Euros for Obama?

Has the Obama campaign made a regular practice of accepting illegal foreign campaign contributions, as the research of Kenneth Timmerman suggests? (See too here and here.) Well, if one is to judge by an article published earlier this month by the Italian columnist Maria Laura Rodotà, in certain European circles it would appear to be an open secret that it has. Moreover, Rodotà’s account of her being inundated by e-mails from the Obama campaign suggests that the campaign has not only been accepting illegal foreign campaign contributions, but that it has been actively soliciting them. Here is what Maria Laura Rodotà writes in her October 2 column in the major Italian daily Corriere della Sera [Italian link]:

Oh God. It's my fault. And your fault. And also the fault of that friend of yours who gave her e-mail to the Obama campaign. They have been writing us for a year, the Obama people – several times a day. They've sent us videos of Barack, they've responded to criticisms, they've laid down the party line, they've sold gadgets. They've invited us to interesting events like "Camp Obama" in California....At the foot of each e-mail, they'd ask for small donations, even just five dollars - which won't even get you breakfast here in downtown Milan. We never gave a cent. The cheapskates said "you can't do that," they'd be foreign contributions; others sent donations from fake American addresses. Real or fake, live or online, you felt part of a community of like-minded persons, all normal and liberal…

The "Torture Issue" and the Elections

Would a President Obama seek torture charges against Bush administration officials? The Illinois Senator's eagerness to agree with John McCain on the "torture issue" suggests that he would. But what exactly is the "torture issue"? See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

"And They Called It Peace" (Martti Ahtisaari and the Nobel Peace Prize)

The choice of Martti Ahtisaari as Nobel Peace laureate does more to undermine the traditional sense of the Nobel Peace Prize than any merely irrelevant choice like Al Gore. For by awarding the prize to Martti Ahtisaari, the Nobel committee has sent the message that to achieve peace, one should make war.

See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

Cologne Revisited: German Neo-Nazis View Islam as "Ally"

When protesters in Cologne last month managed, with the blessing of the city government, to prevent the holding of an “Anti-Islamification Congress,” the cancellation of the event was widely hailed in the German and international media as a victory against “right-wing extremists” or, more simply put, “Nazis.” A new report from the domestic intelligence service of the German city-state of Hamburg shows, however, that actual neo-Nazi groups in Germany — i.e., groups that themselves embrace this description — in fact likewise opposed the “Anti-Islamification Congress” and are notably hostile to its sponsor, the “citizen’s movement” Pro-Cologne [Pro-Köln].

See my report on Pajamas Media here.