COMPARE AND CONTRAST

In this case, it was once-in-a-lifetime Superstorm Sandy, which caused the outspoken Republican governor of New Jersey to declare a state of emergency and seek federal help for widespread devastation.

Interviewed Tuesday on NBC, Christie described Obama's response as "outstanding," and he told CNN that the president had been "incredibly supportive and helpful to our state."

"This is much more important than any election," Christie told CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight."

Obama has "been outstanding to deal with on this and I look forward to seeing him tomorrow so he can see for himself what this hurricane has done to my state," Christie said Tuesday night.

If you say so, Governor Chris.

It also focused attention on how Romney would handle such a disaster if he were to defeat Obama in what is expected to be a very close election.

On Tuesday, the GOP candidate showed little inclination to address the matter. At a campaign event changed to a storm relief effort in Ohio, Romney ignored shouted questions by reporters on whether he supported the Federal Emergency Management Agency's role in disaster relief.

Instead, he focused his remarks to supporters who donated relief supplies for storm victims on how such efforts contribute to meeting the overall need.

"We won't be able to solve all the problems with our effort this morning," Romney said, adding "one of the things you learn in life is you make the difference you can, and you can't always solve all the problems yourself."

So.  Who do you want as your president in a crunch?

Nevertheless, there is a place in disaster recovery for donations to private charities that pitch in to supplement aid from the government.  Links below.

Red Cross

Episcopal Relief & Development (My favorite)

IRONY AND STUPIDITY ABOUND

Do you remember Michael ("Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job") Brown, infamous director of FEMA during its catastrophic failure after Katrina and the federal flood?  The FEMA that wasn't there for days as nearly 1000 people drowned in New Orleans? 

That same Michael Brown...wait!...is now criticizing Obama for his too-rapid response to Hurricane Sandy.

“One thing he’s gonna be asked is, why did he jump on [the hurricane] so quickly and go back to D.C. so quickly when in…Benghazi, he went to Las Vegas?” Brown says. “Why was this so quick?… At some point, somebody’s going to ask that question…. This is like the inverse of Benghazi.”

See?  Hurricane Sandy is just like the Benghazi attack, only turned upside down.  Amazingly brilliant analogy, no?  Brownie's a heckuva guy with a mind like a steel trap...not!  Brownie, who knows not the meaning of quick response, is just the person to connect the dots and come up with a really, really stupid comment.

H/T to Charles Pierce.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

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.

The agency was put back in working order by President Obama, but ideology still blinds Republicans to its value. Many don’t like the idea of free aid for poor people, or they think people should pay for their bad decisions, which this week includes living on the East Coast.

Over the last two years, Congressional Republicans have forced a 43 percent reduction in the primary FEMA grants that pay for disaster preparedness. Representatives Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor and other House Republicans have repeatedly tried to refuse FEMA’s budget requests when disasters are more expensive than predicted, or have demanded that other valuable programs be cut to pay for them. The Ryan budget, which Mr. Romney praised as “an excellent piece of work,” would result in severe cutbacks to the agency, as would the Republican-instigated sequester, which would cut disaster relief by 8.2 percent on top of earlier reductions.

What's wrong with the Republican Party?   I live in Louisiana, and I shudder to think what it would be like here to be on our own. Our governor, Bobby Jindal, one of the bright stars in the Republican political firmament, is in the process of privatizing or dismantling as many of our public institutions as possible before he moves on to what he hopes is a prominent role on the national scene. He will leave wreckage behind that will require decades to rebuild, if there is even the will to rebuild.  The most recent havoc is in medical education, the training of doctors, which, because it is in such a state of disarray, is causing consternation amongst doctors, hospitals, and anyone in the state who cares and is paying attention. 

The Republicans of today are ruthless social Darwinians with a dog-eat-dog mentality and no concept of the common good, no conscience for a government that cares for those amongst us who are in distress.  If you are poor, or sick without health insurance, or trying to recover from a disaster with little or no resources, then you are on your own, because your plight is your own fault, and you don't deserve to be helped by the government.  

What I don't understand is that many Republicans profess themselves Christians and claim to be pro-life.  From what I see, many of them are pro-life only for life in the womb and to hell with you after that.  Oh, and when you're at death's door, and your illness is terminal and irreversible, and you have left directives not to be kept alive on machines, they just may take up your cause in Congress and pass a law ordering that you must be kept alive at all costs, despite your expressed wishes.

What is wrong with these people?  Do we want their leaders, Romney and Ryan, running the country?   

ROMNEY ON DISASTER RELIEF

 

It seems to me in the case of an immediate disaster, it makes sense to attend to people affected by disaster and help those in distress right now, rather than be concerned about the debt to future generations.  And if Romney is truly concerned about future generations, why does he preach, "Burn, burn, burn!" fossil fuels without a thought for what kind of world future generations will inhabit because of the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere?  I expect Romney is still in denial about climate change, but I have no doubt that the increase in violent weather events like Sandy the Superstorm is due to climate change as a result of our unwillingness to move more rapidly to the use of cleaner sources of energy.

Watch the video.



From Think Progress.