Political Morons

The fires in Southern California have been devastating in many areas. The earlier post which showed smoke from the Arrowhead fire is but one example.

Any Californian understands that the risks for fires increase as a result of two cycles. First, the underbrush in the state grows and dries according to a cycle. Second, in years where we have very dry conditions the risk of fire increases.

But then we have politicians trying to get in for political advantage. The most egregious example was probably done by the Majority Leader of the US Senate who said yesterday "As you know, one reason that we have the fires burning in Southern California is global warming. One reason the Colorado Basin is going dry is because of global warming," He quickly retracted his idiotic comment - almost in the next sentence - but the sheer attempt by Reid to move politicize this event was at a minimum not helpful to the very real plight of California residents in the fire areas. In equal silliness, the junior senator from California claimed that the war in Iraq has limited the ability of the state to respond.

Ultimately, we need to think carefully about how to meet the needs of people who have losses. In the next instance we need to think about policies which would reduce the risk of future conflagrations of this nature. Some of these are almost impossible - but not all. Changes in building standards are critical - and the changes in roofs are an example of one such thing. But the rampant attempt by third rate politicians to inject their favorite political point of the day is simply not helpful. Perhaps when the fires are all under control one of the water bombers could dump some cold water on the politicians who want to heat things up.