Group fears emergency center would cater to rich

[Octafish]

Source: Detroit Free Press

Citizens blast firm s disaster relief plans BFEE Escape Hatch in Michigan
Group fears emergency center would cater to rich

BY TOM CARR • FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER • March 4, 2008

PELLSTON -- A disaster preparedness firm has sparked controversy in northern Michigan with its plans to locate a center at Pellston Regional Airport.

Critics say they don't like the tax breaks state and local officials have discussed to entice Sovereign Deed to build a center in Emmet County. Sovereign Deed, they say, is a company designed to help evacuate rich people from disasters or attacks and leave others to fend for themselves.

"Imagine a helicopter landing on the deck of the Titanic and saying, 'OK, you paid me $50,000. The rest of you have to go down with the ship,' " said Ellis Boal, an attorney in neighboring Charlevoix County and a member of the citizens opposition group called Do We Need Sovereign Deed.

SNIP...

The company's Web site, which refers to clients as members, touts the need for individuals, families and companies to be better prepared for everything from natural disasters to chemical spills to terrorist attacks to disease outbreaks.

SNIP...

Opponents also criticize Moore for founding Triple Canopy Inc., one of the private military contractors that have drawn congressional scrutiny over shootings in Iraq.

CONTINUED...


Read more: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080304/NEWS06/803040392/1008

---

If you can't afford Paraguay, there's always Pellston.

[Red Zelda]

1. We need the rich to be safe

without them, who would we work 60 hours a week for?

[tanyev]

2. I finally watched Sicko a couple weeks ago and there was one thing

that nagged at me. He was trying to make the point that there are already many things that are socialized without any argument such as military, fire and police, libraries and schools that it is ridiculous to think that health care couldn't be done. I agree, but I wish he would have acknowledged that even these institutions are under attack from RW ideologues who continue to spout the myth that all government servcies can be done better and cheaper with privatization.

[Old and In the Way]

3. Sounds like another Republican business model founded on fear.

8 years of Republican "Katrina Kare and Kompassion" has set the table for this. On the bright side, maybe this is the blueprint to address their emergency that will be created when the tsunami hits Washington in 11/08....it will be time for exit plan to a place with no extradition treaties with the US.

[Orsino]

4. In the future, there will be three kinds of people:

1) the very rich, who live inside the bubble
2) the very poor, who live outside
3) the workers privileged with bubble access

[catnhatnh]

9. Think "Johannesburg

Economic Apartheid.....

[NOLALady]

10. Sounds like the past.

of the South before the Civil War.

3) 'workers' changed to 'enslaved'

And not very much different after the War.

[superkia]

20. I love it when I get a rare chance to see someone post something...

like this. Not many people have actually done their research and realize what is taking place in front of our eyes as we physically run the country so they can do it to us. Eventually it will be a global thing not just here where we live, the elite will enjoy the world an we will be enslaved by poverty. At least when my ancestors were slaves, people knew about it and could try to change things, now Americans walk around with their eyes closed and enable the elites agenda to move at a very rapid pace. Scary!


First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

[SpiralHawk]

5. "Smirk." - Republicon Homelander crony trashers of America

[Sam Ervin jret]

6. this is the under reported story of the next decade if we do not scream loud enough.

[Auggie]

7. Already happening in California and Florida

Author Naomi Klein (The Shock Doctrine) writes about it in The Nation:

(SNIP)

The country is indeed in the grip of extremists who are determined to act out the biblical climax--the saving of the chosen and the burning of the masses--but without any divine intervention. Heaven can wait. Thanks to the booming business of privatized disaster services, we're getting the Rapture right here on earth.

Just look at what is happening in Southern California. Even as wildfires devoured whole swaths of the region, some homes in the heart of the inferno were left intact, as if saved by a higher power. But it wasn't the hand of God; in several cases it was the handiwork of Firebreak Spray Systems. Firebreak is a special service offered to customers of insurance giant American International Group (AIG)--but only if they happen to live in the wealthiest ZIP codes in the country. Members of the company's Private Client Group pay an average of $19,000 to have their homes sprayed with fire retardant. During the wildfires, the "mobile units"--racing around in red firetrucks--even extinguished fires for their clients.

One customer described a scene of modern-day Revelation. "Just picture it. Here you are in that raging wildfire. Smoke everywhere. Flames everywhere. Plumes of smoke coming up over the hills," he told the Los Angeles Times. "Here's a couple guys showing up in what looks like a firetruck who are experts trained in fighting wildfire and they're there specifically to protect your home."

