The Left marches against America, calling America a terrorist nation.

With all the fabulous places to hike in America and Europe, why would three Americans choose terror-sponsored states for a summer vacation?  One can only assume they spent too much time hiking poppy fields before “accidentally” stumbling into a nation seeking world domination: Iran.

The U.S. cut off diplomatic ties to Iran in 1979 after the Iranian Revolution when 52 Americans were held captive for 444 days.  Iran is not Palm Springs and Westerners aren’t welcomed with the Four Seasons treatment.

The Ayatollah chants “death to America,” Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad constantly threatens to attack America with nuclear weapons, he ordered Iranians protesting the tyrannical government to be arrested and killed, and his rule is violent: kidnapping Westerners, supporting those who murder Americans, and training in terrorism.

It’s not shocking three stupid hikers caught crossing Iranian borders face prison and possible death.  David Horowitz explains why leftists believe terror states are not dangerous foes:

The seeds of the contemporary opposition to the War on Terror were sown in the 1960s in the movement to oppose the Communist aggression in Vietnam…Now the West is engaged in a new war with a totalitarian enemy called radical Islam, which despises Western capitalism and democracies.  And once again, totalitarianism finds its most dependable allies on college faculties…tenured radicals teach their students that ‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter,” and that America is “the world’s greatest terrorist state.’…that America’s terrorist enemies are in fact the voice of the world’s ‘oppressed,’ and that by challenging the United States they are advancing the cause of ‘social justice.’

The hiker’s families naturally see the actions as harmless and pleaded Iran for their release, stating the three accidentally crossed Iraq’s borders into Iran.  Secretary of the State Hillary Clinton declared:

These three Americans—innocent tourists in Iraq’s Kurdistan region when they were detained on July 31, 2009—have been unjustly held for almost nine months without formal charges or access to legal representation.  We ask the Islamic Republic of Iran to release these three Americans and allow them to go home and be reunited with their families.

Americans are warned by the U.S. State Department not to visit any nation threatening America unless absolutely necessary.  Hillary knows this, the hikers certainly knew, but, as David Horowitz explains, “The lessons of history are not readily learned,” and three hikers who crossed over Iraq’s borders into Iran have been held since July 2009, accused of espionage.

Neither Iraq nor Iran is friendly to Americans.  Why visit unless you assume Islamic terror states are not as bad as they appear in jihadist’s Youtube videos?

Despite pleas from families and Hillary Clinton, Iran is not ready to release the hikers without a deal: release Iranian terrorists held in U.S. jails. The U.S., of course, has said no to the swap.

Perhaps Bill Clinton can fly to Iran on a “solely private mission,” cajole a “special pardon” for the hikers’ release, and hold a cushy press conference that makes terrorists look warm and friendly.

Leftists should reconsider non-terror states as vacation hot spots so the State Department can focus on its job versus rescuing ignorant sightseers.

This is racism, huh?

Before Keith Olbermann accused Rep. Michelle Bachmann of fomenting a rebellion, MSNBC’s David Shuster had already hiked the old hyperbole trail. Sitting in for Ed Schultz on The Ed Show, Shuster insisted the rally opposing President Obama’s socialized medicine bill “had all the trappings of a proverbial orgy of bigotry, racism, anti-Semitism, and hate!” In fact, one sign alleged contained “a reference to right-wing claims that the president is secretly a Muslim terrorist!” (Emphasis Shuster’s.)

As usual, he could not produce these references to racism, anti-Semitism, or Obama-secretly-got-Islamic-terrorist-training-ism. Even the Huffington Post with its “12 Most Offensive Signs from Bachmann’s Tea Party” found only one sign (a reference to Dachau) that was over-the-top. Despite the underwhelming nature of his evidence, Shuster pumped up the hate.

In a panel discussion about the economy minutes later, an enraged Bill Press challenged Republican Ron Christie, “You show me one sign that any Code Pink protester ever had that matches that disgusting stuff we saw yesterday in front of the U.S. Capitol.”

I’ll see ya and raise ya. A few years ago, I put together a page for FrontPage Magazine featuring some of the most disturbing signs “peace” protesters had carried up to that point. Here a few images from that cache:

Despite the Left’s best efforts to paint middle American anti-socialists as extremists, the fringe were out in force at the “peace” marches, so often addressed by Congressional Democrats. Aside from the protests’ organizers — International ANSWER, United for Peace and Justice, and Not In Our Name — there were certain conspicuous participants:

Not long ago, John Perazzo pointed readers to a source of more recent signs, nearly all calling for George W. Bush’s assassination. (As I have noted, the Left regularly implored someone to kill President Bush in cold blood.)

Again, here are the Huffington Post‘s 12 Most Offensive Signs.

The disconnect between the media’s coverage of these two rallies make Ron Christie’s words seem prophetic:

These are normal Americans, and this is where the Democrats act at their peril. You are gonna find Democrats thrown out of office — you’re going to be able to put them in a phone booth next year — because of the disgraceful and the condescending manner in which they treat normal American citizens who elect these people into office.