KRAUTHAMMER BLASTS BILL CLINTON’S DNC SPEECH: ‘SPRAWLING, UNDISCIPLINED AND TRULY SELF-INDULGENT’

Reacting to former president Bill Clinton’s nomination speech at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday, Fox News contributor and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer said the address was “sprawling, undisciplined and truly self-indulgent” and would not help President Obama’s re-election chances.

“I think it was a giant swing and a miss,” Krauthammer said of the speech.  “I don’t think it will move the needle whatsoever.

“It was engaging it was humorous, in some cases it was generous — I think there were more mentions of the Bushs than I heard in three days in Tampa,” he added. “It was also vintage Clinton in that it was sprawling, undisciplined and truly self-indulgent.”

Krauthammer went on to call Clinton’s DNC address “one of the strangest nomination speeches” even given.

“It was kind of an amalgam between the state of the union address, a policy wonk seminar and what sounded to me like a campaign speech for a third Clinton term — Obama was sort of incidental, he would be shoved in every once in a while,” he said.

“It is true that he made a lot of detailed rebuttals, that he is sort of the rebuttler-in-chief…but Paul Ryan can handle all of that in 10 minutes in his debate,” he concluded.

Via: Te Blaze

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Obama’s Thursday Night Secret About Jobs

When President Barack Obama takes the stage Thursday night at the Democratic convention, he’ll probably know a secret about the economy that you don’t: the contents of Friday’s employment report. But don’t expect easy clues in his big speech.

ZUMAPRESS.com

Friday’s jobs report, one of only three before the Nov. 6 election, could prove more influential in shaping perceptions about the economy than anything Mr. Obama says in Charlotte when he accepts his party’s nomination. Payroll numbers have been choppy throughout the year, and Friday’s data — released at 8:30 am Eastern time — might help clarify recent trends. (The report will also tell us whether the unemployment rate changed from July’s 8.3% and it could help the Federal Reserve determine whether to launch a new round of bond-buying next week.)

Mr. Obama doesn’t have to wait until the formal release to see the numbers. Under a decades-long practice, a select group of U.S. officials learns the contents of each month’s jobs report on the Thursday evening before its release. The Bureau of Labor Statistics delivers the information sometime Thursday afternoon to the White HouseCouncil of Economic Advisers, which analyzes the data and prepares a memo for the president. (The CEA chairman or director of the National Economic Council often informs the president in person.)

The routine is governed by a directive from the White House Office of Management and Budget. It allows top government officials — like those at the White House,Treasury Department and Fed — to know about an important report that could shake global markets. Employees of the executive branch aren’t supposed to comment publicly on the data until at least one hour after the official release on Friday morning. That’s why we don’t hear the White House’s spin on the report until 9:30 a.m., almost an hour after the opposing party has spit out its own statements. (The White House has gotten more careful in recent decades. Back in the 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson caused a stir more than once when he commented on favorable numbers before they were released.)
Via: Wall Street Journal

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Sununu on DNC venue switcheroo: “You can’t believe a thing this administration says”

After this morning’s news that the Democrats are now planning to move Obama’s convention speech from the outdoor, 70,000-capacity Bank of America football stadium to the indoor, 20,000-capacity Time Warner basketball arena because of ostensible weather concerns (meaning, the 30 percent chance of thunderstorms on the forecast practically every night in the summer for the mid-eastern seaboard), there’s been no shortage of mockery from the Right for the Democrats’ retreat from much-heralded enthusiasm to defensive sheepishness. The campaigns have been trading barbs, and the Romney camp’s resident ‘honey badger’ John Sununu pointed out that this is yet another Obama promise gone awry:

“You can’t believe a thing this administration says,” Sununu told reporters at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. “This campaign promised you, rain or shine, the president would be speaking there. Then when they couldn’t get a crowd they brought it inside. I think those facts speak for themselves.” …

“You would think they’d be smart enough to lie about things that weren’t easy to check,” he said. “Almost all the speakers last night accused Romney of wanted to raise taxes on the middle class. There is a very simple declarative sentence that is Gov. Romney’s position on the middle class: ‘We are going to cut their taxes by 20 percent.’ That is not a complicated sentence. It might be for Barack Obama, but that is not a complicated sentence.”

The Obama campaign has tried to fire back. It’s pretty precious:

The Obama campaign is facing a barrage of criticism and mockery from Republicans for scrapping plans to hold the final night of their convention at downtown Charlotte’s more than 73,000-seat Bank of America Stadium. But they’ve got a message for their detractors.

“I’ve got two words for you,” a senior Obama campaign official told ABC News, “Ford Field.”

The official was referring to Mitt Romney’s February 2012 speech before a crowd of 1,200 at Detroit’s Ford Field — a stadium that seats up to 80,000. Democrats on Wednesday circulated a now-famous photo of Romney speaking in  the almost-empty venue with the tongue-in-cheek headline: “Mitt Romney’s idea of a successful stadium event….”

Feeble, Team O. Nobody’s made a bigger deal out of Barack Obama’s ostensible abilities to fill a stadium then you guys, and let’s be serious: The lack of enthusiasm that previously committed Obama-voters are feeling right now is a huge problem for their side. If there had been a real opportunity for the Democrats to showcase a football stadium chock-full of wildly supportive Obama fanatics, I doubt even a dang monsoon would’ve stopped them from doing so.

Update: Oh, this just keeps on getting more and more humiliating. I almost feel a little badly for piling on. …Almost. Via BuzzFeed:

Via: The Daily Caller

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Barney Frank: More stimulus would reduce food stamp rolls

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Barney Frank told The Daily Caller that there would be “fewer” food stamp recipients in America if Republicans did not block additional federal stimulus spending for state and local projects supported by congressional Democrats.

TheDC asked Frank about the record 46.7 million Americans currently receiving food stamp benefits.

“Well, there’s a record number of people in America. You know, every year things tend to go up. It’s why it needs to have a important program, it’s why I wish we got more cooperation from the Republicans in trying to do the things that would help us economically like not have the cities have to lay off firefighters and cops,” Frank told TheDC at the Democratic National Convention.

“I wish we were spending less in Afghanistan, where we’re wasting a great deal of money. I’m glad the president got us out of Iraq, but I think it shows that our spending priorities are out of whack and if we took some of those billions that we’re now wasting in Afghanistan and put them to work here in our cities then we would have fewer people in that situation.”

In February 2009, the Democratic-controlled Congress passed an $831 billion stimulus package.

Last year, President Barack Obama pushed Congress to pass his jobs act, which would provide states and localities with additional federal stimulus funds to hire firefighters, police and teachers. The White House advocated for a surtax on millionaires to pay for the legislation. The bill never made it out of Congress.

When Obama took office in January 2009, 31,983,716 Americans were receiving food stamps, compared to 46,670,373 people on food stamps as of June 2012.

Via: The Daily Caller

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DNC PINS HOPES ON SHREDDED CREDIBILITY OF ELIZABETH WARREN

The Democratic National Convention tonight is pinning its hopes on the shredded credibility of Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, who has been caught telling so many blatant lies during the course of her campaign she has become a national laughing stock. 

When she gives her speech introducing former President Bill Clinton this evening, she's expected to make a series of attacks on the Republican candidates. The problem this presents for Democrats is simple. Will anyone who's not a hard core left-wing radical believe a word she says?

The public humiliation of Ms. Warren began when the Boston Herald reported that she had, since the 1980s and well into the 1990s "checked the affirmative action box" and claimed Native American ancestry, despite no credible evidence to support that claim.

Even the reliably liberal Boston Globe, which originally promoted the false meme that she was 1/32 Cherokee, was forced to recant, and called on Ms. Warren to fess up.

Then, of course, there was the revelation that one of her ancestors had actually been a member of the Tennessee militia that rounded up Cherokees in preparation for the Trail of Tears.

