People Like This Idiot Are Actually Allowed To Vote

Anyone wonder how the GOP was able to get enough votes in 2004 to steal the presidential election? It's because there are a lot of people out there who are as stupid as Michael Kurman from Buffalo Grove, Illinois. He's the guy who sent this letter to the editor to the Chicago Tribune:

What about Andrew?
August 24 has come and gone. Not a word about that historical date in the news. August 24, 1992. The 14th anniversary of this tragic event. Head scratcher, huh?

HURRICANE ANDREW. 164 Miles per hour winds destroyed Homestead Fla.

$25 billion in damages of which $16 billion were insured.

Devastation so startling that major insurance companies teetered on the brink of financial ruin. Insurance companies such as Allstate (I worked for them at the time) suspended insurance premiums because there was no place to send the billings.

No street was recognizable.

No houses, no mailboxes, no street signs, no nothing.

A neighbor of mine was an Allstate claims adjuster. He took a temporary six-month job assignment in Homestead.

Where was the media in all of this tragedy? Where were the recurring and staged pictures of the crying people yelling for help? Where was the mayor of Homestead accusing the President of racial and social bigotry because it was the political thing to do? I don't recall the press ever interviewing the mayor of Homestead. Where did all the people go? Scattered to the four winds like half the population of New Orleans? Hardly. Just "google" Homestead to see what happened to that city. Why didn't the press indict the President for incompetence immediately before Andrew hit? OK, then. How about immediately afterward? Could it be that the President was that media darling, the do-nothing right, the do-nothing at all, Mr. Clinton? It took Clinton until the following year to upgrade Federal Emergency Management Agency to a cabinet level position.

So what happened in the aftermath? We didn't see the mobilization of the National Guard from all over the U.S. to protect the citizenry of the area. People had the good sense to act like decent citizens in a civilized country. Crime didn't shoot through the roof. Federal funds trickled in as they always do in a disaster situation. However, it was the insurance industry and their re-insurers that rebuilt the area. The press beat up the large insurers because they attempted to cancel every homeowner policy in he entire state. The Florida insurance commissioner informed those companies that if they carried out their plan, they would be prevented from renewing their profitable auto line. Allstate created a separate homeowner insurance company specifically for Florida with its own rate structure.

Can we conclude that the press loved Clinton even in times of extreme internal incompetence? Not one word of comparison between Katrina and Andrew. To call the press fair-handed and objective is an insulting joke.

Mr. Kurman's point would have been well-taken if it wasn't for the fact that Bill Clinton was sworn in as president five months after Hurricane Andrew hit the U.S.

God help us.