Obama Campaign accepts illegal foreign campaign contribution
22 Oct 2012, 1:02 am
Before anyone starts whining about Mitt Romney, the same individual tried to donate to Romney's campaign and their donation was rejected.
Obama re-election campaign has accepted at least one foreign donation in violation of the law — and does nothing to check on the provenance of millions of dollars in other contributions, a watchdog group alleges.
Chris Walker, a British citizen who lives outside London, told The Post he was able to make two $5 donations to President Obama’s campaign this month through its Web site while a similar attempt to give Mitt Romney cash was rejected. It is illegal to knowingly solicit or accept money from foreign citizens.
Walker said he used his actual street address in England but entered Arkansas as his state with the Schenectady, NY, ZIP code of 12345.
“When I did Romney’s, the payment got rejected on the grounds that the address on the card did not match the address that I entered,” he said. “Romney’s Web site wanted the code from the back of card. Barack Obama’s didn’t.”
In September, Obama’s campaign took in more than $2 million from donors who provided no ZIP code or incomplete ZIP codes, according to data posted on the Federal Election Commission Web site.
The Obama campaign said the FEC data was the result of “a minor technical error.”
“All the ZIP codes and numbers are real and can be verified,” spokesman Michael Czin said.
The Obama campaign’s apparent lack of safeguards makes it possible to violate the law, says a report released by the Government Accountability Institute, a Florida-based watchdog group.
The report found that one Obama site — Obama.com — gets almost half of its traffic from foreign computer addresses. The site directs users to an Obama donation page.
“We are not suggesting that just foreign traffic by itself is a problem,” said Peter Schweizer, president of the GAI. “But for a campaign that is very sophisticated in its fund-raising capabilities, they do not make one effort to try to even see or ask somebody to check a box that says they are a US citizen.”
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/b ... hyDCRyyrEL
So here we see the Obama Campaign's blatent disregard for the rule of law, which is no surprise considering we're talking about Chicago Politicians.
I'll say this again: Mitt Romney's site BLOCKED ATTEMPTS BY FOREIGNERS TO CONTRIBUTE TO HIS CAMPAIGN.
22 Oct 2012, 10:33 am
It seems you concern yourself more with manufactured outrage from the right than you do with actual discussions about policy. Well let's swat this down... even though it doesn't deserve the effort.
Either he's an American resident with a part-time American address, or he lied. His donation made it through because he had an American address to put on it. So this appears to be nothing.
Never mind that Rupert Murdoch, an Australian citizen, has many tools at his disposal to launder money from his broadcasting empire into the Republican party, and for that matter any CEO with a multinational corporation who uses profits gained from other parts of the world is essentially contributing foreign money to campaigns, but I suspect you'll be okay with that. If Obama gets $10 from some British a**hole he's taking it too far.
22 Oct 2012, 2:22 pm
Is it possible to acknowledge, regardless of your party affiliation, that both parties are pulling this crap? I find it wholly un-plausible that either party doesn't do what they can- legal or not- to win an election to gain or stay in power. NO way they play by the rules all the time.
I'm sure Romney's campaign is just as guilty at every level of taking advantage of the secrecy of internet donations as Obama's campaign is. But, the cvv thing is really scary to me.
For example, Marco Rubio did it too:
During his run for U.S. Senate, then Republican candidate Marco Rubio’s campaign donation website didn’t have CVV protection. The protection was put in place in May 2012 after the campaign was over. The report alleges the connection to foreign websites could be a violation of the Federal Election Commission solicitation laws and at minimum put Rubio at risk for fraud in his campaign.
Anyhow, what I heard was that the following:
- www.obama.com is owned by a bundler in Shanghai, China
- When you load that page, it redirects you to the Obama 2012 donation page
- The Obama 2012 donation site does not require CVV confirmation
- Donations under $200 do not require reporting of the of who made them
- Donations under $50 do not require records kept of who made them
- As reported over the weekend, the Obama campaign raised $181 million in September alone--only 2 percent of those donations are required to be reported to the FEC
As of September 26, 2012, the Obama campaign has raised $271,327,755 in contributions under $200 for the 2012 cycle. In 2008, it was $335,139,233. The Romney campaign has raised just $58,456,968 in contributions under $200 and has all CVV and online security measures in place. In total, the Obama campaign raised $500 million online in 2008 with $335 million in contributions--more than half--falling under the $200 reporting requirement. Obama has raised more online funds than any campaign in history. They are also actively sending solicitation emails all over the globe.