And who can forget her Pow Wow Chow cookbook plagiarism? Here's a description of the origin of the recipes she submitted to that classic work:

Two of the possibly plagiarized recipes, said in the Pow Wow Chow cookbook to have been passed down through generations of Oklahoma Native American members of the Cherokee tribe, are described in a New York Times News Service story as originating at Le Pavilion, a fabulously expensive French restaurant in Manhattan. The dishes were said to be particular favorites of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Cole Porter.

The two recipes, "Cold Omelets with Crab Meat" and "Crab with Tomato Mayonnaise Dressing," appear in an article titled “Cold Omelets with Crab Meat,” written by Pierre Franey of the New York Times News Service that was published in the August 22, 1979 edition of the Virgin Islands Daily News, a copy of which can be seen here.

Ms. Warren’s 1984 recipe for Crab with Tomato Mayonnaise Dressing  is a word-for-word copy of Mr. Franey’s 1979 recipe.

Via: Breitbart

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Sandra Fluke: Ryan “Would Allow Women to Die in Emergency Rooms”

Pro-abortion activist Sandra Fluke accused Paul Ryan of supporting a bill that “would allow pregnant women to die preventable deaths in our emergency rooms,” an attack on Ryan’s pro-life views.

Speaking to the Democratic National Convention, Fluke pushed her pro-abortion views saying Mitt Romney and Ryan’s pro-life views would be bad for the country.

“In that America, your new president could be a man who stands by when a public figure tries to silence a private citizen with hateful slurs. Who won’t stand up to the slurs, or to any of the extreme, bigoted voices in his own party,” she claimed. “It would be an America in which you have a new vice president who co-sponsored a bill that would allow pregnant women to die preventable deaths in our emergency rooms.

Fluke said that was, “An America in which states humiliate women by forcing us to endure invasive ultrasounds we don’t want and our doctors say we don’t need,” even though studies show Planned Parenthood virtually always does ultrasounds prior to abortions.

Fluke is bastardizing a portion of the bill stopping taxpayer funding of abortions in Obamacare that reinstates conscience protections for pro-life medical workers who don’t want to be involved in abortions.

The Protect Life Act makes it clear that no funds authorized or appropriated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), including tax credits and cost-sharing reductions, may be used to pay for abortion or abortion coverage. It specifies that individual people or state or local governments must purchase a separate elective abortion rider or insurance coverage that includes elective abortion but only as long as that is done with private funds and not monies authorized by Obamacare.

The bill also specifies that insurance issuers may offer health plans that include elective abortion and may offer separate elective abortion riders, so long as they ensure PPACA funds are not used for premiums or administrative costs. The bill also clarifies that issuers who offer elective abortion coverage must also offer a qualified health benefits plan that is identical except that it does not cover elective abortion.

Via: Life News

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Democrats Proudly Declare We All Belong to the Government. Ditch God From Their Platform.

In a statement right out of a communist state, the Democrats started their convention with a bit of propaganda declaring we all belong to the government. Seriously. They started their convention with this video:

This is unreal. The founders must be rolling over in their grave. The constitution starts with “We the People,” not we the government. The government belongs to us, we do not belong to the government. The government is our servant. We do not serve government. We are Americans. We are not all wards or property of the state, despite Barack Obama’s best efforts.

I think we can say the Democrats are fulling embracing Barack Obama’s claim that “you didn’t build that.” It’s clear from this we did not take Barack Obama out of context. The Democrats really do believe government built it all.

This is what the Soviets did in their propaganda. They portrayed the people in service to the state. The collective overrode the individuals. The Democrats are finally embracing their inner marxists. Consistent with this, they’ve ditched God from their platform. Religion is, after all, the opiate of the people and is unnecessary when we are all collectively creatures of the state.

By the way, you’ve now heard the Democrats’ audio that “we all belong to the government.” I’ll see you that and raise you Clint Eastwood. Listen to what he had to say on this topic and tell me who is more in touch with America?

