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Based on a single, poorly sourced article in Think Progress - a rabidly partisan blog that is an offshoot of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress - President Obama laid into Republicans for allowing "foreign money" to be used to fund campaigns against him, specifically, dues money from foreign countries paid to the Chamber of Commerce. The problem? The story by Think Progress is (not surprisingly) almost certainly untrue. But a closer examination shows that there is little evidence that what the chamber does in collecting overseas dues is improper or even unusual, according to both liberal and...

John McCain's campaign is still being audited by the Federal Elections Commission, while Obama – the only presidential candidate in history since the public finance system was established to decline public funds during the general election – may have escaped similar scrutiny by the FEC. An FEC spokesman told WND that the commission is obligated to complete an audit of McCain's campaign because he received public funds during the general election. "Under regulations, that is automatically audited by the FEC once you receive public funds," he said. "For the Obama committee, there's a possibility, just like with any other committee,...

President Obama refunds cash to Kenyan aunt, convicted murderer, lobbyists By: Kenneth P. Vogel July 28, 2009 04:44 AM EST More than eight months after President Barack Obama won the White House, the remnants of his campaign organization is struggling to deal with some unfinished business: returning about $669,000 in tainted or illegal campaign contributions to a motley assortment of donors, among them a convicted murderer, Washington lobbyists and a number of foreign nationals, including his own aunt. But the 11 Chicago-based staff members still on the campaign’s payroll are finding it was a lot easier to rake in a...

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Sands files complaint with commissioner of political practices Republicans, furious about negative campaign phone calls made by Democrats last week in Billings, did everything but label the tactic un-American. Turns out, they could have. The calls were made from Romania, according to phone records submitted this week to the state commissioner of political practices. Jack Sands, a GOP candidate in Senate District 27 and the target of the Oct. 12 calls, filed the complaint alleging that the people making the calls didn't identify who they were calling for. Senate District 27 includes parts of Billings and Yellowstone County. State law...

Led by labor unions, interest groups that can urge the public to elect or defeat candidates have poured at least $27 million into the presidential race since Labor Day, with Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry's backers outspending President Bush's by a ratio of more than 5-to-1. The efforts range from pro-Kerry hard-hat stickers handed out by the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades Political Action Together Political Committee to pro-Bush radio ads, funded by the National Right to Life political action committee, airing in every battleground state. Among the biggest spenders is the United Auto Workers PAC, which yesterday...

My fellow non-Americans ... The result of the US election will affect the lives of millions around the world but those of us outside the 50 states have had no say in it - until now. In a unique experiment, G2 has assembled a democratic toolkit to enable people from Basildon to Botswana to campaign in the presidential race. And with a little help from the folks in Clark County, Ohio, you might help decide who takes up residence in the White House next month. Oliver Burkeman explains how Get the name of a US voterOliver BurkemanWednesday October 13, 2004The...

My fellow non-Americans ... The result of the US election will affect the lives of millions around the world but those of us outside the 50 states have had no say in it - until now. In a unique experiment, G2 has assembled a democratic toolkit to enable people from Basildon to Botswana to campaign in the presidential race. And with a little help from the folks in Clark County, Ohio, you might help decide who takes up residence in the White House next month. Oliver Burkeman explains how Get the name of a US voter Wednesday October 13, 2004...

Senator Also May Have Set Up Meetings Between Chinese Firms, U.S. Officials (WASHINGTON, D.C.) Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released recently declassified documents showing that Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry accepted laundered contributions for his 1996 re-election campaign from the Communist Chinese government and that, in exchange, he may have arranged meetings between Chinese aerospace executives and U.S. government officials. Obtained from the FBI through Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act requests, the documents are related to the FBI’s “Chinagate” investigation into the Clinton campaign’s acceptance of contributions from Communist...

Presidential candidate John Kerry can count on the support of at least one group of Vietnam Veterans – and they're still in Vietnam. Following Kerry's denunciation of the ad by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, criticizing him for exaggerating his war record, a group of former U.S. soldiers gathered in Hanoi to express their support for Kerry and to call President Bush a "draft dodger" for his service in the Texas Air National Guard during the war. And they were selling T-shirts to tourists to raise money for Kerry's campaign. The $5 shirts sport a picture of President Bush with...

Artists back effort to unseat Bush Several leading Norwegian artists are donating works to a local campaign aimed at driving US President George W Bush out of office. The campaign, called "Tellhim.no," is raising money to place an ad in the Washington Post just before the US election in November. The artists include painter Frans Widerberg and photographer Morten Krogvold. One of Widerberg's paintings, for example, will be auctioned in August over the campaign's web site, with proceeds from a sale going towards efforts to unseat Bush. "We are frustrated and shaken over what's been going on," Widerberg told Norwegian...

SPARTANBURG, SC (Talon News) -- Liberal anti-Bush online political activist group MoveOn.org sent a warning message to its members this week regarding the upcoming ruling by the Federal Election Commission about the legality of so-called 527 groups accepting soft campaign contributions to run political ads."The Republican National Committee is pressing the Federal Election Commission to issue new rules that would cripple groups that dare to communicate with the public in any way critical of President Bush or members of Congress," MoveOn.org charged in an e-mail to supporters.In the e-mail, MoveOn.org attempts to scare "conservative, progressive, labor, religious, secular, social...

On March 22, 2002, during the debate over McCain-Feingold, John Kerry said, “The American people have become almost numb to these kinds of staggering figures, and they have come to expect fund-raising records to be broken with each election cycle.” He continued, “What is far worse for our democracy is that the public also believes that this money buys access and influence that average citizens don't have.... We can't go on leaving our citizens with the impression that the only kind of influence left in American politics is the kind you wield with a checkbook.” source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4487131/ What a difference...

<p>BERKELEY, Calif. -- The biggest powerhouse in progressive politics had decidedly inauspicious beginnings: an overheard conversation at a local Chinese restaurant, a high-tech chain letter, and $89.</p> <p>Five years ago, tech entrepreneurs Joan Blades and her husband, Wes Boyd -- whose company gave the world the flying-toaster screen saver -- were eating lunch and listening to a group at a nearby table lamenting the time and energy wasted on the President Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal. Blades and Boyd decided to start a petition urging Congress to forgo impeachment, censure Clinton instead, and move on. They e-mailed it to their friends, asked them to pass it on, and paid $89 to set up a website where people could register their support.</p>

Feb. 9 issue - John Kerry needed cash, and soon. In July 1996 the Massachusetts senator was locked in a tough re-election fight, so he was more than happy to help when he heard that a generous potential contributor wanted to visit his Capitol Hill office. The donor was Johnny Chung, a glad-handing Taiwanese-American entrepreneur. Chung brought along some friends, including a Hong Kong businesswoman named Liu Chaoying. Told that Liu was interested in getting one of her companies listed on the U.S. Stock Exchange, Kerry's aides immediately faxed over a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The next...

Most are aware that political contributions from foreign citizens are illegal in America, and we approve because we believe that only citizens should finance our political campaigns. Even if a foreign national owns a great deal of property in the United States, he's not allowed to vote or contribute to political campaigns whose outcomes would affect his property. Why shouldn't this be true on all political levels? Why should someone "foreign" to your county be able to contribute to a county official he can't vote for when his contribution may sway the election much more than your vote? Why should...