If you ever tune in to talk show debates between liberals and conservatives, you’ve seen how the “progressive” always shouts down the conservative whenever he or she attempts to register his or her side of the story.

Likewise, it’s the same when a conservative attempts to give a speech at a university or other forum and a crowd of “progressives” shows up for the sole purpose of shouting the right thinker down so that no one can hear the intended speech.

This is because the left side doesn’t want anyone to hear what the right side has to say, as for “progressives”, freedom of speech is a one way street. They’re afraid, you see, that if the conservatives’ message gets out, those previously undecided will hear the common sense of the imparted speech, and vote/support campaigns based on good information rather than on the bias of left wing media and “progressive” politicians’ propaganda.

Well, Wicked Witch of the West Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi got a sample of the same from members of her own side yesterday, and you have no idea (or maybe you do) as to just how good it makes me feel to see a traitor from the far left receive some of what those pseudo-Americans usually reserve for genuine Americans.

Crowds repeatedly interrupted and heckled House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Tuesday at America’s Future Now conference in what was the latest and most dramatic evidence of simmering, left-wing anger among those attending the three-day liberal gathering.

Conference organizers had hoped Tuesday would be the day to highlight liberal success stories, but the theme running throughout the event — from hallway conversations to ballroom speeches — was frustration with Mrs. Pelosi, Senate Democrats, White House operatives and President Obama himself.

The tone was set early when Mrs. Pelosi’s speech at Washington’s Omni Shoreham hotel ballroom was hijacked by a rowdy coalition of antiwar protesters and advocates for the disabled who were angry over a health care bill they said was inadequate.

As the California Democrat tried to talk about her party’s accomplishments, members of the activist groups Code Pink and ADAPT shouted and challenged Mrs. Pelosi to put down her prepared remarks and respond to their complaints.

Her party’s “accomplishments”, that’s a good one. If the USSR were still in business and she could have reported her party’s “accomplishments” to the Politboro, she would have received the Order of Lenin.

In the “interesting, but true” department, we have this from John Myers:

To the Greens I have six words regarding the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico: Your President, your policies, your fault.

After all Barack Obama was the progressive Green candidate, a thinker who could steer the course in the 21st Century. Oprah anointed then-Senator Obama as “The Chosen One”. To Oprah and a great majority of Liberals, Obama was the anti-Dubya; a larger than life leader with savior qualities that would lead us to peace and overcome all obstacles.

So far, so bad. America’s endgame for Iraq is in question because of increasing levels of Shiite-Sunni violence. Afghanistan looks more untenable all the time. The recovery is sluggish and healthcare has been rammed down the throats of the American people. Now we face an enormous crisis in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s been almost two months since an explosion sent crude pumping into the Gulf and the Obama administration has shown an astonishing lack of leadership.

David Gergen, a centrist political commentator and advisor to four Presidents, has pointed out a basic lack of leadership from the Obama administration: “Ultimately it is not the responsibility of BP or any other company to protect American interests but the responsibility of the Federal government.”

Heh heh, the only interests our current Capital Hill Democrat majority and White House wonderboy are protecting are their own liberal political interests.

Ahem, sorry, go on…

So here it is, a news flash to Oprah and the Liberals: When it comes to leadership, Barack Obama is a lot more Herbert Hoover than he is Harry Truman, regardless of how many “the buck stops here” speeches Obama chooses to give…

The more unpleasantness we encounter, the more Obama talks about doing such two fisted things as “kickin’ butt”, but while the talk is talked, no walk seems to be getting walked.

The President bristles at criticism that the Gulf crisis is his Katrina. Even in the face of the failure of BP to stem the spill with its top-kill option, Obama was defending the Federal government’s record and promised aggressive action to ensure future drilling is done safely. He has extended a moratorium on new exploration drilling in the Gulf and announced that 33 current projects in the deep water will be suspended along with two permits for exploration wells in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska.

