FROM THE PEOPLE WHO WEREN'T SO BRIGHT THE FIRST TIME

HURRICANE RITA WILL POUND THE GULF [story] but asking a question of General Honore who gloriously captured a press conference will get a reporter pounded.  The right is pounding itself on the back in self congratulation.

ASKING HOW THINGS ARE DIFFERENT about a second hurricane in the Gulf now means, "You are stuck on stupid." 

OLIVER WILLIS ASKS under a post called Have Right Wing Bloggers Met Any Black People Before:

According to Vodkapundit and Instapundit, “Stuck on Stupid” is a brand-new catchphrase that has never been uttered before .  . .   Ironic that the people who are truly “stuck on stupid” are jamming the gas pedals.

 

GENERAL HONORE, who generally has done very little but pose with Bush in photos, did something important.  He shut down a reporter's free inquiry with a thud heard across the internets  Bush apologists for disaster are just jingling with glee.  Contempt just drips here.  The Honore exchange is vaguely reminiscent of Rumsfeld's glory daze in the shock and awful fictions told about Iraq. And we know where that kind of contempt got the White House. Check the latest poll numbers.

Male reporter: General, a little  bit more about why that's happening this time, though, and did  not have that last time...

Honore: You are stuck on stupid. I'm not going to answer that question. We are going to deal with Rita. This is public information that people are depending on the government to put out. This is the way we've got to do it. So please. I apologize to you, but let's talk about the future.[Radio Blogger]

RADIO BLOGGER SEES PROGRESS Reporters and people who seek information are just so troublesome and hardly worth the bother.  This is where our nation is. If the answer cannot be mustered, the question must be blustered.

I think the General just started a movement, and he may not even realize it. Every time a reporter, in any situation, starts spinning, or completely misses the point, they need to be peppered with, "Don't get stuck on stupid."

I'd pay money to see David Gregory in the White House Press Corps foaming at the mouth over something trivial Scott McClellan said, and have McClellan say, "David, you're stuck on stupid. I'm not going to answer that."

I'd have fallen out of my chair f John Roberts would have listened to Joe Biden ramble on, and said, "Don't get stuck on stupid, Senator."

I can see the bumper stickers now. I can even see those stupid rubber wristbands with DGSOS etched in them.[Radio Blogger]

THE HERETIK SAYS don't answer questions about the past.  Act like everything is trivial.  We don't have time for that. By the time we have time for questions like that, hopefully the questions will have faded away.

UPDATE A DAY LATER  [WAPO/KURTZ] What is about disasters that make public officials think they can openly scorn reporters? First it was Chertoff huffily refusing to answer a perfectly legitimate question about why he was sidelining Michael Brown (who would quit within days), and now National Review's Media Blog

THE HERETIK IS OVERJOYED to discover legitmate questions are still recognized as legitimate concerns by the legitimate media.  Of course The Heretik feels like a bastard for saying it.

Comments

[jillian]

This administration is so stuck in stupid!

I kinda like this guy.

[Rexroths Daughter]

Too bad stupid will be in the White House for three more years. I'd rather not be stuck on stupid, but seeing how it's running the country, it's hard not to be.

[media girl]

Stupid is as stupid does with props to The Heretik.

[Michael Hussey]

Yes, Glenn Reynolds has never been stuck on stupid. The man who declared the Valerie Plame investigation "bogus" and that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction could never be accused of making mental errors in his blog posts.

Instapundit - March 1, 2004

SUSPECTED AL QAEDA LEADER Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was arrested in Pakistan.

That's excellent news, and another nail in the coffin of the "Iraq is distracting from the war on Al Qaeda" theory.

[Cernig]

Im trying to cover as much of the Rita landfall in Texas as I can from my viewpoint here in San Antonio. I'm hoping the authorities are remembering Txas' history of flash flooding inland after heavy rain otherwise they are going to be flatfooted again.

Regards, C

[Chuck]

This is General Honore. OVER.

[Gary]

Too bad for you, cernig, they were more than prepared.

And I suspected you people couldn't let a black gentleman get away with talking down to your darling media. Too bad. He did, I'm more than pleased with him and I hope he continues to leave the lot of you confused and perplexed.

[Gilles]

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