
>>> general election one month later.
>>>
>>> In response to FEC complaints, the Obama campaign began refunding
>>> money to Doodad Pro even before he reached these limits. But his
>>> credit card was the gift that kept on giving. His most recent
>>> un-refunded contributions were on July 7, when he made 14 separate
>>> donations, apparently by credit card, of $25 each.
>>>
>>> Just as with Mr. Good Will, there can be no doubt that the Obama
>>> campaign noticed the contributions, since its Sept. 20 report
>>> specified that Doodad's cumulative contributions since the beginning
>>> of the campaign were $10,965.
>>>
>>> Foreign Donations
>>>
>>> And then there are the overseas donations — at least, the ones that we
>>> know about.
>>>
>>> The FEC has compiled a separate database of potentially questionable
>>> overseas donations that contains more than 11,500 contributions
>>> totaling $33.8 million. More than 520 listed their "state" as "IR,"
>>> often an abbreviation for Iran. Another 63 listed it as "UK," the
>>> United Kingdom.
>>>
>>> More than 1,400 of the overseas entries clearly were U.S. diplomats or
>>> military personnel, who gave an APO address overseas. Their total
>>> contributions came to just $201,680.
>>>
>>> But others came from places as far afield as Abu Dhabi, Addis Ababa,
>>> Beijing, Fallujah, Florence, Italy, and a wide selection of towns and
>>> cities in France.
>>>
>>> Until recently, the Obama Web site allowed a contributor to select the
>>> country where he resided from the entire membership of the United
>>> Nations, including such friendly places as North Korea and the Islamic
>>> Republic of Iran.
>>>
>>> Unlike McCain's or Sen. Hillary Clinton's online donation pages, the
>>> Obama site did not ask for proof of citizenship until just recently.
>>> Clinton's presidential campaign required U.S. citizens living abroad
>>> to actually fax a copy of their passport before a donation would be
>>> accepted.
>>>
>>> With such lax vetting of foreign contributions, the Obama campaign may
>>> have indirectly contributed to questionable fundraising by foreigners.
>>>
>>> In July and August, the head of the Nigeria's stock market held a
>>> series of pro-Obama fundraisers in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city. The
>>> events attracted local Nigerian business owners.
>>>
>>> At one event, a table for eight at one fundraising dinner went for
>>> $16,800. Nigerian press reports claimed sponsors raked in an estimated
>>> $900,000.
>>>
>>> The sponsors said the fundraisers were held to help Nigerians attend
>>> the Democratic convention in Denver. But the Nigerian press expressed
>>> skepticism of that claim, and the Nigerian public anti-fraud
>>> commission is now investigating the matter.
>>>
>>> Concerns about foreign fundraising have been raised by other anecdotal
>>> accounts of illegal activities.
>>>
>>> In June, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi gave a public speech praising
>>> Obama, claiming foreign nationals were donating to his campaign.
>>>
>>> "All the people in the Arab and Islamic world and in Africa applauded
>>> this man," the Libyan leader said. "They welcomed him and prayed for
>>> him and for his success, and they may have even been involved in
>>> legitimate contribution campaigns to enable him to win the American
>>> presidency..."
>>>
>>> Though Gadhafi asserted that fundraising from Arab and African nations
>>> were "legitimate," the fact is that U.S. federal law bans any
>>> foreigner from donating to a U.S. election campaign.
>>>
>>> The rise of the Internet and use of credit cards have made it easier
>>> for foreign nationals to donate to American campaigns, especially if
>>> they claim their donation is less than $200.
>>>
>>> Campaign spokesman LaBolt cited several measures that the campaign has
>>> adopted to "root out fraud," including a requirement that anyone
>>> attending an Obama fundraising event overseas present a valid U.S.
>>> passport, and a new requirement that overseas contributors must
>>> provide a passport number when donating online.
>>>
>>> One new measure that might not appear obvious at first could be
>>> frustrating to foreigners wanting to buy campaign paraphernalia such
>>> as T-shirts or bumper stickers through the online store.
>>>
>>> In response to an investigation conducted by blogger Pamela Geller,
>>> who runs the blog Atlas Shrugs, the Obama campaign has locked down the
>>> store.
>>>
>>> Geller first revealed on July 31 that donors from the Gaza strip had
>>> contributed $33,000 to the Obama campaign through bulk purchases of
>>> T-shirts they had shipped to Gaza.
>>>
>>> The online campaign store allows buyers to complete their purchases by
>>> making an additional donation to the Obama campaign.
>>>
>>> A pair of Palestinian brothers named Hosam and Monir Edwan contributed
>>> more than $31,300 to the Obama campaign in October and November 2007,
>>> FEC records show.
>>>
>>> Their largesse attracted the attention of the FEC almost immediately.
>>> In an April 15, 2008, report that examined the Obama campaign's
>>> year-end figures for 2007, the FEC asked that some of these
>>> contributions be reassigned.
>>>
>>> The Obama camp complied sluggishly, prompting a more detailed
>>> admonishment form the FEC on July 30.
>>>
>>> The Edwan brothers listed their address as "GA," as in Georgia,
>>> although they entered "Gaza" or "Rafah Refugee camp" as their city of
>>> residence on most of the online contribution forms.
>>>
>>> According to the Obama campaign, they wrongly identified themselves as
>>> U.S. citizens, via a voluntary check-off box at the time the donations
>>> were made.
>>>
>>> Many of the Edwan brothers' contributions have been purged from the
>>> FEC database, but they still can be found in archived versions
>>> available for CRP and other watchdog groups.
>>>
>>> The latest Obama campaign filing shows that $891.11 still has not been
>>> refunded to the Edwan brothers, despite repeated FEC warnings and
>>> campaign claims that all the money was refunded in December.
>>>
>>> A Newsmax review of the Obama campaign finance filings found that the
>>> FEC had asked for the redesignation or refund of 53,828 donations,
>>> totaling just under $30 million.
>>>
>>> But none involves the donors who never appear in the Obama campaign
>>> reports, which the CRP estimates at nearly half the $426.8 million the
>>> Obama campaign has raised to date.
>>>
>>> Many of the small donors participated in online "matching" programs,
>>> which allows them to hook up with other Obama supporters and
>>> eventually share e-mail addresses and blogs.
>>>
>>> The Obama Web site described the matching contribution program as
>>> similar to a public radio fundraising drive.
>>>
>>> "Our goal is to bring 50,000 new donors into our movement by Friday at
>>> midnight," campaign manager David Plouffe e-mailed supporters on Sept.
>>> 15. "And if you make your first online donation today, your gift will
>>> go twice as far. A previous donor has promised to match every dollar
>>> you donate."
>>>
>>> FEC spokesman Biersack said he was unfamiliar with the matching
>>> donation drive. But he said that if donations from another donor were
>>> going to be reassigned to a new donor, as the campaign suggested, "the
>>> two people must agree" to do so.
>>>
>>> This type of matching drive probably would be legal as long as the
>>> matching donor had not exceeded the $2,300 per-election limit, he
>>> said.
>>>
>>> Obama campaign spokesman LaBolt said, "We have more than 2.5 million
>>> donors overall, hundreds of thousands of which have participated in
>>> this program."
>>>
>>> Until now, the names of those donors and where they live have remained
>>> anonymous — and the federal watchdog agency in charge of ensuring that
>>> the presidential campaigns play by the same rules has no tools to find
>>> out.
>>>
>>> (c) 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
>>>
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>>
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