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Sunday, October 05, 2008

RNC Filing FEC Complaint Over Obama’s Acceptance Of Foreign Contributions

I just got this press release in my email:

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chief Counsel Sean Cairncross will announce today a complaint that the RNC is filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against the Obama campaign. The complaint will address foreign national and excessive contributions accepted by the Obama campaign that demonstrate it is operating outside of federal campaign finance law.

Wow.

I don’t have any other details at this point, but here on Say Anything we’ve been talking about this for a while.  Back in August we noted concerns about the amount of money Obama was receiving from people claiming to be Americans living overseas.  The amount of small-dollar contributions Obama has received, contributions which aren’t required by law to be reported to the FEC, are troubling as well.  And now that the RNC is getting behind this in an official way?

And then there’s this from Rick Moran:

Just how much in donations from foreign countries is pouring into the Obama campaign coffers is a question one FEC auditor would like to have answered. The problem is that evidently, his bosses at the FEC are refusing to move on the charges which would almost certainly require them to ask the Justice Department and the FBI to look into the matter. This would, their reasoning goes, take on the appearance of a “criminal investigation” and would impact the coming election.

The anonymous investigator (who won’t reveal his name for fear of retribution) says that “I can’t get anyone to move. I believe we are looking at a hijacking of our political system that makes the Clinton and Gore fundraising scandals pale in comparison. And no one here wants to touch it.”

Where there’s smoke there’s usually fire.

Update: For record, Marc Ambinder (who is usually better than this) suggests that questioning Obama’s foreign contributions is, well, racist.

I guess thinking people who aren’t actually Americans shouldn’t be able to influence American elections is racist too, then.

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Good. About time!



Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
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Proof on October 5, 2008 at 10:26 am

Article published Saturday, October 4, 2008
Hunting Mr. Good Will

WHO is “Will, Good”?

Mr. Good Will - who lists his employer as “Loving” and his profession as “You” - has contributed 1,000 times to the Barack Obama campaign.

All the contributions have been in amounts of $25 or less. But they add up to $17,375 - far more than the legal limit of $4,600. That’s $2,300 each for the primary and general election campaigns.

Kenneth Timmerman, a reporter for NewsMax, a conservative Web site, discovered Mr. Good Will when he reviewed 1.4 million individual contributions in the latest Federal Elections Commission master file for the Obama campaign.

Mr. Good Will said he was from Austin, Texas. When I called directory assistance, they could find no listing for him.

Mr. Doodad Pro made 786 contributions for a total of $19,500. Like Mr. Good Will, Mr. Pro lists his employer as “Loving” and his profession as “You.” Mr. Pro said he is from Nunda, N.Y. Directory assistance found no listing for him either.

Mr. Obama has raised a whopping $223 million in contributions of less than $200. Candidates are not required to disclose the names of those who contribute less than $200, and Mr. Obama has not. John McCain has made his complete donor database available online.

But the Federal Elections Commission does require campaigns to keep a running tally of contributions and to disclose the identity of donors once their total contributions exceed $200. This is how Mr. Good Will and Mr. Doodad Pro came to light.

If there are more suspicious donors to the Obama campaign, we won’t know until long after the election as long as their aggregate contributions are below the legal limit. Mr. Timmerman was particularly curious about 11,500 contributions from overseas totalling $33.8 million.

Mr. McCain and Hillary Clinton required foreign donors to provide proof of citizenship. Until very recently, Mr. Timmerman said, the Obama campaign did not. “More than 1,400 of the overseas entries clearly were U.S. diplomats or military personnel, who gave an APO address,” Mr. Timmerman wrote. But they accounted for only 12 percent of Mr. Obama’s overseas donors, and the aggregate total of their contributions was just $201,680.

“In July and August, the head of Nigeria’s stock market held a series of pro-Obama fund-raisers in Lagos,” Mr. Timmerman said. “At one event, a table for eight went for $16,800. Nigerian press reports claimed sponsors raked in an estimated $900,000.”

Making contributions on credit cards via the Internet - as both Good Will and Doodad Pro did - makes it easier for foreigners to contribute. Web logger Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs) reported three Palestinians living in a refugee camp in Gaza tried to donate $33,500 to the Obama campaign last year. They were caught only because the amount was far above the legal limit. If foreigners donate in amounts less than $200, their illegal involvement would be virtually undetectable.

If Mr. Obama were a Republican, the news media would be demanding he disclose the names of all of his donors - as er, the Republican has done - so we can see if there are among them other Good Wills and Doodad Pros.

CNN recently sent a reporter to Little Diomede Island, the westernmost part of Alaska (2.4 miles from Russia) to determine whether Sarah Palin had ever been there to see Russia with her own eyes. But CNN - and the rest of the media - have been incurious about the Obama campaign’s fund-raising.

“Off the record, every suspicion you have about [the mainstream media] being in the tank for O is true,” said an e-mail to Web logger Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) from someone he knows at a major news organization. “We have a team of four people going through Dumpsters in Alaska and four in Arizona. Not a single one looking into ACORN, Ayers, or FreddieMae [sic]. Editor refuses to publish anything that jeopardizes the election for O, and betting dollars to donuts same is true at NYT, others. … The fix is in, and it’s working.”

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081004/COLUMNIST14/810040346/-1/NEWS02


C. Y.'s signature
C. Y. on October 5, 2008 at 10:56 am

Ah ha! That is why he drew such huge crowds in Germany.

Zsa Zsa on October 5, 2008 at 11:14 am

good… will… you.... loving…

Why do I smell George Soros here?


