Northwest Indiana Discussion

Mitt Romney: Federal relief spending is "immoral."
Filed under things you don't want on the record as a hurricane threatens 50 million voters right before an election.

Yes it certainly is immoral to spend money on disaster relief when you could save all of that money and provide tax breaks to the rich. Don't you agree?

By the way Sandy is currently gaining strength and could impact up to 50 million Americans. Right now President Obama is getting relief efforts underway and has promised to cut through the red tape and get help to those afflicted as quickly as possible.

This is not official but I do believe that Romney's response to the storm was something along the lines of "Well can't those people just leave the area and weather the storm in one of their other houses?"

Mitt Romney’s campaign has sent its bus to collect and distribute donated supplies for those in the path of Hurricane Sandy, aides said Monday.

Romney was originally slated to campaign over the weekend in Virginia, but canceled plans there and joined running mate Paul Ryan in Ohio. Curt Cashour, Romney’s Virginia communications director, tweeted Monday that the campaign bus will instead be used to transport basic supplies to local storm-relief centers.

Christie praises Obama, doesn’t ‘give a damn’ about Romney photo op

The New Jersey governor even took his message to Fox News, saying that Obama had helped “tremendously.”

“I spoke to the president three times yesterday,” he explained. “He called me for the last time at midnight last night asking what he could do. I said, if you can expedite designating New Jersey as a major disaster area that that would help us to get federal money and resources in here as quickly as possible to help clean up the damage here.”

“The president was great last night,” Christie continued. “He said he would get it done. At 2 a.m., I got a call from FEMA to answer a couple of final questions and then he signed the declaration this morning. So I have to give the president great credit. He’s been on the phone with me three times in the last 24 hours. He’s been very attentive, and anything that I’ve asked for, he’s gotten to me. So, I thank the president publicly for that. He’s done — as far as I’m concerned — a great job for New Jersey.”

Fox News co-host Steve Doocy wondered when Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was going to get some of the same benefits from the hurricane with a photo op in disaster-stricken New Jersey towns.

“Over the last couple of months, you have appeared throughout the country, Governor, on behalf of Mitt Romney,” Doocy remarked to Christie. “[W]e hear that perhaps Mr. Romney may do some storm-related events. Is there any possibility that Gov. Romney may go to New Jersey to tour some of the damage with you?”

“I have no idea, nor am I the least bit concerned or interested,” Christie replied, immediately shutting down the idea. “I’ve got a job to do here in New Jersey that’s much bigger than presidential politics and I could [sic] care less about any of that stuff.”


“I have a job to do,” he added. “I’ve got 2.4 million people out of power, I’ve got devastation on the shore, I’ve got floods in the northern part of my state. If you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics then you don’t know me.”
Watch this video from Fox News’ Fox & Friends, broadcast Oct. 30, 2012.

Atlantic City mayor on Gov. Christie's rebuke: 'Misinformed and ill-advised'

By Eun Kyung Kim, TODAY contributor

Atlantic City mayor Lorenzo Langford escalated tensions with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie after the mayor said Tuesday he would welcome the chance “to confront the governor mano y mano” over how he handled the city’s evacuation during Hurricane Sandy.

A day earlier, Christie had criticized Langford as a “rogue mayor” for supposedly encouraging residents to ride out the storm in designated shelters rather than leave the area entirely.

He told TODAY’s Matt Lauer on Tuesday that Atlantic City residents received mixed messages from his executive order requiring everyone to evacuate and Langford’s encouragement to take cover instead.

“I feel badly for the folks in Atlantic City who listened to him and sheltered in Atlantic City, and I guess my anger has turned to sympathy for those folks, and we’re in the midst now of trying to go in and save them,” Christie said.

Langford strongly denied the characterization of what happened, saying the governor was “either misinformed and ill-advised, or simply just deciding to prevaricate.”

“I’m telling you that is absolutely false and the governor needs to be challenged,” he said. “Where did he get that information? He is dead wrong.”


New Jersey's Governor Chris Christie talks to TODAY's Matt Lauer about his disappointment with Mayor Lorenzo Langford's "mixed messages," saying "I feel badly for the folks in Atlantic City who listened to him."

Officials estimate that as much as 80 percent of Atlantic City was under water at high tide Monday during the brunt of the storm. Water as much as eight feet deep surged through the streets. Christie said both state and federal search and rescue teams arrived on site early Tuesday morning to help those stranded in their homes or at shelter sites.

“Here we are in throes of a major catastrophe and the governor has chosen a time such as this to play politics. I think it’s reprehensible that he would stoop to the level to try and make a political situation out of something that is so serious as this situation,” he said.

During a news conference Monday, Christie said Langford encouraged residents to take shelter at designated sites because he “didn’t want his people leaving the city.”

“I don’t have a feud with the guy, but I wish he’d do his job," he said at the time. He also tweeted, “I am very disappointed in those who did not listen to my order to evacuate.”

Langford refuted the charge, saying most Atlantic City residents did evacuate, as ordered.

"Unfortunately, there will always be those who did not heed that warning," he said. "We had a plan in place for those few residents who would decide at the last minute that they would not try to heed our warning and vacate the city but would try to hunker down, tough it out, only to find at some other time that they wanted to flee. We had that contingency plan in place."

Well done, Governor.

If there was any doubt that Romney’s “relief event” was political in nature, however, it should be erased by the fact that the Red Cross does not actually want the campaign’s help. As Alex Seitz-Wald points out at Salon, the Romney campaign encouraged atendees to bring canned goods, clothes, and other items to the rally, and Romney said at the event, “We’re going to box them up, then send them into New Jersey.”

The Red Cross does not accept donated goods, however. As its website explains, “Items such as collected food, used clothing and shoes must be sorted, cleaned, repackaged and transported, which impedes the valuable resources of money, time, and personnel.” So, despite Romney’s best intentions, his campaign’s relief efforts will provide little more help to hurricane victims than Paul Ryan’s infamous soup kitchen stunt provided to Youngstown, Ohio’s homeless.

Romney’s fellow Republicans have also done their part to complicate their presidential nominee’s response to the hurricane. Although Romney has refused to answer questions about whether he would cut FEMA’s budget (or even privatize it, as he suggested during the Republican primaries,) New Jersey’s Republican Governor Chris Christie has been vocal in his support of the job that FEMA — and President Obama — have done in the wake of the storm. Christie, ostensibly a Romney supporter, also declared that he doesn’t “give a damn” if Romney plans to travel to New Jersey to tour the damage left in Sandy’s wake.
http://www.nationalmemo.com/romney-repu ... ter-sandy/

at least 30 Americans dead from this storm and this is what you post? what an ignorant POS you are!

What was that again Mittens?


Damn right, disaster relief should be privatized so somebody makes a profit from a disaster.
See Dick Cheney-Halliburton


Watch Mitt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhXyJeKaj8E

at least 30 Americans dead from this storm and this is what you post? what an ignorant POS you are!

President Barack Obama receives an update on the ongoing response to Hurricane Sandy, in the Situation Room of the White House, Oct. 29 2012. Participating via teleconference, clockwise from top left, are: Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano; FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate; Rick Knabb, Director of the National Hurricane Center; Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood; and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. Pictured, from left, are: Clark Stevens, Assistant Press Secretary; Emmett Beliveau, Director of the Office of the Chief of Staff; John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism; Richard Reed, Deputy Assistant to the President for Homeland Security; Chuck Donnell, Senior Director for Resilience; Asha Tribble, Senior Director for Response; Chief of Staff Jack Lew; Alyssa Mastromonaco, Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations; Press Secretary Jay Carney; and David Agnew, Director for Intergovernmental Affairs.