October 25th

WE NOW RETURN YOU TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING

I always notice when events fade from news reporting. From Sunday until late Tuesday night the local channels were covering the fires all the time. Luckily the ABC affiliate here (yes, that would be Channel 10) had the network programming on an alternate channel because I would have been pissed off if I had missed Dancing With the Stars. Gradually they have been cutting the hours spent covering the fires. Eventually there will be no mention of it, except for maybe a follow up story, and reminders on the anniversary dates.

I have been giving the reporters a break from snarky comments about their use of the language. It's tough to be coherent when reporting by the seat of your pants. That said, if anyone from Channel 10 is paying attention, they need to keep Juliette Vara. She's their most articulate field reporter in my opinion. Maybe they should make her an anchor. The female anchor on the mid-day news yesterday made this brilliant statement about a place where many homes were burned: “One of the areas very hardly hit...” I will hit you very hardly for that. And from the evening anchor: “Look at those wind whipped winds.”

Yesterday one of the moron field reporters was at Qualcomm Stadium and she reported that INS agents had arrested illegal immigrants, and said that now everyone was afraid. She implied that the agents were horrid, cruel and callous for using the disaster to seek out and arrest poor-innocent-undocumented-workers-who-are-here-to-do-work-that-US-citizens-won't-do. She didn't bother to report the actual story. So, since the local news only wants to focus on the sensational side, here's the rest of the story: (from the Wildfire blog.)

Illegal immigrants arrested for stealing relief supplies
Posted @ 4:27 PM
Six illegal immigrants who were stealing relief supplies from Qualcomm Stadium were arrested by Border Patrol agents after San Diego police stopped them Wednesday morning. A woman who had been evacuated to the stadium told officers she saw the group load up two pickup trucks and a car with cots and other supplies, leave and then return, said police Sgt. Jesse Cesena. When officers stopped them, a member of the group said they were being paid to take things of value from the stadium."They were stealing a lot of stuff," Cesena said. "We took the stuff back and we escorted them out. They were stealing from the people in need." Because some members of the group spoke Spanish, officers called Border Patrol agents at the stadium for relief efforts, who then determined the thieves were in the country illegally and arrested them. The Border Patrol agents are among 100 that the federal agency has been providing for relief efforts, said agency spokesman Matthew Johnson. He said the agents are not looking for illegal immigrants among people seeking refuge at the stadium."We're not out there doing immigration stuff in the middle of a disaster," he said. "However, we still enforce the laws."-- Onell R. Soto

DAMNED IF YOU DO

I personally don't like to see the President visiting a disaster site. It sucks resources away from places they could be put to better use. The police, the media, other elected officials are all used to protect and kiss the butt of the visiting dignitary. The problem is if the President doesn't visit, and doesn't do it right away, he/she will be accused of not caring about the poor suffering people. When they do visit they are accused of using the disaster as a photo-op. Who started this ridiculous practice? I think they should send money, and just stay out of the way of people doing the real work.