The Dorothy Height funeral was held at Washington National Cathedral, where President Barack Obama honored the civil rights icon with a heartfelt eulogy. Flickr photo.

At the Dorothy Height funeral in Washington D.C. Thursday, President Barack Obama delivered the eulogy. Before he spoke at the service held in the Washington National Cathedral, he issued an executive order directing that the American flag fly at half staff on land and at sea worldwide. The Dorothy Height biography establishes her as the leading female voice of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Dorothy Height’s civil rights activism continued well into her 90s and took part in discussions about health care at the White House until late last year. She had been at Howard University Hospital. Dorothy Height died April 20. She was 98.

At the Dorothy Height funeral

At the Dorothy Height funeral at Washington National Cathedral, President Obama lightened the reverent mood with what the New York Times reports as a fondly humorous portrait of the feisty Ms. Height that often drew laughter from the audience. Obama noted that Height made 21 visits to the White House since his inauguration. “We did come to know her during the early days of my campaign, and we came to love her as so many loved her,” the president said. “We loved her stories, and her smile and those hats.” Dorothy Height’s trademark look was a collection of big, brightly colored hats that she coordinated with her outfits.

Dorothy Height’s last presidential honor

Obama’s heartfelt eulogy at the Dorothy Height funeral and executive flag order aren’t the first time Dorothy Height’s civil rights devotion has been honored by the President of the United States. Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994. George W. Bush awarded Height Congressional Gold Medal in 2004.The Associated Press reports that when Bush awarded her the medal, he said that Height had met with every U.S. president since Eisenhower, and “she’s told every president what she thinks since Dwight David Eisenhower.”

Dorothy Height biography

The Dorothy Height biography includes marching alongside Martin Luther King Jr. She was on the platform at the Lincoln Memorial, sitting only a few feet from King, when he gave his famous “I have a dream” speech at the March on Washington in 1963. Dorothy Height’s civil rights activism was underscored by her leadership of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years, from 1957 to 1997. Height spearheaded programs to help poor rural families raise their own livestock and worked to ease racial tensions with a program called “Wednesdays in Mississippi,” in which black and white women from the north traveled to meet with their Southern counterparts.

Dorothy Height’s legacy

In coverage of the Dorothy Height funeral, the New York Times noted that Height was considered by historians and civil rights activists as one of the last links to the social activism of the New Deal era of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Her career spanned most of one century and part of another, in which she witnessed events ranging from anti-lynching protests to the inauguration of President Obama. When Obama won the election, Height told Washington TV station WTTG that she was overwhelmed with emotion.

“People ask me, did I ever dream it would happen, and I said, if you didn’t have the dream, you couldn’t have worked on it,” she said.

I do believe the guy who wrote this book, Mathew Honan, created Joe Wilson is Your Pre-Existing Condition. Image from Amazon.com.

During the eight years of Republican reign that preceded President Barack Obama’s election, fans of President Bush often fought criticism of him by saying that the critic was “unpatriotic,” “anti-American,” you know what I’m talking about.

So liberals got a reputation of being unpatriotic, but my how the tables have turned. The new web site “Joe Wilson is Your Pre-Existing Condition” shoots back at the Republican representative from South Carolina after his decidedly disrespectful and debatably unpatriotic outburst during the president’s health care speech last night.

JoeWilsonIsYourPreexistingCondition.com

Someone started Joe Wilson is Your Pre-Existing Condition very shortly after Joe Wilson yelled “You lie!” while the president was speaking about health care reform, the most important and most expensive issue facing the nation right now.

While Joe Wilson is Your Pre-Existing condition did become an overnight sensation, the bare-bones site’s creator obviously didn’t need overnight loans to get this text-only, no background site up and running. There are no photos, no headings or borders or any design elements at all, except the underlined, all-caps words in about a 72-point font.

Joe Wilson stole your newspaper

The web site makes ridiculous and obviously false claims such as “Joe Wilson is on your death panel.” They range from silly lines such as “Joe Wilson let his dog poop on your lawn” to more topical ridiculousness like  “Joe Wilson laid off your dad right before his pension kicked in.” At least one claim, though, is simply true: “Joe Wilson yells while adults are talking.”

I get it. The creator of Joe Wilson is Your Pre-Existing Condition is making ridiculous, false (or at least impossible to prove) and disrespectful claims, just like Joe Wilson did when he yelled “You lie!” at the president. The tag line at joewilsonisyourpreexistingcondition.com says “You dissed America, we’ll dis you right … back.”

I think there is a difference between being disrespectful to the president and “dissing America,” but — damn that site is funny! How can you help but laugh at “Joe Wilson traded the dead batteries in his walkman for the fresh ones in your TV remote“?

The kicker

I have no proof, but given the design aesthetic and undying loyalty to President Obama, I assume that Joe Wilson is Your Pre-Existing Condition was created by the same man who created “Barack Obama is Your New Bicycle” to promote his book of the same name.

The man’s name is Mathew Honan, and if you spend enough time clicking through laughter-inducing, brief quips such as “Joe Wilson talked on his Blackberry all through your favorite movie” and “Joe Wilson yells Free Bird at concerts,” you’ll find out what the site’s creator really thinks:

“Joe Wilson is an elected official who seems to be using party-line rhetoric as a tool rather than thoughtful debate and is actually hindering real progress in society which is a shame as we’re a smart country and should expect more of the people we elect.”

Watch video: Joe Wilson yells “you lie!” at president

After you’re done reading all the hilarity at Joe Wilson is Your Pre-Existing Condition, check out the moment that tipped off this madness.