Honestly- if someone doesn't see that BOTH parties are pulling this crap, the wool is over their eyes. If you tend to lean to one political affiliation or the other and take critical thought about Romney as ridiculous if you're a right-winger or criticism of Obama because you're a left-winger, you're missing the point
The whole story: CLICKWeb Page Name It's from Townhall, but it is worth a read. It's not just a $10 schlep in Britain. The whole thing stinks.
26 Oct 2012, 3:04 pm
Either he's an American resident with a part-time American address, or he lied. His donation made it through because he had an American address to put on it. So this appears to be nothing.
Never mind that Rupert Murdoch, an Australian citizen, has many tools at his disposal to launder money from his broadcasting empire into the Republican party, and for that matter any CEO with a multinational corporation who uses profits gained from other parts of the world is essentially contributing foreign money to campaigns, but I suspect you'll be okay with that. If Obama gets $10 from some British a**hole he's taking it too far.
Do you have a credit card? I'm guessing you don't or have no clue about how addresses can be verified during a transaction online.
1st there is a 3 to 4 digit number on credit cards that is a verification number that you use in online purchases.
2nd there is a way to crosscheck the credit card with the address given, through the credit card company, which is nearly instantaneous.
You picked the wrong person to try BS explanation with, cause I actually have a pretty good idea how credit card transactions work, and even a rough idea how to manually verify the card if the internet goes down.
@ JoeDirt
Actually the Romney campaign has the security features in place to verify the donation is actually from a US Citizen.
26 Oct 2012, 3:20 pm
Actually I wish it was a parody, but it isn't. Romney has had that verification system in place all the way back in the primary, in fact all of the Republican candidates did.
26 Oct 2012, 4:06 pm
Not likely, I've known about this problem with the Obama campaign site for months and Conservative bloggers have been pointing this out for a while. I think someone finally decided to prove that the bloggers were correct.
CyborgUprising
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Joined: 16 Jun 2012
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27 Oct 2012, 11:08 am
Two $5.00 donations?! Seriously? Who gives a flying, porkchop-laden, gem-encrusted, dragon-eating f**k? How do they know it wasn't the British gentleman ordering coffee and doughnuts for the President? I could see outrage over thousands, millions, billions or even trillions of dollars worth of contributions coming from foreigners, but $10.00? Sounds pretty ridiculous in my honest opinion.
As for that tidbit about the "Obama website" getting so much foreign interest: Since when has that become a crime? Persons from many nations have a keen interest in the elections, perhaps because they may impact global relations and foreign policy. It is also noteworthy to mention the name/word "Obama" exists in many languages from Japanese, Arabic, and Hebrew to Swahili. Isn't it possible the foreign users were searching for something else and merely stumbled upon the President's site. It happens to me quite often (just try to look up the industrial band SCFM on Google).
27 Oct 2012, 10:30 pm
As for that tidbit about the "Obama website" getting so much foreign interest: Since when has that become a crime? Persons from many nations have a keen interest in the elections, perhaps because they may impact global relations and foreign policy. It is also noteworthy to mention the name/word "Obama" exists in many languages from Japanese, Arabic, and Hebrew to Swahili. Isn't it possible the foreign users were searching for something else and merely stumbled upon the President's site. It happens to me quite often (just try to look up the industrial band SCFM on Google).
It is a crime to accept foreign political donations to one's campaign. It is actually highly likely that the Obama Campaign has taken thousands if not millions of dollars in foreign contributions, as long as they are made in low amounts like $5, $10, $100 amounts, they don't have to report where it comes from.
The safeguard to prevent this is fairly simple, and all the Republican candidates had the safeguard in place all the way back in the primaries.
All you have to do is the 3 to 4 digit code on the card (often on the back of the credit card), plus the address information. The two are matched up and if they don't match the transaction is flagged, if it is from a foreign credit card it would be flagged, it's actually fairly simple and the Obama campaign has that safeguard active if you are purchasing tee shirts.
