Fact-checkers find exaggerations in Obama, Biden conventions speeches

President Obama and Vice President Biden made statements in their convention speeches about unemployment, Medicare and other issues that fact-checkers say appear inaccurate or at least misleading.

Among the questionable remarks were Biden's argument that "after the worst job loss since the Great Depression we created 4.5 million private sector jobs in the past 29 months" – a frequent response by the Obama campaign when questioned about the slow economic recovery.

The Associated Press and others point out that statement is misleading because it counts jobs from the recession's lowest point  to where employment began to grow again – excluding jobs lost earlier in Obama's term and masking that overall unemployment has increased over that period.

"Overall, roughly 7.5 million jobs were lost during the recession that began in December 2007 and ended officially in June 2009," according to the wire service.

The Associated Press also points out that Obama said in his speech that he wants to use money saved by ending the wars to build highways, schools and bridges.

However, the wars were largely financed by borrowing "so there is no ready pile of cash to be diverted to anything else," the wire service writes.

The group FactCheck.org listed eight instances in which either Biden or Obama "spun" facts during their speeches Thursday night in Charlotte, N.C.

Via: Fox News

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James Hoffa, Teamsters President, Says Romney 'Wants To Annihilate Organized Labor'

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The way Teamsters President James P. Hoffa sees it, GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney would be happy if an already weakened American labor movement ceased to exist altogether.

"He wants to annihilate organized labor as we know it," Hoffa told HuffPost outside the Democratic National Convention this week. "It's on his website. I'm not making this up. He's for a national right-to-work law. The Republican Party has veered dangerously to the right. It's rather incredible, in 2012, if you think about it."

Indeed, Romney's official stance on labor isn't kind to unions. His campaign website suggests that unions have outlasted their significance, "driv[ing] up costs and introduc[ing] rigidities that harm competitiveness and frustrate innovation." He supports states pursuing right-to-work laws, which weaken the clout of unions, and his party last week approved a platform pushing for national right-to-work legislation. He'd also like to prohibit automatic union dues-deduction from employee paychecks.

Hoffa isn’t the only labor leader who visited Charlotte this week and sees a hostility toward unions in Romney's positions. Mary Kay Henry, head of the 2 million-member Service Employees International Union, told HuffPost earlier this week that Romney "wants to take us out."

The Romney campaign didn't respond to Hoffa or Henry's comments.

Rank-and-file union members said they often feel taken for granted by Democrats in office. Among many labor activists, the enthusiasm for the Obama-Biden ticket appears to stem in large part from a loathing and distrust of the alternative. But Hoffa, like other labor figures who headed to Charlotte, insisted the current White House has been good to unions over the past four years.

Via: HuffPost Politics

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Article On Muslim Brotherhood Website Praises Jihad Against America And The Jews – 'The Descendants Of Apes And Pigs'

In an article published on the occasion of Ramadan on the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) website, MB member Hussein Shehata, a lecturer at Al-Azhar University, praises the jihad war against the Jews – "the descendants of apes and pigs" – in Palestine; against the Americans in Iraq; against the Russians in Chechnya; and against the Muslims' enemies in Kashmir, Bosnia, Eritrea, and Somalia. He adds that the Day of Judgment will arrive when the Muslims defeat the Jews and liberate Jerusalem.

The following are excerpts from the article:[1]

Praising The Traits Of The Jihad Fighter

"Fasting [during Ramadan] is one of the most powerful means to educate the human spirit for jihad. Fasting involves a spiritual effort to act in a way contrary to what is accepted, and to completely abandon desires... It also schools the Muslim in patience, resilience, endurance, and sacrifice, which are all traits of the jihad fighter...

"There are similarities between one who fasts to please Allah and one who wages jihad for Allah, and we will mention several of them:

"1. Obedience to Allah is the purpose of both...: A Muslim fasts out of obedience to Allah and in accordance with his decree... [He] asks Allah to forgive his sins in the hope of being released from Hell and attaining Paradise... Similarly, the jihad fighter answers Allah's call for jihad, hoping [to achieve] either victory or martyrdom... The purpose of one who fasts and of one who wages jihad is [one and the same] – to please Allah and to gain Paradise.

