wildfires and politics
POSTED BY: mal4prez
UPDATED: Sunday, August 9, 2026 14:08
VIEWED: 27581
PAGE 1 of 15
I'm glued to the online broadcast of the fire in Colorado Springs. It hasn't hit the wider web yet, but you can get the local news here:
http://www.krdo.com/news/WATCH-LIVE-KRDO-NewsChannel-13/-/417220/14776
454/-/12eydmxz/-/index.html
The western suburbs are burning, 32,000 are evacuated, my dad's office building has burned down, my parents are in their home 6 miles away from the fire with their car packed, ready to go.
Setting aside my own grief and worry, I'm shaking my head at the politics that are already started about this. They just had a news conference and some yahoo was already at it, trying to set this disaster up as the fault of the federal gov't "getting in the way" or something. (All the people actually fighting the fire flat-out set him straight about that.) Yet, this is also the feds' fault for not doing enough. Never mind the extremely dry conditions, the multiple days of 100+ degree heat, or the 60 mph winds that whipped up at exactly the wrong time this afternoon.
I'm trying not to let my shock and worry lead me to saying mean things, but I need to ask our conservative friends if they really want to get rid of the federal govt and leave every community in the country to battle disasters like this on their own. You can't have it both ways. You can't cut everything back, then demand instant and unlimited help when you need it. You can't say you want the feds the hell out of your life, then blame them when they don't swoop down and save you in a near impossible situation.
So many other issues related to this. Climate change, for instance... ?
Anyway, please discuss. I'll be up all night anyway, checking to see which way this thing goes.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
When it happened here last year our governor, Rick Perry, stopped his campaign for a day or so to pray the fires away.
I'm not making this up.
We only lost 99% of a pine forest and 1800 homes.
Heckuva job, Ricky!
"I supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 and intellegence [sic] had very little to do with that decision." - Hero
"I've not watched the video either, or am incapable of intellectually dealing with the substance of this thread, so I'll instead act like a juvenile and claim victory..." - Rappy
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Meanwhile, M4P, please know that my thoughts are with you and yours. I spent much of last summer with a "bugout bag" packed, and with extra rations of water and non-perishable foods and extra clothing and such loaded in my cars, ready to go.
It sucks, and I wish you the best of luck.
"I supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 and intellegence [sic] had very little to do with that decision." - Hero
"I've not watched the video either, or am incapable of intellectually dealing with the substance of this thread, so I'll instead act like a juvenile and claim victory..." - Rappy
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Thanks Kwicko. I remember how awful last summer was in Texas. I'm glad you got through it. I have a bad feeling this kind of thing is going to continue indefinitely. Rainfall patterns have changed.
It really adds a dimension when the fires are burning places you know. I've been visiting the Garden of the Gods all my life. And they just evacuated the Kissing Camels neighborhood, which means the fire has burned through the park.
I don't mourn the trees so much, because I vaguely remember some pine trees actually need fire to release seeds from the their cones. I have no doubt that nature will recover. But this is now a city that's going up in flames, and these conditions are going to continue for at least a few days.
And there are several other fires all over the West. I don't know how the firefighters cover all this, and I can't imagine what they're facing right now.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I've had nightmares like that Mal4Prez. Scary. Hope the fire gets under control... There may be thunderstorm systems coming through, which might mean some rain, but which might also mean more sparks and fires.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by mal4prez:
I'm trying not to let my shock and worry lead me to saying mean things, but I need to ask our conservative friends if they really want to get rid of the federal govt and leave every community in the country to battle disasters like this on their own. You can't have it both ways. You can't cut everything back, then demand instant and unlimited help when you need it. You can't say you want the feds the hell out of your life, then blame them when they don't swoop down and save you in a near impossible situation.
There will still be natural disasters WITH or WITHOUT government. I'd rather say "Ta hell with Gov't, I'll pay MY insurance and look after me n' mine, you stay on yer side of the line!" than have them be all up in my business AND do nothing in the face of disasters...which, judging by the track record- they are pretty damn good at...
