Earlier today, the Republican National Committee filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against the Obama campaign regarding reports it accepted around $200 million in illegal contributions, and their failure to comply with campaign finance laws.

RNC Chief Counsel Sean Cairncross released the following statement today concerning the complaint:

“We believe Obama for America has knowingly accepted excessive contributions and donations from foreign nationals, and has failed to take the necessary remedial action required by law. We see this as a wide-scale problem and it appears the Obama campaign may be in substantial noncompliance with federal campaign finance laws. Barack Obama broke his word to the American people and refused to accept public financing, and now his campaign appears to be disregarding the rules and laws that govern federal campaigns. Senator Obama routinely mentions the word ‘change’ on the campaign trail, yet it seems the only changes he supports are ones that personally benefit his own political aspirations.”

Since the FEC complaint was filed, CBS reported on more suspicious contributions:

Two donors to the Obama campaign that gave a total of $7,722 appear to have made their contributions under fake names that look like they were written by a mouse running across a keyboard: Dahsudhu Hdusahfd of Df, Hawaii with the following employer CZXVC/ZXVZXV and Uadhshgu Hduadh listed as living in Dhff, Florida listed their employer as DASADA/SAFASF.

CBS News did not find any records of these last names, towns or employers anywhere else. Newsweek reported two questionable Obama donors over the weekend named “Doodad Pro” and “Good Will”.

Contributions from the two donors Hdusahfd and Hduadh were made on the same day starting on July 16, 2008. Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show the campaign began refunding the donations as early as August 6, 2008.

Despite numerous refunds from the Obama campaign, Hdusahfd still has a record of giving a total of $7500 to Obama which is well over the legal limit for the primary and general election of $4600. Hduadh gave $14,200 but the Obama campaign returned all but $222.00.

Newsweek also reported on the suspicious donations.

Obama’s chickens coming home to roost?

Looks like it could happen very soon…

The American Spectator has the scoop:

An auditor for the Federal Election Commission is attempting to have his bosses seek a formal investigation into the collection by the Obama for President campaign of more than $200 million in potentially illegal political donations, including millions of dollars of illegal, foreign donations, and has sought a request for assistance from the Department of Justice or Federal Bureau of Investigation. But the analyst’s requests have largely been ignored. “I can’t get anyone to move. I believe we are looking at a hijacking of our political system that makes the Clinton and Gore fundraising scandals pale in comparison. And no one here wants to touch it.”

Sound serious? You bet? Is it going to go anywhere before the election? Not likely.

One reasons cited by his superiors, says the analyst, is that involvement by the Justice Department or FBI would be indicative of a criminal investigation, something the FEC would prefer not take place a month before the presidential election. Such actions, though, have been used to scuttle Republican campaigns in the past, the most famous being the Weinberger case in the days leading up to the 1992 re-election bid of President George H.W. Bush.

The analyst, who declines to be identified for fear of retribution, says that on four different occasions in the past three months, he sought to open formal investigations into the Obama campaign’s fundraising techniques, but those investigations have been discouraged. “Without formal approval, I can’t get the resources I need, manpower, that kind of thing. This is a huge undertaking.” And the analyst says that he believes that campaign finance violations have occurred.

Is there hope something can be done to get some answers on this? Yes, but we have to make it an issue.

“The question has always been, if you buy a $25 t-shirt and you go back to that purchaser eight or nine times with email appeals for $200 or $500 donations, and you have people donating like that all the time, at what point does the campaign bother to check if the FEC limit has been exceeded?” says a former Clinton campaign fundraiser. “There are enough of us from the 1992 and 1996 and 2000 races around to know that many of these kinds of violations never get caught until after the election has been won or lost. In this case, there is no way the Obama campaign will be held accountable before Election Day, unless someone raises holy hell.”

So let’s raise some holy hell!

My apologies for the recent downtime B4V has been experiencing. Last week we did upgrade the server, and things were running ell for a while, but following the VP debate something has been attacking our server endlessly. Hopefully we’ll have the problem resolved soon. If you notice the site is down email me at blogsforvictory@gmail.com and I’ll do the best I can to get things up and running again.

UPDATE 10:19 PM: So, things appear to be under control. The following graph shows the load on Blogs For Victory’s server in the past 24 hours:

As you can see, Blogs For Victory was being hit really bad overnight. I had to restart the server when I woke up in the morning, and twice more before things settled down.

Now, we’ve been slammed with spambot and all kinds of things in the past, but nothing like this. I’ve never seen a constant slamming like this. The server has been pretty much under attack since not too long after the VP Debate. Hardly seems like a coincidence.

Joe Biden lied 14 times during the debate, according to the McCain campaign.

Joe Biden gets the Constitution WRONG.

The New York Daily News says “Palin scores.”

David Brooks of the New York Times called last night The Palin Rebound.

CNN’s Alex Castellanos said, “[W]hen you look at Sarah Palin, you saw America, you saw outsiders, you saw Main Street, not Wall Street. The Republican brand needed to see that tonight and they got it.”

Fred Barnes pinpoints the moment Sarah Palin knew she was winning the debate.

Democratic Strategist Paul Begala said, “Sarah Palin’s strategy was to defend Sarah Palin and repair her damaged image and I think she did pretty good job of that.”

CNBC’s Larry Kudlow said, “I think she’s going to be the clear winner in this, and oddly enough, it’s directly symmetrical to what happened with McCain and Obama. In this case, she held her ground. She was informed and she was strong. … And I’ll tell you what, she made very strong distinctions on energy drilling for lower prices and lower taxes not higher.”

NPR’s Michelle Norris said Paln “delivered a performance that filled in the resume and also helped people perhaps connect to her on a very visceral level.”

From Frank Luntz’s focus group: “I think she just spoke to the people, the American people. She was direct.”

