Ron Paul: Insane Douchebag

[Flagg]

MSNBC With Video

By NBC's Jo Ling Kent

GILFORD, N.H. -- After a lunch speech today, Ron Paul slammed the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, and said that no national response to Hurricane Irene is necessary.

"We should be like 1900; we should be like 1940, 1950, 1960," Paul said. "I live on the Gulf Coast; we deal with hurricanes all the time. Galveston is in my district.

"There's no magic about FEMA. They're a great contribution to deficit financing and quite frankly they don't have a penny in the bank. We should be coordinated but coordinated voluntarily with the states," Paul told NBC News. "A state can decide. We don't need somebody in Washington."

[weemadando]

No doubt any state he's involved in would have also closed it's borders to the displaced people after an event like Katrina.

Because that's the American way. SORT IT OUT YOURSELVES. WE'RE NOT INTERESTED. LA LA LA LA LA

[Jim Raynor]

What an idiot. I was never a Ron Paul supporter, but I at least thought better of him than other prominent Republicans for maintaining consistency, following his own beliefs instead of just toeing the GOP line, and seeming more thoughtful about the use of military power. This anti-FEMA stuff sounds like the kind of crap you could get from any insane Tea Bagger out there.

[SirNitram]

Like 1900? Mmm. Galveston, where he was elected, had between 6,000 and 12,000 die then from a hurricane. Dealing with the bodies was worse.

[Flagg]

The funny thing is that Ron paul, being a crazy moron, seems to think that FEMA just descends on disaster areas like a plague of helpful locusts, when in fact Governors have to ask for their assistance. So the very thing he says he wants is already the way things work.

[Starglider]

I thought his point was just that if the money given to FEMA was instead given to states to spend on disaster preparedness (co-ordinating directly with each other), they would get better value for money. I have no idea if this is true, but it wouldn't surprise me given the amount of corruption allegations surrounding FEMA.

[Thanas]

Yeah, that was an idiotic thing to say and believe in.

[Jim Raynor]

I thought his point was just that if the money given to FEMA was instead given to states to spend on disaster preparedness (co-ordinating directly with each other), they would get better value for money. I have no idea if this is true, but it wouldn't surprise me given the amount of corruption allegations surrounding FEMA.

He specifically mentioned "deficit spending," so it sounds more like he doesn't want that money spent on disaster preparations at all. Also, after listening to that video it sounds like Ron Paul is one of those "personal freedom" and "rugged individualist" wankers who thinks that local volunteers can do a better job than the federal government. According to him, FEMA just comes in to boss people around and "hinder" the volunteers.

[Lord Zentei]

He specifically mentioned "deficit spending," so it sounds more like he doesn't want that money spent on disaster preparations at all. Also, after listening to that video it sounds like Ron Paul is one of those "personal freedom" and "rugged individualist" wankers who thinks that local volunteers can do a better job than the federal government. According to him, FEMA just comes in to boss people around and "hinder" the volunteers.

Considering how FEMA handled Katrina, that's not too far from the truth, actually. I'm not a Ron Paul fan, though I know that he's often misquoted by his critics. While I can't say whether that that's the case here, he seems to be mainly advocating that the states manage disaster relief, and slamming FEMA's financial management and general conduct. Of course, federal assistance to disasters is to be preferred, IMHO, especially since the states have to ask for the assistance before FEMA can come in.

[Alyrium Denryle]

He specifically mentioned "deficit spending," so it sounds more like he doesn't want that money spent on disaster preparations at all. Also, after listening to that video it sounds like Ron Paul is one of those "personal freedom" and "rugged individualist" wankers who thinks that local volunteers can do a better job than the federal government. According to him, FEMA just comes in to boss people around and "hinder" the volunteers.

Considering how FEMA handled Katrina, that's not too far from the truth, actually. I'm not a Ron Paul fan, though I know that he's often misquoted by his critics. While I can't say whether that that's the case here, he seems to be mainly advocating that the states manage disaster relief, and slamming FEMA's financial management and general conduct. Of course, federal assistance to disasters is to be preferred, IMHO, especially since the states have to ask for the assistance before FEMA can come in.

