Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO Labor Day Rally, Monday, Sept. 3, 2012, in Detroit. (Credit: AP)

DETROIT (TheBlaze/AP) — Vice President Joe Biden had a simple Labor Day message for unionized workers: Stick with President Barack Obama because the other guys are worse.

Biden told about 3,500 supporters at an AFL-CIO Labor Day rally in Detroit Monday that “America is better off today than they left us when they left.” Unfortunately for American voters, temperatures were too high for Biden to go into detail.

“If it weren’t so hot – if it weren’t so hot, I’d go into detail but let me sum it up this way: You want to know whether we’re better off? I’ve got a little bumper sticker for you,” Biden said before chanting three times: “Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive.”

Watch some of Biden’s remarks here:

The VP also said that the Republican ticket of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would roll back collective bargaining rights, denigrate their work and undermine the slow economic recovery under way.

One of Obama’s top ambassadors to the working-class, Biden also sought with his remarks to keep a group of reliably Democratic voters motivated before an Election Day that is shaping up to be close.

“Romney and Ryan don’t think that much about you guys,” he said at the outdoor rally. “They view you, the working women and men of America as the problem. We view you as the solution. Look folks, we know who built this country and we know who is going to rebuild it. It’s you. Instead of vilifying you, we should be thanking you. We owe you.”

The Republican candidates supported measures to roll back collective bargaining rights for public union workers in Wisconsin and Ohio. Romney also has been critical of the National Labor Relations Board, accusing it of overstepping its role and suggesting it has become a proxy for Obama’s union allies.

Separately, a review of Romney’s economic proposals by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found that wealthier workers would benefit at the expense of the middle class, including many unionized workers.

All that has given Democrats an opening to appeal to populist elements in the party and, perhaps, distract from stubbornly high unemployment nationwide and in North Carolina, where Democrats open their convention Tuesday.

In response, Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg argued that the middle class has been “crushed” by high joblessness, fallen incomes and rising gas prices under Obama.

“Americans aren’t better off than they were four years ago, and they deserve a president who recognizes that,” she said.

Biden also faulted Romney for opposing the federal bailout of the U.S. auto industry, and criticized Ryan for saying Obama promised to save a GM plant in Ryan’s Janesville, Wis., hometown. The plant closed before Obama took office.

Biden said Romney‘s economic message doesn’t add up.

“Folks, you can‘t say you’re going to create jobs in the United States of America when you were willing to let 1 million jobs go under by the liquidation of the automobile plants he suggested,” the vice president said.

“Ladies and gentlemen, you, organized labor, are one of the reasons why this country is coming back. Folks, let me make something clear and say it to the press: America is better off today than they left us when they left.”

That line was a direct response to the argument the GOP will press during this Democratic convention week, that things are worse off now than they were four years ago when a Republican president left the White House.

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A 92-year-old World War II veteran shot and killed a suspected robber who attempted to break into his Kentucky home Monday morning. Two other men believed to be involved in the botched home invasion are lucky to have escaped with their lives and are now behind bars, WLWT reports.

According to police, 24-year-old Lloyd Maxwell broke into the elderly man’s basement after 2 a.m. and tried to enter the first floor of the home in Verona, Ky. The homeowner, identified as Earl Jones, said he was startled awake by the noise coming from his basement and grabbed his .22 caliber rifle and steadied his aim on the basement door as he heard the sound of footsteps creeping up the basement stairs.

When the intruder kicked in the door, Jones fired one fatal shot into Maxwell’s chest, police said. After firing the single shot, the homeowner called his neighbor, who then contacted the police.

By the time police arrived, the burglary suspect had gotten away. However, soon after arriving at Jones’ home, law enforcement in a nearby county received a call about a man who had been shot close by. Kenton County police responded to the call and found Maxwell dead inside a 2011 Chevrolet Impala with two other unharmed men.

The other two men were brought in for questioning by the Boone County Sheriff’s Office. During the interrogation, police say both men admitted to being involved in the bungled burglary at Jones’ home.

Ryan Dalton, 22 and Donnie Inabnit, 20, both of Dry Ridge, Ky., are charged with second-degree burglary (complicity) and tampering with physical evidence, WLWT reports.

Donnie Inabnit, 20. (Source: WPCO)

Ryan Dalton, 22. (Source: WPCO)

Jones will not face charges in the shooting.

Earl Jones, 92, killed a home intruder at his Kentucky home Monday morning. (Source: WPCO)

“Somebody got into the basement, this is a full basement and I was on the bed fixing to go to bed,” Jones told WPCO. “And I’m very sensitive, I was in the military, you have to have good ears. And I heard something just as I sat down, ‘clonk, clonk, clonk,‘ and I said well somebody is in the basement and he’s going to come upstairs. So I heard him when he was coming up the steps, I had the gun so I was sitting there when he opened the door.”

“As soon as he got inside, it was all over,” the veteran added.

Jones told officials that Monday morning’s incident was the third time his home has been broken into, WPCO reports. He said Monday morning’s incident should serve as a warning to any future robbers who want to target him.

“I’ve been robbed so much in the past five weeks, I said it’s going to have to be a message to the people. The only way you going to stop this is you have to leave one laying in the grass. That‘s the only way you’re [going to] stop it,”  Jones said.

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However, whatever the reaction to the speech, one piece of it has endured as a political image – namely, the sight of Mr. Eastwood speaking to an empty chair as though he were interviewing President Barack Obama. This image not only inspired most of the derision by the Left, including the obligatory accusation of racism, but now it has also managed to hijack Twitter on Labor Day, as conservative tweeters have rechristened the beloved union-inspired holiday “Empty Chair Day.” And to celebrate, they have tweeted pictures of empty chairs. Without stopping.

Below are the five best pictures of empty chairs posted by these practical jokesters:

#5. President Obama pays a visit

Photo Credit: Instagram

#4. The incredible bowing chair

Photo Credit: Twitter

#3. President Obama on Mount Rushmore

Photo Credit: Twitter

#2. The faded poster meets the empty chair

Photo Credit: Gary Spencer

#1. Karl Marx meets President Obama

Photo Credit: Twitchy

Bonus: The empty chair as a poster

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(Image: Wikipedia)

Although the U.S. District Court of Appeals may have denied the Electronic Privacy Information‘s Center’s case to outlaw the use of the Transportation Security Administration’s Advanced Imaging Technology – colloquially called the “nude-body scanners” — in 2011, it did however rule TSA must make its rules and regulations for use of the scanners subject to public comment.

The controversial backscatter X-ray machines have been argued by some to violate personal privacy.

Wired writes the agency was in violation of federal law for not holding a 90-day public comment period in the first place and was ordered by the court to “act promptly” in hosting one. It still hasn’t held this comment period, but in a response to the court published on Thursday, TSA states it will open the floor to public comments in Feb. 2013. It also defends itself saying there is “no basis whatsoever [... to assert] that TSA has delayed implementing the court’s mandate.” The court asked it to explain the delay earlier this month.

TSA notes it has “passed the first major milestone” in implementing this process — submitting documents for approval to the Department of Homeland Security. It also cites “significant personnel loss.” For these and a couple other reasons, TSA states:

Thus, there has been no unreasonable delay in complying with this Court’s mandate, much less the type of egregious delay that would warrant exercise of the Court’s mandamus powers. Further, while simultaneously expediting the initiation of a notice-and-comment period regarding its AIT program, TSA has taken substantial steps to address the privacy concerns discussed in the Court’s opinion.

The TSA also says the agency itself has waited for two and a half years for approval from DHS to host a comment period. It writes that in calling out the agency for a delay, the court reveals that it does not have accurate knowledge as to how long it takes to organize such an initiative.

“[The] petitioner’s repeated mandamus petitions reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of notice and-comment rulemaking and the time and resources required to develop a proposed rule. Petitioner has demonstrated no basis whatsoever for its demand for ‘a writ of mandamus directing the Secretary to undertake a public rulemaking within 60 days,’ or, alternatively, an order vacating ‘the [AIT] program.’”

With all this, Wired explains the agency will hold public comments and hearings on the Advanced Imaging Technology 19 months after it was ordered to do so.

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The stringent ID rules for journalists at the Democrat Party‘s convention seem a bit odd considering the party’s broad, alarmist stance on voter ID laws. The ID laws have drawn harsh criticism from the liberal establishment, including Vice President Joe Biden who has called the practice “voter suppression” and MSNBC hosts who’ve called the laws “racist” and “a GOP conspiracy.”

But for some reason, ID rules aren’t racist when it comes to security at the Democrat National Convention.

Here are the three times photo ID’s were required:

1. Security Entrance

2. When Receiving Press Credentials

3. When Receiving Credentials For The Final Night Events

The DNC Press Credential packet itself states that two official forms of ID are necessary for admittance:

And to receive a credential in the first place, journalists must submit plenty of personal information:

By using the left’s arguments against voter ID laws, can it be said that the DNC is racially suppressing reporters?

This story has been updated.

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What starts off as trash-talking quickly snowballs into a brawl of about a dozen people with violent punches being thrown and one woman even jumping onto someone’s back.

Watch the scene [Warning! Strong language and violent content]:

KHOU reports that those who have seen the footage say they are stunned security didn’t break up the fight sooner. Others say this type of behavior among fans shouldn’t occur in the first place:

“They need to make security better here at Reliant. You never know what’s going to happen,” said Ashley Banks.

Some passed judgment, wondering why the fight wasn’t broken up sooner. Others acknowledged how difficult it must be to deal with unruly fans.

“I think people have to keep themselves under control. The stadium can’t do everything,” said Nyisha.

KHOU states it is unclear what action, if any, has been taken against those involved in the incident.

(H/T: Deadspin). This story has been updated.

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President Barack Obama delivers remarks in the Rose Garden of the White House in this file photo. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Between conservatives focusing all their attention on the successes/failures of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., and the left having a meltdown over the supposed “racism” and unprecedented disrespect of Clint Eastwood’s “Empty Chair” routine, little attention has been given to an executive order issued last Thursday by President Barack Obama that targets industrial “efficiency” and carbon emissions.

“Today, we are taking another step to strengthen American manufacturing by boosting energy efficiency for businesses across the nation,” said President Obama.

“This action will cut costs, increase efficiency, and help our businesses create strong, middle class jobs.  We’ll continue to do everything we can to put more people back to work and build an economy that lasts,” he added.

The order, which aims to increase the number of cogeneration plants in the U.S. by 50 percent by 2020 and slash carbon emissions by 150 million tons per year, is the administration’s latest effort to “deploy cleaner and more efficient energy production in the country by working around political resistance to climate change and ‘green’ energy legislation on Capitol Hill,” Reuters reports.

“The Federal Government has limited but important authorities to overcome … barriers, and our efforts to support investment in industrial energy efficiency and CHP [Combined heat and power] should involve coordinated engagement with a broad set of stakeholders,” the order says.

Translation: If duly elected representatives of the people get in the way of “climate change” (formerly known as “global warming,“ formerly known as ”global cooling”) legislation, work around them.

“The man is legislating by presidential fiat!” conservative author and radio show host Mark Levin said Friday. “This is unconstitutional.”

The order dictates that the Departments of Energy, Commerce, and Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency coordinate their actions to provide “policy and technical assistance” to states in order to ensure energy efficiency targets are being met.

What could possibly go wrong?

The order also “establishes a new national goal of 40 gigawatts of new combined heat and power capacity by 2020, a 50% increase from today,” according to a statement from the White House.

“Meeting this goal would save energy users $10 billion per year, result in $40 to $80 billion in new capital investment in manufacturing and other facilities that would create American jobs, and would reduce emissions equivalent to 25 million cars,” the statement adds.

Sure, it sounds nice and (like most things in this administration) it promises a great return on investment, but are there any possible downsides to this executive order?

“This is a fiat from on high for these utilities to change the way they process energy — an enormous capital expense and many of them are going to close down,” Levin argued. “And they only have eight years to do it as part of this ‘cap-and-trade,‘ ’green’ energy, ‘climate change’ bull crap.”

“You’re going to see your bills go up, up, and up some more. And you’re going to see brownouts and one day blackouts,” he added.

But more than the possible economic burden the order may cause, Levin takes umbrage with the fact that the president keeps issuing these types of orders.

“The fact of the matter is he doesn’t have the power to mandate this. We don’t have a king who decides, ‘you know what? You utilities, this is how you’re going to process energy.’ Imperial president! … [T]he very nature of our government, our very constitution is under attack,” Levin said Friday.

Read the full order here.

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Front page photo source courtesy the AP.

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Vice President Joe Biden (Photo: AP/Mark Stahl)

DETROIT (TheBlaze/AP) — The Secret Service says a truck rented to carry equipment for Vice President Joe Biden’s Labor Day visit to Detroit was stolen outside a downtown Detroit hotel.

Agency spokesman Ed Donovan told The Detroit News that the U-Haul truck was stolen outside the Westin Book Cadillac hotel early Sunday. Donovan says the truck had equipment but no weapons.

Donovan says the theft won‘t affect Biden’s Labor day plans.

Biden is addressing a union rally Monday to mark Labor Day. The rally site is near the hotel.

Detroit police spokeswoman Sgt. Eren Stephens says its officers are searching for the van that has an Arizona scene painted on it and Arizona plates.

