Florida Pizza Shop Owner Boycotted Because He Hugged Obama (+video)

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“People are saying a lot of bad things and boycotting my restaurant,” Scott Van Duzer, 46, told POLITICO. “There’s no middle line anymore, and that’s exactly what’s wrong with our country right now.”

The owner of Big Apple Pizza & Pasta Restaurant in Fort Pierce, Fla., said that both Democrats and Republicans are welcome in his store. But he also said he thinks Mitt Romney’s running mate Rep. Paul Ryan — whose
sculpted abs are thanks to intense P90X training sessions — would lose to the president in a workout battle.

“I think Obama could take him,” Van Duzer said, laughing. “Obama looked pretty fast and pretty quick on his feet.”

So is Van Duzer. For a guy who biked 1,148 miles in 31 days from Florida to Washington D.C., lifting Obama was a piece of cake — err, a slice of pizza. And Van Duzer says he wasn’t even warmed up.

“I don’t work out that much, man. Usually, it’s about two days per week. The bike ride was my big thing,” Van Duzer said. “I’m starting to go back to the gym right now. I need to start maintaining.” Read more from this story HERE.

Here’s the video of the “hug”:

Brad Pitt: “I don’t feel safe without a gun, it’s in my American DNA”

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The ‘Killing Them Softly’ actor is protective of his fiancee Angelina Jolie, and the children they raise – Maddox, 11, Pax, nine, Zahara, seven, Shiloh, six, and four-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne – and feels owning a weapon is ‘in his DNA’ as an American.

He told the Daily Mail’s Live magazine: ‘America is a country founded on guns. It’s in our DNA. It’s very strange but I feel better having a gun. I really do. I don’t feel safe, I don’t feel the house is completely safe, if I don’t have one hidden somewhere.

‘That’s my thinking, right or wrong.’

Brad, 48, points out how he was exposed to guns from an early age but still turned out to be a responsible adult.

He added: ‘I got my first BB gun when I was in nursery school. I got my first shotgun by first grade, I had shot a handgun by third grade and I grew up in a pretty sane environment.’

Read more from this story HERE.

God and Jerusalem-Page 2

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To the atheists among us this won’t mean much, but to every single Jewish or Christian man and woman in this country this should mean everything. Israel is the homeland for the Jewish people by God-given right. Obama does not and will never believe in it. Strike one. I also believe that America’s special and historic relationship with Israel has enabled it to become the greatest nation this planet has ever seen. Obama does not and will never believe that either. Strike two. And finally, and most importantly, Obama’s Democratic party took both God and Jerusalem off its platform. As if Obama and the “new” Democratic Party haven’t shown enough of their true colors during the past four years, this reinforced to America who they really are. All they had to do is take God and Jerusalem out. Strike three. And strike three it was this past Wednesday.

I know some of you would argue that at the very last moment Obama forced these two issues up the party’s throat which enabled the Democrats to claim God and Jerusalem are still part of their platform. Unfortunately for all you good Democrats, it is just too little, too late. We all now know and are aware of what you really think and believe. A last minute political maneuver to try and save your fate from the public’s wrath will not succeed. We all witnessed it live this past Wednesday.

For open minded and reasonable Christians and Jews, if strike three isn’t enough to make you reconsider and reevaluate your decision in November, nothing will. If your hatred towards Conservatives is greater than your faith and your common sense, I’m afraid nothing else I can say will change your mind. It’s been four years of the most corrupt administration in American history, the greatest debt we ever faced, extremely high unemployment, unprecedented gas prices, huge government growth and outrageous taxes. This of course is only a partial list of the chaos that has hit this country since Obama took office. If this is not enough to signal that something is incredibly wrong and should drastically change, I’m afraid we have crossed the point of no return.

I just hope that at least God (yes the same God Obama and the Democrats threw out of their lives, their convention and their platform), will not decide to give Obama another four years. I know I wouldn’t.

Video: Teleprompter Reveals that the Tampa Vote on Controversial Rules Change was Fixed?

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A GOP delegate took video of the convention teleprompter suggesting that the GOP hierarchy, even prior to hearing the “Aye’s” and “No’s”, had already decided the outcome of the vote on the controversial rules change.

Here’s a transcript of the rolling teleprompter, seen before the speaker spoke the words and before the vote was cast:

All those in favor signify by saying “aye.”

All those opposed say “No.”

In the opinion of the chair, the “ayes” have it and the resolution is adopted.

Click HERE for an excellent local Fox New’s Report on the vote.