Via: Red State

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Parents Angry Over School Closures for Obama Visit

PORTSMOUTH — Backlash erupted Tuesday afternoon after the Portsmouth School Department announced it would cancel school Friday due to logistical challenges tied to President Barack Obama's campaign visit.

The Herald received multiple calls from angry parents after Superintendent Ed McDonough sent an e-mail to families announcing the closure.

"I just think it's unbelievable," said parent Kathy Logan. "All of a sudden, the president is coming to Portsmouth and everything has to shut down. I don't think it's right."

Logan said she was at Little Harbour School on Tuesday morning for a "teddy bear picnic" welcoming kindergarten students to the school. The first day for kindergarten is today, and Logan said it was unfair for her son's education to be disrupted so soon.

She said school officials at Little Harbour did not mention the closure and she did not find out until she checked her e-mail when she got home.

She also had made doctor appointments and other plans for Friday, which had to be rescheduled due to the sudden school closure. Logan is a stay-at-home mother, but parents with jobs outside the home are suddenly having to make arrangements for child care Friday.

One commentator on www.seacoastonline.com suggested the president "pay for the sitter" for those inconvenienced by the closure.

Logan said she is an independent voter and her complaints were not driven by politics. She simply thinks her son should be in school, she said.

"I actually blame the campaign. I don't think the School Department had much of a choice," she said. "I love being in New Hampshire. I love the fact that the politicians come through the state. I think we're so lucky, but I just don't think you shut down your whole school system."

McDonough said he had received calls and e-mails from residents complaining about the decision and asking him to reconsider, and that he was acutely aware of the inconvenience the closure caused.

"It's clearly short notice, and folks are terribly inconvenienced," he said. "I certainly am aware of the impact it presents to families. At the end of the day, we tried to use a measured approach, but for logistical reasons with our bus company, (keeping schools open) wouldn't work."

Via: Seacoastonline.com

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DNC CHAIRMAN VILLARAIGOSA'S EXTREMIST PAST

Antonio Villaraigosa, the mayor of Los Angeles who was featured on the June 2009 cover of Los Angeles Magazine with the one-word caption, “Failure,” is the chairman of the upcoming Democratic National Convention.  The obvious reason is that the Obama administration, which views ethnic communities as separate fiefdoms to cultivate, is targeting the Latino community. And in the separatist prism through which they view the country, it’s only natural that they should pick Villaraigosa, whose entire career started with an extremist Latino group.

Villaraigosa, whose original name was Tony Villar, entered UCLA as a transfer student from East Los Angeles Community College in 1972.  He joined the UCLA chapter of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA), and was leading it by 1974. MEChA is an Hispanic separatist organization that encourages anti-American activities and civil disobedience. The radical members of MEChA who refer to themselves as "Mechistas,"romanticize Mexican claims to the "lost Territories" of the Southwestern United States -- a Chicano country called Aztlan.  As head of the UCLA chapter, Villar called on the Chicano Studies Center (CSC) Director Rudolfo ‘Rudy’ Alvarez to resign from his post, accusing him of  “trying to alter the concept behind Chicano studies.” 

The UCLA Bruin, the campus newspaper, reported on July 25, 1974: “Chicano students are considering filing a class action suit against Rodolfo Alvarez, Chicano Studies Center (CSC) director … ‘Where at one time the Steering Committee composed of students, faculty, and community people was the policy making body of the Center, now Rudy is its sole dictator,’ said Tony Villar.”

The Bruin continued:  “Both Villar and Garcia attacked the Alvarez-directed CSC for working only with government-sponsored drug programs ‘instead of community organizations like the National Committee to Free Los Tres.’”   The “National Committee to Free Los Tres,” was created by former MEChistas to defend three members of the militant Chicano organization Casa Carnalismo who were convicted of assaulting a federal narcotics officer posing as a drug dealer in East Los Angeles.  By 1974, a Marxist-Leninist faction emerged within the NCFLT that intended to transform its parent group Casa Carnalismo into a "revolutionary vanguard" dedicated to the "liberation of the Mexican people.” Professor Alvarez wound up resigning.