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(Image: News 10 screenshot)

Stepping up to the front of airport security, you hand over your ticket and passport. An agent reviews where you’re going and the validity of your identification — or so one would hope.

A California woman had a heart-stopping moment after she had already traveled to Europe from the U.S. and found her passport had expired. ABC News 10 reports Vicki Albright’s passport was seen at the United Airlines ticket counter and by TSA agents in San Francisco. It was stamped in Frankfurt, Germany, too.

It wasn’t until Albright was in Italy that she realized her documentation was expired:

“I quickly went to the US consulate where officials were clearly stunned I had gotten so far on an expired travel document, I said ‘it’s a mystery to me too,’” Albright said.

News 10 reports Albright being issued a valid passport in Italy before she returned to the United States.

Still, the incident concerns Albright.

“I’m just one traveler but you have to wonder who else is getting through?” she said.

News 10 reports the Department of Homeland Security saying it is investigating the incident.

Watch the report:

(H/T: The Consumerist)

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Broadcasting from Charlotte, N.C., where the Democratic National Convention kicks off today, CNN‘s John Berman asked Woodhouse what many Democratic operatives were asked on yesterday’s talk shows: “Are we better off today than we were four years ago?”

“Absolutely,” Woodhouse said. “[Vice President] Joe Biden does it in a very short form. He talks about G.M. is alive and Osama bin Laden is dead. The truth is though is that the American people know. I mean, we were literally a plane that was heading — the trajectory was towards the ground when the president took over. He got the stick, he’s pulled us up out of that decline.”

Woodhouse continued, “We were losing 800,000 jobs a month. Lost 3.5 millions, Americans I know have not forgotten, we lost 3.5 million jobs in the last six months of the Bush administration. We gained 4.5 million jobs over the past two and a half years. So if you just put those side by side, clearly we’re better off. However, we have a long way to go.”

Woodhouse’s comments contradict what Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) said yesterday on CBS’ Face the Nation. When asked the same question, O’Malley said no, Americans were not better off. He went on, however, to say the question is irrelevant this election.

“The question, without a doubt, we are not as well off as we were before George Bush brought us the Bush job losses, the Bush recession, the Bush deficits, the series of desert wars charged for the first time to the national credit card,” he said. O’Malley amended his comment later on CNN today, echoing Woodhouse. “[The United States is] clearly better off as a country because we are now creating jobs rather than losing them,” O’Malley said.

Watch the segment with Woodhouse via CNN:

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That begs the question: Do the Democrats have a similar surprise guest waiting in the wings? As of Monday morning, the answer to that question is NO. However, there appears to be a campaign to draft 90-year-old actress and Obama supporter, Betty White to address the convention. Ms. White has previously appeared in a video supporting the president’s jobs initiative.

Change.org is pushing an online petition to get Ms. White on the schedule. They would like her to introduce Mr. Obama on Thursday night. The electronic letter reads:

Greetings,
I just signed the following petition addressed to: the democratic party.
—————-
Clint Eastwood, the Republican’s “mystery guest” at the RNC, gave a bad name to older Americans everywhere with his absurd and awkward-to-watch introduction of Governor Romney.

You know what?

Governor Romney can have Clint Eastwood and his improvisational skills because President Obama has the one and only Betty White!
Take action today if you want to see a real [old] Hollywood icon get a political introduction right!
—————-

Sincerely,

[Your name]

The petition is not exactly setting the world on fire. A little more than 2,600 people had electronically “signed” it when TheBlaze checked Monday morning. However, there appears to be some momentum building on a Facebook page dedicated to drafting Betty White for the DNC.

Credit: Facebook

Nearly 20,000 people “like” this idea and more than 55,000 are talking about it. Could it happen? As we learned with Clint Eastwood, anything is possible at political conventions.

Will it happen? And, if White is added to the considerable list of speakers, where will she appear? Some media experts thought that the proximity of Eastwood‘s address to that of Mitt Romney’s was not wise and may have grabbed some of the spotlight away from the candidate. Others thought it to be a welcome contrast to the usual serious tone of the GOP.

Given the considerable list of scheduled speakers for the convention, is there even room for the seven-time Emmy winner?

Here are those on the schedule:

Tuesday:

• Former President Jimmy Carter (on video)
• First Lady Michelle Obama
• San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro

Wednesday:

• Former President Bill Clinton — delivering the nominating speech
• MA Senate Candidate Elizabeth Warren

Thursday:

• President Obama & Vice President Biden accept the nomination

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(Photo: Shutterstock.com)

Louis Janeira, an emergency room doctor in Indiana, and nurses were baffled when a patient was brought in carried by her heels, upside down.

Janeira recounts this as one of the most curious cases he has come across in the ER for Discover Magazine, stating the woman’s husband — who is described as seven-foot tall giant — refused to set her right side up:

“Put her down now!” I recognized the stern voice of Herb, one of our security guards.

“Get a stretcher, stat,” said Ellie, the head nurse.

“You’re hurting her,” a woman yelled.

I ran to the ambulance bay, rounded a corner, and saw a huge man, seven-foot-something, holding a petite woman, maybe five feet tall, by her feet, her head dangling down. “I have to hold her this way,” the man insisted.

“I’m fine,” said the woman through her dangling long black hair. “I feel OK now.”

[...]

“So you’re conscious upside down but not right side up?” Janeira recalls asking.

It turns out the woman, who Janeira calls Mary, had been in the hospital a day before with a dangerously slow heartbeat. Needing to conduct a series of tests on Mary, Janeira and his staff insisted they had to lay her down, against the wishes of her husband. Within just a few minutes of laying Mary down for tests, she began to faint and her heart rate faltered. The second her husband held her upside down though, the monitor registering her heartbeat began to beep normally again.

“I’m back,” Janeira remembers Mary saying.

Then it clicked for Janeira what was going on. A piece of Mary’s pacemaker became dislodged and when she was held upside down it reconnected:

“The pacemaker lead, the wire going from the pacemaker generator to your right ventricle, must have disconnected. Your coughing spell could have done it,” I said. “Somehow, the lead reconnects when you are upside down and continues to stimulate the heart.”

Janeira explains that Mary was taken to the electrophysiology lab – by her ankles — to have this piece fixed, leaving him and the rest of the ER staff baffled at what they had just seen. But, the next day, Janeria says he heard a familiar voice. Mary had returned, standing on her own two feet, saying he was right in his diagnosis and she was “all fixed up.”

Be sure to check out Janeira’s full narrative here.

(H/T: Gizmodo)

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Pakistani rescuers inspect the badly damaged US consulate vehicle at a bomb blast site in Peshawar. (Photo: A Majeed/AFP/GettyImages)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (TheBlaze/AP) — A suicide bomber rammed a car filled with explosives into a U.S. government vehicle in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing two Pakistanis and wounding 19 others including two Americans, officials said.

The attack in the city of Peshawar was a vivid reminder of the danger U.S. officials face while working in Pakistan, especially in the country’s northwest where Taliban and al-Qaida militants are strongest. Insurgents have carried out scores of bombings in Peshawar in recent years, but attacks against American targets have been relatively rare because of the extensive security measures taken by the U.S. government.

Watch the report:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is on an Asian tour, released this statement condemning the bomber:

The bomber struck the armored vehicle after it left the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar and as it was traveling through an area of the city that hosts various international organizations, including the United Nations, said police officer Pervez Khan, who was part of the security escort for the vehicle as it moved.

The attack killed two Pakistanis and wounded 19 other people, said senior police officer Javed Khan.

Two Americans and two Pakistanis working at the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar were among the wounded, said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, who called the attack a “heinous act.”

The wounds to the Americans were not life-threatening, a U.S. Embassy official said on condition of anonymity because the information had not been officially released.

The charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy, Richard Hoagland, praised Pakistani security forces for saving the lives of the four consulate employees.

“In this dangerous world where terrorists can strike at any moment, we must all work together – Pakistanis and Americans alike – because we have a strong mutual interest in defeating terrorism,” he said.

The car driven by the suicide bomber contained 110 kilograms (240 pounds) of explosives, Pakistani police officer Abdul Haq said.

The blast ripped apart the SUV carrying the U.S. Consulate employees and triggered a raging fire. Rescue workers and local residents rushed to put out the fire and pull away the dead and wounded. All that was left of the SUV in the end was a carcass of blackened, twisted metal.

The driver of the vehicle that was attacked, Atif Nawaz, said the force of the blast knocked him out.

“When I came to my senses, I jumped out of my car and screamed, `What happened?’” said Nawaz, whose face and hands were badly burned. “An American was also with me in my car at the time, and I don’t know what happened to him.”

Irfan Khan, a local resident, said he was at a nearby shop when the blast occurred. “I quickly looked back in panic to see smoke and dust erupt from the scene,” he said. “I ran toward the scene along with others and saw two vehicles destroyed and the larger vehicle on fire.”

One dead person was on the ground near the SUV, and a foreigner was injured, said Khan.

“We put the injured man and the dead body in a private vehicle,” said Khan. “There were more injured in the surrounding area too.”

Another eyewitness, Wajid Ali, said he helped put another seriously wounded foreigner into the vehicle.

But another vehicle arrived, presumably from the U.S. Consulate, and took away the wounded foreigners, said Javed Khan, the police officer. Some of the policemen escorting the U.S. vehicle were also wounded in the attack and their vehicle was damaged, he said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion will fall on Taliban and al-Qaida militants who have long had their sights set on the United States. American drones have fired scores of missiles at the militants’ hideouts in Pakistan in recent years, and Washington has given the Pakistani military billions of dollars to fight the extremists.

Islamist militants have targeted American assets in Peshawar, which is located some 135 kilometers (85 miles) from the capital of Islamabad, on several occasions in recent years.

They unleashed a car bomb and grenade attack against the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar in April 2010 that killed four Pakistanis, including three security personnel and a civilian. In August 2008, the top U.S. diplomat at the consulate survived a gun attack on her armored vehicle. Three months later, gunmen shot and killed an American in Peshawar as he was traveling to work for a U.S.-funded aid program in the region.

Despite the danger, Peshawar has long been a vital hub for U.S. interests in the region. It is the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and is located on the border of Pakistan’s semiautonomous tribal region, the main sanctuary for Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the country.

Much of the funding that was handed to Afghans fighting Soviet rule in neighboring Afghanistan in the 1980s was channeled through Peshawar. The city’s proximity to the tribal region made it a vital place for American officials to be based following the attacks in the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, that triggered the invasion of Afghanistan. Many militants have used the tribal region as a base to attack U.S.-led forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

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Slate writer Dave Weigel captured a picture of the iconic scripture plastered over an image of Obama and his birth certificate. The picture is the August “centerfold” so to speak, since Obama’s birthday is August 4th, and starts with the words “Heaven sent”:

(Dave Weigel/Slate)

So what is the calendar? It’s called the “Keep the Dream” calendar by James Hickman. Here he is outside Tyler Perry’s studio in March:

We could explain, but we’ll let him:

Still unsure? The calendar’s website explains:

Inspired by his dedication to excellence and deep commitment to the education of African American people, James Hickman begins his newest 2013 sixteen month calendar. With its beautifully designed cover, it remains versatile enough to use for office, school classroom, library reference, or Home.  The predecessor to this innovative product was the “2009 Barack Obama-It’s Been A Long Time Coming” wall calendar that sold over 1 million copies bring widely acclaimed as the hottest, best selling calendar.

Keep The Dream calendar is packed with “well known” and “little known” African American History facts that can be used for a small dose of daily, personal inspirations, it can also be used as a daily treasure trove of impact African American History facts plus the “HBUC” that you can share with friends and loved ones.

And don’t worry, there’s another video that thumbs through the calendar:

“To be clear this is not official campaign merchandise,” the Weekly Standard notes, “but it pretty clearly speaks to the fact the Obama cult of personality is going strong.”

In case you’re wondering, the calendar is currently on sale for $10.

(H/T: Weekly Standard via Hot Air)

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Vice President Joe Biden addresses a campaign rally Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2012, in Rochester, Minn. (Credit: AP)

Heilemann, of course, got some jabs in at conservatives, calling the response to Biden’s “put ya’ll back in chains“ remarks ”a flaming freak-show conflagration.“ He also wrote that ”an array of conservative ­ultra-Caucasians” accused Biden of “race-baiting.” Regardless, the comments coming from the vice-president, as reported by Heilmann, are fascinating.

While Biden was originally quiet in the wake of the incident, he had plenty to say in his recent interview with the magazine. In an effort to dismiss the critiques waged against him, Biden said that his words were nothing new, nor were they intended to offend. In fact, similar language, he maintains, has been used by Republicans.

Credit: FILE

“Look, I’ve been saying that exact same thing since [John] Boehner made his speech … where he used the phrase that you’ve gotta unshackle the economy, unshackle Wall Street,” Biden said. “You got a whole bunch of examples of where I said, ‘The last time these guys unshackled the economy, they put the middle class in shackles—they shackled you’ … It’s the exact same thing Romney’s talking about: first, being able to do away with Dodd-Frank, and, man, if that happens again, the middle class is gonna get screwed.

Biden maintains that he treats African Americans no differently than he does any other audience and that his language wasn’t particularly geared towards the black community. Also, he said that he has “a better relationship with the black audience than anybody you know” and that he doesn’t think blacks who heard the speech thought that he was saying Romney would literally put African Americans back in chains.

Vice President Joe Biden addresses the national convention of the American Federation of Teachers in Detroit, Sunday, July 29, 2012. (Credit: AP)

Biden said that the entire controversy was manufactured to help Romney’s campaign and that it was a move being taken out of “desperation.” Of Ryan’s candidacy, the vice-president said that “it didn’t go so well or they wouldn’t be looking for this whole thing.”

In the end, Biden told New York Magazine that his comments won’t impact voters. Read the rest of the feature on Biden here.

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US President Barack Obama walks with senior adviser Valerie Jarrett in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois on June 2, 2012. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

On Sunday, the New York Times released a fascinating profile of Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. While there are some details that are not new, there is plenty that is new or that at least seems to confirm what used to be categorized as rumor. Below, we’ve excerpted some of the best nuggets. [All subsequent emphasis added.]

1. Obama’s chief of staff during the contraception mandate, Bill Daley, admits it was Jarrett who was behind the whole thing. He was also left out of the loop:

Worried about the political and legal implications, the chief of staff, William M. Daley, reached out to the proposal’s author, Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary. How, he wondered, had the White House been put in this situation with so little presidential input? “You are way out there on a limb on this,” he recalls telling her.“It was then made clear to me that, no, there were senior White House officials who had been involved and supported this,” said Mr. Daley, who left his post early this year.

What he did not realize was that while he was trying to put out what he considered a fire, the person fanning the flames was sitting just one flight up from him: Valerie Jarrett, the Obamas’ first friend, the proposal’s chief patron and a tenacious White House operator who would ultimately outmaneuver not only Mr. Daley but also the vice president in her effort to include the broadest possible contraception coverage in the administration’s health care overhaul.

2. When Warren Buffett recently showed up for a private lunch with Obama, Jarrett made sure she had a seat at the table — literally:

Yet if that answer remains elusive, interviews with more than two dozen former and current administration officials offer a portrait of a woman wielding a many-faceted portfolio of power.

Partly it is her ubiquity, the guiding hand in everything from who sits on the Supreme Court to who sits next to whom at state dinners, the White House staff memos peppered with “VJ thinks” or “VJ says.” When the billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett showed up for a private lunch with the president last July, the table was set for three.

Ms. Jarrett often serves as a counterweight to the more centrist Clinton veterans in the administration, reminding them and her innately cautious boss that he came to Washington to do big things. Some of his boldest moves, on women’s issues, gay rights and immigration, have been in areas she cares about most. If Karl Rove was known as George W. Bush’s political brain, Ms. Jarrett is Mr. Obama’s spine.

President Barack Obama, center, heads to the West Wing of the White House in Washington with Senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, left, and White House Chief of Staff Jacob Lew, right, after returning from a groundbreaking ceremony, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012. Credit: AP

3. We’ve heard this before, but the Times confirms that Jarrett often follows Obama to his private residence:

But few have had the stature — and the ability to step outside traditional White House protocol — of Ms. Jarrett. She is the only staff member who regularly follows the president home from the West Wing to the residence, a practice that has earned her the nickname “the Night Stalker.” By day, Mr. Obama is “Mr. President” to her, but in social settings, he is just “Barack.” When the Obamas take an out-of-town break, she often goes along.

4. Guess who was the one Obama was consulting after America’s credit rating was downgraded?

After a ratings agency downgraded the nation’s debt last year, it was not the Treasury secretary at the president’s side, helping map out how to manage the market’s reaction. According to a participant in the discussion, it was Ms. Jarrett, who had joined Mr. Obama and a few close friends at Camp David for his birthday.

5. She’s smart, but can be assuming and arrogant. In fact, she once asked a general to fill her drink order:

Ms. Jarrett cuts an elegant figure in the West Wing, with her pixie haircut and designer clothes. Aides say she can be thoughtful in little ways that matter, enlisting the president to rally staff members after political or personal setbacks. But she can also be imperious — at one event ordering a drink from a four-star general she mistook for a waiter — and attached to the trappings of power in a way some in the White House consider unseemly for a member of the staff.

6. Did you know she has a Secret Service detail of her own?

A case in point is her full-time Secret Service detail. The White House refuses to disclose the number of agents or their cost, citing security concerns. But the appearance so worried some aides that two were dispatched to urge her to give the detail up.

She listened politely, one said, but the agents stayed.

7. Condoleeza Rice sends Obama foreign policy thoughts via Jarrett:

Working from a cozy office previously occupied by Mr. Rove, with a staff of nearly three dozen, Ms. Jarrett is the president’s link to the world outside the White House bubble.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice occasionally uses Ms. Jarrett, with whom she has become friendly, as an informal back channel to pass along foreign policy views, officials said.

President Barack Obama, center, huddles with Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, right, and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, in a Secret Service limousine as he departs Dulles International Airport, in Sterling, Va., Thursday, Aug. 2, 2012. Credit: AP

8. She has snubbed George Soros this election:

Less well known is her testy relationship with certain elements of the president’s base.

She serves as the front door to the donors who helped elect the president, reviewing guest lists to White House parties and candidates for patronage positions. But she has snubbed some early supporters, among them the financier George Soros, ignoring his pleas for a substantive meeting on the economy with the president. The message she delivered, according to one person familiar with the exchanges, was that she felt Mr. Soros was “already on the team, and that while he might want to talk to the captain, the captain was very busy.”

Mr. Soros, who has spent tens of millions of dollars on Democratic candidates and causes, is largely sitting on the sidelines this presidential election.

9. She was “livid” with Prof. Cornel West for criticizing Obama’s black outreach — so much so he says she started spreading rumors about him:

Ms. Jarrett was similarly “livid,” one former White House official said, with members of the Congressional Black Caucus who accused the president of paying insufficient attention to the particular economic woes of blacks. When the writer and academic Cornel West joined in, calling Mr. Obama the “black mascot of Wall Street,” Ms. Jarrett’s response was “ruthless,” Dr. West said.

He recalled a phone call in which she dismissed his criticism as sour grapes for not receiving a ticket to the inauguration, and said he later heard from friends that she was putting out the word that “one, I was crazy, and two, I was un-American.”

“It was a matter of letting me know that I was, in her view, way out of line and that I needed to get in line,” he said in an interview. “I conveyed to her: ‘I’m not that kind of Negro. I’m a Jesus-loving black man who tells the truth, in the White House, in the crack house or in any other house.’ She got real quiet. It was clear that she was not used to being spoken to that way.”

10. And finally, she‘s been the one consistently behind some of the president’s most controversial policies, including repealing “don‘t ask don’t tell” and fighting Arizona’s immigration law:

Gay rights advocates say they considered Ms. Jarrett their “secret weapon” in the White House on issues like repealing the military’s policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” And while aides said Mr. Obama found his own way toward supporting same-sex marriage, Ms. Jarrett “reinforced his instincts,” Mr. Axelrod said. This is consistent with who you are, she told the president.

On immigration, Ms. Jarrett successfully urged the president to stop deporting certain illegal residents who arrived as children. And while some of his advisers worried about the political perils of legally challenging Arizona’s tough immigration law, Ms. Jarrett argued that its central provision — requiring the police to check the immigration status of people taken into custody — amounted to racial profiling, a civil rights issue “right in the president’s wheelhouse,” recalled Pete Rouse, another senior Obama adviser. (Ultimately, the Supreme Court upheld that provision, but struck down most of the law.)

While these are some of the most interesting points, the Times weaves it together into a compelling narrative. It’s worth a read. It makes Karl Rove and Dick Cheney — often portrayed as the sinister puppet masters behind George W. Bush — look like summer interns compared to Jarrett.

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Bill Nye (Photo Credit: Big Think)

Scientist Bill Nye captured headlines last week after he lambasted creationists and proclaimed that teaching evolution is damaging to both children and society. Now, just days after Nye’s controversial Big Think video making these proclamations reached millions, Answers in Genesis (AiG), the Christian ministry behind the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, has responded with a clip of its own.

In an article entitled, ”Time is Nye for a Rebuttal,” Ken Ham, CEO of AiG, tackled Nye’s claims and announced the publication of the counter-video. Of particular note, the Christian ministry leader took offense at the scientist’s purported claim that those who teach creationism are, in a sense, “abusing” children.

“A recent tactic by evolutionists in their battle against creationists, one that is especially used by Richard Dawkins, is to employ an ad hominem argument—that creationists are committing a form of ‘child abuse’ when they teach creation to children,” Ham contended.

Bill Nye (Photo Credit: Big Think)

So, to counter Nye, AiG employed the knowledge of two PhD scientists who embrace creationism — Dr. David Menton and Dr. Georgia Purdom, both on staff with the Creation Museum. In the anti-Nye clip, Purdom makes the argument that children should be exposed to both creationism and evolution, not one or the other, exclusively.

“[Bill Nye] might be interested to know I also teach my young daughter about evolution and I know many Christian parents who do the same,” she said. “Children should be exposed to both ideas concerning our past.”

As for Nye’s claim that creationism makes the world “fantastically complicated,” Menton flatly denied this accusation and took the opportunity to lambaste evolution’s theoretical constructs.

“I would argue the world becomes fantastically complicated if one believes in evolution,” Menton said. “You see, in evolution you have to look at the hummingbird feeding at your feeder and assume that all of its parts have somehow come together by random, purposeless chance combined with natural selection — which is nothing more than deferential reproduction.”

Watch the intriguing video, below:

With the debate over creationism and evolution continuing to rage, it’s not likely to simmer any time in the near future. In June, TheBlaze reported that 46 percent of Americans still embrace creationism, 32 percent believe in evolution guided by God — and 15 percent contend that God played no role in the evolutionary process.

–

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1932: Amid the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt invents the tradition of the nominee coming to the convention to accept the nomination with a speech, instead of waiting for a formal ceremony weeks later. “I pledge myself to a New Deal for the American people,” he says.

This is a photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt taken on Jan. 19, 1937. (AP Photo)

1948: Minneapolis Mayor Hubert Humphrey declares it’s time to “get out of the shadow of states’ rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.” When support for civil rights is added to the party platform, Mississippi‘s delegates and half of Alabama’s walk out.

FILE - In this July 14, 1948, file photo, Mayor Hubert H. Humphrey of Minneapolis wears a Truman button as he addresses the Democratic National Convention at Philadelphia. (AP Photo/File)

1964: Delegates stand in tearful silence as Robert Kennedy quotes Shakespeare in tribute to his slain brother, President John F. Kennedy: “When he shall die, take him and cut him out into stars, and he shall make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun.”

FILE - In this Aug. 28, 1964, file photo, Sen. Robert Kennedy stands before the delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, N.J. (AP Photo)

1968: Vietnam War protesters are met with tear gas and billy clubs, leading a convention speaker to denounce “Gestapo tactics on the streets of Chicago.” Inside the convention hall, anti-war delegates engage in shouting matches with supporters of Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who wins the nomination. His televised speech is intercut with scenes of the melee outside.

This photo shows Chicago policemen with nightsticks in hand confronting a demonstrator on the ground in Grant Park, Chicago, on August 26, 1968. The police force converged at Grant Park when protesters opposing the Vietnam War climbed on the statue of civil war Gen. John Logan. (AP Photo)

1980: When Ted Kennedy’s challenge to President Jimmy Carter falls short, he concedes with a defiant note: “The cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die.” In 2008, stricken by incurable brain cancer, Kennedy will echo these words as he passes the torch to Barack Obama: “The work begins anew, the hope rises again and the dream lives on.”

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From the report by the well-connected diplomatic correspondent Shimon Schiffer [translated via hard copy by TheBlaze in Israel]:

The message that the U.S. conveyed to Iran via the most sensitive secret channels is unequivocal: if Israel attacks, we won’t stand behind her and we won’t be drawn into war.

In recent days, senior American administration officials turned to their Iranian counterparts via two countries in Europe which act as a back-channel during times of crisis. They made clear to the Iranians that the U.S. does not intend to be sucked into a campaign if Israel decides to strike unilaterally and without advance coordination [with the U.S.], and they said that they expect from Iran that it will not attack strategic American targets in the Persian Gulf. That means, among other things, Army bases, Navy ships and aircraft carriers sailing in the region.

Israeli outlet Yediot Ahronot shows strategic U.S. military installments in the Middle East.

Accompanying the article, the newspaper created a graphic map (pictured above) of various U.S. assets in the region including troops in Afghanistan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia as well as U.S. vessels in the Gulf.

The secret contacts with the Iranians combined with a public statement last week by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey that he won’t be “complicit” in an Israeli attack is being interpreted in Israel as a message from the U.S. that the Jewish state is on its own in stopping Iran from obtaining a doomsday weapon with which to threaten the very existence of Israel. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Iranian leaders have articulated a desire to wipe Israel off the map. Schiffer writes:

Israeli sources point to the unprecedented low-point in relations between the U.S. and Israeli defense establishments. It appears that the Obama administration decided to warn decision-makers in Israel of the destructive results of an attack without coordinating with the U.S. […]

If true, the report begs the question: If he truly wants to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability, why is President Obama investing in secret contacts with Iran about an Israeli strike aimed at destroying – or at least setting back – the nuclear program? Wouldn’t his efforts be better focused on warning Ahmadinejad of the dire consequences of his apparently accelerated efforts at one day possessing a military nuclear capability?

