Political Firestorm Over California Wildfires

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

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California is in a state of emergency due to the wildfires plaguing seven counties. Billions of dollars in property damage will result and more lives will be lost before the fires are extinguished. This is a tragedy of epic proportions to say the least. California is evacuating people in record numbers, an amount of evacuees this country has never seen, not even during the Katrina crisis.

California has implemented NIMS (National Incident Management System) as a result of a multi agency response to combat the wildfires. This system is a mandate put in place by President Bush post 9/11. Geraldo Rivera on the ground has reported communications between the varying agencies are in place and working very well under this universal system.

Now enter the elite left, such as Senator Boxer. It is amazing how the left loves to wallow in negativity. It is shameless that Senator Boxer will exploit the California situation in an attempt to embarrass President Bush. In a hearing, today, Boxer claims that most of our National Guard troops and machinery were in Iraq, therefore unavailable to assist with fighting the fires. Senator Reid made similar comments. California's Lt. Governor Garamandi states a visit by the President will serve only as a distraction. He commented on MSNBC, referring to the Presidents planned visit, "we'll be polite, but frankly that's not the solution." He claims the fire is worse because of the war in Iraq. The Democratic Lt. Governor poses this question, apparently to the President: "how about sending our National Guard back from Iraq so that we have those people available here to help us"? There were also complaints from certain sectors claiming federal air response was inadequate.