You Know, it Really Is Unfortunate What a Single Heckler Can Do To a Political Speech

If by "unfortunate" you mean hilarious:

Comments

[Pro Libertate]

Man, I wish a Congressperson had done that to Obama last night. That would've so rocked.

[Benjamin]

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]

"Are you done?"

"No, I'm gonna keep doing it."

That was pretty damned funny.

[Losertarian]

Yeah, man. Stifling political discourse is sooo cool. Like, totally.

[kilroy]

If the guy didn't take the opportunity to present an argument he was just being a dick.

There's nothing noble here.

[Kevin Ross]

Haha I feel bad for Ben Konop but that shit is really funny to watch.

[@]

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.

[wingnutx]

He was definitely being a dick, but it was still pretty funny.

[Joe M]

Yeah, man. Stifling political discourse is sooo cool. Like, totally.

I couldn't agree more. Now shut up.

[Pro Libertate]

kilroy,

I agree, but there are times I'd like to see the heckler's veto exercised in more apropos settings.

[SugarFree]

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.

[Citizen Nothing]

That ruled, yes.

[Ska]

Just finish watching John Adams, SF?

[Pro Libertate]

Well, it was rude. And pretty much content free. But that's a risk you take when you speak in public.

[Nipplemancer]

sa-wing batta batta batta batta...

[@]

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.

[SugarFree]

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.

[R C Dean]

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]

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.

[@]

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.

[R C Dean]

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]

It's not rude to speak ill of someone as long as you do it behind their back.

[R C Dean]

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.

[PimpleDick]

"There's never an excuse for rudeness."

Shut the fuck up, cunt.

[@]

Ignore the troll, please.

[OPsmit]

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]

"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?

[Pro Libertate]

How old is that guy, anyway? He looks sixteen. You think the heckler is just yelling, "Too young! Too young!"?

[@]

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]

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.

[@]

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.

[Steve Allen]

"Go run for mayor somewhere else" was Pythonesque.

[Tony]

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?

[SugarFree]

Remember when people didn't feed the trolls?

Yeah, me neither.

[$]

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!

[@]

SugarFree | September 10, 2009, 5:31pm | #

Remember when people didn't feed the trolls?

It only takes a little self-control.
Or self esteem.

[John C. Randolph]

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

[John C. Randolph]

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

[Kevin]

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.

[Kevin]

edit: we never let the republicans get the chance to fuck things up

[John C. Randolph]

teabagging loons

Tony, Tony, Tony...

Camile Paglia has a bitch-slap for you. Read and learn.

-jcr

[John C. Randolph]

The democrats have made Toledo a joke for decades.

I thought John Denver did that.

-jcr

[JB]

If Tony was in the hall, he would have shouted out:

"Obama, I want your cock!"

[Beelzebud]

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]

Mr. Randolph if you can decipher a point in Paglia's drunken rants you are a smarter man than I.

[\"Markets Are Magical!\"]

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.

[John Sterling]

The Democrats lose!
Theeeeeeeee...Democrats...lose!

[The Real John Sterling]

"The Democrats lose! Theeeeeeeee...Democrats...lose!"

Liar!

[Rich]

It's fun to watch thought.

Yep. RC'z strikes again.

[John Sterling]

Liar!

The Yankees win!
Theeeeeeeeee...Yankees...win!

Better?

[robert]

it is fun to watch thought

[Hugh Akston]

Was that guy saying "Boo" or Boo-urns?"

[R C Dean]

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.

[@]

Joe Wilson is the lead story on the CBS Evening News.
Yes, Katie Couric is a retard.

[Olivier Travers]

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.

[anarch]

The comedy of the commons?

Disclaimer: I disapprove heckling.

[Fenderbender]

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.

[John C. Randolph]

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

[John C. Randolph]

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]

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]

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.)

[Episiarch]

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.

[Matthew]

MaM is kind of fun to watch thought.

[matthew]

"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]

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]

The girl to the far left of the candidate, I'd fuck her.

[jester]

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]

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?

[John C. Randolph]

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

[Jeff]

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."

[Mayniak]

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."

[Dunlop]

@jester - fuck the progress right out of...

[highnumber]

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]

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]

"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?

[kwais]

JCR,
Good article, thanks for the link

[Paul]

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]

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.

[Paul]

Hey, politics aside, is Konop like, 17 years old?

[Hacha Cha]

the speech outburst reminded me of British parliament. apologize? the US congress is full of pussies.

[RWG]

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]

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]

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]

I only found that funny because of the lack of effort in the heckling

[LoneSnark]

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 🙂