The Wall Street Journal may have an answer in an editorial this weekend. Though President Obama likes to say he has Israel’s “back,” “his Administration tries to sell to the public a make-believe world in which Iran’s nuclear intentions are potentially peaceful, sanctions are working and diplomacy hasn’t failed after three and half years.”

Also on Monday, The New York Times reported that President Obama is trying to find non-military ways to stall an Israeli attack and restrain Iran’s nuclear march, including naval exercises and new antimissile systems in the Persian Gulf. The Times reports that Obama officials are also considering implementing previously rejected covert activities as well as a new declaration by the president over what would prompt a U.S. military strike.

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Credit: YouTube

Politico has more about the spot, which was released just one day before the Democratic National Convention (DNC) kicks off. In keeping with Obama’s campaign rhetoric, it takes aim at Romney’s proposed tax policies:

The ad — which the Obama campaign says is airing in Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia — relies on analysis from the Tax Policy Center to make the claim that Romney would up the middle-class tax burden. Romney and conservative economists have vigorously disputed that analysis, arguing that it relies on false assumptions about the changes Romney would be willing to make to certain tax deductions. The fact that Romney hasn’t detailed how he would pay for his proposed tax plan, however, makes it a target for Democrats to shoot at, which is what the Obama campaign’s doing right now.

“The middle class is carrying a heavy load in America, but Mitt Romney doesn’t see it,” the spot begins. “Under the Romney plan, a middle class family will pay an average of up to $2,000 more a year in taxes, while at the same time giving multimillionaires like himself a $250,000 tax cut.”

After invoking the “multimillionaires” reference, it continues, with the narrator dramatically proclaiming (while working in a reference to Obama’s campaign slogan), “So, Romney hits the middle class harder and gives millionaires an even bigger break. Is that the way forward for America?”

Watch the ad, below:

(H/T: Politico)

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Khalid Chisti was arrested Saturday after a member of his mosque accused him of stashing pages of a Koran in a Christian girl’s bag to make it seem like she burned the Islamic holy book. He allegedly planted the evidence to push Christians out of his neighborhood in Islamabad. He has denied the allegations.

Pakistani police officers escort blindfolded Muslim cleric Khalid Chishti to appear in court in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012. In the latest twist in a religiously charged case that has focused attention on the country's harsh blasphemy laws, Pakistani police arrested Chishti who they say planted evidence in the case of a Christian girl accused of blasphemy. (Credit: AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

The case has generated significant international attention because of reports that the girl is as young as 11 and is mentally handicapped.

Human rights activists have long criticized Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws, saying they are misused to persecute non-Muslims and settle personal vendettas. They have hailed Chisti’s arrest as unprecedented and hope it will prevent false blasphemy accusations in the future.

More immediately, they have called for the release of the Christian girl, who has been held in prison for over two weeks. Last week, TheBlaze reported that she was denied bail — an action that took place before the cleric’s alleged actions surfaced.

She will remain in jail until at least Friday after her bail hearing was postponed for a second time Monday, said her lawyer, Tahir Naveed Chaudhry. The court adjourned the hearing until then because of a lawyers’ strike, he said.

Credit: AP

Police registered a blasphemy case against Chisti on Monday for allegedly desecrating the Koran, said police officer Munir Jafferi. If he is charged by a court and convicted, he could face life in prison, said Jafferi.

A separate section of Pakistan‘s blasphemy laws says insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammed carries the death penalty.

Police are also contemplating leveling additional charges against Chisti, such as fraud, planting evidence and making false allegations, said Jafferi.

Police arrested the girl from her neighborhood in Islamabad over two weeks after an angry mob of several hundred appeared at a local police station, demanding action against her for alleged blasphemy. Police said at the time that they took her into custody partly to protect her from potential harm.

People accused of blasphemy, even those who aren’t convicted, often face vigilante justice by outraged Pakistanis. A Pakistani man accused of blasphemy in July was dragged from a police station in the center of the country, beaten to death and his body set on fire.

Christians in the girl’s neighborhood left the area en masse as soon as the accusations surfaced, fearing retribution from their Muslim neighbors.

The Associated Press has withheld the girl’s name because it does not generally identify juveniles under 18 who are accused of crimes.

The girl’s supporters say she is 11 years old and has Down syndrome; a medical board said she was about 14 and that her mental age didn’t match her physical age.

–

RELATED:

• Update: Judge Delays Bail for Christian Girl in Pakistani Koran-Burning Case
• ‘Blasphemy’: Pakistani Christian Girl Accused of Burning the Koran Ruled a Minor
• Christian Girl, Possibly Mentally Handicapped, Arrested in Pakistan and Accused of ‘Blasphemy’

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Historian Tom Holland (Credit: Channel 4)

Television historian Tom Holland is receiving a multitude of criticisms and threats following his in-depth investigation into Islam. After examining the faith and its early texts, he came to some fascinating — and apparently enraging — conclusions in a documentary he produced for British television.

In a program called, “Islam: The Untold Story,” Holland claimed that there is little evidence written surrounding the life of the Prophet Muhammad — the central figure in the Islamic faith. Additionally, he noted that the Koran makes only one reference to Mecca, the religion’s holiest city. These sentiments, of course, cast doubts upon Islam and are, thus, controversial to say the least.

For those assuming that Holland is bent on disproving Islam’s beginnings, consider a portion of a review on the film that was written by The Guardian’s John Crace:

Holland is no attention-seeking, neo-Conservative, Niall Ferguson lookalike. Indeed, I’d guess his heart bleeds liberalism and, to my western sceptic eyes, his contention that the Arab empire gave birth to Islam, rather than the traditionally held belief that it was the other way round, seemed well-argued, fascinating – I learned a lot of history I didn’t know in a short space of time – and uncontentious. I would find it a great deal more surprising if a religious text written 1,400 years ago turned out to be wholly accurate. But for those who believe the Qur’an is the word of God passed directly to man and that inconvenient lacunae of knowledge are merely events that have yet to be properly explained, then Holland’s view is almost certainly blasphemous.

Watch the film’s trailer, below:

The response to the program, which aired on England’s Channel 4, was so fierce that Holland, a Cambridge-educated and award-winning writer and historian, received physical threats, angry tweets and other related responses.

“One Twitter user accused him of trying to destroy Islamic history, while another tweet called him a ‘fool’ for suggesting Islam is a ‘made-up religion,’” The Indian Express reports.

In another instance, Holland responded to a critic with the following message: “U are reminding me very effectively why I had vowed to keep off this topic” — a telling tweet that showcases some anticipation of the negative reaction.

In the midst of the controversy on Friday, Holland also decided to address critics head-on, penning an article clarifying his remarks on the Channel 4 web site.

“The origins of Islam are a legitimate subject of historical enquiry and this film is wholly in keeping with other series and programmes on Channel 4 where the historical context of world religions has been examined, such as The Bible: A History,” he wrote, going on to admit that he knew of the tensions surrounding the subject before making the documentary. “It is important to stress as we do in the film that this is a historical endeavour and is not a critique of one of the major monotheistic religions.”

Holland used the article to focus on the three areas in which he has been criticized over the film, taking the time to explain each in detail:

1. It has been suggested that I say in the film that Mecca is not mentioned in the Qu’ran. In fact, I say that Mecca is mentioned once in the Qu’ran. As a historian I have to rely on original texts and although later tradition (as brought to us through the hadith) has come to accept that other names are synonymous with Mecca, the fact is that there is only one mention of Mecca in the Qu’ran(although due to an unwarranted interpolation, a second one does appear in the Pickthall translation).

2. On the broad perspective some complaints assert unequivocally, as is often said, that Islam was “born in the full light of history unlike the ancient faiths”. That may have been the belief of Western scholars back in the days of Ernest Renan, but it is most certainly not the academic consensus today. [...]

3. It has also wrongly been suggested that we said there is no historical evidence for the seventh century origins of Islam. What I actually said in the film was that I had expected to find contemporaneous Muslim evidence – “but there’s nothing there.” And the Qur’an aside, the first mention of the prophet Muhammad’s name in Arabic is on the coin that we featured in Part Five, and on the Dome of the Rock, which we also featured prominently. The evidence provided by Christian contemporaries was mentioned in Part Three, and is dealt with at greater length in the book.

Despite Holland’s attempt to clarify his stance and to defend his exploration of the faith through a historical and not a theological lens, furor continues. While he has received threats and negative messages as a result of his work, it seems the historian is continuing to defend the documentary and to double-down on the investigation he undertook.

(H/T: Daily Mail)

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Sheikh Abu Adam (Photo Credit: CBN News)

CBN News’ Erick Stakelbeck (also a TheBlaze TV contributor) knows a thing or two about terrorism. The reporter and host has spent a plethora of time interviewing key figures and delving into the troubling international threat that continues to grow.

In a new report, Stakelbeck claims that Germany is facing a new radical threat — the rise of Salafism, a movement he calls “an extreme brand of Islam that preaches hatred of Christians and Jews.” The reporter provides some context as to the problems that have been occurring in the nation of late:

In June, 1,000 police fanned out across Germany. They targeted the homes, schools, and mosques of Salafi Muslims.

Salafis model themselves after Islam’s prophet, Mohammed, and his followers and strictly follow Islamic sharia law.

Their ideology encourages violent jihad and is shared by al Qaeda and many other Islamic terror groups. It‘s now taking hold among a small but growing number of Germany’s 4.3 million Muslims.

“We have a really dynamic growing Salafi scene,” German journalist Franz Feyder said. “Some of the security officers tell us that we have about 5,000 Salafis in Germany.”

Feyder follows Germany’s Salafi scene closely.

“The Salafi movement in Germany is creating an environment for violence and radicalization,” he told CBN News. “Not every Salafist is a terrorist, but every terrorist is a Salafist.”

In a recent interview accompanying the report, Stakelbeck also sat down with Sheikh Abu Adam, an Islamic leader who runs the Darul Quran Mosque in Munich. Adam dislikes the “Salafi” term and told the reporter that he simply prefers to be called a “Muslim.” While he strikes a tone of moderation, local officials believe that something more sinister may be at play — and they’ve visited his mosque to investigate.

While German authorities dub Adam’s mosque as potentially problematic, he claims, in contrast, that he has helped fight against terrorism. His congregants, too, have reportedly done the same. When asked why he’s being targeted despite his alleged counter-terrorism work, Adam told Stakelbeck that he simply doesn’t understand the charges being waged against him.

“I don’t know,” he said. “All of my students, all — I don’t have any exception — they are fighting against terrorism and they are very integrated in the society. All of them are very kind, loving people. They laugh. They communicate with all people.”

Despite the faith leader’s denial, Stakelbeck provides some problematic details about his background:

Yet the sheikh has engaged in violence of his own.

In 2010, he made international headlines when he was accused of brutally beating one of his wives [he has three], breaking her nose and shoulder.

He reportedly yelled Koranic verses during the attack and refused to let police enter the apartment. The wife would not press charges.

Also last year, a German television crew filmed Adam presiding over sharia courts in his mosque that operate outside of German law.

Watch Stakelbeck’s fascinating interview with the controversial Islamic leader, below:

(H/T: CBN News)

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His Unification Church claims 3 million followers, though ex-members and critics put the number at no more than 100,000. There is no questioning the vastness of the business empire Moon created through his church: ventures in several countries from hospitals and newspapers to cars and sushi, and even professional sports teams and a ballet troupe.

FILE - In this Oct. 14, 1982 file photo, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, left, and his wife Hak Ja Han, are shown during the traditional invocation of a blessing at a mass wedding in Seoul’s Chamsil gymnasium where 6,000 couples from about 80 countries were married. Moon, self-proclaimed messiah who founded Unification Church, died at age 92 Monday, Sept. 3, 2012, church officials said. (AP Photo/File)

Moon died Monday at a church-owned hospital near his home in Gapyeong County, northeast of Seoul, two weeks after being hospitalized with pneumonia, Unification Church spokesman Ahn Ho-yeul told The Associated Press. Moon’s wife and children were at his side, Ahn said. He was 92.

Flags flew at half-staff Monday at a Unification Church in Seoul. Followers trickled into the building, some wiping away tears. One woman bowed and cried before a copy of the church-owned Segye Times newspaper, which was placed on a table and had a large picture of Moon on its front page. Another woman bowed before a small statue of Moon and his wife.

“I am devastated,” Bo Hi Pak, chairman of the Unification Church-supported Korean Cultural Foundation, said outside the hospital where Moon had been cared for. “I cannot control my emotions and focus on my work due to the sadness of losing a father.”

Moon‘s body was transferred to the church’s gargantuan white palace on Mount Cheonseong overlooking the lakes and wooded forests of Gapyeong County. His funeral will take place Sept. 15 after a 13-day mourning period, with a massive new sports and cultural center built recently on the church’s sprawling campus accepting mourners starting Thursday, the church said in a statement. Moon is to be buried on Mount Cheonseong.

In this July 22, 2012 photo, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church, second from left, poses with his wife Hak Ja Han Moon, second from right, his sons Hyung-jin Moon, left, and Kook Jin Moon during the closing ceremony of the 2012 Peace Cup Suwon at Suwon World Cup Stadium in Suwon, South Korea. Moon, the self-proclaimed messiah who founded the church, died Monday, Sept. 3, 2012, at a church-owned hospital near his home in Gapyeong County, northeast of Seoul, church officials said. He was 92. Credit: AP

The mourning period is not only more than the usual three to five days in South Korea, but longer than the mourning periods for late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. It was in keeping with Moon’s grandiose life, in which he encouraged followers to call him and his wife “True Parents.”

