An Icy Washington Response to Kentucky Ice

I've been swamped at school lately so blogging has been light; progress reports go in on Friday and we've had several important visitors to our school, so between the two, I've been snowed under. On top of that, The Teenager has been under the weather and I've been back and forth to the doctor's office and pharmacy. We're on the downhill side of it all now though, so life is good!

Speaking of weather, or weather analogies anyway, the Washington reaction to the Kentucky ice storm has me just about outraged. Not just the federal response but mostly, WHERE is the press criticism of the lack of response!?

The Anchoress has written in a most excellent fashion on this here and here and I can't add anything more eloquent than what she has written. But I have to say that the national press was ALL OVER Bush for not rushing down to New Orleans as soon as the storm clouds of Katrina lifted. There were so many oddball factors in that situation that made the Bush-attacks so misguided.

Gov. Blanco and Ray Nagin were running a circus down there and absolutely must take the blame for what happened, starting with their decision not to make a forced evacuation. I knew when Ray Nagin came on the television and told people to go to the Superdome and to "bring your own food and water" that we were going to have problems!

Then you had Blanco who would not allow Bush to send aid in until it was far too late.

Once the storm was over, here came the media: we had Shepard Smith and Geraldo, we had Anderson Cooper, the whole mess of 'em. Looters on TV, taking potshots at helicopters, mass insanity. This was not George Bush's fault. This is not to say FEMA handled everything perfectly - they didn't. But Bush could not come in immediately and get in the way of first responders. Folks were trying to rescue people off roofs and get them out of the Superdome and the Convention Center (and WHO told them to even go there?!)

When things settled down and he could go in without being a distraction, he did.

But I don't want to re-hash the Katrina debacle. Over a week ago Kentucky was hit with a horrible ice storm. As of today, about 256,000 people are still without power. The only thing Obama has done is sign the emergency delcaration. No pleas for Red Cross donations. No flyover in a helicopter to survey the damage. No words of support to the residents. No visits to shelters.

And to be fair, he has other things on his plate right now, like talking up the Porkulus bill - the massive governmental SPENDING bill. He's got to deal with the tax cheats that got through the vetting process and the lobbyists working in positions where he vowed no lobbyists would be. He had a SuperBowl party to host and a cocktail party a day or two before that. He's busy serving $100 lb. Waygu steak dinners and cranking up the White House thermostat.

Bush took a lot of criticism, mostly undeserved, for the Katrina response. But he learned from that. When Iowa flooded this summer, he was there. Oh I know, Obama went down there for a photo op and filled some sandbags. But now the campaign is over. He "won" as he reminded us recently. Now is the time he should give an appropriate response to the people in Kentucky.

One email I received said, "He knows we didn't vote for him, so he doesn't care." Somebody please call FEMA and tell them that the people in Kentucky need some help. Thanks.