Rick Perry "disgusted" by cartoon depicting explosion (and himself)

[sio]

AUSTIN, Texas -- Gov. Rick Perry said Friday he's disgusted a California newspaper ran a cartoon that depicts him boasting about booming business in Texas, then shows an explosion, a week after a fertilizer plant explosion killed 14 people in a Texas town.

Perry said he wants an apology from the Sacramento Bee on behalf of the town.

Comments

[tigerdreams]

Yeah, well, it is "with extreme disgust and disappointment I viewed" your policies that allowed such a shameful level of deregulation as to permit the conditions that led to this tragedy. The cartoon wasn't mocking the people who died -- if it was mocking anything, it was mocking the attitude that complete deregulation is in any way compatible with basic safety standards.

If anything was questionable about the cartoon, it was the choice to visually depict the explosion so soon after the event itself -- but I'm not sure I'd go along with that argument. Like with the gun control conversation in the wake of public shootings, there's the danger that if you don't talk about the issues that led to or permitted a tragedy right after it happens, then everyone will forget about it after a couple of news cycles and nothing will be changed or improved.

[mollywobbles867]

+1

[bushy_brow]

MTE.

[zinnia_rose]

The cartoon's message certainly needs to be said. If Perry really gave a crap about the people who died, he'd have issued a sincere apology and he'd be working hard to change his shitty policies.

As for if it was in poor taste, yeah, probably a little, but Rick Perry has no right to get upset. If one of the victims or a victim's family had come forward that would be a different story.

[world_dancer]

1) The artist isn't mocking the tragedy, he's mocking the circumstances that led to the tragedy. There's a difference. People don't mock the fact that the passengers of the Titanic died, but they will mock the fact that there weren't enough life boats, for example. These are two different things.

2) If your public policy creates a disaster, you deserve to have that policy criticized.

3) If the best you can do to defend yourself is to say that the person pointing out the emperor has no clothes is someone not worth listening to for whatever reason you want to make up, then you deserve to be doubly criticized for your lack of understanding and concern about the lives entrusted to you.

[executivehpfan]

Oh, Rick Perry. Shut the fuck up.

[romp]

The cartoonist is successful so I assume he won't be hurt by this. It's his job to call out hypocrisy, after all.

Went to the source to see the cartoon and yikes at the people who are falling for Perry's spin. D: