Desperate Democrats are handing out tickets to students and volunteers in a scramble to fill seats for President Barack Obama’s Thursday-night accepting nomination to a second term, according to The Associated Press.

The campaign needs to fill 74,000-seat Bank of America stadium to capacity when Obama speaks.

Doling out of tickets to just about anyone is a far cry from the “hope and change” fervor that permeated the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver.

“The entire campaign is very different, and by extension, so is the convention. (It’s) a little bit like renewing one’s marriage vows — important and special, but it does not necessarily have the magic of the first time,” Democratic strategist Chris Lehane told the New York Daily News.

“The 2008 convention was a historical moment and, appropriately so, aspirational in nature, whereas 2012 is about the re-election of an incumbent and so, by its very definition, a compare-and-contrast convention when it comes to laying out the case for four more years,” Lehane told the News.

Even Obama’s own aides agree there is a palpable enthusiasm deficit.

Top campaign adviser Robert Gibbs told CNN’s State of the Union that “nobody is sitting up here saying this is 2008,” but that’s because of a “huge economic calamity caused by a series of bad decisions that were made before the president ever got there.”

Democrats have been worried for months over whether Obama could fill the stadium. Crowds at campaign rallies in swing states have been notably thin, according to AP. Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts also will speak Thursday night.

The Obama campaign has tended toward smaller venues after being unable to fill the arena for its kickoff rally in Columbus, Ohio, leaving thousands of empty seats, Politico reported.

It will be a challenge for Obama to rekindle the excitement from 2008.

Failing to fill the stadium Obama’s big night would be highlighted by Republicans, who will be quick to point out that enthusiasm for the president has waned. That, too, would crystallize their argument that Americans feel that they are worse off than they were four years ago.

Several large black churches in South Carolina are sending busloads of members to the Thursday-night event; Duke University is busing in 100 students; and several thousand tickets have been given to new campaign volunteers in North Carolina. Tens of thousands of other tickets have been handed out to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.

Obama advisers insist Bank of America Stadium will be filled when Obama steps to the podium.

“The response we’ve seen from the community has been incredible, and it’s obvious that people have a big interest in owning a piece of the most open and accessible convention in history,” Adam Fetcher, a campaign spokesman, told the AP.

“President Obama’s speech on Thursday night will bring this election into focus for the American people, and it will be even more significant because so many North Carolinians will be there to see it.”

Read more on Newsmax.com: Enthusiasm of 2008 is Missing From Democrats Desperate to Fill Convention Seats

(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.

Read on at The Blaze

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.

“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.

Watch the Video at The Blaze

Back-to-School sales are hitting stores across the country but an increasing number of parents are preparing for a decidedly non-traditional Back-to-School – those choosing to homeschool their children. Many people think of homeschooling as something reserved for the religious and the free-spirited but nothing could be further from the truth. Homeschooling is no longer a fringe movement. It is a viable mainstream option for many parents. It’s also a choice my wife and I have made for our family.

Homeschooling has traditionally been done by Christian families but the main reasons parents choose homeschooling today don’t strictly resonate with religious families. Parents are given a way to develop customized curricula for their children. In addition to faith-based learning parents have the freedom to emphasize the values they feel should be incorporated into their child’s education. They also have the flexibility to add educational day trips to their mornings and afternoons.

There are a number of options for homeschoolers to replace the assumed loss of socialization that scares off some parents. Go on Yahoo Groups and do a search for “homeschool” in your area and you will be amazed at the sheer number of options at a parent’s disposal. Go on Meetup and search for homeschool groups in your area or do a Google search for homeschool co-ops and you’ll realize homeschool children have more opportunities for socialization than children in school.

As we’ve made inquiries and learned from other parents, we’ve found a plethora of other homeschool-only opportunities for our kids. There are homeschool-only gymnastics classes, bowling leagues, ice skating open skates, play places that run homeschool-only specials, learning opportunities at Liberty Sciece Center and museums and small group classes run by different counties once or twice a month. The possibilities are endless and give our children not only the chance to learn outside of school, but to socialize with a lot of other kids and families who share the same lifestyle.

The variety of co-ops to join can range from the art type we’ve chosen to academics-only types that run in various towns on one day per week. Your high-schooler can take a Chemistry class taught by a certified Chemistry teacher. Your 6th grader can take creative writing. Your 4th grader can take Spanish. Your 4-year old can go to Coop Preschool.

There are even homeschool sports leagues for your high school aged kids. New Jersey has those too and it’s growing at a fast pace (and as long as they meet the same eligibility requirements as other students, homeschoolers can now also play sports at their local public high school).

Homeschoolers in New Jersey have proms, science fairs, academic debates and all the other “social” things schooled children get to experience.

Homeschooling also lets parents alleviate any concerns they may have about the condition of public schools. Academic standards at our schools can be dubious. There are a lot of negative things across a very wide spectrum that will give any parent pause when it comes to public schools. Situations will arise involving bullying and gossip, gangs, drugs, cheating and all other kinds of peer pressure.

