At issue has been the relationship between the state party organization, the D.C. Democratic State Committee, and an organization established last year to raise funds for the Denver convention. Organizers maintained that the two bodies were entirely separate, but the final audit report [PDF] released today by the Office of Campaign Finance found that the convention account, which raised a total of $126,000, "is indistinguishable as a separate entity and bares absolutely no independent identity."

The report noted the intermingled personnel between the two groups and the repeated use of the DCDSC name in the course of the convention fundraising.

The consequences are this: The convention donations and expenditures, according to the audit findings, should have been reported to the city and should have followed city contribution limits. The Democratic State Committee could be forced to return tens of thousands in donations that exceeded those limits, in addition to fines, which together could all but bankrupt the organization.

At a meeting earlier this month, DCDSC widely anticipated the finding of the final report and voted to challenge the findings before the Board of Elections and Ethics, and in courts of law if necessary.

The audit also found various irregularities in the DCDSC's reporting of its contributions and expenditures between January 2007 and January 2009. The DCDSC is not disputing those findings; the committee may be subject to fines or other sanctions.

Mid-speech, however, the HD turned on Obama, exposing a small collection of saliva in the left crease of the candidate's mouth. (Spittle not pictured in the above Wikipedia-snatched photo). The development nearly incapacitated my housemate; he spent the remainder of the speech in a nervous fit, wishing aloud that one polite delegate would flag down the candidate and discretely wipe his own mouth, the telltale indication that Obama "has got something ... right over ... no ... a little to the left ... there, you've got it."

One viewer twittered the spittle, in the hopes that some party operative would intervene. None answered our call.

Near the speech's end, Obama did move to wipe the corner of his mouth, causing a grand celebration among the party. However, the move only displaced the spittle, helping it to migrate lower down the lip. My housemate hung his head in shame. High Definition spares no one.

Good luck, McCain.

Media Advisory

JOEY PANTS BRINGS THE BRAIN TO THE BIG SCREEN

Emmy-Award winning actor Joe Pantoliano and his non-profit organization, No Kidding, Me Too (NKM2) will debut never-before-seen footage from the upcoming documentary, Hope’s Messengers, during the Democratic National Convention.

Hope’s Messengers takes a humorous and sensitive look into the lives of a group of people living with brain dis-ease (aka mental illness). Pantoliano is featured in the film, as he reflects on the generations in his family with undiagnosed brain dis-ease and his own epiphany after being diagnosed with clinical depression.

Seriously, if the film rips off Gladiator in any way, don't make a big deal about it.