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Feb 25, 2009 10:20 AM | 82
When Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal delivered the official Republican response to President Obama’s speech last night, he blasted elements of the economic stimulus package as “wasteful spending”– among them, “$140 million for something called ‘volcano monitoring.’”
“Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.,” Jindal said.
What was that all about? Well, Congress authorized some of that $140 million to be spent on volcano monitoring, but not all of it, ProPublica notes in a blow-by-blow of the economic recovery package. That line, ProPublica says, is directed to “U.S. Geological Survey facilities and equipment, including stream gages, seismic and volcano monitoring systems and national map activities.”
Critics writing in The New Republic and elsewhere say Jindal’s jab at volcano monitoring was disingenuous. The USGS is charged with working to “reduce the vulnerability of the people and areas most at risk from natural hazards,” including volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis and wildfires which it says cost hundreds of lives and billions of dollars annually in disaster money. Between 50 and 70 volcanoes erupt each year, according to the Smithsonian's global volcanism program. And between 1980 and 1990, they killed at least 26,000 people and caused 450,000 people to flee their homes, the USGS says.
“Why does Bobby Jindal think monitoring volcanoes is a bad thing for the government to be doing?” Nick Baumann writes in Mother Jones. “There doesn't seem to be any immediate way for private enterprise to profit from monitoring volcanoes (maybe selling volcano insurance?), but there is obviously a huge public benefit from making sure volcanoes are monitored: warning people if a volcano is going to erupt. Isn't that obvious?”
The USGS recently predicted that Mount Redoubt in Alaska is rumbling and expected to blow. Check out our guide to volcanoes for more, and read about what causes a volcano to erupt in our Ask the Experts piece. See another post for more on Jindal's response to Obama's speech, including Jindal's comments on the salt marsh harvest mouse.
Bobby Jindal/U.S. Congress via Wikimedia Commons
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82 Comments
Add CommentOdd that Jindal used the construction "'something called' volcano monitoring." Volcano monitoring would seem fairly self-evident--we monitor volcanoes to try to gauge the likelihood that they will, ya know, explode. Would he have said, "something called heart monitoring," or "something called metal fatigue analysis"?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd how would the governor of Louisiana react if a politician from a state with active volcanoes had wondered why we're wasting money on "something called hurricane preparedness"? I'm amazed by the fecklessness.
Perhaps Louisiana's governor wouldn't mind if we quit monitoring hurricanes as well?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat's great. The point is, put the funding for USGS in another bill. Not the stimulus bill. He wasn't saying that volcano monitoring isn't important. Just that it should be part of the stimulus bill.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI doubt that any politician is against natrual disaster mitigation. I think Mr. Jindal's point was that it doesn't belong in a "stimulus" package alledgedly designed to immediatly generate economic growth.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI believe the quote from the article "There doesn't seem to be any immediate way for private enterprise to profit from monitoring volcanoes..." already, if unintentionally, makes this point.
Awesome. The GOP picks another simpleton to lead its charge. I love having to choose between cartoon characters in elections.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLooks like the knee-jerk liberals were offended. How predictable. Please try to hold the following two questions in your brains at the same time. 1. Should the gov't be monitoring volcanoes? 2. If you were down to your last $140 million and needed to use it to stimulate economic growth, would you use it to monitor volcanoes? A good case can be made that the answer to 1 is yes. Only a moron would answer yes to question 2. Volcano monitoring expenditures should have been debated as part of standard appropriations bills
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is just a single example of how Congress is exploiting the current economic concerns to spend money like drunken sailors. It is irresponsible.
You liberals - including the writers/editors of SciAm - better pace yourself. You will grow weary the next four years trying to automatically defend everything Washington does. You will also lose credibility in the process
This a science sight and not political, I realize this, however, when will America wake up and start treating its ecomony like our personal finances. Just because we need something doesn't mean we can afford it. This $140 mil for geological survey of the US, whatever that includes, can we really afford it? it's to protect the people living next to volcanoes, weel gues what, how can you build a home in the range of a volcano, and then expect the government to pic up the tab if it blows? Same with New Orleans. Why do you think you are entightled for the rest of America to rebuild your city and provide aid when you knew that you lived in a dangerous area to begin with? If you feel that helping your neighbor is "the right thing to do" then send your money to New Orleans if you want, don't take it from the people who don't buy into that thinking.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis country was founded on Capitalism. If insurance Companies see it as profitable to monitor volcanoes, then they will sell insurance for it, and pay for volcanoe monitoring. If people can't get volcanoe insurance, then maybe it is just too dangerous to live by. Same goes for any part of the country. If you can't get insurance, live somewhere else, son't expect the rest of the country to pick up the bill.
The government runs this economy like one big Ponzi Scheme. They just push off the payments to the next generation. I'm 33, right now we are paying for Regans overspending, who will be paying for Bushes and Obamas? My grandkids, if I can afford to have children. Because right now I pay 30% of my paycheck to support other peoples kids and whatever else the government feels we "need" to have provided for us.
I recommend any intelligent person read "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. Or look up Objectivism on a search engine. You may not agree with all of it, but if you honestly and rationaly evaluate what is said, you will be better for it.
Barry,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRead the slant on the Salt Marsh mouse article.
I agree that this is a scientific site rather than a political one. That's why I am surprised that people are making simplistic arguments that are not built on the evidence or logic. For example, people seem to believe that New Orleans should never have been built and that people are irresponsible for living there. Yet the site where NOLA was built existed for thousands of years before flooding. Should people really have known over 200 years ago that the land they were homesteading would flood?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf all risk should be managed through private insurance, and no disaster prevention measures should be provided by gov't, does that mean we shouldn't have a gov't sponsored military? That would be an absurd suggestion, but defense spending and natural disaster prep are both intended to protect Americans and are paid for with taxes.
The point is that he called it "wasteful spending". He didn't say it was a good idea but that it belonged in a different bill, he said it was "wasteful". I guess the GOP apologists need to interpret their current up-and-coming crop of ideologues for us. First evolution is wrong, then scientific studies they differ with, then medical research; now warning us about natural disasters. It's all of a piece. If the GOP can find a hook to hang an ad on then damn the logic of it, someone will buy what they're selling . . . or in the case here, try to explain what they _really_ meant.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI love how the Right tries to tell us what a "stimulus" is too! It's their definition of course and the first act of a GOP stimulus was just to hand out money to bankers with no strings. Nice work if you can get it.
A pure stimulus bill would be just to give money to unemployed and underemployed. They are sure to spend 100% of it, but of course, it really isn't about that to the GOP, it's about getting their cut of the pie.
JoeL
Atlanta, GA
Barry - "knee-jerk liberals"? Our "last 140 million"? Congress ALWAYS combines unrelated matters in spending bills. Sadly, that's the only way to get things done. I'm learning to pace myself so I'll just say enjoy your parlor games and Google "projection".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMattLovesScience - The American Revolution was about the idea that taxation should benefit the people paying the taxes rather than being shipped back to Britain, not "Capitalism". Objectivism is simply an entertainingly flawed literary concept functioning as a fig leaf for hostility towards the state and taxation. A just society depends on its members contributing to it. Your particular objections here seem to be predicated on people knowing EXACTLY what risks they face. Seems a bit harsh to me...
Of course this makes sense for the stimulus bill, and of course it will benefit private industry. As ProPublica made clear, the USGS will use that $140 to upgrade facilities (construction companies will approve) and to buy necessary equipment, "including stream gages, seismic and volcano monitoring systems (companies that make these instruments are applauding).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThese are probably upgrades that have been necessary for some time. It sounds to me like they're 1-time expenditures, not programs that would require increased funding over many years. So they're perfect for a 1-time economic shot in the arm.
Of course this makes sense for the stimulus bill, and of course it will benefit private industry. As ProPublica made clear, the USGS will use that $140 to upgrade facilities (construction companies will approve) and to buy necessary equipment, "including stream gages, seismic and volcano monitoring systems” (companies that make these instruments are applauding).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThese are probably upgrades that have been necessary for some time. It sounds to me like they're 1-time expenditures, not programs that would require increased funding over many years. So they're perfect for a 1-time economic shot in the arm.
Volcano monitoring will not stimulate the economy. It will employ more in the scientific community, but will not created or maintain permanent jobs or wealth. Government cannot make every one rich, but Obama is proving it can and will make everyone poor, like Cuba. But the egg heads here would not understand that.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisVolcano monitoring will not stimulate the economy. It will employ more in the scientific community, but will not created or maintain permanent jobs or wealth. Government cannot make every one rich, but Obama is proving it can and will make everyone poor, like Cuba. But the egg heads here would not understand that.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think the economic angle is pretty obvious here, and not especially partisan. If you're properly prepared for natural disasters, that's disaster relief you don't have to pay down the line.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe best thing about this response was the appearance of Jindal himself. It's very encouraging that the Republican Party has anointed him as a future leader. He's an anti-science creationist, a card-carrying member of the radical Christian Right, so the more of his ilk in the party, the better. If the Republicans continue to run on the anti-reality platform, they ensure the opposition a long and fruitful tenure. Go Bobby!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe best thing about this response was the appearance of Jindal himself. It's very encouraging that the Republican Party has anointed him as a future leader. He's an anti-science creationist, a card-carrying member of the radical Christian Right, so the more of his ilk in the party, the better. If the Republicans continue to run on the anti-reality platform, they ensure the opposition a long and fruitful tenure. Go Bobby!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"YOU LIBERALS". Must be an Ann Couter disciple. Barf. In case it was missed, this is Scientific American. Right wing goobers need not bother. Perhaps Coulter or Rush the drug addicted phony gas bag will be interested in wasting their time reading such comments.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Knee jerk liberals", and "You liberals"..... ? This is Scientific American. Do we not need that kind of nonsense here? No. Talk to Ann Counter or Rush Gasbagh... Mayebe they will be interested.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHaving lived in Anchorage, Alaska for the last 25 years, I've been through multiple eruptions and ashfalls from three of the many volcanoes Alaska contributes to the Pacific "Ring of Fire."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPresently, we're holding our breaths while Mount Redoubt teters on the edge of an eruption...which it has for the last several months. Its last eruption was in 1989 when, due to a lack of high-tech monitoring, a Boeing 747 overseas flight flew right through the ashcloud, causing all engines to FAIL. They were fortunate enough to get an engine restarted in time to land safely at the Anchorage Airport.
The Alaska Congressional Delegation at the time decided that requesting more money for better monitoring was a good idea. Many people don't realize that Alaska airspace is the "crossroads of the world." According to the FAA, more than 80,000 large aircraft per year, and 30,000 people per day, are in the skies over and potentially downwind of Aleutian volcanoes. Safety in the Alaska skies is a worldwide issue.
For more information, feel free to stop by at my blog: http://divasblueoasis.com/
Why would anyone be surprised at such an unintelligent statement from Governor Jindal. He is the same guy who has tried to weasel creationism into the classrooms time and time again only to have the courts tell him absolutely not. So I am not surprised by such an uninformed, uneducated response. He did indeed mention Hurricane Katrina and, in a roundabout way, implied that the government didn't do much to help. So much like everyone else is thinking, i wonder what his thoughts would be on hurricane monitoring and research. Considering how much USA spends on the "war on terror" when only approx. 70 americans die annually from terror, versus the half a million who die annually from heart disease, i really dont find $150 million to be much money to keep not just americans safe, but people globally who live in volcanic areas safer - and at the same time get a better understanding on volcanism, quakes and the earth in general. Living in Los Angeles, I can find a lot of use and appeal in being able to accurately predict a devastating earthquake. Tax money needs to stop going to murdering people (war) and start saving people (medical research, planetary research). Let's just hope Obama rethinks the 17k troops to afghanistan. We don't need another iraq. Education unites the world, politician's selfish and at times religious agendas separate the world, fueling hate and conflict.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is extremely ironic to hear a hardcore right-wing republican criticize government spending. We tried republican leadership over the last 8 years and, well... look where that got us.
Ben
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI can agree that Taxes should benifit those who pay them, but can you honestly say that the goverment, right or left, really subscribe to that idea? The right is about tax breaks for the rich, the left is about giving tax money to the poor. Both are flawed. Oh, and the American revolution was about sales tax. Can you imagine how the founding fathers would have reacted to income tax?
Sure objectivism is an idealist view, but so is environmentalism, and welfare.
I am the last person to think religion has any part in science or politics, and if anyone thinks that the left isn't religous, think again. Ask yourself what morality do they subscribe to? If you are tryin to make a profit you are greedy, take care of the poor, etc. This is Christian idealism at its best. I'm no fan of the right either. They are steeped in Dogma.
I just think every American should learn how to take care of themselves, and not ask the rest of America to pay the check. The goverments job is to prosecute fraud, if they were not so busy trying to run everything else, they could concentrate on what I really need them for.
Uncomfortably reminiscent of Sarah Palin's "I kid you not" mocking of fruit fly research.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUncomfortably reminiscent of Sarah Palin's "I kid you not" disparagement of fruit fly research.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI live in Anchorage where my husband and many of our contemporaries are domestic oil producers, the work touted by the GOP during the last election as the answer to our dependence on foreign oil. That is why we have chosen to live here. My family, friends and neighbors are ready for the imminent eruption of Mt. Redoubt, which sits about 120 miles from my house. We know of the mountain's potential to erupt because of USGS volcano monitoring put in place almost twenty years ago after an airplane flew into an ash cloud, where the silica melted and resolidified and stopped the engines. Miraculously, as the plane plunged toward the ground, the pilots were able to restart the engines and make an emergency landing. Now we can prevent that and worse from happening.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMany of the imports enjoyed by the lower 48 come through our airport. We Alaskans have enjoyed frequent air travel. Many of you have flown up here for awe inspiring vacations. Keep those USGS folks working!
Additionally, how typically sanctimonious for a certain type of person to blame the victim. Like the girl walking home from school who gets sexually assaulted, you blame her for the route she took, her parents' choice of school. Shame on you.
The answer to the question posed by the author is simple: Bobby Jindal (and me) are not questioning whether volcano monitoring is important. We are questioning why it is in a "stimulus" bill whose sole goal is to create jobs *immediately* even at the cost of running huge financial deficits that will have a crippling long term impact. Somehow I doubt that a whole lot of volcano monitoring jobs will be created in 6 months to a year. That is the kind of thing, just like climate research, that belong in a general budget bill where we can debate it alongside all other priorities and determine whether we will cut spending to pay for it or raise taxes. Or whether it is actually so important that we are actually willing to spend our childrens money on it and cripple their future.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswow the richest country in the world can't afford volcano monitoring according to Mattloves science, but we afford Bush's 1.2 trillion dollar tax cuts for the upper 1%, right. There was no controversy whatsoever in the press when Bush came into office and handed the Clinton surplus for the retiring Baby Boomers right over to tax breaks for billionaires. Then there was the trillion for the Iraq war. No big controversy about future generations. Now we want to stimulate the economy like every other country in the world and the incompetent GOP is having a fit. Wake up the last few of you American who think that the GOP care anything at all about anyone but billionaires. Wake up. Read actual economic books rather than listening to right wing whack jobs like Jindal. This guy sited Hurricane Katrina as a reason to vote for the GOP.???? HUH??? He sited a friend of his, the Democratic mayor or whatever. He was the guy shooting at black people coming across a bridge in a time of peril, for God's sake; and this is his friend! and he calls himself a Christian!!! Get a Clue, America.