“As we continue our response effort, we’re also moving quickly on steps to ensure that a catastrophe like this never happens again,” he said. “I’ve said before that producing oil here in America is an essential part of our overall energy strategy. But all drilling must be safe.”

Respectfully Mr. President, can we not worry about future leaks until we fix this one? After all, the BP gusher has well surpassed the 1989 Exxon spill in Alaska as the largest ever in the United States. Crude has continued to spew for 52 days after it began with a rig explosion that killed 11 people. Every effort to stop the spill has so far proved unsuccessful.

When I was a boy on the farm we didn’t worry about the horses that might get out; we scurried about to catch the horse that had gotten out. And right now there is a big and nasty animal rolling about the Gulf presenting a clear and present danger to the United States. Meanwhile we are getting the Green lecture—how to stop future oil spills. Which brings me to my second news flash—it is Green policies that got us into this mess in the first place.

That’s a true and familiar tune, isn’t it? For decades now, our largest domestic problems have originated on the left side of the aisle in their efforts to bring us a new, improved America or to fix what either ain’t broke or will, by nature of the American people, eventually be repaired by the forces of the marketplace without “help” from the government.

“An extended moratorium on safely producing our oil and natural gas resources from the Gulf of Mexico would create a moratorium on economic growth and job creation,” said Jack Gerard, chief executive of the American petroleum Institute.

It’s worth noting that the Gulf of Mexico currently produces about 1.6 million barrels of oil per day—an amount larger than the output of Canada’s oil sands. It was expected to grow to 1.9 million barrels by 2025. But the jury is out on this until Obama—”The Chosen One”—chooses leadership over politics and stops this catastrophe.

Here, here!

The entire column.

In the bad old days of my military service, I had occasion to witness the self inflicted deaths of more than one adolescent. Those deaths were death by explosives, those kids self-detonating in order to take the lives of others.

The incidents did not occur in or near the United States or even on the North or South American continents, but in third world countries oceans away.

Even though these children died commiting murder, I felt heartache at people in such an early stage of life dying needlessly. And it was needless, there is little doubt in my mind that they were either compelled to do what they did or persuaded to do so by cowardly adults who preferred to use kids as weapons to crawling out of their holes and fighting like men for the causes they espoused.

When I read about this incident, I was just as depressed.

The teenager died needlessly.

Not because a Border Patrol agent saw fit to shoot him (I was not there, and the circumstances as reported are still apparently a bit muddy), but because the kid was there to begin with.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent fatally shot a 15-year-old Mexican boy after a group trying to illegally enter Texas threw rocks at officers near downtown El Paso, U.S. authorities said Tuesday.

The shooting, which happened Monday evening beneath a railroad bridge linking the two nations, drew sharp criticism from Mexico, where President Felipe Calderon said Tuesday that his goverment “will use all resources available to protect the rights of Mexican migrants.”

The above quoted paragraphs indicate the blame for the incident, investigation results notwithstanding, and tell us exactly who is to blame for the boy’s dying there.

Calderone: the rights of Mexican migrants

People his government should be stopping on their side of the border, except that the corrupt sleazeballs, including Calderone himself, see it as being in their best interests to palm off their poor on the U.S. so they can pocket more of the money they’re not spending looking after their own citizens.

Mexican migrants? How about “criminal aliens?” Felony trespassers upon sovereign U.S. soil?

What rights? These people were crossing our border illegally, they did not belong on this side of the border, therefore they had no rights.

Americans who employ undocumented aliens: illegals sneak across the border because they can get work up here from criminals who, in order to obtain cheap labor, ignore the laws that prohibit them from hiring these people.

“Progressive” U.S. Politicians: These folks are just as criminal as the scumbags that hire illegals, because instead of allowing their law enforcement agencies to apprehend illegals, they provide sanctuary cities and states. They speak out in favor of illegal immigrants, sending them a message that they’re welcome here.