"2. Devotion is a trait of both...: Devotion to Allah is embedded in the very act of fasting... Similarly, the jihad fighter wants to please Allah with jihad, and does not do it in order to be perceived as courageous. One who fasts and one who wages jihad both require a high level of faith and fear of Allah...

"3. Patience is a trait of both...: Fasting accustoms the soul to bearing hunger and thirst with patience, and to holding back desires – so much so that the soul becomes immune to weakness, and stronger under pressure... Similarly, we find that the jihad fighter is able to go for long hours without food or drink while fighting the enemy. Apparently, fasting trains a Muslim in endurance and in tolerating [hardship]...

"4. Sacrifice is a trait of both...: One who fasts sacrifices food, drink, carnal desires, and money... During a fast, there is a sacrifice of things that the soul loves, in order to become closer to Allah. Similarly, the jihad fighter sacrifices his life and his money for Allah. Sacrificing life, money, food, drink, and desires are traits of both... and are the basis for victory over both carnal desires and the enemies of Islam. He who cannot conquer his own desire cannot conquer his enemies.

"Ramadan is the month of victory for those who wage jihad for Allah. Ramadan has seen the following battles, conquests, and victories: the great Battle of Badr [624 CE],... the conquest of Mecca [630 CE],... the Battle of Hattin [1187], the Muslims' entrance into Al-Andalus [Andalusia, 710 CE], the conquest of Constantinople by Muhammad the Conqueror[2] [1453 CE], and the battle of 'Ein Jalut [1260 CE], in which the Muslims defeated the Mongols..."

Via:Memri

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The Second Coming of Cap and Trade?

The Obama Administration, at this sensitive time, is playing down its expansive regulatory agenda, but some insiders are predicting a new onslaught of costly rules—including the imposition of cap-and-trade schemes on industry.

Although Congress rejected cap-and-trade legislation in 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) remains intent on effectively rationing the use of fossil fuels. A court ruling earlier this year upheld the agency’s “finding” that emissions of carbon dioxide pose a threat to public health. The ruling has only emboldened the EPA’s regulatory impulses. According to Carol Browner, former administrator of the agency, the EPA is now poised for “piecemeal progress on cap-and-trade.”

Browner’s forecast came Wednesday during a panel discussion on “Energy and the Presidency” sponsored byPolitico this week. As reported by The Hill, “Browner offered that Obama would use the [Clean Water Act] and the [Clean Air Act] to go even further in his attempts to regulate air pollution.”

Such talk is certainly bad news for the energy and manufacturing sectors, which have borne the brunt of Obama’s regulatory hyperactivity. But revived prospects for cap-and-trade might well hearten the environmental lobby, which has criticized President Obama for (supposedly) ignoring global warming despite his declaration that the 2008 election “was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

While the President may appear to avoid direct reference to the global warming issue, his regulatory record bespeaks allegiance to drastic and unwarranted cutbacks in emissions of carbon dioxide—the supposed source of looming environmental cataclysm.

For example, the consulting group ICF International estimates that 20 percent of America’s coal power plants could be retired as soon as 2020 because of the Administration’s regulatory actions. Indeed, the EPA’s newestmercury and air toxics rule alone could cost as much as $100 billion per year, according to the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council.

Whether the President overtly pursues a costly cap-and-trade scheme remains to be seen. But there’s no question that his Administration is aggressively imposing regulations that have much the same effect—i.e., inflating the cost of fossil fuel energy in order to reduce some of the disadvantages of solar and wind power.

One might hope that today’s disappointing jobs report—and all the others like it during the previous three years—would persuade Obama that his regulatory agenda is doing more harm than good. But hope for such wisdom from this Administration appears to be in vain.

VIa: The Foundry

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Job creators to Obama: Not this time

As the Democrats leave Charlotte, N.C., after rallying behind President Obama, they face an uphill battle. Americans are concerned about jobs, entitlements and the growing federal deficit — the three things that Obama and the Democrats don’t want to talk about. But they must if they’re going to have any chance of keeping the White House.

Democrats surely can’t take much comfort from the national and battleground state polls that show a close race. Americans are only starting to pay attention to the campaign, and their natural instinct is to support the candidate they know (Obama) over the candidate they’re just learning about (Romney). But one group of voters has been paying attention for quite some time and that should concern all Democrats.

