Good news for exhausted firefighters and refugee California residents–a change in the weather has now slowed the spread of the flames.
The LA Times says that back in 2004, a “Blue Ribbon Panel” said California firefighters needed some 150 new firetrucks, but as of 2007 only 19 new trucks had ever been ordered…and zero delivered. Risking their lives in Vietnam-era helicopters, because recommended replacements for those had also never been purchased, California firefighters deserve enormous gratitude…
…which should be expressed by giving them tools that they need to do the hard dangerous job that they are doing on our behalf. Are you listening, all you tax-cutting Republicans whose SUVs are spackled with bumper stickers saying how much you respect soldiers, firemen, and policemen?
In funnier news, there’s a spoof piece at Daily Kos with photos of FEMA marshmallow distribution and a Bush “fireside” photo-op.
1 response so far ↓
1 Betsy Devine // Oct 25, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Stranger than fiction–Bush and Schwarzenegger are flying together over the California fires now (as of 9 a.m.-ish PST) in preparation for a
photo-opstatement about the ongoing crisis.Even stranger than stranger than fiction–all nearby fire-fighting helicopters had to stop fighting the ongoing blaze because security won’t let anything into the sky within some radius of Bush.