If This Isn't Political. . . .

The Federal Emergency Mismanagement Administration, the folks who brought you the Katrina debacle last year, are at it again. They've denied federal aid to people in areas of Fairfax, Alexandria, and Arlington, Virginia, who were flooded last month.
I used to live close to the area that flooded. I'm familiar with the parts of Alexandria and Fairfax County that flooded. I'm also familiar with what happened. We got about a foot of rain in one day, and then more heavy rains. I was glad to be on high ground, and a buddy of mine wrote that he had started work on an ark. And on the news, we saw people who had been in their homes one morning, evacuated to escape flooding in the afternoon or evening, and returned the next day to find that their homes were condemned. FEMA says the areas are affluent. I'd be the last to question that there are affluent areas in all three jurisdictions, but the areas that flooded are pretty solidly middle class. There are a fair number of young professionals who buy in those areas because the homes are older and less expensive than in many other areas. I would be very surprised if anyone living there had any flood insurance; I would be surprised if the areas were eligible for flood insurance. It's very likely that some of the people who lived there have been totally wiped out. At best, they face huge expenses to get rid of the lingering effects of having sewage filled water in their homes.
"Affluent" sounds really good to people who aren't familiar with the areas. I've got relatives in South Carolina who believe that everyone who lives in the Washington metropolitan area is right, and saying that these areas are affluent helps to reinforce that at the same time that it seems to justify what is, after all, a rotten decision. But the problem isn't that the areas are affluent. The problem is really that the people in those areas are pretty solidly Democratic. The candidates I knew who represented those areas put a lot of effort into getting out the vote because they could expect those precincts to turn in solid Democratic margins. In some cases, Republicans didn't campaign very hard there. In Arlington, Fairfax, and Alexandria, there was usually one Republican on the county council and one Republican on the School Board. While there are Republican state and federal legislators who represent parts of Northern Virginia, they have carefully gerrymandered these precincts into Democratic districts.
This is how the Bush family and its Rovian minions practice government. The directions, if any are needed, go to the inner circle of sycophants who run agencies. They pass the word to their deputy and assistant sycophants. The career civil servants who want to do the right thing are hemmed in by the political appointees. Solidly Democratic areas have to hope that they won't get hit with any kind of disaster. If those prayers go unanswered, FEMA does nothing to help them. This would not happen to districts that supported the Bush family. The devastation in Virginia is not on the scale of New Orleans, but for the people involved, it's just as serious. It's too bad the country is run by and for the Bush Mafia.