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe answer to the question posed by the author is simple: Bobby Jindal (and me) are not questioning whether volcano monitoring is important. We are questioning why it is in a "stimulus" bill whose sole goal is to create jobs *immediately* even at the cost of running huge financial deficits that will have a crippling long term impact. Somehow I doubt that a whole lot of volcano monitoring jobs will be created in 6 months to a year. That is the kind of thing, just like climate research, that belong in a general budget bill where we can debate it alongside all other priorities and determine whether we will cut spending to pay for it or raise taxes. Or whether it is actually so important that we are actually willing to spend our childrens money on it and cripple their future.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBobby Jindal, being from Louisiana, should have a better idea of the importance of USGS data from mapping to stream gauge information. Back in my guiding days, I used the information, which was incredibly accurate, to decide whether it was safe to take adventurers out on the river or not. Shame on a man from a "water" state to slam the GS.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI should qualify my previous comments though. I don't question his questioning the stimulus inclusions; just that particular one. This whole stimulus package creates an artificial structure for the economy rather than a structure created by the principals of capitalism/free trade. Artificiality is what created the whole market/economic fiasco in the first place. I don't know the answer...like everyone, I am thinking about it though. Bailouts? Hmmmm. Why boost a failing model? The auto makers will never survive as long as there are unions. Stimulus? Do we lay off everyone we hire through stimulus at the end of a finite time. Probably not, but they are questions to ask.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJindal was just as much wrong about this as Sarah Palin was on her attack against "fruit fly" research. I suppose Jindal would be FOR NOAA's hurricane monitoring, though, but that's because he lives in a hurricane-prone area, not a volcano-prone area such as Washington state or Alaska. But this comment was just as "off base" as was most of what he said. If this is our "new" Republican party, since he's apparently going to be a presidential candidate in 2012, I think I'll vote
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDemocratic PERMANENTLY.
Get a Life.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMattLovesScience - Sure the hallowed founding fathers would have been against income tax, but what would they make of miniskirts? Their perspectives are largely of historical interest. Modern tax principles are global and here to stay. The particular‘ example under consideration here is unquestionably worthwhile both as a societal benefit and as a economic stimulus. I'm sure the founding fathers coughed up for lighthouses...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEthics and morality PRECEDE religion, they don't flow from it. Personally I think that religion actually corrupts ethics and morality... Strip away all the nasty religious layers and you get to the core concept that we shouldn't exploit each other. I think your belief that "the goverments <only> job is to prosecute fraud" is far too simplistic and doesn't acknowledge the tangible benefits they provide. 'Fend for yourself' is a bankrupt philosophy.
The whole idea of the stimulus bill is to stimulate the economy by... guess what, massive government spending to take the place of consumer and private sector spending until the economy recovers. Of course it's most effective if the spending generates useful results for future generations rather than just digging holes and filling them back in.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWould you rather have a worn down country with crappy infrastructure, no renewable energy, and old inferior volcanic eruption equipment and less debt or a more modern productive country with advanced infrastructure and energy management that can accurately predict volcano eruptions, with a larger debt? What is a better legacy for our future generations?
The laughable idea of somehow directing all stimulus money to projects that only generate jobs in the short term would be essentially shoveling our tax money into a pit as the money would not generate any new projects or long lasting positive effects in the future to offset the cost of the stimulus.
You write as if this was the first time New Orleans has had a devastating flood. This is periodic in that part of the country, hence the terms 25-50-100-year flood. Within the ninth ward, this is the third time in the last 100 years that it has flooded. And, guess what? If they rebuild in the 9th ward, this conversation is destined to be repeated, again and again and again.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisVolcano monitoring does NOT belong in a bill that is supposed to boost the economy right now. The pile-on dumping of long-term expenditures into this stimulus package once again defines Washington politicians who are out of touch with the common man and who put pork-barrel politics ahead of the common good.
