Obama heckled by GOP during speech: 'You lie!'
 

I don't care if you agree or not with what he said . . . it's very disrespectful. Have some dignity for the your position and the office of the President.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...NsGyQD9AK65CG1

Yeah I caught that. These are professional politicians who represent our nation. The least they could do was show respect to the man who was chosen to lead this country.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/phot...Kv3wvMIUv6o%3D

Can you all see this? It's a picture of the reaction to the heckle.

Joe Wilson should feel embarassed. Many of his constituents may applaud him, but the wise ones (regardless of party) will see that he flew off the handle.

This isn't a townhall meeting filled with angry clueless people. This is a speech before Congress.

I always liked John McCain. He (and Clint Eastwood) reminds me of one of my mentors. :)

Well for one...it's not as bad as having a shoe thrown at you....
and here is when it happened:

OBAMA: "The reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally." One congressman, South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson, shouted "You lie!" from his seat in the House chamber when Obama made this assertion.

THE FACTS: The facts back up Obama. The House version of the health care bill explicitly prohibits spending any federal money to help illegal immigrants get health care coverage. Illegal immigrants could buy private health insurance, as many do now, but wouldn't get tax subsidies to help them. Still, Republicans say there are not sufficient citizenship verification requirements to ensure illegal immigrants are excluded from benefits they are not due.

___


Fact checking Obama's speech, click to see the rest of the story

LOL Great shot.

Biden's like "what? where am I? I need a beer"

Pelosi's mouth could catch flies...

and there went the great still shot

it was fun while it lasted :(

Senusret, that picture is priceless.

And Joe Wilson should be ashamed. His behavior was just appalling.

http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._2515301_n.jpg

I'm sorry...you were saying...?

Off topic:

President's hair looks fresh to death

back to regularly scheduled programming:

Was he asked to leave after that upset? Was he REALLY so MAD that he HAD to say it? What is going on in the world?

He wasn't asked to leave, which I think Pelosi had the right to do. However he was publicly told to apologize by McCain, who is one of the more powerful figures in the GOP.

that is a nice ass hair cut. *fans self*

Hahaha Obama's a babe :)

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/rids/20090910/...rddQYrs0ELoQ--

Was he twittering, texting, or checking sports scores when this pic was taken?


http://d.yimg.com/a/p/rids/20090910/...Vw9yvKG95vww--

This is why some people are afraid of a healthcare plan...Under Obama's plan they wouldn't be able to keep that belly fat!



and just how damaging was that outburst?





House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn, a fellow South Carolinian, said Wilson's heckling was more damaging to South Carolina's reputation than the exploits of Republican Gov. Mark Sanford, who admitted to having an extramarital affair with an Argentinian woman.

"I thought he [the governor] had embarrassed us as much as we could be embarrassed. But to have a congressman use the floor of the House of Representatives in a joint session to insult the president the way Joe Wilson did is as embarrassing as anything anyone could think of," Clyburn said. "Our state can do without this."

Arizona Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee and a fellow veteran, denounced the comment as "totally disrespectful and called on Wilson to "apologize immediately" during a post-speech interview on CNN.

A few hours later, he issued a written statement, saying he had called White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and apologized.

"I let my emotions get the best of me," Wilson said. "While I disagree with the president's statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the president for this lack of civility."

The timing could not have been worse: Wilson's son, Alan Wilson, launched a bid Tuesday for state attorney general.

And Wilson himself is facing the possibility of a credible rematch of his narrow 2008 victory over Marine Corps veteran and Democrat Rob Miller, which Wilson won with 53.7 percent of the vote.

Miller received a flood of online donations in the hour after the speech, according to Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee officials, with one estimate pegging the number of contributions at more than 200.

A Democratic operative with experience in South Carolina said Wilson's treatment of the commander in chief could cost him among the district's sizable military population.

"You have a lot of military folks who, even when they don't agree with the president politically, have a lot of respect for the institution itself," the operative said. "Before the speech, I would have said Joe Wilson had that."

Clyburn said South Carolina voters may have the opportunity to redress their grievances with Wilson at the polls and elsewhere.

"I would hope that the people of South Carolina will show him, in as many as ways as they possibly can, how insulting this is and how embarrassing this is," Clyburn said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., declined to comment on the matter, according to a spokesman, but Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., said he could not remember a similar incident during his nearly three decades in Congress. "It is certainly something that should never happen," Hoyer added.


link


And a little tidbit on the gentleman who gave the rebuttal...take it as you will.
Boustany's Malpractice History

But hey...he's a cardiologist, it's almost expected.

He wasn't asked to leave because it was a "special" joint session. Had it been a regular, or otherwise normal joint session, the seargeant-at-arms would have had the right remove the member from the chamber.

Obama cracks me up because he really will give a person a wtf look. lol. As my ma used to say, "fix your face." lol.

Politico sucks, even with the (second-paragraph) caveat. Three suits (totaling around $2mil in damages) is a nearly-ideal record for an individual-practice doctor performing the types of surgery he is at the rate he apparently was.

Thus the last portion...heh!

Good thing he's not a neurosurgeon!

All I have to say is thank heavens Fox broadcast So You Think You Can Dance and Glee! They put a smile on my face:)

How many speeches during primetime have we had since November? I'd rather just read the text the next morning in the paper, and miss all the posturing and ridiculous pomp for something that's not going to happen anyway...

(besides after a long day at work - the last thing I want to see is that nest of vipers and liars - and I mean ALL of them, there's not a Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in the bunch!!)

