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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States That Spent Most Per-Pupil Get Labor Dept. Grants; States That Spent Least Get None

(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. Labor Department announced last week that it will distribute $75.7 million in taxpayer-funded YouthBuild grants to provide instruction and occupational training for high school dropouts, ages 16 to 24.

With some 5,000 individuals expected to benefit, the grants average $15,140 for each “out of school” individual. Meanwhile, the nation's elementary-secondary public school systems spent an average $10,615 per pupil in fiscal year 2010, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.

According to a  June 2012 Census Bureau’s report, the District of Columbia spent the most on education in 2010 – $18,667 per student. The Labor Department just awarded a $1,099,932 YouthBuild grant to the city’s Sasha Bruce Youthwork Inc., which helps young people “transform their lives.”

New York spent the second highest amount on each pupil – $18,618. Six recipients in that state will receive a combined total of $5,209,046 from taxpayers through the YouthBuild grants.

New Jersey ranks third, spending $16,841 per pupil in fiscal year 2010. The Labor Department is awarding five grants to that state for a combined total of $4,323,900.

Census figures show that states spending the least per pupil were Utah ($6,064), Idaho ($7,106), Arizona ($7,848) and Oklahoma ($7,896). And none of those states received grant funding from the Labor Department.

Via: CNSNews

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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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Daily Caller: With Landmark Lawsuit, Barack Obama Pushed Banks to Give Subprime Loans to Chicago’s African-Americans

President Barack Obama was a pioneering contributor to the national subprime real estate bubble, and roughly half of the 186 African-American clients in his landmark 1995 mortgage discrimination lawsuit against Citibank have since gone bankrupt or received foreclosure notices.

As few as 19 of those 186 clients still own homes with clean credit ratings, following a decade in which Obama and other progressives pushed banks to provide mortgages to poor African Americans.

The startling failure rate among Obama’s private sector clients was discovered during The Daily Caller’s review of previously unpublished court information from the lawsuit that a young Obama helmed as the lead plaintiff’s attorney. [RELATED: Learn about the 186 class action plaintiffs]

Since the mortgage bubble burst, some of his former clients are calling for a policy reversal.

“If you see some people don’t make enough money to afford the mortgage, why would you give them a loan?” asked Obama client John Buchanan. “There should be some type of regulation against giving people loans they can’t afford.”

Banks “were too eager to lend to many who didn’t qualify,” said Don Byas, another client who saw banks lurch from caution to bubble-inflating recklessness. [RELATED: Obama's Citibank plaintiffs hit hard when housing bubble burst]

“I don’t care what race you are. … You need to keep financial wisdom [separate] from trying to help your people,” said Byas, an autoworker.

Via: The Daily Caller

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EDITORIAL: Labor Day Is No Holiday Without a Job

AP Graphics

EDITORIAL: Another bummer Obama day
Labor Day is no holiday without a job

By The Washington Times

For 23 million Americans without jobs, the Labor Day holiday is not a day off but just another day without work. It’s a fitting hash mark for the presidential campaign kickoff, reminding Americans of President Obama’s tragic failure to deliver.

In 2009, Mr. Obama promised to lower unemployment to 5.5 percent by 2012. It’s stuck at 8.3 percent. In his first budget, hopefully titled “A New Era of Responsibility,” he projected current growth in the gross domestic product would be a red-hot 6.3 percent. Instead, the country creeps along at a miserable 1.5 percent. One measure of the Obama administration’s desperation is Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis applauding the latest youth unemployment figures, which dipped all the way to 17.1 percent. When numbers that high make officials “excited,” you know things are terrible.

From the White House perspective, this isn’t all bad news. The Obama administration thinks unemployment actually can be healthy for the economy. Obama press secretary Jay Carney said last year that jobless benefits somehow boost consumption and “every place that, that money is spent has added business and that creates growth and income for businesses that leads them to decisions about jobs, more hiring.” By that confused illogic, Mr. Obama should be cheering the worst sustained unemployment rate since the Great Depression. Congratulations, that’s a heckuva job, Barack. Apparently, the president’s re-election slogan, “Forward,” actually means “Reverse.”

