It is more likely that the devastation in California will be resolved more quickly than the devastation in New Orleans because those affected in California are mostly White republicans as opposed to New Orleans where those affected were mostly African-American and democrats.

Dodd,
Is a political Hack as is Pelosie, and every other democrat or republican who jumps on the back of the people affected by these wild fires. It is not about Bush, but about poor management of the california forrests, and by uninformed environmental  groups with their own agendas.

complain, complain, complain....it's just sickening...can't a politician say something nice for a change...something positive?

 Why didn't Chris Matthews ask "candidate" Hunter, what percent of the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are National Guard and USAR?  It is my understanding, that figure is about 40% +/-.
 If I am wrong as to that figure, please correct me.

 Thanks

Tell Dodd he should visit the area...respose was outstanding of an emergency of this magnitude

Time for him to go

How stupid do these people think we are?

There must be a bunch of us that are, shame on teh people of Connecticut for electing such morons...

Good thing he has a big mouth..........Otherwise, his foot wouldn't fit.  Inappropriate comment at an inappropriate time.

I just love it when all these talking heads pontificate on wildfires.  I spent 33 years fighting wildfires.  I started as a line grunt and ended as a type two finance chief on one of the IC teams.  Listening to the politicians talking all I can do is shake my head.  

The worst comment was Harry Reid saying it is all the fault of Global Warming.  How about all the politicians of both sides get back to their jobs (which they have been terrible at) and pipe down until they get a clue.  

Dodd is an idiot now and has always been an idiot

Interesting that the Democrats criticize using the Nat'l Guard, but since the last Democratic administration cut the military so much, we have to rely on the Guard more. Easier to cut the military than it is to build it. My fighter squadron was one of those that no longer is in existence.

Why is it, when a democrat critizes a republican or administration, they are called "nuts" or not "patriotic" or some other nonsense.  When Bush was critized for his non performance in the Air National Guard, every news outlet and republican politician goes after those that say things about bush.  The Republicans are nothing more than a propaganda machine trying to keep everyone shut up.

As a professional fireman with over thirty years on the job , I can only express my disgust at Dudd's political smear chat. This guy would be the first to run at a real blaze. As for the union's endorsement , that's how low it has sunk ! A shame indeed !

It always seems that a candidate wants to get recognition by criticizing our administration for not responding/reacting fast enough or to slowly.  Instead they should be asking what can they do to help.  Or how they can be of help.  We need all the help everyone can give.  Please pray for all the displaced family's, and the firefighters!! And a quick end to the fires.  Also find any person responsible for setting any of these fires. (I have friends and family affected by these fires.) As as firefighter in the past, they are putting their lives on the line for all of us here, to save all possible homes and property.  God Bless Them!!

dodd is a "duh"...at least he didn't blame the fires global warming...but we KNOW that al gore is mooning over his powerpoint presentation right now.just a thought...what about state of california doing controlled burns every now and then.this happens every year...kinda like hurricanes in florida,tornados in kansas,and  mosquitos in texas.next year have a plan...or move to oklahoma(no forests,no fires)

There are 17,000 national guardsmen ready for deployment but Bush has nothing to do with them its the governors call when and where to deploy them and the nation guard is not trained in fighting brush fires and do not have the equipment. So get off the political crap and if your pregnant its not Bushes fault. And the president dosent set funding the congress sets funding for all Bills that need funding.

The liberal answer to everything "It's Bush's fault!". Global warming, Bush's fault. Illegal immigration, Bush's fault. Earthquakes, floods, fires, famine, Bush's fault! Blah, Blah, Blah! No wonder no one votes anymore!

Senator Dodd and the Democratic California Lieutenant Governor are unwilling to exert intellectual honesty regarding the abject failure of leaderhip by the Democratic Mayor and Govenor that led to the disaster in New Orleans.

Say what one wants about the Govenator, Arnold has exerted a force of leadership upon an otherwise unruly state in California.  The State's response to these fires is just another example of real leadership--absent the rhetoric of the Democrats.  This Govenor did not wait for a call from the President, he did it the correct and legal manner by calling for federal assistance at the beginning.  No whinning and no "Girly Men" allowed!!

The Current Administration could blame the lack of response on the difficulties in lining up No-Bid Contractors to handle the problem/problems on short notice. In the case of Iraq, they were ready on Inaugaration Day.

If these fires are the result or arson.Whether a SINGLE person loses their life or not--when the arsonist are caught--they should be tried--convicted and sentenced to life without the slightest chance for parole.If a single person loses their life the arsonist should be tried for Capitol MURDER.No wrist slaps and I did not mean it to happen and I'm sorry it happened.They should be tried and sentenced to DEATH.

To use a tragedy like the Ca fires to load the blame on Bush is such a low blow.

I live in CA, I can see the fire line from my home.  Senator Dodd you make me sick. Why don't you think about and do something constructive. What a self serving person you are.

Dodd you are an idiot.
1) Congress passes funding bills not the "administration".
2) Lack of first responders due to National Guard service is based on some "fuzzy" math.
3) Thank you for offering to redistribute the wealth to California but no thanks, I would prefer my tax money was spent closer to home.
4) If Californians want fire protection let them pay for it themselves.
Efforts were tried in San Diego to improve the fire protection system, but no majority living there wanted to pay for it.  



Thank you Mr. Dodd but no...as usual  

who is Dodd??????

Oh, please half a TRILLION dollars on a piece of s***
called Iraq, Bush has never earned an honest dollar in his life.  God (his or yours) won't save this country from bankrupicy.  The Chinesse are buying the US one billion per day. In 2020 the Federal Gov. will be broke, spending all income to service this debit.

I guess all the DC politicians who have sweethart health benifits, never mind their pensions, just don't care.  Our Gov. is truely morally bankrupt,
Gov. for the Corporations, by the Corupitions and of the Corpurations.

I'm surprised he didn't blame George Bush for starting the fire!!!  It's obviously his fault.  Ask Hillary or Obama.

just remember that stupid people make stupid comments, is that who you would want for president?

The only way this has-been can attract any attention is by yelling "fire" in a nearly-empty theater of clowns.  Go back where you came from, Dudd, and play with matches.

I cannot stress enough the importance of the need for “we the people” to act now and to bring this disaster to an end by knowing the UNKNOWN TRUTH.
America I cannot stress enough the importance of TRUTH; this president is a liar and therefore this makes him unique in his failures too; actually, he is the epitome of failure; not possessing one ounce of leadership or statesman skills; yet he promised he was!

America one thing, I personally cannot understand, everything that comes from this “Idiot” has to be thought as not the TRUTH; even less, not TRUSTED in the least.  I mean all that is coming from the United States Government has to be suspected as not the TRUTH; forget about.  But, all those that support this LIAR lend credit to this liar to be sure! To me everything from Cabinet member to Departments that ever day come up with rosy scenarios of how efficient something working in the Bush Presidency; yet, comes the fiascos at the Walter Reed Hospital. How about the Katrina disaster, where “Brownie your doing a great job” was the calculated assessment of the “Decider” or better yet, Idiot-in-Chief? Come on America lets get serious! Learn what is the UNKNOWN TRUTH?  READ, READ, READ and learn from it!

Bush has called upon American armed service people, including Reserve forces, to sacrifice for ever-lengthening tours of duty in a hostile and dangerous environment while he rewards the rich at home with lower taxes and legislative giveaways and gives lucrative no-bid contracts to American corporations linked with the administration.

Bush proclaimed himself to be a conservative while maintaining that big government should be able to run roughshod over the Bill of Rights, and that the American government must have all sorts of secrets from the people, but the people can be allowed no privacy from the government.

Although previous presidents have led the nation into ill-advised wars, no predecessor managed to turn America into an unprovoked aggressor. No predecessor so thoroughly managed to confirm the impressions of those who already hated America. No predecessor so effectively convinced such a wide range of world opinion that America is an imperialist threat to world peace. I don't think that you can do much worse than that.

He severely curtailed the very American freedoms that our military people are supposed to be fighting to defend as elements of the (“The Patriot Act”).
Bush has created of the United States as the “bully in the school yard” and can’t manage to bring us back to a respected World Power in the International Community of a fair and just presence.

No where else on this planet; except in America is a complete “idiot” who is so ignorant and such a feeble minded individual and who is able to fool the people with his lies; then, not have to pay the consequences for achieving nothing; nothing but, failure after successive failure!

The crazy mans failures will continue till he is finally, sent packing to his ranch to rot.

Gotta love how that idiot turned it into a political statement in Iraq.  Lying about how there aren't enough people here because they're all in Iraq, what a creep!

It may not be fair for Dodd to frame the SD fires in this fashion.  SD had a major fire disaster in 2003 and not only learned many lessons but applied them as well.  It's also fair to say that the response had absolutly zero input from the feds until they showed up for the photo ops.

If you want to compare it to Katrina, the average home value of those burned probably exceeds $500,000, and many in parts of Rancho Bernardo and Poway are in the $5M to $10M range.  Let's just say that nobody was blocking the escape route.

Dodd wasn't the only one.  Harry Reid and Barbara Boxer also politicized the issue.  The Democrats, and the media, continue to embarrass themselves by trying to find failure in success cases.  And no matter what the US or any state and local government does, the Democrats somehow have to tie it back to Iraq or so-called global warming.  It is pathetic behavior by people you think would know better.

The truth of the fires is that California has all the resources they need to cope with the fires.  Global warming is not a cause of the fires, arson is expected in at least one of the fires, and the National Guard presence in California is adequate.  Democrats though continue to rip the fine people that are fighting the fires and fighting the wars for this country.  They should be ashamed of themselves.  These Democrats are absolutely insane.

Whatever happens the first Democrats like Dodd to is to try and bash Bush over it, no matter if he had nothing to do with it. Meanwhile Republicans in office just seem to be trying to help the people affected by the disaster. But just like the Democrats with Congress, it is a lot easier to sit and criticise all day than it is to actually do anything. Dodd slams his political rivals and gets his name in the press all without doing anything of any value and in fact making it harder for other people who are.

Senator Dodd is correct; the California Guard should be at home, not in Iraq. The lieutenant governor of California said that the California guard should be in California and even the governor said that the California guard standing border watch in the southwest should be back in California.  Again, poor planning by Bush for Iraq.

Ghostdog,are you implying that white Republicans work harder and are more efficient than African American Democrats?

gerri buena park ca - who is Dodd??????

One of the leading geniuses of the Democratic party.

Barbara Boxer (D) California stuck her foot in her mouth the other day when she said there was not enough people and equipment to fight the fires.....

Next day she stood in front of a bunch of firefighters and said everything was under control.

Then this idiot Lt. Governor of California went one on one with John Gibson on his show and tried to turn the fires into a debate on Iraq.  When Gibson refused to play his game, the political hack slammed the phone down on his ear.

The Lt. Governor needs to apologize to President Bush when he comes out to look at the fire damage today.

Chris who? That pundict is a joke

Does Dodd want to reveal what he and his fellow Democrats spent Defense appropriations monies including funding for state national guard units on or should I?

Does Dodd want to really present the actual number of National Guardsmen that the California governor has still not called to assist in these fires who are presently in California or should I?


www.porkbusters.com


www.calguard.ca.gov

Here in Los Angeles County we have a pinko/socialistic system called the Los Angeles County Fire Department. They saved my neighborhood and many others so we had only a very small number a structures lost in our fire.
San Diego does not have a pinko/socialistic county fire department so has lost hundreds of homes, so no house but they kept their taxes down.

Unsurpisingly,Olberman on last nights COUNTDOWN failed to observe what defense monies were being spent for in California by its chief legislators Boxer,Feinstein,and most notoriously,Pelosi[who steered dough in a defense bill rider to purchase the old Hunters Point Naval Shipyard located on prime San Francisco real estate which was handed over to her nephew,Lawrence Pelosi, that would have purchased literally hundreds of state Guard vehicles]. Nor does it end there. According to San Franciscos ABC news affiliate of note,KGO-TV, [comparing the timeline and the city Olberman used for his San Francisco Chronicle source with which to blast Bush],in late May 2007,it was found that the Democrat majority in the state legislature backed by Lt.Gov.John Garamendi,refused to release state funds for assisting in Guard member college-tuition that were ,in the words of the states Guard commander ''critical''for the retention of Guard troops. To this hour,  California remains the only state in the Union that does not allow such tuition assistance.Hundreds,if not thousands of Guard troops demanded reassigning to posts in Texas and Alabama that offered more generous education packages. Boxer is a dishonest liar,and can not be excused, as her being from this state. Dodd,who is a easterner,is merely grandstanding for the cameras.

Bklyn Ron says "Ghostdog,are you implying that white Republicans work harder and are more efficient than African American Democrats?"

Careful, that's Biden's theory.  Don't be plagiarizing Biden.  He gets really testy about people that do that.

Hey Alan from the Vegas:
"Why didn't Chris Matthews ask "candidate" Hunter, what percent of the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are National Guard and USAR?  It is my understanding, that figure is about 40% +/-.
If I am wrong as to that figure, please correct me."

Read the story.  You'll find this:

"On Hardball with Chris Matthews this afternoon, Republican candidate Duncan Hunter called that idea “nuts” because, he said, only 10 percent of the National Guard is in Afghanistan or Iraq."

Consider yourself corrected.  BTW, it is cold and rainy here in Missouri.  I blame George Bush and Karl Rove.

THE REAL PROBLEM LIES IN THAT THE POLITITIANS ARE SPENDING ALL THEIR TIME BICKERING AMONG EACH OTHER WHILE WE ARE PAYING THE PRICE. THEY ARE AND HAVE BEEN ACTING LIKE A GROUP OF KINDERGARDEN CHILDREN. WHEN THEY GET THEIR HEADS OUT OF THE DARK HOLE THEY MAY RESPOND BETTER. OR WE CAN VOTE ALL NEW PEOPLE IN THEIR POSITIONS.

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