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Bravo.Davenport said: "I'm going to head off The Phantom here, who doubtless will show up shortly with some rant about how this is all FEMA's fault."
You really are DENSE woman. FEMA, while it is a clusterfrig of titanic proportions, could not cause this much misery on its own. Although they FAILED to have emergency generators at key fuel distribution points (read gas stations) and although they FAILED to have any kind of plan to move food and fuel to the affected areas, and although they FAILED to even have a forward based supply of bottled water and ran out last Friday, even these gold plated MORONS couldn't have frigged things up this badly alone.
Do you want to know why the power is STILL off on Long Island, Davenport? Read this here: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Sandy-LIPA-Outages-Power-Long-Island-Defense-Military-178115341.html
In it you will find reference to a report from 2006, SIX YEARS AGO, which found that Long Island Power Authority had not done the basic maintenance required to secure the power grid from weather damage. The maintenance they're talking about here is tree cutting mostly, and replacing bad power poles.
I lived in New York in the 1990's. I could have written that report. The f-ing power went off every time it snowed because they didn't cut trees and the trees ripped the lines down. They also didn't plow the roads, but that's a story for another day.
You want to know why they don't cut the f-ing trees Davenport? It isn't because they are stupid, it isn't because they don't know, it isn't because private enterprise is inherently corrupt, it isn't even because union workers are a bunch of rent-seeking layabouts. Its because every time they go to cut down a tree, some local Greenies get up a petition or a court order to make them stop. So they stop. So the trees break and knock down the power lines. Same thing all over the North East until you get up into snow country, where even the f-ing tree huggers know better.
Well -this- time it all came home to roost the same day, and every overhanging branch from New Jersey to Connecticut took out a line.
But don't get me wrong, there's a ton of corruption and scamming going on too. Paying off inspectors, hockey tickets for town council, that sort of thing. That's why all those flooded switching stations were within reach of a flood in the first place, because the money to move them was skimmed off by graft. That's why FEMA didn't have any forward located stuff, because it all either vanished or was never there to start with except on paper.
But now that there's been a disaster the LIPA wankers are screaming for crews. And they aren't getting them. You know why Davenport? Because volunteer crews from as far away as Florida showed up Monday -before- the storm and cooled their heels until Friday, didn't get any assignments because they WERE NOT UNION, and then those volunteer crews went the hell back home.
And FEMA didn't say jack about it, did they? Nor did anyone else. One phone call from Barack "The Golfer" Obama to the head of the union could have fixed that. Just one, single phone call. Didn't get made, did it? He made a speech on Wednesday and then flew to Vegas.
Some of the people displaced by the flooding are still in tents. FEMA is supposed to find or make housing for these people, its been a week and a half now, and they are in tents. Looked out the window today? Its cold. People are going to -die- in tents this time of year. It is reported today that some of these cold tent dwelling people started calling the news media, and the FEMA types running the camps started confiscating cameras and refusing to charge up cell phones. No power, they said.
The only organizations in this whole farce that showed up like they meant it have been churches. Not seeing much of that covered in the MSM are we?
But the crowning touch Davenport, the cherry on top of it all that just makes it all the more outrageous and mind numbing is that New Yorkers voted for MORE of it on Tuesday. More graft. More incompetence. More better and bigger Big Government. Gimme my Obama phone.
Say, d'ya think LIPA and ConEd will be laying off because of Obamacare? I bet they will. I bet they lay of a thousand guys right before January first.
I prophesy this: until people like YOU, Davenport, stop actively sabotaging everyone who's trying to make our civilization work, there's going to be ever-increasing numbers of people dying of exposure in tents waiting for help from Big Brother that never comes. I also predict that the ones who survive are going to be p1ssed.
As my parting shot, I want you to think about Toronto for a second.
Did you know that thanks to the Liberal Party of Ontario and -decades- of stunning stupidity, there are two (2) main power lines that come in to downtown? Yep. Both running at the edge of melting most of the time. And did you know that most of your power comes from far away places like Nanticoke, Darlington and Bruce? Did you know that outside of Pickering there is no generation in the GTA at all?
Did you know that gas stations almost never have an emergency generator, even around Toronto?
I want you to think about Toronto after two solid weeks with no power. In November. Nice eh? Now try February. Hope you stocked up. On insulin. 'Cause there won't be any.
And remember. YOU voted for this. You did. Not me. I voted to fix it, you voted for the stupid short sighted @ssh0les who broke it.
You don't even know how close to the edge you are, yet you argue with me for telling you. Wake the hell up and LEARN something before Bad Things happen.
Posted by Kate at November 11, 2012 5:38 AM
That was on the failures of FEMA and Big Government during times of natural disasters. Government can never, ever react fast enough or with enough forsight to mitigate the impact of natural disasters. Look as FEMA on any major intervention of the last 20 years.
I grew up in NW Florida, Panama City to be precise. I've lived through or prepared for something like 17 hurricanes in the 30 years I lived there. Eloise, in 1977 hit PC, and a couple of other were near misses, though Frederick in 1982 (?) was bad all along the Gulf Coast from Mexico Beach to west of Gulf Port, MS. After Andrew first rocked Miami, and then passed accorss FL to hit the Gulf Coast, we didn't look to the state government much less the federal government for anything.
During all that time, we never, ever depended upon Uncle Sam to come to our rescue. We learned that the first thing you do, is get the hell out. Drive 90 degrees away from the storm...east or west, but not north, unless you had several days advance notice and could drive far inland.
The first thing we did after storms, wasn't to stand there waitng with a hand out for Big Brother to come and give us food, water and cloathing...we dug ourselves out. If we really needed something we went to the County (as in Bay County, FL) or the state. Uncle Sam usually didn't show up for 2-3 weeks after the storm to write the big checks to pay for extensive damage. But until Uncle Sugar showed up, we were on our own. We depended upon neighbors, churches, etc...but never FEMA. We always laughed at the Pol's as they drove around posing for pictures. We knew they didn't give a shit, but they had to mug for the cameras.
Over the past 25 years, though, something in this nation has changed. We've stopped depending upon ourselves, on our neighbors...we've become that which we despise most about Europe. They can't do a damn thing without a government bureaucrat to hold their hands, moaning that we need government help.
The most damning thing about Hurricane Sandy is the fucking unions blocking VOLUNTEERS from all over the country from helping people who needed, simply because they weren't union. Of all th damning things that I hate about unions, that in a nutshell is it...and I used to belong to the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners....used to...
The worst thing is that we've stopped depending upon ourselves, and started depending upon the beneficence of Uncle Sam...Gerald R. Ford, said, "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have,"
He was right...