Labor Day also draws attention to the role of organized labor in American public life. A new Gallup survey shows 52 percent of the public approves of unions while 42 percent disapproves. A lot has changed since the 1950s, when old Big Labor — the United Auto Workers, the United Mine Workers, the Teamsters — had a 75 percent approval rating. Back then, workers built things. The new Big Labor — the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union — represents the service sector and public employees. Their influence grows through securing sweetheart deals from governments populated with the politicians they helped elect. Eventually, the cost of these deals becomes too great for states and municipalities to sustain. Even with these jurisdictions on the brink of bankruptcy, the unions refuse to give on any aspect of their plush compensation packages. Their answer is always the same: Raise taxes and fees; do anything it takes to extract more money from the public to keep alive the government golden goose.

Via: The Washington Times

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Obama after four years – change or more of the same?

WASHINGTON — He’s older. He’s grayer. The jaunty optimism about changing the world has given way to the sober reality of stubbornly high unemployment and economic anxiety. In his own words, President Barack Obama has “some dents and dings in the fender.”

Yet beneath those external differences, the question persists: How has Obama changed as a leader in the four years since he first accepted his party’s nomination for president as a young man with little executive experience and little history in Washington. Has he learned on the job? Has he been guided by core principles come what may, or has he changed to adapt to what’s become a vastly different political landscape? The answers could determine how successful he’d be in a second term.

In his first two years, Obama stayed the course and pushed an agenda through a friendly Democratic Congress to stimulate the economy, regulate Wall Street and overhaul health care. Yet he’s maintained much of that course even as the country balked at his health care law, as voters threw his party out of power in the House of Representatives, and as his agenda has stalled ever since.

“On the one hand, he’s got a legacy,” said George Edwards, a scholar of the presidency at Texas A&M University, pointing to sweeping financial regulations and health care legislation sought by Democrats for decades. But Obama also displayed what Edwards called a “misunderstanding of leadership,” which put too much emphasis on his own powers of persuasion and led Obama to “overreach” on health care.

“As a result, he lost the ability to govern because he lost Congress and he’s not likely to get Congress back. Ever,” Edwards said.

To Obama and his inner circle, his steadiness is a critical virtue.

Via: The News Tribune

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Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/09/01/2274377/obama-after-four-years-change.html#storylink=cpy

‘Top-Down’ vs. ‘Bottom-Up’

What does ‘top-down economics’ really mean? “We can’t afford more top-down economics. What we need are policies that will grow and strengthen the middle class.” — Barack Obama “Top-down economics” is a hijacked phrase. Objectively, it should be the label assigned to rule-of-czar capitalism steered by government officials. Instead, campaign rhetoric has been assigning it to rule-of-law capitalism driven by consumers and entrepreneurs—supposedly a system steered by the already-rich, in which money gradually trickles down to the middle class. As vivid as that image may be, it is a false depiction of what really happens in a properly functioning private sector. But once the false image captures the attention of enough voters, it’s a simpler step for political entrepreneurs to sell themselves as the better alternative—simpler, that is, than having to compete against the way a vibrant private sector actually works. Entrepreneurs cause money to gush outward, not to ‘trickle down’ There is little disagreement that today’s economy needs more private-sector jobs, and there should be little disagreement that private-sector entrepreneurs are more effective creators of new jobs than politicians are. But entrepreneurial success requires three ingredients: New ideas, sufficient drive, and adequate funding. With all three, entrepreneurs can develop new products and bring them to market, creating lasting new jobs when that process succeeds. Unfortunately, it’s the rule rather than the exception that the typical entrepreneur lacks the third necessary ingredient: Adequate funding. He or she may possess the idea and the initiative, but the necessary funding must come from an outside source. Should the government use higher taxation to forcibly extract additional money from the already-prosperous, then somehow allocate it back into the private sector as the bureaus and agencies see fit? At the macro level, solving the problem of creating millions of new private-sector jobs requires matching thousands of potentially successful entrepreneurs with the funding they need. When this match is made, the typical entrepreneur—far from starting out rich and then deciding to let money “trickle down”— starts by deciding to take on a big risk, then obtains the funding, and then dishes out a gusher of other people’s money to new suppliers and new employees. If unsuccessful, the entrepreneur is the first one to go broke; if successful, he or she is the last one to benefit. In short, the money gushes outward long before success or failure for the risk-taker becomes evident, and therefore long before the entrepreneur can be judged “rich” or “poor.” Via: The American Continue Reading...

