Without drawing inappropriate comparisons to Hurricane Katrina (mainly because our affected citizens were largely literate and white), it is worth noting that The Boob's War in Iraq has robbed our own National Guard of the resources they would normally use to help clean up the mess tornadoes tend to leave. The Boob was quick to point out that we have everything we need by way of personnel ("Heckuva job, Brownie!"), but personnel isn't the issue. We have lots of people - National Guard and otherwise. The issue is equipment.
Today, the White House suggested we simply call another state for dump trucks and stop inferring that The Boob's War has negatively impacted response time. Oh...and Kansans will someday be living in Fema Trailers that never made it out of Arkansas to Louisiana. These are the same trailers Katrina survivors long ago gave up on seeing in their own backyards. Irony runs thick in this administration. We ain't much for social protocol here in the flatlands....but we notice if you smile when you lie your ass off. And these folks are smilin' a bit much for our liking.
Greensburg is a few hours from here. We got the rain, they got the twisters. But we also got the message that George W. Bush didn't learn a goddamn thing about disaster response - either from the one Mother Nature visited upon the Gulf Coast, nor from the one he created in the Middle East. Suffice it to say that the next time a natural disaster takes a Kansas town from the map, we'll not be knocking on any federal doors. Insult the Governor's integrity all you like, but would you mind moving what used to be a few hundred houses out of the street first? Oh...and erect the telephone poles, turn on the electricity, and get the water going second.
Nobody pretends that Greensburg, KS matters to anyone who didn't live in Greensburg, KS. Most Kansans didn't know there was a Greensburg or, if there was one, just where it was. This Kansan had to MapQuest it, to be perfectly frank. If our government can't get the lights back on in its own backyard, though, how the hell do we expect that they can fix anything a couple of oceans away? And why would we bother to fix the latter before we fix the former?
I can't name a country that would clutch its pearls in horror if Gee Dub were to pull out a couple hundred flatbed trucks and the attendant personnel for a couple months to sweep Greensburg, KS clean and prepare for the rebuilding. That the same didn't happen when Katrina hit is a shonda. A national disgrace.
Our couple of off-line days brought a handful of things into fine focus. It doesn't mean we enjoyed it in the least. Nobody likes having the lights turned out on their connection to the world. I didn't. The folks on the Gulf Coast didn't. Greensburg, Kansas doesn't. A few hours of darkness happens from time-to-time.
But The Boob has brought far too many hours of darkness to these situations.
Too many hours of darkness, indeed.
Nobody pretends that Greensburg, KS matters to anyone who didn't live in Greensburg, KS. Most Kansans didn't know there was a Greensburg or, if there was one, just where it was. This Kansan had to MapQuest it, to be perfectly frank. If our government can't get the lights back on in its own backyard, though, how the hell do we expect that they can fix anything a couple of oceans away? And why would we bother to fix the latter before we fix the former?
I can't name a country that would clutch its pearls in horror if Gee Dub were to pull out a couple hundred flatbed trucks and the attendant personnel for a couple months to sweep Greensburg, KS clean and prepare for the rebuilding. That the same didn't happen when Katrina hit is a shonda. A national disgrace.
Our couple of off-line days brought a handful of things into fine focus. It doesn't mean we enjoyed it in the least. Nobody likes having the lights turned out on their connection to the world. I didn't. The folks on the Gulf Coast didn't. Greensburg, Kansas doesn't. A few hours of darkness happens from time-to-time.
But The Boob has brought far too many hours of darkness to these situations.
Too many hours of darkness, indeed.
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