Of course, most of the stupid people saying stupid things are syupidly saying them about the Charleston terrorist and/or the Confederate flag.
First up: Jeb Bush:
Jeb on #CharlestonShooting: “I don't know what was on the mind or the heart of the man who committed these atrocious crimes.”
I just asked Jeb if the shooting was racially motivated. He said “I don’t know”
— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) June 19, 2015
Next: Bobby Jindal:
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), like Santorum, emphasized the religious aspect of it all. On Thursday afternoon, he suggested it would be hard to know what the gunman was thinking. "Law enforcement will figure out what his so-called motivations were," Jindal said. "We shouldn’t try to pretend we’ll understand his mind.
There's no way of knowing whether this guy likes the Oakland A's or not.
Maybe it's just about music!
And the topper: Rick "oops" Perry:
WASHINGTON — Rick Perry asserted Friday that President Obama succumbed to a “knee jerk” liberal impulse to use the massacre at a black church in Charleston to push a gun-control agenda.
“This is the MO of this administration anytime there is an accident like this,” Perry said, asserting that since Obama “doesn’t like guns… he uses every opportunity” to push an anti-gun agenda.
This makes no sense. I mean, beyond the fact that it makes no sense to pretend that a guy who was clearly, openly committing an overt act of racially-motivated violence might not be motivated by race. I mean, why wouldn't Republican candidates take this opportunity to condemn racism? This should be a no-brainer. Maybe as a Republican you can't come out in favor of affrirmative action, or criticize violent white cops, but no sane person could possibly be offended by your condemnation of mass murder. Other than the Stormfront crowd, everyone was shocked and saddened and horrified by this mass shooting. I get they can't say anything remotely critical about our nation's gun problem, but what do they gain by pretending that a murderous racist is anything but a murderous racist? It's bizarre. I can't imagine what would motivate this.
You can still be in favor of "responsible gun owners" and cheer for "open carry" laws, and claim that background checks are the first step in the march to totalitarianism and just love gun-totin' rednecks in general and say "this particular white Southern Christian gun-toter was a murderer, a racist and a terrorist and he does not represent white Southern gun-fellaters in general."
Then they started saying stupid things about that most racist of emblems, the Confederate "Stars and Bars" flag.
First: Lindsey Graham:
When Graham was asked his thoughts regarding the Confederate flag, he said, "It works here, that's what the statehouse agreed to do. You could probably visit other places in the country near some symbol that doesn't quite strike you right."
Oh, it works here, does it? Yeah, look how well it works!
Yup, seems to be working exactly as it was designed to.
Then Rick Santorum:
RADDATZ: -- what about the Confederate flag?
You saw Mitt Romney's Tweet, I'm sure, bring down the flag. Jeb Bush has said bring down that flag.
Should they bring down that flag?
SANTORUM: You know, I -- I take the position that the federal government really has no role in determining what the states are going to do.
Jeezus! Your weaselly non-answer to whether the confederate battle flag should be taken down is to invoke states' rights? Gawd, you're an asshole!
After all this, it was kinda nice to hear a stupid person say a stupid thing about a non-racial issue: Rick Perry had a stupid thing to say about healthcare for a change.
Rick Perry was interviewed by FOX's Chris Wallace, who every now and then has some brief flicker of memory that he's supposed to be an actual journalist.
And so Wallace actually asked a legitimate question.
"More than 1 in 5 Texans didn't have health coverage," Wallace noted. "And yet, you refused to set up a state exchange under Obamacare, you refused to expand Medicaid. I mean, is that looking out for the little guy when 21 percent of Texans didn't have health insurance?"
"If how you keep score is how many people you force to buy insurance, well, then I would say that's how you keep score," Perry opined. "We make access to health care the real issue, we passed the most sweeping tort reform in the nation."ADVERTISING
Tort reform. Great. And that somehow gives people "access to health care?" And you don't even have some cockamamie phony explanation for how tort reform helps people get healthcare? Because you're saying that you didn't help people in your state get access to healthcare because what matters to you is access to healthcare. You're just going to toss that out there and pretend it makes sense?
Does this normally work for you? Do you get away with saying things like "no, dear, I didn't take the trash out, but if you're keeping score, I did eat some ice cream?"
"I understand that, sir, but don't you -- you were the governor for 14 years -- don't you feel some responsibility when 21 percent of the people in your state didn't have health insurance?" Wallace pressed.
"That's not how we keep score," Perry insisted. "
Dear God!
Giants 6, Dodgers 2
Final
2 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 6 8 0
2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 0
W: T. Hudson (5-6) L: C. Frias (4-5)HR: SF - J. Maxwell (6),B. Belt (9) LAD - J. Pederson (18),J. Turner (8)
Sure, the Giants scored more runs, but that's not how we keep score down here in Texas!
"That's not how we keep score," Perry insisted. "I think it's a fallacy to say access to health care is all about insurance. What we happen to say in the state of Texas is we're going to try to make accessible as we can good quality health care."Yeah, let's totally make sure that people have access to healthcare that they have no way to pay for. That totally makes sense!
