Good Monday Morning P4A Kids…

Well I may change up a few things today as I am about to go on a mini-rant.  I know I said I was going to stop talking about the Waldo Canyon Fire and move on…but I received some new information yesterday that absolutely has my blood boiling!!!  My neighbor called me and we had a long chat, as it was the first time since the fire we have been able to chat.  I was house sitting all during the fire and not at home.  Her husband is a retired Air Force Colonel/Pilot.  He went to work out at Peterson Field Air Force Base located on the S/E side of Colorado Springs the morning the fire started.  He saw the two C-130′s specifically used for wildland fires sitting on the runway that very morning.  It took 3 days to get those C-130′s in the air to help with the fire fighting efforts.  The “original plan” called for those planes to be of use as of the following Tuesday morning.  FOUR DAYS after the fire started.   The fire started about noon on Saturday, June 23rd.  Thanks to Doug Lamborn (our Congress Dude) who would not take NO for an answer…he got those planes in the air by mid-afternoon on Monday.  I also have it on GOOD authority that some firefighters in Colorado have made a decision…should there be a fire in a National Forest area.  They will quietly go put the fire out as soon as it is reported and THEN NOTIFY the National Forest Service.  They do this because it seems once the National Forest Service is notified of a fire within their park system…they will form a task force, then hold meetings, then go take a dump, then go get breakfast, then take a nap, then get dinner….you all get the idea!  By the time they get done doing all the “administrative stuff”…the fire has grown out of control.  Plus…they have that wonderful…”let it burn policy.”  That’s my favorite! Which brings us back to the Waldo Canyon Fire.  The very idea that our Federal Gov’t can sit on their collective butts in the midst of growing crisis scares the hell out of me!  The response to the fire was slow at best.  The Federal Law that claims…”We have to exhausted all local resources before the Feds can step in to help with these fires” is an “Obamanation .”  Because of that law…it took 3 days to get 2 C-130 firefighting aircraft in the air to go across town to fight our most destructive fire in Colorado History.

Some folks claim that WE right-wing nutjobs can’t have it both ways.  We call for smaller Gov’t…then in a time of crisis we want the Feds to step in.  This is where judgement and common sense take different paths.  The Waldo Canyon Fire got out of control…yes due to drought, due to wind….but largely due to poor initial response.  Who the hell thought making a “law” keeping folks from doing their jobs in the time of crisis was a good idea?  Because of our unique location and many Military Bases here in Colorado Springs…you think we could have jumped on the WCF in an instant…but no..we had to cut through all the Gov’t BS red tape and 3 days later…we finally got help.

I found it ironic that only days before the fire…Michelle Malkin wrote about the Obama Administration cancelling a contract with a California based company who supplied 44 aircraft for wildland fires.  As you all know…only days later Michelle Malkin and her family were evacuated from the WCF.  I can’t though lay all of this at the feet of Obama.  George W. Bush has some explaining to do as well.  In 2002 several planes went down while fighting fires all across the U.S.  The planes were aged and some lucky to even get off the ground.  It would therefore seem that GWB sat on his hands as well and did little to improve our Air Force Firefighters.

This is no longer an issue of big verses small Gov’t…this is an issue of a Gov’t that is now literally out of touch with what we normal citizens face each and every day whether it be fire, flood, or other acts of nature.  There are countless examples of slow reaction or no reaction by the Fed’s to disasters.  I am still waiting on the Obama Administration to recognize flooding and tornadoes that struck the southern portion of the United States.  I praise the firefighters and the boots on the ground.  I just wish they had support from their Gov’t.

Some good news has come out of this and NOT because of any help from the Fed’s.   Samaritan’s Purse has stepped in to help the recovery.  I hope the Fed’s take notice!

Headlines:

She gets no respect! But then again…why should she? I am sure we paid for that!

See… I told you all I thought the movie SUCKED!  Too cheap to pay for lighting!

Dumbass….What else can be said?

Uh Oh…Whoops?  I guess TOTUS took the day off!

“Remember When Being on the Government Tit Was a Bad Thing?”

1776…

It’s not Fair….

“If that’s what you call hope, then we want change”…

Another take on the event.

Any warm bed will do!

On this day:

1790 – The District of Columbia, or Washington, DC, was established as the permanent seat of the United States Government.

1862 – David G. Farragut became the first rear admiral in the U.S. Navy.

1912 – Bradley A. Fiske patented the airplane torpedo.

1926 – The first underwater color photographs appeared in “National Geographic” magazine. The pictures had been taken near the Florida Keys.

1935 – Oklahoma City became the first city in the U.S. to make use of parking meters.

1940 – Adolf Hitler ordered the preparations to begin on the invasion of England, known as Operation Sea Lion.

1942 – French police officers rounded up 13,000 Jews and held them in the Winter Velodrome. The round-up was part of an agreement between Pierre Laval and the Nazis. Germany had agreed to
not deport French Jews if France arrested foreign Jews.

1945 – The United States detonated the first atomic bomb in a test at Alamogordo, NM.

1951 – J.D. Salinger’s novel “The Catcher in the Rye” was first published.

1957 – Marine Major John Glenn set a transcontinental speed record when he flew a jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds.

1964 – Little League Baseball Incorporated was granted a Federal Charter unanimously by the United States Senate and House of Representatives.

1969 – Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Kennedy, FL, and began the first manned mission to land on the moon.

1970 – The Pittsburgh Pirates played their first game at Three Rivers Stadium.

1973 – Alexander P. Butterfield informed the Senate committee investigating the Watergate affair of the existence of recorded tapes.

1979 – Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq after forcing Hasan al-Bakr to resign.

Thanks for letting me rant a bit!  You all have a good day.

Oh Good God….I just realized it is our 30 year high school graduation thingy.  Well I missed the last 2 ….why make it to the third?  I hated High School!  Yeesh!!!