I realize this video clip of GOP contender Rick Perry at the candidates’ debate has already gone a bit viral, but it’s so creepy and sick and weird that I couldn’t resist posting it here. (I only wish I had a pukeworthiness rating system so I could rate it as “Triple Projectile Pukeworthy”.) On we go…
During the debate, the moderator refers to the state of Texas’ notorious death penalty body count, and when the number is named, the Republican audience bursts into excited applause — applause? What? Applesauce? No, applause, as in “Come on people! Let’s Give It Up for the Grim Reaper!”. Though “applesauce” would make about as much sense:
How very odd to see all those presumably “pro-life”, “small government” conservatives jizzing their pants over the idea of state-sanctioned murder. It was somewhat less surprising to hear that the CEO of Texas hasn’t lost any more Beauty Sleep over deciding who takes the Stainless Steel Ride than he has over where to build bridges and which 4H pancake breakfasts to attend. If Perry presided over the execution of an innocent man, as many suspect, why would the execution of guilty ones bother him?
The governor has been criticized for replacing members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission just before they were to review a new report critical of the arson science used to convict Willingham. If the evidence ultimately proves Willingham did not kill his children, it would be the first known wrongful execution in Texas.
Wrapping it up was as good an example of Total Sycophantic Media Fail as I’ve ever seen: after Perry’s response that he wasn’t struggling with lost sleep over executions, how could the debate moderator not ask the follow-up question, “Even Todd Willingham’s?”
(h/t: Dr.Dawg)
