I’m with the left all the way on this one. What Joe Wilson did by screaming, frothing at the mouth, and rabidly drooling while accusing the president of lying is the most destructive, the most ill mannered, the MOST UNPRECEDENTED occurrence in the history of this planet or any other.
“YOU LIE! the crazy man screeched at the top of his voice. Only his colleagues holding him back prevented him from assaulting the president in the House chamber with a bloody ax he had just used on his child.
What has happened to our country when Republicans, who obviously knew what he was going to do before hand, failed to stop this goober chewing yahoo from interrupting Jesus Christ on the cro…oh, wait. I mean President Obama during his VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY, important speech on socialized (oops! sorry) I mean government mandated health insurance?
Surely we must come back to civility in our public discourse. Surely forms of etiquette must be preserved. Surely it should be a crime punishable by 20 lashes to not stare in doe eyed worship and hang on every word that our Glorious Leader imparts to us masses.
Absolutely. But please don’t call me Shirley.
I fully back efforts to investigate this rogue, this roue, this dunderheaded clodsop of an inbred Congressman who thought he was at a Gamecock football game and not the Sermon in the House Well. (”Blessed are the bureaucrats for theirs shall be the Kingdom of Obama.”).
How dare he? No one has ever, ever, ever interrupted another president or booed him, or called him a liar, or accused him of going to war for bloodlust and oil. What political party could possible countenance such evil?
If it were up to me, I’d banish him. Exile the fool. Send him to another country like…like…Utah or Montana or some other foreign country where his discourteousness would go unnoticed and he could mingle with those other bible thumping, straw eating, sister loving, gun toting, immigrant hating yahoos.
And while we’re at it, let’s send his friends with him; you know, the ones whose fear mongering and lies about GL’s perfect health care reform bill are causing the rubes out in rubeland to scratch their balls, spit, and then scream at their Democratic Congressman?
This kind of demagoguery is outrageously unacceptable. We shouldn’t stand for it - not for a second. DON’T THEY KNOW THAT PEOPLE ARE DYING BECAUSE OUR GLORIOUS LEADER - WHO TRULY LOVES US ALL AND WISHES ONLY THE BEST FOR US - CAN’T GET HIS HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL PASSED? It’s a crisis, I tell you. A crisis. Forget war. Forget Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Floods, Wrack and Ruin. Forget Manmade Natural Disasters that we used to call acts of terrorism but don’t anymore because Our President has banished that scourge - or at least the word - from the face of the earth.
This is a REAL crisis - not a made up one like that other fellow had.
Perhaps we should consider executing Wilson. Hanging’s too good for him of course. Tar and feathering is environmentally unfriendly (Didn’t you know that tar is made from the Devil’s Brew - OIL? Besides, little birdies might eat the feathers and be unable to crap. Horror!). Waterboarding is illegal (but wouldn’t it be fun?) And guns…EWW!
I think Wilson should be sentenced to listen to our Glorious Leader’s inauguration speech - 10,000 times. It wouldn’t be torture. We’d give him one hour’s sleep every day and only make him stand for 12 hours at a time. Cheney said that kind of thing works wonders.
And after all, he’d be transformed. I’ve listened to it about 500 times and there’s nothing wrong with me - fit as a fiddle and twice as twangy. Listening to GL’s words of emptiness and nothingness fills the soul with sublime hollowness. It’s done wonders for my digestion and my bowels are as right as rain. Better than a high colonic in cleaning out the system. You should try it.
People like Wilson need to get out of the way and let our Glorious Leader fulfill his destiny. All of this talk is worthless and should be outlawed somehow. After all, we won, didn’t we?
10:01 am
This type of humor only works if your own party doesn’t suck on so many basic and fundamental levels.
10:37 am
Hilarious! Keep it coming Rick, I’m with you if neither side wanted this kind of behaviour in Congress neither side should be doing it.
10:45 am
Meanwhile Wilson’s opponent who was barely competitive 48 hours ago is fast closing in on $1,000,000 in donations and at this rate will all the money he needs to crush this jerk.