Chuck Norris Warns America

America’s favorite action star is doing just that this election – calling on evangelical Christians across the nation to join him in crushing the creep of socialism under President Obama.

Norris and his wife, Gena, have filmed a public service announcement, unveiled exclusively at WND, wherein the two urge Christians to help save the country in November.

“We are here to talk about a growing concern we all share,” Chuck Norris explains. “If we look to history, our great country and freedom are under attack. We’re at a tipping point and, quite possibly, our country as we know it may be lost forever if we don’t change the course in which our country is headed.”

Gena warns that voter apathy among evangelicals in 2008 may have contributed to Obama’s election in the first place.

“With our country at a crossroads, Chuck and I have asked ourselves what we can be doing to help support this great country we’re blessed to live in and how we can encourage our like-minded American brothers and sisters to unite and let their voices be heard,” she said. “It is estimated that in the 2008 election, 30 million evangelical Christians stayed home on voting day and Obama won the election by 10 million votes.”

Chuck cautions Christians about the cost of doing nothing while the nation spirals into a state of socialism from which there will be no return.

“We know you love your family and your freedom as much as Gena and I do,” he says in his appeal to Americans. “And it is because of that we can no longer sit quietly or stand on the sidelines and watch our country go the way of socialism or something much worse.”

Gena urged Christians to register and cast their votes on Election Day to ensure “our voices will be heard.”

Chuck recalled the cautionary words of great patriots on the subject of preserving liberty:

“As Edmund Burke said, ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men (and women) to do nothing.’

Via WND Faith

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OBAMA BLAMES WASHINGTON GRIDLOCK, PARTISANSHIP ON FAMILY, DAUGHTERS

HE WILL HAVE PLENTY OF TIME STARTING JANUARY 20, 2013

President Barack Obama is partly blaming his family and children for his inability to lessen Washington’s partisanship and gridlock during his first term. 

On CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday show, Jessica Yellin said she interviewed Obama for a forthcoming documentary and asked him why he did not do more outreach to Republicans in the beginning of his term to bridge the divides Obama often rails against. 

Yellin said Obama told her one of the reasons he did not was because he wanted to spend more time at home with his kids and family. 

"He was trying to spend some time at home with his family in the evenings and on the weekends,” Yellin said. 

Yellin noted Obama suggested things may be different in the second term when his kids are older.

“If this was such a priority, why didn’t he do it?,” Yellin asked. “You can carve out one night a week to go out and socialize and reach across the aisle.” 

Obama ran a campaign in which he said he would unite “red America” and “blue America." And even though Democrats controlled Congress during his first two years in office and still control the Senate, Obama is trying to run against what he often calls the “Republican Congress,” which he is trying to blame for making partisanship and gridlock worse in Washington. 

Obama and his campaign have also tried to tie Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan to this “Republican Congress,” but Ryan has often noted that even though he is the House Budget Chairman, he has not met with Obama in over a year. 

From Yellin's interview, though, it seems like a president who puts a premium on bipartisanship on the stump did not even care to work with or get to know Republicans in order to make bipartisanship more likely upon coming to Washington. 

Via: Breitbart

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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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TARP and GM

In December of 2008, GM approached Congress and asked for a bridge loan to allow them to restructure. While the House passed legislation to accomplish this, it was not passed through the Senate. Days later, the Bush administration initiated a loan through the TARP program which would provide $14 Billion in loans and stock purchases to GM and follow many of the guidelines that were sought in that legislation. This included a restructure plan that would have to be approved by the Obama administration.

In February of 2009 GM presented their plan to the Obama administration. The plan was seen as preferential to union workers by bondholders and many stated their intention to oppose it. In March of 2009 President Obama announced that he was not accepting the viability plan put forth by GM, but that he was authorizing more funds to keep the company afloat. President Obama also initiated programs to provide funds to companies that supply parts to GM and Chrysler.

GM was placed into bankruptcy on June 1, 2009 and the company was supplied with an additional $30.1 Billion dollars, bringing the total loans and stock purchases to $50 Billion. The company was made a private entity at that time.

The bankruptcy restructuring plan agreed upon by the government and GM gave the US government a 60% share in the company and gave the Canadian government a 12% share. The United Auto Workers gave up a health and savings plan worth $20 Billion in exchange for a 17.5% share in the company and over $8 Billion in debt and preferred stock. Bondholders held $27 Billion in stock prior to the collapse and received only a 10% equity share in the new GM company. 