Clint Eastwood makes Mitt’s Day (+video)-Page 2

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Transcript of Clint Eastwood’s Speech – Page 2 [see the video of his speech HERE]

OK, I thought maybe it was just because somebody had the stupid idea of trying terrorists in downtown New York City.

I’ve got to to hand it to you. I have to give credit where credit is due. You did finally overrule that finally. Now we are moving onward. I know you were against the war in Iraq, and that’s okay. But you thought the war in Afghanistan was OK. You know, I mean — you thought that was something worth doing. We didn’t check with the Russians to see how they did it — they did there for 10 years.

But we did it, and it is something to be thought about, and I think that, when we get to maybe — I think you’ve mentioned something about having a target date for bringing everybody home. You gave that target date, and I think Mr. Romney asked the only sensible question, you know, he says, “Why are you giving the date out now? Why don’t you just bring them home tomorrow morning?”

And I thought, I thought, yeah, I am not going to shut up, it is my turn.

So anyway, we’re going to have, we’re going to have to have a little chat about that. And then, I just wondered, all these promises; I wondered about when the, what do you want me to tell Romney? I can’t tell him to do that. I can’t tell him to do that to himself.

You’re crazy, you’re absolutely crazy. You’re getting as bad as Biden.

Of course we all now Biden is the intellect of the Democratic party.

Kind of a grin with a body behind it.

But I just think that there is so much to be done, and I think that Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan are two guys that can come along. See, I never thought it was a good idea for attorneys to the president, anyway.

I think attorneys are so busy, you know they’re always taught to argue everything, and always weight everything, weigh both sides. They are always devil’s advocating this and bifurcating this and bifurcating that. You know all that stuff. But, I think it is maybe time – what do you think – for maybe a businessman. How about that?

A stellar businessman. Quote, unquote, “a stellar businessman.”

And I think it’s that time. And I think if you just step aside and Mr. Romney can kind of take over. You can maybe still use a plane.

Though maybe a smaller one. Not that big gas guzzler you are going around to colleges and talking about student loans and stuff like that.

You are an — an ecological man. Why would you want to drive that around?

OK, well anyway. All right, I’m sorry. I can’t do that to myself either.

I would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we, we own this country. We, we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.

And, so, they are just going to come around and beg for votes every few years. It is the same old deal. But I just think it is important that you realize , that you’re the best in the world. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican or whether you’re libertarian or whatever, you are the best. And we should not ever forget that. And when we, when somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go.

OK, OK, OK just remember that. And I’m speaking out for everybody out there. It doesn’t hurt, we don’t have to be

[Audience member: “Make my day”]

I do not say that word anymore. Well, maybe one last time.

We don’t have to be — what I’m saying, we do not have to be meta-masochists and vote for somebody that we don’t really even want in office just because they seem to be nice guys or maybe not so nice guys, if you look at some of the recent ads going out there, I don’t know.

But OK. You want to make my day?

All right. I started, you finish it. Go ahead.

[Audience: “Make my day!”]

Thank you. Thank you very much.

See the video of Clint Eastwood’s speech HERE.

Eric Holder’s “Severe Mental Deficiency”

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You don’t have to have a severe intellectual disability to work at the Justice Department. But it helps.

According to a July 31 policy memo titled “Hiring of persons with targeted disabilities,” otherwise problematic mental deficiencies are no barrier to jump-starting a career at Justice. The memo lists a number of “targeted disabilities” that trigger special hiring privileges in compliance with President Obama’s Executive Order 13548. Among them are people with “severe intellectual disability,” “psychiatric disability” or other undefined “current severe physical, intellectual or mental conditions.” Most employers would balk at even minor mental disabilities in hiring a lawyer, let alone severe ones. But the policy states that the Cabinet department run by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. must “achieve a work force from all segments of society,” which includes those who are teetering on the edge of sanity.

Mr. Holder’s crazy new human-resources priority says it’s necessary to ensure that people with targeted disabilities “have equal employment opportunities.” It then goes into detail on all the ways in which they will be given special, exclusive treatment. The disabled are eligible for direct hiring in a “streamlined, non-competitive appointment” process that the policy lauds as a “win-win” for the department and the applicant. Of course, this preferential treatment is a lose-lose for the other, perhaps vastly more qualified applicants who were never let in the door, as well as for American taxpayers who cannot benefit from a superior level of public service.