Then there’s that little matter of Joe Wilson’s membership in the Sons of the Confederacy.
You have the sense of humor of a toad.
And what - no comment about the left going ape over this while Democrats booed Bush and called him a liar?
Gee…what a surprise THAT is - hypocrite.
ed.
11:21 am
Definitely a tempest in a teabag.
11:42 am
It shows how inconsequential Obama’s speech was that this tempest in a teapot got so much play. Sure, the media thought it would help Obama, but there also was the fact that nothing newsworthy came out of the speech itself.
I don’t like lack of decorum from either side, but would note you are right about how the Left acted while Bush spoke. And in the crowning irony of this whole episode, Democrats quietly worked to plug the loophole that would allow illegal aliens to do precisely what Wilson claimed: receive national health care. That loophole was the immigration status verification the same Dems whom raised hell about Wilson kept voting down.
Fucking hypocrites.
So in the final analysis, Wilson overshadowed the president’s speech and forced the issue of illegal aliens receiving health care to the fore. In other words, Obama did lie. Unfortunately, given Wilson’s success, look for the Left to employ the same crude tactics when a Republican president gets elected in 2012 or whenever. Wait, you are right, they already have and Wilson emulated them.
Orwell lives.
12:04 pm
Was this essay ghost written by Keith Olberman?
12:28 pm
HILARIOUS! It is amazing that all it takes to rile up the Obamatrons and the Obamawhore media is someone who dares to speak, oh I can not believe I am writing this, speaks truth to power. Funny, it was OK for these people harass former President Bush relentlessly for eight years. But, do we expect anything less from the left?
12:45 pm
Next thing you know, Republicans will be placing racist communists in their Administrations.
12:54 pm
Gee, Mark, I’m tearing up thinking about the poor right-wing. They’ve been so mistreated for so long by “the left”. It’s just awful.
1:37 pm
Sarcasm, thy name is Rick Moran.
1:40 pm
Rick responded…
And what - no comment about the left going ape over this while Democrats booed Bush and called him a liar?
Another false equivalency. Bush was not called a liar during his address to congress. Here, check out youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBxmEGG71PM
It would be a stretch to even call that noise “booing”, listen for yourself.
And I hate to break it to you, but yes, Bush was a liar.
1:41 pm
Amen.
3:28 pm
Rick says:
“No one has ever, ever, ever interrupted another president or booed him, or called him a liar, or accused him of going to war for bloodlust and oil. What political party could possible countenance such evil?”
Has any opposition party ever brought signs and props to a presidential address of congress before?
Is calling the absent president a liar at an Iowa picnic the same as screaming it to a worldwide television audience during a speech by said president??
Is one loony Seattle Congressman thinking that Bush wanted to be “Emperor” equal to what Wilson screamed the other night??…Or is it more comparable to a politician or Fox host accusing Obama of being a socialist, or not being born in America?
The grumblings of the Democrats about Social Security reform during that Bush speech was the closest you got to true equivalence…but there was no voice that stood out quite like Wilsons did…Was there?
And I’m sure that you realize that when you try to compare an unneccesary preemtive war with a healthcare reform policy debate that you’re truly groping..
One might excuse the Democrats passion when calling out Bush on the war…tens of thousands of innocent people were being killed, and many more driven from their homes in our name..
Either the Bush team lied us into that war, or they were incredibly, stupedously stupid…take your pick..
I pick both..
This is a Health care reform debate Rick…no doubt a serious issue…but to equate it with the seriousness of Bush taking our country to war with another country that was really no threat to The United States is laughable..
Besides, Wilson was wrong.
Obama wasn’t lying.
3:38 pm
“This type of humor only works if your own party doesn’t suck on so many basic and fundamental levels.”
Nah, it works anyway.
4:57 pm
Nicely done, Rick.
5:29 pm
Once again the Dems are distracted. Will this episode gain more votes in the Senate for a health care bill? Will it endear the American public to the Congress? Why can’t the Dems express their horror and shock and then move on. Even the President has the sense to move on from this distraction.
