Our fellow Americans to the west sure have a split personality when it comes to our government. Any red state blue state map will tell you that the west is in the heart of republican country. What baffles me is how a region so dependent on our government could hate it so much. With all that the U.S.A does, for our western brethren, one would think that they would be having a love fest with old Uncle Sam. Lets start with the recent storms that buried much of the wild west with many feet of snow. The national guard has been called out to help get feed to the starving cattle. Do these cattle men refuse this service due to an aversion to "big government". Or maybe they open their checkbooks to reimburse the feds for the time, gas, and maintenance of these helicopters and there crew. Or maybe they just suck it up like the cowboys they are and take it. Another place our western friends like to keep there hands open and there mouth shut is when it comes to wildfire suppression. The General Accounting Office estimates that as much as one billion dollars a year is spent on the protection of private property that is threatened by fire. Thats a lot of money going to a bunch of people who would just like the government to bud out. The list could go on and on, farm subsidies, free range land courtesy of the B.L.M, an interstate highway system, a heavily subsidized airline industry, not to mention water. Many of these things listed are vital for a prosperous nation. It would be nice if our fellow Americans could show a little appreciation.
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I could not agree more. When I saw the news of how much help was given to the ranchers who were in danger of losing their livestock I was shocked. I could not help think of how much we did not do when the lives of humans were ignored in New Orleans. I am not one for playing the racist card but there sure is a classis card to be played in this country. Have we even spent a billion dollars on our fellow Americans who suffered the pain of Katrina?
Weather Bulletin - Denver
WEATHER BULLETIN
Up here, in the " Mile-Hi City ", we just recovered from a Historic
event--- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in Lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.
FYI:
George Bush did not come.
FEMA did nothing.
No one howled for the government.
No one blamed the government.
No one even uttered an expletive on TV.
Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.
Our Mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else.
Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else, either.
CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit - or report on this category 5 snowstorm. Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.
No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.
No one looted.
Nobody - I mean Nobody demanded the government do something.
Nobody expected the government to do anything, either.
No Larry King, No Shepard Smith, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson.
No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.
Nope, we just melted the snow for water.
Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.
The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny.
Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families.
Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.
We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.
We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die".
We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks.
Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.
"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate."
It does seem that way, at least to me.
I hope this gets passed on.
Maybe SOME people will get the message. The world does NOT owe you a living.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/01/AR2006070100962.html Please checkout this link and tell me who is getting a "sitting at home check". The question is not "did you ask for help" I'm asking was it given and was it refused. I have no doubt that the west is full of kind, generous, and helpful people. The same could be said for most of our country.I'm sick of people talking out of both sides of their mouth when it comes to how our government provides aid to our citizenry.
To compare a snow storm in the mountains and plain states (have you ever heard such a thing!) to what happened in New Orleans is in utter disregard of reality. The two are as different as shit and shinola. Who plowed the highways, who got the airports up and running, who was flying those national guard helicopters. Who's land were all of those stranded cattle on anyway. Who provides the subsidies to make cattle ranches profitable. Who pays for the water works to get water to many areas that are desert. Who puts tariffs on agricultural products to get artificially high prices for those products. Who built those roads to get to those ranches and who maintains them. Who helps make sure we have clean water to drink and clean air to breath. If the world "doesn't owe anyone a living" its time to start getting a little pay back from our western states.
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