TX Blogs: "Texas Is Burning From Rick Perry Budget Cuts"

[K8-EEE]

http://www.texassharon.com/2011/09/06/texas-is-burning-from-rick-perry-budget-cuts/

“But, it could be worse. We could be realistically thinking about electing as President of the United States someone who believes climate change is a hoax, that climate scientists are in it for the money, and the best way to run a state is to slash the budget of the Forest Service, the agency responsible for fighting fires in Texas, by $34 million– almost one-third of its budget– on the eve of one of the most destructive fire seasons ever. It is worth noting that during the sunset hearings on the Texas Forest Service I testified as to the need of the Forest Service to engage in extra forecasting as to what a climate-change-fueled fire season would look like and be prepared to fight it, so this is a little bit of a personal issue for me.”

[SpiralHawk]

1. Republicons slashed their ability to fight fires

Pretty damn dumb, shortsighted, and unpatriotic the way Republicons have set Texas up to be trashed by this climate change disaster.

Beyond stoopid.

[Scurrilous]

2. K & R

:thumbsup:

[ellenrr]

3. So true. n/t

[ellenrr]

4. wonder how many occupants of the 500 homes so far destroyed voted for Perry and

applauded his budget-slashing.
What worries me is even so - they do not connect the dots. They are not going to put it together that their house is lost because of him and those policies. And no one is going to be connecting the dots for them.
:banghead:

[izquierdista]

5. And if you try to connect the dots for them

Now that they are standing in the ashes, they will wail at how cruel and insensitive you can be.

[ellenrr]

6. yes....exactly....

That is how people are all mixed up.
One can be completely compassionate and sad about the present situation
-how could any human not be? -
and still feel outraged that human actions have made it worse than it need be.

The media will never do the job for us. They will not point out the forest service cuts, etc. They will focus on "personal" stories, stories of loss, stories of heroism, and most people drink it up, not realizing how the media is trivializing the tragedy.

[ellenrr]

7. And the budget cuts did not take effect yet!

According to Forrest Wilder in an interview on Democracy Now this morning, the budge reflect the cuts went into effect Sept 1, so next year, next fire - one can expect even more catastrophic effects.

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/9/8/texas_faces_massive_wildfires_record_drought

He also talks about the hit the farmers and ranchers are taking:
"the farmers and ranchers that are really important to the economy of the state, I mean, they’ve been hammered by this drought. You know, I was out in West Texas last week, and, you know, ranchers are selling off their cattle, they’re selling off their goats, they’re selling off their sheep. We went to a feedlot in San Angelo, and they said that normally people bring in their cattle to the feedlot to fatten them up before they go to market. Now they’ve got people coming in, paying top dollar for hay to feed their—to just to save their herds. Farmers have taken a huge loss. I mean, I think the losses are something on the order of $5 billion now in total. And so, for a lot of farmers and ranchers that were already sort of on the margins, barely making ends meet, this drought could be, you know, game over, game over for them."