Florida, Media Coverage, Politics, and Hurricane Aid

While I certainly feel badly that Florida is getting pounded by a record-size hurricane so soon after Hurricane Charlie hit, I'm also amazed at how Florida constantly dominates media coverage.

Hurricanes are a fact of life, and the people who live there choose to do so regardless of the fact that hurricanes and tropical storms often hit there first. Residents want summery weather 10 months of the year and they get it but at a price.

Unfortunately, we all pay the price for them to live there in cheap and/or poorly constructed homes. How much money paid out for people to rebuild the same homes after Charlie will now be paid all over again for Frances and then for another one barreling its way toward Florida?

To help his political career, Mr. Bush has put an astounding amount of money into the first hurricane and now into this one. His brother is governor, after all, and Florida is a key state in the November elections. But this magnifies the money we sink into a sinkhole.

Florida should not get different aid levels because it's a battleground state or because Jeb Bush is the governor. But if Florida were a blue state, we wouldn't see these record levels of resources directed to them.