CORRUPTION: Obama Shady Contributions, Big Media's Lack of Reporting it

Obama Shady Campaign Contributions:
Serious Questions Surround
Almost Half of Obama Contributions
Credit Card Chicanery, Foreign Donations



Mainstream Media Not Interested

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Back in May, Doug Ross made the discovery that Barack Obama was the only website that accepted foreign contributions without proof of US citizenship.

The Mainstream Press yawned.


"In May of this year I noted the fact that the Obama campaign ran the only website that permitted donations from foreign countries without any proof of citizenship."

The MSM is still yawning--when they take time out from digging through dumpsters looking for their next big break in the Joe the Plumber story.

Now, Ross is writing about the Obama campaign disabling safeguards so that even Osama bin Laden can make a credit card contribution to his favorite agent of 'Change!'.

From Doug Ross@Journal: The Obama Campaign's Massive Credit Card Scandal

You know how ACORN registered thousands of bogus voters like Mickey Mouse and Daffy Duck? ACORN's handlers at the Obama campaign seem to be accepting contributions from Mickey and Daffy too.

It turns out that the Obama campaign's crack team of fundraisers decided to turn off all security validation for credit-card donations. Want to enter the name Pedro Martinez when the credit-card belongs to Arnold Fizbin? Need to use the ZIP code 99999 when the card owner's ZIP is 02154? No problem! The Obama campaign doesn't care!

In order for this to occur, the "Address Verification System has to be specifically disabled to allow this fraud."

If this happened on the McCain-Palin08 website, a gaggle of reporters would descend on the story and the BREAKING! graphic would likely melt down on CNN from overuse--if one can image that.

Andrew McCarty, Ross notes, has estimated that almost half of Obama's contributions--nearly $200 million--have questions surrounding them. Where are the vetting agents of Big Media?

Well, yesterday they were writing about the Republican National Committee's budget for Sarah Palin's wardrobe.

Estimates ranged as high as--brace yourself--$150,000. We'll be the first to admit that reporters are not always the smartest people in the world, so perhaps the large numbers involved in the Obama contributions story have given them trouble.

The New York Times, TIME and Newsweek might consider hiring math tutors.

Ross ends up:

In summary: the five-year stock price of the New York Times

While the Times' CSI unit probes Joe the Plumber's health records and scrutinizes Sarah Palin's shoe bills, an election is well nigh being stolen right under their very eyes. Although this scandal is a doozy, the Times is silent about this flagrant abuse of election law.

Eleven days remain until the election... hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal and foreign donations appear to have flowed into Obama's coffers... and Manhattan's Pravda can't rustle up a story. Not to worry. I give them six months.

Don't let these criminals steal the election. Vote.

The dereliction of duty in the Mainstream Press in 2008 has been breath-taking.

For students of history, one of the only advantages to living through times of great corruption is being able to say later, "I was there."

One only has to determine which corruption is worse: the Obama campaign's contribution mechanisms or the silence in the toothless watchdog press.


by Mondo Frazier
image: Doug Ross@Journal; dbkp file

Obama, Dodd Received Nearly Quarter-Million From Freddie, Fannie

Received Nearly Half-Million Dollars
From Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae:
Dodd, Kerry, Obama, Clinton, Kanjorski



Dodd, Obama got nearly a quarter-million dollars from Freddie, Fannie


It's like sending the foxes to fix the hole in the chicken coop.

Senators Chris Dodd and Barack Obama, among others, have stepped up to "fix" the financial crisis, brought on in large part by the implosion of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Dodd and Obama were two of the three largest recipients of Freddie-Fannie campaign contributions.


It's like sending the foxes to fix the hole in the chicken coop.

Senators Chris Dodd and Barack Obama, among others, have stepped up to "fix" the financial crisis, brought on in large part by the implosion of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Dodd and Obama were two of the three largest recipients of Freddie-Fannie campaign contributions.