"Here lies, in honored glory, an American soldier, known but to God.”

The times, they are a-changin’...
Bob Dylan

pparets on October 5, 2008 at 11:21 am

Why hasn’t there been an investigation into Obama’s two clear violations of the Logan Act- once in Kenya and once more recently in Iraq?

answer: If you hold him accountable to the existing law, you’re a racist.

Joel on October 5, 2008 at 11:24 am

Yeah. Yeah. Yada Yada.

The Right had better tread softly in this area.

McCain Campaign Is Returning Donations

Updated Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign will return all of the contributions solicited by the Jordanian business partner of one of Mr. McCain’s most prolific fund-raisers.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/07/mccain-campaign-is-reviewing-donations/

And there’s more.

Oswaldo on October 5, 2008 at 11:33 am

If there are more suspicious donors to the Obama campaign, we won’t know until long after the election as long as their aggregate contributions are below the legal limit

Good. That means we can skip all the bullshit.

Or NOT. The Right can splatter this all over the headlines with its other lies and stunts knowing that some of it will stick in the minds of its dimwit voters. Problem is they are being outnumbered by intelligent liberal voters.

Oswaldo on October 5, 2008 at 11:47 am
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Speaking of dimwits, welcome back, Osweirdo! Atlas Shrugs had several articles detailing the large amounts of contributions from abroad, that appeared to be converted from foreign currencies.

For the dimwitted “intelligent” liberal voters, those would be largely illegal contributions. But, then, the end justifies the means, right, Os?



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Proof on October 5, 2008 at 11:54 am

Speaking of dimwits, welcome back, Osweirdo

Me, a dimwit? I’ll have you know I was offered a high level job on the Federal Reserve Board of Directors by Bernanke because of my experience and the quality leadership I brought to American enterprise. Bernanke referred to me as the “Stuff of American Greatness.”

pparets knows about it.

Dear Mr. Oswaldo:

...

...

Need I say that we look forward to a long and productive relationship and,
on a personal note, I was deeply impressed by your efforts to bring your
quality leadership to Piggly Wiggly. You are the stuff of American
greatness!

Yours, most Sincerely,
Ben Bernanke
The Federal reserve

Oswaldo on October 5, 2008 at 12:29 pm
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And of all the people I have occasion to regularly take exception to at this site, Oswaldo, you are one of few that has anything even closely resembling a sense of humor.
For that, I salute you, sir!



Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
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Proof on October 5, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Avatar for jpe

Proof, I know you’re not as dumb as that comment.

jpe on October 5, 2008 at 12:37 pm

Oswaldo, That is stand up comedy material! HAhahah!

Zsa Zsa on October 5, 2008 at 12:45 pm

McCain Campaign Is Returning Donations

Getting and returning illegal donations from an individual is different from getting and keeping thousands of illegal donations. 

It’s easy to open the envelope and dump the check in the account, it’s harder to go back through the books and figure out what people you won’t accept money from.

FlyOnTheWall on October 5, 2008 at 01:15 pm

Obama following closely in the footsteps of the Clintons who traded military secrets with the PLA for campaign cash conveniently laundered by middle men.


You don’t have to be a moron to be a liberal Democrat but it sure helps.

docdave on October 5, 2008 at 01:28 pm

Getting and returning illegal donations from an individual is different from getting and keeping thousands of illegal donations

Of course. I think both candidates are intelligent enough, with the help of appropriate advisors, to avoid doing anything shady that might jeopardize their chances of winning.

In a sense, what I just said might not be enough. Each must also be intelligent enough to watch out for issues or positions which, although not illegal or improper, could be seized by opponents to con the public into thinking there’s monkey business afoot. I’m going on record here: I’m not saying that such conning is standard GOP operating procedure, even if there is a striking resemblance to its SOP. But I not saying it.

BTW, thanks Zsa Zsa.

1z48zr6.jpg

Even if your remark was pure sarcasm. I’ll take whatever I can get. LOL

Oswaldo on October 5, 2008 at 02:05 pm

I meant Zsa Zsa and proof.

Oswaldo on October 5, 2008 at 02:16 pm

Oswaldo, I truly think that was funny! You could write comedy.

Zsa Zsa on October 5, 2008 at 02:40 pm

Would anybody be surprised to learn that money from Hugo Chavez was also making its way into Obama’s war chest?

MMA Grappler on October 5, 2008 at 03:06 pm

Oswaldo, I truly think that was funny! You could write comedy.

Thanks Zsa Zsa.
But I think it’s time I made something clear. I actually received that letter in one of the threads. I am not the author, only the addressee. The author is none other than our good friend pparets.
Of course, all those qualities that pparets says I have I actually do possess. Right pparets?

Oswaldo on October 5, 2008 at 05:44 pm

But I think it’s time I made something clear. I actually received that letter in one of the threads. I am not the author, only the addressee. The author is none other than our good friend pparets.
Of course, all those qualities that pparets says I have I actually do possess. Right pparets?

So Pparets is Ben Bernake?

Hmmmm? Odd.

Regardless, you are insanely partisan, and as such are wrong A LOT. It comes off as stupidity. I’m sure you’re a really bright guy, when partisanship is petty. And petty people always look stupid.


For the first time in my adult life, I am ashamed of my country.

Kenny on October 5, 2008 at 08:10 pm

Of course all liberals are smart people I am in awe and shock at the level of intelligence displayed thus far , any time a republican has a valid question or talking point they use the great response “that is BS” works every time .


"Socialism is a disease”

welder4 on October 6, 2008 at 07:43 pm
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