National Association of Manufacturers Executive Vice President Jay Timmons is on the road attending the Democratic National Convention in Denver and next week’s Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St.Paul.

Timmons, a guest on this week’s “America’s Business” with Mike Hambrick, says Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) made history by becoming the first African American nominated to the White House. However, Obama needs to give voters more details on his policies to help manufacturers and workers, he said.

Meanwhile, Timmons said prospective Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) made a smart move Friday in selecting Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate. She could attract some of the supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) to the Republican fold, he said.

“If there are those who are looking at this as an opportunity for women to provie they can lead the nation then certainly she can attract some of those former Hillary supporters,” Timmons said of Gov. Palin.

All that talk about American jobs moving overseas may be overblown. We’ll be joined by Exxel Outdoors founder and Chief Executive Officer Harry Kazazian to discuss why his company is moving sleeping bag production back to the United States from China.

America has a hard time balancing its check book. The White House recently announced the federal budget deficit will hit a record $482 billion for the year ended September 2009. Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget President Maya MacGuineas will join us to talk about what effect this massive deficit will have on our economy.

This is the Labor Day holiday weekend. That means its time to get the annual Labor Day economic report from National Association of Manufacturers Chief Economist Dave Huether. Dave will talk about how trade and exports have proven to be a bright spot in the economy.

And with fall approaching football is in the air. Mike will chat with Wilson Sporting Goods plant manager Daniel Riegle about football manufacturing and Wilson’s close ties with the NFL.

In our regular segments, Renee Giachino of American Justice Partnership gives us the latest on tort reform and commentator Hank Cox recalls “The Way It Was.” And our program will close with “The Last Word” from the National Association of Manufacturers President Gov. John Engler.

For more about “America’s Business with Mike Hambrick” and to listen to the program online, please click here. And for video highlights and more, check out http://www.americasbusiness.org.

To those of us without cable, this C-SPAN online “Convention Hub” looks very…resourceful. Live coverage of the DNC Convention, reports from bloggers, etc. Very good.

(Hat tip: Mark Hemingway)

And for good coverage of the lunatic totalitarian protesters, try Pajamas Media and Zombietime.

P.S. Hemingway summarizes the C-SPAN resources:

• C-SPAN is augmenting its TV coverage with flip cams, plus broadcasting online using Qik.
• All C-SPAN convention video goes online within minutes of airing, and it can be searched (using the closed captioning), video can be clipped to what bloggers need, and for the first time, embedded.
• They’re rounding up blog coverage — not just national & news bloggers, but credentialed and state-based bloggers. This will be updated continuously through the end of the RNC.
• They’re aggregating all Twitter postings that use #DNC08 and #RNC08 hashtags.

The Wall Street Journal carried a fun story today, “The Greenest Show on Earth: Democrats Gear Up for Denver,” about the earnest efforts to be environmentally sensitive at the Democratic National Convention. And sensitive to unions. And every other group with sensitivities.

The convention even has a Director of Greening, Andrea Robinson:

To test whether celebratory balloons advertised as biodegradable actually will decompose, Ms. Robinson buried samples in a steaming compost heap. She hired an Official Carbon Adviser, who will measure the greenhouse-gas emissions of every placard, every plane trip, every appetizer prepared and every coffee cup tossed. The Democrats hope to pay penance for those emissions by investing in renewable energy projects.

Perhaps Ms. Robinson’s most audacious goal is to reuse, recycle or compost at least 85% of all waste generated during the convention.

Good luck. Seriously. Conservation and recycling make good sense, even if it’s just people picking up their trash. Just hope all the earnestness, Enviro-Monitors, policing,  reminding, announcements from the stage, PSAs, inserted paragraphs, etc. etc. etc. etc. doesn’t spoil the fun.

No fried food. And, on the theory that nutritious food is more vibrant, each meal should include “at least three of the following colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white.” (Garnishes don’t count.) At least 70% of ingredients should be organic or grown locally, to minimize emissions from fuel burned during transportation.

Doesn’t this kind of obsessiveness invite  a thousand “gotcha” stories? Every jet that brings in your Al Gore and/or Hollywood celebrity will point out that a modern society uses products and energy and creates waste. Every balloon of sanctimony will be pricked by human fallibility.

Imagine: “Thanks, Jim. And you know, that confetti is biodegradable!” And then they’ll find a dumpster full of it in a creek someplace, right next to the illicit 55-gallon barrels of saturated fats.

The public watching on TV might also wind up saying, uggh, what a bunch of scolds and busy bodies. And they want the government to do the same thing, times 100? No thanks.