Moon, who was born in a rural part of what is now North Korea, founded his Bible-based religion in Seoul in 1954, a year after the end of the Korean War. He cultivated friends among political leaders in the U.S. and – though he was an ardent anti-communist – in North Korea, though he served time in prison in both countries.

He gained notoriety by marrying off thousands of followers in mass wedding ceremonies, usually not long after being arranged to marry by Moon himself. Moon often paired up strangers hailing from different countries as part of his vision of a multicultural, family-oriented religious world.

The church has faced considerable controversy over the years, and has been accused of using devious recruitment tactics and duping followers out of money. Parents of young followers in the United States and elsewhere expressed worries that their children were brainwashed into joining.

The church rebuffs the allegations, saying many new religious movements faced similar accusations in their early years. Moon’s followers were often called “Moonies,” a term many found pejorative.

The Unification Church claims 3 million followers, including 100,000 in the U.S., and says it has sent missionaries to 194 countries, according to Ahn.

Richard Panzer, president of the Unification Theological Seminary in Barrytown, N.Y., said Moon’s legacy will live on.

“We believe that Reverend Moon was a historical figure in the history of religion,” he said. “And that he made an enormous contribution to understanding of the suffering heart of God and a lot of contributions toward world peace.”

The seminary, established by Moon in 1975, is an interfaith institution with Buddhist, Christian and Muslim professors, Panzer said.

The church also quietly amassed lucrative business ventures over the years, including the Washington Times newspaper; the New Yorker Hotel, a midtown Manhattan art deco landmark; and a seafood distribution firm that supplies sushi to Japanese restaurants across the U.S. It gave the University of Bridgeport $110 million over more than a decade to keep the Connecticut school operating.

A woman pays respect to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon at a Unification Church in Tokyo, Monday, Sept. 3, 2012. Moon, the self-proclaimed messiah who founded the church, died Monday, Sept. 3, 2012, at a church-owned hospital near his home in Gapyeong County, northeast of Seoul, church officials said. He was 92. Credit: AP

In South Korea, it acquired a ski resort, professional football teams, schools, hospitals and other businesses. It also operates the Potonggang Hotel in Pyongyang, jointly operates the North Korean automaker and has a huge “peace” institute in the North Korean capital.

Moon had hoped to help bring about the reunification of Korea during his lifetime.

Moon was born in 1920 in North Phyongan Province at a time when Pyongyang was known as a center for Korea’s Christians. He said he was 16 when Jesus Christ first appeared to him and told him to finish the work he had begun on Earth 2,000 years earlier.

Christianity fell out of favor after the Korean Peninsula was divided into the communist North and the U.S.-backed South in 1945, and while preaching, Moon was imprisoned in the late 1940s by North Korean authorities and accused of spying for South Korea, an allegation he denied.

When the Korean War broke out in 1950, he went to South Korea. After leaving his North Korean wife, he married Hak Ja Han Moon in 1960.

In South Korea, Moon quickly drew young acolytes to his conservative, family-oriented value system and unusual interpretation of the Bible. The church’s doctrine is a mixture of Christian, Confucian and traditional Korean values.

Moon conducted his first mass wedding in Seoul in the early 1960s, and the “blessing ceremonies” grew in scale over the years. A 1982 wedding at New York’s Madison Square Garden – the first outside South Korea – drew thousands of participants.

“International and intercultural marriages are the quickest way to bring about an ideal world of peace,” Moon said in a 2009 autobiography. “People should marry across national and cultural boundaries with people from countries they consider to be their enemies so that the world of peace can come that much more quickly.”

Moon began rebuilding his relationship with North Korea in 1991, meeting with the country’s founder, Kim Il Sung, in the eastern industrial city of Hamhung. In his autobiography, Moon said he urged Kim to give up his nuclear ambitions, and said Kim responded by saying that his atomic program was for peaceful purposes and he had no intention to use it to “kill my own people.”

“The two of us were able to communicate well about our shared hobbies of hunting and fishing,” Moon wrote. “At one point, we each felt we had so much to say to the other that we just started talking like old friends meeting after a long separation.”

When Kim died in 1994, Moon sent a condolence delegation to North Korea, drawing criticism from conservatives at home. The late Kim Jong Il, who succeeded his father as North Korean leader, sent roses, prized wild ginseng, Rolex watches and other gifts to Moon on his birthday each year. Moon said Kim Il Sung had instructed Kim Jong Il that “after I die, if there are things to discuss pertaining to North-South relations, you must always seek the advice of President Moon.”

This file photo taken on February 13, 2000 shows Rev. Sun Myung Moon (L), founder of the Unification Church, and his wife Hak Ja Han (R) blessing brides and the grooms during a mass wedding ceremony at Chamsil Olympic Stadium in Seoul. Sun Myung Moon, the self-styled messiah from South Korea who founded the controversial Unification Church and a business empire spanning from cars to sushi, died on September 3, 2012 at the age of 92. Pilloried by detractors as a cult that brainwashed its followers, known mockingly as 'Moonies,' the church was famed for its mass weddings that married thousands -- sometimes tens of thousands -- of followers in sports stadium ceremonies led by Moon. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

The church also sent a delegation to Pyongyang after Kim Jong Il died in December and was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Un.

Moon also developed a good relationship with conservative American leaders such as former Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Yet he also served 13 months at a U.S. federal prison in the mid-1980s after a New York City jury convicted him of filing false tax returns. The church says the U.S. government persecuted Moon because of his growing influence and popularity with young Americans.

One of the more bizarre chapters in Moon’s relationship with Washington came in 2004, when more than a dozen U.S. lawmakers attended a “coronation ceremony” for Moon and his wife in which Moon declared himself humanity’s savior and said his teachings have helped Hitler and Stalin be “reborn as new persons.” Some of the congressmen later said they had been misled and hadn’t been aware that Moon would be at the event.

In later years, the church adopted a lower profile in the United States and focused on building its businesses. Moon lived for more than 30 years in the United States, the church said.

In recent years, Moon handed over day-to-day control of the empire to his children. In 2008, at age 88, he was in a helicopter crash near Seoul but suffered only minor injuries.

Still, in 2009 he presided over a wedding ceremony for 45,000 people marrying for the first time or renewing their vows – one of his last huge mass weddings.

Moon and his wife have 10 surviving sons and daughters, according to the church.

There are reports of a rift within the family. One of Moon’s sons reportedly sued his mother in 2011 demanding the return of more than $22 million allegedly sent without his consent from a company he runs to his mother’s missionary group. A court ruled that the money was a loan but ordered it returned, the Yonhap news agency reported.

Another son committed suicide in 1999, plunging to his death from the 17th floor from a Reno, Nevada, hotel, officials said. Two other sons reportedly also died early, one in a train wreck and another in a car accident.

At the time of the car accident, the son was engaged to marry the prima ballerina daughter of Bo Hi Pak, the head of the church’s Korean Cultural Foundation. The wedding, dubbed a “spiritual” marriage, went ahead as planned even after his death and the daughter-in-law, Julia Moon, is a prominent figure in South Korea’s arts scene.

Moon’s U.S.-born youngest son, the Rev. Hyung-jin Moon, was named the church’s top religious director in April 2008. Other children run the church’s businesses and charitable activities.

Hyung-jin Moon told The Associated Press in February 2010 that his father’s offspring do not see themselves as his successors.

“Our role is not inheriting that messianic role,” he said. “Our role is more of the apostles … where we become the bridge between understanding what kind of lives (our) two parents have lived.”

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President Barack Obama and his daughters Malia Obama and Sasha Obama walk across the South Lawn before boarding Marine One and departing the White House June 15, 2012 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Getty Images)

President Obama is receiving a mixture of praise and scorn for his recent interview with CNN’s Jessica Yellin, where he explained that his failure to develop relationships with congressional lawmakers is partially because he would rather be “at the dinner table” with his children.

Breitbart’s Tony Lee wrote an article titled, “Obama Blames Washington Gridlock, Partisanship on Family, Daughters,” and one Twitter user implied the president’s family is becoming the latest excuse after “Bush, ATM’s, tsunami, Wall Street…”

The president told Yellin:

“Sometimes Michelle and I not doing the circuit, going out to dinners with folks is perceived as us being cool — it actually has more to do with us being parents.  When we’re in town here in Washington, in the evenings, 6:30 we want to be at the dinner table with our kids, and I want to be helping with the homework and I think that’s sometimes interpreted as me not wanting to be out there slapping backs and wheeling and dealing.

“It really just has more to do with just the stage we are in our lives.”

Watch his remarks, via CNN, below:

Rather than point out how many private sector employees have a hard time being home at 6:30 for dinner and homework-help, or how it is somewhat peculiar that the president of the United States seems to desire “banker’s hours,” Yellin asked Obama whether he would behave similarly in his second term.

Responding to the joke that his girls are getting older and may not always want to spend their evenings with “mom and dad,” Obama said: “My hope is that getting past this election, people will have an opportunity to maybe step back and say… ‘the differences that divide us aren’t as important as the common bonds we have as Americans,’ and some of that I’m sure will require additional effort on my part.”

He added: “Hopefully we’ll see more on the other side as well.”

CNN will air the full interview, titled “Obama Revealed: The Man, The President,” on Monday night.

(H/T: Weasel Zippers)

–

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(Photo: CBS)

Obama’s deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said Sunday that Republicans think “lying is a virtue” while discussing the recent GOP convention.

“It was a week of personal attacks, empty platitudes, [where] the one thing that you were left with is they really think that lying is a virtue…I think the American people disagree with that,” she remarked on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

When host Bob Schieffer asked whether she really believes Republicans are “just a bunch of liars,” Cutter responded: “Well, I heard a lot of things that weren’t true last week. I think we can all agree with that. I think we can all agree that, you know, they blamed the president for not — for closing an auto plant in Janesville, Wisconsin that closed under President Bush.”

Watch her entire remarks, via CBS, below:

Stephanie Cutter is one of the woman behind the president’s “truth teams” which, according to Jake Tapper, conflate “smears with criticisms” and are not necessarily the most effective away of spreading the “truth.”

Former New Hampshire governor and Romney-supporter John Sununu has also flatly accused Cutter of being a liar regarding Barack Obama’s economic achievements.

In late August, he remarked: “And I think this morning, when Stephanie Cutter went on one of the morning shows and said that President Obama in the last two and a half years has created more jobs than Ronald Reagan in his recovery shows you how they lie. L-I-E, lie.”

The Romney campaign responded critically to Cutter’s assertion, noting another instance where she displayed questionable moral habits.

The Hill relates:

“It is laughably ridiculous that President Obama is deploying a campaign aide who has been caught lying about her involvement with the false and discredited attacks launched by President Obama’s SuperPAC to lecture people about the truth,” said the Romney camp in a statement, referencing Cutter’s claims that she did not know the facts of a Priorities USA video last month which linked Romney to the death of a woman from cancer.”

(H/T: Weasel Zippers)

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(Photo: WCAU-TV)

The New York Daily News is reporting that a six-year-old boy is dead and his 12-year-old sister is in critical condition after an assailant entered their home in the middle of the night and slashed their throats.

12-year-old Amber Andujor ran to her neighbors after the horrific attack, saying a man known in the neighborhood as “Papi” did it, though the police have not yet confirmed the identity of the monster.

According to WCAU-TV, “Papi” is the son of a local preacher, and occasionally cuts the hair of the local children.

“He plays with the kids sometimes,” neighbor Nakyta McCray, who called 911 after the attack, remarked. “People would never think he would do something like this.”

WCAU-TV has more information:

View more videos at: http://nbcphiladelphia.com.

The children were apparently under the supervision of their older sister– who was not hurt–at the time, because their mother was in the hospital recovering from surgery.

Andujor had just celebrated her 12th birthday.

According to the Daily News, police believe “Papi” may have cut his arm at some point Sunday and followed a trail of blood to a nearby junkyard, but they have not yet made any arrests.

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(AP File Photo)

The New Yorker has published a piece titled “Let’s Be Friends: Two Presidents Find a Mutual Advantage,“ in which they claim Bill Clinton told Ted Kennedy that Barack Obama ”would have been carrying our bags” a few years ago during the last presidential election.

The statement, passed on to the New Yorker by sources of Tim Russert, was allegedly made in an effort to convince the late senator to endorse Hillary Clinton for president.

The New Yorker relates:

Bill Clinton, in an effort to secure an endorsement for Hillary from Ted Kennedy, said to Kennedy, “A few years ago, this guy would have been carrying our bags.” Clinton’s role in the campaign rattled Obama. He told ABC News in an interview that Clinton “has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling.”

(AP File Photo)

The article is largely a chronology of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton’s relationship, which began with a degree of mutual distrust and, according to David Axelrod, has improved significantly.

“Would I be truthful if I said to you that we went through a long and difficult campaign in 2007-08 and as soon as it was over the relationship was instantly close?” he said. “I mean, that just defies human nature. But I think it’s grown up over time.”

Bill Clinton will be giving a keynote address at the Democratic convention this week in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Weekly Standard notes.