In California, well, just look at L.A. County alone. There’s a corrupt, greasy, anti-American L.A. mayor named Villarago — Villarai — whatever, who champions the cause of illegals and condemns a state like Arizona for protecting itself by enforcing immigration laws. There are boulevards like Olympic in Santa Monica where the city actually puts out porta-cans along the roadsides where the illegals stand around waiting for contractors to pick them up, so the felons will feel more comfortable waiting there.

Isn’t that nice…

Meanwhile, illegal aliens are putting hospitals out of business in California, contributing to the bankruptcy and unemployment and crime, and these “progressives” ignore it all.

The Federal Court System: What happened to Tyson and others when they were caught red-handed with plants overflowing with “undocumented” workers?

Nothing.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Where the hell are they?

The President, the Speaker of the House, the Senate Majority Leader, all the Democrats on the Hill, and, of course,

The Mainstream (lefty) Media: For their heartfelt support and encouragement both of illegal immigration and the lack of enforcement thereof.

Naturally, the blame will fall on the Border Patrol agent who pulled the trigger, although in the scheme of things, he is the least responsible, for that boy dying, of any of the above.

This one’s great, between their “controvesial” immigration bill and the more recent clarification bearing their governor’s signature that it is perfectly acceptable to run a business in America (or at least in Arizona) without being required to provide foreign language translators, those folks in Arizona are most definitely letting the more sheep-like states know where real Americans draw the line; and now, we have this:

From CNS News

Thanks to an advertiser who wishes to remain anonymous, cars and trucks on Arizona Highway 260 in East Central Arizona are driving by a billboard advertisement that recently went up, bearing President Obama’s face on a mock U.S. $100,000,000,000,000 (One-Hundred Trillion Dollar) bill.

The billboard’s caption: “But Who Will Pay the Piper?”

Chuck Perrine of Jones Outdoor advertising in Tucson, Ariz., confirmed to CNSNews.com that his company created the 10 ft- by-40 ft. billboard, which he said “went up within the last month.”

Perrine said the sign is located “near Linden (Ariz.),” but said that the advertiser is “not interested” in disclosing any further information about his identity–or his reason for purchasing the ad.

“I’m sorry, I can’t give you any information about the advertiser whatsoever,” Perrine told CNSNews.com Monday. “That’s part of his contract with us.”

The Office of Management and Budget in Obama’s White House estimates that the federal deficit this year will be 10.6 percent of GDP, making fiscal 2010 the first fiscal year since the end of World War II that the federal deficit has reached double digits as a share of GDP.

The billboard, which was rented for an undisclosed sum, will remain up for an undisclosed period of time, Perrine said.

Emphasis above is mine. A photo of the billboard is included in the linked article.

Go, AZ!

Speaking of billboards, the one at this IP is right up my alley, as well.

First, I must say that this Erick Erickson dude really knows how to throw a punch.

This past week, the Gulf States who hoped Barack Obama would actually do something to help them were stunned when he imposed a ban on deep water offshore drilling.

It is no exaggeration to say that as much as shrimping is part of the way of life in the Gulf Coast area, oil drilling is too. Barack Obama, with the stroke of a pen, put tens of thousands of men and women on the unemployment line.

That was no act of moderation. That was an overreaction — a desire by Obama to move the narrative from “do nothing” to “do something.” He did something alright. In his zeal to turn this from his Katrina to his 9/11 with a “Never Again” moment, he destroyed an entire industry.

That was not an act of moderation. It was a desperate, selfish bid to change the narrative, despite all sorts of collateral damage.

Let hear a loud OUCH! for Obama!

The rest here.

Second, one of Seth’s fun favorites, Julia Gorin and, killing two birds with one stone where saying “farewell” is concerned, one of the best commentaries we’ve yet to read concerning the (all too) clear, departing Helen Thomas.

By occasional reader and California resident Avi Zirler:

Dear Ms. Thomas:

I saw the clip where you told the Jews of Israel to get the hell out of Palestine and go back to Poland and Germany.

Really?

