Numerous scientific studies have shown a link between car exhaust and stunted brain development. Perhaps riding around in a campaign bus so often is impacting Rick Perry’s judgment in presidential debates?
In last night’s most talked about CNBC debate moment — one that most pundits on MSNBC’s Morning Joe said was all but fatal to his campaign — Perry painfully struggled to remember the third government agency that he wanted to cut if elected to office, settling instead on the Environmental Protection Agency.
Perry: “And I’ll tell you. It’s three agencies of government that are gone when I get there: Commerce, education, and…the…uh…Oh, what’s the third one there? Let’s see.”
Finally, one of the other candidates comes up with a solution off screen: “The EPA?”
Perry responds: “EPA there you go,” waving his hand in jest.
It turns out, that’s not what he meant. He meant the Energy Department, a decision just as bad.
After the embarrassing exchange, Perry had only one thing to say: “Oops.”
And that’s what we’ll be saying if we get rid of the EPA or the Department of Energy.
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We need bumper stickers: “Rick Perry — Uniquely unqualified to be President.”
We can then add smaller stickers over just the name to track the nominating process as different candidates exhibit their, um, skills.
Actually, I think Perry is being really clever. By appearing to be a boofhead, he immediately appeals to the Dunning-Kruger rabble as ‘one of Us’. I bet that, off camera, he’s as witty and knowledgeable as they come.
The poster boy for air quality standards in Texas. He most likely got kicked in the head by a cow or two down on the farm as well. Wait! That must be why he hates nature so passionately. Some steer took exception to something little Ricky was trying to do to it after school one day and he’s been bent on revenge ever since.
OMG, OMG, OMG. That was just such an embarrassment to our entire nation. Just thing, other countries are watching us and just shaking their heads at the wacky line-up the R’s are serving up. We’re watching us and shaking our heads. So we’ve got: Herman the Groper, Newt the Interloper, Mitt the Moper, and now Rickie the DOPER. Just take the whole Republican Party out back and shoot it already, get it out of its misery. And ours!
O M G
and Michelle the Soaper, and Rick (Santorum) the Noper.
Nice! If I’d given it more time, I might’ve gone there… though I think it’s more like Chris Christie the noper, as he wisely said NOPE to all this BS — leaving Santorum with “Rick the soaker” — compliments of Dan Savage who we can thank for spreadingsantorum.com
(with apologies to the young and innocent in the audience….)
My Special Barnyard Theory might help explain Santorum too. See above. :)
I wouldn’t get too excited. The Right is already getting everything they want with Obama. He’s one of the best Presidents they’ve ever had, way right of Reagan. Why would they want a change now? Hence the dog and pony show for the GOP nomination. Not one serious Candidate there.
The Republicans have always had a psycho streak. Barry Goldwater relied on the Mad Bomber Curtis LeMay for military advice. They wanted colonels on the battlefield to be able to shoot nukes towed around by jeeps. LeMay was the architect of firebombing Tokyo, and had a big bomb trigger finger his whole life. The Republicans idolized him.
It’s as if they were the Slim Pickens character in Dr. Strangelove, hugging the bomb and yelling whoopee.
It’s different now only in the change from “kill us now” to “kill us later”. A big percentage of them are crazy as hell.
Having dueled with them on other blogs, you find out quickly that you will not persuade any of them to change their minds on any subject. The goofy 30% or so of Americans can only be defeated, not reasoned with. They will respect us more if we do, too.
I believe General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) was modeled after Curtis “Old Iron Pants” LeMay. Major Kong (Slim Pickins) was originally cast as Peter Sellers fourth role in “Strangelove” (President Muffly, Lionel Mandrake, and Strangelove), but he broke his foot filming the scene where Kong straddled the bomb in the bomb bay. This led to Strangelove being in a wheelchair in the War Room scenes, and also to Slim Pickins being hired to play Kong. When Picking showed up on the set wearing cowboy boots and hat, Kubrick decided to let Pickins play the part as, basically, himself. Sorry, I’m a “Strangelove” geek, and you tickled my ivories.
My favourite moment, of many, from Strangelove is the scene where General Jack D. Ripper explains his theory of ‘our precious bodily essences’ to Mandrake. Mandrake seems to morph gently into a simulacrum of Major Denis Bloodnok (Coward and Bar)as Ripper explains how he discovered this truth during ‘the physical act of love’.
