Associated Press
Following up on Rebekah's item earlier, deadly wildfires continue to spread in Colorado, and thousands are being forced from their homes. I'd hoped we could at least take some solace in the notion that the ongoing tragedy wouldn't become the latest political football. After all, while some natural disasters have more political salience -- the pathetic response to Hurricane Katrina, for example -- this didn't appear to be one of them.
So much for that idea. TPM's Nick Martin reports that some conservatives have "looked for ways to blame it on President Obama."
Some of the same people who have bashed the president as a big government, big spending liberal now say a wildfire that destroyed hundreds of homes in the conservative stronghold of Colorado Springs can be blamed on the president because he has been too slow to spend money to beef up the federal fleet of air tankers.
The meme began more than a week ago when pundit Michelle Malkin, who lives in Colorado Springs, wrote a piece for the National Review Online titled "Obama Bureaucrats Are Fueling Wildfires."
"The Obama administration's neglect of the federal government's aerial-tanker fleet raises acrid questions about its core public-safety priorities," she wrote.
Obama signed a bill to spend $24 million on new fire-fighting air tankers, but they're not yet available to help in Colorado. And so, many on the right are pouncing, condemning the Obama administration for not spending enough money. When the subject came up during a press conference with Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D), the governor feigned bemusement: "Were these the same conservatives that were so worried about the Obama administration spending too much money, or were these different conservatives?"
There's some question about whether these kinds of planes are even used to combat wildfires of this size, making the criticism misleading and crass at the same time.
But I'm also struck by the larger political dynamic. Mitt Romney just said he rejects the notion that the nation needs more firefighters, and the right responds by attacking Obama for not spending enough money on fire-fighting equipment? I realize every development everywhere is now subject to election-year politicization, but is this really necessary?
The president, incidentally, will be in Colorado today to meet with local officials and survey affected areas.
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Our politicians would rather see homes charred and Americans forced to abandon their lives rather than deal with global warming. The American people have been let down by out leaders and our lawmakers, politically inept buffoons solely interested in appeasing the status quo and the special interests that line their pockets and make up the establishment in Washington. Climate change is real and we are likely reaching a tipping point of no return. This is not just about the environment. The economic costs and cost in lives of the potentially catastrophic consequences of a warming planet are going to be massive. Fossil fuels are going to destroy us. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
Are you kidding? There is no global warming. Cigarettes don't cause cancer. There is no ozone hole. Acid rain was a hoax. Rachel Carson? Ha.
These are all just Socialist plots to sabotage America's FREE market system and yoke individuals to the state.
You see a wildfire, politicians see an opportunity to roast marshmallows.
Actually, I'm seeing Republican politicians seeing it as an opportunity to "roast marshmallows" as you put it in your otherwise excellent statement.
False equivalence, whether deliberate or accidental, means wrongdoers win.
Our state sees these kinds of wildfires every summer. Politics isn't disconnected from the event, though the it's pretty silly for Republicans' to blame Dems for not spending enough money and not hiring more public employees to combat the fires.
Most environmentalists (who, let's face it, tend toward the Dem side) believe in allowing such fires to burn out of control because "it's better for the health of the forest." They file lawsuits here to prevent thinning, and oppose logging. Large scale cutting has the effect of providing buffers that can contain wildfires.
I have no idea about whether or not that happened in Colorado. If it did, it plays a role. Repubs can affix some blame to lower level Dems, but it's a real stretch to blame the Obama administration. The Forest Service isn't usually a big culprit.
Environmentalists like myself value science, and the number the Bush/Cheney Administration did on legitimate scientists is well documented.
Regular fires are a necessity for maintaining healthy forests and bio-diversity. Healthy forests can withstand them, and they have the effect of "thinning" the underbrush that can otherwise fuel infernos such as we saw in Yellowstone in 1988 (smack dab in the middle of Republican presidencies). The issue with logging is the clear-cutting you spin as a "buffer" creates erosion that ruins watersheds and plugs rivers downstream with silt. Too, the "mono-culture" of replanting clear cut areas creates identical-sized trees that are hardly wildlife havens.
Has anyone noticed how much this president smiles? I mean, all the time!
We need to appoint a special council, and get to the bottom of this controversy! What is he hiding? And how much has he spent hiding it? America needs to know. . .
AND he has a sense of humor!! Definitely need to investigate that - maybe bring charges!!!!
AND he has a sense of humor!! Definitely need to investigate that - maybe bring charges!!!!
Sorry for the double post - but I think you guys have a hacker - I got errors that i could not post because I am a "spiceweasel"!