5:43 pm
Spin it anyway you like…Media Slowly Confirms That Joe Wilson Was Right– Obamacare Will Cover Illegal Immigrants!
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/09/media-slowly-confirms-that-joe-wilson.html
I know it’s hard to see things clearly while flip-flopping at such a incredible speed. /s
7:09 pm
Funny! My favorite line: “People like Wilson need to get out of the way and let our Glorious Leader fulfill his destiny.”
I’ll grant that Wilson was rude. However, he was also right, as proven today when Dems scurried to change the language in the bills: “We really thought we’d resolved this question of people who are here illegally, but as we reflected on the President’s speech last night we wanted to go back and drill down again,” said Senator Kent Conrad, one of the Democrats in the talks after a meeting Thursday morning. [Max] Baucus later that afternoon said the group would put in a proof of citizenship requirement to participate in the new health exchange.”
Why put it in if it was already there??
7:48 pm
Poor Joe Wilson.
Cut the man some slack. He’s passionate! I know this because he told me, in the sole message that blazes across his campaign Web site: JOE WILSON IS PASSIONATE ABOUT STOPPING GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH CARE!
Except that he’s not?at least not when it comes to his, and his family’s, government-run health care. As a retired Army National Guard colonel, Wilson gets a lot of benefits (one of which, apparently, was not a full appreciation of the customs, traditions, and courtesies that mandate respect for one’s commander in chief). And with four sons in the armed services, the entire Wilson brood has enjoyed multiple generations of free military medical coverage, known as TRICARE.
Yes, it’s true. As politicos and town-hall criers debate the finer points of the public option, employer mandates, coverage for undocumented immigrants, and who’s more Hitler-like, they seem to miss a larger point: the United States has single-payer health care. It covers 9.5 million active-duty servicemen and women, military retirees, and their dependents?including almost a 10th of all Californians and Floridians, and nearly a quarter of a million residents of Wilson’s home state.
Military beneficiaries like Wilson?who, as a retiree, is eligible for lifetime coverage?never have to worry about an eye exam, a CT scan, a prolonged labor, or an open-heart surgery. They have access not only to the military’s 133,500 uniformed health professionals, but cooperating private doctors as well?whose fees are paid by the Department of Defense. It’s high-quality care, too: surveys from 2007 and 2008 list TRICARE among “the best health insurer(s) in the nation” by customer satisfaction. Yet Wilson insists government-run health care is a problem.
To be fair, Wilson has been consistent in his policymaking if not his personal life: according to his last congressional opponent, Wilson voted 11 times against health care for veterans in eight years, even as he voted “aye” for the Iraq War (during the debate on the war vote, he even called one Democrat “viscerally anti-American”?several times). He voted to cut veterans’ benefits?not his own?to make room for President George W. Bush’s tax cuts. He repeatedly voted for budgets that slashed funding to the Veterans Administration and TRICARE. And perhaps most bizarrely, he refused?repeatedly?to approve Democratic-led initiatives that would have extended TRICARE coverage to all reservists and National Guard members, even though a disproportionate number of them have served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan?and many lost access to their civilian work benefits when they did so.
There’s one other notable exception to Wilson’s tough-on-government record: In July, when the health-insurance debate just started heating up, he offered an amendment that would exempt TRICARE from any system of employer mandates in a health-care bill. It’s not clear whether this is necessary, since most such bills in Congress keep government benefits exempt from the rules as a matter of course. But Wilson took the opportunity to make his stand.
“As a 31-year Army Guard and Reserve veteran, I know the importance of TRICARE,” he said in a press release. “The number of individuals who choose to enroll in TRICARE continues to rise because TRICARE is a low cost, comprehensive health plan that is portable and available in some form world-wide.” He went on to call TRICARE “world class health care,” concluding on a personal note. “I am grateful to have four sons now serving in the military, and I know that their families appreciate the availability of TRICARE,” he said.
What does that mean? Nothing?except that Joe Wilson was against government-run health care before he was for it. And now he’s against it again. Just not when it comes to his own flesh and blood.
Adam Weinstein, an Iraq veteran, is a freelance journalist. He is uninsured.