Targeted mentally challenged individuals may be hired for unadvertised positions in a secret, closed-door process that otherwise would be strictly illegal. Standard requirements for prior work experience may be waived so that those who most need to prove they are up to the task don’t have to. Once hired, some of these special hires may have their privileged Schedule A appointments converted into career civil-service positions.

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Tampa Convention: Huckabee hits it out of the park-Page 2

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See the video of Huckabee’s speech at the 2012 GOP Tampa Convention HERE.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

Mitt Romney turned around companies that were on the skids. He turned around a scandal-ridden Olympics that was deep in the red into a high point of profit and patriotic pride. And he turned around a very liberal state when he erased the deficit and replaced it with a surplus. Do you remember when Barack Obama said that if he couldn’t turn things around in three years, it would be a one term proposition?

Well it’s been almost four years. I say let’s make him a proposition he can’t refuse. Let’s vote him out. I understand that the job of the president is admittedly tougher than running a company, an Olympic contest or a commonwealth. But when one sees what even Bill Clinton noted as a sterling record of problem-solving that has marked the life of Mitt Romney, we are confident that we will do better.

I am thrilled to say Mitt Romney has been loyal to his lovely wife who knocked it out of the park last night in this arena.

He’s been loyal to his sons, to his country, to his employees and to his church. Well I’m sure now that the press is going to tell you he isn’t perfect. Now my friends for the past four years, we’ve tried the one that the press thought was perfect and that hasn’t worked out all that well for us.

That’s why tonight I tell you, we can do better. Our founding fathers left taxation and tyranny seeking religious liberty and a society of meritocracy rather than aristocracy. What they created was a bold experiment in government believing that God gave us unalienable rights. And that the role of the government is simply to make sure that those rights are protected. So fearful were they that the government would grow beyond their intention, that even after crafting our magnificent Constitution, they said, we can do even better. They added amendments. We call them The Bill of Rights. Those Bill of Rights limit what the government can do and they guarantee what we, the people have the unimpeded right to do. Whether to speak, assemble, worship, pray, publish, or even refuse intrusions into our homes. Many of those founders died to pass on that heritage. They had lived under the boot of big government And what they said was, we can do better.

As a kid growing up in a household, my dad never finished high school. I grew up in a family in which no male upstream from me had ever finished high school, much less gone to college. But I was taught that even though there was nothing I could do about what was behind me, I could change everything about what was in front of me. My working poor parents told me that I could do better. They taught me that I was as good as anybody else. And it never occurred to them to tell me that I could just rest comfortably and wait for good old Uncle Sugar to feed me, lead me and then bleed me.

Read the next page of Gov. Huckabee’s speech HERE.

GOP Tampa Convention: Huckabee hits it out of the park-Page 3

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Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

They told me to get off my backside, work hard, take risks and treat people honestly and honorably. And look at me today. I have become as the press like to label me, a failed candidate. Oh, it’s true. I have fallen from the high perch of politics and now I wallow in the mud of the media. But I still know that as a country, we can do better. And with Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, we will do better.

I want to clear the air about something that has been said. People wonder whether guys like me, an evangelical, would only support a fellow evangelical? Well my friends I want to tell you something, of the four people on the two tickets, the only self-professed evangelical is Barack Obama. And he supports changing the definition of marriage. Believes that human life is disposable and expendable at any time in the wound, even beyond the womb. And he tells people of faith that they have to bow their knees to the God of government and violate their faith and conscience in order to comply with what he calls, health care. Friends I know we can do better.

Let me say it as clearly as possible, that the attack on my Catholic brothers and sisters is an attack on me. The Democrats have brought back that old dance, the limbo. To see how low they can go in attempting to limit our ability to practice our faith. But this isn’t a battle about contraceptives and Catholics, but about conscience and the Creator. Let me say to you tonight, I care far less as to where Mitt Romney takes his family to church, than I do about where he takes this country.

Joe Biden said, “Show me your budget and I’ll tell you what you value.” Well in the Senate Joe’s party hasn’t produced a budget in three years. What does that say about their values? And by the way, speaking of budgets, Joe Biden’s budget shows that while he wants to be very generous with your money through higher taxes and government spending, for years he gave less than two-tenths of one percent of his own money to charity. He just wants you to give the government more so he and the Democrats can feel better about themselves. Mitt Romney has given over 16 percent of his income to church and charity.

And my friend, I feel a lot better about having a president who will give generously of his own money instead of mine or yours.

