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Mark Steyn: Our permanent state of routine emergency
orange county register ^ | January 16, 2009 | MARK STEYN

Posted on 01/17/2009 5:42:53 AM PST by kellynla

In just about his last act as president, George W. Bush has declared Washington, D.C., a federal disaster area.

No, seriously. I'm not setting up some lame-o punchline here, like we used to do a decade back in the good old Monica days: "President Clinton today declared his pants a federal disaster area," etc. What happened last week was that the Bush administration formally declared a federal emergency in the District of Columbia.

So what was it? An ice storm? A hurricane?

No, it's the inauguration of his successor. The inauguration is scheduled to make landfall on Tuesday and wreak havoc all night long, as Category Five conga lines buckle highways round town, and emergency busboy crews find themselves overwhelmed as they struggle to clear drained champagne flutes. So the mayor, Adrian M. Fenty, put in a request for more federal money, and, apparently, the easiest way to sluice the cash to him no questions asked was for the president to declare a state of emergency in the District and funnel however many extra gazillions he wants through FEMA – the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"I don't know if anybody's ever done that," said Dana Perino, the White House press secretary.

Indeed. One reason why nobody's ever done that before is because a presidential inauguration is not (to be boringly technical about it) an "emergency." It's penciled in well in advance – in this case, so well in advance that for years Democrats have been driving around with "1-20-09" bumper stickers on the back of their Priuses. Emergency-wise, that's the equivalent of Hurricane Dan Rather wrapped around a lamppost in his sou'wester, hanging there in eager anticipation every night for half a decade.

(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bhoinauguration; federalemergency; fema; marksteyn; socialism; steyn
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"Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P.J.O'Rourke
1 posted on 01/17/2009 5:42:53 AM PST by kellynla
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2 posted on 01/17/2009 5:43:43 AM PST by kellynla (Freedom of speech makes it easier to spot the idiots! Semper Fi!)
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To: kellynla
I think having a Constitutionally ineligible Marxist sworn in as President and Commander-in-Chief of these United States of America IS a valid reason to declare a national emergency!

It will surely result in disaster!

3 posted on 01/17/2009 5:48:15 AM PST by hoosierham (Waddaya mean Freedom isn't free ?;will you take a credit card?)
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To: kellynla
I think having a Constitutionally ineligible Marxist sworn in as President and Commander-in-Chief of these United States of America IS a valid reason to declare a national emergency!

It will surely result in disaster!

4 posted on 01/17/2009 5:48:52 AM PST by hoosierham (Waddaya mean Freedom isn't free ?;will you take a credit card?)
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To: hoosierham
I suspect that one of these days and hopefully very soon, someone is gonna get a hold of Obama’s REAL “Birth Certificate” and its gonna be splattered all over the Drudge Report and the caption will be, “Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!”
5 posted on 01/17/2009 5:57:33 AM PST by kellynla (Freedom of speech makes it easier to spot the idiots! Semper Fi!)
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To: kellynla
And there it is, what's wrong with America:
The Cato Institute's James Bovard was struck by the plight of Vernon, Conn., a town ravaged in the winter of 1995-96 by, er, slightly more snow than they'd expected. So FEMA sent them a check for $40,023. Vernon had 30,000 people, and its town snow-removal costs that winter were $258,000. "That's just $8.60 per person," Bovard pointed out, "less than a 12-year-old charges to shovel out a driveway after a good snowfall."

So why did they need "federal emergency" aid? Because the town had only budgeted $104,516, and so claimed to be "overwhelmed" by the additional costs. They could have asked the good burghers of Vernon to chip in an extra five bucks apiece. But why bother when FEMA's so eager to give you a warm bath in the federal love nectar? The town government wised up pretty quickly. The next winter, they set the snow-removal budget at just $69,383.

Unbelievable. But the good folk of Vernon learned their lesson well, eh?
6 posted on 01/17/2009 6:06:40 AM PST by NonValueAdded (Confidential to MSM: "Better Red than Read" is a failed business model.)
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To: hoosierham

I’ve always said WWII, 60 million dead, Europe destroyed wasn’t Hitlers fault, at all. He was crazy. A loon. A nutter, like in the late 1920’s, if not earlier. It wasn’t his fault he was more than happy spouting off in basement beer halls and then the citizens, the industrialists, teachers, university professors, engineers, women, banks, the military made him Chancellor and he started yelling for Napoleon’s old maps.

You can’t blame Obama for floating to the top. He isn’t the disease. He is the symptom, a sign of the disease.
Carter, the Kennedys, Pelosi, Fwank, Dodd, Clintons...and on and on wouldn’t thrive like bacteria if the pubic body was healthy. It isn’t.


