Thursday, October 09, 2008

ACORN: Voter Fraud?

Nevada authorities have raided the Las Vegas office of the community-organizing group ACORN seeking evidence of voter fraud. Readers of this Blog are already aware that Senator Barack Obama has been associated with ACORN in the past. Read here.

Meanwhile, in an article for Newsweek entitled "Obama's 'Good Will' Hunting," Michael Isikoff addresses a campaign-financing scandal: "The Obama campaign has shattered all fund-raising records, raking in $458 million so far, with about half the bounty coming from donors who contribute $200 or less. Aides say that's an illustration of a truly democratic campaign. To critics, though, it can be an invitation for fraud and illegal foreign cash because donors giving individual sums of $200 or less don't have to be publicly reported.

Consider the cases of Obama donors 'Doodad Pro' of Nunda, N.Y., who gave $17,130, and 'Good Will' of Austin, Texas, who gave more than $11,000—both in excess of the $2,300-per-person federal limit. In two recent letters to the Obama campaign, Federal Election Commission auditors flagged those (and other) donors and informed the campaign that the sums had to be returned. Neither name had ever been publicly reported because both individuals made online donations in $10 and $25 increments. 'Good Will' listed his employer as 'Loving' and his occupation as 'You,' while supplying as his address 1015 Norwood Park Boulevard, which is shared by the Austin nonprofit Goodwill Industries.

Suzanha Burmeister, marketing director for Goodwill, said the group had 'no clue' who the donor was. She added, however, that the group had received five puzzling thank-you letters from the Obama campaign this year, prompting it to send the campaign an e-mail in September pointing out the apparent fraudulent use of its name.'Doodad Pro' listed no occupation or employer; the contributor's listed address is shared by Lloyd and Lynn's Liquor Store in Nunda. 'I have never heard of such an individual,' says Diane Beardsley, who works at the store and is the mother of one of the owners. 'Nobody at this store has that much money to contribute.' (She added that a Doodad's Boutique, located next door, had closed a year ago, before the donations were made.)

Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said the campaign has no idea who the individuals are and has returned all the donations, using the credit-card numbers they gave to the campaign. (In a similar case earlier this year, the campaign returned $33,000 to two Palestinian brothers in the Gaza Strip who had bought T shirts in bulk from the campaign's online store. They had listed their address as 'Ga.,' which the campaign took to mean Georgia rather than Gaza.) 'While no organization is completely protected from Internet fraud, we will continue to review our fund-raising procedures,' LaBolt said. Some critics say the campaign hasn't done enough. This summer, watchdog groups asked both campaigns to share more information about its small donors. The McCain campaign agreed; the Obama campaign did not. 'They could've done themselves a service' by heeding the suggestions, said Massie Ritsch of the Center for Responsive Politics."

What's going on with the Obama campaign? How much, if anything, does Senator Obama know about all of this?

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:15 AM

    A Blogger is documenting claims that Obama is the new Messiah, the new Christ for a secular Kingdom on earth.

    His Blog is here:
    http://obamamessiah.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11:36 AM

    The mainstream media are silent on this matter and also on his pro-abortion views:

    Analysis Shows Mainstream Media Silent on Barack Obama's Pro-Abortion Views
    by Rich Noyes
    October 10, 2008
    LifeNews.com

    Note: Rich Noyes writes for the Media Research Center, a non profit research and education foundation dedicated to studying and analyzing the bias in the mainstream media.

    Two of the three presidential debates have now passed without either candidate being asked about abortion, an issue that nearly four out of ten voters said was “very important” to them, according to an August Pew survey.

    What makes the abortion issue especially salient this campaign year is Barack Obama’s extremely liberal record — which may also explain why the big broadcast networks have practically avoided the subject.
    TV reporters barely mentioned Obama’s pro-abortion stance during the primaries — from the launch of his candidacy in January 2007 through the end of the primaries in June 2008, just six out of 1,289 network evening news stories about Obama (0.46%) mentioned his position on abortion; none discussed it in any detail.

