Government Fiddles While California Burns

by John Seiler

As I type in my writer’s garret in Huntington Beach, outside my window ash falls like snow and the sky is tinged an orange-yellow. It’s a little hard to breathe and I cough now and then.

It’s not as bad as the previous three days. But the evidence still is in the air, not just on the TV news, of the fires that have burned out large areas of Southern California.

Fires strike our area every few years, the last major fires being in 2003. The best way to prevent the fires and to fight them would be for the government to get out of the way and turn the responsibility over to private insurance companies.

Unfortunately, that isn’t going to happen soon. So we’re left with the usual government incompetence, beginning with our governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Although a popular international bodybuilder and action star, in California people gradually are realizing he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

He hasn’t balanced a budget in four years, despite prosperity bringing record new revenues. We’ve suffered electricity blackouts. And Arnold is obsessed with imposing a socialized medicine scheme similar to the one in his native Austria – a place he used to say he escaped to enjoy the promise of American capitalism.

Quickly bored with his job, Arnold has traipsed around the world advancing his global-warming ideology. In June, he posed in London with "Phony" Tony Blair, then in his last days as prime minister.

Last January, in his state-of-the-state address, Arnold insisted that California was a "nation-state." I wish it were so! If California seceded, I wouldn’t have to pay massive taxes to Bush’s centralized, war-obsessed regime in Washington. And goodbye IRS, FBI, CIA, De-Ed, Heimat Security, etc.

But it isn’t so. Pretending California is a "nation-state" stokes Arnold’s ego and is yet another diversion from the hard work of actually serving the people who elected him, twice.

Arnold has had plenty of time to make sure the state he misgoverns didn’t burn down. The Los Angeles Times reported:

"A special panel appointed by Schwarzenegger recommended in 2004 that California buy 150 more fire trucks for emergencies. So far only 19 have been ordered. They are scheduled to arrive in time for next year's fire season.

The state has not replaced its Vietnam-era helicopters, although the Blue Ribbon Fire Commission had warned that many were nearing the end of their operational lives and that the availability of replacements "is diminishing and will soon be exhausted."

That means some of those helicopters are older than their pilots.

Orange County Fire Chief Chip Prather insisted:

"It is an absolute fact, had we had more air resources we would have been able to control this fire."

Yes. But it also should be pointed out that one reason Prather doesn’t have enough resources – air or otherwise – is that Orange County firemen make, on average, $175,000 a year in pay and benefits. And his Fire Authority is housed in a $50 million Taj Mahal headquarters in Irvine, near the fires.

There’s no question that firemen are bravely fighting the fires. But there would be a lot more of them, and they would have better equipment, if their pay and HQ weren’t so extravagant.

Rest of Article Here

__________________
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." - Schopenhauer

From what I heard/read it appears that the CALIFORNIA INFOERO response weant very well. Chortov ( Chertoff) sent his boy Brownie 's replacement to California to oversee the operation. The areas that were hit by fire were for the most part middleclass or better so they had the means to get out unlike New Orleans. The Governator of KALIFORNIA IS OF THE SAME POLITICAL PARTY AS THE PRESIDENTE SO THERE WAS COOPERATION.

tHE Feds including the Presidente did not want any criticism SO BET FEMA WAS JOHNNIE ON THE SPOT.

__________________
"I was born at night, but it was not last night night"

You heard wrong. "Went well" compared to what? Katrina????????????

__________________
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." - Schopenhauer

Were you expecting Hillary to swoop down on a broom and wisk the fire away with a magic wand?

It sounds to me like the response went well. Why? because Arnold handled it well. The federal government is not equiped to handle natural disasters, that's the realm of governors. I love hearing how the Katrina fiasco is Bush's fault.

Really? Considering Bush has done nothing since taking office in 2000, I don't see how we could blame him for New Orleans deaths and destruction either. Bush is just some bozo that has never done anything in his lifetime. I doubt those two girls are his as well, because he lacks a set of Spaldings. So you really summed it up well!!!

Now we do have to blame the federal government and those that do something, who managed to build unsafe levees that failed in 50 places, and those that inspected those levees over the years. This engineering fraud costs lives, and cost Corporate insuranace billions who relied on stable levees when making policies. Those same federal agencies are allowing these people to rebuild in the same areas again where they could possibly be a thousand more weak places in the levees. But I don't associate Bush with the federal government, he can't even run his hobby horse.

__________________
One Tin Soldier Walked Away....................

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...laryTeam08.jpg

The article doesn't really explain why a privatized system would improve matters.

__________________
LET ME SEE YOUR WAR FACE!!!

Extremist statements like this make you easy to ignore because you obviously have no objectivity. I think the best thing GWB did was to appoint two judges to the Supreme Court that uphold the Constitution.


The Federal government can lend assistance with these disasters. The National Guard did great with Katrina while FEMA stumbled. It is really up to the local government and California has proved itself much more efficient than New Orleans. New Orleans politicians seemed to put politics ahead of peoples lives. There will always be complaints and always some legitimate complaints in a disaster of this magnitude.

And it actually brings up the blackouts, which is further evidence of private sector incompetence.

__________________
"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives." — John Stuart Mill

Because of the general reasons why privatized systems are better. A private contractor, after this, would be bankrupted by lawsuits, probably go to jail for criminal negligence. A private contractor knows this going in. But since it's the Great White Father, with the system controlled by unaccountable bureaucrats, nothing's on the line personally, so they don't give a (*)(*)(*)(*). Is this a revelation to you? Been to the DMV lately??

The government incompetence has enraged people in california - tell the thousands of people whose house burnt down, the millions of people who have to breathe smoke, the parents of children at many schools whose classes have been cancelled, the businesses which have lost a fortune, that the government did a wonderful job. Really, come here and do that. There's places and people who will punch your dumb face for saying that. Congressman Rorhbacher from orange county said he's going to seek a congressional investigation, like Katrina. I'm thinking he might not get it, because the democrats run congress, and the blacks in NO were their clients. The main culprits here were new liberal Schwarzeneggar and the Calfornia democrat-controlled statehouse, so they might just ignore it.

__________________
Blade: "more educated and literate people than Justabubba"

Justabubba: "that would include everyone"

http://politicalforum.com/showthread.php?t=27847

Actually, the rolling blackouts came about because government screwed up and only deregulated half the industry.

__________________
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." - Schopenhauer