Before Joe Wilson, there was Preston Brooks

“who jeered and laughed (inappropriately) at various points in the president’s speech.”

Like Democrats have NEVER done that before during a speech by a Republican president. LOLLOLLOLLOL!!! I didn’t think you could be any more biased…but I guess you can.

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OMG, are you serious. I’m sick of this crap. Where was the indignation and outrage when a movie was made about assassinating President Bush. Or when Robert “KKK” Byrd went off on the President on the Senate floor. Or when the Democrats booed President Bush during the 2005 State of the Union. You liberals have no conscious or morals.

Where is your outrage towards Charlie Rangel. This guy is a bigot, a liar, and a tax evader. He should be in prison, yet he holds one of the most powerful positions in the congress. You liberals are koolaid drinkers and would say or do anything to have absolute power. God help us all.

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May I add to Pat Phelps comment, Cynthia was:
Cheering the assassination movie;
Looking the other way and supporting Byrd;
Standing with with Cynthia McKinney while booing Bush;
Openly defending Rangel;
And doing all of these as a proud and Progressive Democrat.

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Being a good Massachusetts native liberal I am very familiar with the incident you mention. Massachusetts’s Senator Charles Sumner did not die from the caning by South Carolina’s Senator Brooks. He was incapacitated for several years, eventually returning to claim his senate seat. His caning was reprehensible, criminal, and without merit, but Senator Sumner had an ass whupping coming from somebody. He repeatedly and on the Senate floor belittled and personally insulted Senator Brooks and two other Confederate supporters even making fun of a man’s stutter.

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It is shameful, disgraceful and anti-American what Joe Wilson did last night during the President’s important address. He needs to formally and publicly apologize to President Obama and the Congress for his rudeness and lack of self control. I hope that his actions are not reflective of South Carlina’s view and he be voted out of office. There is a way to debate ones differences with respect for your fellow man and that is what’s lacking in America’s debate today. Let’s discuss things with civility and facts as opposed to fear and dis-information. We are facing some serious issues today and we need to unite as a country and take an objective look at resolutions as opposed to fear mongering and hate rhetoric! It is truly a sad day in America.

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Preston Brooks was a Democrat, Charles Sumner did not die from the attack, and you are a biased idiot.

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As Cynthia said, there is nothing new under the sun. Politicians,both Democrat and Republican, have done this and much worse from the beginning. I confess I don’t understand the outrage about this, when they are far greater things to be outraged about. And Joe Wilson did apologize directly to Obama, and Obama has said he has accepted the apology.

As far as “hate rhetoric” goes, if you want to see hate rhetoric, look at the posts on Media Matters or Daily Kos. The word “liar” is mild in comparison.

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I pointed out to Wilson’s office that he was following in Brooks’ footsteps. Right on, sister.

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Wilson is proof than South Carolina still continues to elect bottom-feeding trash, even in the 21st century.

Sad that this oafish thug is a congressman, sadder still the scum that voted him in.

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Jarrod – was Cynthia a bigot when she made a blanket statement on Chris Matthews show that most of the opponents of Obamacare were racist and opposed it becuase he was black? She had no proof but she made that statement.

Was Charlie Rangel a bigot when he said all people that oppose Obamacare are white racist? He too has no proof, but made the statement.

Was or was not Robert Byrd in the Klu Klux Klan? Yes, he was.

Did Charlie Rangel lie on his tax return and evade taxes. Yes, I believe he did.

So you can talk about me all you want but in reality the only bigots in this country are on the left. I voted for Dylan Glenn in my congressional district. Last time I checked he was a black man.

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Yes, Ms Tucker, Congressman Wilson’s two words were disrespectful albeit true. You have skewed your article to suggest that Liberals have never been disrespectul, to which I would also say “you lie”.
And how disrespectful of the president to make jibes against opponents of his healthcare plan while addressing the joint house. He should apologize, too.
How interesting that the Liberal machine has used this incident to pull in money for Wilson’s opponent, Miller.

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Pat Phelps: Can you prove your above statements ^^ or did you just hear it from Fox News and automatically took it as the gospel truth? if you can prove it, LINK to it — that way we can all see it!

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Jettie – we should do the same. If everyone that believes Joe Wilson was right would donate to his campaign we could raise hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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Boos, hisses, etc. are commonplace and both sides are guilty of that. Everyone can go back and forth on this issue, “A Democrat did this, a republican did that, but what about . . .?” However, if anyone can point to an occasion when Bush was interrupted by being called a liar from the floor during a speech he was making, please post the name of the person who did this, the date, etc. My personal opinion is that this was definitely a new low. Instead of saying, “Well, they did it too,” how about we all try to raise the bar instead? Wouldn’t that be better?

