Beach Peanuts

Would You Trust Mitt Romney And Rick Scott To Handle The Next Florida Disaster?

(Photo: Martha Jackovics, from The 5 Spot, Seattle, WA.)

Yesterday while Mitt Romney was busy staging his campaign event disaster relief event in Ohio, (cough-cough) reporters asked him 14 times if he still stands by his statement that he would get rid of FEMA, handing disaster relief back to the states, but he ignored them, refused to answer, and kept loading a truck with items the Red Cross neither needs, nor wants, so they could drive that truck to an undisclosed location somewhere in New Jersey.

A fair question right before people are expected to vote for him and it deserves an answer, but I guess Romney expects votes based on just how awesome he tells you he is, since he hasn't answered reporters questions, nor given an interview in weeks. Still, voters deserve an answer.

Well, Charles P. Pierce over at Esquire provides a glimpse at how a President Romney would handle a disaster. (Besides collecting canned goods which are no help at all.) He writes about how then Gov. Romney dealt with flooding in Lowell Massachusetts back in 2006, which rankled even conservatives in the state.

The entire region was under flood warnings, but the problem was especially acute along the Merrimack River, especially in the city of Lowell, where Romney's response was considered, well, leaky. The right-leaning Lowell Sun was particularly displeased:

We find it inconceivable that Gov. Mitt Romney claims the state can do nothing to help those residents still struggling to rebuild homes and businesses after the May flood. Massachusetts is sitting on millions in unspent emergency funds from Hurricane Katrina and more than $1 billion in cash reserves, yet Romney has failed to even respond to the Lowell delegation's requests to discuss additional aid for victims. The governor's spokesman — since Romney can't be bothered to comment now that the photo opportunities have dried up even though some residents' basements haven't — said the state will not consider spending its own money for flood victims until it's clear how much cash the federal government will give.....

....Look, America, we here in the Commonwealth (God save it!) may not know much, even though we occasionally act like we know everything, but, trust us. We know this guy. There's a reason why he's going to lose this state by more than 20 points. The only thing about him that you can depend on is that there's never any room in the lifeboat for The Help.

On top of this, just try to imagine a President Romney gutting FEMA and turning over disaster relief to the states. Can you imagine what would happen in Florida? How would Gov. Rick Scott handle disaster relief when the next hurricane hits our state? The last time there was the threat of one, Scott showed up about three days later to tell people to "be prepared" after the threat had passed for the most part.

When a hurricane, or other disaster hits Florida, do you really want to hear "we're Mitt Romney and Rick Scott, and we're here to help?"

On second thought, they would probably never say such a thing, much less do it.

If you haven't already done so, think before you vote.

Hurricane? Ron Paul Says "Let's Party Like It's 1900!"

I've heard people complaining lately that nobody in the media is covering Ron Paul, in spite of the fact that he's running for President.

My first reaction was "There's a good reason for that. He's Ron Paul."

Well, I read something today that changed that initial reaction.

Since he won't go away, and is currently number four in the latest polling for candidates in the GOP clown car, maybe he does deserve more coverage. Granted, I'm not a member of the traditional media, but I'll jump in anyway, because this little item deserves all the coverage it can get:

Ron Paul slammed the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, and said that no national response to Hurricane Irene is necessary.

"We should be like 1900; we should be like 1940, 1950, 1960," Paul said. "I live on the Gulf Coast; we deal with hurricanes all the time. Galveston is in my district.

"There's no magic about FEMA. They're a great contribution to deficit financing and quite frankly they don't have a penny in the bank. We should be coordinated but coordinated voluntarily with the states," Paul told NBC News. "A state can decide. We don't need somebody in Washington."

Yeah! Who needs FEMA? 

Really? I'll bet the people of his district in Galveston might feel a little differently about that, especially if they have to rely on Ron Paul to act in their best interests the next time a hurricane comes their way. Do they agree with Paul, that "We should be like 1900?"

Like this 1900, from the NOAA website?

On September 8, 1900, the greatest natural disaster to ever strike the United States occurred at Galveston, Texas. In the early evening hours of September 8, a hurricane came ashore at Galveston bringing with it a great storm surge that inundated most of Galveston Island and the city of Galveston. As a result, much of the city was destroyed and at least 6,000 people were killed in a few hours time. The following is the account of Isaac M. Cline, the senior Weather Bureau employee present at Galveston, of the events leading up to the storm, his personal experiences in the storm, and the aftermath. The horror of Galveston is only partly described in this work. He was probably somewhat still in shock when he wrote this report as he lost his wife when his house collapsed during the storm and virtually all of his possessions. In a later biographical work, he referred to the shooting of hundreds of looters by vigilantes in the aftermath of the storm and the cremation of hundreds of unknown storm victims who otherwise would have decomposed where they lay. This particular report is excerpted from the Monthly Weather Review for September, 1900. 

You can read the entire account from Isaac M. Cline here.

Doesn't that paint a rosy picture of Ron Paul's vision for America 111 years later?

It's bad enough that the current Republicans in Congress want to cut funding for weather satellites and hurricane hunters from MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, all of which provide critical information and help predict the path of a hurricane. That's not nearly good enough for Ron Paul. He not only doesn't want "demon big government" to prevent disaster, he doesn't think it should lift a finger to help in the aftermath either.

To quote President Obama, when speaking of the GOP: "You're on your own!"

And then some, says Ron Paul!

Ron Paul may have some warped romantic vision of the good old days before there was "modern technology" and an evil organization like FEMA, but many of us who live along the Gulf Coast and have lived through actual hurricanes don't share it.

Meanwhile, back to those of you who say there's not enough coverage of Ron Paul?

Well, there ya' go!