I’m talking about job creators — the entrepreneurs, CEOs and other business owners whom President Obama mostly ignores, when he’s not criticizing them. Two recent polls of this group should be sending waves of panic through the president’s re-election team. For instance, an August 20 Rasmussen poll found that Romney leads Obama by 20 points among entrepreneurs (56 percent to 36 percent). Another poll from Manta, released on August 24, shows that 61 percent of small business owners support Romney, compared to just 26 percent who support Obama.

At least among this group, there is no contest: America’s job creators support Mitt Romney by overwhelming margins. This comports with my own informal survey of business leaders in consumer electronics and other industries. I have yet to meet a CEO who supports the president’s re-election. Indeed, in an August 8 column I wrote for Forbes, I asked if there were among my readers any business owners who support Obama. I wasn’t just trying to make a political point: I was completely serious. I want to hear the argument for why job creators should vote for Obama. I repeated this challenge on national television in August.

Via: The Daily Caller

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THE AUDACITY OF CRONYISM: JARRETT, PLOUFFE, AND DONILON

It’s hard to know which is worse: the arrogance of the Obama administration in assuming that its White House staffers can get away with anything, or the apathy of the media in not holding those staffers accountable.

Actually, let’s scratch the word “apathy” and call it what it really is: abjectness. The media have been abject in their willingness, even eagerness, to serve the political interests of this administration and its re-election effort.

Let’s consider the cases of three staffers, all at the top rung of the White House ladder: Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett, Senior Adviser David Plouffe, and National Security Adviser Tom Donilon.   

Valerie Jarrett has been a mentor and ally of Barack Obama for two decades; by all accounts, she has an unshakable bond not only with him, but also with Michelle Obama. And now her clout is apparent to all: aprofile of Jarrett, written by Jo Becker and appearing in Sunday’s New York Times, was headlined, “The Other Power in the West Wing.” As in, there’s the President, and there’s Valerie Jarrett.   

The Times story, all 3300 words of it, was one of those stories that everyone in DC thought they had to read; as another Times reporter, Jodi Kantor, tweeted on Sunday, “The political world pauses as one to dissect Jo Becker’s profile of Valerie Jarrett."

Indeed, Becker’s story was full of grist for Beltway mills. One anonymous presidential adviser (who sounds a lot like re-election campaign guru David Axelrod) pronounced that “Valerie is effectively the chief of staff... She’s almost like Nancy Reagan was with President Reagan, but more powerful.” And a “former senior White House official” (who sounds a lot like ex-White House chief of staff Bill Daley) added, “She is the single most influential person in the Obama White House.” Whoa. Wait a second. Did the former official really mean to say that Jarrett was “the single most influential person in the Obama White House”? If so, where does that leave the President? Is it possible that Jarrett, working with Michelle Obama, is more powerful than Mr. Obama? No, that doesn’t seem possible--unless, of course, it is possible.

Via: Breitbart

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Hollywood Moonbat Ashley Judd: Mooch Is “Breathtaking”…

And Lawrence O'Donnell said she The Best Speechmaker in the History of the First Ladyship'

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Eastwood says his convention appearance was 'mission accomplished'

AFTER A week as topic No. 1 in American politics, former Carmel Mayor Clint Eastwood said the outpouring of criticism from left-wing reporters and liberal politicians after his appearance at the Republican National Convention last Thursday night, followed by an avalanche of support on Twitter and in the blogosphere, is all the proof anybody needs that his 12-minute discourse achieved exactly what he intended it to.

“President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” Eastwood told The Pine Cone this week. “Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and that’s what everybody needs to know. I may have irritated a lot of the lefties, but I was aiming for people in the middle.”

Breaking his silence
For five days after he thrilled or horrified the nation by talking to an empty chair representing Obama on the night Mitt Romney accepted the Republican nomination for president, Eastwood remained silent while pundits and critics debated whether his remarks, and the rambling way he made them, had helped or hurt Romney’s chances of winning in November.
But in a wide-ranging interview with The Pine Cone Tuesday from his home in Pebble Beach, he said he had conveyed the messages he wanted to convey, and that the spontaneous nature of his presentation was intentional, too.

“I had three points I wanted to make,” Eastwood said. “That not everybody in Hollywood is on the left, that Obama has broken a lot of the promises he made when he took office, and that the people should feel free to get rid of any politician who’s not doing a good job. But I didn’t make up my mind exactly what I was going to say until I said it.”

