Roy Edroso's Rightbloggers: Exploring the right Wing Blogosphere appears courtesy of our sister paper in New York City, Village Voice.
Last week the President delivered a health-care speech to a joint session of Congress. The most newsworthy part of the event, from the rightblogger perspective, was Rep. Joe Wilson's cry of "You lie"
during a section having to do with coverage of illegal immigrants.
(Whether the still-fluid health-care reform plan will cover illegals is
a matter of debate, which interested readers may review here, here, and elsewhere.)
In this rightbloggers momentarily achieved rare consensus with leftbloggers, who dug into Wilson's background: his defense of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond when his illegitimate daughter came forward in 2003, his defense of the Confederate Flag, his 2002 claim that critics who recalled that America had armed Saddam Hussein when he was our ally suffered from "hatred of America," etc.
These were meant as knocks on the South Carolina representative, but as
you might expect, they did not cool rightbloggers' ardor for him. In
fact they only exacerbated it, as the controversy over Wilson's holler
offered them -- as the health-care Town Brawls receded into historical memory and the President's speech gave chances of health-care reform a lift -- a new, national publicity platform for their opposition.
In early innings, when it
was not clear how the nation might react, some rightbloggers sought to
minimize the Wilson incident. "Now, if he had stood up and started
yelling and preaching for an extended amount of time," said Sarah Palin 2012,
"that would have been uncalled for." Plus Wilson had a Good Reason: "He
couldn't sit through Obama's obvious lying and lost his composure."
Sarah Palin 2012 also mentioned the contentious Question Time sessions
in the House of Commons, a model rightbloggers had not, to our
knowledge, previously recommended for the U.S. Congress, but which was
also invoked by The Digital Hairshirt,
who said, "If you have ever watched the question-and-answer sessions in
the British House of Commons, what happened during Obama's speech was minor.
Maybe it is about time the President has to think about what he says
and the reaction it could get before he makes a speech." "Try imagining
a US President like Obama having the balls" to face Question Time, said
directed-by. "He'd be in permanent PTSD!" One is tempted to imagine previous U.S. Presidents also enduring such an arrangement.
And anyway, some also pointed out, Bush endured a short burst of unsupportive noises at a State of the Union address. This may not strike
readers as a direct equivalent to calling the President a liar to his
face, but the moment of moral equivalence quickly passed, as
rightbloggers for the most part concentrated on the heroism of Joe
Wilson.
"America's congressman?" asked Don Surber. "America's congressman," asserted American Power. "Joe Wilson Just Expressed What is in Our Hearts," said Mark Noonan. "By very rude means, all Wilson did was tell the truth..." "MY HERO !!!!" swooned The Cook Shack. "We are all Joe Wilson now!" said Donald Douglas. "Joe Wilson Greatest Living Statesman," said Maggie's Notebook (apparently not joking). "Joe Wilson -- our next president?" said The Right View Wisconsin (ditto).
rushed to interview the Congressman, and though they only repeated one
word of his responses ("appalling," regarding the President's
assertion), they characterized him as open-minded ("he went into the
speech hoping Obama would genuinely reach out both to the people and
across the aisle to address their concerns"), sensitive to the needs of
his constituents ("Wilson also stressed his concern for the existing
high unemployment in South Carolina"), and a man of even temperament,
at least on most occasions ("Other than the single, short impromptu
blurt, Wilson said he was in complete control of himself at all
times").
As is customary in these controversies, rightbloggers portrayed Obama's
attacker as the wronged party. "Naturally, Wilson is being vilified and
trashed today as no other," said Liberty Sphere,
reaching for an unfortunate analogy, "since Trent Lott praised Strom
Thurmond on his 100th birthday." "Defend Joe Wilson Against Leftist
Attacks!!" cried ZackFord Blogs. "Joe Wilson is fighting back," roared MacsMind, "stand with him and support him NOW!"
thought Wilson didn't go far enough. "I wish Joe Wilson would have
thrown a shoe at the Street Thug in Chief. Or at least rotten produce,"
he said. "Dirty, rotten lying bastard." Manly's Republic
attacked Republicans whom they felt had not shown Wilson sufficient
support. "They may have succeeded in emasculating Joe Wilson," they
said, "but they won't emasculate us -- there are far many more of us
then of them. ... You are either with us or against us -- there is no
middle ground."
