Another example of Decider George/GOP incompetence.

Hurricane Ike tore across the Texas coast in September and flattened everything, and despite the Katrina experience, the US federal government is still too arrogant to help the helpless.
In this day and age, natural disaster can be more than just a storm.
Caught between a rock and a hard place, a Texas woman faces problems no matter where she turns.
This could make one scream or cry:

• A FEMA inspector denied her claim and told her that the place was habitable, she said.
  But Child Protective Services said that if Washington stayed in such an unsafe environment, they could take her children away from her, so she moved to the shelter.
  She has appealed FEMA’s decision, but still hasn’t heard back, she said.

The federal government’s ability to help disaster victims has collapsed.

Or has Decider George so gutted the national emergency apparatus with his horrible wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, there’s nothing left.
Even fighting fires in California, and again despite being forewarned, needed aircraft are sitting on a Santa Barbara tarmac unfit for service.
This week from the LA Times:

• The Bush administration has failed to outfit massive California Air National Guard cargo planes for firefighting duty despite pressure from the military and elected officials — a delay that could have grave implications as the state confronts the worst of its wildfire season.

And even the future of food.

• Nearly two-thirds (60%) of people in a new 26 nation poll commissioned by the BBC World Service say they are feeling the burden of recent rises in the cost of food and energy.
  They say that the rising cost of food, fuel and electricity has affected them and their family “a great deal.”
  The survey found that many people, especially in the developing world are cutting back on what they eat because food is more expensive.

Coupled with the financial meltdown, the US is shit-out-of-luck for any helping hand.

(The illustration from National Geographic.)