27 Oct 2012, 11:13 pm
As for that tidbit about the "Obama website" getting so much foreign interest: Since when has that become a crime? Persons from many nations have a keen interest in the elections, perhaps because they may impact global relations and foreign policy. It is also noteworthy to mention the name/word "Obama" exists in many languages from Japanese, Arabic, and Hebrew to Swahili. Isn't it possible the foreign users were searching for something else and merely stumbled upon the President's site. It happens to me quite often (just try to look up the industrial band SCFM on Google).
It is a crime to accept foreign political donations to one's campaign. It is actually highly likely that the Obama Campaign has taken thousands if not millions of dollars in foreign contributions, as long as they are made in low amounts like $5, $10, $100 amounts, they don't have to report where it comes from.
The safeguard to prevent this is fairly simple, and all the Republican candidates had the safeguard in place all the way back in the primaries.
All you have to do is the 3 to 4 digit code on the card (often on the back of the credit card), plus the address information. The two are matched up and if they don't match the transaction is flagged, if it is from a foreign credit card it would be flagged, it's actually fairly simple and the Obama campaign has that safeguard active if you are purchasing tee shirts.
27 Oct 2012, 11:16 pm
Obama re-election campaign has accepted at least one foreign donation in violation of the law — and does nothing to check on the provenance of millions of dollars in other contributions, a watchdog group alleges.
Chris Walker, a British citizen who lives outside London, told The Post he was able to make two $5 donations to President Obama’s campaign this month through its Web site while a similar attempt to give Mitt Romney cash was rejected. It is illegal to knowingly solicit or accept money from foreign citizens.
Walker said he used his actual street address in England but entered Arkansas as his state with the Schenectady, NY, ZIP code of 12345.
“When I did Romney’s, the payment got rejected on the grounds that the address on the card did not match the address that I entered,” he said. “Romney’s Web site wanted the code from the back of card. Barack Obama’s didn’t.”
In September, Obama’s campaign took in more than $2 million from donors who provided no ZIP code or incomplete ZIP codes, according to data posted on the Federal Election Commission Web site.
The Obama campaign said the FEC data was the result of “a minor technical error.”
“All the ZIP codes and numbers are real and can be verified,” spokesman Michael Czin said.
The Obama campaign’s apparent lack of safeguards makes it possible to violate the law, says a report released by the Government Accountability Institute, a Florida-based watchdog group.
The report found that one Obama site — Obama.com — gets almost half of its traffic from foreign computer addresses. The site directs users to an Obama donation page.
“We are not suggesting that just foreign traffic by itself is a problem,” said Peter Schweizer, president of the GAI. “But for a campaign that is very sophisticated in its fund-raising capabilities, they do not make one effort to try to even see or ask somebody to check a box that says they are a US citizen.”
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/b ... hyDCRyyrEL
So here we see the Obama Campaign's blatent disregard for the rule of law, which is no surprise considering we're talking about Chicago Politicians.
I'll say this again: Mitt Romney's site BLOCKED ATTEMPTS BY FOREIGNERS TO CONTRIBUTE TO HIS CAMPAIGN.
I am shocked, shocked!
ruveyn
Kraichgauer
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Joined: 12 Apr 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 49,751
Location: Spokane area, Washington state.
28 Oct 2012, 12:23 am
Either he's an American resident with a part-time American address, or he lied. His donation made it through because he had an American address to put on it. So this appears to be nothing.
Never mind that Rupert Murdoch, an Australian citizen, has many tools at his disposal to launder money from his broadcasting empire into the Republican party, and for that matter any CEO with a multinational corporation who uses profits gained from other parts of the world is essentially contributing foreign money to campaigns, but I suspect you'll be okay with that. If Obama gets $10 from some British a**hole he's taking it too far.
Do you have a credit card? I'm guessing you don't or have no clue about how addresses can be verified during a transaction online.
1st there is a 3 to 4 digit number on credit cards that is a verification number that you use in online purchases.
2nd there is a way to crosscheck the credit card with the address given, through the credit card company, which is nearly instantaneous.
You picked the wrong person to try BS explanation with, cause I actually have a pretty good idea how credit card transactions work, and even a rough idea how to manually verify the card if the internet goes down.
