As the California wildfires continued to rage Thursday, so too did the political feud between President Bush and Gov. Kathleen Blanco that has smoldered since the federal government's slow response to Hurricane Katrina.
The latest flare-up came when Bush, while touring the California disaster area, took an apparent swipe at Blanco's post-Katrina leadership as he complimented California
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"It makes a significant difference when you have somebody in the statehouse willing to take the lead," Bush said, according to the Associated Press.
Ouch. But it is true. Governor Blanco didn't ask for the help she needed until very late in the game, which is a little thing called "states rights". FEMA of course caught the brunt end of things, but what I find curious is the complete lack of just rolling up your sleeves to rebuild from everyone around.
Everyone wanted to point the finger of blame at someone else. No one stood up and said "I am in charge and I am responsible. If you have a problem with the way things are going, come talk to me".
But now, with the California wildfires going on, FEMA is doing a bit of sneaky stuff. They are having their own personnel pose as reporters and lob softball questions such as:
"what it means to have an emergency declaration as opposed to a major disaster declaration" signed by the president.
Stop the blame game people. If a natural disaster happens, deal with getting it resolved and as many people rescued or evacuated as possible. Don't wait for the government to come help you. You have two legs, use them. You can cover 20 miles in a day if you really wanted to on foot. So don't expect people to feel sorry for you if you are ordered to evacuate and you stay behind or you drag ass in doing it.
If a cop tells me to evacuate, I'm grabbing my rifle, a backpack of clothes and my wife. With those three things, my family can survive for weeks or even months at a time. And there's no reason why you can't too.
Travis
A few differences between the failure of the levees protecting New Orleans, and the wildfires:
ReplyDelete1. The flooding of New Orleans was not wholly the result of a natural disaster. The damage would have been contained, had the Army Corps of Engineers designed and constructed levees that were up to their task. It was the failure of the poorly designed, shoddily constructed levees that inundated New Orleans.
2. New Orleanians have done more to rebuild, with far less, than many of the damaged communities in Mississippi. Mississippi received roughly half again as much federal aid, per dollar of damage, as Louisiana did. Yet New Orleans has done more to rebuild than, say, Waveland or Bay St. Louis, due to the initiative of individual New Orleanians. Saying they haven't rolled up their sleeves and gotten to work is ignorant, at best.
3. The most Patriotic thing an American can do is to help rebuild New Orleans, the home of American music. I suggest doing holiday shopping through New Orleans small-business e-tailers. I've compiled a list of them at www.buyneworleans.blogspot.com. By supporting the individuals who are doing the actual rebuilding, we can help create jobs and incomes in that city, giving people the tools and resources they need to rebuild their lives through the free market.
Let's face it: if we don't help them EARN the means to rebuild, eventually the money will come out of our tax dollars. Using our holiday shopping budgets (not costing ourselves any significant extra money) to pay down what would otherwise come out of our tax dollars REALLY gives us more bang for the buck!
Some would say it is just voting with your dollars.
That was a well thought out argument with a reasonable solution. You must be new here. :)
ReplyDeleteTravis