Mr. Ambien Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 http://www.nytimes.c...government.html October 29, 2012 A Big Storm Requires Big Government 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. 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. Does Mr. Romney really believe that financially strapped states would do a better job than a properly functioning federal agency? Who would make decisions about where to send federal aid? Or perhaps there would be no federal aid, and every state would bear the burden of billions of dollars in damages. After Mr. Romney’s 2011 remarks recirculated on Monday, his nervous campaign announced that he does not want to abolish FEMA, though he still believes states should be in charge of emergency management. Those in Hurricane Sandy’s path are fortunate that, for now, that ideology has not replaced sound policy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tearloch7 Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 This is not credence to the necessity of "big government", this is one of the core functions of government. There is no justification for the "big government" the US has today, as this red herring of an article about FEMA would have you believe. Bush messed up huge by shifting FEMA to the DHS, where Brown, often incorrectly a target for the Katrina debacle, fought tooth and nail to keep FEMA on it's own and correctly warned of what would happen under DHS. States could manage relief and response better and more efficiently but this looks more like Romney trying to shift financial liability to the states.. yet I don't see him suggesting shifting tax money to the states rather than to federal. That's been the policy of Presidents.. shift liability elsewhere without fixing the problem. Good luck weeding through the propaganda mess espoused by both the NYT and Romney's camp. It's an ugly mess I don't trust people to wind up educated about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 As the Republican primaries drag on, some of Mitt Romney’s old friends are harking back to a time when, decades ago, the former governor honed his skills at winning over skeptics. That time was 1968, and the place, France, where Romney was stationed as a Mormon missionary. While the issue at that time was Romney’s religion, rather than his politics, his old friends say that Romney’s long slog to win delegates state by state bears some resemblance to the challenges he faced as a missionary in France, where every conversion was hard-won. “It would be an understatement to say we were not universally loved,” says Dane McBride, a physician in Roanoke, Va., and one of Romney’s fellow missionaries in France, who remains a close friend and political supporter. “The most common fallback method in converting people was knocking on doors, and it was well known that for every 1,000 doors we knocked on, about two or four people would listen to our message.” The Harvard Law Review, generally considered the most prestigious in the country, elected the first black president in its 104-year history today. The job is considered the highest student position at Harvard Law School. The new president of the Review is Barack Obama, a 28-year-old graduate of Columbia University who spent four years heading a community development program for poor blacks on Chicago's South Side before enrolling in law school. His late father, Barack Obama, was a finance minister in Kenya and his mother, Ann Dunham, is an American anthropologist now doing fieldwork in Indonesia. Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii. ''The fact that I've been elected shows a lot of progress,'' Mr. Obama said today in an interview. ''It's encouraging. ''But it's important that stories like mine aren't used to say that everything is O.K. for blacks. You have to remember that for every one of me, there are hundreds or thousands of black students with at least equal talent who don't get a chance,'' he said, alluding to poverty or growing up in a drug environment. Who would you want as the leader of your country ? The man who campaigned for the vietnam war , then went to france to convert people to mormonism . Or the man who was elected as the editor of the harvard law review . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaimito Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 oba back close to 80% on 538. http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoderman Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nevlach Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 Drudgereport is saying details of a Campaign Sex Scandal are developing.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tearloch7 Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaimito Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 Who would you want as the leader of your country ? The man who campaigned for the vietnam war , then went to france to convert people to mormonism . Or the man who was elected as the editor of the harvard law review . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaimito Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 This is not credence to the necessity of "big government", this is one of the core functions of government. There is no justification for the "big government" the US has today, as this red herring of an article about FEMA would have you believe. Bush messed up huge by shifting FEMA to the DHS, where Brown, often incorrectly a target for the Katrina debacle, fought tooth and nail to keep FEMA on it's own and correctly warned of what would happen under DHS. States could manage relief and response better and more efficiently but this looks more like Romney trying to shift financial liability to the states.. yet I don't see him suggesting shifting tax money to the states rather than to federal. That's been the policy of Presidents.. shift liability elsewhere without fixing the problem. Good luck weeding through the propaganda mess espoused by both the NYT and Romney's camp. It's an ugly mess I don't trust people to wind up educated about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Ambien Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 we all know it is the core of government, but that's not how the right sees it, at least from romney's views during the primaries (mittens ver 2.0). if big gov means spending large sums of money, that has always been the case regardless of who is in power. the whole argument about big v small is stupid ideological argument, and only the GOP makes it a point. democrats never argue for big gov, or against small gov. If GOP really want a small gov, why do they argue for 2 additional trillion into defense even after the afghan war? why a small gov try to control what god you believe and how you have sex or control your reproductive health? all that small minded thinking about the zygote being a person, and legitimate rape comments, tells you they want policies that they like and read in the bible, and not for "small gov". total lunacy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ossi Vaananen Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 The GOP have been arguing a platform that only existed in Congress until neoconservatives took it over, and as far as the President is concerned, since before Reagan, which was fiscal conservatism. I dunno why people believe Romney would be a fiscal conservative but they sure sipped on some good s***. But the great thing about the candidacy is how effective marketing is to make people believe a pile of crap = a good President. GOP voters easily get lured into pressing the R button by religion or sex politics as easily as Democrat voters get lured into pressing the D button by doomsday environmentalism and a fetish for nanny government. What I would like to see is justification as to why these two guys are expected to win beyond the potency of their marketing and campaign funds, once you understand the susceptibility of people to marketing you lose trust in their ability to make decisions as a whole, which should prompt one to err on the side of caution and limit government. Asking people to educate themselves is a moot point when reading so many of these politically superficial responses one can only shake their head at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaimito Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 oba over 80% now. NYC mayor Bloomberg endorsed Obama today too. http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/in-nevada-obama-ryan-and-signs-of-a-new-democratic-leaning-normal/#more-36829 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackberries Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 This is a man who drove around with his dog strapped to the roof of his car!!! How can people support that???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tearloch7 Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 This is a man who drove around with his dog strapped to the roof of his car!!! How can people support that???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kazmanian Devil Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 So we have to pick the shiniest of two turds? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tearloch7 Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 So we have to pick the shiniest of two turds? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kazmanian Devil Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 Only if you are an American and can vote .. otherwise you can whine from the sidelines .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tearloch7 Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 Why would I have to be American to vote in a CDC poll? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaimito Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 This is a man who drove around with his dog strapped to the roof of his car!!! How can people support that???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tearloch7 Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 ^ ^ ^ Too damned funny, Jaimito .. thanks for sharing .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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