As I am sure you have heard, the other night during President Obama’s speech on Health Reform before Congress, South Carolina Representative “Joe” (actually, Addison Graves) Wilson shouted out “You Lie!” towards the President on national television. What could lead to the utter disrespect to the office of the Presidency? Who is this representative? Most of us were unaware of him until the other night. Here are five things you might not know about this individual.
Remembering The Days Of Old
Joe Wilson belongs to an organization called the “Sons of Confederate Veterans” (http://www.scv.org). This group is run by some radical folks who call themselves neo-Confederates who promote secession and define slavery as a “benign institution”. This is not simply a group of Civil War reenactors: They are the real deal when it comes to wishing life was back to it was in the South before the Civil War.
Follow The Leader
Wilson was an aide to the late Senator Strom Thurmond. When Thurmond passed away in 2003, a woman came forth – after his death and at the age of 78 – claiming to be the illegitimate bi-racial daughter of Thurmond whom he fathered with a 16-year old girl while he was in his twenties. In what seems to be a pattern with him, Wilson publically claimed that she was lying, even though she had proof to back her story. Thurmond had met with her throughout her life and paid for he r education. True to form, Wilson had to make a public apology to her for his strong words.
Show Me The Money!
If you don’t want to believe that Wilson’s comments were racist in nature, then maybe it is because he has some financial gain to protect. According to Opensecrets.org, Wilson has accepted $414,000 from the health sector in the eight years that he’s been in office (almost $52,000/year in addition to other monies and his salary). This is his second largest contributor. The Financial insurance and real estate lobbyists have given him an additional $455,000.
A Veterans Love For The Military
Representative Wilson is a military veteran. He served in the United States Army Reserve between 1972-1975 and with the South Carolina National Guard, retiring in 2003 at the rank of Colonel. You would think with this austere service record that he would hold the U.S. military with the highest regard. Well, this is not the case. True to his hatred of reformed health care, Wilson has voted down health care reform to veterans eleven times in the last eight years. Note: Wilson is now on the government health care plan, so veteran coverage no longer applies to him. He has voted to cut benefits for veterans, pushed for budget cuts at the Veterans Administration, and voted repeatedly to stop TRICARE coverage to military reservists and National Guard members who have lost healthcare in the private sector due to multiple tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq.
An Insincere Apology
While Wilson was made to apologize, it was a token effort. According to a YouTube video, he is heard stating: “Liberals who want to give health care to illegals are using my opposition as a distraction…” ”They want to silence anyone who’s against [the Democrats'] health-care plan.” Wilson continues to refer to the health-care plan as “government run,” and attributes his outburst to having spent a month in town-hall meetings with emotional constituents who oppose a “government takeover” of health care.
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#1 by AREALDEMOCRAT on September 12th, 2009
Joe Wilson is a hateful, greedy, white man…just like most other republicans.
#2 by morlock on September 12th, 2009
Idiot
#3 by Mike on September 12th, 2009
The guy may be a representative from Barney Fife ville who should have been a little more respectful of the President (unlike the dems who routinely booed Bush)… but he was right. Maybe one day you libs will pull your heads out of your asses, put the Cool Aide down, and wake up about your president. Republicans dont like him because of his skin color… they dont like him because he is a socialist.
#4 by Jimm on September 12th, 2009
Mike – First off, I am not a “Lib” by any stretch of the imagination. Secondly, most people don’t even have a clue what socialism is, let alone why they dislike it. It has been “indoctrinated” into our mentality that anything with the word socialism in it equates to “Russian” and it is bad. The people that shout socialism and fascism in the same sentence are a tribute to the ignorance. This post is about a man of poor moral character who shot his mouth off not to a black President, not to Barack Obama, but to the institution of the Presidency. He should be forced to step down on a vote of confidence, but he won’t…why? Because he has the right to say what he said, but he should have had the wisdom to keep his mouth shut. He’s lucky he doesn’t live in some countries. You’d never hear from him again if he did…
#5 by Skot Looney on September 16th, 2009
The Sons of Confederate Veterans is a group that was founded in 1896 in order to preserve old battlefields. They are mainly involved in maintaining gravestones, erecting monuments and studying Civil War history. President Harry Truman (who desegregated the army) was a member.
While there may be racists and neo-confederates in the SCV, this does not mean that the organization itself is. Many organizations have members that hold beliefs that the organization itself does not hold.
No where on their website does the SCV state any of the views that you attributed to them.