"Look Toto, NO National Guard"

[Parche]

"We're going to bring people back. We gotta to get reorganized, we gotta build our government back up, we've got to," he said.

Karyn Yaussy with the American Red Cross said about 100 people are staying in two shelters in the area. "We're really, really trying to meet just the basic emergency needs of people," she said.

The storm has cut water and electricity to Greensburg, said Dick Hainje of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who described the scene as catastrophic.

"We will do whatever it takes," said Hainje. "This town will come back."

Trailers and mobile homes for survivors are en route to the town, Hainje said.

Gov. Sebelius, a Democrat, told CNN the use of so many National Guard troops and resources in Iraq is slowing Kansas' efforts to recover.

"States all over the country are not only missing personnel -- National Guard troops are about 40 percent of the troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan -- but we're missing the equipment," she said. "When the troops get deployed, the equipment goes with them. So here in Kansas about 50 percent of our trucks are gone. We need trucks. We are missing humvees, we're missing all kinds of equipment that could help us respond in this kind of emergency."

The governor said city and county trucks were destroyed in the region. "National Guard are our first responders. They don't have the equipment they need to come in, and it'll just make it that much slower."

The National Guard has said for years that it is short of equipment at home due to deployments to Iraq.

"Of course I agree with the governor," Bunting told CNN. "We have limited resources. So if we had another big storm right now we'd be hard-pressed to cover that."

[Old and In the Way]

1. We be better off fighting the war against Mother Nature than a bogus War on Terror.

Yet another tragedy that ought to make people realize what a joke the fear of a terrorist bomb is when we have a mega-event like this tornado in Kansas. I wonder when the American people will look at the recent events of natural disasters here at home and conclude that we do have an enemy...and it's called Global Warming?

[butterfly77]

8. I keep remembering when the lights went out...

isn't it strange how so many things that are disasterous have been happening since the evil twins have been in office?

[Horse with no Name]

9. I have to wonder if there are more disasterous things

OR if they were just handled better in the past?

[Recursion]

26. Please. If this was 1997 James Lee Witt would be digging people out himself

if he had to. FEMA was a top-notch, ninja-class response agency back then.

I remember after Katrina a GOP talking point was "FEMA is not a response agency". Really? They sure as hell responded when a tornado took the roof off of my dad's house and about 2000 of his neighbors. Maybe they just aren't a response agency anymore.

[Nikki Stone1]

30. What a shift in priorities and in such a short time

...

[shain from kane]

2. Bush*, as Dorothy: " Oh please, Professor, why can't we go with you and see all the Crowned Heads

of Europe?"

[rasputin1952]

3. ROFLMAO...What a pic! Toto is cool, who's that other dog...

the WH b*itch?

[C_U_L8R]

7. And I thought he was a flying monkey

[Ezlivin]

4. We're fighting the tornadoes over THERE so we can't fight them HERE

Maybe, just maybe, the best thing that could happen to this country would be a Republican president who would finally destroy our military.

Then maybe, just maybe, the fucking sheep would wake up!

[Ilsa]

5. And the NG guys that got picked up in Kansas for

looting were just looking for some hooch, weren' they? Is it a valid defense that there was no one there to pay?

[butterfly77]

6. I have been watching this everytime there is some new disaster in this country...

and there have been a lot of of them.. I keep wondering are any of these red states and if they are getting what they need. Have we ever had a war where the National Guard were fighting as though they were the Army,Air Force, Navy or Marines. Everytime a disaster strikes they have to wait for equipment and people to come from somewhere overseas. When will some people wake up to the fact that we don't have any protection in many areas...

[Horse with no Name]

10. Well one thing for certain--we better KEEP fighting them over THERE

because we certainly couldn't fight them over here.:sarcasm:

[butterfly77]

11. occupying...

because bush doesn't want to do anything differently...

[greatauntoftriplets]

12. The National Guard exists to handle disasters like the one in Kansas.

Damn Bush and his war without end.

[butterfly77]

13. The people won't start shouting until...

it hits in places where people who are protected by their money live, then they will begin to get afraid when they are stuck in a situation with no power or food and they can't use the ATM...

[mnhtnbb]

14. Voter registrations for Kiowa County, KS, where Greensbug was

Dems 331

Republicans 1382

Unaffiliated 199

http://www.kssos.org/elections/elections_registration_voterreg.asp


Anyone want to guess that this town is going to get help ASAP?

[tjwash]

15. By "help" do you mean that...

...shrub will wake up early from his nap, and put his high school pot dealers brother in charge of the disaster recovery team because he doesn't want to cut his vacation short, and besides; his brother used to sell the kind bud to him so he owes him the favor?

Oh, wait. Kansas went 62 percent Repug in 2004. They'll probably just pull the resources out of New Orleans. They're wrapping it up there anyway aren't they. They have to be, the mainstream media sure as fuck hasn't been talking about it. :eyes:

What a fucking disgrace our nation has become in 7 short years...