Via: Breitbart

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Dem. Women’s Caucus: Republicans ‘Want to Relegate Women to the Back of the Bus’

Luci Ramirez and Jodi Salyers, both Texans, have just spent two hours hearing from top Democratic women like House minority leader Nancy Pelosi and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at the Democratic National Convention’s Women’s Caucus. The message? Republicans don’t like women and want to take away their birth control.

“We are celebrity overdosed!” says Ramirez “I didn’t realize how anti-birth control, how anti-women, period, the Republicans are until today,” adds Salyers.

The recurring theme: Republicans have what one speaker calls a “disregard for women’s freedom.”

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi began by mocking Republican emphasis on women at their convention last week in Tampa. “I love hearing how they loved their mother and loved their wife and all of that,” said Pelosi. “I’m interested to hear how they respect women’s decisions to determine the size of their family, if they choose to have a family. Republicans “are not even pro-birth control," Pelosi added, "That’s a radical position. That’s just wrong.”

Republicans do not want to force religious groups and taxpayers to pay for free contraceptives, abortifacients, and abortions for others. But banning contraceptives is not a Republican position. But that’s not what the audience heard Tuesday.

Republicans “want to take us backwards—so far back that we’ll be in the kitchen,” said Stephanie Schriock, president of the pro-choice group EMILY’s List.

Donna Brazile, vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, compared Republicans to segregationists: “They want to relegate women to the back of the bus,” she said. Democrats “don’t have to pretend to love women."

Via: Weekly Standard

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Democratic Platform Calls for Constitutional Amendment Limiting Free Speech

(CNSNews.com) – The 2012 Democratic Party platform includes language calling for a constitutional amendment restricting free speech rights during elections, saying that the Supreme Court decision in theCitizens United case should be overturned.

“Our opponents have applauded the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United and welcomed the new flow of special interest money with open arms. In stark contrast, we believe we must take immediate action to curb the influence of lobbyists and special interests on our political institutions,” the 2012 platform says.

“We support campaign finance reform, by constitutional amendment if necessary,” it adds.

In its 2010 decision, the Supreme Court said that the government could not restrict the political speech of activist groups or other independent organizations by limiting how much money they could spend during an election cycle. The court also struck down federal limits on when independent groups could engage in election-related activities such as running television ads or publishing political materials.

During oral arguments, the Obama administration argued that federal campaign finance laws allowed the government to ban the publication of books, pamphlets, or any other material it felt qualified as election-related communications.

By calling for a constitutional amendment – as President Obama has in the past – the Democratic Party is saying it supports an amendment restricting the First Amendment rights affirmed by the Supreme Court. Such restrictions, by the Obama administration’s own admission, would allow the government to ban the publication of books, pamphlets or any other type of material by independent political groups.

Via: CNSNews

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Harry Reid: Tea Party Must Be Stopped From Winning The Senate

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) addressed the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte earlier tonight. Below is the transcript of his speech, as prepared for delivery.

“My name is Harry Reid, the majority leader of the United States Senate and the senator from Searchlight, Nevada. It has been my honor to support and work with President Barack Obama, a man who has brought courage and character to the presidency. President Obama’s strength of character leads him to do the right thing, even when it isn’t the easy thing.

Some said he shouldn’t save Detroit. But President Obama made the tough and right call to save more than a million American jobs in an important, iconic industry.

Some said he shouldn’t move heaven and earth to get bin Laden. But President Obama made the tough and right call to bring the world’s worst terrorist to justice.

Some said he couldn’t take on the big banks that brought our economy to its knees. But President Obama made the tough and right call so taxpayers will never again be on the hook for Wall Street’s risky bets.