There have always been large burn-offs, and most likely always will be. Harsh truths of nature...I've pretty much built half this place with my own two hands, but if it were ta burn....So what??? I'm not gonna stand around and whine that no one helped me out, I'm gonna get my ass up and KEEP GOING...that's what. Do what's best for me and mine NO MATTER WHAT.
And they are our government....it's in THEIR best interests to help out anyway, and without!!! giving over your freedoms, because without US, there would be no THEM. If they don't plan ahead for things that happen over and over and they KNOW will happen again then GET RID OF THEM AND GOT SOMEONE WHO IS UP TO THE JOB.
I sympathize with the people who have had Mother Earth piss on 'em, 'cause she does that every now and then... and it sucks...but she's prolly got a right to that these days...
Now pick up... and keep walkin'(and try ta help out those that can't.)
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Wish, no matter what the federal government does, it will never be enough. Rappy claimed that Obama did absolutely nothing during the BP oil spill - nothing at all, not one single solitary thing. Others charged that the federal response to Katrina was a disaster. Ron Paul - and you, from the sound of things - thinks we need to get rid of programs like FEMA, just do away with them, let folks figure it out for themselves.
Here's something I wrote a while back about that position, and it applies to fires as well:
Quote:
Ron Paul said that in his view, the federal response to hurricanes should be what it was in 1900, or 1950. I found the 1900 citation quite telling, because that's the year Galveston,Texas was deluged with a monster storm. On an island with a population of 36,000 people, Galveston lost between 6000 and 8000 people in that storm. That's 16% to more than 20% of its population. Ron Paul is from South Texas; he knows the history of hurricanes in the Gulf, especially along the Texas Gulf coast.
Compare that to New Orleans in Katrina, in what is held up as THE modern-day example of what happens when government gets EVERYTHING 100% wrong: In a city with a population (2001 Census figures) of 484,000 people, between 1500 and 1800 people died. Those are horrible figures, but put them in perspective: that's 0.37%. Less than one-half of one percent.
Ron Paul holds up FEMA's performance during Katrina as the example of why a federal response to natural disasters is unnecessary. I'll hold up the response to the 1900 hurricane as the reason a national response HELPS far more than it hurts. His plan gets us death rates of 20%; the FEMA plan is more than forty times more effective.
Further, the Galveston storm destroyed more than 3500 buildings in a city of 36,000 people - wiped them from the face of the Earth. I'd offer to Mr. Paul the proposition that government-mandated stricter building codes have led to better buildings more able to withstand such storms and keep death rates to a minimum.
Ron Paul views a hurricane mortality rate of 20% as acceptable, desirable even, and what we should strive for in his world of limited government. I find a mortality rate from such a storm of less than half of one percent to be too high, and an unacceptable outcome.
That's not the only area where we differ, but it's a key one.
"I supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 and intellegence [sic] had very little to do with that decision." - Hero
"I've not watched the video either, or am incapable of intellectually dealing with the substance of this thread, so I'll instead act like a juvenile and claim victory..." - Rappy
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
I've had nightmares like that Mal4Prez. Scary. Hope the fire gets under control... There may be thunderstorm systems coming through, which might mean some rain, but which might also mean more sparks and fires.
At this point, I'm more worried about the winds. Thunderstorms only drop water on small areas, and that might actually cause flooding, or so they're saying.
This is just chaos. The news broadcast is back and forth about which areas are actually being evacuated. And little fires are flaring up here and there. Yikes.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Mal4
" ... my parents are in their home 6 miles away from the fire with their car packed, ready to go ..."
I live in a suburb very close to a national forest. In the last 6 years I’ve twice had major wildfires come (from different directions) within a mile of the house. Both times I've come through OK. It can happen. So I wish your parents the best of luck. Please let us know how things are going.
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME