DNC Chair Wasserman, Pro-Abortion Activist Fluke, Crash GOP Convention in Tampa

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Pro-abortion activist Sandra Fluke and pro-abortion Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair and Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz crashed the Republican convention on Thursday afternoon.

Leading up to the nomination acceptance speech from Mitt Romney, Fluke and Wasserman Schultz somehow made it through security and into the convention center to speak to members of the press. Reporters surrounded Schultz to get her take on the GOP convention. She made a brief statement to the press and walked to the Google-sponsored bloggers lounge where press members also are found.

Although Democrats have set up an office near the GOP convention center, this was the first time and top Democrats ventured into the GOP convention itself.

Fluke later tweeted, “At the #RNC2012 getting the word out on why #romneyryan are #WrongForWomen. First this convention has gotten to hear about women’s concerns.”

Matthew Boyle of the conservative Daily Caller had more on their appearances and snapped a picture:

It’s Not Getting Better: GDP Slows to Sluggish 1.7 Percent Rate

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This morning’s update from the Department of Commerce on economic activity in the second quarter shows that the economy grew at an anemic 1.7 percent annual rate. This follows a nearly equally weak first quarter growth rate of 2.0 percent.

How weak is this? In terms of economic output, the current recovery is the weakest of any since 1945: Total output is only 6.8 percent higher than when the recession ended in 2009, which was about 12 quarters ago. Compare that to the other really big post-war recession: 1981. After 12 quarters, economic output stood 18.5 percent higher than the end of that recession. Even the really slow recovery from the 2001 recession outdoes the current one: By 12 quarters following the end of the 2001 recession, economic output was 8.9 percent higher.

The weak spots in the current recovery stand out in today’s economic growth report. The Bureau of Economic Analysis traces the sluggish growth rate to slowdowns in the spending of households and businesses and shrinking inventories.

While the media will highlight the weak household spending numbers, the real focus of concern should be on business investment. When businesses hold back on improving and growing their productive capacity, that inaction directly affects hiring decisions and, thus, household incomes. And that’s what businesses appear to be doing this year: They are sitting this economy out.

Very few economic actions testify more strongly to the failure of current economic policy—especially the threats of tax increases next year—than what businesses are doing. Well before voters head to the polling booth in November, American business has apparently voted against the near-term prospects of the economy. Imagine the economy today if better economic policy had been the norm over the past several years.

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Clint Eastwood makes Mitt’s Day

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Politico called it “unscripted,” a “disaster,” “sad,” and “crazy,” the Washington Post, “rambling.”

But that was not the assessment of the GOP faithful at the Tampa Convention:

Click HERE for a transcript of the speech.

Soros-Funded “Trackers” are Digging Up Dirt on GOP Candidates

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A George Soros-funded super PAC is vowing to send operatives to stake out Republican campaigns to hunt for and to record any gaffes or controversial statements the candidates may make.

On Tuesday, American Bridge sent a fundraising plea to supporters asking for money to pay for “trackers,” a term for political operatives who sometimes tail opponents.

The organization, which includes both a super PAC that discloses its donors and a nonprofit group that does not, bragged in its fundraising letter about its flagging the clip of Rep. W. Todd Akin, Missouri Republican, making comments about “legitimate rape” that led top Republicans to call for his exit from that state’s U.S. Senate race.

“When our trackers caught Rep. Todd Akin in an interview talking about ‘legitimate rape,’ his invitation to the Republican Convention in Tampa was revoked,” Rodell Mollineau, president of American Bridge, says in the letter.

He also cited a news report saying that Republicans were hiding from its footage-seekers at the Tampa convention now under way.

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Tampa Convention: Huckabee hits it out of the park (+video)

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Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

I was so very honored to be asked to address one of this week’s themes, “We Can Do Better.” Then I was backstage and I heard some folks say that after hearing me speak, the delegates are going to say, “We sure can do better than Huckabee.” And that’s when they will unanimously nominate Mitt Romney to be the next president of the United States of America.

I want to say that Tampa has been a wonderful and hospitable city. And I’m grateful for all that they’ve done for us. But the only hitch in an otherwise perfect week, was the awful noise coming from the hotel room next door to mine. Turns out it was just Debbie Wasserman Schultz, practicing her speech for the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte next week. Bless her heart.

Four years ago, Mitt Romney and I were opponents. We still are, but we’re not opposing each other. No, we are mutual opponents of the miserably failed experiments that have put this country in a downward spiral. The United States of America was originally an experiment. But it was an experiment in recognizing God-given individual liberty and creating a government in which we no one is deemed better than another. And in which all of us are equal. Not equal in abilities, but equal in intrinsic worth and value. It is the essence, not just of who we are, but what we are. Now let me just say to those who question how once rivals can be now united, it’s quite simple, we have Barack Obama to thank.