That's very foolish.

The bill is not final. As it stands right now, no it doesn't have those provisions. But that doesn't mean that it won't.

"You lie."

The Congressman was telling it like it is. While he certainly violated the rules of decorum of the House, what I think he did will be incredibly effective with his base.

Not only that, but it shifts a lot of the attention away from the speech itself to Wilson's outburst. I'm not positive this was planned, but if it was planned, it took a damned smart, damned cynical soul to come up with it.

Decorum in the House and in Committees

Under clause 1(a)(1) of Rule XI ... Members should comport themselves with the rules of decorum and debate in the House and in Committees specifically with regard to references to the President of the United States as stated in Section 370 of the House Rules and Manual.

As stated in Cannon’s Precedents, on January 27, 1909, the House adopted a report in response to improper references in debate to the President. That report read in part as follows:

"It is... the duty of the House to require its Members in speech or debate to preserve that proper restraint which will permit the House to conduct its business in an orderly manner and without unnecessarily and unduly exciting animosity among its Members or antagonism from those other branches of the Government with which the House is correlated."

...

Under section 370 of the House Rules and Manual it has been held that a Member could:

* refer to the government as "something hated, something oppressive."
* refer to the President as "using legislative or judicial pork."
* refer to a Presidential message as a "disgrace to the country."
* refer to unnamed officials as "our half-baked nitwits handling foreign affairs."

Likewise, it has been held that a member could not:

* call the President a "liar."
* call the President a "hypocrite."

...

Section 370 of Jefferson’s Manual states that the rule in Parliament prohibiting Members from "speak{ing} irreverently or seditiously against the King" has been interpreted to prohibit personal references against the President. In addition, Speakers of the House have consistently reiterated, and the House has voted, to support the proposition that it is not in order in debate to engage in personalities toward the President.
http://www.rules.house.gov/POP/house_comm_dec.htm

Based on DaemonSeid's post, Kevin's assessment is right on target.

People are so easily distracted.

Pretty much

I don't agree with the heckling either but would like to make two important points:
1) This is not the first time this occurred. If everyone will recall back when Bush 2 was President the Dems booed him during his State of The Union speech when he said Social Security would go bankrupt if it was not fixed. A few commentators mentioned it was unprecedented but framed it in such a way that made it seem as if Bush was so far off base the Dems were justified in their disrespect.
2) I find it interesting that just before the Congressmen called the President a liar that the President called those who vocally disagree with a portion of his plan liars. He also said that the plan will not cover illegal aliens. This is not true and the Pres knows it so we are criticizing the Congressmen for telling the truth and defending the President for lying.

Well, if a person comes into an ER bleeding to death, you can't simply let them die.

You may be confusing getting basic care vs getting comprehensive coverage.

You may want to see the case of the woman who died in King's Hospital last year as a reason why regardless of your status, it is inhumane to let someone who seeks immediate treatment be turned away.

While unfortunately each and every illegal cannot be identified, if someone needs immeidate help you can't turn away.

Perhaps this issue here (and I am sure somoene can claify) is defining just exactly what 'basic insurance coverage' implies and what it covers.


So uhhhh.....if you see somebody getting hit by a car, are you going to ask if they are here in the US illegally before you call 911?

max..I dont have time to entertain you today.

Thank you for your words of non wisdom.

This is generally how I feel about most of these conversations. At the same time, I am dismayed that folks can't seem to communicate because they are so interested in talking past each other and being right. If folks invested half the energy into finding viable solutions that they invest in partisan grandstanding, we would have solutions to this and other problems already.

Are you sure you aren't my sister...she just said that very thing not but an hr ago....HA!!!

funny part is...she is your soror.

In fairness to the heckler, I think some of the numbers cited to get to the really big number of uninsured include illegal immigrants. If you check out some of the right-y blogs, I think you can find links that reflect some really recent subtractions to remove illegal immigrants from the pool of people being discussed.

How to handle this part of the health care equation is a pretty contentious area. There's always the tension being doing what appears to be the right thing vs any kind of sustainability. Free world class health care regardless of citizenship is likely to be a pretty big draw. What seriously ill person wouldn't come here for care?

If other publicly paid for health care systems are any evidence of the sort of care...probably none.

I guess if the Democrats want to push this better, they should tell the Republicans that the health care will be so terribly bad that immigrants won't want to come here. It might work. Especially since it will be true.

Yeah, but I imagine any negative effects in the quality of care are going to be gradual. I don't expect to go third world in one generation, no matter how bad health care reform turns out.

Crap, that's something new to worry about.

The quality of the doctors, medicine, etc probably will not go down any time soon.

But the accessibility to that quality, will.

Huh? take me though this.

ETA: It sounds like you expect a vast increase in the number of people seeking treatment that will remain high quality. I'm betting it won't go down like that.

It won't.

But I guess what I would be saying is that for now, the quality of the doctors...as in their education and aptitude for medical knowledge will stay up. Not necessarily the quality of the care they provide.

Granted, I have a bone to pick with national healthcare. A good German friend of mine was not given treatment because of the advanced stages of his cancer. He was denied care even though he had been paying into the system for quite a long time. He passed away. My German roommate broke his arm while I was there. It didn't get fixed while I was there. I left for the United States and emailed him probably a month after I had left. They finally had got to him, but they had to re-break his bone to reset it. Sounds like something I envy.

Did you know that what you guys spend on the war on drugs could easily financed universal health care?

Well, yeah, until everyone addicted to drugs needs treatment. ;)