I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

As one commenter put it, according to Romney "Helping hurricane victims just makes them dependent on the government".  Gosh, I guess they must all be part of that 47%....

A Romney official reaffirmed the former governor's position Sunday evening in an email.

"Gov. Romney wants to ensure states, who are the first responders and are in the best position to aid impacted individuals and communities, have the resources and assistance they need to cope with natural disasters," the Romney official said.

So, you have a widely spread disaster, just like Sandy, and you're going to have each state or local municipality manage their own resources?  How redundent and stupid is that?  Wouldn't surprise me that he doesn't even know that it was a Federal Agency that developed the Incident Command System (ICS) ...the ICS was so workable, it was adopted by every federal, state and local entity involved with disaster management.  Canada, Australia and I believe New Zealand have adopted it.  It allows coordination and reduces the redundancy between multiple entities and jurisdictions.  Person A can come from California to fill Role B in a Virginia disastor, rather than having a Role B in every geographical jurisdiction.  This federally developed system is now used in earthquakes, hurricanes, terrorist attacks, not just forest fires.

Also, how is a state going to program this into their budget??  Disasters are unexpected; they do not recur on a periodic schedule.  This is why it makes sense to pay for them from pooled money.

Romney is an idiot.  He speaks off the top of his head without any knowledge. It's all about crony capitalism...yeah right.."better to send the money to private entities."  Who does he think comprises the set of vendors that the Buying Teams use to supply things like generators, lunches, sandbags, sleeping facilities?  Ugh....I'm sick at the thought of him being our leader. 

Yes, it's gone outside the "margins".  Weird!

Lol - it happens sometimes on BCO. Sometimes the avatars start getting mixed up. Lindasa, you just made R-R into bugs bunny, so I am making you into a lioness!

I am waiting for Rachel Maddow to come on at 9 - needing some wisdom.

Correction - HL - you beat me to it. Enjoy your avatar!

Kam -too sweet!

We've fixed the funky formatting.

Am going to try sticking this in here.....it got cut out of the piece the mods formatted for me.  Hope it will go in ok:

CAN'T BELIEVE METOROLOGISTS USED MATH AND SCIENCE TO PREDICT THIS STORM. THEY MUST BE MAGIC WIZARDS.

Perhaps he should also tell the small towns and counties to just raise taxes to repair the roads, bridges, drainage systems, levees, blown down street lights, power poles and community buildings that are damaged and/or destroyed. 

Chick -- Isn't that the truth!  That's what cowards and weasels do -- make others haul the load and take the blame (raising taxes).  

I can't tell if they don't know the truth or they bend it to suit their needs.  This is the real truth about how Republicans, and Romney in particular, feels about the Federal Government's involvement in disasters.

Stop spreading lies!

********

Most Americans have never heard of the National Response Coordination Center, but they’re lucky it exists on days of lethal winds and flood tides. The center is the war room of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, where officials gather to decide where rescuers should go, where drinking water should be shipped, and how to assist hospitals that have to evacuate. 

Disaster coordination is one of the most vital functions of “big government,” which is why Mitt Romney wants to eliminate it. At a Republican primary debate last year, Mr. Romney was asked whether emergency management was a function that should be returned to the states. He not only agreed, he went further. 

“Absolutely,” he said. “Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better.” Mr. Romney not only believes that states acting independently can handle the response to a vast East Coast storm better than Washington, but that profit-making companies can do an even better job. He said it was “immoral” for the federal government to do all these things if it means increasing the debt. 

It’s an absurd notion, but it’s fully in line with decades of Republican resistance to federal emergency planning. FEMA, created by President Jimmy Carter, was elevated to cabinet rank in the Bill Clinton administration, but was then demoted by President George W. Bush, who neglected it, subsumed it into the Department of Homeland Security, and placed it in the control of political hacks. The disaster of Hurricane Katrina was just waiting to happen.

Absolutely right, WR.  But what I really think is much worse is dishonest, hoodwinking politicians making statements that lead folks to believe that a fairy godmother will wave her magic wand onto the states and counties and municipalities and the monies will fall from the skies to finance all their needs.

I guess that's where the saying "People get the government they deserve" comes from -- people believing in fairy godmothers......

Good morning, suzieq!  Winds are still blowing and I'm a little stir crazy, but otherwise fine.  We never lost power and our street's not flooded.  I didn't hear any big crashes from falling trees, so hopefully my car's OK as well. 

I know that lots of others weren't as lucky.  Hope to hear soon from others in Sandy's path.

(Chickadee, welcome home!  So glad you had a great time on your cruise.)

Linda

I'm OK - so far, my oak trees have stayed upright and haven't lost any big parts. Trucks are OK too. No roof leaks that we have detected. It is raining intermittently here, not blowing too much. We haven't been around town yet, so I don't know what it's like out there. Our neighborhood seems to be OK. We lost power for only about 5 minutes last night -- so far. Hoping our NY/CT contingent are doing OK!



L

Lewing, I was wondereing how Brooklyn fared?

Western MA had undescribable winds, power back on at about 5 am.  No major tree damage directly around me, but the ground is saturated, wind still high, we are so fortunate to have LOST THE LEAVES a few days ago..whew.

Hope Alexandria is SAFE, DRY & WARM.

Take care all...aren't we fortunate to live in a country that has FEDERAL EMERGENCY PREPARATIONS - eas very gracious of NY Gov. Christie to pubically THANK the President of the United States for immediate declaration of disaster so the state could get FEDERAL ASSISTANCE...

Is the election over yet???

Props to Governor Christie.  He's showing a side I'd never seen before.  (I'm watching his briefing on the TV news as I write this.)

My neighborhood of Brooklyn is fine.  I saw one storefront awning that was twisted off, lots of small branches down, some trash bins and newspaper boxes blown over, and leaves, leaves everywhere.  Power is on but traffic lights are out.  Other neighborhoods were hit much harder.  I know there's serious flooding in Red Hook, which is a low-lying area close to the water a couple of miles from here.  I feel heartsick for the people there, the residents and the small businesses and the lovingly tended community gardens.

I'm guessing that Coney Island and Brighton Beach were hit hard as well, and I know there are trees down around the borough.

I hope that Alexandria is OK.

Linda