Throughout the bankruptcy process, President Obama stated that he had not desire to run a car company and would not interfere with daily GM business. This is at odds with numerous actions taken before and after the bankruptcy filings.

• Days before GM was placed into bankruptcy, the Obama administration demanded and received the resignation of company CEO Rick Wagoner.
• The Obama administration pushed for the closing of numerous GM dealerships
• The substance of the bankruptcy settlement was heavily tilted to favor unions - a result that many people suggest would not have occurred without political motivations
• The bankruptcy settlement allowed the US government, the Canadian, and the UAW Union to appoint chairs of the board - an action that would directly change the direction of the company for years

The TARP program established specific rules on what could be purchased with the funds. These rules stated that only Preferred Stock or Common stock without voting rights could be purchased. The reason for this was to prevent the government from controlling a company it purchased stock in through TARP funds. President Bush violated those rules when he used the money to provide a loan to GM. President Obama further violated those laws when he purchased stock in the company and used the ownership of that stock as authority to appoint board members. The creation of programs to give funds to companies simply because they depended on GM and Chrysler for business was also not allowed in TARP documents.

Via: The Political Guide

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Spare the Axelrod, Spoil the Sunday Show

If it won’t be too taxing, check out the April 16 edition of the Morning Jolt . . .

Axelrod-eo Clown
It was a beautiful Sunday in the greater Washington D.C. area – sunny, in the 70s much of the morning – but David Axelrod . . . didn’t have such a great day.
First, I’ll let Jim Treacher spotlight the fantastic verbiage from the president’s chief strategist.

“The choice in this election is between an economy that produces a growing middle class and that gives people a chance to get ahead, and their kids a chance to get ahead, and an economy that continues down the road we’re on.”

Good point, Dave.

The Obama campaign has been able to devote its singular focus to Mitt Romney for less than a week. It’s been a fun one, hasn’t it?

Q: Who’s having a worse week, David Axelrod or his boss? A:Yes.

Step back, everyone! This man’s a communications professional!
Video here.
Jen Rubin dissects the rest of Axelrod’s performance on the Sunday shows:

There was plenty more that Axelrod said that was downright wrong or misleading. He “accuses” Romney of wanting to the rich to pay at a lower tax rate; what he doesn’t say is both Romney and the Simpson-Bowles plan also take away deductions and credits so the rich won’t be paying less taxesrelative to the rest of the population.

He uses the president’s favorite straw man: “No one can argue that it makes sense that people who are making a million dollars a year or more to pay less than the average middle class worker in this country.” And no one is. In fact the top 10% of earners have been paying roughly 70 percent of the taxes. The bottom 50 percent pay about 3 percent of the tax load.

But let’s take a step back. Where in this is a plan to accelerate growth and job creation? How does creating a sort of new minimum tax for 4,000 taxpayers assist in the recovery? Maybe that is why Obama and Axelrod spend so much time on gimmicks and phony “fairness” arguments. They haven’t got a clue how to create an economic environment in which investors, employers and consumer will all benefit.

Via: National Review Online

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Obama- sand sculpture Mount Rushmore imitation

I LOVE ME, I LOVE MYSELF. MOUNT RUSHMORE? NOT A CHANCE!!

This one takes the cake.

At the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Charlotte, they will have pictures of such American icons as the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore.

Apparently President Obama has such a high opinion of himself that there is also a sand sculpture of him, erected at the DNC at the EpiCentre entertainment complex, seemingly in imitation of  Mount Rushmore. It consists of 15 tons of sand trucked in from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

This raises interesting questions, such as how much must this have cost?  What was the effect on the beach, environmentally?  And how big an ego do you have to have to try to imitate Mount Rushmore while you are still a sitting president?

Let the jokes begin! Shovel ready job, house built on sand, no graven images, etc…

Update: Looks like we raised a good question about the sand removal.  The Morning Spew reports that back in 1998 the Army Corp of Engineers spent $60 million of public money to put sand back into the beach! 

I would want to know how 15 tons of South Carolina beach ended up at the DNC Convention in Charlotte, NC.  It’s also puzzling that Democrats, who consider themselves bastions of environmental policy, would actually think that digging up a beach for this purpose was a good idea, especially when beaches remain a fragile habitat for many types of endangered wildlife.

