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You Know, it Really Is Unfortunate What a Single Heckler Can Do To a Political Speech
If by "unfortunate" you mean hilarious:
|9.10.09 @ 4:35PM|#
Man, I wish a Congressperson had done that to Obama last night. That would've so rocked.
|9.10.09 @ 4:37PM|#
That was funny! Now if only one of our esteemed representatives could work up the nerve to do that during an Obama speech instead of one quick outburst followed by an immediate sheepish apology.
wingnutx|9.10.09 @ 4:37PM|#
"Are you done?"
"No, I'm gonna keep doing it."
That was pretty damned funny.
kilroy|9.10.09 @ 4:38PM|#
If the guy didn't take the opportunity to present an argument he
was just being a dick.
There's nothing noble here.
@|9.10.09 @ 4:39PM|#
MSNBC is heavily invested in making Joe Wilson's two-word outburst into a national scandal. Desperation, ineptitude...both? It's funny 'cause it's true.
Joe M|9.10.09 @ 4:40PM|#
Yeah, man. Stifling political discourse is sooo cool. Like,
totally.
I couldn't agree more. Now shut up.
|9.10.09 @ 4:42PM|#
kilroy,
I agree, but there are times I'd like to see the heckler's veto
exercised in more apropos settings.
|9.10.09 @ 4:43PM|#
Free speech, unless you interrupt someone. Whine, whine. Heaven forfend anyone derail the rote recitation of the same talking points already said a hundred times.
|9.10.09 @ 4:48PM|#
Well, it was rude. And pretty much content free. But that's a risk you take when you speak in public.
@|9.10.09 @ 4:49PM|#
Not protesting (or heckling) the speaker in a political environment, with so much at stake, with a national audience watching, is tantamount to approval. The Republicans were right in their "shocking" behavior. Would that they had balls the other 364 days of the year.
|9.10.09 @ 4:52PM|#
I hereby advance the hypothesis that all the recent "I haven't stopped by here in a while and I'm sad this place is not a left-wing propaganda site" posts are by a single concern troll.
|9.10.09 @ 4:55PM|#
Free speech, even useful political speech, encompasses a hell of
a lot more than well-crafted dissertations on policy issues.
Expressing mockery and ridicule is at least as powerful as fisking
some politard's ten point plan.
Tony|9.10.09 @ 5:01PM|#
There's never an excuse for rudeness.
Of course if the slack-jawed asshat had been a Code Pinker I'm sure
you guys would be falling all over yourselves defending her right
to act similarly.
@|9.10.09 @ 5:04PM|#
MSNBC's Hardball just started and yes, Joe Wilson is the #1 story. If this is all the lefties have at this late moment in the debate, they're sunk.
|9.10.09 @ 5:09PM|#
There's never an excuse for rudeness.
Followed immediately by:
Of course if the slack-jawed asshat
I'm torn. Sly irony, or typical Tony obtuseness?
Tony|9.10.09 @ 5:10PM|#
It's not rude to speak ill of someone as long as you do it behind their back.
|9.10.09 @ 5:10PM|#
MSNBC's Hardball just started and yes, Joe Wilson is the #1
story.
You know, every bit of the news cycle consumed by Joe Wilson is a
defeat for Obama's attempt to give CPR to healthcare reform.
OPsmit|9.10.09 @ 5:12PM|#
Yeah too bad a liberal congressman didn't do it int 8 years of
the previous administration. Then Fox could have had 6 weeks of
blowing hard about it.
And if you mean by hilarious you mean childish....but welcome to
the modern political discourse. Enjoy.
PimpleDick|9.10.09 @ 5:12PM|#
"You know, every bit of the news cycle consumed by Joe Wilson is
a defeat for Obama's attempt to give CPR to healthcare
reform."
Which raises the question: Is MSNBC really a subversive Republican
propaganda operation?
|9.10.09 @ 5:13PM|#
How old is that guy, anyway? He looks sixteen. You think the heckler is just yelling, "Too young! Too young!"?
@|9.10.09 @ 5:17PM|#
every bit of the news cycle consumed by Joe Wilson is a
defeat for Obama
Indeed. But the intellectuals on MSNBC, CBS, CNN, etc. truly
believe in themselves. We are the yokels, the hayseeds.
They are The Light! They really believe it. Their
hubris is comical.
Joe M|9.10.09 @ 5:21PM|#
Of course if the slack-jawed asshat had been a Code Pinker I'm sure you guys would be falling all over yourselves defending her right to act similarly.
Code Pinkers have been known to interrupt each other with
chants during interviews on the street.