"spankweasel"
Every time something happens in a blue state or city (fires in CA, Katrina, etc.), there is a chorus of "God's wrath" from the wingnuts. Oddly, don't hear that about that with CO Spr.
Colorado's purple, which probably means God's firing a warning shot across the bow of the godless socialists who umm, oppose government spending and the hiring of more government employees . . . umm, okay, it's a Godly warning shot against the ungodly liberals who opposed the desire of the Worthy to cut all those dadgum trees down before this happened. Yeah, that's it.
Kinda sucks that God decided that Michelle Malkin's house had to be one of the ones to burn to send this message to the godless. But clearly, its a warning to liberals.
God has pretty poor aim, given that Col Spr is one of the most right-wing cities in the world.
Which is clearly why Obama personally set the fire in the first place.
Republicans wanting to blame President Obama on these wild fires. What next literal nonsense are these Republicans dreaming up. Let’s start with the actual facts called Global Warming caused by the emissions of too much carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. It warms up the planet causing changing weather patterns, increased temperatures, drought, increased and more severe weather patterns and the list goes on. Actual blame can be placed on Big Oil and the coal industry not wanting to change things, due to their desire of extreme wealth, power, and control over people.
"misleading and crass" Great Line
Just about sums up everything you see on Faux Nooze and hear on the Reich Wing radio.
"So much for that idea. TPM's Nick Martin reports that some conservatives have "looked for ways to blame it on President Obama.""
This happened five minutes after the news broke. You should have seen the wingnuts on the WP just making shhit up. Incredible clueless, oblivious, heartless stuff.
Well, that's the sort of people they are. But nevertheless, good little boys & girls should treat them with respect and answer them with carefully considered arguments. (eye roll)
Another contribution to wildfires is the lack of care for the forests. Humans want the beauty of the trees without understanding that, occasionally, Nature demands some clean-up. The underbrush needs to be thinned and cleared away. Dead trees need to be removed. That takes money and people-which can't be done because taxes can't cover everything.
Added to this is invasive insects. They can sense the chemicals put out by stressed trees and move in to cause further damage. Damaged trees add to forest fire problems.
(sarcasm alert)
But liberty loving individuals don't want their tax dollars going for all that tree-hugger stuff!
The bigger point of this article is that conservatives just...pounce. That is ALL they do. And they 'pounce' in a totally fact free zone. Then the MEDIA follows the pounce. It wasn't 'conservatives' that asked the governor the question...it was the MEDIA. And then...down the rabbit hole.
How do mountain homes even get fire insurance?
I believe the fed fire fighters now have health insurance.
A lot of birds/nature need dead trees, which is why they (big birds) are few in around town.
If there has ever been a horse that has "left the barn" it is global warming.. That and about 10 other catastrophies are a com'n down the pike that we the woyld should be planning for.. I had the contrary idea the other day that the best way for big cities to prepare for a large tsunami would be making basements water tightish.
So in one breath, the conservatives want government to stay out of their lives, yet want government to buy planes (which was done) to save their lives?
The bull@!$%# is just adding that much fuel to the fire, and if I were President Obama, I would be smiling too, at all the rhetoric an nonsense from the right.
...because that's all they have. God Forbid they actually come to the table with a real idea.
Michelle Malkin makes her living by being bat poop goofy and bashing, bashing, bashing Democrats in irrational ways. She is a Republican and is behaving predictably. She really can't help it, she's highly irrational and vindictive. The only thing surprising would be if righties began to behave rationally and socially instead of irrationally and antisocially.
Colorado's christian conservatives, concentrated far beyond reason in Colorado Springs, gutted Colorado's finances with TABOR and cut Colorado Springs' own public spending to the extent of decreasing the number of firefighters and police, and giving up on having the government do stuff like weed control, mowing, and land use planning. I don't think those things would have prevented the current fires (though they can't have helped), but their new right-wing christian worldview of "I've got mine, the rest of you look out for yourselves" leaves me distinctly less than charitable toward them in their hour of need. The way blue-region money flows into red regions to support anti-government people is really chafing me.
I know it isn't very charitable, but I feel much the same way. If Republicans want to cut government spending, let's start with the kind that benefits them. Then, they can see the effects of it first hand.
Let God continue to smite the Fundamentalist Right for hijacking the word "Christian," and burn their "New Jerusalem" to the ground. Hopefully Malkin will lose everything and find out she's underinsured.
These scum are always talking about "personal responsibility," so this time, let them take some.