Politicizing Disaster

Harry Reid should stand out on the corner holding a sign that says, "Will Politicize For Food." To promote his energy bill, Harry Reid (D-NV) said, “One reason why we have the fires in California is global warming.” What a load of nonsense. The nonsense lies not in the question of global warming, but in the fact that the Santa Ana winds have nothing to do with it, but have to do rather with the geography of the region. Is Harry Reid blaming the mountains that push winds coming out of the east down, causing them to heat up, on global warming? Give me a break! The mountains and a weather system that is not uncommon in the US is to blame. What is happening would happen even if we entered an ice age -- the mountains are still there, and don't look to be going anywhere anytime soon. Thus, Reid is either an ignorant fool or he's taking advantage of over a million evacuees, many of whose homes have burnt ot the ground, for political gain on an issue that has nothing to do with the fires.

Along those lines, Senator Barbara Boxer should be ashemd of herself for the same reason, saying the fires have gotten out of control because we're in Iraq.

The real reason for the fires is a combination of a natural phenomenon that I at least have heard of all of my life and poor forestry management driven by environmentalists who have no understanding of what they claim to be protecting. Many of the forests in the U.S. are maintained by periodic fires that clear out the brush and keep the forests open. But ironically anti-forest fire policies have made the situation such that we get what we are getting now. Unless we address the real problems, and stop with the distracting politicization of this terrible situation, we're going to keep seeing this problem.