Does no one see this?
Aw, c'mon guys, give Governor Jindal a break, would ya? Levi Sumagaysay in today's "Good Morning Silicon Valley" efeed posed the same lame question. It's certainly obvious to all but the most stubbornly literal that he was simply taking license with the expression so that he could use it to segue into his metaphor about an "explosion of spending" in Washington. Does anyone really doubt that he doesn't perceive both scientific and societal value in monitoring volcanoes, earthquakes, and the like? He was actually being rather mild in his choice of imagery . . . had it been me, I would have searched for some line item related to arcane research on gastrointestinal disease as a jumping off point to mention the cases of explosive diarrhea of the mouth we've been seeing among our governmental nannies.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAmericans anger of the conronic mismagngement of our government is like a Volcano of resentment of skilled jobs shipped to China in electronics, destruction of our US auto industrty. I guess some wize poltician decided to moniter public resentment as a volcano.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt still is funny like asking a rich tycoon to spare a dime to help the poor reeducate people or to help fund legimate research. A volcano moniter might save lives if it detects problems. Did he ever think of that? How much of 700 billiob will this idea cost.? Would have said no if it was tsunmani warning system or ermency broascast equiptment or things for the public safty of good ? Probably not . It just sounds good to say this to prove a point but one man's pork is anotheris meat. Most mizers will keep a tight fist on thier money but on the hand they too will spend money with clear abadonment.
The Republican party seems to be out of ideas now that they have totally whored themselves out to the evangelical right. It's no longer about presenting their own ideas, but rather to attack anyone who doesn't agree with them 100%. They have becomea hollow shell of what the GOP used to be back in the 50s.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGoogle a story called 545 People by Charlie Reese.
Governor Jindal did not offer a SCIENTIFIC response to President Obama, but a POLITICAL one. Over the past 8 years, Republicans have proven themselves to be dismissive of science, scientific discovery, and the scientific method in general. Besides, who cares if thousands of people are killed by volcanoes, or hurricanes, or tornadoes or any other natural event? Those events are, after all, acts of God, so it must be that God intended those people to die, right?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGovernor Jindal is a political hack, and the favorite candidate of Rush Limbaugh, another intellectual giant who discounts global climate change, evolution and mathematics. Let's cut all the funds for volcano monitoring, and leave that practice and hurricane tracking to the private sector.
HOO-RAH, Radpc, I think you'll have probably struck multiple nerves among the sensitive bunnies who've written comments from an opposing point of view. For what it's worth, the brain-dead twerp who opined that Republicans are dismissive of science, I'd hasten to add that aside from having been a door gunner in Nam with the Marines for multiple tours, I was ALSO a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow at Stanford in the early 70s and have a very high regard for almost all scientific disciplines. What I hold in LOW regard are scumbag politicians who seek to corrupt and ultimately hijack our democracy by pandering to those segments of the voting public who will keep them in office until their votes are no longer needed (viz, y'all might wanna have a close look at Brother Chavez, Our Dear Leader Kim, and assorted comparable wannabes).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBobby Palin or Sarah Jindal?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you look at what the USGS does, and the poor support it has received especially over the past 8 years, 140 million in infrastructure for it is going to be a good payoff, and will immediately start to be effective.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe expression "knee-jerk" applies just as readily to conservative types who can find no positives in our government at all.
But then, Gov. Jindal is clearly only looking for the sound-bite.
Hey Radpc, tell us what you REALLY think! Perhaps you've been drinking too much fluoridated water? Purity of essence...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks for the belly laugh.
By his logic, why are we spending money on rebuilding the dikes in New Orleans? He talks about how horribly the federal government acted during Katrina and is now arguing that the government should be equally ill equipped to deal with Volcanic eruptions. Does this Rhodes Scholar know the meaning of hypocrit???
