@BettyCrocker: Just wondering why the Lefties think it's clever when they are rude to the President but somehow it is very rude if a Republican speaks up when he is offended by a series of lies.
@friendslikeJimRome: Either you are agreeing that the GOP is breaking newer and ruder ground than ever, in which case, thanks. Or, you just gave the most retarded defense of something that I've ever seen.......In which case, thanks!
@friendslikeJimRome: In the name of all that's holy, I do hope that Republitards keep speaking up when they are offended by anything and everything.
But when the President is addressing Congress, it's considered by most people prudent to shut your bigoted, ill-mannered, morally bankrupt pie-hole, should you have one.
Is there something in the water in SC? Wilson's insta-Tourettes, a hypocrite Governor who gets all outraged over Clinton/Lewinsky then flies off to Argentina for some sexxxytimes, a closet case Lieutenant Governor who's been outed in the worst possible way.... WTF comes out of the tap down there? Sea Monkeys?
George Bush was a tyrant who allowed tens of thousands of people to die in pointless wars and gave permission to the NSA and DHS to violate his constituents' most basic civil liberties. He created a gulag for civilians on a military base in Cuba.
Barack Obama is trying to create a government program that will give medicine to sick people.
If you don't see the difference between the two of them, which part don't you understand?
@Perhaps Not: Easy: Bush hired private contractors to apply cattle prods to suspect's children's testicles. Barry wants to get his grubby governmental mitts on our Medicare. Which is CLEARLY immoral.
@friendslikeJimRome: since when did Gawker become bipartisan? Kick these nut-jobs off here. I want to wallow in my own (sometimes) mypoic view of the world. I feel so dirty, like I'm on huffpo or something.
well... as a member of the National Guard he should NEVER speak this way to the President. He should be up on charges (and no, it doesn't matter that he was in uniform or not). Now the Right will tell you about free speech. He exercized his free speech and he's not being punished for that. He's being punished for being disrespectful to his direct superior and commander in chief. How utterly un-American. As a vet I am so sick if these anti-gov whacks. But when they're being paid by my tax dollars it makes me sick. If you don't like our government then resign. Don't respect the military uniform or the commander and chief then resign! The right are a bunch of moronic chicken hawks taking our tax dollars then bitching about it.
So, the fact that Joe Wilson was WRONG about the issue he was responding to is of no consequence? There were a few places he could have gotten away with it, but he was disagreeing with something that is in plain English, spelled out in the bill. Does no one care about this? You can call the President a liar as loud as you want, whenever you want, if he's LYING.
Whatever happened to respect for the office? Oppose the President all you want...but it's utterly disgusting that some jackass representative yells in such a manner to the president and isn't either run out of town in shame or perceptive enough to be too embarrassed to show his face In public ever again. Why are republicans allowed to call the democratic president a liar? They only do it to Dems. And they've only gottent worse -- moreclassless-- since the last time a Dem was in power. Why aren't they all run out with pitchforks???
@SinisterRouge: I say let people yell what they want! The president isn't a king. What will happen is that either they sound apt or they hang themselves with their own rope. That's what's great about the messiness of freedom of speech, precisely this moment right here. Where a loser is gonna get whacked because he thought he was being a leader when, according to the majority of folks, he looked ill informed.
@Urbania: Yes on the freedom of speech, no on time and place. This was a formal proceeding, not a town hall meeting. I agree that Wilson's inability to control himself makes him look like an idiot. I don't think that his freedom to express that trumps the President's right to be heard.
@Urbania: It's not a question of freedom of speech. He wasn't, and never would have been, dragged out and thrown in a prison for calling the president a liar. What's at issue here is a pretty clear violation of decorum. Congressional Democrats never yelled at Bush during any of his addresses before them, and he was dragging us into pointless wars. If ever there were a time to bitch a president out on national television, chances are it came and went with GW, and yet the Democrats never succumbed to what must have been an aching desire to follow through (thankfully, an Iraqi dude didn't waste the opportunity to chuck a shoe at him).
One can't help but feel that Obama's race has a good amount to do with this. Certain people in congress somehow feel that Obama, more than any other opposition president in history, is a valid target of this kind of breach in historically-observed social decorum. I wonder why this could possibly be? Methinks it's got something to do with the fact that they just can't muster any respect for a black president.
@SinisterRouge: Respect for the office went out the door when the Facist Left decided it was open season on GW. Obama WAS lying through his teeth, but the Liberal Press is leaving that little tidbit out of the discussion.
@skt.smth: Spend any time on the Hill and you will see that Congress is ruled--RULED--by protocol. It is very 17th-century formal and extremely respectful, which is refreshing in our increasingly unruly, ill-mannered world. This protocol is maintained to keep the machine working, so it doesn't disintegrate into a name-calling brawl all the time. It is also profound sign of respect to the institution, and to the American people who these public officials serve. They are, after all, officially "public servants." Wilson violated all of that. He's lucky his fellow members on both sides of the aisle didn't tar and feather him and run him out on a rail.
@skt.smth: Of course it's race. The thing that stirs him so strongly? So much that he cannot contain his emotion? Not pulling the plug on grandma or socialist takeovers. It's ILLEGALS.
Bottom line, this guy thinks Mexicans should die rather than be treated by an American health system. So yes, I can imagine his respect for a black President hovers around the same level.
@skt.smth: One can't help but feel that Obama's race has a good amount to do with this.
Hi. Welcome to "America 2009": the Republicans won't be respectful to the president because he's a darkie. The Democrats are taking the high ground in not engaging with the bigots, but it may be to their detriment, because the ignorant are legion in America 2009.
