And what a face.
Posted on 12/20/2006 2:29:43 PM PST by llevrok
Related Content Fight over mandatory beacons renews Story Published: Dec 20, 2006 at 11:08 AM PST
Story Updated: Dec 20, 2006 at 11:32 AM PST By Anita Kissee and KATU Web Staff Watch the video MOUNT HOOD, Ore. - As the rescue effort continues on Mount Hood, so do the costs, which some critics are saying is way too much.
Sheriff Joe Wampler with the Hood River County Sheriff's Office has said all along that he is not looking at the cost of the rescue, he is looking for the men. One of them, 48-year-old Kelly James, was found dead in a snow cave over the weekend. The two others, 37-year-old Brian Hall and 36-year-old Jerry Cooke, remain missing.
Rosie O'Donnell and her co-hosts kicked off 'The View' Tuesday with the hot topic of the missing climbers on Mount Hood.
Rosie O'Donnell: "I read in the papers that over $2.5 million the search has cost so far to find these three men."
Jacque Reid, Guest Co-Host: "Here they are, they knew the storm was coming and they still opted to go out and who should pay the cost?"
Rosie O'Donnell: "What warrants 27 helicopters and 1,000 people looking? I just don't understand."
Joy Behar: "Send this team over to New Orleans and fix that situation."
Wampler has poured his heart, soul and county's manpower into finding the three climbers and resents the implications that the money would be better spent helping Katrina victims.
"I just want to reach out and grab her neck," he said. "I mean, literally. This is not stupid money. This is important money. This is about people's lives."
At $6,500 a day, many may question the cost of the elaborate rescue effort, but Wampler said the bill is misleading. His crews would be working anyway and 90 percent of the rescuers are volunteers. It is not even costing the military extra money because the mission is being tagged as training.
"We can either spend our time in a simulator or a simulated environment or we can get the best experience in a real world situation like this," said Capt. Mike Braibish with the Oregon National Guard.
"As long as people are climbing mountains, there needs to be people to help them," said Darren Stone, owner of Climb Max.
Stone said that as long as climbers keep coming to Oregon, the state should keep catering to them.
"Kilamanjaro is the most climbed mountain, but more people get on top of Mount Hood," he said.
Economic numbers do not pinpoint how much climbers spend while visiting the mountain, but in general $800 million is spent in our forests every year.
On a side note, Oregon is one of just a few states that can make you pay for your own rescue if you are reckless, and even then it is only $500. The law is the result of three college students who got lost on Mount Hood in 1995, only to be found safe in a tent after $10,000 was spent to search for them. It has only been enforced one time - for a boater. We are told this case would not apply because the men were prepared.
"At $6,500 a day, many may question the cost of the elaborate rescue effort, but Wampler said the bill is misleading. His crews would be working anyway and 90 percent of the rescuers are volunteers. It is not even costing the military extra money because the mission is being tagged as training."
This point never seems to made often enough; if a true calculation was made of a great number of social costs that get applied to certain events or to issues, one would easily see that the greater part of that expense would have been spent in the ordinary course of staffing or the costs are estimated on unrealized income which might never have been available anyway.
Sheriff Joe. I like the way he thinks.
About $300 at Planned Parenthood.
Re: Rosie is on the same page as BOR...
Yeah, and they're both wrong. The rescue effort does provide useful training, provided the rescuers are not taking undue risks. Strangely, the same people who worry about the costs probably wouldn't complain if we were spending big money every year to patrol the approaches to the mountain and keep hikers off, to prosecute offenders, and so on.
I think she is more than that. How about someone with no brains whatsoever? If this had been someone in her family, she would be crying about the small effort put forth in finding them.
One of those three men was from New York, and two were from Texas. They are among millions of people who travel to Oregon from all over the country to visit its places and its natural features, and among perhaps thousands who climb Mount Hood while they are there. People have spent literally billions of dollars over the years during these trips to Oregon, and have generated tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue during that time.
So I really have a hard time believing that a major rescue effort of this kind once or twice every decade is really having much of an adverse impact on Oregon's treasury.
I hate to say it, but me too....
http://exposingtheleft.blogspot.com/2006/12/heartless-batard-post-of-week.html
This is the same R O'Dike that says nobody should have a gun for seld protection - EXCEPT HER, she's a VIL (Very Important Liberal)
...and several arm-chair warriors on this site.
Sadly, I read on Drudge that this show's ratings are way up since Rosie joined. Hard to believe, but perhaps people are watching it for the "freak factor".
***
There are some people who just think Rosie and the rest of those whining women are just wonderful. We have people in the office who TIVO the show. What a waste of TIVO!
A lot of people are better than she is.
Texas almost always has a logical solution to problems created by one's lack of common sense.
Annually, in Southern California, there are people rescued in the storm drains as they try rafting down the channels. I believe they also get a bill, though it may be at the discreation of the local agency.
And what a face.
I think that what most of those "other Freepers" want is this: Those who engage in risky activities for their own entertainment and personal sense of accomplishment should be held financially responsible for at least part of the cost of their own rescue.
True. That was why I said "I don't agree with her"
I thought Rosie was one of the people that wanted Big Government to take care of us in all situations, even those in which we do something stupid.
Before I get hit with comments about the something stupid remark, I don't know if they did anything stupid as I know nothing about mountain climbing. I am for the spirit of adventure and discovery our liberals have forgotten living in closed enclaves.
I would want someone to come looking for me.
The climbers were as stupid as the people who failed to evacuate New Orleans prior to Katrina.
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