Since the original 1998 replenishment, the beach was replenished in 2009 as well in order to protect people and property from storm damage along the shore. According to the US Army Corps of Engineers, it is scheduled to continue to be replenished with Federal, state and local money through 2046.  

We will let you know when we track down exactly where the sand came from in Myrtle Beach.

CITIZEN JOURNALIST
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Team Obama downplays expectations, predicts ‘close’ race after Charlotte

President Obama's campaign on Saturday downplayed expectations ahead of the Democratic National Convention next week, saying they expected to be locked in a close race against GOP nominee Mitt Romney until election day. 

"It's been a pretty steady race to date and we expect it will be in a pretty similar place following our convention," Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki told a press gaggle on Air Force One, en route to the president’s campaign rallies in Iowa. "We think it’s going to be close 'til the end. That's why we have such an active schedule. That's why the president is out there campaigning." 

Psaki’s comments about a packed campaign schedule between now and election day come after Obama reportedly complained last week about too much downtime. 

"Why am I having a short day?" he told adviser Valerie Jarrett on Wednesday, according to the Wall Street Journal. "There should be no short days." 

Psaki also said that the just completed Republican National Convention was more important for Romney than the Democratic meet would be for Obama.

“The American people know more about this president than they know about Mitt Romney so in some ways the stakes for Romney were a bit higher,” she said. “They spoke openly about the importance of him personalizing who he was and presenting to the American people what he would do for them moving forward. The president is just going to be further solidifying and bringing into focus that choice next week.”

Via: The Hill

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The Obamas Already Preparing for Move to Hawaii in January 2013: Hyde Park neighbors talking about Chicago house being sold soon

UPDATE:  Just found out that the asking price of the house they are looking at is most likely $35 million.  Bobby Titcomb, the Hawaiian native who brings Obama “fish and poi” (that’s code for “weed and coke”) to the White House is most likely involved in the purchase of the estate on Oahu that the Obamas will most likely be moving into in January.  Possibly watching Titcomb’s movements will give more clues as to which house, exactly, Obama will move to in January 2013.

UPDATE #2:  Found it!  Here’s the only property that matches all the clues we’ve been given.  It is on the market for $35 million, which matches what Mrs. Robinson has been saying about the “$35 million house she’d be living in soon”.  This estate was also featured on TV’s remake of Hawaii 5-O recently. Do you see how that’s a little in-joke that Obama would like…the “O” in the show’s name, like the “O” he’s used as his personal emblem since 2008?  A man who named his dog BO, after his own initials, would love to own a house that was featured in an “O” show, like after his last name.  This is a photo of the house as featured on TV and in Honolulu Magazine so you can see a little inside.  The link above has more pics of the house that Barack Obama will soon be living in as an ex-president.

UPDATE #3 – Weird coincidence, but Drudge Report is right now running stories about the shootings that happen just blocks from the Obamas’ house here in Chicago in the area of Hyde Park. The whole city has gotten MUCH more dangerous in the last four years.  This jives with what Mrs. Robinson told friends here in Chicago about her not moving back to Chicago and about the Obama’s Hyde Park house going on the market soon.

Via: Hill Buzz

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Obama campaign says it will fill football stadium for convention’s finale

MORE BROKEN PROMISES

Team Obama promises it will fill every one of the seats in Charlotte’s mammoth football stadium Thursday night when President Obama closes the Democratic National Convention with a speech accepting his party’s nomination.

For weeks, Democrats have been concerned about filling Bank of America Stadium, home to the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. They feared a devastating image of an enthusiasm gap if Obama spoke to empty upper decks at the venue.

But the Obama campaign says it’s got it covered, and that all 73,778 of the stadium’s seats will be spoken for. The campaign also insists this success will showcase a ground operation that will help Obama win North Carolina for a second cycle in a row this November.

“We’re confident we’ll be full,” Jen Psaki, the traveling Obama press secretary, told The Hill late last week. “We have a great ground operation in North Carolina and we’ve registered more voters than any other state.

“Our goal is to leave North Carolina better than we came in,” Psaki added.

Obama set himself up for a challenge when he decided to recreate the image that closed his 2008 convention — an address to a packed, enthusiastic crowd at Denver’s Invesco Field.

Via: The Hill

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