Top 10 Ethics Scandals for 2007

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Editorial in San Diego paper attacks state and federal help

My sister has said she heard rumblings about the ineptitude of the state and federal fuckwits the last day or two..how they are more interested in having a pissing contest with each other about control than knocking down the fires and saving homes. This editorial in the Union Tribune today lays it out pretty well:

UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL
Surviving disaster

Why wasn't more key help prepositioned?

October 24, 2007

The response of local authorities to the horrific San Diego County wildfires has been a sharp improvement on what was seen during the 2003 Cedar and Paradise fires. But we're not sure the same holds for state and federal officials.

It first became apparent last Thursday that the expected Sunday ar rival of hot, windy Santa Ana conditions would put drought-stricken Southern California at grave risk. Sure enough, wildfires broke out in many areas. Why weren't U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard planes already at nearby airfields and ready to drop water or retardant, by prearrangement of the Pentagon and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Instead, The Associated Press repor ted that the Pentagon's OK of the governor's request for such planes to help in San Diego County did not come until yesterday morning. The planes won't join the fight until this morning - six days after exper ts first warned of a possible Santa Anafueled conflagration and nearly three days after the Witch Creek blaze began its rampage from Ramona west to Rancho Santa Fe and south to Poway. This is inex plicable.

California has led the way in coordinating regional efforts to attack blazes that threaten to overwhelm local fire departments. But given the increasing frequency of catastrophic wildfires, perhaps it is time the interagency approach gave way to a centralized authority in which, at a time of crisis, a fire czar could dispatch resources on a moment's notice instead of having to tend to bureaucratic niceties.

Such a fire czar could also be an advocate for better funding. In May, five former U.S. Forest Service chiefs warned Congress that inadequate resources imperiled fire suppression efforts. In a telephone interview yesterday, Dan Smith - a senior official with the National Association of State Foresters - painted a grim picture. Between drier conditions, a decline in forest health and the millions of homes built in recent years in fire-prone areas, preventing huge wildfires is "more difficult and more complex" than ever, Smith said. "I hope the appropriators ... understand the big picture."

We hope so, too - because when it comes to both funding and functionality, the big picture needs a close look.

Thank God, its coming out now..while the firestorms are still raging. I hope folks take notice and bring it to the forefront. Shades of NOLA my dear reader...which I had hoped wouldn't happen.

Tags: San Diego, Fires, bureaucratic bullshit,
California wildfires

The firestorms..1 million displaced..

They are still burning..people are still living in places they shouldn't have to. But my sister is back in her home, my dad is cranky but safe and my asthmatic sister is staying with a friend until the air quality cleans up a bit. This article blames the drought and global warming for the severity of the wildfires. I don't know about all that..but I do know they seem to get worse each time, being a native Californian..I have seen far too many of these bastards.

Almost a million people have been displaced in SoCal. Over a thousand homes and businesses have been lost. They are saying almost 20% of San Diego's population has been displaced.

But Michael Chertoff had to make a guest appearance in San Diego. Thank God FEMA or Homeland Security wasn't involved in the evacuations..who knows wtf would of happened.

Its all been pretty orderly. San Diego County actually had to issue a press release that they had enough supplies that were donated and for folks to check the other evac centers to see what they needed if they were in the giving spirit.

Fucking awesome how people pull together in times like these ain't it? Oh..guess what..

Bush is going to make an appearance San Diego..Happy happy joy joy on that tid bit eh?

tags: San Diego, wildfires,

August 29, 2005

The day Katrina hit the coast. The day normal life ended on the gulf coast of our United States. The day BushCo fell down on the job and all hell began to break loose. The day BushCo’s biggest domestic fuck-up began. Need I say more? nah..

Obama is unveiling his plan for fixing the region today. All or most of the Democratic candidates for President will be streaming into NOLA to point their fickle fingers of fate at BushCo and how crappy a job he and his cadre are doing. The NYT has a writeup of Obama’s grandiose plan to fix the region and the agency’s that deal with this kind of catastrophy. A small wisp of it:

The Gulf Coast restoration, Mr. Obama said, has been weighed down by red tape that has kept billions of dollars from reaching Louisiana communities. As president, he said, he would streamline the bureaucracy, strengthen law enforcement to curb a rise in crime and immediately close the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet in order to restore wetlands to protect against storms. Mr. Obama also said that he would seek to lessen the influence of politics in the Federal Emergency Management Agency by giving its director a fixed term, similar to the structure of the Federal Bureau of Investigatio n. The FEMA director would serve a six-year term, under Mr. Obama’s plan, and report directly to the president.

Doesn’t the head of FEMA report to the President now? He is also planning other big moves, ones that probably need to be made..such as opening a DEA office down there. My, that is all well and good, but I read recently the prisons are over-crowded already pal. Another snip of what he is planning to say:

“Let New Orleans be the place where we strengthen those bonds of trust, where a city rises up on a new foundation that can be broken by no storm,” Mr. Obama is planning to say Sunday, according to remarks provided by his aides. “Let New Orleans become the example of what America can do when we come together, not a symbol for what we couldn’t do.”

Man, he sure is good with the rhetoric isn’t he? But no where in the article do I see how he plans to pay for his great plans..Isn’t that just as important as what you plan to do? One should note that two years after the flood, only 40% of the FEMA money has reached the area. Just fixing that bullshit will go along way to fixing the region.

Tags: Katrina, NOLA, FEMA, Obama

Crossposted at Bring it On!