We don’t all live in blue ribbon school districts, our children don’t always get the best teachers or classes and not every family can afford private education. Homeschooling offers a practical alternative. Not only that, “statistics show homeshoolers, on average, scored 37 percentile points above their public school counterparts on standardized achievement tests.”

Choosing homeschooling is both a very brave and a very crazy choice. It has allowed me to spend more time with my children, it has helped strengthen their faith and it has allowed my wife and I to have a more direct involvement with their education. Social interactions at school are being replaced with social interactions outside of school. Our children are involved in an art co-op where they attend “school” on Tuesdays for chorus and violin classes, and where they can register for any sort of art class they want next year – music, drama, dance, art, computer graphics, etc. Our children are still involved in Girl and Cub Scouts, karate, our daughter is starting gymnastics and Pioneer Club and our son is playing football this season. Our little one is going to Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) with my wife starting in a few weeks as well. This is all in addition to the “homeschool-only” events we’ll be attending throughout the year.

Read on at NJ.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the nation’s public school systems received $593.7 billion in funding for fiscal year 2010, the latest figuresavailable show. Of that amount, local governments contributed $261.4 billion (44.0 percent), followed by revenue raised from state sources, which contributed $258.2 billion (43.5 percent), and federal sources, which provided the remaining $74.0 billion (12.5 percent).

Revenue from federal sources increased by $18.1 billion, a 32.5 percent increase from fiscal 2009 and the largest increase in federal funding for public school systems since 1977.

YouthBuild is a nonresidential, community-based alternative education program that helps dropouts earn a high school or General Educational Development diploma while learning occupational skills in construction, health care, information technology and other fields.

It “offers young people the opportunity to earn academic and industry-recognized credentials, practice the skills they’ll need to succeed at work, and experience what it means to contribute to their own success and that of their communities,” Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said.

The “YouthBuild” grants announced last week range from $700,000 to more than a million dollars and will go to organizations and schools in 28 states and the District of Columbia.
Including the most recent grantees, the Labor Department now actively funds 127 YouthBuild programs around the country.

Many participants have been in the juvenile justice system, are aging out of foster care, have dropped out of high school, or are otherwise at-risk of failing to reach key educational milestones and opportunities that lead to career fulfillment.

Read on at CNS News

On Tuesday, the Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List), an organization devoted to electing pro-life candidates to public office, announced the inception of a $150,000 television ad campaign that will be airing across Missouri. Its purpose? To expose President Barack Obama’s purportedly “extreme record on abortion.” To deliver its message, the organization shares the story of Melissa Ohden, a woman who survived a failed abortion attempt.

In a statement released about the television campaign, SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser made it clear that the purpose of the first video release is to add a human face to the abortion debate. Additionally, it very clearly serves to showcase, in the organization’s view, how deeply anti-life Obama has been throughout his political career.

“President Obama’s appalling record on abortion is not just limited to his four votes to deny rights to abortion survivors but spans to his recent heartless refusal to support bans on sex-selection and late-term abortions,” Dannenfelser says in the release. “These actions fly in the face of mainstream American views and run counter to the President’s first term pre-election talk of finding common ground.”

In the video, Ohden describes her own, personal story surrounding abortion survival, highlighting how she was saved following a botched procedure. Additionally, she recaps some contentious facts about Obama’s record on the matter. Here’s a partial transcript:

“I was aborted, and my body discarded…like I didn’t exist.

But a nurse heard me crying…and cared enough to save my life.

There’s something else you may not know…when he was in the Illinois State Senate, Barack Obama voted to deny basic constitutional protections for babies born alive from a failed abortion. Not once, but four times.

I know that it is by the grace of God I am alive today…if only to ask America this question:

Is this the kind of leadership that will move us forward? Leadership that would discard the least and the weakest among us?”This is the first video in a series that will take aim at Obama’s allegedly “extremist record on abortion.” SBA List may place similar ads in media markets in states like North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. The group has also launched a bus tour to speak out against Obama on his abortion stance. The five-state tour is called “Women Speak Out: Abortion is Not Health Care.”

Watch the Video at The Blaze

The documentary “2016: Obama’s America” has been dominating headlines over the past week after it broke records at the American box office. But now, at the height of interest surrounding the movie, there seems to be a bit of controversy brewing. John Sullivan, executive producer and co-director (author and academic Dinesh D‘Souza also directed and narrated the film), is claiming that CNN rejected an ad for the documentary because it is simply “too political.”

While the ad has already run on similar media outlets — FOX News, MSNBC, Discovery Channel and A&E, among others, CNN refused to air it, according to an interview that Sullivan did with Entertainment Weekly. In describing the purported rejection, the filmmaker called it “a really weird situation” and said that it was “really funny” to see it unfold.

“They said it was ‘too political,’ which is very odd because we have no affiliation with any political party of any sort, or PAC, or anything of that nature,” Sullivan explained.

