Texas politician's internet ad features gentleman electrocuted while peeing (video)

Roland Sledge is a 66-year-old Houston energy lawyer running for a seat on the Texas state commission that regulates the oil and gas industries. In the YouTube ad above, the Republican candidate stares into the camera while standing in a pasture, and riffs on a Will Rogers quote: “Isn’t it about time we elected political leaders that have sense enough not to pee on electric fences?” You'll want to read the New York Times story here. (via Michael Roston)

• [Antinous / Moderator]

  I thought that Mythbusters busted that one.

  • [Jardine]

    That was peeing on the 3rd rail they busted. The problem with getting electrocuted by peeing on the 3rd rail was that the stream of pee would break up before reaching the rail on the ground unless the guy kneeled down to get really close to it.

    They later tested peeing on an electric fence by having Adam pee on an electric fence. That worked fine since the fence wire is close enough that the stream of urine doesn’t have a chance to break up.

    • [Paul Renault]

      Um, those of us around here who live in the boonies, see electric fences all the time and have a pretty good idea that that TV ad doesn’t reflect how they work.

      And those of us who don’t see electric fences all the time, look up how they work on Wikipedia.

  • [niktemadur]

    As long as “The Anarchist Cookbook” is still floating around, this stuff is gonna keep on bubbling to the surface, especially when radio personalities like Alex Jones AND his audience are around.  When I say “around”, I mean “on the surface of the planet”.

    • [petertrepan]

      I assume the secret purpose of the Anarchist Cookbook is to trick potential troublemakers into exploding and/or poisoning themselves.

      • [Halloween_Jack]

        That was certainly the rumor when I was a teenager (well, the other rumor, besides the one that the FBI kept a file on everyone who bought a copy, which could be refuted by any kid with cash, a local bookstore that stocked it, and a hat and sunglasses). The variations on the rumor were that the FBI either passively let the book be published after realizing that the author hadn’t included sufficient safety protocols (you’ll remember that members of the Weather Underground who were constructing bombs in the basement of a townhouse in Greenwich Village blew themselves and the building up), or were the ones who actually wrote, published and/or promoted the book.

• [Preston McDonald]

  Yay, Texas!  This state has such fun politics.  You should check out our several hundred pages long state constitution, built up over time by the fact that just about everything requires a constitutional amendment.  If that doesn’t give you some yucks, try looking at our ballots.  Just about every government job is filled by an elected official, even absurdly menial ones.

• [Todd Allen]

  The man peeing on the fence is supposed to be convicted Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.  

  • [Halloween_Jack]

     I’m trying to remember the last time someone in Illinois ran for office by evoking a politician from another state that wasn’t part of the federal government. Drawing a blank here.

    • [Todd Allen]

      That’s how big an embarrassment Blago is.  They’re even ripping on him in Texas elections.

• [EH]

  You know how them cityfolk are, amirite?

  • [regeya]

    Eh, Blagojevich wasn’t fit to be a dog catcher.  His method of direct governance, the method of budget-balancing, was to try to decide which of his political enemies would be hurt the most by various cuts, and go with those.  

    • [ChicagoD]

      That’s not accurate. He tried to decide how he could profit most efficiently and went with that. Did you not hear the f*cking golden tapes?

• [Bill Walsh]

  It was either this or a re-imagining of Peter Gabriel’s sledgehammer video.

  • [Nathan Hornby]

    Now THAT I’d vote for.

• [Rufus T. Firefly]

  Is that a Ren and Stimpy reference?

  • [niktemadur]

    Something that bugs me about that reference:  why does a chihuahua’s cousin look exactly like a cat?

    • [Richard Dagenais]

      Cousin Sven is Stimpy’s cousin.

• [joeposts]

  Hey, sex sells.

• [jimbeaux]

  so republicans are now stooping to a new low? – “channeling” wisdom from dead Democrats?

  • [Bevatron Repairman]

    Because no modern politician has ever thought to quote a dead guy before?  

  • [ChicagoD]

    Blago isn’t dead.

• [voiceinthedistance]

  Beautiful work, replacing the prostitute in that clip with an electric fence.  It looks like he’s enjoying the sensation, rather than reenacting Edison’s electric sideshows.  
  http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/01/dayintech_0104

• [Petzl]

  In Texas, they elect railroad commissioners? Why wouldn’t that position just be an appointment?

  • [Bevatron Repairman]

    The Railroad Commission is Texas’ utilities commission – oil and gas, public utilities, some mining – and it’s a pretty common stepping stone to other statewide office.  So it’s not as narrow as it seems (in fact, it doesn’t even regulate the railroads)

  • [Ultan]

    Because it’s a very, very powerful body. Wikipedia: “The Railroad Commission of  Texas is the state agency that regulates the oil and gas industry, gas utilities, pipeline safety, safety in the liquified petroleum gas industry, and surface coal and uranium mining.”…. “As late as the 1950s the TRC controlled over 40% of United States crude production and approximately half of estimated national proved reserves. It served as a model in the creation of OPEC.”

