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| Written by Dr Googl |
| Tuesday, 15 September 2009 00:00 |
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Do you recall a time when politicians were noble? Me neither. I’ve had to dig up history books to even come close. I’m not saying the politicians of today have to be saints, we’re human after all, but are we the people so wrong to expect them to at least strive for being people of character and integrity? The latest hubbub in Congressional news is Rep. Joe Wilson calling the President a liar in response to detailed information that Obama was giving Congress in an address last week. Just in case you didn’t hear, essentially what transpired was the President stating that illegal immigrants wouldn’t be covered under the new national health plan (he was referring to H.R. 3200), to which Rep. Joe Wilson replied, “You Lie!” Now I’m all for freedom of speech as long as it’s responsible, and appropriate for the venue. I don’t think it is ever appropriate to call the President of the United States a liar on public television or in any venue. If you believe he is misstating facts, you’d better be in a situation where you can provide your evidence, not just your disagreement. So who is Joe Wilson anyways? He is a Republican Congressman from South Carolina. You know, from that long line of respectable politicians, like Gov. Mark Sanford who had his people lie to the folks who trusted him to run their state, then lied to them himself, then came clean about having an affair and getting caught coming back from an encounter with the other woman. After all of that and stating that all of it was horrible and appalling, he didn’t find it horrible enough to admit that he’d broken the trust of the people of South Carolina and should step down from public office. Even worse, the people of South Carolina have been apathetic enough to let him stay! Yep, Joe Wilson is from that line of politicians as well. So what’s my beef with Joe Wilson? Well, I don’t personally know the guy so I only have the information that is publicly available on him, which casts a funny light. One example is that after the whole “you lie” thing, his house.giv site was changed to a single page of bland biographical data. Before that, it was a comprehensive, multi-paged site that listed not only all the wonderful things he’s done for everyone, but what groups he belongs to, like the Sons of Confederate Veterans. They’re an interesting group suffering from internal strife between one faction that wants to do civil war reenactments and the other group that believes slavery is ok and supports secession from the United States. Guess which faction Wilson belongs to. Here’s a hint, he was only one of six Republican state congressmen who voted to keep the confederate flag flying over the state capital. Beyond all of that, what is really driving me nut about all of this the “parrot prompting other parrots” as Voltaire put it. I’m debating with Republicans, where I work, who swear on their own mother’s graves that H.R. 3200 directly says that illegal immigrants will be covered by the new health plan, among other really stupid things. The really sad part is that not a single one of these folks have even bothered to find out if what they’re being told by Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh or Faux News is the truth. They simply take the word of people whose job is not to report the truth, but report what will accomplish their political agenda. Remember when the American spirit wasn’t about trying to get one over on your neighbor; it was about actually helping them? Me neither. |
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