Retraction; Smear Campaign Against Obama

I just removed an article on Barak Obama thanks to a good friend who pointed out that the NYT article it referenced was a fake. Some of the factual response to the claims made in Dowd's fake article follow.

Cynic though I already am it is hard to believe that there are people out there doing these vicious things. Like most I'm conditioned to believe what I read and I did not even suspect this one. And evidently there are many more lies being spread around about Obama by several individuals and groups. For all I know John McCain is getting smeared, too.

As my friend said, check Snopes.com and Obama's own website to learn more but here is the real (true) story. Note that each rebutted point has a web address so you can confirm:

Fake Maureen Dowd Column Alleging Obamas Fundraising is Coming from Overseas Non-US Citizens
Tuesday, July 08, 2008 at 09:01 AM
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A June 29th column from Maureen Dowd writes The internet service providers (ISP) they were able to trace were from Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other Middle Eastern countries. One of the banks used for fund transfers was also located in Saudi Arabia. Another concentrated group of donations was traced to a Chinese ISP with a similar pattern of limited credit card charges.

FACT

Dowd wrote no such column. Her column on June 29th was about Hillary Clinton supporters
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/opinion/29dowd.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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Fake Dowd column says, It became clear that these donations were very likely coming from sources other than American voters. This was discussed at length within the campaign and the decision was made that none of these donations violated campaign financing laws. It was also decided that it was not the responsibility of the campaign to audit these millions of contributions as to the actual source (specific credit card number or bank transfer account numbers) to insure that none of these internet contributors exceeded the legal maximum donation on a cumulative basis of many small donations.

FACT

Donors to the Obama campaign are required to certify that they are U.S. citizens, and the campaign would not accept donations from foreign citizens https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/main?source=homedropdown

(Editor): My apologies to you my readers, to Barak Obama, and especially to my friend Jack.