The Sadly Obligatory “Obama Hates White Rednecks and Wants Them to Die” Post
I suppose we all knew this was coming. Disaster has struck the South in the form of an ice storm which has shut down power and most all infrastructure and services, leaving many residents of Kentucky in dire straits.
MARION, Ky. – In some parts of rural Kentucky, they’re getting water the old-fashioned way — with pails from a creek. There’s not room for one more sleeping bag on the shelter floor. The creative are flushing their toilets with melted snow.
At least 42 people have died, including 11 in Kentucky, and conditions are worsening in many places days after an ice storm knocked out power to 1.3 million customers from the Plains to the East Coast. About a million people were still without electric Friday, and with no hope that the lights will come back on soon, small communities are frantically struggling to help their residents.
Unfortunately, it seems that FEMA hasn’t answered the call in a satisfactory fashion, bringing up images of Hurricane Katrina in the minds of some observers.
Local officials were growing angry with what they said was a lack of help from the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In Grayson County, about 80 miles southwest of Louisville, Emergency Management Director Randell Smith said the 25 National Guardsmen who have responded have no chain saws to clear fallen trees.
“We’ve got people out in some areas we haven’t even visited yet,” Smith said. “We don’t even know that they’re alive.”
Smith said FEMA has been a no-show so far.
Given the nature of many Democrats’ response to George W. Bush and “heckofajob Brownie” following Katrina, we shouldn’t be surprised that observers from the political right are now pointing out the very different response to this crisis among the chattering class.
I guess what with Kentucky being a red state the heartless Barack Obama and FEMA can’t be bothered helping the suffering Americans trying to cope with a massive ice storm that has left them powerless.
Can you imagine the media reaction if this were George W. Bush? Heck, we’re still hearing about Hurricane Katrina nearly four years later.
I think the point being made here isn’t that anyone seriously believes President Obama is looking to exterminate White Republicans, but rather two more salient questions:
1. Where is the matching outraged response we saw after Katrina in the press?
2. Where is FEMA? This certainly looks like a disaster which should be right up their alley.
Stay tuned. And give some thoughts and prayers for those locked out in the cold in Kentucky.
21 Responses to “The Sadly Obligatory “Obama Hates White Rednecks and Wants Them to Die” Post”
At this point, isn't FEMA still mainly staffed by Bush people?
Maybe it's that Bush hates white rednecks and wants them to die.
Regardless of who is staffing, FEMA needs to get in there pronto. If it isn't designed for situations like this then what good is it??
FEMA can't be counted on as a first responder. The first few days after a disaster have to be handled by the local authorities. If said local authorities are worth their salt, they will have preplanned as much as possible, including the coordination for federal help to move into that phase as quickly as possible (Bobby Jindal didn't get nearly enough credit for the mountains of preparation he put in before last summer's hurricane.)
The president's symbolic appearance on the scene is sometimes helpful after a natural disaster, sometimes not. When it's not helpful, he probably should issue a statement of solidarity with the people who are going through the crisis (for one thing, this helps bring attention so that people in other regions are aware and can try to assist.) But whether or not he is currently engaged in normal presidential schmoozing (birthday parties, Superbowl parties, or appearing at traditional events like the Alfalfa Club comedic dinner) should not be a reason to condemn him for 'not caring'.) The race of the people affected by the natural disaster is not an indication of racism on the part of the president if he is unable or unsuccessful at quickly alleviating the distress.
I would think normal people can agree on these things, no?
Yet most of those principles were ignored during the criticism of Bush after Katrina. Think about it.
Hasn't the National Guard traditionally given a great deal of help in these situations? This is the sort of thing they were primarily used for before the GWB era. Have they been so stretched and used up by that Iraq war dumbassery that they can't be of any practical use here anymore? And what's this about them not even being able to get chainsaws? That's just ridiculous, just about every person I know here in MI owns a chainsaw. Good grief…
“I would think normal people can agree on these things, no?” ~ CStanley
Well, at the risk of speaking the obvious, we all know that word, “normal” can be pretty darned elastic.
I agree with CStanley that FEMA can't replace adequate local preparation response during the initial stages of a disaster. I even agree with her that Bobby Jindal performed with distinction during last year's Hurricane season.
I disagree about the criticism of President Bush, though. The Katerina problems lasted well past the stage when FEMA should have been effective.
I presume that if there is no adequate intervention by FEMA, and fairly quickly, it will be a problem for Obama. Especially if he's out there complementing them on doing a good job when they aren't.
Another perception issue will be the fact that the President really hasn't been very visible on this in the initial stages and has been hosting the Alfalfa bash, cocktail parties and super bowl to-do's for politicos during this period. Criticism was leveled at Bush for his apparent lack of being “connected” to the disaster, so I think Obama should probably expect the same treatment.
It's certainly true that President Bush was criticized for going to some party instead of going to Louisiana. Though it seems to me that criticism was somewhat after the fact.
I don't think Presidents go to disaster sites until after the damage has all been done. I believe this is not just for security reasons, but also because the Presidental entourage might actually impede relief efforts.
I'm sure people who want to criticize Obama will find plenty of opportunities to do it.
Fair enough.
Why isnt Obama there visiting those poor white rednecks?