9:07 pm
Very good, Rick! Funny. One criticism… I prefer “Dear Leader” to “Glorious Leader”. It humanizes him (PBUH).
9:17 pm
Obama: Our reform will not cover illegal immigrants.
Wilson: Liar!
Democrats: Boo! Hiss! Decorum, sir!
Republicans: Sure, it may have been rude, but the Democrats did it to Bush!
Democrats: But nobody every called Bush liar…at a Joint Session of Congress…on a Wednesday night.
Messenger-killers: Wilson is a southern, confederate flag-flying racist! He gets free health insurance! Hypocrite! No blood for oil! Haliburton!
Public: What were we talking about again?
10:07 pm
Well done sota. You had me at “…on a Wednesday night.”
11:34 pm
“This type of humor only works if your own party doesn’t suck on so many basic and fundamental levels.”
Indeed.
That’s why dKos, MSNBC and Media Matters can never pull off the kind of satire done here.
Thanks RM … Had even me going for a bit.
11:35 pm
“Meanwhile Wilson’s opponent who was barely competitive 48 hours ago is fast closing in on $1,000,000 in donations and at this rate will all the money he needs to crush this jerk.”
AWESOME! Another wasted million dollars from the prog-idiotarian left.
Joe Wilson’s opponent will lose by double digits. He’s gotten hundreds of thousands of contributions himself in the last 48 hours.
11:44 pm
“Besides, Wilson was wrong.
Obama wasn’t lying.”
That laughable joke of yours somehow fell flat. It requires some closeness to truth to funny, and that statement isnt even close.
The non-partisan Congressional Research Service released a report in August to little media fanfare that said:
“Under H.R. 3200, a ‘Health Insurance Exchange’ would begin operation in 2013 and would offer private plans alongside a public option…H.R. 3200 does not contain any restrictions on noncitzens—whether legally or illegally present, or in the United States temporarily or permanently—participating in the Exchange.”
CRS also notes that the bill has no provision for requiring those seeking coverage or services to provided proof of citizenship.
11:45 pm
“It shows how inconsequential Obama’s speech was that this tempest in a teapot got so much play. ”
Indeed. The only thing new about Obama’s speech was that he got to feel a bit like the Congressmen at the townhalls. The audience is not buying it.
12:30 am
This outburst certainly has given the Democratic party and Liberals a target on which to focus their anger, regardless if it helps or hurts Joe Wilson get re-elected. And aside from the far-right nutters, how many conservatives and Republicans are going to be fired up over an insult aimed at Obama? (Cringing in embarrassment is more likely a response!) Probably Joe Wilson increased the chances of a health-care reform bill passing more than the rest of the speech did.
Heh - good theory. Except the ball buster is still the public option. This incident will be forgotten long before there’s a vote in the senate on health care and it will be ancient history when a vote comes after conference committee in both houses.
And Wilson will win reelection by a comfortable margin. It may be a close race today but by the fall of 2010, the natural equilibrium of the race will reassert itself and Wilson will coast to victory.
ed.
3:55 am
Sota says:
“Messenger-killers: Wilson is a southern, confederate flag-flying racist! He gets free health insurance! Hypocrite! No blood for oil! Haliburton!”
Wilson not only gets “free health insurance”…he gets government run, single payer health insurance…Or as you and Joe Wilson might call it…SOCIALISM!!
In Wilsons own words it’s a “comprehensive health plan that is portable and available in some form world-wide”…it’s “world class health care”..
If you can’t see the hypocrisy in those statements…you have no grasp of logic or reason..
Not necessarily hypocrisy. Wilson’s “You lie” heckle was about giving illegals access to the public option. It was not about the public option per se or any other aspect of the program. To claim Wilson is a hypocrite because he called Obama out for his interpretation of the bill relating to illegals just because he is a beneficiary of government run health care is a stretch.
You can argue that HR3200 denies access to illegals. Says so right in the bill. Except, because there is no requirement for anyone to prove they are a citizen when signing up for it, you know and I know that illegals will indeed benefit from the program - just as they end up voting in elections, receive food stamps and welfare, housing assistance, and any other government benefit that they are not eligible for.
ed.