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYellowstone Volcano is due to erupt at any time .. it's been showing signs of getting ready .. and it's surrounded by a group of ICBM sites! Last time it blew the effects were felt all over North America .. there are traces of the ash that fell even as far away as North Dakota!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHey Radpc I thought your rant was kinda cute till I recalled, that I thought Bush,s Ignorence was kinda funny, boy was I wrong .
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe real problem is that he probably doesn't know that there are volcanoes in the USA, just like Palin didn't know that there is any value in studying fruit flies. Remember this is a guy that thinks evolution is a fraud.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi prefer to be called a free marketer as opposed 2 a capitalist, i'm about 2 read anthem, then atlas shrugged B]
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi prefer 'free market', sounds less evil than capitalism...i'm about 2 read anthem, then atlas shrugged >B]
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisdid u vote for ron paul? :)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo read all the comments posted in this page is really sad. I could not see what would people gain from throwing insults to each other. However, here is reality. The past 8 years of GW Bush government, Republican Congress, and Republican leaning Supreme Court, have a devastating results on American lives. This devastation have rippled all over the world because of the more structurally interconnected world economies now a days. Only the stupids does not know the entire world is accelerating to near collapse. This crisis was created by incompetence, ignorance, and stubborn false righteousness. Time is running out to find solutions on these huge problems. Spending is very different from investing. Investments are essential values that we expect to grow. Perhaps nothing will grow beyond the critical time. Now that is spending.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPresident Obama is investing on all americans and he knows time is critical to its success. I do not think GOP members wants to know that.
This is a classic example of a politician who speaks without knowing the real issues or truths behind what he/she rails about. He also bragged about how he cut taxes in Louisiana. To that I ask, "how's the rebuilding of New Orleans coming along down there, Bobby?" Keep cutting those taxes and leave that magnificient city in ruins, is that your plan? Where does he think the governments of this great nation get their funds to function? They get them from citizen's taxes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe live on an island (Hawaii Island) with active volcanoes. Gov. Jindal Is mentally deficient
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe live on an island with active volcanoes(Hawaii Island) Gov Jindal seems to lack sufficient knowledge about the USA to rise further than Gov of Louisana, Alabama or Mississippi.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMan I can not believe Jindal made such a lame assed citation about porkie spending. It's no wonder the repubs can't get their stuff to gather. Come on man 8000 earmarks and that is the best you can come up with.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis has less to do with the validity of volcano monitoring than it has to do with the fact that the proposed "stimulus" has become engorged with spending that is beside the point of stimulating economic growth. As a lifelong democrat and liberal I'm disappointed that this unique opportunity in history is being squandered with old fashioned government boondoggle. Wouldn't that money be better spent converting our economy from oil based, which requires importation from unfriendly governments, to propane based? We have some of the largest untapped propane reserves in the world and need only the investment and political will to convert our vehicles and plants to propane. This would allow us to re-invest that 750 billion we export annually back into our own economy and reduce greenhouse emissions in one shot. But were not doing stuff like that, were just funding old programs with borrowed money for short term gain...come to think of it, that's as American as it gets.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisStream gage monitoring is the critical one. That's how you predict how much water you are going to have in the next year.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMel,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWho said the stimulus was only meant to create-jobs-this-instant? It's a general recovery package, and while everyone -- the President included -- can find some fault with it, it attempts to make the kind of investments that will secure or stabilize our economy long-term. A properly-funded USGS is insurance against greater costs (disaster relief, health care, reconstruction) down the line.
It's relevant to our economic recovery in precisely the same way that health insurance is central to personal finance.
I believe Congress is incapable of including scientific funding in a bill to support science in a logical manner. Therefore, the only way to get it done is to attach it to something that lots of people are in favor of.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisComplaining about spending our last $140 million on "volcano monitoring" in an economic decline is short sighted. I'm sure there are programs in place for improving flood maps (to assist in hurricane response), wind patterns for volcanic ash fallout, etc. requiring an enormous amount of work. Not funding those programs would cost America a huge amount in two ways: by the cost of shutting down and restarting the programs, and the loss of information that would be derived. Why is paying for scientific research not an appropriate use of stimulus money? Those scientists are buying food, clothing, cars, etc. which puts other Americans to work. Who should be looking out for the broad picture of the environment other than the government? There are no private entities that can see the big picture.