@|9.10.09 @ 5:26PM|#
Oh boy. Now one Cynthia Hardy (on Hardball) has injected race into Wilson's little heckle. The Democrats are a collection of thin-skinned wimps. Shame on the Republicans for losing to this retard party.
Tony|9.10.09 @ 5:27PM|#
You know, every bit of the news cycle consumed by Joe Wilson is a defeat for Obama's attempt to give CPR to healthcare reform.
Joe Wilson might as well have a big red bow around him and a card
that reads "for Obama, xoxo." His opponent has raised $459,000 and
counting as a result of this little tantrum. I'd surmise that most
people weren't aware that among the teabagging loons who dominated
cable news in August some of them had actually been elected to
Congress. Anyone remember when the GOP was the stately, patrician
party?
$|9.10.09 @ 5:31PM|#
His opponent has raised $459,000 and counting as a result of
this little tantrum.
That's a lot of dollars that candidates who might plausibly win an
election won't get.
Devious!
@|9.10.09 @ 5:36PM|#
SugarFree | September 10, 2009, 5:31pm | #
Remember when people didn't feed the trolls?
It only takes a little self-control.
Or self esteem.
|9.10.09 @ 5:36PM|#
Of course if the slack-jawed asshat had been a Code Pinker
I'm sure you guys would be falling all over yourselves defending
her right to act similarly.
Defending someone's right to make an ass of themselves doesn't mean
that we approve of it.
-jcr
|9.10.09 @ 5:39PM|#
Anyone remember when the GOP was the stately, patrician
party?
When was that, before the Whigs took it over and made it into the
mercantilist party?
-jcr
|9.10.09 @ 5:40PM|#
I have nothing but contempt for Konop. The democrats have made
Toledo a joke for decades. Every mildly successful company that
starts here moves away due to overtaxation and burdensome land use
laws. The unions control everything, ensuring we the Republicans
never get their chance to fuck things up.
My sister actually knew Konop a little bit, they started in Toledo
Demcoratic politics around the same time. She says he's a pompous
douchebag.
|9.10.09 @ 5:41PM|#
teabagging loons
Tony, Tony, Tony...
Camile Paglia has a bitch-slap for you. Read
and learn.
-jcr
|9.10.09 @ 5:43PM|#
The democrats have made Toledo a joke for
decades.
I thought John
Denver did that.
-jcr
JB|9.10.09 @ 5:50PM|#
If Tony was in the hall, he would have shouted out:
"Obama, I want your cock!"
Beelzebud|9.10.09 @ 5:51PM|#
Actually that was about as immature as it gets. He was even offered the mic to voice his actual issues, but was too cowardly to do it. Only when the man turned his back and started talking, did this immature brat start up his heckling again.
Tony|9.10.09 @ 5:52PM|#
Mr. Randolph if you can decipher a point in Paglia's drunken rants you are a smarter man than I.
\"Markets Are Magical!\"|9.10.09 @ 6:05PM|#
This thread is further proof that Libertarians have the
emotional maturity of adolescent rejects. They'll actually excuse
this kind of discourse, because they tend to employ the same
tactics online.
You know, like "Guns For Tots," which really reinforced the idea of
Libertarianism as a sane and rational political movement.
"Defending someone's right to make an ass of themselves doesn't
mean that we approve of it."
You might be taken more seriously if you disapprove of the style
first, and then defended that right if it is being taken away by
force. Since the issue isn't free speech, but tact, I find these
responses humorous, yet typical.
Of course, this is the ass-backwards logic that Libertarians love
to use. Rules of civil discourse only apply to their
opponents.
"You know, every bit of the news cycle consumed by Joe Wilson is a
defeat for Obama's attempt to give CPR to healthcare reform."
R.C. Dean never fails to let the prissy frustration cut through his
snarks. He's watching as the Libertarian dream becomes even more
unlikely. I don't think that the fantasy can even be entertained
with much sincerity at this point, and so the anger
escalates.
Look, the choice to pass a health care bill is up to Democrats.
Republicans have absolutely no power. There's no attempt at CPR.
There's an attempt to get a relatively small minority of people to
calm down, so they don't continue to disrupt the discussion. It's
merely a formality.
Single payer health-care will happen. You know it, and I know it.
It's only a matter of time.
Of course, when you live in an echo chamber, you start to believe
that everybody thinks the way that you do, when the exact opposite
is occurring.
It's fun to watch thought.
The Real John Sterling|9.10.09 @ 6:14PM|#
"The Democrats lose! Theeeeeeeee...Democrats...lose!"
Liar!
|9.10.09 @ 6:33PM|#
Look, the choice to pass a health care bill is up to
Democrats. Republicans have absolutely no power.
