Random Acts of Chaos

paxamericana:

Romney to hold a “disaster relief” event in Dayton, OH tmrw where supporters asked to bring relief supplies. Earlier OH event canceled
— @AndrewNBCNews via web

This is posturing, plain and simple, not actual help. According to the Red Cross:

Unfortunately, due to logistical constraints the Red Cross does not accept or solicit individual donations or collections of items. Items such as collected food, used clothing and shoes must be sorted, cleaned, repackaged and transported which impedes the valuable resources of money, time, and personnel.

The Red Cross does accept bulk quantities of product and services when these items meet our service delivery needs. These donations typically come from manufacturers, suppliers, and/or distributors that can package the items in bulk, palletize them and transport them directly to Red Cross sites.

Financial contributions allow the Red Cross to purchase exactly what is needed for a disaster relief operation. Monetary donations also enable the Red Cross to purchase relief supplies close to the disaster site which avoids delays and transportation costs in getting basic necessities to disaster victims.

Because the affected community has generally experienced significant economic loss, purchasing relief supplies in or close to the disaster site also helps to stimulate the weakened local economy.

Romney is, like President Barack Obama, linking a Red Cross donations page on his website. But he’s more actively touting this counterproductive faux relief effort, at the same time he attempts to disguise that in a Romney presidency, people facing disaster wouldn’t have much else to rely on after he cut emergency response funding.

But here’s a thought: The Romney campaign could use this photo op to rectify the damage done by a previous photo op and actually help those in need by donating the supplies to the soup kitchen targeted by angry Republicans after its director said Paul Ryan had “ramrodded” his way in to do a photo op washing clean dishes there.