Report: Obama Campaign Soliciting Foreign Donations (Again)

The Government Accountability Institute released a blockbuster study today on the issue of foreign donations in American politics, and in particular, the Obama campaign. The study determined three key findings:

1. The absence of the industry-standard CVV and unknown use of AVS anti-fraud security for online credit card donations.
2. The presence of a branded, major third-party owned website (Obama.com) redirects its 68% foreign traffic to a campaign donation page.
3. Active foreign solicitation using indiscriminate email solicitations and exposure to social media.

The branded site, Obama.com, was created in Shanghai, China, by an Obama bundler, but its present registration information is hidden.

If this story seems like a re-run, that’s because the Obama campaign also disabled the credit card verification system for online donations four years ago.

PJ Media

How the AARP Made $2.8 Billion By Supporting Obamacare’s Cuts to Medicare

(DISCLOSURE: I am an outside adviser to the Romney campaign on health-care issues. The opinions contained herein are mine alone, and do not necessarily correspond to those of the campaign.)

Avik Roy, FORBES—As you know if you’ve been reading this blog, Obamacare cuts $716 billion from Medicare in order to pay for its $1.9 trillion expansion of coverage to low-income Americans. It’s one of the reasons why seniors are more opposed to the new health law than any other age group. So why is it that the group that purports to speak for seniors, the American Association of Retired Persons, so strongly supports a law that most seniors oppose?

According to an explosive new report from Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), it’s because those very same Medicare cuts will give the AARP a windfall of $1 billion in insurance profits, and preserve another $1.8 billion that AARP already generates from its business interests.

Read more at Forbes.

How Jimmy Carter’s Grandson Helped Leak the Secret Romney Fund-raiser Video

The damning video of Mitt Romney telling a room of wealthy donors how he really feels about the freeloading 47 percent of Americans “who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it,” among other candid things, has been floating around online in bits and pieces for three months, but didn’t hit the big time until it was published by David Corn at Mother Jones today. Credited as a “research assistant” on the story is James Carter IV, the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter, who has been toiling online as an opposition researcher and is “currently looking for work,” according to his Twitter bio. “I’ve been searching for clips on Republicans for a long time, almost every day,” said Carter this evening. “I just do it for fun.” But by connecting Corn with the mysterious uploader of the clip, Carter has uncovered his biggest story yet, one that could potentially affect the outcome of the election. (And get him a job.)

Read more at New York News and Features Daily Intel

Missouri legislature upholds religious liberty bill.

On Sept. 12, the Missouri legislature voted to override Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of religious liberty bill, SB 749. The Missouri Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state’s bishops, strongly supported SB 749, adding that it “upholds religious liberty in a very practical way. Under this bill, no one can be forced to pay for surgical abortions, abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives or sterilizations when this violates their moral or religious beliefs.”

Read more at the Examiner.com

Turmoil Spreads to U.S. Embassy in Yemen

SANA, Yemen — Turmoil in the Arab world linked to an American-made video denigrating the Prophet Muhammad spread on Thursday to Yemen, where hundreds of protesters attacked the American Embassy, two days after assailants killed the American ambassador in Libya and crowds tried to overrun the embassy compound in Cairo.

News reports also spoke of a separate protest in Tehran, where around 500 Iranians chanting “Death to America” tried to converge on the Swiss Embassy, which handles United States interests in the absence of formal diplomatic relations with Washington. Hundreds of police officers held the crowds back from the diplomatic compound, witnesses said.

For a third straight day at the American Embassy in Cairo, protesters scuffled with police firing tear gas, witnesses said, and the state news agency reported that 13 people were injured. In Iraq, a militant Shiite group, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, once known for its violent attacks on Americans and other Westerners, reportedly said the video “will put all American interests in danger.” Protests were also reported at American missions in Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia, where the police also fired tear gas to disperse crowds.

Read more at Washington Times

President Obama’s Chair at the intelligence brief the week before the attacks was empty. But the Muslim Brotherhood is apologetic. Until the next terrorist attack.

Gallup Sued by DOJ after Unfavorable Obama Polls, Employment Numbers

Don’t like the poll numbers anymore? Join the California mentality.

Senior Obama Campaign adviser David Axelrod reportedly contacted The Gallup Organization to discuss the company’s research methodology after their poll’s findings were unfavorable to the President. After declining to adjust their methodology, Gallup was named in an unrelated lawsuit by the DOJ.

Axelrod took to Twitter to direct people to an article by the National Journal’s Ron Brownstein suggesting a flaw in Gallup’s methodology. Brownstein compared Gallup’s demographic sampling predictions to previous election exit polls as well as contemporaneous research released by Pew, CNN/ORC and ABC/WaPo.

More at Breitbart TV

GHEI: ATF’s latest gun grab

Agency reduces due process for seizing firearms

The Obama administration is making it easier for bureaucrats to take away guns without offering the accused any realistic due process. In a final rule published last week, the Justice Department granted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) authority to “seize and administratively forfeit property involved in controlled-substance abuses.” That means government can grab firearms and other property from someone who has never been convicted or even charged with any crime.

It’s a dangerous extension of the civil-forfeiture doctrine, a surreal legal fiction in which the seized property — not a person — is put on trial. This allows prosecutors to dispense with pesky constitutional rights, which conveniently don’t apply to inanimate objects. In this looking-glass world, the owner is effectively guilty until proved innocent and has the burden of proving otherwise. Anyone falsely accused will never see his property again unless he succeeds in an expensive uphill legal battle.

Read more: GHEI: ATF’s latest gun grab – Washington Times

ELECTION UNCONFIDENTIAL

True election stories from the south-west.

A friend of mine went in to vote in the August primary. Showing her drivers license (since she is a naturalized American, she has to show one.) the campaign volunteer noticed the expiration date of December 2012. Curiously (since this is August), the campaign worker asked if her license was expired.

My friend, not one to mince words, replied, “If it was December, that damn Obama wouldn’t be in office!”

The polling station became quiet.

Anti-Obama film raking in the bucks.

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that 2016: Obama’s America took in 1.2 million over the weekend and its theater coverage is expanding from 61 to 169 theaters. It is the number 2 non-nature documentary so far this year.

The documentary is based on conservative author Dinesh D’Souza’s book The Roots of Obama’s Rage. The movie, co-directed by D’Souza and John Sullivan, will be playing in 1,075 theaters in an aggressive expansion that comes on the eve of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., which gets underway Aug. 27.

The film was number 3 in the Union Square theater in New York. One film executive joked that they must have thought it was a pro-Obama film. There are no reports of how many people walked out.