Anyone else sick of local San Diego media making it sound like Republicans are doing everything?...

[cascadiance]

... to address the fire?

Noticeably missing here in any kind of interviews or discussions are our two senators or our two democratic congress people (Susan Davis or Bob Filner).

But also just as noticeable is the non-stop interviews with tons of the Republicans around here including:

1) Arnold Schwarzenegger - actually in Arnold's case, he seems to be doing a good job of trying to help here, though his comments seem to deride the previous California administration in the last fire in comparison with this one (slap against Gray Davis), when in actuality it is more likely that we all collectively have learned from the last time and have adjusted our procedures accordingly. That has been said by many others through the TV coverage.
2) Republican rep Duncan Hunter - This guy has been a TOTAL camera hog and is constantly trying to take credit wherever he can for all of the federal assistance that HE has helped coordinate getting to the fires. Of course he emphasizes how he lost his home in the last fire, has been evac'd this time around too, but doesn't of course mention how he scammed the city with not paying his real estate taxes with faulty assessments of his home as compared to his insurance payout for his home loss last time.
3) Republican reps Darrell Issa and Brian Bilbray - Just a moment ago I saw Bilbray, Issa, and Hunter all paling it up on stage at a conference and making it sound like they along with the Republican Board of Supervisors here were the responsible parties for everything that's going right here.
4) Republicans Board of Supervisors head Ron Roberts and mayor Jerry Sanders are on constantly too. This is understandable and expected though.
5) At least Democrat Brian Mansfield here has been given exposure for his attempts to help on the ground getting out lists of houses damaged/destroyed in Rancho Bernardo in his district.

The only thing I've heard of any of our Democratic delegation was an interview that Jon Elliott had on Air America radio yesterday where he talked about how he was helping some federal resources in Washington and how they (his wife here) have been evacuated from their house too.

What's not clear is why we've not heard from the Dems. Is it the media here locally that have put a black hole on in this area to help "revive" the Republicans' image in handling disasters by only talking to Republicans? Is it that the Democratic reps aren't persistent enough to get heard here on how they are trying to help with things? It's pretty frustrating here to hear what seems like propaganda. Normally I don't even tune into the local channels much, tuning in primarily to FSTV and Link TV for Democracy Now and other news coverage, etc.

[Horse with no Name]

1. very likely that liberal media you hear about but never see

and yes, it is about reviving their image.
Sickening.

[skylarmae]

2. San Diego is Repuke country!

So is Orange County...It always makes me sick to think of it, but its true. Not too many dem spokesmen because, not too many dems in office.

[cascadiance]

6. But there ARE some Dems down here, and we're NOT hearing from them...

Given that Jon Elliott during a local KLSD broadcast here yesterday interviewed Bob Filner, I think this is a *BLACKOUT* of Democrats here.

I think Barbara Boxer is supposed to be here too from one report I saw, but do you hear about that much? HELL NO! Just that Bush is coming here on Thursday!

[KittyWampus]

3. This is their attempt at a Katrina do-over & they WILL put the GOP initiative back on the ballot

re: electoral votes.

[cascadiance]

8. This is my concern too...

There have been some reports from an official or two that they are concerned that this fire was intentionally (and perhaps professionally(!) set). Now it's too early to give these reports any sort of credibility yet, but with the what seems to be conscious effort to propagandize us this into feeling like Rethugs are the ones that are "fixing" the problems here now, its too early to tell if there isn't something to look more in depth at, especially with the media here looking to do everything to avoid looking at things like this.

http://www.unfilterednewsnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=69&t=23300

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2007/10/22/california-fire-battallion-chief-whoever-did-this-knew-what-they-were-doing/

[KittyWampus]

11. Is it Naomi Wolf who speaks of Shock Doctrine? This fire is a disaster that presents a prime

opportunity for pushing stuff through in CA that normally might not get by.

[cascadiance]

12. It is Naomi Klein that wrote that book, but yes, your point still is valid...

[babylonsister]

4. I just got this from a friend I called and e-mailed who lives in the 'desert':

I'm not trying to start any 'class' wars here either, she's a rethug, but she's not impressed.

We are okay at the minute. Closest fires to us are the two burning in Arrowhead and Grass Valley. There was one near Lytle Creek but we haven't heard anything on it in a while so hopefully it is out. That would have been the one to really worry us depending on hosw the wind blows. We can see the flames from the Arrowhead fires from the house in the evenings. It is just devastating to watch the news and see all the houses they have lost. Some people are pretty upset that it has taken almost 2 days to get enough fire crews in to fight all the fires. (15 are currently burning in so ca). They had meetings after the horrible fires we had in 2003 and were supposed to have come up with contingency plans in case it ever got to that stage again but according to one fire capt on one of the fires not one item on their contingency plan was implemented. He was absolutely furious with the state of ca. Of course Arnie had to show up in Malibu to say hi to all his buddys. They had almost 1500 firefighters in Malibu as the rest of the fires were flaming along.
We are nervous because it just doesn't take much to get the fires moving fast through our area. We are a little bit off the beaten path with houses spread out quite a bit along mostly dirt roads.

[Cassandra]

5. But they are addressing the fire.

They're writing letters to it and sticking stamps on and everything.

[xiamiam]

7. when this is mismanaged as everything else they do...there will be some change of heart in orange co

[Elspeth]

9. We know this White House politicizes EVERY tragedy

San Diego is doing better than expected because of local planning; local authorities did a drastic overhaul after the Cedar fire. The current WH thugs have NOTHING to do with what the locals have planned. They are just basking in this because they didn't have to do a fucking thing.

And Governor D'uh hasn't changed. Still the same buffoon.

[Bandit]

10. I heard Duncan Hunter say California is turning down offers of help

He said last night on the Abrams Report that California did not need any more help or equipment and that it was turning down offers of help from fire fighting professionals. He said National Guardsmen were not needed because firefighting did not need bullets and body armor..Is this man really that brain dead?

[tjwash]

13. Yes. Yes he is.

Is this man really that brain dead?

I've met Duncan. He golfs at Carlton Oaks, where my son worked for a while. After this is all over I will tell you some of my favorite Duncan Hunter stories I have collected over the years (like when he broke my daughter in laws driver and tried to sneak out the back door before anyone noticed).

He is sack full of hammers dumb.