The occupant of the Oval Office gained his position through the commission of a felony. The evidence emphatically does not involve postings from "somebody's blog," or urban legends about Obama being a Muslim and/or having been born in Kenya. The evidence comes from Obama's own YouTube video, Web site, and campaign E-mails.

Lotteries for Political Campaigns are Illegal

It is a basic principle of auditing that issuance of a finding or nonconformance requires (1) objective evidence that (2) is noncompliant with the requirements of a standard. The auditor's personal opinion, rumors, and "common knowledge" do not count. As stated by Orson Welles as General Bayan in The Black Rose, "What I can't touch doesn't exist," and that is a good way to describe what is and is not objective evidence. A criminal conviction requires similarly (1) objective evidence that (2) violates a specific law. Let's start with the law as described by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC).

The FCC has defined a lottery as “any game, contest or promotion that combines the elements of prize, chance and consideration.” Federal law generally prohibits the broadcast of any advertisement or information concerning a lottery.

Texas adds, "Texas law allows only certain charitable and nonprofit organizations to conduct raffles to support their charitable causes. An unlawful raffle may constitute illegal gambling, which may carry criminal penalties." The Center for Competitive Politics is just as explicit:

It is legally impossible to conduct a nationwide raffle, whether the funds are being used for political purposes or not. This, of course, is of great importance, because running an interstate gambling operation that does not comply with the laws in each state in which it is being conducted subjects you to both criminal and civil penalties under the Federal RICO statute.

Now we have a clear standard against which we can compare Mr. Obama's fundraising practices. The next time he talks about people he thinks shouldn't be able to own guns, for example, our side should remind him (publicly) that, had prosecutors and law enforcement agencies not given him an obvious pass in 2008, he would be a prohibited person along with other enemies of the Second Amendment such as convicted felon Rod Blagojevich.

Barack Obama Funded His Campaign via Internet Gambling

Here is an E-mail that I received from the Obama Campaign in 2007, with full headers. As shown by the traceroute of IP address 70.42.50.185 which still belongs to BlueStateDigital, this is not a forged E-mail.

X-UIDL: 8498-1156627068

X-Mozilla-Status: 1001

X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000

Received: from mta-inap3.bluestatedigital.com ([70.42.50.185])

 by vms169131.mailsrvcs.net

 (Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.2-6.01 (built Apr  3 2006))

 with ESMTP id <0JM100JTOT7PEIU0@vms169131.mailsrvcs.net> for

[my E-mail address]; Tue, 31 Jul 2007 09:50:15 -0500 (CDT)

Received: by mta-inap3.bluestatedigital.com (Postfix, from userid 501)

 id 4B67A4EDCB3; Tue, 31 Jul 2007 10:50:13 -0400 (EDT)

Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 10:50:13 -0400

From: Barack Obama

Subject: Dinner invitation

X-Originating-IP: [70.42.50.185]

To: Bill Levinson <[my E-mail address]>

Reply-to: info@barackobama.com

Message-id: <6410a68c11e0cea969d3dd947ed112f6@localhost.localdomain>

 

Dear Bill,

A couple of weeks ago I sat down to dinner with four supporters like you.

Christina, Haile, Margaret, and Michael each made a small online donation, and we flew them across the country for some good food and good conversation.

What I enjoyed most about this dinner was the opportunity to listen to the stories and concerns of ordinary Americans in a relaxed environment. Out on the campaign trail, there isn't always time for that kind of interaction.

Last week we started planning our second dinner, and on Friday evening at 6:42 pm, a woman named Dorothy Unruh of Lakewood, Colorado made a donation.

I'm pleased to announce that Dorothy will be one of my guests for the second dinner. You could join us if you make a small donation before 11:59 pm tonight, July 31st:

…Thank you for your support,

Barack Obama

Note all the elements of a lottery:

1. Element of chance ("You could join us")
2. Mandatory payment of consideration ("if you make a small donation"). Had it been possible to enter this game of chance without making a donation, this would have removed this element and made the proposition legal, but it was not. Only after warnings (and how many ordinary people would have been let off with warnings?) did the Obama campaign say that no payment was necessary to enter--and then, as shown below, did so in very small print.
3. A prize (expenses-paid trip to have dinner with Barack Obama)

This lottery was not even honest like the numbers games for which gangsters are infamous. Numbers rackets are inarguably illegal, but they are also genuine games of chance. In this case, however, at least one winner was announced before the deadline for entries. The American Presidency Project confirms meanwhile that the Obama campaign raised money with yet another illegal Internet lottery (that is, prior to this one).

As part of the second Dinner with Barack Obama, the participants were selected from a group of thousands who submitted their personal stories along with a donation as small as $5 at barackobama.com.

If this is not enough, a video of Mr. Obama himself dated June 12 2007 includes the following admission to what looks like an obvious felony beginning at 0:35.

Here's what we are going to do. We want to have four people who donate money this week to sit down and have dinner with me, on me. We'll fly you in, I'll pay for dinner, and we'll sit and we'll talk about what we need to do to change this country.

Obama's own Web page, as archived by Archive.org, says openly that participants had to donate $5.00 or more to have a chance to be selected for the September 3 2007 dinner, while "lucky supporter" underscores the element of chance.

Every supporter who made a donation of $5 or more between July 26th and July 31st took part in our second Dinner with Barack campaign.

On Labor Day, September 3rd, four lucky supporters from all over the country will join Barack for an evening of good food and good conversation.

Even after the Obama campaign complied with the warnings from law enforcement agencies, by the way, the obvious intention was minimal compliance that underscores the entire campaign's lack of ethics. E-mails from Howard Dean, David Plouffe, and Michelle Obama said for example in 9-point print,

Free tickets will be available soon, but if you make a donation in any amount this month, you could be one of 10 supporters selected to meet Barack backstage before he delivers his speech.

If you make a donation by midnight this Thursday, July 31st, you and a guest could be flown to Denver, spend a couple of nights in a hotel, participate in the convention, and then go backstage with Barack before the big event.

Watch this short video and make a donation of $5 or more today to be part of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity:

followed by extremely small (7.5 point) print,

If you do not wish to make a donation, you can still be selected to join Barack at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Learn more here.

It says in 9-point print that you have to donate $5 or more but adds in 7.5 point print that you don't have to make a donation. This is clearly for the sole purpose of staying out of prison rather than being square and honest with their own supporters let alone the country as a whole.

This Is the De Facto End of Obama's Presidency

The bottom line is as follows:

1. The occupant of the White House participated personally (as shown by his YouTube video) in dishonest as well as illegal Internet gambling to fund his campaign.
2. The fact that Mr. Obama was let off with a warning while ordinary people's lives were marred with felony records for similar conduct undermines our country's basic principle that nobody is above the law. "One law for Obama, another law for everybody else" is a talking point that cannot be repeated too often.

If this story circulates widely enough through social media, letters to the editor, talk radio, and so on, it could be the de facto end of Obama's Presidency, as well as a likely catastrophe for his party next November, even if Congress does not move to impeach. This will end the rest of his agendas because he will lack the basic credibility necessary to do anything. He will give no executive orders that anybody respects, make no credible climate deals (read "deals to enrich special interests at the expense of the country's producers,") or indeed do much of anything else. Hillary Clinton's candidacy will be dead on arrival while Democratic House and Senate candidates scramble to distance themselves from the head of their party.

William A. Levinson is the author of several books on business management including content on organizational psychology, as well as manufacturing productivity and quality.