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REB – why is the left always wants to play the race card. Not that its any of your damn business, but I voted for Dylan Glenn because of his politics. The man running against him, the current representative for my district, was Lynn Westmoreland. Mr. Westmoreland is a native of the district and white. I voted for the man I thought would do the best job and that was Dylan Glenn.

It’s funny the way you say “people like you”. When all else fails use the race card. That is all you got.

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How many times did Nancy Pelosi call Bush a liar? Why is it suddenly a story now? Actually, why is any criticism of a president a story. Traditionally there have never been boundries as to what we say/infer/ or characterize our president. Why should Obama be different?

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Meanwhile, Obama has INCREASED the number of American personnel going to IRAQ.

Not to mention Afganistan.

And the 26 billion dollars given to GM is GONE.

Back in the 19th century, the above mentioned senators would be facing the gallows.

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Only utter idiots really believe that either side is any more civil than the other.

BTW: Sumner died 18 years after the cane attack. I guess Cynthia is just too lazy to bother to click the link in the Wikipedia that she is using as the source for her “column” to look at Sumner’s bio. No wonder the AJC is going down the toilet. They are staffed by run of the mill ignorant partisans who cut and paste from the Wikipedia and don”t even do that well. What a bunch of garbage.

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Kat –

“someone called bush a liar? why?”

Probably because he made the same comments about Iraqi WMD as Bill and Hillary Clinton, Al Gore and John Kerry but was also a Republican.

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So remind us Cynthia — did you express the same dim view of the rudeness when President George W. Bush was booed and heckled by Democrats at his 2005 State of the Union address?

My guess is “no”. If correct, thanks for reaffirming your double standard position!!!

BTW, my guess the “LIAR” comment is likely correct as PresBo will redefine “illegal” or give the 11-12 illegals amnesty….

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Apologies — my previous posting should read “…11-12 million illegals…”

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Nag, nag, nag! That’s all you do woman. Now go make me a damn sammich!

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Pat Phelps September 10th, 2009 9:55 pm SAID: By the way he didn’t lie. He said the same things President Clinton and the head of the CIA, who was appointed by Clinton, said about WMD’s. Do you consider President Clinton a liar? Probably not.

CHRIS SAYS: Clinton didn’t go to war over it and didn’t justify killing over 4000 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives to justify it. Remember those lies about mushroom clouds over American cities, WMD trailers, etc. You ARE naive.

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There are provisions in all the bills to have IRS check lists which would screen out illegal immigrants, and provisions for other lists to be implemented. Insurance companies now don’t screen for immigration violations if someone wants to pay their exponentially rising premiums and deductibles.

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Some of these AJC blogs have the whackiest filters immagnable. Cynthia’s blogs must be allergic to links. LOL

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How hard is it to get the facts straight? Preston Brooks was not a Senator. He was a Representative. He attacked Senator Charles Sumner. The attack was not fatal.

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Chris Salzmann – truer words have never been spoken, Clinton did absolutely nothing. Thanks to that inaction we look back at the death’s of 3000 American’s today. Had he forced the issue with Iraq early we might not be in Iraq today. His legacy as a president is one of inaction against terrorist and womanizing in the White House.

Last time I check you haven’t been attacked by a terrorist and I guess since you wrote the comment above you are still alive. You can thank President Bush later.

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obozo is a black man? I thought the piece of garbage was a white boy with a funny name and a good tan. Oh yeah, he was only a whitey cracker long enough to get some votes and now he a homeboy again. I get it, now I know what he meant by Change, that’s what he do with his color, depending on who he be lying to at the moment.

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Joe Wilson is a coward and everyone appears to ignore this fact. Calling a person a liar while separated by hundreds of people and plenty of room to turn-tail and run is cowardace!

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The truth is that if Obama is not a liar he is the dumbest man in the world, because absolutely nothing he says about the health care bill makes any sense at all. It just can’t work the way he says it can. It doesn’t take a mental giant to know that.

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You liberals can’t have it both ways. When you excoriate the past president in the 2005 State of the Union speech, it’s ok. When you hypocrites call him a liar for 8 years, it’s ok. Rep. Lewis expressed his convictions openly and that is not ok. He has something that you all don’t have.

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Cynthia, that happened in 1856. How about some current events, like this feel-good story:

(CNN) — Two employees at the Baltimore, Maryland, branch of the liberal community organizing group ACORN were caught on tape allegedly offering advice to a pair posing as a pimp and prostitute on setting up a prostitution ring and evading the IRS.

