As Minnesota goes, so goes the nation

Minnesota is still attempting to decide the Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken.  Powerline Blog has the details.

The money line:

...as the system currently operates, a county's failure to follow the law is rewarded, not punished.

The same holds true for nearly all election law, especially McCain-Feingold.  President Obama was able to loosen the rules regarding the way his website collected money with the result as reported by the Washington Post on Oct 29, 2008 (A few days before the election).

Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign is allowing donors to use largely untraceable prepaid credit cards that could potentially be used to evade limits on how much an individual is legally allowed to give or to mask a contributor's identity, campaign officials confirmed.

Faced with a huge influx of donations over the Internet, the campaign has also chosen not to use basic security measures to prevent potentially illegal or anonymous contributions from flowing into its accounts, aides acknowledged. Instead, the campaign is scrutinizing its books for improper donations after the money has been deposited.

The Obama organization said its extensive review has ensured that the campaign has refunded any improper contributions, and noted that Federal Election Commission rules do not require front-end screening of donations.

In recent weeks, questionable contributions have created headaches for Obama's accounting team as it has tried to explain why campaign finance filings have included itemized donations from individuals using fake names, such as Es Esh or Doodad Pro. Those revelations prompted conservative bloggers to further test Obama's finance vetting by giving money using the kind of prepaid cards that can be bought at a drugstore and cannot be traced to a donor.

The problem with such cards, campaign finance lawyers said, is that they make it impossible to tell whether foreign nationals, donors who have exceeded the limits, government contractors or others who are barred from giving to a federal campaign are making contributions.

In this event, following the law can only hurt the law abiding citizen.  (Doesn't this sound suspiciously like the principle critique of our nation's gun laws?)

I especially like this line

Instead, the campaign is scrutinizing its books for improper donations after the money has been deposited.

But given this truth

using the kind of prepaid cards that can be bought at a drugstore and cannot be traced to a donor.

The problem with such cards, campaign finance lawyers said, is that they make it impossible to tell whether foreign nationals, donors who have exceeded the limits, government contractors or others who are barred from giving to a federal campaign are making contributions.

Such scrutiny cannot possibly happen.

So the Obama campaign was unable to "scrutiniz(e) its books for improper donations". 

Now, since the issue is OBE, anyone who believes that the Federal Election Commission will look into it at this late date needs to contact me regarding some shares of Citi that I will happily unload for the paltry sum of $100 per.  In the meantime, however, Minnesota needs to do 2 big things.

1. Hold a Do-Over

2. Ensure that the same uniform standards of absentee ballot scrutiny are applied throughout Minnesota with substantial penalties for those individuals who fail to do so.

Aside: the original saying was "As Maine goes, so goes the nation."  Here is the Wikipedia entry.
 

Administration Official Snubs Brit Allies

I saw this item via Power line blog.

My key takeaway was this line from the UK Telegraph quoting an anonymous State Department Official involved in the planning of Gordon Brown's visit.

"There's nothing special about Britain. You're just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn't expect special treatment."

You have got to be kidding me.  The US State Department under President Obama cannot tell the difference between Great Britain and, say, Burundi?

Wow, we are in bigger trouble than I thought.