As Hurricane Gustav moves over land and weakens, we can be happy it hit as a lower category 2 storm, that it weakened more quickly than expected, that people took the evacuation calls seriously and that so far, as of the writing of this post, the NOLA levees (with perhaps one exception, a levee outside of town) are holding. The bad news is that millions are without power and while the worst of the storm missed the largest population centers, it hit both the fishing and oil industries (making a mockery of Bush and McCain comments that there is no hurricane danger in offshore drilling) and the surrounding small towns.
Kirk's republican cabal endlessly monitoring this blog complain that I am heartless in my Gustav coverage, but I continued writing about NOLA long after Katrina when Bush, McCain and Kirk forgot. I also think that just dumping any "help" to get a photo op out of it is not real help. For example, Kirk plans to send bottled water to NOLA. What are they going to do with all the plastic waste. Water trucks have been successfully used in Mexico to provide emergency water for years. If in fact they need water in the Gulf region, wouldn't it be more helpful to provide water without plastic waste?
Barack and Dan have quietly asked their supporters to donate to ARC or Save the Children, experts who know what to do in a disaster. Isn't that really the most helpful thing we can do immediately. In the long term, we can also work with Habitat for Humanity and the Charity Hospital rebuild. I don't think it's heartless to try to be smart in relief work, caring more about the work and results and less about the quickie political capital to be gained from it.
I also think it's important to remember what Bush, McCain and Kirk did that contributed to the problem of disaster relief so we don't continue to make the same mistakes over again. Kirk would like you to focus on my one letter spelling error the other day, but he sure doesn't want you to focus on his record against first responders. Here it is:
1. In January 2003, Kirk voted against a bill that would have provided $3.5 billion in homeland security grants for first responders and $90 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to screen and monitor the long-term health of emergency personnel who responded to the September 11 terrorist attacks. (H J Res 13, House Vote 16, 1/28/03)
2. In February 2003, Kirk voted against a motion by David Obey of Wisconsin to recommit H.J.Res 2 to conference committee and provide $500 million for state and local first responders. In his argument for the motion, Rep. Obey said:
The White House is playing a flim-flam game with respect to this issue. A year ago, the President blocked the inclusion of significant first responder funds in the supplemental. Last summer, he vetoed first responder funds in the second supplemental. He has also refused since last October to release the first responder funds made available by the continuing resolutions. But he spends a lot of time going around the country being photographed with firemen and policemen and talking about the $3.5 billion in funds for first responders in his 2003 budget.
He does not mention, however, where he got the bulk of the money to pay for that $3.5 billion increase. He got it by eliminating a series of ongoing programs that also provide grants to local policemen and firemen. That is like the boss offering to double your pay next month if you will agree to take no pay this month. It does not help a heck of a lot.
This bill restores those basic cuts, but it does so by slashing the President's first responder initiative. When all grants to fire and police are combined, this conference report is $466 million below the President's request for first responders. For the first time, Congress will have a worse record on first responders than the White House, and that is outrageous.
So I guess the answer is, let them use duct tape. Source: CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.J. RES. 2, CONSOLIDATED APPROPRIATIONS RESOLUTION, 2003 -- (House of Representatives - February 13, 2003)
Kirk and his fellow House republicans didn't mind much they rejected the Obey motion. [House Vote 31, H J Res 2, 2/13/03, Rejected 193-226]
3. A couple of months later, Kirk voted against another Obey proposal to increase Homeland Security funding, this time to add $2.5 billion for homeland security in FY 2003, including $800 million for first responder grants, $250 for port security grants and $150 million for research to develop capabilities against chemical weapons. [H. Amdt. 30, HR 1559, Roll Call 104 on sustaining the rule of the chair to strike the Amendment, 4/3/03]
4. Also in April 2004, while Kirk voted to shower $62.5 Billion for war in Iraq War and shortfalling homeland security funding for first responders, including local police, firefighters and emergency crews. Rep. Obey again tried to insert an amendment to the increase homeland security spending by $2.5 billion, but Kirk and other House republicans argued against it claiming 2002 funding for first responders had not been utilized in its entirety. (CQ Weekly, 4/5/03)
Why doesn't the party that claims to protect Americans actually do something to protect Americans besides talking about it.
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