(H/T: Drudge)

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(AP File Photo)

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu, described by Barack Obama as a “moral titan” in 2009, called Sunday for George W. Bush and Tony Blair to face prosecution at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for their respective roles in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Tutu, the retired Anglican Church’s archbishop of South Africa, wrote in an op-ed piece for The Observer newspaper that the ex-leaders of Britain and the United States should be made to “answer for their actions,” claiming the Iraq war has destabilized and polarized the world “to a greater extent than any other conflict in history.”

(Related: Michelle Obama Does Sit Ups, Push Ups, and Plays Soccer With…Desmond Tutu)

“Those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in the Hague,” Tutu asserted.

He continued: “The then-leaders of the U.S. and U.K. fabricated the grounds to behave like playground bullies and drive us further apart.  They have driven us to the edge of a precipice where we now stand — with the specter of Syria and Iran before us.”

(AP File Photo)

“The question is not whether Saddam Hussein was good or bad or how many of his people he massacred. The point is that Mr Bush and Mr Blair should not have allowed themselves to stoop to his immoral level,” Tutu added.

While the International Criminal Court can handle cases of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, it does not currently have the jurisdiction to prosecute crimes of aggression.  Furthermore, the U.S. is among the nations which do not recognize the authority of the International Criminal Court.

In response to Tutu, Blair said he had great respect for the archbishop’s work to tackle apartheid in South Africa, but accused him of repeating inaccurate criticisms of the Iraq war.

“To repeat the old canard that we lied about the intelligence is completely wrong as every single independent analysis of the evidence has shown,” Blair said. “And to say that the fact that [Saddam Hussein] massacred hundreds of thousands of his citizens is irrelevant to the morality of removing him is bizarre.”

Blair said that “in a healthy democracy people can agree to disagree,” but Tutu seemingly feels otherwise.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

–

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‘Jumah at the DNC’ Speaker: ‘Muslims Visited America Prior to Columbus’ & ‘It Was a Muslim’ Who Guided Him to the ‘New World’

Paper Details Obama Admin’s Alleged Secret Note Sent to Iran: If Israel Attacks, We Won’t Get Involved

Obama: RNC Like Watching ‘Black-and-White TV’ Because Romney ‘Did Not Offer a Single New Idea’

Roseanne Barr: Most Billionaires ‘Violent Pedophiles’ & ‘Heartless’ Cocaine Addicts

Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event at West York Area High School, Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012, in York, Pa. (Photo: AP/Carolyn Kaster)

Vice President Joe Biden warned a crowd in York, Pa. Sunday that Republican rival Mitt Romney is “ready to go to war in Syria and Iran,” offering scant evidence to support the claim.

Biden was on the campaign trail to promote President Obama’s economic policies among “white, working-class voters,” according to the Associated Press, when he made the statement.  The thrust of Biden’s pitch has been that America is digging out from the 2008 economic collapse, and that Romney would take the country backward.

But Biden, described by the AP as “a foreign policy heavyweight,” also cautioned voters that Romney could adopt policies that favor confrontation over cooperation.

“[Romney] said it was a mistake to end the war in Iraq and bring all of our warriors home,” Biden remarked. “He said it was a mistake to set an end date for our warriors in Afghanistan and bring them home.  He implies by the speech that he’s ready to go to war in Syria and Iran.”

AP File Photo

Romney has said he would consider military action in Syria if the war-torn country’s chemical weapons were at risk of falling into the wrong hands, but Obama has made similar remarks.  The president called it a “red line” for the U.S. if Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime were to use chemical or biological weapons.

Obama and Romney have also both said the U.S. must keep all options on the table, including a military strike, when dealing with Iran.  But Romney has suggested that Obama has been too soft on Iran and – without offering specifics himself – said he would prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

“And these guys say the president is out of touch?” Biden said to the crowd.

But Biden’s remarks, in an audience of about 1,400 in a high school gymnasium, focused primarily on the economy.

“This is no time to turn back. We have to continue to move forward,” he said. “Folks, I am absolutely certain – there’s not a single doubt in my mind – that we are on the way to rebuilding this country stronger than it was before.”

Biden also took time to imply that Republicans don’t care about the middle class, saying: “Oh, I love these guys, how they claim to care about the deficit…”

He continued: “Ladies and gentlemen, the thing I most love about them is about how they discovered the middle class at their convention. Isn’t that amazing? All of a sudden their heart was bleeding for the middle class.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

–

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Roseanne Barr: Most Billionaires ‘Violent Pedophiles’ & ‘Heartless’ Cocaine Addicts

(Photo: AP)

“Comedienne” and aspiring presidential candidate Roseanne Barr took to Twitter for another one of her wild rants Sunday, alleging that the wealthy are predominantly violent, lawless criminals.

Barr began, seemingly taking the idea of “class warfare” to heart:

most billionaires r violent pedophiles & consumers of violent pedo porn. they get a kick out of being heartless cruel empty cocaine addicts.

— Roseanne Barr (@TheRealRoseanne) September 2, 2012

The actress then told readers to “feel free” to offer ideas on what she should do in her “first week in office” as president.

After re-tweeting a number of comments, including an FDR quote, Barr dramatically adjusted her tone and encouraged the country to build “unity and consensus”:

American People have been hoodwinked & bamboozled by their leaders & all their political parties. time2 start over. #racistsexistclassist

— Roseanne Barr (@TheRealRoseanne) September 2, 2012

volunteer to organize: build unity &consensus. #democracy #commonsense #peaceandfreedomparty

— Roseanne Barr (@TheRealRoseanne) September 2, 2012

For those who don’t recall, Barr also called for the rich to be “beheaded” in an interview with Russia Today last year.

“[All] of my ideas R based in socialism. I’m the opposite of Ayn Rand, who was a capitalist fanatic free market fundamentalist,” she explained in her most recent tweet, as of this article’s publication.

Noel Sheppard at Newsbusters simply commented: “And this woman actually used to have her own television show.”

(H/T: Newsbusters)

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(Getty File Photo)

Former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich tangled with a “Meet the Press” panel Sunday over the commonly-accepted assertion that the Republicans have a more “extreme” position on social issues than Democrats.

Gingrich argued that when stripped of political rhetoric and presented as the basic facts, more people are inclined to agree with Republicans.

“The president of United States voted three times to protect the right of doctors to kill babies who came out of abortion still alive,” Gingrich noted, adding:  “The vast majority of women do not believe the taxpayers should pay to abort a child in the eighth or ninth month.”

Watch the entire exchange, which begins with a discussion of Todd Akin’s widely-condemned “legitimate rape” comments (skip to around 5:30):

After noting that Biden can claim Romney wants to put African-Americans in “chains” without notable recrimination from the mainstream media, Gingrich said:

…the Democratic Party plank on abortion is the most extreme plank in the United States.  The president of United States voted three times to protect the right of doctors to kill babies who came out of abortion still alive.  That plank says tax-paid abortion at any moment of…meaning, partial birth abortion…that’s a 20 percent issue.  The vast majority of women do not believe the taxpayers should pay to abort a child in the eighth or ninth month…

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman replied:

I’m a Planned Parenthood Democrat on– on– on the issue of– of choice.  And I think that that is where the country should be.  That is where many, many women in this country are.  And I’m glad there are people running for the presidency who will defend that position.  Period.  Paragraph.  End it.

After an interruption by David Gregory, Gingrich turned back to Friedman:

…so you think it’s acceptable to have a party committed to tax-paid abortion in the eighth and ninth month?  And you think that’s a sustainable position in the United States?  If the news media spent as much time on the extremism of the Democrats as they spend trying to attack us, you would– they would not be able to adopt that plank this week.

Friedman retorted: “I do believe that’s a defensible position, but I also believe I’m– I’m here as a journalist, I’ll let the Democratic Party defend it.”

(H/T: Gateway Pundit)

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(Photo: AP via Politico)

The Justice Department recently targeted a Sacramento, California public library over a trial program that let patrons borrow Barnes and Noble “Nook” e-book readers, CNS News reported.

According to the Justice Department, the program violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and was discriminating against the blind, because they cannot always use the devices.

CNS News explains:

A DOJ official told CNSNews.com it interviewed a woman who could not participate in the library’s e-reader program due to her disability and concluded that the program had violated the ADA.

Amy Calhoun, an Electronic Resources Librarian at the Sacramento Public Library who helped launch the ebook reader project, said she was unaware of any objections from a blind person regarding the program. “I have not heard of a specific complaint directly from a patron,” she told CNSNews.com. “But I do know that patrons who are part of the statewide Braille and talking-book program do get in touch with us for audio books.”

[...]

As part of the settlement agreement, the Justice Department directed the library system to purchase at least 18 e-readers that are accessible to the blind, something that comes in the midst of budget cuts that have forced Sacramento libraries to implement one employee furlough day each month for two years.

The library says it will add iPod touch and iPad devices, which read e-books aloud with a computerized voice. [Emphasis added]

A Barnes & Noble Nook Color eReader, left, is shown next to a Nook Simple Touch eReader, right, on display at a Best Buy in Mountain View, Calif. , Monday, April 30, 2012. (Photo: AP)

CNS News estimates the mandatory purchase will cost anywhere from roughly $3,500 to $15,000, depending on whether the library opts for the most basic or high-tech version of the devices.

But that’s not all.

The settlement agreement also directed the library not to buy any additional e-readers that “exclude” the blind or disabled, and required the library to train its staff on the requirements of the ADA.

“Emerging technologies like e-readers are changing the way we interact with the world around us and we need to ensure that people with disabilities are not excluded from the programs where these devices are used,” said Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez in a news release.

The Department of Justice has come under heavy fire in recent years for, among other things, failing to investigate the New Black Panthers for voter intimidation, and for allowing guns to be trafficked into Mexico in Operation Fast and Furious.

(H/T: CNS News)

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Paper Details Obama Admin’s Alleged Secret Note Sent to Iran: If Israel Attacks, We Won’t Get Involved

Obama: RNC Like Watching ‘Black-and-White TV’ Because Romney ‘Did Not Offer a Single New Idea’

Roseanne Barr: Most Billionaires ‘Violent Pedophiles’ & ‘Heartless’ Cocaine Addicts

AP photo

In a scathing editorial this weekend, The Wall Street Journal blasted President Obama’s handling of the Iran crisis, from the failure of U.S. diplomacy which has apparently only sped up the Iranian nuclear program, to Obama’s letting go unanswered Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey’s remarks that he doesn’t want to be “complicit” in an Israeli strike.

As TheBlaze reported last week, Dempsey told reporters that an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would only delay, not likely destroy any nuclear program, adding: “I don’t want to be complicit if they [Israel] choose to do it.”

The Wall Street Journal’s editors wonder if Gen. Dempsey was speaking for himself or on President Obama’s behalf:

Barack Obama is fond of insisting that he “has Israel’s back.” Maybe he should mention that to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. […]

We don’t know what exactly Gen. Dempsey thinks American non-complicity might entail in the event of a strike. Should the Administration refuse to resupply Israel with jets and bombs, or condemn an Israeli strike at the U.N.? Nor do we know if the General was conducting freelance diplomacy or sending a signal from an Administration that feels the same way but doesn’t want to say so during a political season.

Whatever the case, the remarks were counterproductive and oddly timed, with this week‘s report by the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran’s nuclear programs haven’t been slowed in the least by U.S. or international sanctions. In fact, they are accelerating.

There are signs the Israeli government is getting ever closer to making a decision on military action. On Friday, the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot quoted Israeli Prime Minister saying at a behind-closed-doors meeting with the U.S. ambassador to Israel that “time has run out” for diplomacy. And on Sunday, Netanyahu expressed that opinion publicly and on camera during his opening remarks at the weekly cabinet meeting, where he also said the international community must set a “clear red line” for Iran.

(Related: Netanyahu Calls for Clear Red Line on Iran)

The Journal’s harsh critique takes to task the Obama administration’s approach, which appears to be ignoring or denying the documented progress of Iran’s nuclear program and the Islamic Republic’s moves to mask those efforts and bury them deep inside fortified bunkers.

Last week’s quarterly report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) showed that Iran has more than doubled the number of centrifuges in its underground Fordo bunker, raising even more suspicion that its nuclear efforts have military intent.

The Wall Street Journal editorial continues:

No wonder the Israelis are upset—at the U.S. Administration. It’s one thing to hear from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that he wants to wipe you off the map: At least it has the ring of honesty. It’s quite another to hear from President Obama that he has your back, even as his Administration tries to sell to the public a make-believe world in which Iran’s nuclear intentions are potentially peaceful, sanctions are working and diplomacy hasn’t failed after three and half years.

The irony for the Administration is that its head-in-the-sand performance is why many Israeli decision-makers believe they had better strike sooner than later. Not only is there waning confidence that Mr. Obama is prepared to take military action on his own, but there’s also a fear that a re-elected President Obama will take a much harsher line on an Israeli attack than he would before the first Tuesday in November.

The editors conclude: “Since coming to office, Obama Administration policy toward Israel has alternated between animus and incompetence. We don’t know what motivated Gen. Dempsey’s outburst, but a President who really had Israel’s back would publicly contradict it.”