[mnhtnbb]

18. Paragraph 2 type of help

[malaise]

16. That Bushothy is brilliant

:rofl:

[Toots]

17. Americans get to experience some "Shock & Awe", how about that?

Ten died, one sixth of the amount of Iraqis that died in same time period......End the Occupation NOW

[momster]

19. Equipment Levels Poor Until 2012

KO reported last night that National Guard equipment levels won't return to pre-9/11 levels until at least 2012. 60% of the equipment is presently in Iraq (and I doubt much of it will be coming back esp. if we leave in a hurry). So we've got at least 5 1/2 years with Kansas' tail hanging in the big wind 'cause GWB cares more about Iraq than the people who voted for him. Go on and ask how much he cares about those who didn't. But you already know the answer to that one.

[mnhtnbb]

24. We don't want the equipment back, actually. Much of it has been

exposed to DU (depleted uranium) and would need to be buried somewhere in one of our deserts.

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25045

http://www.agrnews.org/?section=archives&cat_id=22&article_id=563

[momster]

28. Didn't Know About That!

I love DU!

But regardless of why, the disaster-prone states are in for a rotten couple of years.

[MadHound]

20. They are pulling equipment from everywhere,

I live out in a rural area, and the little National Guard Armory in our county seat has been damned near sucked dry. Over the past year I've watched as more and more equipment has disappeared, until they're down to a couple of troop transports and a forty year old tank. I too live in part of tornado alley, and if we get nailed here, there's going to be hell to pay.

[lonestarnot]

21. There's no place like home Dorothy.

[Seedersandleechers]

22. So Greenberg supported the President

Twice? Sorry, I know this is cold but "oh well".

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. You're right

That is cold.

[dogday]

23. Something really wrong in this country when we

don't have the help that we need to help our own.... This administration has done nothing but tear this country apart, and try to divide us all so they can continue to screw us...

[tomreedtoon]

25. "What's the matter with Kansas?"

Maybe it's a bit of schadenfreude, but the people of Kansas supported just about everything Bush did. Perhaps this tragedy will drive home how wrong they've been.

[Ganja Ninja]

27. I couldn't agree more.

Some people have to learn things the hard way unfortunately.

[proud2BlibKansan]

33. Wow what a nice thing to say

:sarcasm:

[mnhtnbb]

29. When I lived in St. Joseph, MO, I was the pro-choice person

the newspaper would call to balance stories about the pro-lifers.
My family physician told me one time, all the folks that are against abortion
around here change their tunes when they bring their daughters in because they're pregnant and they want to know where to go to get an abortion.

Republicans seem to only understand the benefit of government when they are in need of its services. Such is the case with unempathic people.

[proud2BlibKansan]

31. No we have not

We have a Dem governor and the head of the state repuke party switched to Dem and ran successfully for Lt Gov. So did our new state AG. The conservatives on the state school board are GONE.

How many other states that voted red in 2004 have switched to Dem so fast?

This is just repulsive that here on a progressive message board, you people are bashing our state when you don't know what you are talking about and after a devastating tornado blew away an entire town. Repulsive.

[tammywammy]

34. "you people are bashing our state when you don't know what you are talking about"

I know how you feel...try being from Texas.

I'm keeping those effected by the recent tornadoes in my prayers.

[proud2BlibKansan]

35. I have spent enough time in Texas

I really feel for you guys. You have the dickhead as a neighbor.

Thanks for the prayers!!

[tomreedtoon]

36. Democratic...but liberal?

I never heard of anything liberal ever coming out of Kansas, except people who were liberal trying to get to other states. I grew up in Missouri, and that's why I no longer live there. If there were flooding in the "bootheel" of Missouri, a stronghold of Bushism, I would have said the same thing.

Just like the people of New Orleans, they never understood how bad things had become in this country until they started hurting. The sad part is that people had to die to learn that lesson. And I fear a lot more will have to die in the future.

[proud2BlibKansan]

39. Well I come from Kansas as do a LOT of DUers

and we are very "liberal". Lots of liberals in MO too, even in the bootheel.

[proud2BlibKansan]

40. And like I said, this state bashing is just repulsive.

Brush broad enough?

[KharmaTrain]

37. We Can't Even Help A Town Of 1,000????

If Greensburg has that many people? Even with a diminished National Guard, what the hell's going on that we can't figure out how to shelter and feed people from a small backwater in the middle of the country. Sleep tight my DU brothers and sisters, our government is looking out for us.

:sarcasm:

One certain item on the agenda will be to prevent our National Guard to be used as a half-way house to extended stays and thrown into wars for profit without any care about what's happening at home. Absolutely shameful.

Hopefully the folks in Kansas know whose causing their grief and this once solid Red state will turn even further blue. Gov. Sebaleus is one of our brigther stars...the booooosh regime messes with her at their peril...and they just did!

[theHandpuppet]

38. And hurricane season is just around the corner

All I can say is our next Democratic President is going to have one helluva mess to clean up after Bush gets through trashing this country.