Readiness Kit and Media Fallout

Cold Fury posts about Tom Ridge and his calls for people to put together readiness kits and gives links to some interesting responses...

Tom Ridge�s Duct Tape
Do you remember when the last Homeland Security Secretary, Tom Ridge, told us that to be prepared for emergencies, we should put together a readiness kit? I do. The kit layout is suggested at Ready.Gov. The portion of the kit for dealing with attacks and natural disasters should have, ideally, "at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food" and a corresponding amount of water - a gallon per day per person.

And some more:

Do you remember what the left said about Ridge, that it was just foolish alarmism for political gain? The only thing the left could focus on, was duct tape. I would argue that the partisan sniping from the left, in the form of ongoing and repeated rants about about duct tape, caused people to really dismiss the message Secretary Ridge was trying to put out. The message was simple: The Feds can�t prepare for everything. You have to be ready to survive for 72 hours. After that, FedGov can get enough stuff in place to help.

And after a few more paragraphs, he gets to the meat of the issue and starts providing links to "Left" bloggers and what they had to say about personal preparedness: Here�s what Duncan Black, AKA Atrios, AKA choagy boy for Media Matters, said about it. I bet he doesn�t want you to remember what Ridge said about preparedness, or how ol� Atrios himself worked to undercut the message. Here�s Kos going on about it. And again with another. There are about twelve other citations complete with links. Each and every one of them damning in their own little way. And where is your grab-and-go kit?