Hurricane Politics
Rob Tagorda explains why Hurricane Charley may help President Bush win Florida. Frankly, I find the timing of this hurricane to be quite suspicious. I suspect it was funded by Republican operatives.
FILED UNDER: Campaign 2004
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College and a nonresident senior fellow at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm vet. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.Comments
HURRICANE POLITICS
Meryl is mad at FEMA, Virginia, and others for the fact that it’s taking a few days to restore power and water after Isabel. Chuck says it’s really the fault of the hospitals, stores, and others who didn’t have backup plans. And the taxpayers who refused to allow themselves to be taxed more to provide for emergencies. Kevin isn’t saying who he blames.
Although there was quite a bit of destruction, contaminated water, and power outages within a couple miles of me, I was fortunate to escape those fates. Still, I’m not sure what it is the government should have done differently. When I lived in the Deep South, we occasionally found ourselves cripped by minor little snowstorms because 1) nobody down there knows how to drive in snow, let alone has snow chains and 2) there is zero snow plowing equipment there because it makes no sense to spend the money for something that’s needed every eight to ten years and takes care of itself in a day or two.
Similarly, Virginia isn’t hurricane country. If we lived on the beach and got hurricanes annually, then I’d expect more investment. But this was an unusual event. Verizon and Virginia Dominion Power have employed workers from all around the country to come in to work 16 hour days to get stuff fixed. I’m not sure it’s reasonable to expect anything more than that.
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FILED UNDER: OTB History
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College and a nonresident senior fellow at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm vet. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.Comments
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Yeah, I’m also amazed at the people who demand dry ice from the power companies when they lose electricity. I think PEPCO offered dry ice as a courtesy one time in a power outage and now it’s somehow expected to be the norm and responsibility of PEPCO to provide it for their customers. Odd.
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Paul says:
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doug says:
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Maybe you already know about Mona Charen’s column from yesterday about the local whiners? Just seemed appropriate to this post.
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http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_101104/content/illustrating.guest.html
I believe Rush has the full story.
<evil, maniacal cackle>
Karl Rove strikes again!