    It was thus unusual when ABC’s Terry Moran pointed out, in a February 25, 2008 story on World News, that Obama was “considered a reliable liberal Democratic vote in Illinois... opposing efforts to ban so-called ‘partial birth abortions.’”

    Obama’s stance protecting partial birth abortions puts him to the left of many liberal Democrats — 17 out of 47 Democratic Senators, including Obama’s running-mate Joe Biden, voted to outlaw such abortions in 2003, a position backed by 75% of the public, according to a 2007 Pew survey.

    But besides the Moran story, only two other network evening news stories mentioned Obama’s support for the procedure, including an April 21, 2007 CBS Evening News story briefly noting Obama’s condemnation of the Supreme Court for upholding the federal law banning such abortions.

    But Obama’s most extreme pro-abortion move came in Illinois, when he voted against a bill to protect babies born alive following unsuccessful abortions, the Born Alive Infant Protection Act.

    A similar bill was brought before the U.S. Congress, bolstered by the testimony of a Chicago-area nurse named Jill Stanek, who described how a baby who survived an “induced labor abortion” was abandoned by the hospital staff. Stanek testified: “I could not bear the thought of this suffering child dying alone in a soiled utility room, so I cradled and rocked him for the 45 minutes that he lived. He was 21 to 22 weeks old, weighed about half a pound, and was about 10 inches long.”

    In 2002, the federal law protecting born-alive babies passed on a voice vote without objection from any Democrat, including strong liberals such as Hillary Clinton and Barbara Boxer.

    But in Illinois, Obama helped kill a similar bill when it came before the Health and Human Services committee he chaired. Challenged about his vote this summer, Obama lashed out at pro-lifers, claiming the state bill he opposed lacked a “neutrality clause” protecting the status quo on abortion, something liberals demanded and received before agreeing to the federal law.

    “I hate to say that people are lying, but here’s a situation where folks are lying. I have said repeatedly that I would have been completely, fully in support of the federal bill,” Obama told CBN on August 16. “That was not the bill that was presented at the state level.”

    Four days later, the Chicago Tribune documented how Obama and his committee voted 10-to-zero to add the required “neutrality clause” to Illinois Senate Bill 1082 — and then Obama and five other state senators voted to kill the bill later that same day.

    A CNN “fact check” on that day’s Situation Room refused to conclude that Obama had unfairly attacked his critics as liars.

    “Looking at the bills, the language is similar, but the Obama camp says...there were concerns about undermining Illinois abortion law,” reporter Mary Snow delicately suggested.

    As for the broadcast networks, none have yet mentioned this radical aspect of Obama’s record. That silence helps the Democrat cast himself as more centrist than he really is, but shows how hopeless the media’s “watchdogs” are when it comes to their liberal friends.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous2:48 PM

    There are unseen forces behind Obama's meteoric rise to fame an prominence. How else can we explain his rise to world fame from nowhere? Most of us never even heard of this man until a couple of years ago. And 458 million raised in campaign monies? This is nothing short of startling.

    Now people all over are heralding him as a new "Christ" and a new Messiah.

    This is the work of the demon.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It is time for all Catholic bloggers to begin a movement to shut down Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) as it currently stands.

    CCHD gave ACORN over $1million in 2007 and almost that amount in 2006.

    It needs a major overhaul.

    Will you join me?

    Will you help spread the word?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous5:49 AM

    Washington Catholic, you bet we will. Mr. Melanson was writing about the CCHD in the 1990's, long before most Catholics even heard about the organization. The Wanderer has been exposing this group for quite some time as well.

    The time has come for the Alinskyite CCHD to be shut down. The Bishops need to act now.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous9:38 AM

    Nation of Islam Leader Calls Obama “The Messiah”

    October 10, 2008

    Radical Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who is associated with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and other long-time associates of presidential candidate Barack Obama, is leaving no doubt about what he thinks of the leader in the campaign for the White House.

    Says Farrakhan: "You are the instruments that God is going to use to bring about universal change, and that is why Barack has captured the youth. And he has involved young people in a political process that they didn't care anything about. That's a sign. When the Messiah speaks, the youth will hear, and the Messiah is absolutely speaking."

    ReplyDelete