Some said he couldn’t take on the insurance companies that were ripping us off. But President Obama made the tough and right call to save lives, save Medicare and ensure no one goes broke just because they get sick.

His whole life, there have been so many who told him what he shouldn’t or couldn’t do. But America has a president who knows what we must do.

President Obama has also faced down another group of naysayers. In addition to the crowd of “couldn’ts” and “shouldn’ts,” the Republican Party has become the party of the “wouldn’ts” and the “won’ts.” They pledged on day one they wouldn’t lift a finger to help. And they haven’t.

In the depth of the Great Recession, as millions of Americans were struggling to find work, the Republican leader of the senate, Mitch McConnell, said Republicans’ number one goal was to make Barack Obama a one-term president. They wouldn’t cooperate to create jobs. They wouldn’t try to turn around the economy. They wouldn’t do anything but stand in President Obama’s way.

Via: Fox News

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Cutter: An incomplete is a totally awesome grade after four years

We’ve been waiting for the Barack Obama re-election campaign to come up with a new slogan ever since they added a period to “FORWARD.”  If the last 24 hours are any indication, the new slogan is either “INCOMPLETE” or possibly “GIVE ME ONE MORE CHANCE.”  After Barack Obama gave himself an “incomplete” on the economy in a Colorado Springs TV news interview last night, ABC’s Jake Tapper asks Team Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter whether that “cut[s] it” as an answer.  Absolutely, Cutter responds:

TAPPER: “So President Obama was asked recently about the grade he would give himself. And once again he gave himself an incomplete. It’s been four years. Does that answer cut it? An incomplete after a full term?”

CUTTER: “Yeah, it does, because, you know, once again I’ll remind you of what life was like when he took office. 800,000 jobs were lost in that month alone. 3.5 million in the 6 months prior. And, you know, pretty quickly he was able to turn job loss into job growth. But when he’s saying incomplete, it means a number of different things. One: we’re on a path forward. You know, we’re on our way up. And there is a lot more that he wants to get done. He’s not done yet.”

We’re moving forward?  Really?  Unemployment has been above 8% since before the recovery began, and we’ve only averaged an additional 66,000 jobs per months since — far below the level needed to keep up with population growth.  Once again, here’s the latest from the BLS on the civilian participation rate, which started at 65.7% when Obama took office and was at the same level when the recovery began in June 2009 — but has plunged ever since, to a 30-year low:

Cutter says, “He’s not done yet.”  That’s what keeps many of us awake at night.

Via: Hot Air

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Report: Bill Clinton’s ‘closest political adviser’ voting for Romney

Former President Bill Clinton greets President Barack Obama to speak at a campaign event at the Waldorf Astoria, Monday, June 4, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Douglas Band, former President Bill Clinton’s top aide, plans to vote for Mitt Romney in November, according to a report in The New Yorker.

In an extensive article on the complicated and often unpleasant relationship between Bill Clinton and President Obama, the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza reports that Band intends to cast his ballot for the former Massachusetts governor this fall.

“According to two people with direct knowledge, Douglas Band has said that he will vote for Romney,” Lizza writes. “Band declined to comment.”

Lizza explains that Band believes an Obama defeat will bode well for Hillary Clinton’s presidential prospects.

“For [Bill] Clinton, the politics are more complicated,” he writes.

“His associates take it as a given that he would like nothing more than to see his wife become President. Hillary Clinton will step down as Secretary of State after the campaign and begin the process of deciding whether she will run in 2016. By some measures a defeat for Obama in November would leave Hillary the undisputed leader of her party and propel her toward the Oval Office that much faster. At least one of Clinton’s closest advisers seems to be backing that strategy.”

Lizza describes Band, 39, as “Clinton’s closest political adviser.”

Bill Clinton will give a keynote address to the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night.

Via: The Daily Caller

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Labor tries to soften image with 'hug a union thug' booth in Charlotte

This Labor Day, unions are trying a mix of celebrity, social media and humor to polish up the labor movement’s image in the eyes of everyday people.