@ JoeDirt
Actually the Romney campaign has the security features in place to verify the donation is actually from a US Citizen.
You didn't care to address how Rupert is laundering huge donations to the Republican party.
-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer
28 Oct 2012, 12:58 am
Either he's an American resident with a part-time American address, or he lied. His donation made it through because he had an American address to put on it. So this appears to be nothing.
Never mind that Rupert Murdoch, an Australian citizen, has many tools at his disposal to launder money from his broadcasting empire into the Republican party, and for that matter any CEO with a multinational corporation who uses profits gained from other parts of the world is essentially contributing foreign money to campaigns, but I suspect you'll be okay with that. If Obama gets $10 from some British a**hole he's taking it too far.
Do you have a credit card? I'm guessing you don't or have no clue about how addresses can be verified during a transaction online.
1st there is a 3 to 4 digit number on credit cards that is a verification number that you use in online purchases.
2nd there is a way to crosscheck the credit card with the address given, through the credit card company, which is nearly instantaneous.
You picked the wrong person to try BS explanation with, cause I actually have a pretty good idea how credit card transactions work, and even a rough idea how to manually verify the card if the internet goes down.
@ JoeDirt
Actually the Romney campaign has the security features in place to verify the donation is actually from a US Citizen.
You didn't care to address how Rupert is laundering huge donations to the Republican party.
-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer
Kraichgauer, last I checked Rupert Murdoch can legally donate to political campaigns, just like any other AMERICAN CITIZEN!
In fact, Mr. Murdoch became a naturalized United States Citizen in 1985...
In the 1950s and '60s, he acquired various newspapers in Australia and New Zealand, before expanding into the United Kingdom in 1969, taking over the News of the World followed closely by The Sun. He moved to New York in 1974 to expand into the US market and became a naturalised US citizen in 1985.[5] In 1981, he bought The Times, his first British broadsheet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch
Kraichgauer
Veteran
Joined: 12 Apr 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 49,751
Location: Spokane area, Washington state.
28 Oct 2012, 1:05 am
Either he's an American resident with a part-time American address, or he lied. His donation made it through because he had an American address to put on it. So this appears to be nothing.
Never mind that Rupert Murdoch, an Australian citizen, has many tools at his disposal to launder money from his broadcasting empire into the Republican party, and for that matter any CEO with a multinational corporation who uses profits gained from other parts of the world is essentially contributing foreign money to campaigns, but I suspect you'll be okay with that. If Obama gets $10 from some British a**hole he's taking it too far.
Do you have a credit card? I'm guessing you don't or have no clue about how addresses can be verified during a transaction online.
1st there is a 3 to 4 digit number on credit cards that is a verification number that you use in online purchases.
2nd there is a way to crosscheck the credit card with the address given, through the credit card company, which is nearly instantaneous.
You picked the wrong person to try BS explanation with, cause I actually have a pretty good idea how credit card transactions work, and even a rough idea how to manually verify the card if the internet goes down.
@ JoeDirt
Actually the Romney campaign has the security features in place to verify the donation is actually from a US Citizen.
You didn't care to address how Rupert is laundering huge donations to the Republican party.
-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer
Kraichgauer, last I checked Rupert Murdoch can legally donate to political campaigns, just like any other AMERICAN CITIZEN!
In fact, Mr. Murdoch became a naturalized United States Citizen in 1985...
In the 1950s and '60s, he acquired various newspapers in Australia and New Zealand, before expanding into the United Kingdom in 1969, taking over the News of the World followed closely by The Sun. He moved to New York in 1974 to expand into the US market and became a naturalised US citizen in 1985.[5] In 1981, he bought The Times, his first British broadsheet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch
I concede, I was mistaken. That still doesn't make him any less of a dick.
-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer
28 Oct 2012, 1:13 am
-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer
He didn't accuse you of illegal activity... Fact of the matter is he has never called for your 1st Amendment rights to be taken away.
You need to learn that there are a lot of rich conservatives out there that aren't evil. I know you were taught to hate rich people (unless they were far-left Hollywood lunatics or Democrats), but you need to understand that what your parents and teachers taught you was their own partisan intolerance showing.
