Ron Paul came out to talk about hurricanes, and how, apparently, FEMA is a bad thing and we need to go back to how we did things 110 years ago.
“We should be like 1900; we should be like 1940, 1950, 1960,” Paul said. “I live on the Gulf Coast; we deal with hurricanes all the time. Galveston is in my district.
“There’s no magic about FEMA. They’re a great contribution to deficit financing and quite frankly they don’t have a penny in the bank. We should be coordinated but coordinated voluntarily with the states,” Paul told NBC News. “A state can decide. We don’t need somebody in Washington.”
Speaking of 1900 and Galveston, did you know there was a hurricane in Galveston in 1900? There was, and it was the deadliest natural disaster in United States history.
As Razorite Will (who is in NY and facing Irene down with, I presume, one hand raising his middle finger and the other holding a can of Old Milwaukee) said to me, “Racist grandpas are less embarrassing.”
Hanlon\'s Razor 
Lots of people in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas do not exactly hold FEMA’s effectiveness in responding to disaster in very high regard. When FEMA can out do Wal-Mart in the efficiency and efficacy of its response to disaster, we can then discount the initiative and cooperative efforts of private citizens and private organizations, as well as the effectiveness multi-state cooperative compacts, in favor of a FEMA-type response.
Read Paul’s whole statement instead of repeating other reporters who have also not read Paul’s full statement. The sea wall in Galveston was not built by FEMA, but by the community of Galveston.
After you read Paul’s full statement, then listen to “Big-Box Stores’ Hurricane Prep Starts Early” by Jon Hamilton (8/26/11) and “Wal-Mart Aid Outpaced Some Federal Efforts” by Frank Langfitt (9/9/2005) both on National Public Radio.
This is what Ron Paul said – “We should be coordinated but coordinated voluntarily with the states.”
You know, it might actually be more efficient that way. Each state has a National Guard already in place. Kansas could prepare for tornadoes, Colorado for forest fires and mountain rescues, California for earthquakes and forest fires, Montana for….um…. bigfoot invasions? (stares uncertainly into the sky).
All joking aside, I don’t think Ron Paul was trying to say; “I wish Galveston happend more often to prove my point.” or “It wasn’t that bad.”
Great idea, Ron, for those hurricanes just go to one state and stay there. Otherwise don’t coordinated responses to a regional disasters make more sense? And if FEMA can’t respond because it doesn’t have a penny in the bank, which states are rolling in cash? PLEASE NAME THEM! Oh, and can any of you WAL-MART fans tell me how WAL-MART organizes their disaster response to multi-state disasters? Do they do it state-by-state, letting a WAL-MART exec in each state organize that state’s response, making the coordination voluntary between them? Or do they they organize a centrally coordinated regional response?
@grantstetz I didn’t say that Paul would wish more Galvestons happened. My point was that he’s suggesting that the best time in terms of natural disaster response was when the deadliest one happened.
@Jay. You have the same problem that others do in that your answer to inefficiencies is to remove the institution entirely. It’d be like noticing that the tires on your car can’t stay inflated so you tear the wheels off. How about (and bear with me now), if we discover that a federal program is inefficient and has problems we… fix the problems?
You know, FEMA actually worked pretty well under Clinton and his Almighty Penis. It wasn’t until Bush put <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Brown”>an Arabian horse lawyer with no crisis management experience</a> in charge that FEMA started doing a “heckuva job.”
But never mind that. FEMA was one microsecond slower in preparing for Irene than Wally World, so obviously, we must outsource all of our disaster prep to former Halliburton subsidiary KBR, so that they can bring the same competence and efficiency that they brought to <a href=”http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/12/military_kbr_lawsuit_121508w/”>feeding</a> and <a href=”http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29891090/ns/us_news-military/t/troops-iraq-shower-still-may-be-fatal/”>building showers</a> for our troops during Operation Iraqi Liberation.
And while we’re at it, we could get IAP Worldwide Services (last seen letting the Walter Reed Army Medical Center go to pot) to <a href=”http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/03/06/outsourcing_walter_reed.php”>deliver ice to the wrong location</a>.
Better yet, we should give both of them no-bid contracts to do the job. After all, that’s just the sort of competitive, free-market capitalism that makes John Galt jizz his pants.
You know, FEMA actually worked pretty well under Clinton and his Almighty Penis. It wasn’t until Bush put an Arabian horse lawyer with no crisis management experience(1) in charge that FEMA started doing a “heckuva job.”
But never mind that. FEMA was one microsecond slower in preparing for Irene than Wally World, so obviously, we must outsource all of our disaster prep to former Halliburton subsidiary KBR, so that they can bring the same competence and efficiency that they brought to feeding(2) and building showers(3) for our troops during Operation Iraqi Liberation.
And while we’re at it, we could get IAP Worldwide Services (last seen letting the Walter Reed Army Medical Center go to pot) to deliver ice to the wrong location(4).
Better yet, we should give both of them no-bid contracts to do the job. After all, that’s just the sort of competitive, free-market capitalism that makes John Galt jizz his pants.
1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Brown
2) http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/12/military_kbr_lawsuit_121508w/
3) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29891090/ns/us_news-military/t/troops-iraq-shower-still-may-be-fatal/
4) http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/03/06/outsourcing_walter_reed.php
(*insert complaint about comment system misrendering links here*)
@Jay.