https://twitter.com/jacobperry/status/336858826038980608
Sigh. Evidently, David Sirota can’t find a better way to reflect upon yesterday’s devastating tornadoes than to link conservatives and the GOP to the fallout from natural disasters.
This morning, he penned an asinine Salon.com column entitled “Anyone regret slashing National Weather Service budget now?” In it, he attempted — very poorly — to make the case that budget cuts lead to more death and destruction following natural disasters like yesterday’s tornadoes in Oklahoma:
https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/336828449031327744
https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/336890227090128897
From his column:
As the Federal Times recently reported, sequestration includes an 8.2 percent cut to the National Weather Service. According to the organization representing weather service employees, that means there is “no way for the agency to maintain around-the-clock operations at its 122 forecasting offices” and also means “people are going to be overworked, they’re going to be tired, they’re going to miss warnings.”
…
When the ideology of austerity and Congress’s manufactured crises like the sequestration collectively jeopardize that infrastructure, we are needlessly inviting unnecessary and tragic consequences.
So, while he’s not actually suggesting that sequestration directly caused yesterday’s deadly storms, Sirota is asserting that bigger government would have saved property and lives.
Bull.
Not only is he disingenuous:
Even if the sequester is to blame for the tornado damage, it was Obama's idea. But blaming him is racist. What is a @davidsirota to do?
— big tuna (@keder) May 21, 2013
But he’s insulting. And this Oklahoma tweeter gave Sirota the sound thumping he deserved for attempting to politicize the horrific tornadoes:
@mzbilly @davidsirota What the actual fuck? As am Oklahoman, i detest this bullshit.
— Et tu? (@letRDfree1022) May 21, 2013
@mzbilly @davidsirota I hope he realizes that the sequestered he is blaming on the GOP was planned and implemented by Obama. I also hope he-
— Et tu? (@letRDfree1022) May 21, 2013
@mzbilly @davidsirota -realizes that Oklahoma doesn't depend on the federal government to tell us when storms are coming. We're not a bunch-
— Et tu? (@letRDfree1022) May 21, 2013
@mzbilly @davidsirota -of helpless hillbilly retards, we can handle our own. Thank him very fucking much.
— Et tu? (@letRDfree1022) May 21, 2013
@davidsirota @mzbilly actually, in almost town in Oklahoma i've lived in the tornado sirens have been manually operated. In the town I live-
— Et tu? (@letRDfree1022) May 21, 2013
@davidsirota @mzbilly -in now, we have a local facility next to our fire station, that houses equipment and communications that allow us to-
— Et tu? (@letRDfree1022) May 21, 2013
@davidsirota @mzbilly -detect tornados and operate our own sirens without the help of Amy federal government employees or moneys. We use-
— Et tu? (@letRDfree1022) May 21, 2013
@davidsirota @mzbilly -county taxes to maintain the faculty and the people that work there. So please tell me more about how the town i-
— Et tu? (@letRDfree1022) May 21, 2013
@davidsirota @mzbilly -live in that you've probably never even been within a hundred miles of, works.
— Et tu? (@letRDfree1022) May 21, 2013
For the record, if you try to turn the deaths of my follow statesmen, due to natural desaster, into a pulpit for bashing the GOP, I will-
— Et tu? (@letRDfree1022) May 21, 2013
-not take it lightly. Especially if you try to use Obama's sequestration as the reason it's Republican's fault. There is a special place in-
— Et tu? (@letRDfree1022) May 21, 2013
-hell for you sir.
— Et tu? (@letRDfree1022) May 21, 2013
Hear, hear!
Sirota can spin his wheels to his heart’s content:
https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/336913353991663617
https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/336913556073242624
https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/336963936958156801
https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/336964128994381824
https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/336965084851085312
But he’s fighting a losing battle against the truth — and decency.
@billhobbs @davidsirota I'm sure the parents of dead little children are riveted by this theory #NotRiveted-Disgusted
— Katie O'Malley ⚓️ (@katieomalley) May 21, 2013
@davidsirota It takes a special kind of asshole to use a natural disaster as a soap box 4bashing the GOP. You should be ashamed of yourself.
— Brii ? (@briina_baybee) May 21, 2013
***
Related:
Too soon: Lizz Winstead takes a stab at political tornado humor; Update: Apologizes
Karma, again: Liberals already tying Oklahoma relief efforts to Superstorm Sandy aid vote
Glenn Thrush notes Okla. senators are ‘spending skeptic’ and ‘global warming denier’