oh but that was different....

[ProblemAgain]

cause that was them and this is us....

i wanted their hypocrisy up there nice and bold....you already called the tune tho LLL...

Oklahoma senators change tune on disaster relief

Both lawmakers voted against aid for Superstorm Sandy victims before accepting funds to help their own tornado-ravaged state.

By Jason Notte 4 hours ago

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Hey, Sen. James Inhofe, how does that "slush" taste?

Just days after an EF5 tornado tore through Moore, Okla., killed 24 people, left thousands homeless and caused roughly $2 billion in damage, Oklahoma's Republican senators found themselves in the awkward position of receiving federal disaster aid they had argued so vehemently against just months before.

In January, Inhofe and Sen. Tom Coburn both voted against a $60 billion supplemental appropriation bill that was aimed largely at providing relief to victims of Superstorm Sandy, which slammed into coastal New York and New Jersey last year.

The disaster fund, run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, now has a balance of $11.6 billion, which FEMA spokesman Dan Watson told Reuters is enough to handle immediate response and recovery efforts in Oklahoma and residual costs from Sandy.

That's the same money Inhofe called a "slush fund" when the aid had become entangled in the fiscal cliff budget fight back in January and dwindled to nearly nothing after that prolonged bout of political infighting.

"They had things in the Virgin Islands. They were fixing roads there, they were putting roofs on houses in Washington, D.C. Everybody was getting in and exploiting the tragedy that took place. That won't happen in Oklahoma," Inhofe said on MSNBC after the recent tornado struck.

Unfortunately for Inhofe, as the New York Daily News points out, that just wasn't true. The Sandy relief bill initially contained money for projects outside of areas damaged by Sandy just to get it through Congress, but Republicans in the House of Representatives stripped out that small portion of the bill. The legislation also didn't contain money to put roofs on homes in Washington, D.C., but it did have funds to repair museum roofs damaged by the storm.

Coburn opposed the Sandy relief bill because it wasn't offset by budget cuts elsewhere. He hasn't made similar demands after the Moore tornado, saying only, "As the ranking member of the Senate committee that oversees FEMA, I can assure Oklahomans that any and all available aid will be delivered without delay."

The senators differ from one of their fellow Oklahoma Republicans -- Rep. Tom Cole, whose district bore the brunt of the tornado damage and just experienced its second such storm in 14 years. He voted for the Sandy relief bill after helping trim out many of the add-ons of the original legislation.

[Dennis Barsten]

Only when it effects me, not thou...

[exedir]

Understandably this is relief money and as such a service, the purpose being providing emergency relief for troubled areas, but there is much more involved, including the politics of providing the goods to constituents.  

This is not new, none of this is new, events like this have happened and in the case of Moore, OK, three times in the last decade.  And, no, this isn't the Big One either, that is coming, but it has its own timeline.  

What we do have is a need to deal with like events when and where they happen, to provide immediate relief and then implement a rebuilding and mediation program that can save and protect lives and then to save and protect property.  

One of the problems is that, by choice, people put themselves in harms way by where and how they live.  And yes, much to those involved don't see it as a choice but a necessity of living, living in places with danger that need awareness and what are the options; from insurance, building inplace shelter, mitigate property damage, inclusive of relocation.

The tornado season is not at an end but as June arrives the weather scene shifts to the Atlantic and Caribbean  hurricane season which is predicted to be most active.  Storms will develop, damage will be done and lives will be put at risk, but then again, that is the way it has always been, just that now, we are in the way and that is where the expense is.

[ProblemAgain]

obfuscating the point that their elected representatives vote AGAINST fema funding until it turns out that oklahoma needs fema help....very similar to rick perry of texas decrying big guvmint and threatening to  secede  while intoning we don't need no big guvmint til the fires of a year or so ago. and that was the time he was pissing his pants about federal aid taking too long and the federal government (ain't that big guvmint'?) should have had tanker aircraft stationed in texas to fight fires...(tho that is OBVIOUSLY a state's rights issue....8))

[Woody Woods]

So....what else is new. The dingbat Republicans just exposed...once again...their hypocrisy....lol.

[ProblemAgain]

bob schieffer had a question and answer with tom coburn on face the nation yesterday....coburn decrying the number of federal disaster declarations that had been declared over the past few years for oklahoma and i was scratching my head....what???? is this guy fucking loonie or stupid? the federal government doesn't just declare a disaster area. they have to be asked to do so by the state authority in order to get federal help. so he is complaining that the federal government has done what his state has asked them to do...now if they hadn't done that, he would be whining about how they didn't.....as my greataunt used to say..'i swan i just want to bitchslap the stupid out of him'