I disagree about the criticism of President Bush, though. The Katerina problems lasted well past the stage when FEMA should have been effective.
That's not a disagreement though, George. I never said or implied that the Bush administration doesn't deserve criticisms for the period after FEMA should have been expected to engage.
I think Obama should probably expect the same treatment.
LOL, you're not holding your breath, are you Jazz?
Jazz – “Criticism was leveled at Bush for his apparent lack of being “connected” to the disaster, so I think Obama should probably expect the same treatment.”
Dude, seriously, you're not THAT naive, are you?
Fair enough, CStanley and AustinRoth. I think I was speaking more of in an idealized world, all things being equal, more so than reality. That's what I meant by “should.”
Ummm… did I cover my own butt well enough there?
In that case, CStanley, I guess I totally agree with you.
And I'm marking this day down on my calendar ; )
Perhaps the question should be, “where's the media outrage”?
I grew up in Memphis, a city that is almost as “chocolate and blue” as New Orleans. In 2003 it was struck by “Hurricane Elvis” — a derchero featuring hurricane-force straight-line winds which knocked the city off the grid. Some Memphians didn't get electricity back for three weeks (an eternity to go without air conditioning in a Mid-South summer).
The storm didn't make the national news. A city of almost one million people was unplugged…and no one noticed. (Hurricane Elvis occurred the same day that the Army killed Saddam Hussein's sons. Blood and bombs get better ratings than downed trees, generators, and spoiling food.)
I believe the most national recognition I saw of the storm was a couple of references on The Weather Channel, and a blurb on the AP wire a few days later.
Memphis saw no help from FEMA, few utility crews from outside the region, and only limited National Guard assistance (due to overseas deployments at the time).
I don't think that FEMA's (non)responsiveness is a red/blue affluent/redneck issue. FEMA seems to perform only when it is pressured to do a good job. When it's assumed that it's competent or when media attention is elsewhere, FEMA functions as poorly as any typical federal bureaucracy.
Just as a reminder, several thousand people died in Katrina due to poor planning, horrible decisions, and a lack of action. The ice storm in Kentucky is nothing like this. I haven't seen counts, but the death toll is under 50 at least, isn't it? This doesn't mean that the situation doesn't deserve more of a focus than it has gotten so far, but the scale's between the two disasters is completely different.
I say this as someone who's lived through ice storms. My mother, in Mississippi at the time, was out of her home for several weeks during one of the worst ones, heating cans in a friendly neighbor's fireplace. FEMA needs to be there working now. Obama needs to be making sure they are. But still there are not hundreds and hundreds of Kentuckians dying. Not parallel situations in the least. Any criticism that doesn't take this into account is less concerned with the people of Kentucky and New Orleans and more concerned with criticizing their political opponents.
[...] morning, TMV featured a post discussing some Republicans’ bristling over an apparent lack of FEMA response to the Kentucky ice [...]
Get real here. What's happening in KY is a major nuisance and is causing hardship for many people. But it's nowhere near the scale of Katrina or even Ivan and the other sizable hurricanes. In fact, it's far less serious than the flooding facing Missouri and Iowa last summer in terms of number of people affected and scale of damage.
BTW, the Democratic Governor of KY can take the blame for poor state response. This isn't a partisan issue.
Elrod, I do agree that the scale is different, but the principles I mentioned still apply and I think it's worthwhile for the critics of the Bush administration to consider them and evaluate whether or not some of their criticisms were over the top.
It seems to me that precisely because the scale of Katrina was so large, there were many people who expected that this meant that FEMA could have and should have acted more as a primary responder. But that ignores the problem of inertia regarding large bureaucracies, as well as the problem of outside help getting into a region which has been devastated, and the problems of turf battles between the state and feds.
There have been some complaints in KY that FEMA was even later than it should have been to respond, and that's why those considerations are relevant- it's fine to hold FEMA accountable to do what it can to act as quickly as possible, but holding the federal agency accountable for the primary process right after a disaster hits doesn't make sense (unless you're doing it for political reasons, or haven't thought it through and just think simplisticly that a bigger disaster should mean automatically that help comes straight from Washington DC immediately.)
ATLANTA, Ga. — The Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is helping the Commonwealth of Kentucky with its response to this week's major winter storm. Wednesday evening, Gov. Steve Beshear asked for and quickly received an Emergency Declaration from President Obama, which cleared the way for federal aid for 61 designated counties.
FEMA began moving food, water and industrial-size emergency generators into the commonwealth Thursday morning. To date, 12 truckloads of water, six truckloads of meals ready-to-eat and 50 industrial-size generators to provide power for critical facilities have moved into the national logistics staging area at Fort Campbell. In addition, FEMA is fulfilling the commonwealth's requests for fuel and communications equipment.
“We are working closely with Kentucky emergency management officials and will continue to do so as long as necessary to help the people of the commonwealth through this winter storm emergency,” FEMA Regional Administrator Phil May said. “Our priorities are to save lives and protect public health and safety.”
Maybe the Cheetos eating lard asses should stop reading InstaPundits and leave NY to help in Kentucky. Seems the NG are on the ground and there is a state of emergency. Ice storms happen mulptiple times a year, Katrina was a generational thing.
Don't think so!