Obama Signs Emergency Declaration For New York Before Sandy's Arrival

[brooklynite]

Source: NY1

President Barack Obama has signed an emergency declaration for New York State.
Effective immediately, The Department of Homeland Security and FEMA will begin coordinating the state's disaster relief efforts.
Evacuation Centers

Earlier in the day, the president visited the national office of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington, D.C. to get a first-hand look at preparations for Sandy.

FEMA is deploying federal resources and teams to states across the East Coast.

Read more: http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/171518/obama-signs-emergency-declaration-for-new-york-before-sandy-s-arrival

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I wonder what Mitt Romney will be doing in response?

[onehandle]

1. Rmoney will be firing people for not giving him a hurricane to look Presidential through. nt

[sheshe2]

12. You made me spit wine on my laptop! n/t

[mucifer]

2. rmoney will say he didn't sign it fast enough.

[LadyHawkAZ]

3. Romney will be cowering in one of his houses

or a 4-star hotel far, far away from the storm, drafting a generic speech criticizing the President's response.

[Purveyor]

4. Just checked our local mid-michigan nws forecast and we can expect 50+ mph winds. Now folks,

our electric goes out regularly with gusts to 40. The power could very well be historic.

Heading out first thing in the morning for extra gas for the generator (after I put on a big ole pot of slow-cook chili.

Stay safe all...please!

[Javaman]

5. mittens is cutting a cake and playing a guitar.

then 3 days later he will do a fly over and look out his window from 30,000 feet.

What am I saying?

mittens will be eating cake, having someone serenade him with a guitar and 3 hours after it hits, insult President Obama's lack of ability to change the course of the weather, then mittens will be recorded saying that the people in NYC deserved getting hit by the storm because they were too stupid to jump on their private jets and fly to their vacation home in Malibu.

[sheshe2]

14. This was the 2nd post here that made me spew wine on my lap top!

Stop it this is hard!

[freshwest]

17. Yeah, and Ryan will snuggle up with the rotting corpse of Ayn Rand for comfort...

Oh, that was just wrong...

[rug]

6. Romney will be buying shares in bottled water.

[savebigbird]

8. Hmmm...

I thought he'd be more of a cookies and milk man myself...

[rug]

10. He buy tobacco and liquor shares if he could make money.

[BREMPRO]

7. poetic timing.. reminds everyone of their need for federal assistance in times of disasters.

and the failure of FEMA under bush and the stripped down vision offered by Rmoney and the R's

[savebigbird]

9. It also makes us realize

the importance of having a president that sees the value of providing social services to the American people.

[Agschmid]

13. Yep. n/t

[TomCADem]

11. (August 2011) - House Republicans Threaten To Hold Emergency Hurricane Relief Money Hostage

As Sandy approaches, it is worth remembering how House Republicans were willing to put the good of the people at risk in order to achieve an extreme agenda.

http://politicsreport.com/comment/48850

The latest, and perhaps greatest, example of House Republicans sacrificing the public good to right-wing ideology.

The latest effort by House Republicans to force further spending cuts is at the expense of those that are being, or will be, effected by Hurricane Irene. Meteorologists have predicted that Irene have wreak historic havoc along the eastern seaboard, and there has already been massive damage and multiple deaths reported. That aside, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) is requiring that any appropriations for emergency relief funds be balanced by spending cuts somewhere else in the House budget. Cantor insisted in a press conference after the 5.8 earthquake in his home state of Virginia that, "any potential emergency disaster aid be offset by spending cuts," according to a recent report by CBSNews. This will also include emergency relief money for areas his by Hurricane Irene.

Should the government need to secure spending cuts before emergency aid monies can be distributed to devastated areas, the delay could cause massive shortages and greater suffering by people in these regions. Democratic representative Cedric Richmond of Louisiana said in response, "It is sinful to require us to cut somewhere ... in order to provide emergency disaster assistance for American citizens." Louisiana, a state that is no stranger to the devastation wrought by hurricanes, has been the recipient of billions of federal dollars after the 2005 destruction of Hurricane Katrina. Richmond said the recovery effort would have been "delayed by years" had the government needed to cut spending in order to appropriate those funds, making an already terrible situation much worse.

Traditionally, a bipartisan effort in government rushes through appropriations of federal aid to devastated regions; the delivery of which was part of the rationale for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. With Cantor's announcement that Republican House leaders would look for "offsets", or spending cuts, this is a break from the established method of securing domestic aid dollars.The Huffington Post attempted to press both Cantor and House Speaker John Boehner's representatives on where these offsets would be cut, and how long it may delay emergency relief, both offices declined to comment. However, due to a record number of natural disasters, FEMA is running relief programs in every state of the union; efforts which have depleted the agencies funds. President Obama may be forced to request special emergency relief funds through congressional appropriations, which will now be subject to spending cut offsets.

It's unclear exactly how this move is going to work, and how House Republicans think this is going to help Americans or the national reputation of their party. These same Republican leaders held the debt ceiling (and a potential credit downgrade for the country) hostage to force spending cuts, and now seem to be willing to hold victims of natural disasters hostage for the same purpose, even in their home states. There is a degree to which people will no longer stomach campaign-type right-wing rhetoric over practical questions of livlihood and even survival. Should their fiscal radicalism delay the recovery and rebuilding of Americans' lives in earthquake and hurricane ravaged areas of the country, anti-Obama and government-spending rhetoric might not be enough to save their Republican majority in 2012.

[SoapBox]

15. What? No "premature" press conference yet?

...can't even imagine what Dirty Mittens will vomit up tomorrow.

[DesertRat]

16. He'll direct his sons to set up bottled water distribution centers

Only $5.00 a bottle.

[crunch60]

18. And filled using "safe" tap water from disaster zone....

[OnlinePoker]

19. I can see the headlines from the Regrumblikins now

Sandy is Obama's October Surprise. How he acts (or reacts) to events in the next couple of days could win or lose Obama the election.

[greiner3]

20. Yeah;

But NY is a liberal state. WWOD for say, AL or MS if they had a similar event?

Oh, wait....

DOH!