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‘Jumah at the DNC’ Speaker: ‘Muslims Visited America Prior to Columbus’ & ‘It Was a Muslim’ Who Guided Him to the ‘New World’

Paper Details Obama Admin’s Alleged Secret Note Sent to Iran: If Israel Attacks, We Won’t Get Involved

Obama: RNC Like Watching ‘Black-and-White TV’ Because Romney ‘Did Not Offer a Single New Idea’

Roseanne Barr: Most Billionaires ‘Violent Pedophiles’ & ‘Heartless’ Cocaine Addicts

Image source: Fox News

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) blasted the Republican Party platform on Sunday, calling it something that “looks like it’s from 1812″ with regard to health care and immigration.

“If you look at their platform, the 2012 platform it looks like it’s from another century and maybe even two — it looks like it’s from 1812,” Villaraigosa, the chairman of the Democratic National Convention, said on “Fox News Sunday.”

He continued, “When you see they want to repeal the Affordable Care Act providing 32 million people with health care with no alternative plan of their own. They call for the self-deportation of 11 million people — no country in the world has ever done that. They don’t believe in abortion even in the case of rape and incest. It’s a platform that’s from another century.”

Fox News’ Chris Wallace pointed out that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is on record supporting abortion in cases of rape and incest.

Villaraigosa went on to say that the Democrats have “a plan to take us forward,“ adding later that former President Ronald Reagan ”would be turning in his grave to hear some of the words that came out of the people at the Republican convention” with regard to the party’s “voodoo economics.”

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Roseanne Barr: Most Billionaires ‘Violent Pedophiles’ & ‘Heartless’ Cocaine Addicts

Image source: ABC reporter Twitter user @devindwyer)

President Barack Obama was greeted with a less-than-friendly welcome sign at the airport in Sioux City, Iowa on Saturday that read: “Obama Welcome to SUX — and We Did Build This.”

The words “welcome to” were written in much smaller lettering, however, implying a different sort of message. “SUX” is also the code for Sioux Gateway Airport where Obama landed.

“We did build this” is of course a riff on Obama’s “you didn’t build that” comment to business owners that Republicans have seized on.

ABC News reported the hand-painted sign was draped across the top of an airplane hangar near where Air Force One touched down. Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki told ABC the banner could not be seen from the presidential motorcade.

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Paper Details Obama Admin’s Alleged Secret Note Sent to Iran: If Israel Attacks, We Won’t Get Involved

Obama: RNC Like Watching ‘Black-and-White TV’ Because Romney ‘Did Not Offer a Single New Idea’

Roseanne Barr: Most Billionaires ‘Violent Pedophiles’ & ‘Heartless’ Cocaine Addicts

Image source: CNN

An out-of-control monster truck crashed into the stands during a race in Oregon Saturday, injuring three people who were sitting alongside the dirt track, KVAL-TV reported.

The three people hurt at the outdoor Harrisburg MotorSports Complex were taken to a hospital in nearby Eugene with non-life-threatening injuries.

According to KVAL, the driver of the truck told Linn County Sheriff’s Office deputies the back wheels of his Ford truck spun out in a mud hole, causing the vehicle to fishtail and run toward the stands. The front of the truck went over the barricade into three spectators seated in folding chairs.

“There wasn’t anything he could do to stop it,” Dan Mills, the owner of the complex who was serving as the announcer, told the Associated Press. “This was my worst fear – what happened … It was the freakiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Mills said he had been in touch with the three victims, whose names were not immediately released. He told the AP they included a father and son and a man thought to be in his early 20s.

He said the truck did not actually run over any of the spectators but that the front end only “pushed them back.”

“I think they just basically got hit by the front of the truck,” he said.

Onlooker Dustin Earls captured the incident on video and told CNN he thought at first it was just part of the show.

“The truck got a little wild and he hit the mud pit,” he said. “I thought, ‘This guy’s just messing around; he’ll hit his brakes right here.’”

But that didn’t happen; the truck instead went careening into the spectators. Earls said the driver of the truck immediately jumped out to see if anyone was hurt.

“He wanted to know if everything was okay,” he said. “He was so concerned. He said, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe what happened.’”

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Paper Details Obama Admin’s Alleged Secret Note Sent to Iran: If Israel Attacks, We Won’t Get Involved

Obama: RNC Like Watching ‘Black-and-White TV’ Because Romney ‘Did Not Offer a Single New Idea’

Roseanne Barr: Most Billionaires ‘Violent Pedophiles’ & ‘Heartless’ Cocaine Addicts

A rogue fan made it into the end zone at the Notre Dame-Navy football game Saturday and danced an Irish jig before security caught up with him. (Image source: YouTube)

A rogue fan made it into the end zone at the Notre Dame-Navy football game in Dublin, Ireland Saturday and danced an Irish jig before security caught up with him.

Instead of cutting away, CBS Sports replayed the incident for the audience at home.

“How many Irish jigs do you get to see?” a commentator asked.

According to Yahoo! Sports, the man is a U.K. resident who goes by the name “Jungle Bird” and regularly disrupts such events to protest deforestation. During Saturday’s game, he was wearing a T-shirt protesting KFC.

(h/t Yahoo! Sports)

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Obama: RNC Like Watching ‘Black-and-White TV’ Because Romney ‘Did Not Offer a Single New Idea’

Roseanne Barr: Most Billionaires ‘Violent Pedophiles’ & ‘Heartless’ Cocaine Addicts

Democrats have been studiously avoiding the “are Americans better off today?” question, but O’Malley addressed it head-on during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“No,” he answered host Bob Schieffer, two days before the start of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. “But that’s not the question of this election.”

He continued, according to BuzzFeed: “Without a doubt, we are not as well off as we were before George Bush brought us the Bush job losses, the Bush recessions, the Bush deficits, the series of desert wars, charged for the first time to credit cards — the national credit card.”

Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter added that she wanted to “remind you what was happening four years ago at this time.”

“In the quarter before the president took office, we lost three million jobs. Our country was bleeding. Our financial system was on the verge of collapse. We were passing bank bailouts to ensure that our system could stay afloat.That’s what was happening before the president took office,” Cutter said.

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Paper Details Obama Admin’s Alleged Secret Note Sent to Iran: If Israel Attacks, We Won’t Get Involved

Obama: RNC Like Watching ‘Black-and-White TV’ Because Romney ‘Did Not Offer a Single New Idea’

Roseanne Barr: Most Billionaires ‘Violent Pedophiles’ & ‘Heartless’ Cocaine Addicts

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Sunday, Sept 2, 2012. Netanyahu is urging the international community to get tougher against Iran, saying that without a "clear red line" Tehran will not halt its nuclear program. (AP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Sunday for the international community to set a “clear red line” for Iran, saying Tehran will not halt its nuclear program without one.

“I believe the truth must be stated: The international community is not placing a clear red line for Iran and Iran does not see international resolve to stop its nuclear program,” Netanyahu told his cabinet in broadcast remarks, according to Reuters.

“Unless Iran sees this clear red line and this clear resolve it will not stop moving forward with its nuclear program, and Iran must not have nuclear weapons,” he continued.

Pointing to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s report last week that Iran has expanded its nuclear activity in a heavily fortified underground bunker, Netanyahu said time is running out to stop the country.

“The report confirms what I have been saying for a long time – the international sanctions are burdening Iran’s economy, but they are not delaying the development of the Iranian nuclear program,” Netanyahu said.

The U.S. has said it will not permit Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, but Israel has been hinting at striking Iran sooner rather than later, causing a reported strain between the two allies: Last week, U.S. military chief Gen. Martin Dempsey said he would “not want to be complicit” in such a strike.

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Roseanne Barr: Most Billionaires ‘Violent Pedophiles’ & ‘Heartless’ Cocaine Addicts

President Barack Obama said Saturday he wasn't offended by actor and director Clint Eastwood's speech at the Republican National Convention. (AFP/Getty Images)

President Barack Obama said he didn’t take offense at Clint Eastwood’s speech at the Republican National Convention, saying that if you’re president and are “easily offended, you should probably choose another profession.”

The 82-year-old Hollywood legend received mixed reviews for his 12-minute improvisational bit that included him speaking to an empty chair as if Obama were sitting in it. The Obama campaign fired back on Twitter, posting a photo of the president sitting in a chair with the caption, “This seat’s taken.”

This seat’s taken. OFA.BO/c2gbfi, twitter.com/BarackObama/st…

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 31, 2012

But in an interview with USA Today Saturday, Obama insisted he was an Eastwood fan and wasn’t bothered by what he had said.

“He is a great actor, and an even better director,” Obama said. “One thing about being president or running for president — if you’re easily offended, you should probably choose another profession.”

Obama said he didn’t think the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. would contain a similar sketch.

“I think we’ll be playing this pretty straight,” he said.

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Obama: RNC Like Watching ‘Black-and-White TV’ Because Romney ‘Did Not Offer a Single New Idea’

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A pilot was killed Saturday during an air show crash in Davenport, Iowa, sending a huge fireball toward the sky as a crowd watched. (Image source: Quad-City Times)

An air show pilot was killed Saturday during a performance in Davenport, Iowa when he failed to pull out of a 45-degree bank and crashed into a field as a horrified crowd watched.

The Quad-City Times reported the pilot had been flying in formation with two other retired military jets as part of the annual Quad-City Air Show when his plane went directly into the ground.

“He never had an opportunity to come out of it,” Assistant Davenport Police Chief Don Schaeffer said at a news conference.

The pilot, part of the Hoppers Flight Jet Team, was not immediately identified, but Schaeffer said he was not from Davenport. No one else was aboard the plane.

Nobody on the ground was hurt, but thousands of spectators saw a huge fireball go up from the site of the crash.

Investigators planned to comb the field for wreckage, which Schaeffer estimated was strewn over an area up to 220 yards.

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A still image from video shows Sgt. Phillip Roach getting hit with a wooden mallet during an Army initiation ceremony. Roach's father is furious about the injuries his son sustained and is demanding punishment. (Image source: WWMT-TV)

Disturbing video of a solider being struck in the chest with a wooden mallet at Fort Bragg, N.C. and then collapsing on the ground has his father furious and demanding punishment for those involved, WOOD-TV reported.

Ken Roach of Michigan said his son, 22-year-old Sgt. Phillip Roach, suffered a seizure and required stitches after knocking his head on the ground when he fell. He said the Army later acknowledged the April incident was a “hazing” event to mark his son’s promotion to sergeant.

“I never thought in my wildest dreams I’d be contacted by anybody that my son had a seizure and was hit in the chest during a hazing incident,” Ken Roach told the Associated Press.

Video of the incident first obtained by WWMT-TV shows Phillip Roach receiving the blow after another solider first takes several practice swings. Phillip Roach stumbles backward, then shakes the other soldier’s hand before collapsing.

Ken Roach, an Army veteran himself, told WOOD both the soldier wielding the mallet and the one filming it were his son’s superiors.

“He needs punishment. That was assault with a deadly weapon,” he told the station. “He could’ve killed my son and he should pay for it.”

Ken Roach said that because of the seizure, his son has been unable to get medical clearance to fly a plane and do other duties he trained for. He said he received a letter from the Army calling it an “unauthorized ceremony,“ and a ”clear incident of hazing that caused injury to a great soldier.” The letter also said the soldier who did the hitting had been reprimanded, but Roach said that wasn’t good enough, telling WOOD it was a “slap on the wrist”

“I’m not mad at the Army,” Ken Roach said. “I‘m mad at the individuals who done it and who’s trying to give a little slap on the wrist and say, ‘It’s good to go. Let’s just sweep it under the rug. Send him somewhere else and be done with it.’”

He said his son’s fiance, who was also a soldier but has since been honorably discharged, was also present during the incident. He told the AP neither she nor his son want to comment publicly for fear of retribution.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told WWMT in a statement he was “very concerned about this hazing incident” and was asking the Army to review it.

Roach said he’s just looking out for the welfare of his son, who decided he wanted to join the Army as a high school junior “so he could serve under the flag and fight for the freedom of the United States,” according to the AP.

“There’s a possibility that he may never be able to clear medically and be able to do his job and they could medically discharge him just because of this stupid hazing,” he told WOOD.

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Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign rally Sept. 1, 2012 in Jacksonville, Fla. (Getty Images)

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney injected some humor into his campaign during an event in Jacksonville, Fla.  Saturday, suggesting that President Barack Obama’s 2008 voters can be identified by “the glue where the bumper sticker used to be” on their cars.

Romney suggested every single one of his supporters at the rally go find one person that voted for Obama in 2008 and convince them to vote for him and running mate Wis. Rep. Paul Ryan in November.

“I have something to ask you to do, and I‘m going to convince you to do it by the time I’m finished, I believe. I need to ask each one of you to find one person who voted for Barack Obama last time. And they’re out there. I know that — you can usually tell where they are because on their cars you see the glue from where the bumper sticker used to be,” Romney quipped.

“You need to go to those guys and each one of you needs to find one person that voted for Barack Obama and convince them to vote for Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney,” he said to cheers.

Watch Romney deliver the remarks Saturday in Jacksonville:

Romney’s campaign has been focusing heavily on the “disappointments” of Obama’s first term, the image of a removed bumper sticker obviously reiterating that message. The topic was also a main focus of Romney’s nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday.

Ryan also used a similar analogy in his RNC speech, saying “college graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters.”

Front page image from Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

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Republican vice presidential candidate Rep Paul Ryan (R-WI) speaks during a campaign rally on September 1, 2012 in Jacksonville, Florida. Mitt Romney will hold campaign events in Ohio and Florida. (Credit: Getty Image)

Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan now says he didn’t run a marathon in less than three hours as he recently claimed in a nationally broadcast interview.

