Former Bush and McCain strategist Mark McKinnon wants the congressman who shouted at Obama out of office and out of his partyand he's donating $1,000 to his opponent.
Make Joe Wilson pay.
And by pay, I mean beat his sorry ass at the polls and send him to the private sector. That is the only way to change the political discourse in America today. Because as long as louts like Joe Wilson can spout off and call the president a liar and get rewarded with re-election, then louts will continue to spout off. And we will continue to claw our way to the very bottom of the political swamp.
Its unclear yet what the reaction is in South Carolina. There is a newspaper poll that suggests broadly South Carolinians think the incident could have a negative impact on the state.
On the other hand, anecdotally there appears to be plenty of evidence that many of Wilsons constituents in the second congressional district actually support his odious behavior.
Im a Republican, but Id rather have a Democrat in Congress who I may disagree with but who has some fundamental character that Wilson lacks.
Wilsons aides say his office is receiving thousands of calls running three-to-one in favor of his outburstand he's running an ad on the Drudge Report using his victimhood.
Joe Scarborough had a conversation with Joe Klein on his Morning Joe program Friday during which he asked the question, How do we stop the cycle of vicious partisanship?
My answer is we start by getting rid of the partisans like Joe Wilson.
Even pit bull Pat Buchananwho once called on the citizens of New Hampshire to take up pitch forksis decrying the poisonous nature of our politics today: We seem not only to disagree with each other more than ever, but to have come almost to detest one another. Politically, culturally, racially, we seem ever ready to go for each others' throats.
Max Blumenthal: Joe Wilsons Strange Friends Whether Wilson was right or wrong in his tempestuous charge, it was wrong to interrupt the president during a speech in the House of Representatives. But, the fact is, he was also wrong in his assertion. Legislation, as currently proposed, does not allow illegal immigrants to get the proposed government health-care subsidies. But, lest there be any ambiguity, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, said Thursday Obama would go further, barring illegal immigrants from buying private health insurance through a proposed government-regulated marketplace, even if they could afford the coverage on their own.
Of course that hasnt stopped Wilson supporters like Rush Limbaugh from saying, You know a lot of people in that room... know [Obamas] lying through his teeth and wanted to say it. And Joe Wilson finally did.
Wilson couldnt even apologize with any class. He made it clear he was saying sorry only because hed been forced to by the Republican House leadership: Well, I, uh, last night I heard from the leadership that they wanted me to contact the White House and, uh, say that, uh, my statements, uh, were inappropriate. I did."
Apologies should extract some moral or material cost.
I was surprised and moved when Governor Mark Sanford called me recentlythe first time we've spokento personally apologize because I was one of the few who actually took him at his word when he said he was out hiking the Appalachian Trail and wrote a column defending the idea of elected officials unplugging and getting off the leash occasionally to investigate the real world outside their bubbles. Not something he needed to do, but it was my sense that he just felt it was the right thing to do.
Alex Massie: Why American Politicians Are Wimps I have tried personally to promote comity in politics, but have occasionally lapsed. I found myself compelled recently to apologize to former Senator Rick Santorum for a column I wrote recently in The Daily Beast in which I lowered myself to a highly inappropriate observation about his family. I let my anger at Santorum overwhelm my judgment, and obscure the fundamental point of my argument. To his credit, Santorum graciously accepted. But, the incident made me realize how easy it is to fall prey to the lowest common denominator today. Because usually theres no penalty.
When elected officials and others contribute to a climate and culture that fosters hyper-partisanship, weve got to blow the whistle.
I think South Carolina is better than that and will have a chance to prove as much next year by sending Wilson a pink slip.
Im a Republican, but Id rather have a Democrat in Congress who I may disagree with but who has some fundamental character and decency that Wilson clearly lacks. So, today Im volunteering for Republicans for Rob Miller, Wilsons opponent, a former Marine and Iraq veteran, and am sending him a $1,000 check. And you can do the same by going here.
Theres only one way to were going to change our political climate and ensure we establish some respect in our discourse. And that is to show there is a real price to pay for being a disrespectful partisan idiot.
The nutroots haven't been having a lot to brag about lately. So I guess they are going to flex their muscles on this one, and give it the ol' "full-ROFL" try. One thing about it, the outcome will be totally unambiguous.
The nutroots haven't been having a lot to brag about lately. So I guess they are going to flex their muscles on this one, and give it the ol' "full-ROFL" try. One thing about it, the outcome will be totally unambiguous.
********************
Yep.. I agree. However, you are one of the few who are trying to create "ambiguity" out of the results of the last two elections.
Good luck with that.
It might, at sometime, dawn on you, that you are not a "typical American" .. here's to me hoping that it is sooner rather than later.
no need to thank me for that wish, when it happens it will come along with a shitload of cognitive dissonance.
The nutroots haven't been having a lot to brag about lately. So I guess they are going to flex their muscles on this one, and give it the ol' "full-ROFL" try. One thing about it, the outcome will be totally unambiguous.
********************
Yep.. I agree. However, you are one of the few who are trying to create "ambiguity" out of the results of the last two elections.
Good luck with that.
Umm...No, that's the President and Congress that are doing such a bang-up job of that. I'm just cheering them on. The dynamic that elected them has *already* vaporized, less than a year after the "mandate".(*snort*)
It might, at sometime, dawn on you, that you are not a "typical American" .. here's to me hoping that it is sooner rather than later.
Never once, in any altered state I may have found myself in, or stone sober, have I ever claimed to be a typical American. How's your supply of straw holding up?
no need to thank me for that wish, when it happens it will come along with a shitload of cognitive dissonance.
I was running experiments with cognitive dissonance when you were still using philosophical training wheels. You're the one who worries about falling trees with no one around, remember?