Eastwood’s appearance at the convention came after a personal request from Romney in August, soon after Eastwood endorsed the former Massachusetts governor at a fundraiser in Sun Valley, Idaho. But it was finalized only in the last week before the convention, along with an agreement to build suspense by keeping it secret until the last moment.
Meanwhile, Romney’s campaign aides asked for details about what Eastwood would say to the convention.
 
“They vet most of the people, but I told them, ‘You can’t do that with me, because I don’t know what I’m going to say,’” Eastwood recalled.
And while the Hollywood superstar has plenty of experience being adored by crowds, he said he hasn’t given a lot of speeches and admitted that, “I really don’t know how to.” He also hates using a teleprompter, so it was settled in his mind that when he spoke to the 10,000 people in the convention hall, and the millions more watching on television, he would do it extemporaneously.

“It was supposed to be a contrast with all the scripted speeches, because I’m Joe Citizen,” Eastwood said. “I’m a movie maker, but I have the same feelings as the average guy out there.”
Eastwood is a liberal on social issues such as gay marriage and abortion, but he has strongly conservative opinions about the colossal national debt that has accumulated while Obama has been president, his failure to get unemployment below 6 percent, and a host of other economic issues. 
“Even people on the liberal side are starting to worry about going off a fiscal cliff,” Eastwood said

Via: The Carmel Pine Cone

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Unemployment Drops To 5.1%-For Government Workers, Lowest Among All Industries

(CNSNews.com) - There was good news for American workers in August—if government was their employer.

The unemployment rate for government wage and salaries workers dropped from 5.7 percent in July to 5.1 percent in August. At the same time, the number of government wage and salary workers counted as unemployed dropped by 123,000 people from 1,182,000 in July to 1,059,000 in August.

The overall national unemployment rate was 8.1 percent in August.

A year ago, in August 2011, there were 1,271,000 unemployed government wage and salary workers. So, the number of unemployed government workers has dropped by 212,000 since then.

The unemployment numbers for government workers published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics are not seasonally adjusted.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts someone as a government wage and salary worker if they are not in the military and they are currently employed by any level of government—local, state or federal—or they are unemployed, they are looking for work, and their last job was for any level of government.

The 5.1 percent unemployment rate for government workers was the lowest unemployment rate for any of 17 different categories and subcategories of industries for which employment is tracked and published on a month-to-month basis by the Department of Labor. These include nonagricultural private wage and salary workers; mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction workers; construction workers; manufacturing workers; durable goods manufacturing workers; nondurable goods manufacturing workers; wholesale and retail trade workers; transportation and utilities workers; information workers; financial activities workers; professional and business services workers; education and health services workers; leisure and hospitality workers; workers in other services; agricultural and related private wage and salary workers; and self-employed, unincorporated and unpaid family workers.

Via: CNSNews

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OBAMA: DEMONIZING TAX CUTS

So Barack Obama is on his soapbox, demonizing tax cuts. He didn’t stop after last night at the DNC, when he said:

Now, our friends at the Republican convention were more than happy to talk about everything they think is wrong with America, but they didn't have much to say about how they'd make it right. They want your vote, but they don't want you to know their plan. And that's because all they have to offer is the same prescription they've had for the last thirty years: Have a surplus? Try a tax cut. Deficit too high? Try another. Feel a cold coming on? Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations, and call us in the morning!

Today on Obama’s Twitter account, it read:

POTUS on the GOP’s plan: Tax cuts when times are good, tax cuts when times are bad. Tax cuts to cure your love life.

Hmm . . .  JFK cut taxes. Bill Clinton, once he got his head out of his liberal posterior, cut capital gains taxes in 1997, spurring an economic ascension. (Obama will have to forgive me for using that word; people around him only use it in reference to his messianic destiny.)

There has only been one candidate who ever made raising taxes the centerpiece of his campaign: Walter Mondale.

He won one state: his own. He also won Washington D.C. That was it.

For those who would think tax cuts are an integral part of economic recovery, Obama’s patronizing attitude is insulting.  But then, virtually everything Obama does conveys a basic contempt for the kind of common sense that most Americans have about their finances. It’s all smoke and mirrors for him.