But CNN is singing a very different tune about the incident, claiming that the media outlet didn’t “reject” the ad, per se. Instead, a spokesperson explained that the network asked the filmmakers to explain why the ad would not, in their view, fall under political advertising disclosure regulations. After reaching out to get an explanation, the spokesperson claims that the “2016” filmmakers didn’t respond.Entertainment Weekly explains the disclosure rules that CNN expressed fears over, while also highlighting MSNBC’s view that there was no legal conflict that would have prevented the network from airing it:

The network’s concern was a Federal Election Commission rule that states any telecast advocating for the election or defeat of a federal candidate must have its funding source revealed in a disclaimer notice (“Paid for by…”). Such notices are standard on political ads, yet might be unprecedented for a popular theatrical film. An MSNBC spokesperson said the commercial ran without a disclaimer, like a regular movie ad. “The ad was approved through NBC News standards and practices before air,” an MSNBC spokesperson said.

Considering the overall cost of “2016” — a modest $2.5 million (modest in terms of Hollywood’s standards) — it has already brought in a whopping $9.4 million since it first premiered, in a limited capacity, seven weeks ago. While CNN expressed fears over the film’s funding, Sullivan brushed these issues off, maintaining that there was no corporate money given for its production. Instead, it was funded by what he calls “a broad base of investors.”

“There’s no grand investor conspiracy here,” he maintains.

A second ad for the film is being distributed to media and Sullivan is hopeful that CNN will accept it. So far, no word has been released as to whether the network has seen the spot — or whether it will abandon its fears and air it as other media outlets did the ad that preceded it.

Watch the Trailer at The Blaze

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (USA TODAY) — As the GOP formally nominated Mitt Romney as its presidential candidate Tuesday in Tampa, President Obama spent the day on two college campuses in the battleground states of Colorado and Iowa courting young voters.

The Obama campaign sees the youth vote as key to his chances for re-election in November. In 2008, Obama won 66% of the 18- to 29-year-old vote, and most polls show he has a big lead over Romney in that age group. What remains to be seen is whether young voters will show up in the same numbers as they did in 2008.

“We’ve come too far to turn back now,” Obama told a crowd of 13,000 on the Colorado State University quad Tuesday evening. “We’ve got more work to do.”

Earlier in the day, he delivered remarks on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, where he touted his efforts to double Pell Grants, end the war in Iraq and pass health care reform, all red-meat issues for younger voters.

The Romney campaign dismissed Obama’s efforts to drum up the youth vote. “After nearly four years in office, the president has left young Americans facing higher unemployment, mounting debt, rising costs and fewer opportunities in the Obama economy,” said Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg.

Young Americans today face a staggering 17.1% unemployment rate.

Typically, presidential candidates lie low while the opposing party holds its convention. But with little more than two months to go until the election and polls showing a tight race, Obama decided to hit the trail for a two-day, three-college-town tour, scheduled to culminate with a rally Wednesday near the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville.

At Iowa State, Obama paused before his stump speech to say that the people of the Gulf Coast, who are bracing for Hurricane Isaac to make landfall, were in his thoughts.

Read on at Cincinatti news

 Minnesota for Marriage demands immediate removal of employee and considers legal action against offender, state fair and vendor.

Minneapolis, MN – The Minnesota for Marriage campaign is asking for the immediate removal of a lemonade stand employee at the State Fair who admitted to spitting in the drink of a supporter of the Minnesota Marriage Protection Amendment.  Identified on her Twitter handle as Caiti Weber or @caiti_weber, the assailant bragged about her actions on her Twitter account on Friday.

“We are saddened to see such inexcusable behavior,” said Andy Parrish, Deputy Campaign Manager, Minnesota for Marriage.  “It is also brings to question how many other drinks have been tainted by this young women while she has worked at the State Fair.  We are calling on the State Fair to take immediate action against the vendor to ensure that the employee is removed and that the vendor adopts procedures to ensure this does not happen again. We are also examining whether legal action should be considered.”

Minnesota for Marriage said this is the latest in a string of troubling events that have occurred at this year’s fair. “Last year, our volunteers were glittered. This year the attacks have escalated,” said Parrish.  “On the same day this woman surreptitiously spit in a supporter’s drink, we had avolunteer pushed to the ground by a gay marriage activist. So much for tolerance.”

President Obama’s Twitter account has 18.8 million followers — but more than half of them really don’t exist, according to reports.

A new Web tool has determined that 70% of Obama’s crowd includes “fake followers,” The New York Timesreports in a story about how Twitter followers can be purchased.

“The practice has become so widespread that StatusPeople, asocial media management company in London, released a Web tool last month called the Fake Follower Check that it says can ascertain how many fake followers you and your friends have,” the Times reports.

“Fake accounts tend to follow a lot of people but have few followers,” said Rob Waller, a founder of StatusPeople. “We then combine that with a few other metrics to confirm the account is fake.”

Notes the Times:

If accurate, the number of fake followers out there is surprising. According to the StatusPeople tool, 71 percent of Lady Gaga’s nearly 29 million followers are “fake” or “inactive.” So are 70 percent of President Obama’s nearly 19 million followers.

Republican opponent Mitt Romney has far fewer Twitter followers — not quite 900,000 — but it’s a good bet that some of them are fake as well.

Both campaigns have denied buying Twitter followers.