Posted on 09/07/2011 4:57:43 AM PDT by Zakeet
Nearly half of the federal government’s firefighting air tankers are siting idle at a California airport, grounded by the Obama administration in a contract dispute just weeks before wildfires swept through Texas killing a mother and her child, and destroying 100,000 acres.
The massive blazes forced Texas Gov. and Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry to abruptly call off a campaign appearance in South Carolina earlier this week to respond to the crisis, and may force him to cancel his first debate appearance Wednesday night.
The U.S. Forest Service terminated the contract with Aero Union five weeks ago to operate seven P-3 Orions that are critical to the agency’s firefighting mission, leaving the federal government with 11 tankers under contract to help battle more than 50 large uncontained wildfires now burning nationwide.
That’s down from 40 tankers used by the Forest Service just a decade ago, according to Rep. Dan Lungren (R.-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Administration, who is challenging the decision to dismiss the largest provider of heavy air-tanker support to the federal government.
“We were certified to fly all season, but they just terminated us and threw 60 people out of work and left the country vulnerable to fires, as you can see right now in Texas,” said Britt Gourley, CEO for Aero Union.
“This is our 50th anniversary fighting fires for the Forest Service. It’s not quite the way we wanted to celebrate it,” Gourley said.
(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...
If those guys were big Rat donors ... and if they were a union shop ... and if they were flying Canadian made planes instead of that Lockheed junk ... and if they weren't trying to help out a Red State ... then certainly, there would be no problem!
I think Perry will skip the debate tonite...
I can’t cuss anymore. News like this just makes me want to whimper.
It goes on, and ON, AND ON!!!!!
No he’s wisely going to tonight’s debate.
I dunno, this seems like something nice to bring to the debate and have a national platform from which to denounce the decision.
Later
1. If he goes, some will slam him for doing so.
2. It's not a real debate..way too many on stage..just a nunch of 30 secoind sound bites...he's the leader of the polls..why give fringe candidates a chance to whack away at him?
3. It's NBC/MSNBC/Politico..no friends of his.
4. There will be many more..indeed a few more this month..
I doubt it.
I think teenagers are suspect.
Then I hope Perry mentions the subject of this thread.
Governor races back to Texas after hundreds of homes lost in fire-ravaged state
'Officials have ruled out arson as the cause of the fires, with blame instead being attributed to tropical depression Lee, which was graded as a more serious tropical storm when it came ashore in southern Louisiana early on Sunday.'
Here’s a win-win solution ... pull the planes out of California, base in Texas, and let Perry contract the services directly.
Makes one wonder, who set all the fires?
Call Perry.
That idea is so simple it would work.
Forget about help from 0bama's Washington crowd and just do it.
They just got the winds without the rain.
And W is still blamed for Katrina. He dared to follow the law, unlike the o.
Translated (LOL!) I think that means that Lee caused a lot of strong winds without any rain. Several fires were started by electrical lines blown down by wind...and of course, the wind was making the fires worse.
I saw a fire in College Station city limits Sunday that was caused by electrical lines being knocked down.
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