Biden’s Iran Blunder.

Joe Biden, in context, on clean coal: “We’re not supporting ‘clean coal.’ […] No coal plants here in America. Build them, if they’re going to build them over there make ’em clean because they’re killing you.”

My friend Rob Willington, the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Republican Party reports on Twitter: “MassGOP is getting bombarded with McCain PALIN yard sign requests after last nights home run performance.”

More as the day rolls on.

Tonight, I’ll be live-blogging the Vice-Presidential Debate over at VoteBitter.com.

VoteBitter.com has a nifty shirt for sale from their website:

Click here to get your shirt!

Click here to check out the liveblogging of the VP debate at 9 PM Eastern.

UPDATE: Links of note:
McCain: Palin will “deliver some news” tonight
RNC shatters monthly fundraising record
Fox reporting on OH voting irregularities
Is Palin Behind McCain’s Poll Drop?

Click here to view the live blogging!
Feel free to post your comments about the debate here.

UPDATE: Make no mistake about it, Sarah Palin is winning this debate.

UPDATE: Debate over. No doubt… Sarah Palin rocked tonight.

DONATE. DONATE. DONATE. DONATE. DONATE. DONATE.

UPDATE: Frank Luntz’s focus group gives incredibly high marks for Palin. Undecided voters swayed towards McCain… Palin won debate:

“I think she just spoke to the people, the American people. She was direct.”

UPDATE: Sarah Palin came into the debate, with everyone expecting her to fumble. Instead, she caught the Hail Mary pass.

UPDATE: Peggy Noonan says “she killed.”

…and on to the House it goes.

With the so-called economic crisis dominating headlines, momentum has clearly turned in favor of Barack Obama.

Some conservatives are concerned about the outcome of the race. There is certainly reason to be concerned, but there’s no reason to throw in the towel.

Let’s consider the following. Despite the recent economic news, which hurts McCain being a member of the incumbent party, the race, according to the latest Gallup Daily Tracking Poll, still shows a close race with Obama at 48% and McCain at 44%. So, despite all the factors that should put Obama at least 12 points ahead, he is under 50% nationally.

The current state of the race is somewhat similar to how it was around the time of the Democrats’ convention. The main difference is that Obama is getting a bump from poor economic news, the same way he got a bump from a week of positive coverage from his convention. What this tells me is that the dynamic of the race can easily shift again in McCain’s favor, and there’s still time to do it.

It was only a few weeks ago that Democrats were worried that Obama was blowing the election. Things have changed quite dramatically since then… Some may have been because of Obama’s offensive strategy, but, I still believe much of the shift has less to do with Obama and more to do with voter perception resulting from economic news.

There is still time left for McCain to shift the momentum back in his favor. But, only he can make it happen. I don’t have the answer on how he turns it around, but I have a few suggestions.

1. I don’t think McCain has effectively linked Obama and Biden to the Democratic Majority which has brought congressional approval down to historic lows in the single digits. He needs to make the case to the American people that Obama and Biden have been a part of the problem, and to put them in the White House with what will likely remain Democrat majorities in both Houses of Congress would be a continuation of the same problems that have arised in the past two years since they took over.
2. McCain needs to challenge Obama on his alleged bipartisanship and his ability to go after corrupt members of his own party. The news from earlier today about Nancy Pelosi using her political action committee to enrich her own family is indicative of the corruption that is still rampant in the Democratic Party that goes unpunished by their fellow party members. Also, McCain should have challenged Obama to call on Rangel to step down from his chairmanship after all the barrage of stories of corrupt activities he’s been involved in had surfaced. He needs to demonstrate that while he’s been a maverick, Obama has not.
3. Get Romney to Michigan. We need that state to secure victory and Romney’s connections to the state, coupled with his primary victory there makes him the most valuable surrogate he has to send there.
4. McCain needs to talk about the economy, but move beyond the bailout. Most people may have an opinion about the bailout, but most also don’t understand the complexities of the situation. When the bailout is over and done with, the race will likely tighten up even more. So, McCain needs to talk about the economy in a way most people will understand and relate to.
5. For Florida, bring in Rudy Giuliani and Joe Lieberman. Also, use Joe Lieberman to not only reach out to Independents, Reagan Democrats and Hillary Democrats, but also Jewish voters.
6. William Ayers. Exploit it. Tony Rezko. Exploit it.

Those are just a few ideas. We’ll see how the next couple weeks pan out… I have no doubt the race will be a virtual tie in national polls and in electoral map projections again soon… the question is how things will go on the homestretch.

Tom McClintock is running for Congress in California’s 4th Congressional district. His opponent, Democrat Charlie Brown, has recently been exposed with videotape evidence to have attended a Code Pink anti-war rally, while in uniform, when a U.S. soldier was hung in effigy.

New video emerged today ending years of controversy over whether or not Charlie Brown attended an anti-war protest dressed in a military uniform. The video clearly shows Brown standing with anti-war demonstrators in front of a home where a soldier had been hanged in effigy.

Deborah Johns, mother of a Marine who served three tours of duty in Iraq, saw Charlie Brown that night (February 15, 2005). Brown’s campaign told Politicker that “Brown attended the rally in a camouflage jacket and spoke with people on both sides of the rally before leaving.”

“Deborah Johns said she saw Brown clearly on the side of the anti-war protestors,” said McClintock for Congress Spokesman Bill George. “People supporting the troops were on one side of the street and anti-war demonstrators were on the opposite side of the street. Charlie wants to be on both sides of every issue, but on this occasion at least he actually took a side. Unfortunately for Charlie it was the radical leftist side with people like Cindy Sheehan and Sean Penn,” George said.

Here is McClintock’s ad, featuring the video exposing Charlie Brown: