GOP Senate Candidate: UCSB Shooting An 'Unfortunate Accident'

[DonViejo]

CATHERINE THOMPSON – MAY 30, 2014, 8:58 AM EDT

Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst (R), a candidate for U.S. Senate, said Thursday that the recent mass shooting near the University of California, Santa Barbara was an "unfortunate accident."

During a televised primary debate, a moderator asked Ernst about the shooting because of an ad she ran that shows her firing in a shooting range and promising to "unload" on Obamacare.

"Mrs. Ernst, a viewer wrote us saying in light of the shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, the shootings at the Aurora, Colo., theater, and most recently at the UC Santa Barbara campus, 'we have a Joni Ernst in the television ad that is running continuously on all local television stations that contains violent imagery pointing a gun directly at the viewer and vowing to quote ‘shoot them down’ and hateful language directed toward their opponents. Is this really what politics has become in this country?'" the moderator said. "Mrs. Ernst, what do you say to this viewer?"

"Yes, I would say to this viewer that what happened in that shooting and that stabbing is an absolute tragedy," Ernst said. "However, I remain firm in my commitment to the Second Amendment. I have been endorsed by the NRA in this race, and again, just because of a horrible, horrible tragedy, I don’t believe we should be infringing upon people’s Second Amendment rights."

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/joni-ernst-ucsb-shooting-accident

[hatrack]

1. "Unfortunate Accident"?!!??!?

[GeorgeGist]

2. Joni Ernst is an unfortunate accident.

[Sheepshank]

3. I din't think "accident" means what he thinks it means. n/t

[Johonny]

4. just because of a horrible, horrible tragedy... a?

Yeah because that's the first time that has ever happened in this country. Its not a tragedy it is an on going series of little tragedies that for many people add up to actionable events and for other people add up to endorsements from the NRA.

[Fred Sanders]

5. The article goes on to report:

The moderator then asked Ernst if she would change the ad or its timing in light of the UCSB shooting.

"I would not -- no. This unfortunate accident happened after the ad, but it does highlight that I want to get rid of, repeal, and replace Bruce Braley’s Obamacare," Ernst replied, referring to a Democratic Senate candidate. "And it also shows that I am a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. That is a fundamental right."


Life is also a fundamental right, why do Republicans and their right to life crew not get that, that life only matters to these fascist and evangaterrorists when it is in the womb?

[jwirr]

6. Accident? That is when a car skids on the ice and hits another car. This was murder - planned ahead

of time and prepared for in great detail.

This candidate does not have the qualifications needed to govern - brains.

[City Lights]

7. Ms. Ernst has a strange definition of "accident."

IMO, she's too dim to be a senator.

[MisterP]

8. almost as bad as treating rape as a sort of miscommunication

that just needs some better parenting or maybe a seminar or two

[KamaAina]

9. D'oh!

[Skidmore]

10. Please hop onto her FB page and ask her to explain this.

https://www.facebook.com/joniforiowa

The more the merrier. She needs to hear from people who don't agree with her.

[knightmaar]

11. Shaking my head

"Joni Ernst will take aim at wasteful spending. And once she sets her sights on Obamacare, Joni's gonna unload," the ad's narrator says while Ernst fires shots at a shooting range.

----

Sigh

I can only stand here in Canada and scratch my head. I just can't wrap my brain around this one.

[freshwest]

12. Americans have no culture. No insult meant.

We are a commerical society and media driven. That is where the identity of many Americans is forged. By what they can buy.

I'm not saying there aren't darker forces involved in the current gun culture or the opinion makers. Koch money has mutated over the American mind for three generations now.

And the media is no longer into promoting unity, but hatred. FDR set up the FCC and other agencies to regulate and dampen the power of big money. We have been going down this road for some years now, and the American media consumer has bought the products, both the physical hardware and the mental programming that was presented.

In this woman's ad like so many other GOP and media heroes, there ia a mixture of Hollywood films and television shows that glorify not working things out or mercy and tolerance, or learning, but how fast you can destroy something. Be it an animal, a forest, a nation, or human beings in as large numbers as possible to gain the largest amount of dollars to be powerful.

It was not always that way in media, but Americans have been stewing in this created reality for some years now since the rules of media having to prove it operates in the public good in annual reporst to the FCC to keep its license, is over with now that the Fairness Doctrine is gone and all kinds of dissent are eliminated by the very small number of media owners.

What you are amazed at and so am I, is to see millions of people living in a trance and unwilling to wake up to the spell they are under. It's from all sides of the aisle and denying dissent and diversity.

By that I mean real, diverse, reflection and dissenting views, treated equally if they don't seek to destroy the place or hurt other people. Bill O'Reilly was one of the chief propagandists of the intolerant society media has produced. This woman going on about the Second has missed the point. The point is peace and justice and lives and the NRA does not care about it. People like this just throw around slogans to hide the chaotic, irratioal thinking they are flopping around in.

Unity has been lost, people are learning to be sociopaths from early on. The meme never stops and becomes more vicious daily. The consolidation of all kinds of media, means these forces control the message and the lie has become the truth through repetition. Since it is every where one looks, even subliminally, it's a natural response to go along in order to survive.

Very ugly and deadly.

.

[napkinz]

13. sickening

Joni Ernst

[Jefferson23]

14. Really, please hold up a copy of the check you received from the NRA for the cameras.

Republicans find it so easy to reach a new low...at amazing speed too. How long have
the victims been dead, a week?

[billh58]

15. Just another "responsible"

NRA gun owner with absolutely no morals, no honor, or sense of shame.