Ridiculous. The people of South Carpolina el;ected him and they are the ones who determine that he should stay or go.
Hey, there Adam Clayton Powell did everything in the book that should have sent him packing. But it is the lack of character of the Democrats that proves why we have corruption.
Umm...No, that's the President and Congress that are doing such a bang-up job of that. I'm just cheering them on. The dynamic that elected them has *already* vaporized, less than a year after the "mandate".(*snort*)
It might, at sometime, dawn on you, that you are not a "typical American" .. here's to me hoping that it is sooner rather than later.
Never once, in any altered state I may have found myself in, or stone sober, have I ever claimed to be a typical American. How's your supply of straw holding up?
no need to thank me for that wish, when it happens it will come along with a shitload of cognitive dissonance.
I was running experiments with cognitive dissonance when you were still using philosophical training wheels. You're the one who worries about falling trees with no one around, remember?
gus.
********************************************
Funny guy. And you extoll your virtues as a gentleman and a good guy elsewhere? Really?
You are a hateful human being. It's only taken me about 10 years to figure that out.
You are a hateful human being. It's only taken me about 10 years to figure that out.
pffttt... That's just how you define people that refuse to be intimidated. It's part of that Liberal ideology that you can't find. You wankers play the "hate" card like it's the only one in your whole fetid deck, all the while dealing more misery to more people than any other ideology in modern human history. That cross is *yours*. Drag it...
Umm...No, that's the President and Congress that are doing such a bang-up job of that. I'm just cheering them on. The dynamic that elected them has *already* vaporized, less than a year after the "mandate".(*snort*)
It might, at sometime, dawn on you, that you are not a "typical American" .. here's to me hoping that it is sooner rather than later.
Never once, in any altered state I may have found myself in, or stone sober, have I ever claimed to be a typical American. How's your supply of straw holding up?
no need to thank me for that wish, when it happens it will come along with a shitload of cognitive dissonance.
I was running experiments with cognitive dissonance when you were still using philosophical training wheels. You're the one who worries about falling trees with no one around, remember?
gus.
******************
No. Really.
You are a hateful human being. You pretend otherwise. You wouldn't lift a hand to somebody in need, We already know that. [well, if they agreed with you, yeah, sure... you'd do it.. ]
You are a hateful human being. It's only taken me about 10 years to figure that out.
Well, hopefully it won't take you another 10 to figure out that I don't pay a bit of attention to ignorance-based opinions, yours, roby's, or anybody else's. However, you figuring this out is a function of ego, so it's entirely possible that it could never happen at all.
Well, hopefully it won't take you another 10 to figure out that I don't pay a bit of attention to ignorance-based opinions, yours, roby's, or anybody else's. However, you figuring this out is a function of ego, so it's entirely possible that it could never happen at all.
**********************************
You are suggesting that your opinion[s] are not based on ignorance?
Amazon.com Review Written in a narrative style that captures both the scope and detail of the Russian revolution, Orlando Figes's history is certain to become one of the most important contemporary studies of Russia as it was at the beginning of the 20th century. With an almost cinematic eye, Figes captures the broad movements of war and revolution, never losing sight of the individuals whose lives make up his subject. He makes use of personal papers and personal histories to illustrate the effects the revolution wrought on a human scale, while providing a convincing and detailed understanding of the role of workers, peasants, and soldiers in the revolution. He moves deftly from topics such as the grand social forces and mass movements that made up the revolution to profiles of key personalities and representative characters.
Figes's themes of the Russian revolution as a tragedy for the Russian people as a whole and for the millions of individuals who lost their lives to the brutal forces it unleashed make sense of events for a new generation of students of Russian history. Sympathy for the charismatic leaders and ideological theorizing regarding Hegelian dialectics and Marxist economics--two hallmarks of much earlier writing on the Russian revolution--are banished from these clear-eyed, fair-minded pages of A People's Tragedy. The author's sympathy is squarely with the Russian people. That commitment, together with the benefit of historical hindsight, provides a standpoint Figes take full advantage of in this masterful history. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly Packed with vivid human detail and incident, British historian Figes's monumental social and political history spans Russia's entire revolutionary period, from the czarist government's floundering during the famine of 1891 to Lenin's death in 1924, by which time all the basic institutions of the Soviet dictatorship?a privileged ruling elite, random terror, secret police, torture, mass executions, concentration camps?were in place. Figes dismantles any number of myths surrounding the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917, a military coup rammed through at Lenin's insistence ("hardly any of the Bolshevik leaders had wanted it to happen until a few hours before it began"). Using diaries, letters, memoirs and archival documents, Cambridge don Figes provides masterful portraits of cynical, power-hungry Lenin, driven by an absolute faith in his mission; Alexander Kerensky, weak-willed, vain democratic leader, the self-styled savior of Russia; writer Maxim Gorky, plagued by the fear?and later by the terrible realization?that the "people's revolution" was a descent into barbarism; Tolstoyan peasant reformer Sergei Semenov; and dozens of lesser-known figures. In this vibrant magnum opus, Figes illumines the manifold sources of Russia's failure to take a democratic path. Illustrations not seen by PW. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, In
You are suggesting that your opinion[s] are not based on ignorance?
1. Absolutely, and I am willing to subject them to the board, and be equally willing to defend them, and/or explain why I hold them. You haven't done that now in several years, so I find your asking of the question to be both ironic, and completely predictable at the same time.
2. Because of number 1, I know better than to make really ignorant assumptions about the lives of other posters. There is a clear corollation between posters who routinely post nothing but that, and posters with all the apparent depth of a footprint.
gus.
This message has been edited by gus-mccrea on Sep 12, 2009 11:29 PM
