Arnie earns his stripes
James Forsyth 4:32pm
Most people chuckled at California when it elected Arnold Schwarzenegger governor. But the sheer competence of the state government’s reaction to the appalling wild fires that are sweeping the state suggest that Arnie is much better at his job than many professional politicians. Certainly, as Newsweek points out, the contrast to Katrina could not be starker.
You have to be impressed by any disaster response that not only gets people out in time, feeds them and shelters them but also provides volunteer masseuses to help ease the stress for the evacuees.
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Andrew Paterson
October 24th, 2007 4:51pm Report this commentNot a huge suprise that Newsweek fails to make a comparison of the state responses to the two disasters, preferring to pin the Katrina response entirely on the federal government, while also repeating the 'empty ships' myth.
Tom
October 24th, 2007 6:04pm Report this commentYou have to understand the Federal political system of the U.S. Each state is a separate political entity. California has a competent state government. Louisiana was completely corrupt from the bottom to the top. When Katrina hit the mainstream news media in the U.S. found the politician farthest away from the disaster (Bush) and blamed him. So much false info is given out to the world through the mainstream news m edia that it's almost begs credence. Certainly no pays them much attention anymore. It's kind of like the BBC. Who believes them either?
Craig Strachan
October 24th, 2007 6:21pm Report this commentI have just returned home after being evacuated from my home on the Topanga/Malibu border on Sunday night. The responders to the Malibu fire have been wonderful. This fire was the first to ignite and was hit with massive resources early on. There has been some concern expressed in other parts of the state that there haven't been enough air assets in play early enough. Part of that is the sheer number of fires, part is that - as Arnold Schwarzenegger noted some months ago - about half of the CA National Guard's equipment is currently in Iraq.
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