Which explains why the Obama message has been that the Republicans
are blocking reform.
There's no attempt at CPR.
Which explains why the Senate says they won't pass a bill with a
public option, and the House says they won't pass a bill without a
public option. Oh yeah, this legislation is a done deal.
There's an attempt to get a relatively small minority of people
to calm down,
I love how the majority of the public that disapproves of the Dem
approach, and Obama's handling of it in particular, is a "small
minority."
so they don't continue to disrupt the discussion.
Hush up, you voters, the Adults are talking.
It's merely a formality.
See above comment on mutually irreconcilable Senate and House
positions.
@|9.10.09 @ 6:34PM|#
Joe Wilson is the lead story on the CBS Evening News.
Yes, Katie Couric is a retard.
Olivier Travers|9.10.09 @ 6:51PM|#
I hear that Obama is endorsing another Bush policy and suggested building a "free speech zone" inside Congress so that Congressmen (in *Congress*, how do they dare?) don't hassle his Highness in the future. And if you have a progressive, empathetic reading of the Constitution, surely the legislative branch is subordinate to the executive.
|9.10.09 @ 6:54PM|#
To "Markets Are Magical!"
"Libertarians" didn't do a thing. Some individuals did.
I don't disdain "liberals." I disdain individuals.
Like you. You write like you have your high-school report card
framed on the wall where you can see it as you type. Oh, my, the
profundities, the deep wisdom, the gravitas.
I used to want gravitas, until I found out it meant biscuits and
gravy, with little mangled bits of sausage in it. You know, like
your screed.
Ever been in an NHS facility in England (and not the two photo-opp
facilities)? Ever been to a medical center parking lot near the
Canadian border? I have. Here's a clue for you on single-payer
systems: Both England and Canada are doing health care reform, too,
to assuage angered subjects (not citizens, mind you) with some
market choices. And forget the reactions of Canadians and Brits to
American critiques of their health care, that's defensive
posturing. Just button your lip (I know, I know, you just can't!)
and read their newspapers. Not a day goes by that they don't carry
half a dozen horror stories on your vaunted single-payer
system.
They just don't want anyone else to criticize them, that's
all.
Shame on me for wasting so much time on a poor anencephalic like
you. You evidently have enough self-regard to be on MSNBC. As a
previous poster noted, those "journalists" really do consider
themselves the zeniths of human evolution. In a sense, they are --
the sense in which Zenith used to make a good TV and is now a
fading memory. I agree with old H.L., that you deserve to get what
you want from your "democracy," and get it good and hard.
A last challenge: Try counting the "I's" in any Obama speech. If
you don't think this guy is a narcissistic sociopath, then you must
be one, too.
|9.10.09 @ 7:23PM|#
Mr. Randolph if you can decipher a point in Paglia's drunken
rants you are a smarter man than I.
There are none so blind as those who will not even accept criticism
from their fellow left-wingers. Your crowd had better start paying
attention to her and soon, or your messiah is going to be a
one-termer.
-jcr
|9.10.09 @ 7:25PM|#
Something amusing about the Omaba heckling incident: the lefties
are trying to make a big deal about how much money the heckler got
from the health care industry (around $240K), without looking up
how much the Anointed One got (around $11 M).
-jcr
anarch|9.10.09 @ 7:33PM|#
On second thought, why should a public nuisance have a right to
disrupt the resident's peaceful enjoyment of his domicile?
Hire a hall.
The Lefties|9.10.09 @ 7:35PM|#
Shut up, John C. Randolph! We're not talking to you. Just shut
up!
(This is not "heckling," because we're right and you're wrong.)
|9.10.09 @ 7:41PM|#
Remember when people didn't feed the trolls?
Someone will always feed the trolls. For some, it's irresistible,
like writing "WASH ME" in the dirt on someone's really dirty
car.
|9.10.09 @ 7:50PM|#
"going to be a one-termer."
going? He's plunged too far, too fast in a mere 8 months.
He doesn't have the intelligience or ability of a Clinton to turn
around. Nope, he's done.
anarch|9.10.09 @ 7:52PM|#
He was even offered the mic to voice his actual issues, but was too cowardly to do it. Only when the man turned his back and started talking, did this immature brat start up his heckling again.
If - per impossibile - it were I heckling, it would be to
voice the objection against the intrusion irrespective of its
discursive content. It would be the tactic cited by ballsy
commuters who have the misfortune to be seated next to obnoxious
cell-phoner who fills the bus with long, loud, distracting
semi-conversations. I'm told that equally loudly repeating what you
hear, line by line, a la second-graders mimicking their opponents,
encourages subsequent discretion.