The video footage — which has been edited and goes to black in some areas — was recorded and posted online Thursday by James O’Keefe, a conservative activist. He was joined on the video by another conservative, Hannah Giles, who posed as the prostitute in the filmmakers’ undercover sting.

The video shows the pair approaching two women working at the ACORN Baltimore office and asking them for advice on how to set up a prostitution ring involving more than a dozen underage girls from El Salvador.

One of the ACORN workers suggests that Giles refer to herself as a “performing artist” on tax forms and declare some of the girls as dependents to receive child tax credits.

“Stop saying prostitution,” the woman, identified by the filmmaker as an ACORN tax expert, tells Giles. The other woman tells them, “You want to keep them clean … make sure they go to school.”
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You can read the rest on cnn.com. Evidently, ACORN provides a multitude of services that people might not be aware of. Have you ever visited that office, Cynthia?

Do you see anything wrong with this, Cynthia?

Should ACORN be giving advice on how to set up a prostitution ring, Cynthia?

Cynthia? Cynthia? Anyone? Bueller?

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To the best of my recollection, and following a quick check, the only time the Democrats did anything that would be described as ‘heckling’ of geedubya bush during the 2005 SOTU address, was to call out ‘NOOO’ when he 1) played the fear card about the eminent demise/bankruptcy/etc. of Social Security and 2) announced his ‘plan’ to privatize same. As it’s turned out, I’d say that should have called for some negative reaction.

Seems to me the Republicans have created a monster in their promotion of disruptive acts in lieu of open discussion and debate and are going to pay the price for it. This stuff may play well in South Carolina and here, but an ever-increasing majority of the country see it for what it is…an extreme right, shrinking base that is the Republican Party and that will, unless there’s another mass secession or a change of heart, never again win a national election.

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This is nonsense. Hand in hand with racism is class discrimination. White folks wanted to keep blacks in the lowest class, and much of what is called racism is actually class discrimination.

Years ago in the South we used to do something called “(insert n-word here)-Thumping”. As we drove by a black man or woman on foot, something was thrown out of the car on to the pedestrian. Sometimes it was something nicer, like cold water. Sometimes it was something meaner, like a rotten watermelon or wet paint. Whatever, it was designed to publically humiliate the black person and to remind him or her that they shouldn’t try to step outside their class. The payoff was the impotent anger against unknown white boys driving away in a fast car.

When important black men or women spoke in public, the whites would often jeer and make cat calls in order to have other white people laugh at them and to reduce their social standing. All black leaders, including Martin Luther King, experienced this.

To attack the first black president in public with an humiliating insult is part of this old South trend. Among many people in South Carolina, it works. What it does is tear at the social standing of a black man who has risen above his class with attempted humiliation and embarrassment.

I was an N-thumper. Joe Wilson still is a N-Thumper. We understand each other perfectly.

Except I stopped being a n-thumper when I was twelve, and got better friends. Joe Wilson has never stopped n-thumpin’. I’m sorry for what I’ve done. Joe Wilson only apologises for acting like aredneck in public, rather than acting as a redneck in private among his redneck friends.

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Joe Wilson is a member of the sons of the confederated. He stand for Jim crow all over again . he and the Taliban confederate GOP stand for disrespect. when it comes to the people of color they have always had no respect. They hate the latino blacks Asians any body that don,t look white. read the history and Joe Wilson is standing on that history. Now latino and all other people of color watch what they do not what they say. when it comes time to vote remember this. we ask them to help and what they do give you their AZZ to kiss. Time to move on this is what hate in your heart does and when they go to church who are they worshiping ? Jesus is a socialist read his word . And you say (a lie) we want to be more like Jesus. love thy neighbor. , man is created in the image of GOD. are latino, black Asians in that image? Southern GOP what Bible do you read. We all need to do a lot better if we are to see Jesus. You acts will be judged.
what happen to love so Joe when you step in the house of worship is it about you are GOD. you reap what you sow JOE WILSON and the southern GOP!!!!!! Just like gone with the wing frankly my dear they don,t give a damn for you!!! It all about being in control. Word of GOD I will make the low high and make the high low in the Book of JOB!!!

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The REAL GodHatesTrash, Superstar – I do live in the district that voted in Joe Wilson. I do think his timing of his comments was inappropriate. I also know Joe Wilson is a generous and good man that happened to lose his temper. Did nobody catch the comments that the president was spewing just before the outburst. This doesn’t excuse Joe, but we’ve all lost our tempers and done things we’ve regretted. I think forgiveness is in order, or does that only apply to someone of color that has dogs eat each other? I like Joe and I will vote for him again. And I forgive you for calling me scum.

