It’s about time the Dems caught up to what a lot of us have been thinking since the Obamanation started:

One unidentified lawmaker went so far as to mutter “f— the president” while Rep. Shelley Berkley was defending the package the president negotiated with Republicans. Berkley confirmed the incident, although she declined to name the specific lawmaker.

“It wasn’t loud,” the Nevada Democrat said. “It was just expressing frustration from a very frustrated Member.”

Oh, so I guess it doesn’t represent any kind of schism in the Democratic party between lawmakers and their anointed choice for POTUS. And the fact that it wasn’t loud makes the use of such profanity during such proceedings acceptable. No hypocrisy from the Left, as usual. If a Republican lawmaker said that at any volume, and it was overheard, the hue and cry would be heard from one end of the world to the other.

The anger aimed at the bill was widespread. As Democrats moved to block the bill from coming up on the floor, chants of “Just say no!” could be heard by reporters outside the room.

Nothing to see here, just our objective media at work again…

Does anyone else find it odd that an award so named even existed in the first place???

Wayne State University, the Detroit, Michigan, institution that Thomas graduated from in 1942, said in a statement Friday that the school will no longer give out the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity in the Media Award.

Juan Williams was fired from NPR for these words…

“But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they’re identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous,”

Williams also commented on remarks by Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad warning Americans that the fight is coming to the U.S.

“He said the war with Muslims, America’s war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts,” Williams said.

NPR issued a statement saying that it was “terminating” Williams’ contract over the remarks.

“Tonight we gave Juan Williams notice that we are terminating his contract as a senior news analyst for NPR News,” CEO Vivian Schiller and Senior Vice President for News Ellen Weiss said in a statement.

“Juan has been a valuable contributor to NPR and public radio for many years and we did not make this decision lightly or without regret. However, his remarks on ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ this past Monday were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR,” they said. “We regret these circumstances and thank Juan Williams for his many years of service to NPR and public radio.”

FNC

The difference between Williams and Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg, who walked off the set of the View when O’Reilly said that Muslims were responsible for 9/11? He’s more worried about national security than political correctness. The truth, not the truth as he sees it, but the real, disgusting truth that we’re facing as a nation.

Williams was fired for voicing his opinion in public. That in itself is pretty damn frightening.

Of course, everything is subjective. Helen Thomas was fired for voicing her opinions as well… but her pro-Palestinian views had been well known and tolerated, influencing her reporting for years. She just got caught on camera. Williams has the bad luck of not having the current liberal elitist view and so was taught a lesson at the earliest opportunity.

EDIT: Do as I say…

Learn to speak ‘Tea Bag’ at NPR!

I’m always amazed when a former radical is tracked down, and people rally to their cause, citing the passage of time as a reason to not be held accountable for an act of terror that claimed innocent lives:

This week, the university will mark the anniversary by opening a recording booth in the library, where people can relate their memories of the event for inclusion in the university archives and in a documentary theater project. A small plaque honoring Robert Fassnacht, the 33-year-old scientist killed in the blast, is the only permanent sign on campus that the bombing happened.

Burt and three other radicals parked a stolen van packed with fertilizer and fuel outside the university’s Army Math Research Center in Sterling Hall and lit the fuse in the early morning hours of Aug. 24, 1970. The bomb attack, the nation’s most powerful until the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, killed a graduate student who was doing research in the middle of the night, injured others and caused millions of dollars in damage. The bombers fled to Canada.

Three of the four men were captured in the 1970s after trying to live underground; they were convicted, served short prison terms and resumed their lives. One, Karl Armstrong, operates a juice stand near the bombing site. His brother, Dwight, died of lung cancer in Madison in June. David Fine has worked as a paralegal in Portland, Ore. … Armstrong said the FBI should offer Burt amnesty to turn himself in since history has proved the war in Vietnam a failure. He said the bombing “was the right thing to do at the time” in response to the shooting of protesters at Kent State and they did not intend to harm anyone.

But Chris Cole, the FBI supervisory agent who oversees the search for Burt, said Fassnacht’s death made the case a continuing priority. Fassnacht, a husband and father of three, “was doing nothing more than his job and lost his life.”

Armstrong is an ass, obviously stuck in the ’60′s with an overblown sense of his own importance in a pivotal issue for the United States. Kent state was a tragedy, but these idiots’ retaliatory bombing was in no way a valid response. I guess running a juice stand isn’t enough for Armstrong, he needs to relive his “glory days” vicariously through the renewed interest in the disappearance of his partner in crime.

