Keep this all in mind the next time the media simply says it’s “doing its job” by digging up every little piece of dirt about Sarah Palin.
Mr. Good Will - who lists his employer as “Loving” and his profession as “You” - has contributed 1,000 times to the Barack Obama campaign…
Mr. Good Will said he was from Austin, Texas. When I called directory assistance, they could find no listing for him.
Mr. Doodad Pro made 786 contributions for a total of $19,500. Like Mr. Good Will, Mr. Pro lists his employer as “Loving” and his profession as “You.” Mr. Pro said he is from Nunda, N.Y. Directory assistance found no listing for him either.
Mr. Timmerman was particularly curious about 11,500 contributions from overseas totalling $33.8 million.
Mr. McCain and Hillary Clinton required foreign donors to provide proof of citizenship. Until very recently, Mr. Timmerman said, the Obama campaign did not. “More than 1,400 of the overseas entries clearly were U.S. diplomats or military personnel, who gave an APO address,” Mr. Timmerman wrote. But they accounted for only 12 percent of Mr. Obama’s overseas donors, and the aggregate total of their contributions was just $201,680…
“In July and August, the head of Nigeria’s stock market held a series of pro-Obama fund-raisers in Lagos,” Mr. Timmerman said. “At one event, a table for eight went for $16,800. Nigerian press reports claimed sponsors raked in an estimated $900,000.”
Making contributions on credit cards via the Internet - as both Good Will and Doodad Pro did - makes it easier for foreigners to contribute. Web logger Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs) reported three Palestinians living in a refugee camp in Gaza tried to donate $33,500 to the Obama campaign last year. They were caught only because the amount was far above the legal limit. If foreigners donate in amounts less than $200, their illegal involvement would be virtually undetectable.
And the media’s interest in all of this?
CNN recently sent a reporter to Little Diomede Island, the westernmost part of Alaska (2.4 miles from Russia) to determine whether Sarah Palin had ever been there to see Russia with her own eyes. But CNN - and the rest of the media - have been incurious about the Obama campaign’s fund-raising.
Perfect.
November 18th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
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