The Flint Water Crisis: An insight into Republicanism.

[tinydancer]

...And of course they care which side is to blame if they did not think it was someone on the right they would not be posting on it..

One need look no further than the Liberal 'take' on Gun Violence in the City of Chicago to validate the merit in such an observation.

When Pubs are responsible, Libs go for the jugular.

When Dems are responsible, Libs go to extraordinary lengths and truly juicy rationalizations, to try to pass the blame on the Pubs anyway.

Benghazi.

It was a video. Yeah yeah that's the ticket. It was a video made by an anti Muslim conservative. Yeah yeah thats the ticket. It was a video made by an anti Muslim conservative Republican.

The Ambassador and the others died because of an anti Muslim conservative Republican video.

Yeah yeah that's the ticket. The Republicans killed the Ambassador.



Flint same old same old.

 

[Wyatt earp]

The flint story should be getting more press. Its OK to willingly toxify people. I don't care what side is to blame , I hope these people sue for insane amounts...and win big.

Sue and win money from the tax payers. That's always a good plan.

Go fuck yourself.

 

[Iceweasel]

I wonder how many libs are going to sue the GOP for poisoning the children?

 

[PredFan]

The black mayor of Flint gets a pass but the white governor is to blame? Typical left wing garbage.

Lol who said he wasn't to blame? The point is a republican deserves blame so the other Repubs ignore the entire issue.

Nobody is mentioning the black mayor, it's always the governor.

Predfan, the conclusion you jumped at is wrong. The mayor of Flint at the time of the crisis was Dayne Walling, a white man, and a good one, I think. Last November he was voted out in favor of a black woman, Karen Weaver, primarily because of the water crisis. And she is using the current notoriety to full advantage for Flint's recovery. You are adding a false facet to the issue.

I stand corrected.

 

[tinydancer]

Is anyone surprised that the GOP's response to the water crisis in Flint has been mostly silent, and what has been heard from the rank an file on other threads is, who cares, it only effects people who don't pay their water bill.

What is gleaned from this response, and the whiners who objected to Federal aid to the victims on the Jersey Shore from Hurricane Sandy, and using COTUS to defend their lack of humanity and concern for other Americans?

What is gleaned from a fiscally conservative GOP which shuts down the Government at great cost for political theater?

What is the take away from a Congress does nothing positive and spends millions of dollars working to take away health care from millions and investigates the same incident eight times?

For one, The Congress has an 80% + negative poll rating under the leadership (so to speak) of McConnell and Boehner (we've yet to see how well Ryan will impact the group of ne'er-do-wells elected from district which must be populated by members of the Ostrich Party).


A Donkey or a RINO-Elephant have governed under the principle of do no harm, the current iteration of the Republican Party seems focused on the destruction of our nation and creating a nation owned by and governed by the few, the very wealthy and their bidders.

One need only watch a rally for Bernie to see how well the TP mentality has created a movement which strikes fear in the heart of those who support these fiscally myopic authoritarians.

Hey moron. Every EM he appointed to Flint was a fucking Democrat.

TD is incapable of seeing the entire picture, sad but oh so true.

Why should the GOP federally respond to the crisis in Flint? I'm glad they are staying out of it.

D made the bloody disaster. EPA head had to resign.

 

[JustAnotherNut]

Faint GOP interest in Flint’s pain is a mistake, party members say

A number of Republican operatives and allies Friday lamented that the GOP has largely been ignoring the water crisis in Flint and warned that it sends a terrible message to the nation.

“This is an amoral display of political apathy by Republican leaders. Their failure to run to the crisis, roll up their sleeves and pitch in tells the world that we are still the same old Republicans who only care about those who would vote for or contribute to them,” said Alex Castellanos, a political operative who is not working for any of the Republican presidential contenders.

Castellanos said he agreed with an op-ed in the New York Times Thursday written by former White House speechwriter Matt Latimer, who worked for President George W. Bush.

Latimer, a Flint native, wrote that the water crisis was “the Republicans’ chance to show their worth,” and to demonstrate that party leaders who have tried to refocus the GOP on poverty, like House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, mean what they say.

Why aren’t Republican presidential candidates, he asked, “shipping in water bottles and holding fund-raisers for kids now condemned to lowered expectations because their brains were poisoned by lead?”

To be fair, none of the Democratic presidential candidates have done any of those things either. And Republican candidates have not been entirely silent on the issue. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson issued a lengthy statement on the crisis, saying that the citizens of Flint “deserve better – from both their local and federal officials.”

