Texas Governor Seeks U.S. Help to Fight Wildfires

	<a href='http://www.truthdig.com/banners/www/delivery/ck.php?n=a9cd87eb&cb=74724837' target='_blank'><img src='http://www.truthdig.com/banners/www/delivery/avw.php?zoneid=1&cb=74724837&n=a9cd87eb' border='0' alt='' /></a>	June 20, 2013
		Text Size

Trending: chris hedges economy nsa politics robert scheer

Reporter Who Brought Down the 'Runaway General' Dead at 33

Sen. Elizabeth Warren's Supreme Court Warning

Quelle Surprise! Haiti on the Mend

Warren Opposes Obama Nominee, Lawmaker Urges Gender-Role Class for Kids, and More

How American University Got Involved in Israel's Public Interest

REPORTS

Quelle Surprise! Haiti on the Mend
By Mark Kurlansky

How American University Got Involved in Israel’s Public Interest
By Thomas Hedges, Center for Study of Responsive Law

Dead Man Walking, 20 Years On
By Amy Goodman

Immigration: Time to Choose Sides
By E.J. Dionne, Jr.

Ear to the ground

Canada Bans the Mask: Unlawful Protesters Risk 10 Years in Prison

Warren Opposes Obama Nominee, Lawmaker Urges Gender-Role Class for Kids, and More

Wall Street Doesn’t Like What Fed Chairman Has to Say

Serena Williams Walks Back ‘Insensitive’ Steubenville Rape Comments

FBI Confirms Drone Use Over U.S. Soil

What Snowden Told Us This Week

A/V Booth

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Supreme Court Warning

Rachel Maddow Gives Emotional Tribute to Michael Hastings

GOP Congressman: Abortions Should Be Banned Because Male Fetuses Masturbate

The Campaign to Ignore Sarah Palin

Arts & Culture

Ernest Hemingway: Dud KGB Spy?

The Joy of Singing Out of the Spotlight
By Richard Schickel

Let Nicholas Kristof Damage Your Mind

The Unwinding
By Marc Fisher

Digs

The Questions Education Reformers Aren’t Asking

Dig led by Mike Rose

Gore Vidal: His Life and Legacy

Dig led by Truthdig Staff

The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy

By John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt
$26.00

The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949

By Benny Morris (Author), Roger Owen (Editor), Edmund Burke (Editor), Michael C. Hudson (Editor), Walid Kazziha (Editor), Rashid Khalidi (Editor), Serif Mardin (Editor)

White T-Shirt

$18

Texas Governor Seeks U.S. Help to Fight Wildfires

Wikimedia Commons / (CC-BY)

It wasn’t so long ago that Gov. Rick Perry threatened to secede from the Union. Now he’s appealing directly to the White House for federal aid? So maybe the federal government isn’t always bad? Gosh darn it, what’s a Tea Partier to think? —YL

Reuters:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry sought additional federal help in battling wildfires across his drought-parched state as a woodland blaze gutted at least six homes on Sunday and threatened hundreds more in Austin, the state capital.

An estimated 1.5 million acres of tinder-like brush and grasslands have gone up in flames in Texas since January 1, about half of that during the past week alone under some of the driest conditions in Texas history.

Some 220 homes in all have been lost, according to a letter released on Sunday from Perry to President Barack Obama requesting a federal disaster declaration.

Read more

More Below the Ad

Advertisement

TAGS:

Email to a friend

Get truth delivered to
your inbox every week.

Previous item: Koch Bros. Tell Their 50,000 Employees How To Vote

Next item: Your iPhone Is Not a Spy

New and Improved Comments

If you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems? Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy.

By PatrickHenry, April 23, 2011 at 5:07 am Link to this comment

Use some of that prison industry labor that Texas is so famous for.

You know, paying back the debt to society and all….

Report this

By aacme88, April 22, 2011 at 10:21 pm Link to this comment

Hey Rick. Fight your own friggin fires. Oh. You may have to raise some taxes first.

Report this

By Miko, April 22, 2011 at 5:19 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

So maybe the federal government isn’t always bad?

Certainly not. Had the federal government not
confiscated that money from the citizens of Texas
through taxation, then the state would have easily
been able to deal with the problem themselves.
Instead, they’re forced to beg the federal government
to give them back a portion of the money that it
confiscated from them, which best case scenario ends
up doing no more harm other than wasting a lot of
time.

Consider the following analogy: someone breaks your
leg, but then gives you a crutch. Does it follow
that that person isn’t always bad?

Report this