But the smoke is clearing fast.

Via: Breitbart

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Debbie Whatshername Schultz Declares There is a God…….

It was mass confusion at the Democrat National Convention this week as the Democrats struggled over the troubling issue as to whether they should recognize God in their platform.

After several voice votes—the outcome of which was anything but clear—the chairman slammed down his gavel and declared that the ayes have it and that, remarkably, God would be—if reluctantly—included in the party’s platform. And Hugh Betcha, Ace Reporter for Stoos Views International Media Conglomerate and Head of the Stoos Views Political Bureau—winner of the CNN Reporter of the Decade Award—was there.

Spotting Debbie Whatshername Schultz, Chairwoman of the National Democrat Party, Hugh thrust a microphone into her face and asked a question that was on the minds of many.

“Why the confusion over one little word? What was the problem with simply acknowledging a divine presence in the universe?” asked Hugh.

“Well, as a politically correct, secular humanist, socialist party who believes in the supremacy of Mankind, it is a little uncomfortable acknowledging there is a ‘God’ so to speak,” said Schultz. “Makes us sound like a bunch of religious zealots, you know.”

“What tipped the scale in favor of mentioning God?” Hugh inquired.
“Well, we decided we were mistaken. There is indeed a God after all,” replied the Chairwoman. “He is speaking to the convention tonight.”

Via: Canada Free Press

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Obama Speech: Multiply Failure, Divide the Country

What has always amazed me about Democrat policies is that they feign outrage over the need to implement them, even though they have already been championed by both parties, and have produced negative results.  Government has already invested in crony capitalism and has already micro-managed every sector of the economy; from higher education to agriculture, health care, and energy.  Many of these policies have been supported by administrations and congresses controlled by both parties.  And they have driven up costs; not lowered them.  For goodness sake, that’s why we are still debating these problems decades after those very policies have been implemented.

Obama’s speech was the same stale central-planning and class warfare, not just from his older speeches, but from every Democrat speech this century.

Every line of the speech is not grounded in reality; it would take copious pages to rebut.  Here is just the policy side from some lines and the summary of his plan that was sent out to the media:

If you choose this path, we can cut our oil imports in half by 2020 and support more than 600,000 new jobs in natural gas alone.

So after 4 years of shutting down oil drilling, nuclear power, blocking the pipeline, and the war on coal, we will suddenly cut oil imports in half?  The sad thing is that Obama is not lying.  He will cut net imports in half; not by producing more oil, but by shutting down our economy and mandating the usage of ineffectual phantom fuels, such as ethanol, wood chips, switch grass, algae, and horse manure.

As for natural gas, we all know what he means.  He wants massive subsidies for an industry that is already booming.  In other words, he wants to double down on the T. Boone Pickens subsidies – a policy that Boone Pickens has already renounced.

We’ve opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration in the last three years, and we’ll open more.

Via: Red State

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Reporters Using ‘Fake Names’ to Buy Obama Campaign Merchandise at the DNC

CHARLOTTE, NC — Members of the media have apparently been using “fake” names to buy official Obama gear and contribute to the Obama campaign inside the Time Warner Cable Arena where the President is due to speak in a few minutes. During our travels around the arena, Politicker spotted a souvenir stand in one of the press stands selling T-shirts and buttons supporting President Barack Obama, “Democrats Are Hot” bumper stickers and other official Obama merchandise.

The souvenir stand was in a secure area only accessible to those with a media credential and buying campaign gear means contributing to the campaign, so we asked the woman working the cash register whether anyone at the press stand had been making purchases. Her answers were quite surprising. 

The woman working at the souvenir stand told us she hadn’t been “too busy” during the day, but had seen business pick up in the past half hour or so. She then asked us whether we wanted to buy anything. When we informed her that our status as a reporter means we don’t buy campaign gear, she suggested a strategy other members of the media have apparently used to pick up their Obama swag.

“Have you ever thought of making up a fake name? That’s what the other guys do,” she said.

Buying official merchandise at the DNC means making a donation the Obama campaign, an activity that is generally frowned upon for members of the media. The Obama campaign website specifically informs shoppers that purchases amount to donations in its “Frequently Asked Questions” section where one of the queries is, “Can I receive merchandise without making a donation?”