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas called it “a failure at every level of government.” His state director wrote on Facebook that campaign volunteers were bringing fresh water to pro-life pregnancy centers in the city, which counsel women against having abortions. And former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has talked about the matter in a town hall meeting this week in New Hampshire, a spokesman said. No news coverage of Bush’s remarks has yet surfaced online.

But overall, Republicans have been quieter about Flint than Democrats have. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been the most active on the issue among Democratic presidential candidates, repeatedly raising the issue to call for action from state and federal officials, and calling Flint Mayor Karen Weaver to find out what the city needs. Sen. Bernie Sanders has called for Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, to resign.

Many Republicans resent what they see as crass political opportunism by the Democrats.

“[Snyder] was given bad information. Not from Republicans or Democrats but from civil servants, at both the state and federal level,” said Katie Packer, who helped run Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, and is a Michigan native. “When he realized the problem he acted swiftly to fix it, with local and federal help.”

“This is not a partisan problem,” she said.

But in contrast to the Democrats, businessman Donald Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich both were asked by reporters about the issue, and gave sparing replies. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said he hadn’t been briefed on it and added: “That’s not an issue that right now we’ve been focused on.” Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who actually campaigned in Flint over the summer and has been the one Republican candidate to consistently visit African-American communities, has not spoken out on Flint’s water crisis.

It’s not surprising that each candidate’s brain power and energy, and that of their campaign staffs, is primarily focused on how to win the Iowa caucuses in just over a week on Feb. 1.

But Latimer’s deeper point is that for Democrats like Clinton, it’s second nature for them to comment forcefully on a situation where poor Americans in a majority African-American city are the victim of a man-made catastrophe like the one in Flint.

“Every single American should be outraged,” Clinton said at last Sunday’s Democratic debate. She noted that the city was predominantly African-American and said, “I’ll tell you what, if the kids in a rich suburb of Detroit had been drinking contaminated water and being bathed in it, there would’ve been action.”


But the inclination to speak up in the face of crises faced by poor people and racial minorities is not second-nature for many Republican politicians. And so even if demands for Republicans to visit Flint days before the Iowa caucuses are unrealistic, it’s the willingness to speak out on behalf of disadvantaged people that Latimer is pinpointing.

“It’s outrageous Republicans and conservatives have not talked about the tragedy and importance of the matter,” said Juleanna Glover, a veteran Republican political operative who is supporting Bush.

Bob Woodson, an anti-poverty activist who has introduced House Speaker Ryan to community organizers and nonprofit programs in poor areas around the country, said that too many politicians “only look at people in terms of a narrow well-polled demographic.”

“But many of the people I know have experienced brokenness in their lives, and if you look at people in a broader context, they want candidates who understand that,” Woodson said.

Yet one senior adviser to a presidential candidate, who agreed to discuss his thinking on the Flint matter if his candidate’s name were withheld, said he sees the Flint water poisoning as “a long and complicated discussion that doesn’t lend itself to a GOP debate or the frenzied run up to an Iowa caucus.”

“I don’t fully understand it yet, though I plan to. Who is to blame. State EPA? Federal EPA? City managers? State government?” the adviser said. “It might be a place to say, ‘Ok, we want to help,’ but you have to really want to find out what failed and why.”

But Castellanos said the GOP can’t afford the luxury of waiting to find out the facts before at least expressing empathy and outrage over what is known unequivocally. Whoever is ultimately to blame, Flint’s children have been poisoned, with life-threatening and life-altering effects.

Castellanos said GOP reluctance to speak forcefully “is a tragic display that the Republican party still doesn’t get it.”

“[American Enterprise Institute President] Arthur Brooks has explained it with clarity: the party that is for people will always beat by the party that is against things,” Castellanos said. “Yet, at moments like this in Flint, when the country’s attention is focused on another Katrina, we find a way to tell people that we are not the party that is for people.”

“Maybe that should be the GOP motto: ‘Love your contributors and neighbors as yourself and screw everybody else,’” he said.


Sure the headline reads lack of GOP's interest, but the article also address's lack of interest from Dems also. Though I do have to give Hillary some credit here, since she is the only one that has even addressed the issue facing the citizens of Flint.
But not ONE of any of the candidates, either side of the aisle, have DONE a damn thing to help. They are only worried about their damn campaign and getting elected. Don't they realize they could really boost their numbers by rolling up their sleeves & helping out? Even if from behind a desk or making a few phone calls?

Doesn't this give any of you an idea of what to expect from your hopeful candidate should any trouble befall you? Apparently NONE of them seem to care enough about the people to step up. What a sad world we live in huh?

 

[tinydancer]

I think they are wise to stay out of the fracas the Dems have caused until more information becomes available.