The Freddie-Fannie Five

1. Sen. Dodd, Christopher J (D-CT) - $133,900
2. Sen. Kerry, John (D-MA) -- $111,000
3. Sen. Obama, Barack (D-IL) - $105,849
4. Sen. Clinton, Hillary (D-NY) - $75,550
5. Rep. Kanjorski, Paul E (D-PA) - $65,500


The top five received nearly one-half million dollars from the FMx2. Dodd and Obama received almost a quarter million from the failed quasi-government agencies between the two of them.

From Open Secrets.org, "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Invest in Democrats":

(For an updated chart that includes contributions from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae's PACs and employees to ALL lawmakers back to 1989, including to their leadership PACs, go here.) and data The federal government recently announced that it will come to the rescue of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, two embattled mortgage buyers that for years have pursued a lobbying strategy to get lawmakers on their side. Both companies have poured money into lobbying and campaign contributions to federal candidates, parties and committees as a general tactic, but they've also directed those contributions strategically. In the 2006 election cycle, Fannie Mae was giving 53 percent of its total $1.3 million in contributions to Republicans, who controlled Congress at that time. This cycle, with Democrats in control, they've reversed course, giving the party 56 percent of their total $1.1 million in contributions. Similarly, Freddie Mac has given 53 percent of its $555,700 in contributions to Democrats this cycle, compared to the 44 percent it gave during 2006.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have also strategically given more contributions to lawmakers currently sitting on committees that primarily regulate their industry. Fifteen of the 25 lawmakers who have received the most from the two companies combined since the 1990 election sit on either the House Financial Services Committee; the Senate Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee; or the Senate Finance Committee. The others have seats on the powerful Appropriations or Ways & Means committees, are members of the congressional leadership or have run for president. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate banking committee, has received the most from Fannie and Freddie's PACs and employees ($133,900 since 1989). Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) has received $65,500. Kanjorski chairs the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government-Sponsored Enterprises, and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are government-sponsored enterprises, or GSEs.

The airwaves yesterday were full of Barack Obama making statements and posturing on the crisis.

Nowhere in any of the Obama statements was any mention of his relationship with Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae.

The Obama campaign showed rare judgment in this decision.

Yesterday may not have been the right time to mention his failed benefactors.


by Mondo
image: thebidfloor

Hsu Indictment: Deparment of Justice Document

The text of the Justice Department indictment of Norman Hsu

United States Attorney
Southern District of New York

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DECEMBER 4, 2007






CONTACT:




U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
YUSILL SCRIBNER,
REBEKAH CARMICHAEL
PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
(212) 637-2600


MANHATTAN U.S. ATTORNEY INDICTS NORMAN HSU FOR MASSIVE FRAUD SCHEME

Hsu Also Charged With Using Straw Donors to Make Illegal Federal
Campaign Contributions Over A Three-Year Period

MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today the unsealing of a fifteen-count Indictment against NORMAN HSU, 56, for perpetrating a massive scheme that defrauded investors across the United States. HSU also was charged with violating federal campaign finance laws by making contributions to various political candidates in the names of others.

According to the Indictment unsealed earlier today in Manhattan federal court:

At all times relevant to the charges, HSU operated and was the Managing Director of two companies, Components Ltd. and Next Components Ltd. (the “Companies”), which purported to provide investment programs that extended short-term financing to businesses. HSU recruited victims by guaranteeing them high rates of return on short-term investments. After receiving money from investors, HSU, for a time, repaid both the victims’ interest and principal as promised. Believing HSU to be trustworthy and the Companies to be legitimate and potentially profitable, victims often agreed to roll over their invested funds into new investments with HSU, invest more money with HSU, and recruit friends to invest with HSU. In reality, however, the Companies were merely vehicles for HSU’s scheme, in which money owed as returns to older investors was paid with money received
from newer investors. From 2000 through August 2007, HSU convinced his victims to invest at least $60 million in his fraudulent scheme. In the end, after making some payments
intended to perpetuate the scheme, HSU swindled his victims out of at least $20 million.

