And get their free sh.tuff.

Editors of the NYT...wow I'm impressed...such deep thinking

No it doesn't.

The failure of Big Government Requires The Noo York Times

New York Pravda at its finest! Good bye ol' gray lady! It was nice knowing ya!

....And you wonder why they are on a going out of business curve

To the people of the blue states hit by this storm: If Obama's big government doesn't have everything back to normal by next Tuesday, vote him out.

People will still be seeing the aftermath of the storm next Tuesday, and they'll be in a dour mood (especially since Big Government won't have delivered).

The northeast will not care about anything else, as the rest of the media focuses on the spectacle as much as they can (they just live for major storm coverage).

Not good for the incumbent, no matter what the NYT says.

States by law are responsible to be first responders and cover the first 48 hours. Only after 48 is the Federal Govt supposed to arrive with additional help.

That is exactly what happened during Katrina. But, the state of Louisianna did a terrible job of responding and the Media unfairly blamed FEMA and George Bush.

If I were President - I would pay WalMart to piggy back emergency supply deliveries on the back of their system. It is the most efficient supply system in the world. So, pay them a billion dollars to build in excess capacity. Believe me, it would be WAY cheaper than leaving things like they are.

My guess is that Zippy will use the storm to money-bomb swing states in this last week before the election.

So the Republic must maintain Leviathan forever so as to respond to a hundred-year storm!?! New York Times-speak.

Bloomberg and his cod-Spanish don't seem to be affecting the water flooding into tunnels...

Did the New York Times say something?...not sure.

The NYTimes needs to quit whining. The governors are responsible for deploying the National Guard.

So, in conclusion, a Republican president would mean that the damage from Sandy-type storms would go unattended, with states left to their own incompetent devices.
s/o

Now who is politicizing a crisis?

It might be a lot easier if each state had their own emergency system - with a shared system of backup by the other states. Sort of like the way utility companies work - sending work crews from say Arkansas to help restore power in say Georgia. If things get really hairy the federal government could step in with the military - assuming that is allowed.

We were in the bulls eye of Hurricane Andrew. Our neighborhood was destroyed; our windows blew in, the house was saturated, roof partially collapsed and trapped in the front of our house by trees. No one came to help and we asked for nothing. We began the cleanup ourselves; first cutting our saturated carpet up with razor blades and bailing with large sponges and buckets, sending alerts out amongst neighbors that we needed windows replaced and eating crackers & tea for days. We were without power for seven weeks. Yes we had insurance, but it took months to get the matter settled. It was an 'experience'. The goverment didn't come to help.....no FEMA. FEMA is for people who can't help themselves. I'm grateful we didn't have to wait for them to help us.

#10, I heard they were tweeting out for money during the storm.

Maybe the editorial should have had at the end ''I'm Barrack Obama and I approve of this message''.

I hope Fox and other fair new organizations keep an eye on what the WH will do. My guess is they will be handing out all kind of so called emergency aid to the urban centers. O knows that's his only chance of getting re-elected. Dem wards will have no restrictions for getting aid, Repubs will have to jump thru hoops.

I think the NYTs is confused about the difference between the Federal government and State and Local governments. They must love to be governed.

New campaign slogan: "Do you like to be governed?"

Don't read the comments after the story unless you want more of the story. It made me ill - a veritable orgy of big-government love and cheerleading.

Wat a creative piece of writing. Perhaps the NYT is interested in getting a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. I'm not just talking about the facts presented, but liberal use of adjectives like 'nervously'.

Memo to NYT editors: You'll get many more votes for the PP if you write fiction about both sides.

Living in Texas and Louisiana, I've been through 5 of these.

Never saw a FEMA provider, never got a thing from them. Good insurance, neighbors helping, businesses acting neighborly, many areas just never needed it. We pull together and get the job done.

When all the debris was taking to long to be removed; we pooled our money and flagged down a dump truck to haul it away.

Problem solvers solve problems. Everyone else waits for a handout.

This is so moronic. But I can just see the idiots reading this tripe and nodding their heads.

FTA: Disaster coordination is one of the most vital functions of “big government,” which is why Mitt Romney wants to eliminate it.

Absolutley another falsehood. Romney doesn't want to eliminate it, he wants it back at the state level where it should be. Even here in Florida we know "the first 72 is on you" and don't even expect the state/county resourses to be available for at least 3 days. In the 3 days after Ivan and Dennis we'd made huge inroads into the clean up, trees were cut and stacked, the older folks were taken care of, and we all cooked and cleaned with each other. No waiting for the government to "help".

And, Sandy was no "superstorm", it was a cat 1 hurricane that hit in an area totally unprepared. If it had made landfall down here, it wouldn't have even been above the fold in the NE mewspapers...

27 makes a good point. Sandy is not a strong storm. (although wide) But it will cause lots of pissin and moanin by those unprepared. Manhattan, f'rinstance. (Manhattan, that lily pad with subways)

Reason No. 384 why the NYT supports Big Government--so that, when their revenues drop by another 20%, they'll be in line for the next $Trillion stimulus bailout.

No. The storm doesn't need big government, you whining, urban pantywaists. The convoys of utility trucks and fleets of tree service trucks heading into the region over the weekend weren't moving because of big government. They were on the move in spite of big government, which was busy trying to make the epic failure known as b hussein obama look like the leader he never was. Get over yourselves, and try doing some manual labor beyond the latte lifts you're so fond of.

#7,vote him out regardless!!!!!

"Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way."
– Henry David Thoreau

All night while watching the news of the storm, I never heard anyone state the category of the storm. Now I know why. The MSM is trying to portray the storm as mightier than it was. The bottom line is the area was unprepared as they rarely see something like this.

The Governors are doing a good job in their respective states all up and down the East Coast. The NYSlimes doesn't know any better. Any excuse to slam Romney. Not going to work. Obama might have made a few phone calls yesterday but the Governors did the heavy lifting.

May I suggest that the NYT 'donate', to the big government that they love, an amount equal to the taxes they WOULD pay if they were any other company but a newspaper? It's the 'patriotic' thing to do! Deficit reduction and all that.... it might even make the Times get that warm glow inside that eveyone else gets when they write that check to the IRS for the Big Government that the NYT so cherishes.

Actually these storms prove you don't need a federal government. I live in New Orleans and know. If Louisiana could
keep it's revenue instead of sending it to Washington we would do quite fine. Walmart does a much better job than FEMA. And don't even get me started on the corps of engineers. We would all be in jail if we committed malpractice like they do.

Constitution: Where does it say federal government is responsible to pay for damages or recovery?

State is to look out for their own if their citizens want state government to cover disasters. That would require more state taxes, yes.

Really? Really NYT?

What a bunch of idiots.

I doubt that the editors of the NYT could even identify a problem which did not require Big Government.

Funny! The people on the Mississippi Gulf Coast were already cleaning up well before FEMA got there to help when Katrina hit.

Why? Because they know how to survive without government help maybe???

The biggest disaster is big government, can they fix that?

I remember well the Federal management of Katrina. Taxpayer funded cash cards being used at the mall and online, refugees being thrown out of several hotels (2 in my area) for vandalism, etc. This should totally be handled by the States with federal money thrown in if needed. The federal government generally makes a mess of everything they touch and Mitt knows it.

"A Big Storm Requires Big Government"--No, it doesn't. A big storm requires GOOD governance.

Bush put out $10+B within 4 days of Katrina and was slammed that it wasn't soon enough. Let's see what the President of Redistribution does as one of his last pre-election acts.

Betcha it's at least $250B. Part of it wired directly to the AFL-CIO to spend as needed.

Rush remarked that the federal employees in the nation's capitol were advised not to come to work today.

Plug that into the requirement criteria.

The NYT invites readers to believe that Romney and the Republicans are fully prepared for countless victims of national disaster to suffer and perish as human sacrifices to a dogmatic ideology of state's rights. If the states can't handle the disaster, too bad. Those afflicted are out of luck. Maybe we are supposed to think Republicans want it that way because they, Republicans, hate poor people, especially if they are black. Callous...greedy...cruel...prejudiced...selfish: these are your Republicans for you.

The idea that local responsibility and control can be quicker, more efficient, less expensive etc. does not enter into the deliberations of the NYT writers, for whom bigger is always better and Federal is innately superior to anything at the state level.

As in common on the Left, this piece is a Straw Man fallacy. No one is arguing that ALL emergency services should be local or that the Federal government has NO role in disaster management. One wonders if people committing this fallacy really believe what they are saying when they accuse critics of Big Government of advocating NO or almost no government at all. Obama has made this false claim about his opponents many times. He routinely says that those desirous of keeping government in check are against government itself. He ridicules the Straw Man arguments he makes. But either by accident or design, he misses the whole point, which is not about all or none but the proper balance.

Fear not, LDotters.
Big Government will be there. Unions only, of course.
Katrina, now. Where is the accounting for the thousands of empty trailers, still waiting for occupants?
Where is the accounting for the lots full of flooded school buses?
Where is the accounting for the billions sent to LA to provide for the levies, which funds were appropriated to buy gambling barges instead?
What more can the Fed do? They send money, and LA wastes it.
They offer aid, and the Mayor and Governor tell them to get out of their faces.
The Times is so sad.
Eliot spoke of "the loss of a love, or a season."
Big Government is lost. It does not deliver.

As Mr Berra said, "you could look it up."

This is just the Times leading the way. Expect lots more of this in the days to come. Anything and everything will be used over the next week. They have much to do and so very little time left to do it. Benghazi must be covered up and Gov. Romney must be destroyed.
Meanwhile BHO will be spending your money like a drunken sailor on liberty buying votes with your money.

Yes, let's talk about FEMA.

FEMA, who stopped all of the east-coast law enforcement and firefighters volunteering to help after Katerina for 3 days in Atlanta for mandatory "cultural sensitivity training".

FEMA, who turned away literally hundreds of Louisiana sportsmen who headed to New Orleans, with boats in tow, to help their down-state neighbors.

FEAM, we can do without. Disaster relief needs to be run by Wal-Mart, Home Depot and your electric utility. They are the only ones who really know what to do and then get it done.

The New York Times is less trustworthy than the old Pravda was.

Every word they print should be considered an in-kind contribution to the Democrats--and treated accordingly under federal election law. Wouldn't it be funny to see Pinch Sulzberger do hard time for that?

WH talking pts published around 7:30 am... CNN immediately spewed them, out of context. The gist of the tp's is Romney Wants to Eliminate FEMA!!!!!

The worst natural disaster in US history was the 1900 Galveston storm. It put the island underwater, killed 6,000 on the island, and an estimated 4,000-6,000 more inland.

It wasn't "big government" that rebuild Galveston, constructed the seawall, jacked up all the major buildings (even a cathedral) and pumped sand from the bay to raise them higher, and then survived all the hurricanes that followed. Nope, it was the people of Galveston and Texas.