It’s pretty bad when the LA Slimes* doesn’t have a lot of good things to say about the Liar-in-Chief:

If any president’s supporters knew what they were going to hear for their $30,400 fundraiser admission ticket, few would likely shell out even $30. (Groans). Which is why so many Hollywood liberal luminaries like Jeffrey Katzenberg and Barbra Streisand bought the tickets and then completely skipped Barack Obama’s speech, the one that raised $1 million for Democratic House campaigns along with the ire of thousands of L.A. commuters who paid nothing and got no canapes for the privilege of sitting a couple of hours in stubborn security traffic jams around the entire neighborhood of mansions. (Boos.)…This week’s fundraising speeches across the nation have a shorter brag list and a more stridently partisan tone, aimed at congressional Republicans who, if summer polls are any indicator, only need to keep breathing in order to regain control at least of the House on Nov. 2.

The Democrat is trying to portray Republicans in Congress as obstructionists, as if American voters gave the GOP lopsided majorities in both houses in the 2008 elections, instead of the other way around.

If Republicans were such obstinate obstacles, why didn’t Democrats approve healthcare last year when they had 60 Senate votes and the GOP was helpless to halt it? Obama doesn’t discuss the dissension among Democrats.

The president has also fallen into recycling the same jokes — one about his favorite Republican, Abraham Lincoln (see full text below), and another, lifted from the rhetorical repertoire of Iowa Democrat Chet Culver, about American drivers knowing that to go forward they put their car in D and to go backwards they put the vehicle in R. (Groans.)

And then there’s this:

Just a few minor things to catch up on for the weekend now that the Fundraiser-in-Chief has gone on another vacation (Don’t worry though. White House chef Sam Kass went along, so the first family need not eat ordinary human food.)

– The Congressional Budget Office says the 2010 federal deficit will be in excess of $1.3 trillion, as in $1,000,000,000,000+. (BTW, the next level we’ll be talking about out of Washington is quadrillion, which has fifteen 0′s.)

– Despite Vice President Joe Biden’s April boast that administration stimulus spending would spur the economy to add a half-million jobs a month by now, initial unemployment claims jumped a half-million last week, the worst since last November, as national unemployment remains at 9.5% and the economy sheds 131,000 more jobs.

– But the economy’s going great at the Democratic National Committee, which reports collecting $11.5 million from donors in July on top of the $53.8 million already taken in from various sources this year. The president just devoted three workdays across five states to rake in several more millions for his party.

– But before leaving for his ninth presidential vacation, 10 days at a….

…secluded estate on Martha’s Vineyard, Obama devoted four minutes in the White House driveway to a special statement on the latest disappointing jobs numbers. (Full text, as usual, can be read on the jump, along with a brief reaction from the Republican National Committee chairman.)

No questions allowed because the president didn’t want to explain why despite the administration’s announced Recovery Summer Program, the jobs numbers have started going backward again after 19 months of promises and $787 billion in alleged stimulation spending. Because, faced with the uncertainty of the economy and the certainty of new taxes after Nov. 2, employers are holding back on hiring.

And now, a joke courtesy of this blog’s host, Pamibe:

The Top Secret Air Force 1 Project:

Air Force General: Mr. President, we’ve just invented an invisibility cloak for Air Force One. Air Force One is now invisible, ensuring your security in the face of growing hostility.

Obama: No S***?

General: That’s right, sir. Will you be going along on its maiden flight?

Obama: Wouldn’t miss it for the world.

General: Have a good trip, sir.

*H/T: Folly

Not if they’re free to move about the rest of the country, like, say, PENNSYLVANIA:

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Nicaraguan mother Lorena Aguilar hawks a television set and a few clothes on the baking sidewalk outside her west Phoenix apartment block.

A few paces up the street, her undocumented Mexican neighbor Wendi Villasenor touts a kitchen table, some chairs and a few dishes as her family scrambles to get out of Arizona ahead of a looming crackdown on illegal immigrants.

“Everyone is selling up the little they have and leaving,” said Villasenor, 31, who is headed for Pennsylvania. “We have no alternative. They have us cornered.”

I’m sorry, I have little sympathy since we are offering up all of OUR crap in garage sales in anticipation of moving to the Keys to live with a relative until we can hopefully peddle our LEGAL asses around and find jobs, something that is not forthcoming here (or California, for that matter) in spite of my considerable talents as a construction worker.

It sounds to me as if the law, not even in effect, is working splendidly.

My mouth actually dropped open while watching this…

…then I said a bad word. This woman is representative of the mainstream media.

For those not familiar with Helen Thomas, she has been working in media for 68 years, as a news service reporter, Hearst Newspapers columnist, member of the White House Press Corps and author.

Obama, Helen and I share a birthday. I’m changing mine right away… to Mother Theresa’s. It’s not that far off, from August 4th to the 26th.

Edited to add:

Hot Air has Helen’s apology of sorts but not really:

Helen Thomas issued the following statement today: “I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.”

Riiiiight.

They also have the vid of the infamous Tony Snow briefing in which he thanks Helen for ‘Hezbollah view’.

I’ve loathed the overly dramatic Rick Sanchez since he worked for WSVN in Miami, so this skewering delivered by the masterful Jon Stewart is… delicious.