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

[petelargo]

no. from my observation on this forum; if it supports your viewpoints it is
credible journalism, if it does not support your views it is MSM nonsense.  



Brad Haslett-2 wrote:
> 
> Pete,
> 
> Pamela Geller, an independent blogger at Atlas Shrugs has been doing
> the heavy lifting on this with help from volunteers.  It takes
> thousands of man hours to pour through FEC filings and the MSM  isn't
> interested in the story.  Remember the Dan Rather fabrication?  It was
> an independent blogger who busted him.  So you think if something is
> published by Newsmax it's automatically false but if the NYT's
> publishes it it's automatically true? Or, if the MSM doesn't
> investigate something there's no story there?
> 
> Scary.
> 
> Brad
> 
> On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 8:18 AM, petelargo <petelauritzen at earthlink.net>
> wrote:
>>
>> 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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