It was Barack Obama who said, “You didn’t build it.” Translation, “It doesn’t belong to you.” Well no small differences among us in our party approximate the vast differences between the liberty limiting, radical left wing, anti-business, reckless spending, tax hiking party of Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, versus an energized America who knows we can do better.

For four years, we’ve given a chance to a man with very limited experience in governing, no experience in business whatsoever and since taking office, mostly interested in campaigning, blaming and aiming excuses at his predecessor, the Republicans and people in business. Or as Republicans like to call them, “employers.” We’ve stagnated into an economy that has taken all that hope right down the slope and has left millions without jobs.

Forced out of their homes by foreclosure. Herded into dependency upon a government that promises us candy, but gives us cavities. Barack Obama seems intent on enrolling more people on food-stamps. Mitt Romney’s focus is going to be on generating more jobs that will make food-stamps unnecessary for them. We know full well, we can do better.

Read more from this story and see the video HERE.

Actor R. Lee Ermey, the drill-sergeant-therapist, claims Geico fired him for criticizing Obama (+video)

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By FoxNews.com. “Full Metal Jacket” star and Geico’s “Therapist Sarge” R. Lee Ermey said the insurance giant fired him from his commercial spot for speaking out against President Barack Obama, according to a report from TMZ.

Ermey played a former drill sergeant in the commercial, where he called a weeping man a “jackwagon” before throwing a box of tissues at the man in a hilarious and popular commercial for Geico.

But in 2010, Ermey slammed the president’s policies, saying his administration was attempting to “impose socialism” on the American people and, in the process, was “destroying the country,” TMZ reports. Read more from this story HERE.

Here’s the original GEICO video with R. Lee Ermey:

Mystery Speaker Slated for GOP Convention Tonight: Is it Palin, Eastwood, or someone else?

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The Republican National Convention is abuzz with speculation over the identity of a mystery speaker who’s supposed to appear Thursday night.

Convention officials have refused to reveal who will fill the “To Be Announced” slot on the closing-night schedule, but the list of possibilities being generated by convention delegates and observers stretches from Hollywood (Clint Eastwood) to hologram (Ronald Reagan) to a handful of conservative favorites who fall somewhere in between.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus refused to give even the smallest hint Wednesday.

“Everyone’s going to have to tune in on Thursday night and check it out,” he told Fox News.

Rumors were flying on the convention floor Wednesday afternoon that Hollywood icon Eastwood is the surprise guest, the speculation fueled by reports of the actor and director’s travel plans.

Read more from this story HERE.

Pathetic: Obama “consoles” families of dead Navy SEAL’s with form letter & electric pen signature

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On August 6, 2011, 30 US service members were killed when a CH-47 Chinook helicopter they were being transported in crashed in Wardak province, Afghanistan. It was the deadliest single loss for U.S. forces in the decade-long war in Afghanistan. 17 members of the elite Navy SEALs were killed in the crash.

Yesterday, Karen and Billy Vaughn, parents of Aaron Carson Vaughn, spoke at the Defending the Defenders forum sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots outside the RNC Convention in Tampa. Karen brought a copy of the form letter they were sent following their son’s death.

It’s a form letter. It was signed by an electric pen.

That’s not all.

Karen Vaughn reached out to the parents of the other SEALs killed in that crash. Their letters were all the same.

Read more from this story HERE.

Remote Alaska to Stockpile Food, Just in Case

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Photo credit: Christie 13

Alaska is known for pioneering, self-reliant residents who are accustomed to remote locations and harsh weather. Despite that, Gov. Sean Parnell worries a major earthquake or volcanic eruption could leave the state’s 720,000 residents stranded and cut off from food and supply lines. His answer: Build giant warehouses full of emergency food and supplies, just in case.

For some in the lower 48, it may seem like an extreme step. But Parnell says this is just Alaska.

In many ways, the state is no different than the rest of America. Most people buy their groceries at stores, and rely on a central grid for power and heat. But, unlike the rest of the lower 48, help isn’t a few miles away. When a fall storm cut off Nome from its final fuel supply last winter, a Russian tanker spent weeks breaking through thick ice to reach the remote town.

Weather isn’t the only thing that can wreak havoc in Alaska, where small planes are a preferred mode of transportation and the drive from Seattle to Juneau requires a ferry ride and 38 hours in a car. The state’s worst natural disaster was in 1964, when a magnitude-9.2 earthquake and resulting tsunami killed 131 people and disrupted electrical systems, water mains and communication lines in Anchorage and other cities.

“We have a different motivation to do this, because help is a long ways away,” said John Madden, Alaska’s emergency management director.

Read more from this story HERE.