Ms. Thomas, one could expect a renowned journalist of your caliber to know that about half of the population of Israel consists of Middle Eastern Jews who where forced to flee Arab countries like Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen, and North Africa. The number of those Jewish refugees far exceeded the number of the so-called Palestinian refugees. Some of them, particularly the Jews of Iraq who were extremely wealthy, were brutally forced to leave their wealth behind, and their assets were confiscated by the government.

Are you suggesting that those Jews should return to the countries who tormented them? Are your Arab friends ready to take them back?

Ms. Thomas, I heard that you are an American of Lebanese descent. I am not exactly sure what gives you the right to live on a land which was taken from the Native Americans. Who gave you the permission to live here?

Thus, Ms. Thomas, I believe that you should give these damn Jews a personal example. I therefore suggest that you get the hell out of America and go back to the Middle East, where you and your anti-Semitic ideas belong and fit in.

Yours,
Avi Zirler
La Canada, CA

My only correction for Helen Thomas is that, again, it’s not “Palestine” — it’s Palestein.

– APPLAUSE for that one!

And Third, speaking of earmarks… Were we speaking of earmarks? No? Well, we are now.

These things (earmarks) have become synonymous, and rightly so, with politicians on Capital Hill stealing — that’s right, blatantly STEALING, robbing, ripping off, burgling, pickpocketing — STEALING money from the American taxpayer to reward campaign contributors and other supporters or to help one another get reelection votes in their respective districts. It’s also a pure manifestation of that unconstitutionally sinful act known as “taxation without representation”.

With a rooftop pool and 24-hour concierge service, the new luxury condominiums off Frank Sinatra Drive here seem an unlikely spot in need of a multimillion-dollar federal giveaway.

Yet U.S. taxpayers doled out at least $8 million on a public walkway and park space in front of the Maxwell Place development here overlooking the New York City skyline - an amenity the development touts alongside its entertainment lounge, rooftop hot tub and theater screening room.

But the decision to use tax dollars to fund the walkway project was made after private developers had already agreed in 2003 to pay for it - indeed, it was a key condition for getting the project off the ground, according to public records and interviews.

Still, under the so-called earmarking process, by which Capitol Hill lawmakers slip requests for pet projects into larger spending bills, Sens. Frank R. Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, New Jersey Democrats, later pushed for millions of dollars in federal funding for the project.

In the swamp of federal earmark funding, $8 million isn’t a lot. But critics say the project is emblematic of why the earmark process so enrages many taxpayers.

Read on.

Have a nice day.

Yessirree, at least on one issue.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), that’s right, D…

…one of Israel’s staunchest defenders in Congress — wants Americans who were aboard the Gaza flotilla ships prosecuted.

On a conference call organized by the Israel Project on Friday, Sherman said that any U.S. citizen aboard the ship should be considered aiding Hamas, an Islamic extremist organization that controls Gaza. The U.S. State Department considers Hamas a foreign terrorist organization.

The online foreign policy publication Lobelog reported:

On a press call hosted by a pro-Israel organization, Rep. Brad Sherman, Democrat of California, told reporters that he intends seek the prosecution of any U.S. citizens who were aboard or involved with the Freedom Flotilla.

“The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 [PDF] makes it absolutely illegal for any American to give food, money, school supplies, paper clips, concrete or weapons to Hamas or any of its officials,” Sherman said on the Israel Project call, conflating Hamas and Gaza’s civilian population. “And so I will be asking the Attorney General to prosecute any American involved in what was clearly an effort to give items of value to a terrorist organization.”

Let’s enforce that act. There are, sad to say, a lot of Americans out there who have so little respect and so much contempt for the liberty this country guarantees us that they think nothing of abusing it.

Jane Fonda’s orgy of treason with the NVA was one example, these useful flotilla idiots are another. The Fonda traitor shmoozed with the enemy, these folks are so twisted and perverse that they rejoice in the murder of innocent women and children, probably wished they could drink the blood of all those mass-butchered on 9/11, as they sail off in support of terrorism.