4:12 am
Travis Monitor quotes the CRS:
“Under H.R. 3200, a ‘Health Insurance Exchange’ would begin operation in 2013 and would offer private plans alongside a public option…H.R. 3200 does not contain any restrictions on noncitzens—whether legally or illegally present, or in the United States temporarily or permanently—participating in the Exchange.”
I quote H.R. 3200:
Section 246
“NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS”
“Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.”
This is “restrictions on noncitzens” in H.R. 3200…plain as day and simply stated..
And if you take CRS reports as holy gospel…I’ve got about a 1,000 quotes from their reports that will have you crying “YOU LIE!” just like Joe Wilson did..
4:27 am
Travis Monitor says:
“It shows how inconsequential Obama’s speech was that this tempest in a teapot got so much play. ”
“Indeed. The only thing new about Obama’s speech was that he got to feel a bit like the Congressmen at the townhalls. The audience is not buying it.”
The “audience” you speak of was mostly Democrats, and President Obama’s speech was particularly successful in unifying Democrats. Now, 85 percent of them approve of his handling of health care.
And in the end, the unity of the Democrats is really the only important factor in passing health care reform…Republicans are the “inconsequential” ones..
4:50 am
Travis Monitor says about Joe Wilsons fundraising:
“He’s gotten hundreds of thousands of contributions himself in the last 48 hours.”
He’s gotten about 200,000 dollars…so what your saying is that “hundreds of thousands” of people have given him like a buck a piece?
You really need to stop exaggerating your numbers Travis…
Wilsons opponent has gotten 400,000 dollars since Obamas speech from appoximately 11,000 donors.
Those are realistic numbers.
6:16 am
“Section 246″
This does apply only to Subtitle C (Individual Affordability Credits). I don’t know the full bill well enough to know if that’s specifically too limiting.
Have you found anywhere else in the bill where it restricts access or provides for a mechanism to prove citizenship?
8:12 am
Rick replies:
Not necessarily hypocrisy. Wilson’s “You lie” heckle was about giving illegals access to the public option. It was not about the public option per se or any other aspect of the program. To claim Wilson is a hypocrite because he called Obama out for his interpretation of the bill relating to illegals just because he is a beneficiary of government run health care is a stretch.
You can argue that HR3200 denies access to illegals. Says so right in the bill. Except, because there is no requirement for anyone to prove they are a citizen when signing up for it, you know and I know that illegals will indeed benefit from the program - just as they end up voting in elections, receive food stamps and welfare, housing assistance, and any other government benefit that they are not eligible for.
ed.
Rick,
So are you saying that Wilson supports a robust public option?
Because I was pointing out the general hypocrisy of Wilsons statements about government run health care…I wasn’t “claiming Wilson is a hypocrite because he called Obama out for his interpretation of the bill relating to illegals”…He was simply wrong to do that…no hypocrisy…just stupidity..
We do agree on one specific point here about illegals being unable to participate in the system..
“It says so right in the bill.”
That it does..
Obama said: “…the reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.”
Wilson screamed: “You lie!”
Technically…Obama did not lie.
You can argue that the proposed legislation does not go far enough to ensure government dollars won’t flow to those who are here illegally…but you can’t really argue that the reforms Obama is proposing will apply to those who are here illegally…because they wont.
“It says so right in the bill.”
Right now…federal law bars hospitals from refusing service, regardless of immigration status or ability to pay…The taxpayer picks up that tab…
Where’s the outrage??
Personally…I think it would be great to offer all recent immigrants the option of purchasing affordable health insurance that would result in the payment of billions of dollars in insurance premiums every year…That would put a dent in giving health care away for free in emergency rooms, and forcing the government to subsidize hospitals for the cost..
Fact: Recent immigrants (those who have been in the U.S. for fewer than 10 years) were responsible for only about 1% of public medical expenditures even thought they constituted 5% of the population.
Fact: Recent immigrants who were fully insured over a 12-month period had medical costs that were half the size of their U.S. born counterparts.
