Holy Frozen Batman!

It happened. Obama was held accountable for something. It’s not much, but it’s something.

President Obama’s 2008 campaign was fined $375,000 by the Federal Election Commission for campaign reporting violations — one of the largest fees ever levied against a presidential campaign, POLITICO has learned.

The fine — laid out in detail in FEC documents that have yet to be made public — arose from an audit of the campaign, which was published in April. POLITICO obtained a copy of the conciliation agreement detailing the fine, which was sent to Sean Cairncross, the chief lawyer for the Republican National Committee, one of the groups that filed complaints about the campaign’s FEC reporting from 2008.

“$375,000 is a huge fine,” said Republican election lawyer Jason Torchinsky. “It may one of their top five- or ten-largest fines.”

But he added, “They’re also the first billion-dollar presidential campaign. Proportionally, it’s not out of line.
[...]

The major sticking point for the FEC appeared to be a series of missing 48-hour notices for nearly 1,300 contributions totaling more than $1.8 million — an issue that lawyers familiar with the commission’s work say the FEC takes seriously. The notices must be filed on contributions of $1,000 or more that are received within the 20-day window of Election Day.

More than half of those contributions were transferred from the Obama Victory Fund,a joint committee between the campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Sources said the fine resulting from the settlement agreement has been paid, with $230,000 coming from the Obama campaign’s coffers and the remainder from the DNC.

The document outlined other violations, such as erroneous contribution dates on some campaign reports. The Obama campaign was also late returning some contributions that exceeded the legal limit.

Like I said, it’s not much, even though the idiots quoted in the article and the author herself makes it sound breathlessly serious. It’s really just putting the whole thing to bed without actually investigating anything, and offering a veneer of credibility to the most corrupt campaign in American history. There’s nothing there about the illegal contributions from foreigners or the fact that many Vile Progs could have and probably did donate more than the maximum allowed because of that little CVS number work around. But at least it’s something.

You’ll have to wait forever for an investigation into caucus manipulations and delegate-stealing, though. This is an open thread.

Don’t Hold Your Breath Waiting For Answers

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After new attacks, Obama faces questions on drones

The first drone strikes approved by the Obama administration in the new year killed a major Taliban leader in Pakistan but also fueled growing concerns about Obama’s accelerated use of secret killings with little outside oversight.

According to Pakistani security officials, an American drone strike killed 14 persons, including Maulvi Nazir, who aided anti-U.S. fighters in Afghanistan.

Since becoming commander in chief, Obama has signed off on approximately 300 drone strikes in Pakistan alone, more than six times the amount approved by President George W. Bush, according to the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank. It’s estimated that roughly 2,500 people have died in drone strikes conducted by the Obama administration.

A review by the Council on Foreign Relations concluded that between a few dozen and a couple hundred of those killed were innocent civilians. The Obama administration has given no official accounting of civilian deaths.

The public remains largely in the dark about the rules for killings ordered from thousands of miles away, critics said, raising the stakes for Obama in his second term to outline a coherent blueprint for using the weapon.

“None of the questions that are being raised in public are getting answered,” said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy. “What is a reliable estimate of the number of casualties; what are the strategic consequences of targeted killings; what is the role of the CIA?”

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So exactly who is Obama facing questions from?

Not the media. They’re pillow-fluffers. Not Congress. They’re complicit.

I can think of a few things I’d like to ask him but the chances of me getting close enough to shout a question at him are slim and none. I guess I could hold up a sign as his motorcade zooms by but I seriously doubt he’ll pull over and answer.

So I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for Obama to answer questions about anything.

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A Spoof, But Just Barely

(FAKE AD)

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The above ad is a spoof. I’m not sure who made it but it wasn’t the Brady Campaign. But like all good satire it almost seems real.

That’s the thing about fanatical true believers – they are capable of making arguments like the one in the ad. In fact, I’m willing to bet that some of the gun-grabbers would agree with the ad, even if they recognize it would not be effective.

Whoever did make the ad has a sick sense of humor. At the same time they managed to make a spoof that was both false and true at the same time.

I don’t know about you but if someone broke into my home the second thing I would reach for would be the phone. The first thing would be a weapon. There is an old saying:

“It’s better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.”

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A highly offensive ad bearing our logo has appeared online. We have no affiliation with it & are working hard to have it removed.—
Brady Campaign (@bradybuzz) January 03, 2013

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