US rejected Davis on Aid to Clear Trees

[barbaraann]

October 31, 2003

FEMA spent six months studying the governor's request, then turned it down hours before fires began, saying state was already getting funds.
By Gregg Jones and Dan Morain, Times Staff Writers

SACRAMENTO — The Bush administration took six months to evaluate Gov. Gray Davis' emergency request last spring for $430 million to clear dead trees from fire-prone areas of Southern California.

The request was finally denied Oct. 24, only hours before wildfires roared out of control in what has become the largest fire disaster in California history.

Rep. Mary Bono (R-Palm Springs), a leader in the effort to get federal assistance for fire prevention, questioned Thursday why the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not rule sooner.
...
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fema31oct31,1,4116024.story?coll=la-home-headlines


The rightwingers are busy blaming the Sierra Club and the environmentalists when the ONE REAL CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM WAS THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION, probably playing politics.

(sorry if this is a dupe!)

[AP]

1. The Fed gov't didn't want to spend ANY money in CA while Davis was gov...

...because the election strategy was for the feds to squeeze CA every way it could so that people would blame Democrats for the economy. Wall St also lowered the bond rating, meaning that the state would have to devote more of their reduced resources to paying INTEREST to bond holders (shit!).

It's the same strategy they used to destroy Chile so that people would blame Allende.

Well, now Arnold's got a more expensive mess on his hands. Also, notice that the flames are in places that voted Republican, and are sweeping toward's Arnold's home in San Bernadino. Maybe god's mad.

[bleedingheart]

4. That is it...Petty Politics now it may end up burning the GOP

if the word gets out.

[soupkitchen]

10. Do you think even the Republicans whose houses burnt down

will blame the administration?
The truth, they can't handle the truth.

[kimchi]

2. I fear for my country.

How do we get it back?

My little part is giving Lies or some other book exposing the rightwingers to everyone on my Xmas list. The truth is out there.

[Nlighten1]

3. Why am I not suprised?

Once this gets public the Bush administration will be pointing fingers again. Who will they blame this time? Probably Clinton or the CIA.

[HootieMcBoob]

7. once this gets public?

I don't have any confidence that this information will ever see the light of day on any major electronic media outlet. We'll hear lots and lots about how this is the fault of environmentalists and how the "healthy forests initiative" is more important now than ever but I doubt very much we'll hear anything about this. It's not in the script.

[barbaraann]

9. Well, I did find it on the home page of the LA Times website.

We can only hope it will make it to the national consciousness.

(I wonder if it is on the front page of the actual LA Times?)

[HootieMcBoob]

13. true

the print media to a greater extent still report the news. the problem is that the overwhelming majority of the people in this country get their news from television and radio. until it's widely reported in the electronic media it won't make a dent in the national consciousness. i try to be optimistic but in my experience the tv and radio "news" outlets in this country are useless for getting real news.

[Nlighten1]

14. I think it will but...

It will last one day only and it will be put in the centrifuge of mass media and then it will be dropped.

[gulliver]

5. Gray screwed up.

That fool asked for money to clear dead trees. He should have asked to clear live trees and earmarked the work for Republican contributors. Davis obviously just doesn't get the Bush Administration.

[AP]

15. My first DU laugh of the morning. Thanks.

[leesa]

16. Good one. That's correct. It's life that disturbs Republicans.

[Wellong]

6. Firefighters rejected request for air drops

State firefighters rejected air drop request for Cedar Fire because of night regulations

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=18945

Wether or not the request by Davis was approved, not a damn bit of work would have been done in time to stop this fire. However, the requests for water drops that were denied can directly be blamed for the spread of the fire.

And if you disagree with me, tell me how FEMA approving Davis's request would have prevented the fire.

[barbaraann]

8. From the article:

In his letter to the president, Davis called on Bush to proclaim an emergency in Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties because of "the severe fire threat caused by dead and dying trees resulting from several years of drought and a major bark beetle infestation."

The request followed Davis' declaration in March of a state of emergency in the areas where the fire threat had soared because of the dead trees.

[JHB]

11. Is it that tough?

If they had still taken 6 months and then approved it, well of course nothing could have been done.

If the request had been approved in a more timely fashion, an effort to clear out excess dry brush and other fuel could have been underway, helping to limit the scope and intensity of the fires.

[gulliver]

12. Right. I got ya. Great thinking.

One of the fires got out of control because firefighters made a big mistake. The firefighters, whose regulations and judgement are known by all Bushists to be idiotic and inexplicable, just couldn't bring themselves to do what needed to be done.

The fires didn't spread and go wild because they had fuel. They went wild because somebody didn't fly a bucket of water ... at night ... into a densely wooded area. You've hit the nail on the head! Bravo!

And here I thought that we just had a whole bunch of wild fires last year and were supposed to be focusing hard on this issue. Now we find out that Davis did his part, and the Bushies sat on Davis' request. Could it be because the Bushies are pushing for deregulating old growth clear-cutting and want to ignore the undesirable (to lumber companies) dead wood and brush?

No. It's firefighters and their stupid regulations. Dumb firefighters. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Stupid really.

[leesa]

17. Ah Our resident Republican apologist!!

Had the EMERGENCY request been approved in the early part of this year it would have made a big difference.

[zbdent]

18. Rush replacements have blamed Davis for this even though

the helicopter pilot made the request for backup 10 minutes after the cutoff time.

I think it was Wednesday that Tony Snow (I think) was saying that GD wouldn't let the C130s take off. Not a word about it being the regulations, just the claim that within an hour of spotting the fire, GD had already nixed the fire supression effort.

His essential quote (geared, of course, to the dittiots who believe everything Dem is evil) was "If Gray Davis would have sent those C130s out to fight the fires within two hours, this wouldn't have happened." Disinformation, of course. But the loyal dittododos suck at the teat.

[proud patriot]

19. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

:mad:

[barbaraann]

20. Woohoo! This story is now the top-rated story on Yahoo!!!

n/t