Fact: Recent immigrants have lower rates of hospital admissions and emergency medical visits than native-born Americans.
Fact: 80% of the growth in the number of uninsured individuals between 2000 and 2006 consisted of U.S. citizens.
source: American Journal of Public Health
So why not let those immigrants that are able to purchase private insurance end up subsidizing the care of U.S. born citizens?
Seems fiscally conservative to me..
8:15 am
I’m glad Joe Wilson did what he did. This way the whole country can see what the gop has turned into. A lot of white Southerners, angry that the good ole days are over, that demographics of the country will make their party extinct. The gop is becoming a regional party, one dominated by the Glen Becks and the Sarah Palins. Thank you Mr. Wilson for exposing your party.
Like most ideological leftists, you have the mind of a child and the analytical skills of Alice in Wonderland.
ed.
8:30 am
Sota,
Arguing that if a bill won’t prevent a prohibited action 100% of the time, then it implicitly supports that action is hogwash..
10:21 am
There there. Do we feel better now, Rick? Get it all out now.
Geez…I try to entertain my readers with a little over the top satire and this is the thanks I get?
I suggest you acquire a sense of humor and chill out.
ed.
11:44 am
This may be the funniest thing you have ever written! Rick is the one blogger/writer that can be counted on to not get caught up in the “our kooks are better than your kooks” silliness.
And yes, when it comes to the health care debate, Obama has been so busy walking on water that he just now figured out the water is a flooded basement. Prediction: Obama will sign a health care bill that will change absolutely nothing. Democrats will will all give themselves a blue ribbon and go home a “winner”.
Still (barely) Liberal
12:30 pm
“Arguing that if a bill won’t prevent a prohibited action 100% of the time, then it implicitly supports that action is hogwash..”
I wasn’t arguing anything with my last statement. I’m genuinely curious how narrowly Section 246 applies. If a bill provides A, B, and C. And illegals are explicitly denied access to B, then they do implicitly have access to A and C. I’m honestly curious how Section 246 applies to the bill as a whole. Is the scope so limited that it won’t do much of anything?
1:24 pm
In the larger public sphere, this may turn out to be true. In the incestuous world of Capital Hill, the MSN, and political activists…not so much! My point was that Wilson’s actions have only hurt the GOP’s changes of containing Obamacare. By making 300 Democrat lawmakers upset and eager for payback, Wilson has turned a political uncertainty into a strong likelihood of passing by Thanksgiving.
And another point, what GOP lawmaker is going to ever say anything at a joint address of congress again, as long as Obama is in charge? What if Obama tells a really big lie someday? Anybody calling him out like Wilson did will be dismissed as a crank! (Of all the things to be upset at Obama about, alleged attempts at providing health coverage to illegals should be pretty far down on the list for a principled opponent.) There could be a time for making an outburst at a presidential address to congress; this occasion did not merit it.
7:38 pm
This is good. Very well done!
9:39 pm
It certainly wasn’t helpful to boost his opponent’s war chest by almost a million dollars in the space of a few days either.
The biggest rhetorical guns of the Democratic party will be brought to bear against Joe Wilson.
Rob Miller went from complete unknown without a chance to dead even and more money than he’ll know what to do with. And it’s not even a week yet.
8:55 am
Loved this article - it is hilarious!
5:02 pm
Sorry, just now saw this one.
Collective grumbling has been going on from both sides of the aisle for some time now.
That’s a qualitative difference from a single voice, clearly identifiable apparently, calling the president a liar during a joint session of congress.
I am not upset that the Republicans call Obama a liar (though he’s not), nor surprised but for 233 years or so it’s been done some time after the enclave so that we offer up at least the pretense of decorum.
Decorum so ridgedly enforced that Ciny Sheehan’s t-shirt was enough to give the GOP the vapors. She was ejected, and perhaps rightly so since she was making a point that ought not to be made in that setting, in that way.
But Cindy’s not an elected official and thus is not held to the standard that Rep. Wilson should be. And close to $1,000,000 has passed to his opponent as a show of how violating that standard is a bridge too far for a lot of people.