“The only way to receive items from the 2012 store is by contributing through the official store site at store.barackobama.com,” the site says.

Via: Politickar

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Barack Obama to hail himself as the new Franklin D. Roosevelt: President promises 'bold, persistent' leadership like FDR during the Great Depression

President Barack Obama will tonight lay out his case for being re-elected to a second term by comparing himself to Franklin D. Roosevelt, who won an unprecedented three presidential elections and led America to recovery after the Great Depression.

He will say: 'And the truth is, it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over decades. It will require common effort, shared responsibility, and the kind of bold, persistent experimentation that Franklin Roosevelt pursued during the only crisis worse than this one.'

Obama will formally accept the Democratic presidential nomination, capping a week in which speeches from his wife Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton, the husband of his erstwhile rival, received widespread praise.

He will tell Americans: 'Our problems can be solved. Our challenges can be met. The path we offer may be harder, but it leads to a better place.'

Roosevelt dominated American politics for the 12 years of his presidency and beyond. He is commonly recognised as the greatest Democratic president and, along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, one of the three greatest American presidents.

Not only did he bring America out of the depression, he oversaw the introduction of the New Deal social programmes, laid the foundations for the United Nations and led the country in the Second World War after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, dying just when victory was in sight.

Excerpts from tonight's speech released in advance showed that Obama would attempt to frame the election not as a referendum on his four-year term, during which unemployment has risen to 8.3 per cent, leaving more than 23 million Americans out of work, but as a choice between him and Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee.

'On every issue, the choice you face won’t be just between two candidates or two parties,' he was due to say. 'It will be a choice between two different paths for America. A choice between two fundamentally different visions for the future.'

This November's election, he argued, will represent 'the clearest choice of any time in a generation' between two different visions.

Via: Mail OnLine

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FIVE NC DELEGATES DITCH OBAMA NOMINATION VOTE

In a sign of how unpopular President Barack Obama is becoming in North Carolina, five North Carolina delegates did not show up to the Democratic National Convention to cast votes for Obama's nomination.

North Carolina cast 152 votes for Obama, despite having been awarded 157 delegates to the convention. 

North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman David Parker brushed off the missing votes and said the five missing votes merely reflected logistical mishaps. 

Parker said some of the delegates missed a breakfast and he "tried to run them down" throughout the day but could not track them down by the time North Carolina delegates had to cast their votes. 

Rep. Larry Kissell (D-NC) is one North Carolina Democrat who has stayed away from the DNC even though his district is less than a mile from where the convention is taking place because being associated with Obama hurts his reelection chances. According to theCharlotte-Observer, Republican staffers offered to drive Kissell to the convention this week. In addition, Democrats could not fill Bank of America Stadium for Obama's reelect, and moved Obama's speech on Thursday back indoors to a smaller venue to avoid embarrassment. 

And yet, Parker, the Democratic party chair in North Carolina, continued to downplay the fact that Democrats in North Carolina who were distancing themselves from Obama and the DNC reflected a lack of enthusiasm in North Carolina for Obama's reelection. 

Via: Breitbart

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Will He or Won't He? Obama Faces Jobs Report Dilemma

Imagine you're Barack Obama, about to give the most important political speech of your presidency, and someone on your staff hands you one of the best pieces of economic news you've seen yet.

Getty Images A display on stage show U.S. President Barack Obama during preparations for the Democratic National Convention at Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Trouble is, the information often is a major influence on the financial markets and is embargoed until the next morning.

Do you keep it to yourself — or do you at least drop enough hints that astute listeners can draw some logical and important conclusions?

That will be the dilemma the president faces today as he prepares to deliver his speech as the climactic event for this week'sDemocratic National Convention.

At some point this afternoon, the White House will know the gist of what's in the Labor Department's nonfarm payrolls report that reveals the national unemployment rate (learn more), but which the public will not see until 8:30 am ET Friday.

Wall Street was abuzz Thursday with speculation of whether Obama's remarks might deliver a hint of what's to come, particularly since the day's news indicated that the report could be a good deal better than the meager 125,000 job growth number that economists had expected.

"Normally I'm dismissive of those kinds of speculations about advance information in the employment report, but this is actually one of those instances where everything you said is true," said David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities in New York.