They should be more than prosecuted, they should be deported to one of these terrorist manufacturing Muslim countries where they can enjoy be treated like these Islamofascists believe infidels should be treated.

Here’s the entire article.

From MSNBC:

TEHRAN - Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards are ready to provide a military escort to cargo ships trying to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, a representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday.

“Iran’s Revolutionary Guards naval forces are fully prepared to escort the peace and freedom convoys to Gaza with all their powers and capabilities,” Ali Shirazi, Khamenei’s representative inside the Revolutionary Guards, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency.

So, Ahmadinejad and his boss the Ayatollah want to deal themselves in, hey?

Well…

Any intervention by the Iranian military would be considered highly provocative by Israel which accuses Iran of supplying weapons to Hamas, the Islamist movement which rules Gaza.

No kidding.

This sort of thing would be a blatant act of war on Iran’s part. There’s no way they could claim any kind of otherwise legal entitlement to involve themselves in the running of the Gaza blockade except as an official act by their government.

One wonders if they actually believe they can buffalo Israel, whether by running a bluff or by actually enacting a show of force of sufficient size to cause the Israelis to back down.

Personally, I don’t see it; Unless, of course, they already have a nuke on line to send over, in which case the Israelis will no doubt have a whole lot more to send back.

Let’s pray, friends, that this is not the case.

Let’s also pray that we are not now looking at a prelude to a war between Israel and Iran, both for Israel’s sake and the sakes of the millions of Iranians who crave freedom but are trapped under the thumb of the Islamofascists who have “owned” Iran ever since Jimmy Carter turned his back on Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and abandoned him to a coup by those fanatical maniacs.

If it does come to a war, I have little doubt but that Israel will win, but it will be a prolonged, bloody affair on both sides — Iran is not Trinidad.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will continue to stop ships reaching the shore and creating “an Iranian port in Gaza,” a reference to Iran’s support for Hamas.

An Iranian port in Gaza is an apt description, and if Netanyahu does not want that to come to pass, it will not.

The Israeli prime minister is not the sheep Tzippi Livni and her corrupt leftist boss Ehud Olmert were, he is old school Israeli patriot.

I wonder if he’ll tell the mad Ayatollah to “bring it on”, like his late older brother and former commander of Sayeret Matkal might have done.

Remember a true hero named Yonatan Netanyahu?

On 6 June 1944, allied soldiers, sailors and airmen, heroes all, commenced Operation Overlord with the Normandy Invasion, also known as the Normandy Landings, which involved some 12,000 aircraft, 7,000 ships and landing craft and around 160,000 troops, a number that increased to over three million in France within two months.

D-Day.

I thought that the best and most educational way to commemmorate that great day in military history would be to link to a comprehensive site that tells the story element by element, so…

This section of the World War II History info guide is devoted to “Operation Overlord,” the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe that began on D-Day — June 6, 1944 — on the beaches of Normandy, France.

Go make a pot of coffee, then sit back, relax and read all about D-Day.

First, the good.

H/T Ric, who brought this to our attention (I had missed it completely!)

PHOENIX - A Glendale optometrist’s yearlong legal fight over what services he had to provide for a Spanish-speaking customer has translated into new protections for other businesses.

Gov. Jan Brewer has signed legislation affirming that nothing in state law requires businesses to provide “trained and competent” interpreters when a customer comes in speaking a language other than English.

Assistant Attorney General Michael Walker said that has probably always been the law. But that didn’t save John Schrolucke from having to spend time and money defending himself and his practice before Walker’s office finally dismissed the case.

Schrolucke told lawmakers the incident stems from a patient who spoke only Spanish.
Although she did bring her 12-year-old child with her to the office, he said allowing the child to interpret for the parent would have gotten him into legal trouble.

He said he faced a potential malpractice lawsuit if the child did not properly translate some of the more technical explanations being provided, so he turned the woman away, telling her through her child to come back with someone at least 18 years old.

Schrolucke said he also gave the woman the option of going to one or two other optometrists who speak Spanish.

