[OFB Cafe] Does this ever have the potential to open up a BIG can of worms, and SHOULD!!

[Fred A. Miller]

WHERE DID OBAMA'S MONEY COME FROM???????



New York Times Editorial



By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: June 29, 2008

Certainly the most interesting and potentially devastating

OBAMA'S TROUBLING INTERNET FUND RAISING

Certainly the most interesting and potentially devastating phone call I
have received during this election cycle came this week from one of the
Obama's campaign internet geeks. These are the staffers who devised
Obama's internet fund raising campaign which raised in the neighborhood
of $200 million so far. That is more then twice the total funds raised
by any candidate in history and this was all from the internet campaign.

What I learned from this insider was shocking but I guess we shouldn't
be surprised that when it comes to fund raising there simply are no
rules that can't be broken and no ethics that prevail.

Obama's internet campaign started out innocently enough with basic
e-mail networking , lists saved from previous party campaigns and from
supporters who visited any of the Obama campaign web sites.

Small contributions came in from these sources and the internet campaign
staff were more than pleased by the results.

Then, about two months into the campaign the daily contribution intake
multiplied. Where was it coming from? One of the web site security
monitors began to notice the bulk of the contributions were clearly
coming in from overseas internet service providers and at the rate and
frequency of transmission it was clear these donations were 'programmed'
by a very sophisticated user.

While the security people were not able to track most of the sources due
to firewalls and other blocking devices put on these contributions they
were able to collate the number of contributions that were coming in
seemingly from individuals but the funds were from only a few credit
card accounts and bank electronic funds transfers. The internet service
providers (ISP) they were able to trace were from Saudi Arabia , Iran ,
and other Middle Eastern countries. One of the banks used for fund
transfers was also located in Saudi Arabia.

Another concentrated group of donations was traced to a Chinese ISP with
a similar pattern of limited credit card charges.

It became clear that these donations were very likely coming from
sources other than American voters. This was discussed at length within
the campaign and the decision was made that none of these donations
violated campaign financing laws.
It was also decided that it was not the responsibility of the campaign
to audit these millions of contributions as to the actual source
(specific credit card number or bank transfer account numbers) to insure
that none of these internet contributors exceeded the legal maximum
donation on a cumulative basis of many small donations. They also found
the record keeping was not complete enough to do it anyway.

This is a shocking revelation.

We have been concerned about the legality of 'bundling' contributions
after the recent exposure of illegal bundlers but now it appears we may
have an even greater problem.

I guess we should have been somewhat suspicious when the numbers started
to come out. We were told (no proof offered) that the Obama internet
contributions were from $10.00 to $25.00 or so.

If the $200,000,000 is right, and the average contribution was $15.00,
that would mean over 13 million individuals made contributions? That
would also be 13 million contributions would need to be processed. How
did all that happen?

I believe the Obama campaign's internet fund raising needs a serious, in
depth investigation and audit. It also appears the whole question of
internet fund raising needs investigation by the legislature and perhaps
new laws to insure it complies not only with the letter of these laws
but the spirit as well.



IS IT RIGHT FOR FOREIGN COUNTRIES TO HAVE AN INVESTMENT IN WHO BECOMES
OUR NEXT PRESIDENT??? IF YOU ARE IN AGREEMENT WITH THIS, PLEASE PASS IT
ON.


The fact that the NY Times allowed this to be printed is amazing in
itself.

-- 
"While addressing the [GOP convention], Sarah Palin criticized
Barack Obama for not having enough 'specifics.' Obama was
reportedly angry about the claim, but didn't say
exactly why." -Conan O'Brien