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

[Brad Haslett]

The 2008 Presidential campaign will go down in history as the most
corrupt in our nation, ever. What we're witnessing here is something
you'd expect in some third-world banana republic. Remember the pledge
to take public campaign funds?  Vanished down the memory hole like so
many incriminating characters from the past.  Here's the latest
example-

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October 23, 2008  Posted by Scott at 6:52 AM

We've previously noted the gusher of illegal campaign contributions
flowing into the Obama campaign from contributors such as "Doodad Pro"
and "Good Will." More recently, incidents have been reported in which
people have seen credit card charges surface suggesting they donated
to Barack Obama when they did not. Matthew Mosk and Sarah Cohen noted
one such incident earlier this week:

    Now comes the story of Mary T. Biskup, of Manchester, Missouri.
Biskup got a call recently from the Obama campaign, which was trying
to figure out why she donated $174,800 to the campaign -- well over
the contribution limit of $2,300.

    The answer she gave them was simple. "That's an error."

Is the Obama campaign knowingly receiving illegal contributions?
Yesterday one of our readers reported the results of an experiment he
conducted:

    I've read recent reports of the Obama campaign receiving donations
from dubious names and foreign locales and it got me wondering: How is
this possible?

    I run a small Internet business and when I process credit cards
I'm required to make sure the name on the card exactly matches the
name of the customer making the purchase. Also, the purchaser's
address must match that of the cardholders. If these don't match, then
the payment isn't approved. Period. So how is it possible that the
Obama campaign could receive donations from fictional people and
places? Well, I decided to do a little experiment. I went to the Obama
campaign website and entered the following:

    Name: John Galt
    Address: 1957 Ayn Rand Lane
    City: Galts Gulch
    State: CO
    Zip: 99999

    Then I checked the box next to $15 and entered my actual credit
card number and expiration date (it didn't ask for the 3-didgit code
on the back of the card) and it took me to the next page and... "Your
donation has been processed. Thank you for your generous gift."

    This simply should not, and could not, happen in any business or
any campaign that is honestly trying to vet it's donors. Also, I don't
see how this could possibly happen without the collusion of the credit
card companies. They simply wouldn't allow any business to process,
potentially, hundreds of millions in credit card transactions where
the name on the card doesn't match the purchasers name.

    In short, with the system set up as it is by the Obama camp, an
individual could donate unlimited amounts of money by simply making up
fake names and addresses. And Obama is doing his best to facilitate
this fraud. This is truly scandalous.

Our reader was not yet done. He tried the experiment on the McCain
site: "I tried the exact same thing at the McCain site and it didn't
allow the transaction." He then repeated the experiment at the Obama
site:

    I went back to the Obama site and made three additional donations
using the names Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Bill Ayers, all
with different addresses. All the transactions went through using the
same credit card. I saved screenshots of the transactions.

Our reader reports, incidentally, that he was using his MasterCard for
the contributions. We submit this report in the spirit of inquiry and
would especially appreciate hearing from readers who can illuminate
how credit card procedures might (or might not) allow this to happen.

UPDATE: Readers have replicated the experiment reported in this post.
We will have to revisit the issue tonight or tomorrow and appreciate
any information you can provide in the meantime.