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Wikipedia? Really Cynthia, I know you are a journalist, but they still do let your kind in libraries.

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How can you physically quote half the damn Preston Brooks wikipedia page and still get nearly every pertinent fact of the event wrong? Preston Brooks wasn’t a Senator, he was a House member. And Sumner’s injuries were grave, but not fatal. After a few years of recovery he would return to politics and become one of the most notorious standouts of that group of vile, murdering, thugs that history remembers as the “Radical Republicans”. If there is any lesson to the Preston Brooks saga, it is that Brooks didn’t go far enough. I applaud Congressman Wilson, a true hero and patriot who had the courage to speak up against evil.

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Mr. Wilson sure takes alot of money from the corporate hospital lobby, which people should be made aware of to put his comments into a more focused context. Check it out at open secrets.

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Why do people waste our time making uncivil and ignorant comments when it is so easy to find the facts on the Web. I come from a Southern tradition that requires you to stand up and insult your enemies to their faces, rather than hide behind an alias. The virtue of this is that if insulted, you know whom to call out for a duel or a whipping or to hide from. Fortunately, my father escaped from Edgefield, S.C., the home of Preston Smith Brooks (the remnants of his family lived across the road from my grandfather’s house.) He was a sneak, but was widely cheered by Southerners, hundreds of whom sent canes (which my father saw) for his cowardly attack on Senator Sumner. Sumner had spoken about “The Crime against Kansas” in which he criticized Democrats, including Senators Butler and Douglas. He was seated at his little desk in the Senate chamber, and Brooks beat him insensible with a wooden cane. I think the appropriate criminal charge would be attempted murder, or assault with a deadly weapon. Sumner was unable to act as a Senator for three years, but Massachusetts kept him in the Senate, and he survived Brooks, and became a leading Radical during Reconstruction. Brooks survived an expulsion vote in the House, but resigned his seat and the S.C. (white, male) voters returned him to Congress. Not for nothing did he live in one of the most violent communities in the U.S.. (Edgefield was also the home of Strom Thurmond (a great hypocrit who fathered a child on a black servant girl), who, according to legend, my uncles unfortunately rescued from drowning after he jumped off of a bridge or trestle to show he was “the bravest of the brave.”)
The conflict between peope who believe in equality of all peoples and those who believe in white supremacy is age old. I would like to think that “white supremacy” is on its last legs and will soon die out. After all, physical anthropology and carbon dating holds that the oldest human bones are found in Africa, whence we all came. We are all hereditary Africans now, with many varieties and shapes to amuse and break athletic records.

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Joe Wilson’s outburst was indeed disrespectful. No excuse. The larger issue is not what he said – but the fact that someone would feel they needed to take that measure to open eyes. I listened carefully to the president’s speech. My feelings – I felt he was reprimanding every listener. I felt “barked” at – pointed at, yelled at and spoken to with less than respectable tone. I entered the speech with optimism and left it with disappointment and incredible concern.

Joe Wilson chose the wrong words and the wrong way to describe what millions feel. The real words are – Mr. President – you are not telling us the truth. That’s just about as nice as I can be about it as it is clearly evident to this “independent” voter that we are in deep do-do if the majority of the Obama plan passes.

Joe Wilson apologized. Move on. The Presdient did not apologize to the Cambridge police department when he called them stupid. He did not request Pelosi apologize when she called individuals at town hall meetings “un-american”.

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South Carolina has always had a hateful legacy when it comes to it’s politicians. Let’s see, John C. Calhoun, staunch defender of slavery and symbol of the old south, Preston Brooks, who nearly killed Charles Sumner with a cane, and who can forget Strom Thurmond, who when we wasn’t advocating segretation was copulating with his black housekeeper. Love those South Carolinians.

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South Carolina has a long list of dignitaries that includes Lauren Caitlin Upton (Miss Teen USA 2007 pageant contestant), Board of Education Chair, Kristin Maguire, Governor (and avid Appalachian hiker), Mark Sanford and now Joe “the hater not a debater” Wilson or the “screamer not the dreamer” as others have dubbed him. I did enjoy him cut and running through his apology, which only goes to show that he stands for nothing. He is just another good old boy where in the morning these married men preach to you that there should be prayer in our schools and in the evening they are on their cell phones setting up a date with their other women on the side, hypocrisy has been bred in. I am not surprised that he felt compel to yell like he was at some Friday night game. So long Joey, you too will be seeing the unemployment lines.

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Assault is the threat of physical violence, battery is the act or force of violence it itself. You mean to say that the above act was battery.

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