Patriot Post Vol. 08 No. 44 | 31 October 2008
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
Campaign watch: Fundraising shenanigans continue
The Obama campaign has shattered records by raising more than $600 million this election cycle, an effort that will certainly change the way future presidential candidates run their campaigns. Then again, Obama’s is not a shining example to emulate. A provision of federal election law that has been craftily exploited by the Obama campaign states that it is not necessary to collect vital information from donors who contribute $200 or less to a political campaign. The Obama campaign has bragged endlessly about how a large portion of its donations come from these low-dollar donors, average Americans who are supposedly so passionate about change that they are giving money to a political cause for the first time in their lives. New donors to the change train even include Doodad Pro, Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler. Obama’s campaign refuses to make public their low-dollar donor list, though rival John McCain has done so. If their practices are legal and ethical, why not prove it by releasing the questionable information?
The Obama campaign maintains that they are doing their best to alleviate problems with fraudulent donations, but, like most of his campaign, that too is a lie. Intrepid bloggers at Gateway Pundit have tested Obama’s donor site by submitting obviously fake names that any Address Verification System (AVS) would flag, but these donations invariably go through, and the fake donors receive heartfelt electronic thank-you messages from the Obama team. As Gateway Pundit pointed out, AVS is a fully automated system that any novice Webmaster could operate, yet the Obama technical team can’t seem to get its own working. Or, more likely, it has deliberately disabled the system (it’s not easily done by accident) in order to keep the money machine rolling. Donations are no doubt coming in over the legal individual limits, not to mention from foreign nationals.
Since the Leftmedia won’t report on the Obama fundraising machine’s widespread fraud, and the Federal Elections Commission won’t investigate the complaints filed by the Republican National Committee—at least not until it’s too late—the burden on bringing the issue to America’s attention has fallen to the blogosphere. Unfortunately, the Obama campaign has already cashed in on its thievery.
Biden doesn’t like tough questions
Democrat vice-presidential Candidate Joe Biden sat down for an interview with WFTV-Orlando news anchor Barbara West this week with the expectation of fielding some of the same softball questions he and running mate Barack Obama have grown so accustomed to getting from Leftmedia talkers. Instead, what Biden got was a dose of what “hardball” used to mean before MSNBC’s Chris Matthews diluted the term. West jumped right in with tough questions about Obama’s plan to “spread the wealth around” being Marxism, the campaign’s ties to ACORN, and Biden’s own comment that Obama will be tested by a foreign policy crisis within his first six months in office. Biden tried to laugh off the questions, falling back to the Democrats’ well-trodden script. West was not rattled, however, and pressed on.
As a result, the Obama campaign blackballed the Orlando station for engaging in the sort of old-fashioned investigative journalism that just won’t work if Obama is to be elected president. West and the station’s news director stand by their work, and, for the record, they didn’t give John McCain an easier time during his interview. (McCain began his interview by joking, “Now don’t say anything mean or I am going to be angry.”) The Ministry of Truth at Obama headquarters still claims that the station is part of the fabled right-wing conspiracy.
LA Times of Obama
Speaking of the Leftmedia, The Los Angeles Times is aiding the Obama campaign this week by refusing to release a 2003 video of then-Illinois state senator Obama at a farewell banquet for Rashid Khalidi, whom the Times calls “an internationally known scholar, critic of Israel and advocate for Palestinian rights.” Khalidi, also a former Palestine Liberation Organization spokesman, was leaving Chicago for New York. He had been a neighbor, friend and dinner guest of the Obamas in Chicago’s upscale and ultra-liberal Hyde Park neighborhood.
In April, the Times ran an article titled, “Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Barack Obama.” It mentioned the banquet and the video, which the Times will not release—unless Obama loses Tuesday. One of many anti-Israel moments that voters might just be interested in hearing was a young Palestinian’s recitation of a poem accusing Israel of terrorism and criticizing the U.S. for allying with Israel. Obama has publicly declared his support for Israel, but many Palestinians think he’s really on their side based on things he has said in private. In light of his relationship with Khalidi, that’s a safe bet. No doubt the events of the evening would hurt Obama’s case, providing the Times more than enough cause to withhold the evidence.
John McCain, however, didn’t let the opportunity slip by, saying, “I’m not in the business of talking about media bias, but what if there was a tape with John McCain with a neo-Nazi outfit being held by some media outlet? I think the treatment of the issue would be slightly different.”
Meanwhile, the Obama campaign has ousted three major newspapers—The Washington Times, Dallas Morning News and The New York Post—from its campaign plane. What do all three have in common? They endorsed John McCain.
Court Jesters: Berg’s suit thrown out
Last Friday, Judge R. Barclay Surrick dismissed Philadelphia attorney Philip Berg’s lawsuit, which had challenged Barack Obama’s eligibility for the presidency. Berg contended Obama was born into his father’s Kenyan citizenship and thus was not a natural-born citizen of the United States, within the meaning of the Constitution’s Article II, section 1 requirement, and he requested full disclosure of pertinent documents by the Obama campaign.
