Several others again asked Romney whether he would eliminate FEMA.
“Governor, you’ve been asked 14 times. Why are you refusing to answer the question?” one asked.
Romney ignored the reporters’ queries and continued loading up the truck. Earlier, during the event, he ignored similar queries.
During a 2011 primary debate, Romney supported the idea ofcurtailing federal disaster response and letting states and the private sector take on a bigger role.
“Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction,” he said. “And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better.”
Bye, Mitt Romney. See ya. Buh bye.
Exit stage right now, and take Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, and all the other clowns who came spilling out of the Volkswagon Beetle with you.
Take your WE BUILT IT convention, and your little teabag cotillions, and your howling about taxes, too.
Take your fear, and your rage, and your insistence that you earned yours and everybody else is stealing something. Take your list of all the things we cannot do, and all the qualities we cannot have, and all the places we cannot go.
Take the idea that we’re alone.
Take the idea that any of us deserve even for a second to be hurt.
Take the conceit that all of us together can’t do anything we choose to do, and get the fuck out of town.
I take very little satisfaction saying that, by the way. In the first place, it shouldn’t have taken the flooding of the Eastern seaboard to show us all that Mitt Romney was a fool and a douchebag. In the second place, that Mitt Romney now, more than ever, looks catastrophically unsuited to high political office does not ever make it okay that there was a second we considered him seriously for such officeat all.
The polls may bear this out, they may not. But the fact of the matter is we’re done now, and so off you toddle, Mitt, back to your world, while the people whose lives have been ruined by the storm rebuild their own, with the help of everybody around them.
Or as we like to call it, government.
A.
From your lips to the FSM’s googly appendages.
Counting chickens.
And the chances for chaos resulting from GOP vote suppression are high.
.
Someone running “Jersey Shore” ought to be figuring how to make a last-minute special reality-type episode, to run between now and Nov 6.
I heard from someone on the inside of one of the major cable news channels that the conventional wisdom is that Romney has peaked. And given the bandwagon mentality of the political press, I’d say that’s why Romney has been slammed for the FEMA thing so quickly. Truly, everyone knows that it’s over.
Would it be in bad taste to suggest that the Rmoney surge has crested, and will now drain away, taking with it a huge load of sewage that it brought up from below?
Perhaps, but I think there’ll still be plenty floating turds that are left behind to stink up the place.
Also a friend of mine who is involved in this stuff was saying all the awfulness of the past 2-4 years was related to 2012 and the Mayan Calendar which does not mean the world will end but that whatever “age” we are in has ended (she told me but I forgot what it was) and we’re entering an Age of Enlightenment. And for the next 2 years things will be in a lot of flux. So maybe by the next midterm elections we can finally flush the turds down the electoral commode …
🙂
I have a theory. Walking around NYC the last few days it is interesting how the imbeciles, the community challenged (to be less judgemental) can’t blend in. Like it is not possible due to their molecular structure. They point out how the storm was somehow a personally targeting them, the electricity was shut off AFTER they went and bought food because they were told to by the government (people actually talk this way). Like someone was watching them on CCTV as they left Gristedes and said ” cut the power at apartment 23g in 20 minutes.”
The selfish are not able to blend well in this kind of situation. They are pushing old ladies out of their way trying to beat them to an available cab and shit like that.
It’s a beautiful thing.
Unfortunately, I think Romney will still hold fast in the South and the idiot states of the West. They don’t give a shit about the Eastern seaboard. Although if people in Virginia vote for him, they ought to have their heads examined.
With just under a week to go to the election, there isn’t enough time for this to slide out of the public’s memory.
Of course, there are rumors that FEMA is considering the effects of delaying the election in the hard-hit areas (They have to. Their job is to plan for contengencies). If you though Florida and Hanging Chads was a mess… To build on Escariot, there are already the wingnuts claiming that this ws the work of Obama.
Two things I still don’t understand about the idea of moving FEMA functions over to state and private:
1) Romney seems to think that private companies aren’t involved. As a clear example of where they are, look at all the out of state utility trucks. The facts are that private companies **ARE ALREADY** working as part of the system.
2) The idea of turning it over to each local government. While this sounds good, the end effect is a total lack of cohesion and overall view as each locality is clammoring for what it needs and outbidding its neighbors. While politically this is still present to some degree, can you imagine NY in a bidding war against NJ for potable water? Can you imagine the price gouging / profiteering as upper Long Island bids against lower Long Island?
Not to mention the disparity of how local governments would plan for and respond to emergencies. Its like a local politico who wants to turn all road maintenance over to the local govts. Can you imagine what it would do a state highway (not to mention an interstate) if one county felt mud roads were enough?
MapleStreet:
I don’t have to imagine; I can draw a parallel from Obion County, Tennessee, where residents have to pay a “subscription fee” to the local fire department, because they live in a part of the county that has refused to pass a levy or tax to help fund the department.
And what happens if you cannot or, worse, choose not to pay the subscription fee?Firefighters will not lift a finger to help you as your home burns down.
So yeah, I can see accidents and fatalities arising from poorly-maintained (or intentionally unmaintained) roads.
“I’m sorry, but we here at PaveCo have done a cost-benefit analysis and determined that we are unable to continue scheduled maintenance and upkeep on the roads out to East Bumpkin (population 73 and a couple of goats); however, for a mere $375/month, you can continue to receive our award-winning service…”
Are you saying that Sandy is Romney’s Katrina?
Couldn’t happen to a nicer psychopath.
@jim,
Well we have the Mittbot statement against FEMA at a time when FEMA is showing its worth.
News is starting to come out which shows the horrors of patchwork quilts of support and regulation. For example, the levee breach in NJ (Per NPR tonight: In NJ there is an agency which regulates dams and there is an agency for emergency response. But even though an extremely large part of disaster management is the prior work done on building and maintaining the infrastructure, there is no one responsible for levees. This includes local levees which protect turnpikes and interchanges which are key arteries for the NE).
Near and dear to my heart is the appearance of what seems to be large communities built at ground level adjacent to the beach. Apparently without adequate setback from the beach nor sufficient height of building understructure to handle a reasonable storm surge. While these very well could be built prior to the flood insurance program, I would be very interested in knowing if the area had adopted relevant codes for new construction.
We have him with a cynical Press Conference where his advice was to do things which make the immediate aid much more difficult (including driving to the striken areas as if they have condos filled with food waiting for you).
We have the hard fact that in 2004 he vetoed a $ 5.7 mill flood prevention project passed in a bipartisan manner. And in 2006 a flood there cost $12 million.