My concern is not Barack Obama’s past, but my concern is for the future. Not his future, but for the future of my grandchildren, little Chandler and Scarlet. And under this president we have burdened each of them with tens of thousands of dollars of debt and a system that will collapse upon itself because he thinks that we can prosper by punishing productivity and rewarding reckless irresponsibility. The Democrats say we ought to give Barack Obama credit for trying. Folks that sounds like the nonsense of giving every kid a trophy for showing up.

Read the last page of Governor Huckabee’s speech HERE.

GOP Tampa Convention: Huckabee hits it out of the park-Page 4

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Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

Let’s be clear, we’re talking about leading the country. Not playing on a third grade soccer team. Look, I realize this is a man who got a Nobel Peace Prize for what he would potentially do. But in the real world, you get the prize for producing something, not just promising something.

Sometimes we get so close to the picture, we really can’t see it clearly. I’ve had the privilege of working with Bono for the past few years in the One Campaign to fight AIDS and hunger and disease around the world. Bono is an Irishman and a great humanitarian. And I remember him telling me of his admiration for America. He said, “America’s more than just a country. We are an idea.” And he reminded me that we are an exceptional nation with an extraordinary history who owes it to the generations who are coming after us to leave them with an extraordinary legacy. But if we don’t change the direction of our nation now, our bequest will be nothing but an extraordinary shame. But dear friends, we can do better.

President Obama is out of gas and Americans are out of patience. And our great republic is almost out of time. It’s time that we no longer lead from behind, but that we get off our behinds and leave something lasting for those who came after us instead of a mountain of debt and a pile of excuses. Tonight, it’s not because we’re Republicans, it’s because we are Americans that we proudly stand with Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan and we say, “We will do better.” God bless you. Thank you. God bless.

See the video of Huckabee’s speech at the 2012 GOP Tampa Convention HERE.

A Texas Delegate’s Report on the “Tampa Tempest in the Convention Hall”

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Photo credit: rcbodden

Briefly, there are items that have passed the powerful Rules committee that freedom loving Texans and activists of other states are attempting to roll back. In a nutshell, the most egregious of the Rules changes would give a presumptive presidential candidate veto power over duly elected States’ delegates, without even having to justify why. Grassroots are rightly outraged over this. Another one would consolidate huge amounts of additional Party power in the national Republican National Committee, which is frankly, dominated by smaller and more moderate states. Its membership operates, in essence, like a Senate but without a counterbalancing House.

While Texas delegates are unified against these measures, not all states are on board yet. Especially if you have activist contacts in other states (whether or not actually at the Convention in Tampa), please help spread the word that they should actively support a minority report that would roll back these rogue rule changes.

Below is a verified account from an Indiana delegate that describes the situation in more detail.

On Tues., the Convention Rules Committee will report the revised RNC Rules for adoption. A minority report will be presented to delete an amendment which has the effect of allowing Presidential candidates to select his bound delegates in all of the states he carried by allowing him to “disavow” any of them. They are then not certified as a delegate.

Here is the amendment to be deleted by the minority report with the disavowal language:

Add a new section 15(a) and replace as follows and renumber accordingly:

“(1) Any statewide presidential preference vote that permits a choice among candidates for the Republican nomination for president of the United states in a primary, caucuses, or a state convention must be used to allocate and bind the state’s delegation to the National Convention in either a proportional or winner-take-all manner, except for the delegates and alternate delegates who appear on a ballot in a statewide election and are elected directly by primary voters.”
(2) For any manner of binding or allocating delegates permitted by these Rules, no delegate or alternate delegate who is bound or allocated to a particular presidential candidate may be certified under Rule 19 if the presidential candidate to whom the delegate or alternate delegate is bound or allocated has, in consultation with the State Party, disavowed the delegate or alternate delegate.”
Add anew 15(e)(3) as follows:
“(e)(3) The Republican National Committee may grant a waiver to a state Republican Party from the provisions of 15(a) and (b) where compliance is impossible, and the Republican National Committee determines that granting such waiver is in the best interests of the Republican Party.”

This puts the candidate, not the state party, in control of who is a delegate from your state. By disavowing a delegate he is out, even though already legally elected. As a practical matter, no state party wants its delegates to be disavowed so they will make sure that all the delegates are agreed to by the winning candidate and the candidate will have the hammer to make sure that happens. As a result, the winning candidate controls the selection of delegates, not the state party. This is the biggest power grab in the history of the Republican Party because it shifts the power to select delegates from the state party to the candidate. And it would make the Republican Party a top down, not bottom up party.

Read more from this story HERE.