The objectionable aspect of the court’s decision is not so much its result as its reasoning. Berg’s claim seems weak; even if Obama had been born abroad, he could still be a natural-born citizen based on his mother’s U.S. citizenship. (8 U.S. Code, sec. 1401.) But the dismissal rested not on the suit’s weakness but a citizen/voter’s lack of standing to object. The court found a citizen’s interest “too vague and its effects too attenuated to confer standing on any [voter].” In other words, although a citizen has standing to challenge the government any time she is “disturbed” by the sight of a public park accommodating a Christmas tree or a Boy Scouts picnic, no such standing exists where a voter objects to a man’s assuming the presidency of the United States in violation of the Constitution.
Other campaign tidbits
Several weeks ago we reported that Barack Obama’s half brother George is currently living in a hut in Kenya. This week, it was discovered that Obama’s beloved aunt Zeituni is living in a rundown public housing project in Boston. Obama has not shared his peanut butter sandwich with George or Zeituni yet.
In Hollywood, a homeowner displayed an effigy of Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin hung by a noose from his house for Halloween. The Secret Service determined there was no threat, and the homeowner later removed the display. At the University of Kentucky, however, a student and another man were arrested Thursday for hanging an effigy of Barack Obama from a tree on campus.
Another Obama crony on his way to the Big House
Government does not get much more corrupt than in Obama’s home state of Illinois. Democrat Governor Rod Blagojevich, a close ally of Obama, was elected on a promise to clean up the corruption, but how does one get rid of corruption when Democrats have control of the Illinois House, Senate and all but one statewide office?
Blagojevich is under investigation for a number of, shall we say, suspect campaign and business dealings. The most notable of these is Blagojevich’s close association with one Antonin “Tony” Rezko, who has been indicted for his part in a scheme to obtain kickbacks from the state. Blagojevich’s wife, Patricia, was a real estate business partner with Rezko for more than a decade. In Rezko’s trial, it was revealed that 75 percent of those who gave more than $25,000 to Blagojevich’s campaign received state contracts or appointments to state boards. Rezko was also indicted in January on charges of money laundering for an Iraqi billionaire, Nadhmi Auchi, whom military analysts describe as one of Saddam’s bagmen.
Rezko’s fingerprints are all over Obama’s political campaigns. He was Obama’s Chicago fundraising patriarch, a “fixer.” Rezko and his bagmen donated more than $225,000 to Obama’s campaigns.
Rezko’s fingerprints also adorn Obama’s 2005 purchase of his swanky Georgian mansion on Chicago’s south side—right down the street from where Obama’s new neighbor, terrorist William Ayers, launched Obama’s political career. (We know, given Obama’s rhetoric, he must have lived in a government housing project and commuted by mass transit.) That mansion and the adjacent lot were originally one parcel, but the owner divided it into two, and the adjacent lot was purchased by Rezko for the full $625,000 asking price—far above market value. On the same day, Obama purchased his mansion on the first lot for well under market value. One might conclude that Rezko subsidized Obama’s discount with the purchase of the adjacent lot but Rezko conveniently holds a receipt for a “loan” from his Iraqi friend, Auchi.
Sen. Stevens found guilty on all counts
Sen. Ted Stevens (RINO-AK) was found guilty for violating federal ethics laws this week with a District of Columbia jury convicting him on all seven counts. Stevens had been charged with failing to report over $250,000 in gifts and services, much of which was used to renovate his Alaska home. Though he has claimed he is innocent and fully intends to remain a candidate in Tuesday’s election, it is likely that Stevens’ four-decade career has reached the end of the road. Stevens always has boasted about bringing as much taxpayer pork into his state as he possibly could, and he had the dubious distinction of being the largest purveyor of earmarks of any sitting U.S. senator. He was also the state’s most respected politician, and his work over the decades played a major role in turning Alaska from a backwater to a major energy producer and pivotal economic player. Those good deeds, however, will now be forever tainted by his crimes. Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, John McCain and Sarah Palin have all called upon Stevens to step down.
Stevens for the moment has chosen otherwise. In fact, he is so sure of his innocence that his attorney Brendan Sullivan wrote a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey requesting a federal investigation into the conduct of the prosecutors in Stevens’ case. While Stevens had hoped to wrap up his trial before the election, this investigation could drag out the whole affair for months. The one bright spot for Stevens is that he will be permitted to vote in Alaska, despite now being a convicted felon. What a country.
Congressional campaign watch
Even if one ignores the strategists, the polls, and the polls about polls, 4 November is not looking good for the GOP. Republicans are likely to lose seats in both the House and Senate, with Senate Democrats expecting to boost their majority to 60, the number of seats needed to defeat a Republican filibuster. The GOP is staring down Senate losses around the country, including New Hampshire, Minnesota and Oregon. Democrats are also reportedly favored in Senate races in Virginia, New Mexico and Colorado (but then again, if we really believed everything the Leftmedia reported, Obama won the presidential race long ago).
However, there is some good news—even if Democrats were to take those six GOP seats, they would still have to pick up three more for a 60-seat majority. With that in mind, we’re expecting some heavy Demo artillery to be rolling into the close races here in the South. Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina, Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi are in tough fights to keep their seats.
Possible GOP House losses could occur in Alaska, Florida, Michigan, Colorado, Nevada and North Carolina. For undecided voters still not convinced how fiscally irresponsible Democrats are, especially when it comes to seeking more power, roughly $1 million has reportedly been poured into pursuit of a single House Republican seat in Maryland that is up for grabs. We hope that actual voter turnout next week tells a much different story and that we can send the strategists and their Leftmedia accomplices packing.