 

[tinydancer]

By the way, Trump apparently did say that it was a shame on what was happening in Flint.

 

[Rambunctious]

Anyone with a brain has given up on that democrat hell hole along time ago. Fix your own mess Flint.

 

[Andylusion]

If I jump in my car, and drive it into the nearest tree... can I force you to pay for it? You are obligated to pay for my car. It's your job! Don't you care about your fellow Americans? Don't you have empathy for the poor? I demand you fix my life! It's your duty! It's your patriotic responsibility!

Are you saying you are greedy? You have no heart? You are evil! What a terrible person you are.

 

[leftwinger]

The facts in the Flint water "crisis" are hard to find. For instance, is it every home (or those with old lead pipes)? Are copper pipe homes OK? How many are/were up to date on water bill? FED EPA was notified when? did what? Is it truly the Flint river supply or the chemical treatment is now missing? Who approved the EM orders? If they were able to switch to Flint river water did they blow up the old pipes to the "good" water? why not switch back until fixed? where are the records of testing? what do the records show? How do they provide water if revenue is not received?

on and on and on...........no facts, just blame the R.

 

[Rambunctious]

The facts in the Flint water "crisis" are hard to find. For instance, is it every home (or those with old lead pipes)? Are copper pipe homes OK? How many are/were up to date on water bill? FED EPA was notified when? did what? Is it truly the Flint river supply or the chemical treatment is now missing? Who approved the EM orders? If they were able to switch to Flint river water did they blow up the old pipes to the "good" water? why not switch back until fixed? where are the records of testing? what do the records show? How do they provide water if revenue is not received?

on and on and on...........no facts, just blame the R.

Old lead pipes don't help but the problem began when Flint voted to save money and switch their main source of water from the Lake to a river. Not very smart.

 

[bullwinkle]

As usual lefties have it bak-assward. The president is ignoring the Flint water issue hoping that left wing idiots blame the GOP.

Well Obama has sent in the Fed to see what is happening!

Although there must be many democrats to blame as well, otherwise he would be wanting the NFL to move their games so he could speak on TV to bash the Republicans..

Y'know kosh, it's beginning to look like you'll make any kind of fool of yourself to slam against Obama. And the Sock ID whatever is beginning to look like autism. How do YOU react to incessant repetition? Turn off?

 

[JustAnotherNut]

aaaahhh WOW. I would think getting fresh drinking water to the people would be the first & foremost important aspect here, for their very survival. THEN bitch it over about who & what is to blame or who is going to pay for it?

WOW, just WOW

 

[Kosh]

As usual lefties have it bak-assward. The president is ignoring the Flint water issue hoping that left wing idiots blame the GOP.

Well Obama has sent in the Fed to see what is happening!

Although there must be many democrats to blame as well, otherwise he would be wanting the NFL to move their games so he could speak on TV to bash the Republicans..

Y'know kosh, it's beginning to look like you'll make any kind of fool of yourself to slam against Obama. And the Sock ID whatever is beginning to look like autism. How do YOU react to incessant repetition? Turn off?

Only stating facts about Obama and the far left!

If you can not handle facts that is your problem!

 

[Kosh]

Lol I'm not on this board much because I'm busy working for a living, yet biscuit Kosh thinks I'm a sock because they have mental problems. Kosh needs a koosh ball to settle their sanity.

Yes we all know you are sock ID!

Silly far left drone!

 

[alpine]

I agree with the republicans on this one, if you cant afford clean water, then you deserve to drink lead water...

Not having access to expensive education, therefore not being able to learn a good paying trade, therefore being poor is your own problem, deal with it...

 

[jwoodie]

Democrats: "Never let a crisis go to waste."

This is a creation of a Democrat city and a Democrat EPA, yet they seek to blame Republicans for this mess. Right out of the Katrina playbook?

 

[Katzndogz]

The facts in the Flint water "crisis" are hard to find. For instance, is it every home (or those with old lead pipes)? Are copper pipe homes OK? How many are/were up to date on water bill? FED EPA was notified when? did what? Is it truly the Flint river supply or the chemical treatment is now missing? Who approved the EM orders? If they were able to switch to Flint river water did they blow up the old pipes to the "good" water? why not switch back until fixed? where are the records of testing? what do the records show? How do they provide water if revenue is not received?

on and on and on...........no facts, just blame the R.

Old lead pipes don't help but the problem began when Flint voted to save money and switch their main source of water from the Lake to a river. Not very smart.

The problem began when the people of Flint stopped paying the water bill.

 

[depotoo]

The Midwest epa director resigned over hiding they knew it many months ago.