What’s the FEC got to do with it? It’s closed? Really? Ralph Nader and Michael Moore should be on this…

I wish I knew more about politics, funding campaigns and the FEC.  Actually, I wish the FEC was open for business as usual, but it isn’t.  Isn’t that strange?  Start here at The Washington Post:

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/12/22/a_fading_fec_and_obamas_ground.html

“The federal agency in charge of policing the torrent of political spending during the upcoming presidential primaries will, for all practical purposes, shut its doors on New Year’s Eve.

The Federal Election Commission will effectively go dark on Jan. 1 because Congress remains locked in a standoff over the confirmation of President Bush’s nominees to the panel. As a consequence, the FEC will enter 2008 with just two of six members — short of the four votes needed for the commission to take any official action.

“There is, in effect, nobody to answer the phone,” said Robert F. Bauer, a leading Democratic campaign finance lawyer….”

What?  The office in charge of policing overall campaign financing can’t do what it is supposed to do?  This is the sort of thing that Ralph Nader is very good at looking into.  He’s known for being a watchdog.  Something is WRONG! If the FEC is CLOSED! This is their website and mission statement:

http://www.fec.gov/info/mssion.shtml

If the FEC is closed, who is monitoring what the Obama campaign (or any campaign) is doing on the Internet right now?  Who is watching the ethics of it all?  Who is in charge?

From the FEC webpage:

http://www.fec.gov/ans/answers_general.shtml#internet

“What are the rules for activity conducted on the Internet?

While many campaign-related Internet activities are not subject to FEC regulations, some–most notably paid advertising–are subject to certain restrictions. For a summary, consult our Internet Communications and Activity brochure.”

Who is monitoring all this?  And the big money pouring in? And/Or Target Marketing?

The must read of the day is from CapitalEye.org called “Holding a Contest Without the Referee” 

http://www.capitaleye.org/inside.asp?ID=322

Is it even fair to be having the election without the FEC?

Look at this piece from National Journal’s The Gate:

http://thegate.nationaljournal.com/2008/02/fec_impasse_threatens_to_under.php

“Obama, meanwhile, also faces pressure. Smith noted Obama “can be accused of using his Senate position to lock up the FEC to the detriment of his likely general election opponent.”

In an editorial Monday, the Wall Street Journal observed that if Obama is “promising to end partisanship in Washington… here’s a place to start: He could stop playing politics with the [FEC] in a way that could hamper John McCain’s campaign against, well, Mr. Obama.”

Obama’s Senate office did not respond to calls for comment Monday.

-Dan Friedman, CongressDaily”

You know, Ralph Nader is somebody who can understand  all this, and explain it to the commoners like myself.

Here is a link to a piece in  the Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120389958925789389.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks

Something fishy is going on, you know?  With this FEC thing.  Thank heavens for the press…!

It’s a funny thing to read an editorial like that, especially the last few grafs.  Something about this deal really stinks to high heaven.  We need the FEC operational right now, and maybe our President should intervene and get it going just to keep things all fair and on the up and up…

Or maybe Ralph Nader can do something.  He’s good at that.

All the candidates in this election should meet up over this  FEC thing, shouldn’t they?

Your voting public needs to be informed and told the truth about things!

 

Crucial info about Obama…buying superdelegates? plus MORE! (oh brother, where is the press?)

First info about how his web campaign has strategically target marketed.  Is it ethical to use web advertising in this fashion?  We’ve talked about advertising and target marketing before here.  Now see proof, and don’t miss this read.

http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3628526

You will learn about all the candidates, but, only Obama placed 70 million display ads online.  That’s what you call target marketing.

Then, is the White House for sale?  Can a candidate buy their way in?  You might want to read this piece and learn about something called “The Long Tail of Politics“

http://www.techpresident.com/blog/entry/21792/barack_obama_and_the_long_tail_of_politics

Don’t miss this place! www.Whitehouseforsale.org 

http://www.whitehouseforsale.org/candidate.cfm?CandidateID=C0009

Or this place! www.capitaleye.org 

http://www.capitaleye.org/inside.asp?ID=336

You NEED to read about how Obama has given $698,200 to the superdelegates since 2005.

Between this massive target marketed web campaign?  And the money?   Something is WRONG!

A bunch of Obama info you just aren’t getting from his campaign from this wiki style “Congresspedia“

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Barack_Obama:_U.S._presidential_election,_2008

And don’t miss this on his funding also from Congresspedia!

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Barack_Obama/Campaign_Financing

Funny but, he’s backed by the Carlyle Group.  I know about them from Michael Moore and that fab film he made!

Actually, wouldn’t it be cool if Mr. Moore investigated all this?

It would.

Obamas viewed through the world lens…curiously…partially…

Two articles shed some light on the Obamas that we aren’t seeing in the American Press.  The first is an in-depth view of Michelle Obama from England’s Daily Mail called:

“Mrs O: The truth about Michelle Obama’s ‘working class’ credentials”

She has been portrayed as someone who grew up poor in America, but this article disputes that.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=517824&in_page_id=1879

“When The Mail on Sunday went back to the gritty district of Chicago where Michelle LaVaughn Robinson was raised, we found a rather different picture from the one so single-mindedly promoted by Camp Obama.

Instead of the one-room tenement that now appears in most accounts of her upbringing, we found a well-kept neighbourhood of red-brick Arts and Craft-style houses which have long been home to respectable black families.”

 They also have a picture of her childhood home.  Read this article and you’ll see how the picture of her the press is painting here doesn’t exactly match…

And then there is this, from this morning.  From Asia Times.

Obama’s women reveal his secret

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JB26Aa01.html

This made the front page over there.  It’s good to see how the rest of the world looks at us through various lenses, and our candidates as well.  This article has more background info, and is very, very, political.

Yikes.