    It was created in 1891 under Governor Hogg (father of the lovely Ima), who, if New York hadn’t refused to extradite, would have put John D. Rockefeller in prison.  In the ’30s, the TRC put limits on pumping (though the governor had to call in the militia to enforce the order), and helped get prices back up above 25 cents a barrel.

    WP: “The three-member commission was initially appointed by the governor, but an amendment to the state’s constitution in 1894 established the commissioners as elected officials serving overlapping six-year terms.” …. “Effective October 1, 2005, … the rail oversight functions of the Railroad Commission were transferred to the Texas Department of Transportation. The traditional name of the Commission was not changed despite the loss of its titular regulatory duties.”

    So the TRC no longer has anything to do with railroads.

    • [Nathan Hornby]

      Stop making me learn things I don’t care about. It’s rude.

    • [Learned]

       The RR Commission is indeed a stepping stone to wider office in Texas.  However, it is not nearly as powerful as it once was because the legislature has assumed more power than it once did.

      Because of this, I support Warren Chisum for the RR commission because that idiot needs to get the hell out of the legislature.

• [quarterman]

  I would vote for this man.

• [Deidzoeb]

  Texas politics, where “smart enough not to pee on an electric fence” puts you at an advantage over other candidates.

• [IronEdithKidd]

  I bet this guy’s got a vinyl decal of Calvin pissing on something on his vehicle’s back window.

• [donovan acree]

  I think the NY Times article got this one wrong

  “Mr. Sledge’s one-minute ad illustrates the point, showing an actor intended to resemble the impeached and imprisoned former governor of Illinois, Rod R. Blagojevich, pretending to relieve himself on an electric fence and casting Mr. Sledge as Mr. Blagojevich’s polar opposite”

  As a Texan, I saw that actor as representing our Governor Goodhair aka Rick Perry. Rick is exactly the kind of idiot to piss on an electric fence.

• [chgoliz]

  I’m no fan of Blago, but Sledge would last about as long in Chicago/Illinois politics as this simulation (stimulation?).

  Every political community has the equivalent of peeing on electric fences.

• [Guest]

  This reads to me like a veiled threat against someone who might turn over a few too many stones in the area.

  I have a family member who uses a lot of “pissing on” metaphors. It’s a territorial language thing.

  OTOH, maybe he hired Mike Gravel’s ad people?

• [Bradley Robinson]

  What does oil and gas experience have to do with job creation experience?  And what does an electric fence have to do with anything?  Fail. 

• [regeya]

  I’m just trying to figure out what a former Illinois governor has to do with a Texas utility board.

  People outside the state might not remember it, but Blago is our second Governor in a row to go to prison for corruption, with the first one being a Republican.  The guy Blago ran against was a politician named Jack Ryan, who got national attention when his ex-wife Jeri Ryan (yes, that Jeri Ryan) leveled some allegations at him about his sexual deviancy.  Since the conservatives here tend to be social conservatives, and some of those are union-supporting Democrats…well…

  I’m an Illinoisan, and I got a good chuckle out of the image of Blago pissing on an electric fence. :->

• [sarah shevett]

  Just one more sexist ad..another accomplishment that is unavailable to women.

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    You can’t pee on a fence? I was going to give instructions, but it sounded like a porn script.

• [Dan Hibiki]

  You can’t electrocute yourself by peeing on an electric fence. You need a constant stream  to do that which you can’t do by peeing. Now if there’s a puddle of urine that’s electrocuted and you step in it, then you’re fried. Otherwise, wii away!

  • [Ito Kagehisa]

     How do you kill a puddle of urine?

    • [jwkrk]

      Nice riddle.  I’ll bite; how DO you kill a puddle of urine?

      • [Donald Petersen]

        Wrong.  Biting it won’t kill it.

• [Ito Kagehisa]

  I have been present during the experiment.  Electrocution (that is, execution by means of electricity) does not happen when your boy scout patrol leader pees on an electric fence.  You will not die.

  However, you will recieve an electric shock to a sensitive portion of the anatomy.

  In English, this is called being “shocked”.

  • [Donald Petersen]

    I imagine the electric fences one encounters under most circumstances are the “non-lethal” variety, often the sort designed to discourage livestock from straying rather than the sort designed to kill POWs with a mind to stray.

    Whizzing on fences in the Korean DMZ, however, is probably not an activity condoned by even the most permissive Scoutmaster.

• [CognitiveDissident]

  Hasn’t anyone heard of the electrified urinal prank?
  (High Voltage, Low Current)
  How many died because of that?
  None!

  (Well, I’m pretty sure none, unless you slipped and fell, it’s still damn funny!)

• [Bruce Resch]

  Missing the point here – The guy knows exactly what he’s talking about when it comes to peeing SINCE HE IS A PRICK!