Such conflicts are what private property was invented to
resolve.
Of course, I'd probably play Bach instead of whine, the way
mall-store proprietors do in order in order to chase away
loiterers.
I don't like parades either.
And get off my lawn.
jester|9.10.09 @ 7:59PM|#
Repubs didn't reverse Roe v Wade with a Republican President. a
Republican Senate, A Republican House and a Republican Court (and
Souter was a Republican Nominee).
How easy is it to change things that people don't want to
change?
anarch|9.10.09 @ 8:01PM|#
Libertarians .... tend to employ the same tactics online.
That would be the neatest trick of the week.
How oh how do libertarians, or how does anyone (repressive
governmental action and the rare practice, not associated with
libertarianism, of disabling servers by flooding them, excluded)
employ the same tactics online?
|9.10.09 @ 8:33PM|#
He doesn't have the intelligience or ability of a Clinton to
turn around. Nope, he's done.
Clinton didn't save himself. His evil machinations were stymied by
a Republican congress, and with the government in a deadlock, he
was able to get by on charisma. If he'd managed to pass
Hillarycare, then he would have been a gonner.
-jcr
|9.10.09 @ 8:41PM|#
The undisputed, undefeated heavyweight champ of political heckling is still the PA man who, earlier this summer, yelled at Arlen Specter, "You work for us."
|9.10.09 @ 8:44PM|#
It is disturbing that most of the media is focusing on the Republican calling Obama a liar more than checking to see if in fact Obama is lying about that issue---the Democrats vetoed two Republican attempts to have it put in writing that illegals would not benefit from our health care. It may be 2009, but it is starting to feel more like "1984."
highnumber|9.10.09 @ 9:13PM|#
That guy was Urkobold's summer intern. I predict big
things.
You can't call him lazy or cowardly. He didn't back down. He wasn't
there to stand up in front of a camera and spout off talking points
or have a debate. He purposely sat on his stoop and disrupted a
political event. It was pure trolling. It was divine.
Tony|9.10.09 @ 9:24PM|#
There are none so blind as those who will not even accept criticism from their fellow left-wingers. Your crowd had better start paying attention to her and soon, or your messiah is going to be a one-termer.
No lefty considers Paglia a lefty. She makes no sense, and manages
to bring Madonna into every essay she writes. The only people who
like reading her are the droves brought to Salon every time Drudge
links to her drunken nonsense.
Gilbert Martin|9.10.09 @ 9:25PM|#
"MSNBC is heavily invested in making Joe Wilson's two-word
outburst into a national scandal. Desperation, ineptitude...both?
It's funny 'cause it's true."
Gee I wonder what Olberman and Maddow were saying back in 2005 when
the dems were booing Bush during his state of the union
address?
Paul|9.10.09 @ 11:54PM|#
Yeah, man. Stifling political discourse is sooo cool. Like,
totally.
Ah, another fellow in our fight against the Bipartisan Campaign
Reform Act. Welcome aboard, brother.
Paul|9.10.09 @ 11:59PM|#
No lefty considers Paglia a lefty.
I have to agree with this. She's a rogue. She doesn't toe the line.
Why, she even talked shit about
Naomi Wolf.
You lose your lefty cred when you go hatin' on the Wolf.
Hacha Cha|9.11.09 @ 1:10AM|#
the speech outburst reminded me of British parliament. apologize? the US congress is full of pussies.
|9.11.09 @ 1:40AM|#
Heh, some of these comments are as funny as the video.
This one is actually from a few months back. The heckler is on his
porch and claims he did it not for political reasons, but because
one or more of Konop's people stomped on his flower bed and
wouldn't apologize.
Thus the "Go run for mayor somewhere else" line.
RWG (doesn't make it any less funny, though)
vindicated anarch|9.11.09 @ 6:01AM|#
The heckler is on his porch and claims he did it not for political reasons, but because one or more of Konop's people stomped on his flower bed and wouldn't apologize.
HA!
ConcernedCitizen|9.11.09 @ 2:28PM|#
Boo, comments. Boo, streaming video. Boo, liar - go stream
videos somewhere else. Booo.
(You can use this heckling strategy for literally anything.)
Hilarious.
Coleman Mulkerin|9.16.09 @ 7:01PM|#
I only found that funny because of the lack of effort in the heckling
LoneSnark|9.17.09 @ 4:44PM|#
Well, it worked for me. After watching this video, I fully support this mayoral candidate. Faced with stiff adversity, he stayed calm, cool, and cordial. It is not easy, and he could not have staged it better :-)
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