Joe Wilson and other officials that are speaking out...

[HisDaughter]

White House Dismisses Dowd Claim That Wilson Outburst Was Race-Based

Maureen Dowd writes in The New York Times that Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst Wednesday -- when he shouted, You lie," at the president for claiming his health care reform plan would not cover illegal immigrants -- convinced her that racial angst is the underlying motive among Obama critics like Wilson. 
FOXNews.com

Sunday, September 13, 2009

 The White House on Sunday dismissed a claim by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd that administration critics like Rep. Joe Wilson, who called President Obama a liar during his health care address to Congress, are motivated by race.

Wilson, speaking on "FOX News Sunday," also denied the allegation.

"No, no," the South Carolina Republican said when asked if Obama's skin color was an issue for him. "Hey, I respect the president. ... I have a great respect for the Obama family."

Dowd wrote in her column that Wilson's outburst Wednesday -- when he shouted, You lie," at the president for claiming his health care reform plan would not cover illegal immigrants -- convinced her that racial angst is the underlying motive among Obama critics like Wilson.

"I've been loath to admit that the shrieking lunacy of the summer ... had much to do with race," she wrote. "But Wilson's shocking disrespect for the office of the president -- no Democrat ever shouted 'liar' at W. when he was hawking a fake case for war in Iraq -- convinced me: Some people just can't believe a black man is president and will never accept it."

Dowd wrote that Wilson "clearly did not like being lectured and even rebuked by the brainy black president presiding over the majestic chamber."

Asked about the claim, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said race is not the factor.

"I don't think the president believes that people are upset because of the color of his skin," he said on CNN's "State of the Union." "I think people are upset because on Monday we celebrate the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse that caused a financial catastrophe unlike anything we've ever seen."

Dowd's charge of racism is hardly the first to be leveled against administration critics.

Most recently, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., was quoted in early September saying that "bias" and "prejudice" are behind a lot of the public opposition to health care reform.

[HisDaughter]

Hackers Imperil Wilson Campaign Web Site

Sources close to the South Carolina congressman charge that hackers have blitzed his campaign Web site JoeWilsonforCongress.com with a series of attacks that periodically shut down the site.  

FOXNews.com

September 13, 2009

Rep. Joe Wilson chose an unconventional venue in which to level an attack on President Obama Wednesday night: a joint session of Congress.

Now Wilson's opponents are counterattacking him in an increasingly popular venue for political mayhem: cyberspace.

Sources close to the South Carolina congressman charge that hackers have blitzed his campaign Web site JoeWilsonforCongress.com with a series of attacks that periodically shut down the page.

The South Carolina Republican jeered at Obama "You lie!" during his health care reform speech to Congress on Wednesday. Though Wilson's Democratic opponent Rob Miller raised hundreds of thousands of dollars following the outburst, Wilson saw a fundraising windfall of his own, raising $1,000,000 in online campaign contributions since Wednesday night. Now sources familiar with Wilson's campaign say there's a concerted effort by hackers to flood the congressman's Web site and keep him from raising money.

"This is an obvious effort to stifle the congressman's voice for a common-sense approach for health care reform," said a source familiar with Wilson's campaign.

Sources say Wilson's opponents ganged up on the Web site, dispatching thousands of "phantom" computers, infected with malware, to send request after request to Wilson's campaign Web site. Such a barrage of requests overwhelms the site and causes it to crash. A source close to Wilson indicated that hackers took down the campaign Web site for five hours Friday night.

"These tactics create such a huge surge," said a Wilson campaign source. "We've had to fight this off in hand-to-hand combat, blocking this malicious traffic."

In many respects, this is the high-tech version of a politician's opponents driving through a neighborhood and vandalizing campaign signs. In computer-speak, the effort to ping the computer so frequently creates what's called a "denial of service request." That takes the site offline.

"It's like an 'e-warrior' kind of politics," said David Almacy, a senior vice president at Edelman Public Affairs who studies the nexus of technology and government. "There are groups of people who believe that if they can shut down someone's Web site, they hurt their ability to campaign."

Almacy likened the assault on Wilson's Web site to an August effort by hackers to take down the micro-blogging site Twitter and stymie the social-network site Facebook. In that instance, armies of infected computers repeatedly pinged Twitter and Facebook, sometimes millions of times a minute.

The requests to visit the pages eventually overwhelmed the sites because they simply didn't have the bandwidth. Wilson sources suspect the same is true in with these hacks.

[HisDaughter]

Wilson Defends Outburst, Says He Will Not Apologize on House Floor

Rep. Joe Wilson says he will not apologize again for his outburst during President Obama's health care address.

FOXNews.com
September 13, 2009
 
Rep. Joe Wilson said Sunday that he will not apologize on the House floor for his outburst during President Obama's health care address, even though Democratic leaders have threatened to formally discipline him if he does not.

Wilson noted that he already apologized directly to the White House after shouting, "You lie," to the president during his Wednesday address to a joint session of Congress. The outburst triggered a political firestorm, but Wilson told "FOX News Sunday" that Democrats are just "playing politics" by trying to drag out the issue and force another apology.

"I've apologized one time. The apology was accepted by the president, the vice president. ... I am not apologizing again," he told "FOX News Sunday." "I believe that is sufficient."

Wilson said he would "never do something like that again," but continued to defend himself.

The South Carolina Republican on Wednesday accused the president of lying for claiming his health care reform plan would not cover illegal immigrants.

"I believe in the truth. What I heard was not true," Wilson explained Sunday. "I believe (Obama) was misstating the facts."

Wilson said he felt "provoked" and attributed the outburst to a "town hall moment," referring to the town hall meetings where constituents frequently shouted out their frustrations over health care reform.

While Democrats' health care plans do not provide for coverage of illegal immigrants, they also do not include verification mechanisms for determining legal status -- Republicans have long said this leaves open the door for illegal immigrants to obtain coverage on taxpayer dollars.

But Wilson said he was proven right, since the Senate Finance Committee and the White House are now considering such verification mechanisms and other stricter measures. 

Aside from his apology to the White House, Wilson also issued a written statement apologizing for his outburst on Wednesday.

But while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated immediately afterward that Wilson had done enough, Democratic leadership has since decided to seek a public apology from Wilson to his colleagues on the House floor.

If he does not, a resolution to punish him could come as early as Tuesday.

[nChrist]

This is another amazing story. It has nothing to do with race, prejudice, or bias. It has everything to do with the President presenting a pack of lies and someone having the courage to call it what it was - LIES! The speech was full of lies and everyone knew it. Joe Wilson has apologized for his outburst, so now let's have an apology from the President for lying to the entire country. He knew that amendments to prevent taxpayer funded health care for illegal aliens and abortions were defeated. Other portions of the speech were much more than just misstatements. What's more important:  the TRUTH or being politically correct. Trying to play the race card won't work because it has nothing to do with race. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE TRUTH VERSUS FICTION!