In Charlotte, people will be asked to “hug a union thug” at a CarolinaFest booth sponsored by the North Carolina State AFL-CIO the day before the Democratic National Convention officially begins. Also in honor of Monday, videos are being posted online thanking workers, while actors and athletes will use Twitter to express support for union rights.

The effort comes as labor has seen increased attacks from Republican-controlled state legislatures and governors since the 2010 elections. Unions were unsuccessful in their attempt earlier this summer to oust Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) after he pushed through legislation that curbed some public workers’ collective bargaining rights.

MaryBe McMillan, secretary-treasurer for the North Carolina State AFL-CIO, said the state labor federation wanted to break down stereotypes regarding union members by dishing out the hugs.

“We see this as an opportunity to dispel that stereotype that union members are mean, scary and violent. What better way to disarm folks than to hug them?” McMillan said. “Union members take care of you in the hospital, deliver your packages and sit next you in church. We are just average folks.”

McMillan hopes the hugs will help draw people into the federation’s booth, which will show videos of union members running the Guide Dogs of America program, rebuilding the Word Trade Center and so on. Further, expect to see photos of people embracing union members at unionhugs.com.

“This will help draw people into our exhibit space and we will be able to show them how unions help build the middle class and why they should support the right to organize,” McMillan said.

The cuddle campaign will be only one aspect of labor’s effort to highlight union members’ and other workers’ good deeds.

The AFL-CIO is asking people online to thank workers for the jobs they do every day. In one video, actor Martin Sheen of “The West Wing” thanked his newspaper delivery person.

Via: The Hill

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PHOTO: DEMS TO USE TRICK PHOTOGRAPHY TO FILL CONVENTION HALL?

Call it "The Empty Chair Convention."

Rick Klein, Senior Washington Editor of ABC News, just tweeted out this photo of the stage the Democrat convention will be held on (posted above).

As you can see, Klein's photo reveals the screens that will serve as the television backdrop behind whomever's speaking -- and it looks to me as though the Democrats intend to show an artificial sea of faces in order to make the convention hall look a whole lot fuller than it might be.

If you look closely, they have three tiers of adoring, enraptured Obama-worshippers at the ready should they need them.

There's a lot of talk and concern amongst Democrats and their Media Palace Guards  that for his big acceptance speech Thursday night, President Obama might not be able to fill the Bank of America stadium. There are also reports that Democrat operatives have been reduced to handing out free tickets to the event at bars and elsewhere -- probably in a frantic last minute attempt to fill seats.

There's no question that, like most failed incumbents, Obama has an enthusiasm gap to deal with this year. Long before Clint Eastwood forever branded Obama an "empty chair," the President has been plagued by the disturbing optics of a one-time political rock star no longer able to pack a house. Most memorably, this all started with Obama's disastrous reelection kick-off event.

Ever since, Team Obama has been forced to save face and not risk a repeat of that calamity with the hilarious spin that President Greek Columns has now chosen to campaign before smaller, more intimate crowds.

Whatever.

Thankfully for Obama, though, he need not worry about filling his convention hall. After all, we live in a magic age of illusion -- one manufactured by Democrats and their media allies who constantly tell us that a failed president currently sitting with an approval rating of 43% is still popular.

Via: Breitbart

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Right rallies for 'Empty Chair Day'

The right rallied on Labor Day to celebrate “National Empty Chair Day,” a show of solidarity with Clint Eastwood after his infamous address to an invisible President Barack Obama at the Republican National Convention last week.

The action picked up steam on Twitter, where the hashtag #emptychairday began trending on Monday morning as users tweeted pictures of empty chairs in various poses.

Notable conservatives like Michelle Malkin and writers at Breitbart.com, as well blogger Prof. Glenn Reynolds, kicked off the trend, according to the conservative blog Legal Insurrection.

