Friday Rapid Response: Sock it to the Guard, abandon the poor...but make sure Brownie gets his dinner

The following media action alert courtesy of the Oregon branch of the Rapid Response Network.

Oregon Report — Friday, October 21, 2005

1. “National Guard drained of key gear”—we are less safe
2. Republicans cutting health care, education; paying for Iraq on backs of the poor
3. Brownie’s dinner break: jaw-dropping FEMA emails

4. David Brooks on “radioactive” Bush, “imbecile” Dems

1. “National Guard drained of key gear”—we are less safe

Guard drained of key gear, study finds: Equipment left in Iraq has diminished the National Guard's ability to respond to U.S. disasters

Guard units from across the country are leaving behind millions of dollars worth of equipment when they depart, creating a shortage back home that cuts into their ability to train and respond to national disasters, according to a report released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office.

This just keeps getting worse and worse.
letters@news.oregonian.com
Or contact your local paper
Drop a quick line to national media
Contact your elected representatives

2. Republicans cutting health care, education; paying for Iraq on backs of the poor

Story: Smith steers GOP to limit health cuts
Editorial: Ominous times in the budget debate

Please be sure to write to or call your representatives urging they cut the tax cuts for the wealthy to help pay for Iraq and hurricane relief. Cutting the budget on the backs of the poor is unacceptable. Continuing tax cuts for the wealthy in a time of war and natural disaster is fiscally irresponsible.

It would also be a good idea to thank Sen. Smith for taking a stand on this issue. He should get lots of kudos whenever he has the courage to move away from the Bush playbook.

Meanwhile, we learn that "Winter shelter is key need for quake survivors":
Even in the face of the epic destruction, foreign donors have so far pledged less than $90 million, or barely a quarter of the $312 million that the United Nations estimates it will need for immediate relief.

Why on earth aren’t we sending at least $300 million right now to help save thousands of people’s lives?

Your thoughts:
Contact your elected representatives
letters@news.oregonian.com
Or contact your local paper
Drop a quick line to national media

3. Brownie’s dinner break: jaw-dropping FEMA emails

David Sarasohn does a masterful job recounting the outrageous FEMA "emails of failure." At first I thought it was satire, but the emails are real. A must-read.

The federal response to Hurricane Katrina is one of those situations, wildly common these days, that look terrible at the beginning and worse when you get into them. The exchange of FEMA e-mails, released Thursday by the House special committee investigating the fiasco -- a committee, by the way, that is doing a serious job and which the Democrats should stop boycotting -- is just one element of the grotesque debris emerging as the waters recede

Question: why are these emails covered in an op-ed column rather than in the Oregonian’s news section? There is a tiny (six-paragraph) wire item on P. A2 that refers briefly to the FEMA official’s testimony, but that’s it.

Please weigh in:
publiceditor@news.oregonian.com
davidsarasohn@news.oregonian.com
letters@news.oregonian.com

4. David Brooks on “radioactive” Bush, “imbecile” Dems

The Brooks column that appears in today’s Oregonian, “Bracing for a winter of our discontent,” gives some interesting insight into how Bush has become “radioactive” among voters in swing states. (Note: NYTimes op-ed content is now subscription-only, and I can’t find another online source. Sorry!) That’s the fun part. He then argues that Dems are in terrible shape, “pathetic,” out of touch, blah blah. (Doing his best, as always, to repeat the lie that the eminently sensible, moderate Dean is “far left”--and repeat it often enough that it becomes fixed in the public mind.)

Brooks mocks Dean for “refer[ring] to his base as ‘merlot Democrats.’” I googled this and appears to stem from a Sunday Washington Post story making fun of this pollster-created label. Yes, I’m sorry to say, a D. adviser actually created and promulgated the term “merlot Democrats” to describe the base of loyal Democrats, some of whom are educated/higher income/wine drinking types, and Dean apparently is actually using it in his speeches.

Unfortunately, the DNC doesn’t seem to have grasped how the use of this label would create instant fodder for the righties to attack Dems as elitist, out of touch, and just plain dumb. (Why not simply call this segment “loyal Democrats”?? Doesn’t Dean remember the “volvo-driving, latte-drinking” attack ads?)

I have sent in a comment to the DNC urging them to drop this term. If you wish to do the same, here is the contact link:
http://www.democrats.org/page/s/contact

P.S. I’m pleased to report that yesterday’s Statesman Journal online poll on M37 ended up (by the time I last checked yesterday early evening) with respondents overwhelmingly agreeing with the judge’s decision. A few early diatribes against “activist judges overturning the voters will” got completely dwarfed by thoughtful comments calling for common-sense protections for our landscape. Yay! (Today’s SJ poll is about feral cats, so I am not posting it in the alert. )

Never give up.
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