@Urbania: Excuse? I don't recall ANY Congressional Dem calling Bush a liar in a joint session of Congress where the President was speaking.
Not only was he WRONG and lying himself, he showed a terrible lack of general etiquette. Correctly, as you say, the President is not a King. But he is worthy of the respect of the House and the Senate when speaking in front of them as their leader.
He's a fool to be sure (Wilson), but he's also classless and trashy for behaving that way.
@SinisterRouge: It's the institution of congress he disrespected and it's his fellow congressmen and women to whom he owes an apology. That's sort of hypertechnical, but its the rules of the House and Senate that he breached.
The fact that he breached "decorum" exposes the idiocy of his ideas, not to mention his barely disguised racism (and that of the people who share his ideas).
Congressional Democrats breaching decorum during outrageous *actual* lying by a president dragging us into war would have appeared apt to a lot of people, and probably woken people up earlier, and caused a sea change much earlier than it did. 2004's election might have looked very different if Congress hadn't held their tongues in 2001/2. That disgusts me far more than an idiot from the Carolinas shouting a couple of words out of turn.
There is a time and place for decorum, and there is a time and place for transgressing that decorum. I'm simply championing the power of transgressing that decorum. If you do it wrong, you look like an idiot. If you do it right, you can change the world.
@friendslikeJimRome: Fascist Left??? I seem to remember when the GOP insisted that disagreeing with Bush was aiding the terrorists. If that ain't a clear bid to squash freedom of speech, well, we need a new definition of fascism.
Save your money. It's sad, but this is just going to be another loss in the style of whoever that dude was who ran against Bachmann. Lots of outrage from without but considerably less from within. There aren't enough people within Wilson's district to vote against him, and this incident will serve as nothing but a rally for his crazy constituents. Anyone who thinks he will lose does not understand what is going on in South Carolina. These people are fucking nuts.
@louisgreene: IMHO, the big problem was that Bachmann's opponent had a name that you just can't say without giggling. I mean, "Elwyn Tinklenberg" -- seriously, who the hell wants to be represented by a guy who sounds like a character from the Harvard Lampoon parody of Lord of the Rings?
"Rob Miller" on the other hand, sounds like the guy who works in the next cubicle. That is, if you still had a job.
True, Columbia is a fairly conservative part of South Carolina, and those people have never been real thrilled about this whole "United States" idea, so I am not holding my breath.
09/11/09
"You LIE!"
09/11/09
You're such a victim, Wilson. A victim of your extremely poor teleprompter reading, which also happens to be something the POTUS does better than you.
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
[mediamatters.org]
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
But when the President is addressing Congress, it's considered by most people prudent to shut your bigoted, ill-mannered, morally bankrupt pie-hole, should you have one.
Is there something in the water in SC? Wilson's insta-Tourettes, a hypocrite Governor who gets all outraged over Clinton/Lewinsky then flies off to Argentina for some sexxxytimes, a closet case Lieutenant Governor who's been outed in the worst possible way.... WTF comes out of the tap down there? Sea Monkeys?
09/11/09
Barack Obama is trying to create a government program that will give medicine to sick people.
If you don't see the difference between the two of them, which part don't you understand?
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/12/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
"...On these issues I will not be muslin"
"...On these issues I will not be Muslim"
"...On these issues I will not be mumblin"
Not sure, really.
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
One can't help but feel that Obama's race has a good amount to do with this. Certain people in congress somehow feel that Obama, more than any other opposition president in history, is a valid target of this kind of breach in historically-observed social decorum. I wonder why this could possibly be? Methinks it's got something to do with the fact that they just can't muster any respect for a black president.
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
Bottom line, this guy thinks Mexicans should die rather than be treated by an American health system. So yes, I can imagine his respect for a black President hovers around the same level.
09/11/09
09/11/09
Hi. Welcome to "America 2009": the Republicans won't be respectful to the president because he's a darkie. The Democrats are taking the high ground in not engaging with the bigots, but it may be to their detriment, because the ignorant are legion in America 2009.
09/11/09
09/11/09
Not only was he WRONG and lying himself, he showed a terrible lack of general etiquette. Correctly, as you say, the President is not a King. But he is worthy of the respect of the House and the Senate when speaking in front of them as their leader.
He's a fool to be sure (Wilson), but he's also classless and trashy for behaving that way.
09/11/09
I also think you've uncovered the real identity of the dude in the chariot that has Glenn Beck in a tizzy. It was Face all along!
09/11/09
09/11/09
The fact that he breached "decorum" exposes the idiocy of his ideas, not to mention his barely disguised racism (and that of the people who share his ideas).
Congressional Democrats breaching decorum during outrageous *actual* lying by a president dragging us into war would have appeared apt to a lot of people, and probably woken people up earlier, and caused a sea change much earlier than it did. 2004's election might have looked very different if Congress hadn't held their tongues in 2001/2. That disgusts me far more than an idiot from the Carolinas shouting a couple of words out of turn.
There is a time and place for decorum, and there is a time and place for transgressing that decorum. I'm simply championing the power of transgressing that decorum. If you do it wrong, you look like an idiot. If you do it right, you can change the world.
09/11/09
See my comment [gawker.com]
for my opinion on Congressional decorum during the Bush years.
09/11/09
09/10/09
09/10/09
09/10/09
09/10/09
"Rob Miller" on the other hand, sounds like the guy who works in the next cubicle. That is, if you still had a job.
True, Columbia is a fairly conservative part of South Carolina, and those people have never been real thrilled about this whole "United States" idea, so I am not holding my breath.
09/10/09
09/10/09
South Carolina might need to be re-reconstructed.
12/05/08