7 posted on 01/17/2009 6:10:12 AM PST by Leisler (It is always said it is for the children. (Not your children..others...somewhere)
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To: Leisler
You can’t blame Obama for floating to the top. He isn’t the disease. He is the symptom, a sign of the disease.

Cheers!

8 posted on 01/17/2009 6:13:06 AM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: kellynla

To be honest, I’m really embarrassed at this last act of stupidity on the part of President Bush. There is being gracious and there is looking like a nimrod. This falls under the nimrod catagory.


9 posted on 01/17/2009 6:14:35 AM PST by autumnraine
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To: Leisler
Well FDR gave America socialism and with half the population dependent on the government for some kind of financial assistance today who says “Communism is dead!”
10 posted on 01/17/2009 6:26:11 AM PST by kellynla (Freedom of speech makes it easier to spot the idiots! Semper Fi!)
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To: kellynla
On that subject, here's a bullet proof to force a court to take the factual question about Obama's citizenship. The minute after he is sworn in he becomes Commander in Chief.

If Obama is legitimate, it is the duty of all military to obey his orders. If, however, he is illegitimate, it is their duty NOT to obey his orders. Therefore, no court can throw out a suit by active or reserve military people on grounds of lack of standing.

All it will take is a couple soldiers (very near retirement) who have the courage to act.

Congressman Billybob

Latest article, "Eric Holder: Crook. Liar, Attorney General"

The Declaration, the Constitution, parts of the Federalist, and America's Owner's Manual, here.

11 posted on 01/17/2009 6:42:21 AM PST by Congressman Billybob (Latest book: www.AmericasOwnersManual.com)
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To: kellynla; ancient_geezer; Principled; EternalVigilance; phil_will1; kevkrom; n-tres-ted; Jaysun; ...

” . . alas, Washington is one of those disaster relief cases, where they get the relief, and the rest of us get the disaster.”

We are in for a tough time for at least the next two years.

And, if, by 2010, Americans haven’t waked up to the clear and present danger that Obama, Reid, and Pelosi and the rest of the Democrat cabaal in WDC represent to our Republic, living in America will become very, very difficult for those of us who value FReedom.

We must be eternally vigilant, and oppose with every fiber of our being the LIEberal/Socialist/Marxist agenda being foisted upon us.

And, we must work these next two years to recruit good people to our cause.

Perhaps the LIEberal/Socialist/Marxist Bastards who seek total control of our lives will over reach during the next two years and make recruiting good people to our cause all that much easier?


12 posted on 01/17/2009 6:43:10 AM PST by Taxman (So that the beautiful pressure does not diminish!)
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To: Leisler

Boy you have that right!


13 posted on 01/17/2009 6:45:02 AM PST by Nuc1 (NUC1 Sub pusher SSN 668 (Liberals Aren't Patriots))
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To: Taxman

Well said Taxman! Well said indeed!

I concur 100%.


14 posted on 01/17/2009 6:53:36 AM PST by Bigun ("It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." Voltaire)
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To: kellynla

Now Steyn complains! If anyone has encouraged, a policy of “permanent emergency” over the last eight years it is him!


15 posted on 01/17/2009 6:54:45 AM PST by Captain Kirk
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To: kellynla
Scratch a liberal and under his thin skin is a socialist. Dig a little deeper and you soon find the Marxist nuclear fuel rod that drives everything he says and does.

Corollary: All Marxists lie.

16 posted on 01/17/2009 7:09:15 AM PST by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are NOT stupid)
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To: Captain Kirk
If anyone has encouraged, a policy of “permanent emergency” over the last eight years it is him!

Can you give an example please?

17 posted on 01/17/2009 7:14:11 AM PST by jellybean (Who is John Galt? ~ Bookmark altfreerepublic.freeforums.org for when FR is down)
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To: wintertime
It is just stealing by other means. Call it Marxism, socialism, Democrat, social justice, fairness. Theft at the point of the Sheriff's gun.
18 posted on 01/17/2009 7:17:06 AM PST by Leisler (It is always said it is for the children. (Not your children..others...somewhere)
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To: Leisler
You can’t blame Obama for floating to the top. He isn’t the disease. He is the symptom, a sign of the disease.

Carter, the Kennedys, Pelosi, Fwank, Dodd, Clintons...and on and on wouldn’t thrive like bacteria if the pubic body was healthy. It isn’t.

Very well said. It bears repeating.

Jimmah Cahrtah was 40 years early in giving his "malaise speech". Except today it would his "raging infection speech"...

19 posted on 01/17/2009 7:22:18 AM PST by Gritty (Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored - John Adams)
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To: jellybean

One example? If you can give me one example (other than the bailout) of when Steyn criticized the emergency policies of the Bush administration (e.g. his “elastic” view of the constitution and executive power) over the last years I’ll gladly recant.


20 posted on 01/17/2009 7:23:42 AM PST by Captain Kirk
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