Joe Biden paying for his purchases at Costco. (Photo: Getty)

Vice President Joe Biden visited a newly-opened Costco in Washington D.C. this morning. While there, according to a series of White House Press Office pool reports filed by McClatchy's Lesley Clark, Mr. Biden "engaged in an extended Costco shopping spree, to the delight
of shoppers and employees at the store."

As he walked into the store, Mr. Biden flashed his Costco card eliciting "loud cheers" from the other patrons and employees. During his time at the Costco, Mr. Biden filled a shopping cart with,
"among other things, childrens' books, fire logs, a 32 inch Panasonic TV and a big apple pie." He also took advantage of several free food samples and "looked like he enjoyed them."

During his "loop of nearly the entire store," Mr. Biden spent "considerable time" looking at the watch counter where he checked out several items including a $1,200 model. However, Ms. Clark said it was "unknown" whether he purchased a watch.

Despite all the shopping, politics wasn't absent from Mr. Biden's visit to Costco. Mr. Biden was asked whether he was optimistic about the fiscal cliff negotiations.

"I am," he responded.

Mr. Biden also called on Congress to extend the Bush-era middle class tax cuts.

"Consumer confidence is growing, the last thing we need to do is dash that," Mr. Biden said. "It's important congress acts now, right now."

Though Mr. Biden clearly gave his Costco card a good workout, he resisted the efforts of employees who "were trying to lure him to the tire department."

"Hey man I don't need tires," said Mr. Biden. "I don't drive anymore."

Alexander Wang's sweatshirt designed for the Obama campaign. (Photo: BarackObama.com)

A $95 sweatshirt currently being sold in President Obama's campaign store is the work of Alexander Wang, a designer who's facing a class action suit in federal court for allegedly running a sweatshop where garment workers were forced to work 100 hour weeks in a factory with conditions "comparable to those of third world countries" while being subjected to racial discrimination, verbal abuse and threats. C.K. Lee, the lead attorney representating the workers who are suing Mr. Wang told The Politicker he thinks the presence of the sweatshirt is "inappropriate."

"Hopefully, the campaign would be more educated on the background of Alexander Wang and his sweatshop facilites and the abuse of worker's rights," Mr. Lee said. "I wish Obama would be more--or at least his campaign would be more in tune with what's going on."

Mr. Wang's Obama sweatshirt is part of the "Runway To Win" collection, which includes Obama campaign gear made by 22 other designers including Vera Wang and Marc Jacobs. Runway To Win was announced in January, before Mr. Wang's legal troubles began, but his contribution to the project was never removed from the campaign store once the allegations came to light. Mr. Wang's sweatshirt for the project features the phrase "Let Us Be Clear" emblazoned along the zipper.

Alexander Wang (Photo: Getty)

The lawsuit against Mr. Wang began in March when he was sued for $50 million by thirty workers in Queens Supreme Court. At the time, a spokesperson for Mr. Wang vehemently denied the allegations. The case was subsequently discontinued and taken over by Mr. Lee who refiled in federal court.

Mr. Lee's complaint claimed Mr. Wang's garment workers suffered "inhumane working conditions" in his factory on Broadway which was described as a windowless space "about 200 square foot in size, with more than twenty garment workers working inside at any given time." According to the complaint, workers were "required to work inhumane hours ... in excess of 100 hour weeks at times (15 hours per day for 7 days per week)," particularly during the lead up to the four seasonal Fashion Week shows in New York. Workers were allegedly not paid overtime, given proper breaks, or sick leave. One plaintiff, Wenyu Lu, described being hospitalized for 12 days after they "passed out at the work station" after a working "25 hours with no break" and being "pressured" to "continue to work or be fired." A spokesperson for Mr. Wang later claimed Mr. Lu was fired for "serious harassment issues."

In addition to the brutal conditions at Mr. Wang's factory, the lawsuit also claims workers faced "intentional affliction of emotional distress" including being "regularly called 'lazy,' 'stupid'" and other names and being subjected to "disparaging references" to their "national origins." Workers were also allegedly told that  "if anyone complained they would be summarily terminated" leading to constant "fear of retribution and retaliation." The complaint also accuses Mr. Wang, who is of Taiwanese descent, of multiple counts of racial discrimination for because their managers were allegedly all white while "all garment workers are exclusively Asian or Latino immigrants ... because such minorities are easily controlled and fearful of losing their jobs."

A spokeswoman for Mr. Wang told us the sweatshirt was "just designed by him" and not produced at his factory and that he is "not planning on creating any other designs for Runway to Win." The Obama campaign has not responded to a request for comment on this story.

The "Peace Through Strength" T-Shirt. (Photo: GOPStore.com)

According to a list of "hot items" in the Republican National Committee's online store, the top seller on the site right now is a t-shirt that features the peace sign made out of a B-52 Bomber. Accompanying this illustration is the old Ronald Reagan campaign slogan "Peace Through Strength."

There are also stickers and buttons with the "Peace Through Strength" bomber logo in the RNC store as well as a cornucopia of other exciting items like an inflatable GOP elephant, and a jigsaw puzzle featuring a painting of George W. Bush playing a game of cards with his father, Reagan, Richard Nixon, Dwight Eisenhower, Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

Gerald Holtom designed the peace sign in 1958 to serve as the logo of the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). He chose the shape in the middle that the RNC has replaced with a B-52 because it represented the combination of the shapes used to represent N and D (short for nuclear disarmament) in flag semaphore. By adding a B52 to the peace symbol, the RNC replaced a signal that stood for nuclear disarmament with the exact type of plane the U.S. uses to drop nuclear bombs.

This isn't the first instance of conservatives taking a shot at the peace sign. In 1970, the ultraconservative John Birch Society published an article that claimed the peace sign had roots as a pagan medieval "symbol of the antichrist." The John Birch Society also had stickers that dubbed the sign the "Footprint of the American Chicken."

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