Instead, he said, the woman filed a discrimination complaint with the Attorney General’s Office.

State law prohibits discrimination in places of “public accommodation,” which include restaurants, hotels, theaters and any place that offers services or goods to the general public.

Schrolucke said he was given an option to settle. But that would have required him and anyone who bought his business to provide interpreters and documents in Spanish, something he said would set a bad precedent for not only his operation but other small businesses.

English is the official language of the United States of America.

It took the Attorney General’s Office a year to figure out there had been no civil rights violation and dismiss the case.

Once again, from the top: English is the official language of the United States of America.

It shouldn’t have taken the Attorney General’s office more than sixteen seconds to figure out that there had been no civil rights violation before dismissing the case.

Upset with the whole process, Schrolucke approached Sen. John Huppenthal, R-Chandler, who agreed to sponsor what he called “clarifying language” to the state’s civil rights law.

“Nobody should be treated like this,” Huppenthal said. “It’s a nightmare to go through this. He was drug through the mud by us.”

Walker, who is the litigation chief of the civil rights division, offered his own apology “for what does occasionally end up as state bureaucratic confusion.”

But Walker told lawmakers that his agency is legally obligated to investigate complaints of discrimination. He said the system worked - eventually - when the complaint was dismissed.

Nonetheless, if they’re going to permit such a lawsuit to take place, Loser Pays should apply to the plaintiff to compensate the defendant for every minute of his time and every penny of the money he puts out for legal fees, since it is a frivolous lawsuit.

Huppenthal introduced identical legislation last year. While it was approved by a Senate panel it never made it to the full Senate floor.

Next, the Bad.

The Senate is expected to take up the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The effort is a dangerous treaty for the family, according to pediatrician Rosemary Stein of Burlington, North Carolina, and a spokesperson for the Christian Medical Association (CMA).

“It takes away the parents’ rights to rear their child and gives it to the government,” she explains. “The government becomes the caretaker and the guardian, and the parent becomes the babysitter. Another way to define it would be ‘the government takeover of our children.’”

If the contract is enforced, the government would have the right to intercede or supersede if officials believe the parents are doing something that is not in the best interest of the child. An example of this comes from Germany, where the government has passed laws that ban parents from homeschooling their children.

“I didn’t know that it was this insidious, and at the same time, this overwhelming,” Stein laments. “It goes over everything — what you teach them, what you do with them [and] how they’re reared.”

The CMA spokesman predicts this will change society from the bottom up. For instance, a 16-year-old girl in Great Britain asked her parents to let her boyfriend move in and share her bedroom. When the parents said no, the teen filed suit and won.

It is not known when the U.S. Senate will try to ratify the treaty, so Dr. Stein says people need to start contacting their senators to voice their views.

Ah, yes, the fascism of the left.

And the Ugly.

Chuck out.

This was 50% surprise…

IDF forces piloted the Rachel Corrie to the port of Ashdod early Saturday evening after boarding the ship earlier in the day.

None were harmed in the military operation as the international activists on the ship cooperated with the boarding party. The activists went as far as lowering a ladder to the soldiers patrol boat to allow them to board, army sources have revealed.

…And 50% expected.

The boarding of the Rachel Corrie containing activists and aid for Gaza was described by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Saturday as a quiet operation. Netanyahu was quick to distinguish between the boat of Irish and Malaysian activists and the Turkish-sponsored Mavi Marmara which was boarded May 31 in an incident that left nine dead and scores wounded.

“The different outcome we saw today underscores the difference between peace activists who we disagree with but respect their right to express their different opinion and flotilla participants [on the Mavi Marmara] who were violent extremist supporters of terrorists,” said Netanyahu.

IDF navy forces boarded and took control of the MV Rachel Corrie Saturday afternoon. The troops did not meet any resistance from activists attempting to break the Gaza blockade, and the operation was completed without violent incidents.

Why half expected?

Because during their forerunners’ foray last week into blockade running, they learned from the others’ sampling of an old Hank Williams, Jr. remedy.