Posted by
Steve on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 3:16:22 PM
We have reached a new low in politics with regard to the environment. The erstwhile leader of the Senate, Harry Reid (Dingy Harry), held a press conference about an energy bill. At this press conference he said that the fires in California are a result of global warming. Then about 6 minutes later was asked about the fires being caused by global warming and denied saying that he said the fires were caused by global warming. How dumb can you be?
The fires have multiple causes. Some were caused by arson. Some were caused by natural causes. Some were caused by carelessness. What are fanning the blazes are the Santa Ana winds. The Santa Ana winds come almost every year to Southern California. They are hot and dry. Growing up in Southern California, I dreaded the Santa Ana winds. They were just awful. The high winds and fire are just asking for a disaster. The firefighters are unable to stand in front of the Santa Ana wind blown fires. They have to let the fires burn out before attacking what is left of the fire.
The fuel for the fire comes from the buildup of brush and debris in the forested areas. Normally people would go into the forest and clear out the brush and debris, but the environmentalists have kept them out with lawsuits. As a result, the brush and debris built up and became dry. When put with fire and wind, the fire took off.
So to blame the fire on global warming is just stupid. Global warming had nothing to do with the fire. The Santa Ana winds are caused by a cold low pressure in the Rocky Mountains. So, cold is responsible for the disaster. If global warming had a part, the cold low would not have formed and the Santa Ana winds would not be blowing. Then the fires would have been contained to a few acres. Now, there are thousands of acres of land that have burned. Over 500,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. The estimated loss is over $1 billion. That is a big loss and global warming had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Some politicians are also trying to blame the war front in Iraq for a lack of personnel and equipment. This is a bogus argument. You could put the entire US military out in California and they could not stop the fires. The high winds make it impossible to fight the fires, because they are moving too fast and are too hot.
What is happening to the politicians is that they are projecting their bias onto the fires. If they believe in global warming, then it has to be responsible for the fires. If they do not believe in killing Islamo-Fascists before they kill us, they will blame the war. Politicians need to get a real dose of reality. They cannot go off and blame the first thing that comes to mind or the popular thing to blame. They have to have the facts behind them when they make statements. People should hold these politicians accountable for their words. Unfortunately, people do not hold politicians accountable for their words. That is why politicians say stupid things and do not even blush when it is brought to their attention. They know the public will ignore any stupid thing they said.
That is changing with the internet. Things politicians said in the past can be brought back to haunt them. The comments today by Dingy Harry will dog him for some time. The colossal ignorance of the main stream media is coming to an end. The internet is making public figures accountable for things they say and do. One day that will happen even in the main stream media. I may not live long enough to see it, but it will happen.