This story has been making the rounds of the blogosphere for the past week or so and is finally starting to gain traction in the mainstream media.<\/p>\n
\nDUBIOUS DONATIONS<\/h3>\n
By Scott W. Johnson, New York Post, October 27, 2008<\/p>\n
Barack Obama has proved the greatest fund-raiser of all time by a long shot. His campaign has raised more than $600 million – $150 million in September alone. But the campaign has also failed to adopt standard protections against fraudulent giving.<\/p>\n
The average contribution to Obama in September was just under $86. And federal law only requires the disclosure of identifying information for contributions in excess of $200. Campaigns must keep running totals for each donor and report them once they exceed $200.<\/p>\n
The Federal Election Commission says the Obama campaign has reported well over $200 million as coming from contributions of $200 or less. Only a small portion of that sum is attributable to donors the Obama campaign has disclosed.<\/p>\n
No presidential campaign has ever before received such a gargantuan sum of money from unidentified contributors.<\/p>\n
The campaign’s records reveal big contributors with names like “Doodad Pro” (employer: “Loving,” profession: “You”) and “Good Will” (same employer and profession). Both donated via credit card. Other reports have suggested that some donations come from overseas – raising the question of whether Obama is accepting donations from foreigners, another violation of federal law.<\/p>\n
All of which prompted an enterprising citizen to test the controls put in place to enforce compliance with federal campaign law by the Obama and McCain campaigns. Last Thursday, he decided to conduct an experiment.<\/p>\n
He went to the Obama campaign Web site and made a donation under the name “John Galt” (the hero of Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged”). He provided the equally fictitious address “1957 Ayn Rand Lane, Galts Gulch, CO 99999.”<\/p>\n
He checked the box next to $15 and entered his actual credit-card number and expiration date. He was then taken to the next page and notified that his donation had been processed.<\/p>\n
He then tried the same experiment on the McCain site, which rejected the transaction. He returned to the Obama site and made three more donations using the names Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Bill Ayers, all with different addresses but the same credit card. The transactions all went through. By Saturday, he’d reported that the transactions had all posted to his credit-card account. Read the rest…<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Ken Timmerman has more on Obama’s fund raising here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This story has been making the rounds of the blogosphere for the past week or so and is finally starting to gain traction in the mainstream media. DUBIOUS DONATIONS By Scott W. Johnson, New York Post, October 27, 2008 Barack Obama has proved the greatest fund-raiser of all time by a long shot. His campaign […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[47,57,266],"class_list":{"0":"post-863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-politics","7":"tag-2008-elections","8":"tag-barack-obama","9":"tag-fund-raising","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfpI7-dV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1583,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/26\/barack-obamas-2-illusion\/","url_meta":{"origin":863,"position":0},"title":"Barack Obama’s 2% Illusion","author":"Jeff","date":"February 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"From the Wall Street Journal: President Obama has laid out the most ambitious and expensive domestic agenda since LBJ, and now all he has to do is figure out how to pay for it. On Tuesday, he left the impression that we need merely end \"tax breaks for the wealthiest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":366,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/15\/obama-tried-to-stall-iraq-withdrawal\/","url_meta":{"origin":863,"position":1},"title":"Obama Tried To Stall Iraq Withdrawal??? Updated","author":"Jeff","date":"September 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Update (Friday, September 19, 2008): Jake Tapper of ABC News is reporting that Bush Administration officials support Barack Obama's version of events... Details below the fold... If this is true somebody's got some splainin to do: OBAMA TRIED TO STALL GIS' IRAQ WITHDRAWAL By AMIR TAHER, New York Post, September\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Iraq"","block_context":{"text":"Iraq","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/iraq\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":872,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/28\/heritage-foundation-to-barack-obama-please-stop-lying-about-our-postion-on-your-tax-plan\/","url_meta":{"origin":863,"position":2},"title":"Heritage Foundation to Barack Obama: Please Stop Lying About Our Postion On Your Tax Plan","author":"Jeff","date":"October 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Heritage Foundation lawyer Alan P. Dye sent the following letter to the Obama campaign requesting that they withdraw advertisements that misrepresent the opinion of the Heritage Foundation senior policy analyst Rea Hederman. Dear Senator Obama: Two recent campaign advertisements seriously misrepresent the views of my client, The Heritage Foundation. They\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2076,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/27\/100-days-100-mistakes-for-the-obama-administration\/","url_meta":{"origin":863,"position":3},"title":"100 Days, 100 Mistakes for the Obama Administration","author":"Jeff","date":"April 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The New York Post has compiled what may be the only retrospective of Barack Obama's first 100 days you need to read... Of course the Post probably shouldn't throw stones considering the major gaff they made. Here's the top ten: \"Obama criticized pork barrel spending in the form of 'earmarks,'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1594,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/28\/larry-kudlow-obama-declares-war-on-investors-entrepreneurs-businesses-and-more\/","url_meta":{"origin":863,"position":4},"title":"Larry Kudlow: Obama Declares War on Investors, Entrepreneurs, Businesses, And More","author":"Jeff","date":"February 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"In hard hitting piece post yesterday on CNBC.com veteran economist Larry Kudow takes President Barack Obama to task over his economic policies: Let me be very clear on the economics of President Obama\u2019s State of the Union speech and his budget. He is declaring war on investors, entrepreneurs, small businesses,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":614,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/04\/public-funding-limits-behind-mccains-michigan-pullout\/","url_meta":{"origin":863,"position":5},"title":"Public Funding Limits Behind McCain’s Michigan Pullout?","author":"Jeff","date":"October 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Hill is reporting that public funding limits are behind the McCain Campaign's decision to pullout of Michigan. Barack Obama\u2019s decision to forego public funding for his presidential campaign helped force John McCain to withdraw from Michigan, abandoning an important strategic objective, said a McCain adviser. The withdrawal was a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}