In an effort to raise his public profile and thereby convince more victims to invest in his fraudulent scheme, HSU pressured many of his victims to individually contribute thousands of dollars to various candidates for President of the United States, the United States Senate, and the United States House of Representatives whom HSU supported. HSU allegedly made direct and implied threats to these victims, leading them to believe that their failure to make the required political contributions would adversely impact their ongoing investment
relationships with HSU.

In addition, HSU violated the Federal Election Campaign Act by making contributions to various political campaigns in the names of others. Specifically, in 2005, 2006, and 2007, HSU asked other individuals to make contributions, totaling more than $25,000 for each calendar year, to designated federal candidates. HSU then directly reimbursed the individuals for the political contributions they had made on his behalf.

HSU is charged in the Indictment with six counts of mail fraud, six counts of wire fraud, and three counts of violating the Federal Election Campaign Act. If convicted, HSU faces maximum penalties of 20 years in prison on each of the mail and wire fraud charges, and 5 years on each of the federal campaign finance charges. HSU also faces a maximum fine of twice the gross gain or loss resulting from his financial fraud crimes, and an additional maximum fine of $250,000 for the campaign finance crimes.

In addition, the Indictment contains an allegation seeking the forfeiture of all property that constitutes the proceeds traceable to the commission of HSU’s mail and wire fraud offenses, including at least $20 million -- obtained as a result of those offenses.

Mr. GARCIA praised the work of the FBI in the investigation of this case, and added that the investigation is continuing.

If you believe you were a victim of these crimes, including a victim entitled to restitution, and you wish to provide information to law enforcement and/or receive notice of future developments in the case or additional information, please contact Wendy Olsen-Clancy, the Victim Witness Coordinator at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, at (866)874-8900, or Wendy.Olsen@usdoj.gov. For additional information, go to: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nys/victimwitness.html on the Internet.

HSU is in custody in California on unrelated charges and is expected to be produced in New York in the coming weeks. The case has been assigned to United States District Judge VICTOR MARRERO.

This prosecution is being handled by the Office’s Public Corruption Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys KATHERINE A. LEMIRE, ALEXANDER J. WILLSCHER, and RUA M. KELLY are in charge of the prosecution.

The charges contained in the Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.





Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Honoring Heroes At the Holidays

There are thousands of worthy causes jousting for our attention, our time and money. But the following was brought to our attention by the ever-indefatigable Spree over at Wake Up America and we're glad she did.

Move America Forward is a group of volunteers which has sprung up to help U.S. troops and this is the latest effort by their fairly-new organization.

Below is a start of the article Honoring Heroes At the Holidays Tour, it's a good read for sure, but there are also a ton of pictures of Americans helping other Americans.

Just the thing to get yourself going in the morning or to put you in a good mood before you turn in.

On Tuesday, November 13th, Move America Forward [website:www.MoveAmericaForward.org] hosted the first event in what will be a 40-city cross country pro-troop tour to rally the American public to support our troops and their missions.

Along the way we're asking the public (including you) to help us collect and send over 100,000 Christmas, Hanukkah and holiday cards to our troops. The media coverage we got from our first event was outstanding - some of the best reporting you'll see about our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Please spread the word on these reports below. And help us collect those 100,000 cards for our troops during the Christmas and Hannukah holiday season.

From Move America Forward's Daily File:

Film crews worked several hours on Tuesday as flag-waving patriots, veterans, and even active duty servicemen and women showed up for a day of honoring our troops at Sacramento’s Land Park. More than 100 folks made greeting cards, sang, and packed boxes of goods for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

What happens when the sun is casting warm rays in a family park and hundreds of patriots show up to thank American troops? The whole world will soon see when commercials are aired nationally to thank our Armed Forces.

The group needs donations. If you wish to contribute to Move America Forward, click on the link. They could a hand, the troops would benefit and you might feel as good as those in the pictures above.

by Mondoreb



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.