(PHOTOS: 5 'empty chair' incidents)

The blog, which had asked readers to send in photos of empty chairs, updated its post midday to say that the response had been so overwhelming — and the backlog of photos so great — that they were forced to close submissions.

(Scroll down for POLITICO’s top #EmptyChairDay tweets)

Meanwhile, #Eastwooding — which was trending on Twitter last week after the Hollywood icon’s speech, and refers to an address to an empty chair — has arrived at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.

AFSCME president Lee Saunders, capping off a fiery speech to the Wisconsin delegation Monday morning, held a conversation with an invisible Eastwood.

An empty chair had been brought on stage before Saunders started speaking, but he ignored it for most of his speech.

“I don’t know if you noticed, but you see this chair? I don’t know if you noticed that he actually walked in with me. He’s invisible, he’s sitting right here. He’s been listening to everything I had to say,” Saunders said. “So I want you to welcome Clint Eastwood.”

Via: Politico

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Dems Busing in Crowds to Fill Stadium for Obama Speech

CHARLOTTE, N.C. –  College students from across North Carolina will arrive in Charlotte by the busload. Same with members of predominantly black churches in neighboring South Carolina. 

Their goal: help fill a 74,000-seat outdoor stadium to capacity when President Obama accepts the Democratic nomination Thursday night.

Anything short of a full house on the final night of the Democratic Party's national convention will be instant fodder for Republicans eager to use empty seats as symbols of waning voter enthusiasm for Obama. 

Democrats have been fretting for months over whether the president can draw a capacity crowd at Bank of America Stadium. Polls show voter enthusiasm is down, as are Obama's crowds for his battleground state campaign rallies. 

Obama advisers insist the stadium will be filled when Obama delivers his speech. Vice President Joe Biden also will speak Thursday night, along with Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who will vouch for Obama's national security credentials. 

"The response we've seen from the community has been incredible and it's obvious that people have a big interest in owning a piece of the most open and accessible convention in history," said Adam Fetcher, a campaign spokesman. "President Obama's speech on Thursday night will bring this election into focus for the American people, and it will be even more significant because so many North Carolinians will be there to see it." 

Convention delegates, volunteers and other Democratic officials already in Charlotte for the party gathering could make up as much as one-third of the crowd. But filling the rest of the stadium is a piecemeal process.

Elena Botella, a student at Duke University and president of the College Democrats of North Carolina, said her school was busing 100 students to the speech. 

Via: Fox News

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How Clinton plans to upstage Obama at the DNC

POST PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY PETER LAVIGNA

Not since the feud between Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter tore the Democratic Party apart more than 30 years ago have two panjandrums of the party loathed each other quite as much as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

And yet this week, television viewers will be treated to a remarkable spectacle at the Democratic National Convention: Clinton will stand before a cheering throng of delegates on Thursday night and deliver a primetime speech nominating Obama, a man he once dismissed as incompetent, as president of the United States.

The Clinton-Obama feud is the worst-kept secret in the Democratic Party. It traces back to the bruising 2008 primary campaign, when Obama’s surrogates lambasted Bill and Hillary for being “racists” and a Clinton aide said of Obama that he “embraces the politics of trash.” The animosity still stirs such deep emotions that a year ago Clinton held a secret meeting of friends and political advisers at his home in Chappaqua and urged his wife to challenge Obama for the party’s presidential nomination in 2012.

According to two people who attended the meeting, Hillary rejected her husband’s advice that she run against a sitting president of her own party. But that didn’t stop Bill Clinton from going on a rant about Obama.

“I’ve heard more from Bush, asking for my advice, than I’ve heard from Obama,” my sources quoted Clinton as saying. “I have no relationship with the president — none whatsoever. Obama doesn’t know how to be president. He doesn’t know how the world works. He’s incompetent. He’s an amateur!”

Why, then, is Clinton making a speech on behalf of a man for whom he has such little respect? And why is Obama putting his nomination in the hands of man he doesn’t trust?

Via: New York Post

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