“Beyond a reasonable doubt” is the criteria that courts in America use to convict felons. This means that in order to get a conviction, one don’t need a smoking gun; all one needs is evidence that brings the case to a point where a person would be unable to reasonably doubt that the perp did it.
Maureen Dowd had a great Op-Ed in the Times today. In her piece, she indicates that she believes that racism played a part in Joseph Wilson’s rude, disrespectful, and uncouth outburst when he shouted “You lie!” at President Obama. She makes a really good case. Check it out:
The congressman, we learned, belonged to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, led a 2000 campaign to keep the Confederate flag waving above South Carolina’s state Capitol and denounced as a “smear” the true claim of a black woman that she was the daughter of Strom Thurmond, the ’48 segregationist candidate for president. Wilson clearly did not like being lectured and even rebuked by the brainy black president presiding over the majestic chamber.
Dowd writes:
But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!
It’s really shocking to see the kinds of people that some states send to elected office. Joe Wilson had some skeletons in his closet that maybe in South Carolina really aren’t considered skeletons. Crazy and scary.
I don’t know if it’s “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Wilson’s outburst was motivated or helped by racism, but it really does raise some questions. Seriously, what kind of person heckles the President with an accusation of being a liar? As Dowd notes, people were respectful when Dubya was pitching a war that really was based on a lie:
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.
So while I wouldn’t go as far as to say that it’s beyond a reasonable doubt that Wilson is racist, I really wonder if he would act that way if Obama were white. Certainly no one heckled W or Clinton or Bush I or Reagan. We’ve not had any kind of improper outbursts in Congress since the nineteenth century, certainly not against a sitting president. Perhaps some people need to get over their racial prejudices and start respecting the head of state in the country they’ve sworn to serve.
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I also wanted more rice than what could fit inside the wrap....
The Joe Wilson’s of this world have lost their collective sh&t since Obama became president.
These people have cherished a fairy-tale ideal of America (white a snow!) and Obama reminds them that they’ve loved a figment of their demented imaginations. Jow Wilson and his ilk know they can’t put the multicultural genie back in the bottle. So this is they act of defiance.
Truth be told, they’re trying to incite violence agianst the man. This is what happens when pampered white people feel threatened.
Jimmy Carter weighs in:
” He grouped Wilson’s shout of “You lie!” during Obama’s speech in that category, according to AP. “I think it’s based on racism. There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president,” he said.
“The president is not only the head of government, he is the head of state. And no matter who he is or how much we disagree with his policies, the president should be treated with respect.”"
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/15/carter.obama/index.html