Fact 1) State governments are often constitutionally mandated to run a balanced budget. Depending on the state, they cannot run on a deficit, not for long anyway.

Fact 2) State governments are even more corrupt and nepotistic than federal government

Fact 3) State Government is cash strapped, even more so than the feds, this is particularly true in the current economy, and in many states, tax increases must be voted on directly by the population--needless to say, it almost never happens.

Fact 4) Economy of scale exists, and centralizing a government apparatus is more efficient dollar for dollar than distributing it.

Fact 5) Disaster relief is difficult, complicated work which by its nature requires centralized control, massive amounts of supply, and feats of logistics which volunteers cannot, though self-organization, achieve.

These factors come together and indicate that state by state coordination--using of all things volunteers--is a really really bad idea. FEMA failed for a number of reasons. A head who was nepotistically appointed (and who had no fucking idea what he was doing), jurisdictional problems due to being incorporated into homeland security, the complete and total destruction of roads, poor availability of national guard troops due to overseas deployments, the failure of the state government to actually evacuate the population etc.

State government would have been far, far worse.

[Lord Zentei]

Indeed. State-by-state relief would be especially ineffective for areas in the northeast where there are several small states which might be affected simultaneously, leading to bad overall coordination of any relief effort regardless of other considerations.

[Lord of the Abyss]

He specifically mentioned "deficit spending," so it sounds more like he doesn't want that money spent on disaster preparations at all. Also, after listening to that video it sounds like Ron Paul is one of those "personal freedom" and "rugged individualist" wankers who thinks that local volunteers can do a better job than the federal government. According to him, FEMA just comes in to boss people around and "hinder" the volunteers.

Considering how FEMA handled Katrina, that's not too far from the truth, actually.

That's what you get when you put people in charge of FEMA who are incompetent and who don't believe it should exist. It worked quite well before Bush & friends took over; they wanted Katrina to be as big a disaster as possible so they could blame it on FEMA and get exactly the reaction you have, to look at FEMA as useless.

[Lord Zentei]

He specifically mentioned "deficit spending," so it sounds more like he doesn't want that money spent on disaster preparations at all. Also, after listening to that video it sounds like Ron Paul is one of those "personal freedom" and "rugged individualist" wankers who thinks that local volunteers can do a better job than the federal government. According to him, FEMA just comes in to boss people around and "hinder" the volunteers.

Considering how FEMA handled Katrina, that's not too far from the truth, actually.

That's what you get when you put people in charge of FEMA who are incompetent and who don't believe it should exist. It worked quite well before Bush & friends took over; they wanted Katrina to be as big a disaster as possible so they could blame it on FEMA and get exactly the reaction you have, to look at FEMA as useless.

Yeah... see, criticizing something (what I'm doing) isn't the same as saying that is shouldn't exist at all (the thing you're accusing me of doing).

[Wing Commander MAD]

He specifically mentioned "deficit spending," so it sounds more like he doesn't want that money spent on disaster preparations at all. Also, after listening to that video it sounds like Ron Paul is one of those "personal freedom" and "rugged individualist" wankers who thinks that local volunteers can do a better job than the federal government. According to him, FEMA just comes in to boss people around and "hinder" the volunteers.

Considering how FEMA handled Katrina, that's not too far from the truth, actually.

That's what you get when you put people in charge of FEMA who are incompetent and who don't believe it should exist. It worked quite well before Bush & friends took over; they wanted Katrina to be as big a disaster as possible so they could blame it on FEMA and get exactly the reaction you have, to look at FEMA as useless.

I see you're still keeping up the work to earn your VI title. Care to provide some proof that Katrina was a plot to discredit FEMA and not simply an ugly situation made worse by undersestimating the threat, incompetance, and recent stuctural changes (ie FEMA becoming part of the new Office of Homeland Security in '03)? The latter is quite believable, while the former strikes me as not too far away from 911 Truther BS.