Some saw a positive political outcome separate from Congressman
Wilson's fortunes among the Obama-haters. "Whether he intended or not,"
said The Rhetorican,
"he'll end up forcing discussion of Obamacare and illegal aliens, thus
keeping the White House on the defensive on that issue."
When contributions started to flow toward a Wilson opponent in the 2010 race, rightbloggers mounted a pledge drive for Wilson. "Fight back by contributing to Joe's campaign," said Conservative Outpost. "Donate what you can, if for no other reason then to let the dems know that it is ok to disagree with Obama!!!" said No Feet Required. "This is still America.......isn't it?" (Both candidates have since the incident raised over a million dollars, proving it's an ill wind that blows no one some good.)
Somewhere in all this, Wilson apologized for his remark, which further enraged rightbloggers. "Wilson: In the End, Gutless," said Blogger News Network. "He should never have apologized for anything," said Shwiggie.
"He should have sat up, said what he said, if not more; and walked out
of the building in a blatant show of disrespect and disdain." "I wish
he had not apologized," said We The People. "Why apologize to a liar?"
Perhaps sensitive to this -- and to the large tea party demonstration in Washington this weekend -- Wilson told the world he would not apologize a second time from the floor of the House, which brought the brethren back into his fold. "Way to go, Joe!" said Something is Rotten in America. "Wilson has nothing to gain and everything to lose if he grovels on the House floor," said Weasel Zippers.
"American Hero Joe 'You Lie!' Wilson stands firm that he will not
apologize for his remarks again despite calls for such action by
partisan Democrats seeking to score cheap political points," reported The ConservativeXpress. Sarah Palin Information Blog demanded that Obama
apologize instead. "Wilson's out-of-order accusation," they said, "came
only after an out-of-order accusation by the president himself."
Rightbloggers continue to champion Wilson, with a "You Lie" bumper sticker, "I'm With Joe Wilson" and "Joe Wilson for President" T-shirts, Facebook support drives, "spontaneous" rallies,
etc. Thus did Joe the Yeller become the biggest rightwing thing since
Joe the Plumber and, at least at that outrage aggregator that is the
blogosphere, render a major address by the President of the United
States secondary to the story of a little-known Congressman hoisted to
national attention by his bad manners and belligerence. As Yakov
Smirnoff used to say, what a country!
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Of all the Immigration enforcements laws that really works E-Verify has settled in to removing illegal immigrants from the workplace. But there is a "Sunset Provision" that could determine its future, since it�s specially working for the millions of jobless Americans? Supposedly E-Verification expires on September 30, only days after a Federal judge turned down a desperate delay from the despicable Special interest lobbyists led by the US Chamber of Commerce. On September 8 E-Verify, a contingency of the SAVE ACT was fully implemented mandating that all federal contractors and sub-contractors--MUST--use this computerized identification system.
The American people must understand their is tremendous pressure on anemic members of both political parties to dismantle, store or hinder the E-Verify process as they are the puppets of rich business enterprises. Then Rep. JOE WILSON R-NC) opened the proverbial humongous can of worms in the full house chamber.
We must endeavor to continue on raising our voices against the powerful forces that think nothing more than to destroy this valuable commodity called E-Verify. Overtime it will rid from every workplaces of millions of illegal workers, who think they are safe from government intervention. It will save billions of dollars being exported to other lands and sever the tolerant welfare programs, health care, education accessed by illegal low wage earners. E-Verify could introduced in all medical facilities, to check a persons national identity. The expedited message will spread and these lawbreakers will realize that it's fruitless to keep on applying for jobs. Eventually families will start to pack-up and depart for every corner of the earth. But it's up to the American voter to keep relentlessly calling the Washington switchboard 202-224-3121contacting their politicians.
Evaluate each lawmaker at NUMBERSUSA or JUDICIAL WATCH and command them to enforce E-Verify permanently. Not Voluntary for every business, but a mandatory addition for each employer. Fulfill their obligation to build the fence according to Rep. Duncan Hunter R-CA. Keep training the regular police according to the Federal 287 G directive,. Not to Rescind the No Match letter or desist ICE raids or weaken any other enforcement law, such as the 1986 Immigration Control & Reform Act. Fed's should restrict SANCTUARY CITY & STATE policies. NOW IT'S UP TO YOU? STARTLING WEBSITE! GOOGLE---IMMIGRATIONCOUNTERS.
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