Interesting to find the Governor of Kansas indirectly criticizing the President and Iraq war:
Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius also visited the town, which lies about 120 miles (200km) west of Wichita in southern Kansas.
She said the state’s response would be negatively affected because emergency equipment such as trucks, tents and trailers had been sent to Iraq.
“Not having the National Guard equipment, which used to be positioned in various parts of the state, to bring in immediately is really going to handicap this effort to rebuild,” she said, the Associated Press news agency reports.
Compare this sentiment with how she prepared the state with a news release from 2003:
As your governor, I would like you to know that we are taking every possible step to protect Kansans in every corner of the state. At the conclusion of the President’s remarks Monday night, the Homeland Security Alert level in Kansas was raised to “High” or “Orange.” In accordance with that higher level of alert, I have increased the activity and visibility of the National Guard and Highway Patrol, paying special attention to important locations in the state, such as public buildings, bridges, and power plants. We are also constantly monitoring our vast agricultural resources, including our crops and our livestock, to ensure they remain productive and secure. And we need our public health systems to stand ready to respond.
Kansans should not take these steps as cause for alarm, but rather as prudent steps in a time of war. I have been briefed by the Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, and have been assured that currently there are no specific threats to Kansas. We have no particular reason to believe we are in danger. But we must always be vigilant and prepared. I call on all Kansans to be aware of their surroundings, to report suspicious activities, and to fully cooperate with law enforcement officers as they perform their important additional duties.
No terrorist attacks in Kansas yet, so the system must be working.
Shame about those natural disasters that seem to happen regularly, have advance warning, and (usually) have trained responders with equipment nearby. No need for resources to deal with those when the absence of terrorist threat is a top priority.
Seems to me Sebelius should have labeled tornadoes some kind of terrorist plot, or maybe even a terrorist group (the infamous “Al Tornadoes”). Then the state would have been awash with Halliburton contractors and the Blackwater fundamentalist mercenaries looking to lend a hand on the federal taxpayer’s dollar. Of course, that brings other risks, perhaps even worse than natural disasters:
The former New York Times Mideast Bureau chief warns that the radical Christian right is coming dangerously close to its goal of co-opting the country’s military and law enforcement.
[…]
This effort signals the final and perhaps most deadly stage in the long campaign by the radical Christian right to dismantle America’s open society and build a theocratic state. A successful politicization of the military would signal the end of our democracy.
I bet someone is saying the incompetence of the Bush administration proves that private armies in America could do a better job of securing the citizens. Abe Lincoln must be rolling in his grave.