For all we cared, Bush could have stayed home and just sent the FEMA paperwork.

::::::::

Bush said he came to Southern California to see the devastation for himself, reach out and touch the pain of those who were affected and spread cheer and comfort.

Spread cheer and comfort?  The only thing he could spread are cooties, lying crocodile tears and empty promises.

He met with victims of the fires.  It's hard to imagine that anyone except the most diehard Bushites would want to meet with him under these circumstance or any other.

But then, there is always the fringe lunatics who write love letters to the likes of Jeffery Dahmer, the Menendez broz and Richard Ramirez, Susan Smith and Scott Peterson. 

His tours of compassion are about as real as the green cheese the moon is made from.  It's quaranteed that the compassion will fade as quickly as he will veto the next SCHIP bill.

We can be damn sure that some of the children of the families whose "pain" he felt, also need the benefits of the SCHIP program.

Almost everyone was silently and not so silently telling him to STAY HOME.
THIS IS OUR PAIN, NOT YOUR PHOTO OP.  We didn't need Chertoff's little pop-in visit either.  All we needed from him and FEMA was to stay home, stay out of the way, and send the paperwork, so residents who need it can get low-interest loans.

And the press has got to stop comparing Hurricane Katrina and the wind-whipped Southern California fires.  There is no comparison!

California is the land of potential disasters and has gone through so many that we are prepared, unlike the Southern states that never learned to prepare for visits from hurricanes or the bursting of damn that were predicted to fail.

We know what we're doing, whereas the Feds don't.  California has a better Department of Emergency Management than FEMA under Bush will ever have.

Hell, if we waited for help from the Feds, half the fires wouldn't be 100 percent contained.  Chertoff didn't show up with his entourage for three days, and he didn't bring so much as a hose from Home Depot with him.

On television, in essence Bush said:  Sorry about your woes out there, but you're really nothing more than a giant ATM machine for Republican candidates.  I'll promise to help a little, but it's really up to your gov to take care of all things California.

To make his visit even more hypocritical, he was embarrassed and guilt-tripped into coming here by a question from a reporter inquiring if he were coming.

The immediate response was 'no,' followed by an 'oooops' that doesn't look politically smart, followed by an instant turn-around to 'better get my ass there tuit suite.'

Don't do us any favors, prez.

Any comparison of Katrina and our fires doesn't compute in any way, because the evacuees came to a populated city a few miles from their homes that was not under threat of burning down.

An entire city was up and running.  The stadium had running water, electricity, food, cots, televisions and hundreds of people on hand to help.  At one point, local emergency officials said they had to turn volunteers away, because there were too many of them. 

Evacuees also weren't locked down in a stinking, falling apart stadium, trapped with no where to go.  Many chose not to go inside San Diego's stadium and register, but camped out in the parking lot where they could also take advantage of the services provide to the people inside.

There was even a facility at the site to house pets.

The only Federal agency that gets any credit for doing its job right is the Forest Service.  Those guys, along with city and county firefights know what they're doing.

Back to the head of the list of why the two don't compute as comparable is that we were prepared.  All things considered, we managed beautifully even though we're short of National Guard personnel and equipment, no matter what the under secretary of the Army says.

Bush flew in spurred by a wisp of quilt and he can leave just as quickly.  Just like the people of New Orleans, who are still waiting for their city to be rebuilt, the people who lost everything shouldn't hold their breath waiting for any help from Bush.

We'll rebuild and rebuild quickly, but it will be done by us, just as we -- with a little co-operation from dying winds -- contained the fires to the north and are beginning to get a handle on the ones to the south.

Authors Bio:
Sandy Sand began her writing career while raising three children and doing public relations work for Women's American ORT (Organization for Rehabilitation through Training). That led to a job as a reporter for the San Fernando Valley Chronicle, a weekly publication in Canoga Park, California. In conjunction with the Chronicle, she broadcast a tri-weekly, 10-minute newscast for KGOE AM. Following the closure of the Chronicle, Sand became the editor of the Tolucan Times and Canyon Crier newspapers in Burbank. She is currently a guest columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News and contributor to ronkayela.com