Who are "Good Will" and "Doodad Pro"?
They are donors to Barack Obama's campaign.
Who are Monir Edwan and Hosam Edwan and Yousef Edwan?
They, too, are donors to Obama's campaign.
"Good Will" of Austin, Texas donated more than $11,000 to Obama. "Doodad Pro" of Nunda, New York gave $17,130.
Individuals are limited to a per-person $2,300 donation.
Brothers Monir Edwan and Hosam Edwan and Yousef Edwan donated $33,500 to Obama.
Not only did they exceed the per-person federal limit, they aren't Americans. The Edwan brothers are Palestinians in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
Read more about the Edwan brothers, from Aaron Klein for WorldNetDaily.
The Wall Street Journal reported it spoke to Obama officials who said the donations from three Palestinian brothers were received between Sept. 20 and Dec. 6 last year, and virtually all of the money was returned by Dec. 6. The campaign said, however, the refunds were not reported to the Federal Election Commission due to a technical error.
The Obama camp insisted the remaining $2,500 was refunded Monday and all of the refunds will be reflected soon in an amended report. The campaign said new controls are in place to prevent any similar attempts in the future.
But WND asked two of the brothers - Monir and Hasam Edwan - to respond to the campaign's claims.
"No, we did not receive any money back from the Obama campaign at any time," said Monir Edwan.
Last week, the blog Atlas Shrugs outlined the series of donations made last year by Monir Edwan and Hosam Edwan, totaling $29,521.54. A third brother, Yousef, reportedly gave the campaign about $4,000.
Did Obama return the illegal contributions to the Edwan brothers, as he claims?
Another weird twist--
At the time Klein reported on the illegal contributions from the Palestinian brothers, Daily Kos accused WND of concocting the story.
"It could be true that [donations] were made, but as a part of a deliberate set-up to make Obama look bad. ... Aaron Klein reports from the Israel for WND. ... Again, obviously if an actual illegal donation was actually made it should be returned, but it would be interesting to find out who really made it and why," reads an article on the Daily Kos site.
"By the way, Aaron Klein is clearly an [sic] conservative anti-Obama reporter for the ultra-right-wing WorldNetDaily," the site contends.
Crazy.
Michael Isikoff, liberal anti-McCain reporter for the ultra-left-wing Newsweek, has a piece about illegal contributions to Obama's campaign.
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.
Regarding "Good Will" and "Doodad Pro"--
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.
Oh, that's reassuring. The Obama campaign will continue to review their fundraising procedures.
In the meantime, Obama's $458 million war chest will bankroll his sleazy/deceptive/lying ads to flood radio and TV over the next 30 days.
Obama promises to change Washington. He promises transparency, yet Obama has refused to share information about his small donors.
This summer, watchdog groups asked both campaigns to share more information about its small donors. The McCain campaign agreed; the Obama campaign did not.
Bottom line: Barack Obama is not the person he claims to be. He's no agent of change.
If he wants to eliminate the current cloud of corruption hanging over his fundraising practices, Obama should follow McCain's lead and volunteer information about his thousands and thousands of small donors.
However, volunteering that information may be moot at this point.
RNC to File FEC Complaint on Obama Fundraising Practices
Obama's promises to change Washington?
What a joke!
It appears that Obama could be gaming the system when it comes to fundraising. That's not any sort of change I can believe in.
3 comments:
Why do these bums get away with breaking the law by just sending back the illegal contributions only after they get caught? What a load.
I think it's insane that hundreds of millions of dollars are poured into these campaigns.
This is a very sobering indictment especially since most ecommerce software has several checks (such as Billing ZIP check and CVV check) turned ON by default when solutions are newly installed. Web site/revenue managers would have to make a conscious decision that they want these checks turned off and would have to change software settings (pretty easy) to do so.
For 15 years, I have developed secure card processing software for a major shopping cart processor. Since we offer a free secure shopping cart, we have a lot of experience with new and inexperienced merchants processing credit cards for the first time. I can tell you this: it’s not a case of ignorance or naïveté, especially since this credit card security issue has been so widely discussed online, and we have many proofs that this administration is highly aware of critical discussions taking place in the blogosphere.
Doing what we’ve observed does not require a special arrangement or a conspiracy with the credit card companies: any tiny merchant on the internet could do the same, even with Paypal. After 60 or 90 days, the credit card company would want to have a ‘serious’ conversation with you, but all you would have to do is promise remedial action and you can continue merrily on your way without getting serious about remediation.
The more serious issue is compliance with FEC regulations and federal campaign law – it’s very obvious that the campaign was actively trying to solicit foreign contributions (illegal) when you visit pages like: my.barackobama.com/page/group/LesParisiensavecleSenateurOBAMA where the activist controls on the site even report to everyone how much foreign activist fundraising has taken place in the Paris group. Since most of the page is in French, I seriously doubt that all of the $39,000+ was raised by citizen expatriates in Paris. The common billing address check and a simple SQL query would have prevented so many foreign contributions.
My exit question is this: if this activity is what we observed prior to the election, if this candidate was so careless with common checks that most merchants use, what kind of care and diligence can we expect when this guy has his hands on the US budget?
Ron Robinson
800Cart
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