Ryan admitted Saturday that he misspoke and unintentionally padded his finishing time by more than an hour. The VP hopeful issued a statement correcting the record following a report by Runner’s World Magazine that challenged Ryan’s claim. The magazine found evidence that Ryan has completed one marathon, in 1990, and finished in just over four hours, not three.

Appearing on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show last month, Ryan said he had run a “two hour and fifty-something” marathon. As the Associated Press points out, that’s a pace of less than 7 minutes per mile for the 26.2 mile course — an extremely speedy time for recreational runners. NPR provides this transcript of Ryan’s conversation with Hewitt.

H[ugh] H[ewitt]: Are you still running?

P[aul] R[yan]: Yeah, I hurt a disc in my back, so I don’t run marathons anymore. I just run ten miles or yes.

HH: But you did run marathons at some point?

PR: Yeah, but I can’t do it anymore, because my back is just not that great.

HH: I’ve just gotta ask, what’s your personal best?

PR: Under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something.

HH: Holy smokes. All right, now you go down to Miami University …

PR: I was fast when I was younger, yeah.”

“The race was more than 20 years ago, but my brother Tobin — who ran Boston last year — reminds me that he is the owner of the fastest marathon in the family and has never himself ran a sub-three,” Ryan said in a statement. “If I were to do any rounding, it would certainly be to four hours, not three. He gave me a good ribbing over this at dinner tonight.”

Nearly every media outlet has since picked up the story and ran with it.

Further, some runners posting on the Runner‘s World website are fuming mad at Ryan’s claim, many of them posting their own personal records with date and time.

“Let’s see…..he lied repeatedly in his convention speech the other night, but to lie about a race time? Even more disgusting…….Maybe he ran a sub three the day Obama closed that plant in Wisconsin……pathetic,” one reader posted.

“Someone who blatantly lies about something that is so easily verifiable; a public figure who, of course, is going to get fact-checked, can only be one thing: pathological,” another person wrote.

Others though scoffed at the Runner’s World and other media outlets for spending so much time “fact-checking” a two decade old marathon time.

“Fun to see how much effort is put in to ”fact checking” a 20 year old marathon time. For someone who was a racer and turned into a runner, I think it could be easy to forget your race times,” someone wrote.

What do you think? Is the media overreacting to Ryan’s gaffe or does it prove that Ryan is dishonest? Take our poll:

Has the Media Overreacted to Ryan’s Marathon Gaffe?

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Front page image from Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

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Jay-Z, right, listens to supporters as they chant pro-Obama slogans, as Diddy, second from right, Russell Simmons, second from left, and Mary J. Blige, left, look on during a campaign rally for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama in Miami, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2008. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

PHILADELPHIA (TheBlaze/AP) — Jay-Z brought out heavy hitters to support him at the “Budweiser Made In America” festival: Kanye West and President Barack Obama.

Obama appeared in a video, urging the crowd of nearly 50,000 to vote. West joined Jay-Z at the end of his set, performing hits like “Mercy” and “…In Paris” on Saturday night.

There are apparently no hard feelings between Obama and West after the president called the rapper a “jackass” in a hot mic moment. Listen to the recording of the remarks here.

“[Jay-Z] got ahead because he worked hard, learned from his mistakes and just plain refused to quit,” Obama said in the video.

The president added, “Whatever your politics or your party, you should vote this fall. Wherever you live, you’ve got a choice to make.“ Chants of ”USA! USA!” broke out before the Obama video concluded.

Before taking the stage, Jay-Z made his way down the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art – made famous by Rocky – as his song “Made In America” played in the background.

Jay-Z headlined the first night of the two-day festival he curated, performing hits like “Empire State of Mind” and “Big Pimpin’” in a 90-minute show.

Skrillex, Miike Snow and Janelle Monae also performed. Pearl Jam, Run DMC and Drake will perform Sunday.

Watch some raw video taken by one of the festival goers here:

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The shooting occurred at around 1:30 a.m. Saturday in Detroit, a city grappling with high crime rates. Witnesses said several people were attending a “social event” when the suspect, identified only as a 36-year-old male, lost his temper in an altercation, pulled out a gun and started shooting, WDIV reports. After the smoke cleared, two men were dead and two others wounded. The shooter fled the scene in his car.

About two hours after the shooting, Detroit police say the suspect arrived at a Detroit Fire Engine Station and said he was involved in the deadly shooting that night, seemingly turning himself in. The fire station called the police, expecting them to rush to the station to pick up the murder suspect. Instead, the police told them that area patrol units were too busy “handling high priority runs” and therefore “no units were dispatched to the location,” according to the report.

This allowed the suspect to actually leave the fire station on his own free will. Fortunately, the suspected shooter went directly to the 10th Police Precinct where he was finally taken into custody.

Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee announced late Saturday that the department would be launching an administrative investigation to figure out why the appropriate resources were not made available.

“Every effort to ensure that this person was taken into custody should have occurred,” Godbee said in a statement. “Therefore an administrative investigation will be conducted to determine if this police run was handled appropriately and to ascertain if there were any other patrol resources which should have been made available to respond to the Detroit Fire Engine Quarters.”

The two men who died in the shooting were identified only as a 23-year-old and a 37-year-old. Two other men, 19 and 34, were listed in serious condition Saturday, according to police.

After learning about the bizarre incident, Detroit Fire Department Senior Chief Lewis Roelans said, “Isn’t it ironic? You call for the police and even we can’t get them.”

Front page image courtesy of mlive.com.

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US President Barack Obama makes his way off the stage after a campaign event at Living History Farms September 1, 2012 in Urbandale, Iowa. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

(TheBlaze/AP) — President Barack Obama lampooned the recently-completed Republican National Convention as better-suited to an era of “black-and-white TV“ and ” trickle-down, you’re on your own” economics Saturday, saying Mitt Romney “did not offer a single new idea” to fix the economy.

“There was a lot of talk about hard truths and bold choices, but no one actually told you what they were,” Obama said in Iowa, chuckling, as he set out on a three-day tour of battleground states in the run-up to his own convention. Later, Obama said, the Republican gathering was so rooted in the past, there should have been a rabbit-ears antenna on the convention hall.

Yet even the site of Obama’s convention, Charlotte, N.C., served as an unwelcome reminder to the Democrats of an economy so weak that it threatens his chances for re-election.

The president carried North Carolina in 2008, but the state’s unemployment rate is pegged at 9.6 percent, well higher than the nation’s 8.3 percent and tied with next-door South Carolina for fifth from the bottom.

President Obama said the RNC presented outdated ideas and would have been better suited to 'black and white' television. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

Democrats are taking their turn in the convention spotlight just days after the Republicans met in Tampa, Fla., to nominate former Massachusetts Gov. Romney for the White House and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan to be vice president.

A parade of speakers in Tampa excoriated Obama’s handling of the economy, which is struggling in the weakest recession recovery of the post-World War II era.

The economy has been the top-rated issue in opinion polls all year, and the president is eager to turn the focus onto Romney on that subject.

Republicans “will take us backwards,” Obama insisted, adding that “Gov. Romney had nothing to say about Afghanistan…or the plans for the 33,000 troops who will have come home from the war by the end of this month.”

“Let me recap it for you,” he said.  “Everything is bad, it‘s Obama’s fault and Gov. Romney is the only one who knows the secret to creating jobs and growing the economy.”

Here is the full speech, via C-SPAN:

Obama, pointing to successes, declared, “I said we’d take out bin Laden and we did.”

Romney campaigned in Ohio during the day – the opening of the college football season – and proclaimed it was time the country had a winning season after years of a sluggish economy and high unemployment.

Referring to the number of jobless in the country, Romney told his own cheering crowd, “If you have a coach that’s zero and 23 million, you say it’s time to get a new coach.”

He also pledged to cut the federal deficit and “get us on track for a balanced budget.”

Polls peg Iowa as one of eight or so battlegrounds where the election is most likely to be decided. The president carried it in 2008, and in an indication of the struggle he now faces, he has been lavishing time on it in recent weeks. He spent three days in August on a bus tour that traversed the state from west to east.

—

Feller reported from Urbandale and Sioux City, Iowa. Associated Press writers Kasie Hunt in Cincinnati, Beth Fouhy in Charlotte and Steve Peoples in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

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That does not mean, however, that it was completely devoid of noteworthy activity.

During his comments at the prayer service, BIMA spokesman Jibril Hough reportedly claimed that Muslims reached the Americas before Christopher Columbus.

He stated, according to the Washington Times: “Muslims visited America prior to Columbus…It was a Muslim who guided Columbus on his voyage to the new world.”

Worshipers gather for outdoor "Jumah" prayers at Marshall Park in Charlotte, N.C., on Friday. (Photo: Dwane Gross via NBC News)

Breitbart adds that BIMA is upsetting some Native Americans for claiming to be “indigenous,” including a passage from Miki Booth at the Western Center for Journalism:

Native Americans are very angry to learn that Muslims in the United States of America are being touted as “indigenous”, a complete falsehood.  The fact is, American Indians are the indigenous people of North America, as Hawai’ians are to Hawai’i and the Aborigine to Australia.  Organizations like BIMA marginalize native Americans in favor of Muslims, and Indians are not pleased.

In one of the photos of the event, where the men stand in front of the women to pray, one attendee is seemingly wearing a Yasser Arafat-style American flag scarf around his neck.

The event’s leaders have come under fire by other Muslims for being radical and, in the words of Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, wanting “to replace the US Constitution with the Quran.”

The event was quietly removed from the “Charlotte in 2012” page last week after its leaders’ radical connections were revealed, prompting an angry response from BIMA spokesperson Jibril Hough.

“This is about caving in to fear and ignorance,” he claimed after a senior Host Committee official told NBC the event was determined to be not “appropriate and relevant.”

(H/T: Weasel Zippers)

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‘Jumah at the DNC’ Speaker: ‘Muslims Visited America Prior to Columbus’ & ‘It Was a Muslim’ Who Guided Him to the ‘New World’

Paper Details Obama Admin’s Alleged Secret Note Sent to Iran: If Israel Attacks, We Won’t Get Involved

Obama: RNC Like Watching ‘Black-and-White TV’ Because Romney ‘Did Not Offer a Single New Idea’

Roseanne Barr: Most Billionaires ‘Violent Pedophiles’ & ‘Heartless’ Cocaine Addicts

(Photo: ICE via New York Daily News)

(TheBlaze/AP) — A senior Obama administration political appointee and longtime aide to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano resigned Saturday amid allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior lodged by at least three Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees.

Suzanne Barr, chief of staff to ICE Director John Morton, said in her resignation letter that the allegations against her are “unfounded.”  However, she said she was stepping down anyway to end distractions within the agency caused by the scandal.

ICE, a division of the Homeland Security Department, confirmed Barr had resigned, and the Associated Press obtained a copy of Barr’s letter.

In her letter to Morton, Barr said she has been the subject of “unfounded allegations designed to destroy my reputation” and is resigning “with great regret.”

“Of greater concern however, is the threat these allegations represent to the reputation of this agency and the men and women who proudly serve their country by advancing ICE’s mission,” Barr wrote. “As such, I feel it is incumbent upon me to take every step necessary to prevent further harm to the agency and to prevent this from further distracting from our critical work.”

Barr went on leave last month after the New York Post reported on the lawsuit filed by James T. Hayes Jr., ICE’s special agent in charge in New York.  Additional employees came forward with their allegations around the same time.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., said in a statement Saturday that Barr’s resignation “raises the most serious questions about management practices and personnel policies at the Department of Homeland Security.” He said his committee will continue to review the case and personnel practices at DHS.

In one complaint, Barr is accused of telling a male subordinate he was “sexy” and asking a personal question about his anatomy during an office party.  In a separate complaint, she is accused of offering to perform a sex act with a male subordinate during a business trip in Bogota, Colombia.  She’s also accused of calling a male subordinate from her hotel room and offering to perform a sex act.

In the lawsuit, Hayes said Barr “created a frat house-type atmosphere…targeted to humiliate and intimidate male employees.”

He is asking for more than $4 million in compensation for, among other things, what he believes he is owed for relocation expenses and financial losses associated with his transfer to the agency.

Hayes’ lawyer, Morris Fischer of Silver Spring, Md., has declined to comment.

The Justice Department is seeking to dismiss Hayes’ lawsuit on the basis that he did not state a claim for retaliation.

Barr, a 1995 graduate of the University of Arizona, was among Napolitano’s first appointments after she became secretary in 2009. Barr started working for Napolitano in 2004, while Napolitano was governor of Arizona.

–

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• RNC Star Mia Love‘s Wikipedia Page Reportedly Changed to ’Dirty, Worthless Wh**e‘ Who Is a ’House Ni**er’
• Former Hill Staffer and Obama Admin. Official Accused of Drugging and Sexually Assaulting Women

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‘Jumah at the DNC’ Speaker: ‘Muslims Visited America Prior to Columbus’ & ‘It Was a Muslim’ Who Guided Him to the ‘New World’

Paper Details Obama Admin’s Alleged Secret Note Sent to Iran: If Israel Attacks, We Won’t Get Involved

Obama: RNC Like Watching ‘Black-and-White TV’ Because Romney ‘Did Not Offer a Single New Idea’

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