This is an update and I am bumping and shuffling the information into a more comprehensive form, from an earlier post:
Fire news first then I will get to the titled story:
Original Post
We have been updating on the California wildfires, here and updated here, from the day they started.
Update on the fire first because it is the most important thing here:
Over a thousand homes, and rising, have been destroyed and firefighters are struggling with over a dozen fires in Southern California.
The fires have burned over 400,000 acres of land.
Around Lake Arrowhead the fire has consumed over 300 homes and threatens over 10,000 more according to state forestry officials and over a million people have been evacuated from their homes across Southern California and so far we are seeing reports of 5 deaths directly or indirectly related to the fire.
Officials are already estimating over one billion dollars worth of damage in San Diego alone.
The American Red Cross is sending 2,000 shelter workers and volunteers into the area to help with relief and recovery efforts. In addition, hundreds of “spontaneous” volunteers are arriving and being put to work. More than 75 mobile feeding vehicles have already been dispatched, along with thousands of comfort kits, blankets, and cots and more than 50,000 prepackaged meals.
Red Cross workers are also distributing water and food to firefighters and emergency workers in the affected areas. The Red Cross continues to work with its partners and local authorities to respond to the needs of those affected by the fires.
People affected by the wildfires are encouraged to register themselves on the Red Cross Safe and Well Website. Family members and friends can log on and search for registered individuals to learn of their whereabouts and status.
Please consider going to the Red Cross donation page and making a donation to help them help our neighbors in need.[Update]
These blazes are being attributed to Arson. The LA Times reports that there is an arson suspect in custody and another one was shot.
Amid worries of new blazes adding to the firestorm already afflicting the region, a man in Hesperia has been arrested on suspicion of arson, and police reported shooting and killing another arson suspect after chasing him out of scrub behind Cal State San Bernardino.I have heard conflicting news reports about the reward being offered for information on the arsonists, one report says it is $50,000 and another said $70,000. I see the $50,000 in more articles so I will stick with that figure.
Law enforcement officials said today that they didn't know whether either of the men had started any of the more than a dozen large fires that have devastated Southern California in recent days, including the nearby Lake Arrowhead blaze. The brush fire in Hesperia was quickly extinguished by residents.
Investigators have said that at least two of the huge wildfires, one in Orange County and the other in Temecula, were the work of arsonists.
The confrontation that ended in the shooting death started about 6 p.m. Tuesday when San Bernardino university police spotted a man in a rural area of flood channels and scrub near the campus. University police tried to detain the man, but he got into his car and fled, authorities said. When he began to ram officers' vehicle, they shot him.
The suspect is described as a 27-year-old man with a home address in Arizona. Sheriff's investigators will search his impounded pickup truck pending a search warrant, Lt. Scott Patterson of the San Bernardino Police Department said this afternoon.
No additional information, including his identity will be released until Thursday.
Now for the politicians disgustingly using this tragedy for political gain,
That started this morning with Harry Reid's idiocy:
Harry "Baghdad" Reid once again sticks his big ole bozo the clown foot right into his mouth. (Hat Tip to Townhall:
After a closed door policy meeting with other Senate Democrats, Majority Leader and utter buffoon Hary Reid of Nevada took to the microphones just outside the floor of the United States Senate, and fielded questions.In response to a question on the energy bill, Reid said the following:As you know, one reason that we have the fires burning in Southern California is global warming. One reason the Colorado Basin is going dry is because of global warming.
Six questions later, a reporter followed up on Reid's amazing statement.Question: Senator, on the California fires, you said that the reason the fires are burning in California is global warming?
Reid: No. Here's what I - I didn't say the reason the fires were burning in Southern California was global warming...
First, Reid is an idiot because tried to use global warming as a prop in a current news story in order to advance his energy bill agenda. When called on it, he denied he said it. It's on tape. You can listen to it here.
Read the rest of the Townhall piece.
Just another example of Harry opening his mouth and speaking about something he knows nothing about and to quote Dennis Miller, perhaps he should keep his "ashen piehole" shut, he won't prove how much of an idiot he is every time he opens it.
Following the line about this being said with NO due respect, the highlights of the video are when Miller calls Reid a "whiney hack", a "dim bulb", tells people that the "bad guys look to Reid", refers to his mouth as an "ashen piehole", tells Reid he "barely matters" and suggests to Reid that he "Never EVER speak out loud in public again".
Take Our Country Back says Reid cannot help it... He is a buffoon.
PELOSI:
Michelle Malkin shows, via an email from Roy Blunt, us another politician, Nancy Pelosi, that is trying to take advantage of this tremendously horrible disaster for political purposes to take advantage of the fact that California politicians are busy helping their state and homes, so that she can sneak another SCHIP bill through while they are gone.
House Republican Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.) issued the following statement today after House Democrats announced they plan to push through controversial SCHIP legislation tomorrow while a number of members from southern California are back in their districts responding to the wildfires:
“The scope, scale and severity of the fires raging in southern California are of a magnitude few of us have ever seen. What’s important right now is that members from the area be given the chance to return to their districts to aid their constituents in any way they can – whether through casework, disaster relief efforts, or simply lending a hand to a neighbor in need.
“Unfortunately, the speaker announced plans today to hold an important, and contentious, vote on SCHIP while these members are confronting serious issues at home – disenfranchising, in effect, a large segment of the most populous state in the union, and throwing into doubt the integrity of the vote.
“In light of these circumstances, I would urge the speaker to reconsider her strategy and delay the vote on her SCHIP bill until a time when the interests of millions of Americans in southern California can be accurately represented. Maybe in that time Democrats will also actually consider making a copy of the bill available to Republicans.”
Moving right along to Bill Richardson:
Jammie Wearing Fool shows us that Bill Richardson is already using this tagedy for political purposes and as a campaign fundraising effort.
Leave it to the Democrats to sink lower than slithering snakes by using this horrible tragedy for political gain.
Shame on them.
Arnold Schwarzenegger just stated on an interview that anyone that is claiming that there has not been enough for resources for these fires are complaining just to complain, the response has been optimal.
He doesn't appreciate people trying to use this disaster for some political game. (Example: Richardson )
He also took the reporter to task for trying to politicize the fire.
GOOD FOR ARNOLD!!!!
[Update] I found a portion of his comment, but it leaves out where he criticized the reporter.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dismissed the criticism this morning when questioned by an ABC News reporter. He praised the rapid deployment of fire crews and equipment across a region from north of Los Angeles to the Mexican border.
"Anyone that is complaining about the planes just wants to complain, because there's a bunch of nonsense," he said in the broadcast interview. "The fact is that we could have all the planes in the world here -- we have 90 aircraft here and six that we got especially from the federal government -- and they can't fly because of the wind situation."
.