The Day Decorum Died

The 'Honorable' Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted "You lie" at the President of the United States while Obama was delivering a speech about health care to a joint session of Congress.

As President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, the nation's rapidly deteriorating discourse hit yet another low.

It happened at 8:40 pm, just after the president vowed to lawmakers that his health-care reform proposals would not provide benefits to illegal immigrants. As millions of Americans watched from home, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) shouted at the president from his fifth-row seat: "You lie!"

Murmurs of "ooh" filled the stunned chamber. Nancy Pelosi's chin dropped. Obama moved on to the next sentence in his speech, about how no federal money would be used to fund abortion. "Not true!" came another shout.

The Republican Response, Arriving a Little Early
By Dana Milbank
Washington Post
Thursday, September 10, 20

This wasn't a political rally; this wasn't a vitriol-filled town hall session. These were the halls of Congress.

No matter that I think Wilson is wrong or no matter that you may think I am wrong. Wake the kids. Tell them: this is the day decorum died.

It's socialism to study hard?

As have others, LJBC has been catching a breath since Barack Obama's inauguration.

One blogger who has not been quiescent, remaining vigilant, is Jack Curtin at I Have Heard the Mermaids Singing. Here he comments on the ridiculous yet atrocious attacks on the occasion of the President of the United States speaking to the nation's schoolchildren.

As incomprehensible as it might seem, some folk on the political right have equated Obama's upcoming talk on studying hard to a screed on socialism. Many of these are the same folk who had questioned the patriotism of any American who dared question the wisdom and legality of the past President's actions.

This time, however, there may be something else at work; if so, it would be ugly and shameful.

You, I, anyone can disagree with anyone. That’s not the point here. Listen to what’s being said, look at the desperate faces of those who have been taken by the whole concerted campaign of lies, listen to what they say, read the signs they carry. Then try to imagine such lunacy directed at any of the recent presidents. The closest we came were the “The Clintons murder people” and “George W. Bush knew about 911 in advance” stuff and it was nothing like this. When all else has been logically eliminated, what remains is likely the truth.

The “how dare the President speak to my child” controversy has brought into sharp focus what had been only strongly indicated before: the constant & vicious attacks on Barack Obama from the right are based in large part on race. We always knew there was still a large & dangerous strain of racial hatred in the US; what we never expected is that it would be embraced by one of the two major parties & its media cohort.

Is it any wonder that civics is moribund when American parents forbid their children from watching the President of THEIR United States?

• Political cartoon courtesy of Chan Lowe at www.gocomics.som/chanlowe
• There are, of course, many other bloggers who have not ceased from fighting the good fight.