As for Strangelove, I recently saw a rather long video of Edward Teller, and he is Strangelove to the life. I have to imagine that Sellers must have seen it or something similar, as he captured a number of character nuances with that great comic genius of his.
..and he’s still governor of Texas.
Looks like there was no room left in memory after they rebooted him
http://i40.tinypic.com/10n9g6h.jpg.html
This is a sure sign of early on set of dementia.
This is a huge problem now affecting modern society.
We are all going not to be able to remember what caused GW in the near future!
Reagan had similar signs.
Does this affect GOPs more than the general population?
This could well become the greatest moment of zen in recorded history!
The real sad story from last night’s debate is the fact that, once again, no one asked a question regarding our warming climate and the latest IEA report. Shame on CNBC.
No, Wes-drawing any sort of attention to anthropogenic climate destabilisation has entered the territory of unmentionable ‘Thought Crime’. I’ve been repeatedly bemused over the years at just how low the powers that be and their slaves have descended into the moronic inferno of moral imbecility, but the abrupt, and ‘spookily synchronicitous’ disappearance from public discourse of the greatest question in human history just as the reality hits home, harder and harder, is simply stupefying.
The repeated arrival of the little car packed full of clowns known as the “Republican Presidential Field” is a tragic metaphor for our collective mental state.
Imagine switching television channels directly from the Lincoln-Douglas debates to this circus– would you believe the latter day “debate” to be serious, or would you instead conclude it was darkly farcical entertainment, a mockery? Despite all evidence to the contrary, we’re expected to follow tacit consensus and pretend that this absurd roadshow is a serious exploration of alternatives for leadership.
Too depressing to think about.
We all know at some level how deeply tragic our entire situation has become. But for right now this is f#####g hilarious! If there is a God he/she knows how desperately we need a good laugh down here and has sent us a precious gift named Rick. Let us rejoice this day!
Nice to see Perry do this to himself, hopefully his campaign won’t recover as I considered him the biggest fanatic who had a good chance of getting the nomination.
At this point it looks like its Mitt’s to lose (barring a come from behind by the disgraced former Speaker of the House who has been gradually moving up in the poles).
Probably over-exposure to fumes and flouride…
The Senior Vice President of the EPA Headquarters Union discusses the dangers of fluoride in our drinking water.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLgKeHOgneQ
“The prolonged ingestion of fluoride may cause significant damage to health and particularly to the nervous system,”
“Fluoride can be toxic by ingesting one part per million (ppm), and the effects are not immediate, as they can take 20 years or more to become evident,”
Animal studies show fluoride’s toxic brain effects include classic brain abnormalities found in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, Valdez-Jimenez’s team reports.
A different research team (Tang et al.) reported in 2008 that “A qualitative review of the studies found a consistent and strong association between the exposure to fluoride and low IQ.” (Biological Trace Element Research) (2)
In 2006, the U.S. National Research Council’s (NRC) expert fluoride panel reviewed fluoride toxicology and concluded, “It’s apparent that fluorides have the ability to interfere with the functions of the brain.” And, “Fluorides also increase the production of free radicals in the brain through several different biological pathways. These changes have a bearing on the possibility that fluorides act to increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZKxjY05wY
Some dark irony — did anyone else notice that Rickie wants to eliminate Education? Being knowledgeable is obviously not an asset, in his teeny mind. Well, one thing is clear– he’s done for. The fat lady has sung.
Tears in my eyes funny. It isn’t often a politician reveals their true stripes…but Perry just hit that out of the ballpark.
I can watch this in a loop and always have to laugh … ROFL
Perry’s condition is probably a result of all that pollution in Texas. :)
you’ll be pleased to note that after being all over the internet in the UK yesterday this made mainstream national news here as well – He even makes George W look smart!
I’m not going to defend Rick Perry— he’s an awful candidate, like the rest of the GOP side show. But I will say that this hardly stands as Climate news. He wasn’t “settling” for the EPA, as you say, he was using another candidate’s interruption to try to buy more time to figure out what he wanted to say. He even explicitly says that he doesn’t want to get rid of the EPA (though his “rebuilding” of the EPA would likely gut it for all it’s worth)— it was a bad joke to cause a distraction. The guy is awful, for sure, but let’s attack him with some journalistic integrity, and destroy the base of his arguments (when he can remember them). You could have framed the article around the environmental consequences of eliminating the DOE, like Rachel Maddow did— then, it would be Climate newsworthy. Just a thought.