"Let's suppose we had a bigger-than-expected increase in payrolls. Would he allude to that?" he continued. "That's as much about getting into the psychology of the man as it is the facts at hand."

Via: CNBC

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Mr. Bill: 'Who You Gonna Believe, Me Or Your Lying Eyes'?

When a bull or a bucking bronc rider at a rodeo gets thrown from the saddle, out comes the rodeo clown to distract both the animal and the audience while the fallen rider is pulled to safety.

Bill Clinton's speech last night was something like that. After a disastrous day and an excruciatingly shrill, boring evening, Mr. Bill jumped into the arena to try and save the show, and no one can say he didn't do his level best. Even when you realized what he was saying was chock full of misstatements, half truths and a devious agenda of his own, you had to admire his showmanship, his delivery and his ability to play the Charlotte crowd like Jimi Hendrix mauling a stratocaster.

His only fault from a performance standpoint is that he went on far to long, speaking on past 11 PM, tiring the crowd and probably losing a decent portion of the TV audience before the last coda and the boffo finish.  But then, Mr. Bill was always overfond of the sound of his own voice. 

Bill Clinton had a few tasks Wednesday night, and he certainly succeeded with his target audience at the DNC, if perhaps not so much with the rest of the world. First, he had to make a case for Barack Obama, a man he doesn't particularly care for but whom he's bound to support as a loyal party warrior because he wants the same people he was speaking to tonight to support Hillary Clinton in 2016. 

For that matter, this had the aura of a business transaction because, as the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza revealed, part of the price for Bill Clinton getting involved was Barack Obama finally fulfilling a promise he made to the Clintons back in 2008, to pay off Hillary's quarter million dollar campaign debt from the primaries she incurred that year.

For his own purposes he wanted to remind Democrats and the country at large of how good things were economically under the Clintons to pave the for a Hillary candidacy in 2016, something the Obama Campaign is more or less forced to go along with because of President Obama's own abysmal record. 

Via: American Thinker

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GOP Demands Obama Meet Friday Deadline For ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Report

Congressional Republicans are demanding that President Obama meet the Friday deadline for laying out how his administration will carry out the spending cuts from sequestration that are part of the "fiscal cliff."

“Tomorrow (September 7) is the deadline, which has us wondering … will President Obama comply with the Sequestration Transparency Act he signed into law?” the office of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) wrote in a blog post. 

GOP aides say they expect the White House to delay the report to prevent it from distracting from President Obama’s big acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night.

The report will for the first time detail where the sequestered cuts would come from in the budget, should Congress not act to stop them.

Behind presidential nominee Mitt Romney, Republicans have attacked Obama for the sequestered cuts, arguing the president has failed to find a solution that would prevent a hollowing out of the military. Obama has countered that it's the GOP who has stood in the way of a solution by refusing to agree to tax increases in a deficit deal.

The House has passed a sequester replacement package that includes significant entitlement cuts, but Democrats have rejected that approach and are demanding shallower cuts along with tax increases. The standoff is certain to last beyond the election.

Missing deadlines is not unprecedented for Obama's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which was tasked with crafting the sequester report. 

OMB's midsession budget review, for instance, was due by July 16, but released on July 27.

Via: The Hill

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Rep. John Lewis predicts the return of segregation if Romney wins

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Rep. John Lewis used his Thursday convention speech to argue that a GOP victory in November will send African-Americans back to the early 1960s, when he and other Africans-Americans were forcibly denied access to restaurants, public transportation and the ballot box.

“I’ve seen this before, I lived this before,” he claimed, after extensively describing his activism in Southern states in the 1950 and 1960s.

“We were met by an angry mob that beat us and left us lying in a pool of blood,” he said to raucous applause from roughly 20,000 delegates and activists.

“Brothers and sisters, do you want to go back?” he called, prompted a loud response of “No!”

“Or do you want to keep America moving forward?” he asked Sept. 6 to raucous applause from roughly 20,000 delegates and activists.

Lewis’ speech echoed Vice-President Joe Biden’s August warning to African-Americans “they’re gonna put y’all back in chains.”

There is no evidence that GOP politicians plan to enslave or segregate African-Americans. Historically, the GOP was established in the 1850s to helped destroy slavery, which it did under the first elected Republican president, Abraham Lincoln.

Via: Daily Caller

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