And your home alone. "There were a few instances," one of the private firefighters told Bloomberg News, "where we were spraying and the neighbor's house went up like a candle." With public fire departments cut to the bone, gone are the days of Rapid Response, when everyone was entitled to equal protection. Now, increasingly intense natural disasters will be met with the new model: Rapture Response.

MORE: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071119/klein

[Tempest]

The difference is

They're not asking for taxpayer money to set up shop like Sovereign Deed is.

I have no problem with a wholly privately funded operation.

[Craftsman]

11. Same here

I live on the gulf coast of TX. Is it wrong for me to use my money to have a generator, canned and other food that will keep for weeks, water, and gas to either ride out the storm or bug out? No, it is a private affair between teh company and these people.

[villager]

12. Yes and no -- when *only* the rich an *afford* fire protection, for instance...

...and public sector services have been deliberately stripped from the rest of us, it's not just a "private" affair, but a societal one...

[Craftsman]

13. CA has a lot of fire fighting assests

in this case some bought more. It is like my house we have a monitored burgler alarm system, my neighbor does not but we both have the city police. I have more protection, but I pay ADT for it.

[villager]

14. Yes, outside sources came in, in some places... it's the overall trend that's worrying...

Public sector cutbacks, the rich funding their own private "municipal services" while you and I have fewer and fewer of them...

[Craftsman]

15. Agreed that could be a problem

But as a voter do you not have the right and duty to vote for people who will provide these needed services? Those cut backs to me are a seperate issue to getting some private support.

[Auggie]

23. It's an alarming trend

Those in the best position to lobby/support strong municipal emergency services no longer will, knowing they can simply buy them from private sources. There's no common good here -- just selfishness.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. You would have loved living in 18th century Philly

here you bought your fire protection from one of many fire companies. It was so bad that at times a fire company stood by while a building burned, and prevented a second one from reaching the scene.

Or, if you didn't have the protection a few would show up and bid for your money, right there and then and the winner (if there was a building left) would try to extinguish it. Funny thing Ben Franklin had a problem with this and started volunteer fire companies that would respond to anybody's house, due to the PUBLIC need After all, more than one fire spread while these private yahoos argued over who got to fight the fire.

And yes, THIS IS precisely what many in the right wing want to go back to

[Vanje]

16. You have more police protection than your non-ADT neighbors

Your local precinct is informed instantly when your alarm is triggered.

Your tax-paying non-ADT neighbors are subsidizing your greater access.

The alarm company makes profit by essentially selling enhanced access to publiclly funded police.
Neat deal for ADT

[Craftsman]

17. The cops are informed by a phone line

Just like my neighbors have.

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. In roman times

when a house caught fire, a group of "firemen" would show up and demand payment for putting out the fire.
The other choice they gave was to let the building burn and then they would buy the remains for a very very cheap price...the original fire sale.

We have come full circle.

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. Welcome to DU

[fascisthunter]

8. sick

[alfredo]

18. Read "the Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein to see why they want it this

way.

[Indy Lurker]

19. Join your Local CERT Program

If you have any interest in Emergency Response, look into CERT




The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program educates people about disaster preparedness and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, and disaster medical operations. Using their training, CERT members can assist others in their neighborhood or workplace following an event and can take a more active role in preparing their community. The program is administered by Department of Homeland Security



More information at:

https://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/

[Mountainman]

21. Part of the reason the right doesn't care about man made global warming is because they feel they

can buy their way out of trouble in the future and not lose any wealth making ability today. The problem is the freeper type knuckle draggers don't understand they are being duped.

[sarcasmo]

26. The new Amerika, the haves and have nothings.

[sarcasmo]

27. The new Amerika, the haves and have nothings.

[undergroundpanther]

28. Well..

Maybe if we LIMITED incomes so the rich could not afford to buy their damn caste system,maybe we wouldn't all be fucked over by the rich selfish assholes who would rather us suffer or die.The rich MUST be kept on an income limiting LEASH. They have bought their freedom and security at OUR expense when is enough enough...??

EAT the fucking rich!! TAKE BACK what they hoard and SHARE it with the poor and working poor if the rich don't like equality and only value the lives of their own kind, kick them in the teeth.And make them live in gutters..MAKE them live how the other half lives.
The rich are cowards they would kill themselves rather than be poor so let them die.They had their good lives at everyone else's expense,so when will the poor make the rich pay and SHARE? We have to FORCE them to share,and limit how much they can have because they do not care. Sad but TRUE ya know.There is no justice in this sick sad world until you decide to MAKE it to be just.