There just are some things that government should be doing, and that the last administration just did not fund. With a democratic form of government, we have to accept a certain amount of illogical groupings of funding just to get anything done.
I guess when it comes to stimulating the economy the GOP doesn't think that stimulating useful scientific progress is worth it. Let's just cut taxes for the upper 2% instead or maybe just not have a government at all., right Bobby?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes let's just split hairs because you are mad that your candidate didn't win.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGood points. They should have been saying we needed to cut wasteful spending when Raymond Rudy, Eric Prince and other GOP donors were getting government contracts for the past 8 years. That was wasteful. Volcano monitoring and supporting basic science is not wasteful. Science is a great economic driver, not things like abstinence education (and money for bankers as you pointed out) which is what the GOP used as stimulation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGosh sounds like the GOP is doing what the Dems did for the last 8 years...acting like a completely unreasonable bunch of crybabies
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWow, I wonder where they got that idea from?
Jindal's point is quite clear. What is "volcano monitoring" doing in an economic stimuls package? Obama is recklessly whipping people into a frenzy over our "catastrophic" economy so that we will all look the other way as Democrats spend money hand over fist on every special interest project under the sun. I don't give a rat's patootie about volcano monitoring!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think the problem comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of the stimulus bill and an inability to listen. The stimulus bill is called that because that is what the BULK of it is designed to do: provide an immediate stimulus to the economy. It does, however, also contain provisions to cover long-term needs as well as paying for things that have been desperately needed for some time, but blocked again and again by ignorant people like Jindal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis particular item in the bill will probably not create any new jobs. It will in no way provide immediate stimulus to any area of the economy. It will, however, save lives and can potentially save billions of dollars in after-eruption costs if it helps to minimizes property damage.
The stimulus bill is about getting money flowing again: some of it into the economy, some of it towards desperately needed projects and endeavors. Were we to split all of these things out just so we can have a lengthy debate about it, things will never get done. Will things get through that are "wasteful"? Probably. But, you have to weigh the benefits against the waste and the risk of taking too long to discuss if monitoring volcanoes is necessary. Jindal, of all people, should be able to grok the negative of putting off doing necessary repairs for too long.
The president keep saying that we need to stop wasting money on things that we do not need. But everytime I look around the government keep on trying to justify wasting the tax payers money . I wish that they would stop lying to us and start remembering the promises they made that got them elected in the first place.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLets be real , the Dem.s and the GOP are crap! If they spent half the energy they use fighting each other, on getting the job done that they were elected to do we wouldn't be in this mess. They spend most of their time fighting each other ,trying to get relected, and making themselves richer, instead of working for the common good of the people. We could eliminate a lot of this with term limits for congress!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy shouldn't volcano monitoring be part of a stimulus package? Are scientists not employees? Doesn't most of the equipment come from the US? The GOP hates science and will do anything to make it seem worthless tot he public. They want to be the only authority figures on the planet. They complained about birth control for poor people being part of the package and yet when it was removed at their request none of them voted for it anyway. They just want to complain and will do so on every blog and at every moment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPerhaps Gov. Jindal did not deliver his objections to parts of the stimulus bill with the silver tongue oratory of a Barak Obama, but Jindal's objections were valid, none the less. They are my objections, as well.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat is it about liberals, their media lap dogs and the useful idiots that elect them, that they must cloak themselves with supposed superior intellect? The true simpletons are those who ignore what is being done to this country: Who are complicit in helping dismantle what has made us a great nation: our free market system. And here they stand with their palms extended, waiting to have them filled from the treasury.
When this orgy of spending fails, just like all the other failed policies of liberalism; when we are brought to our senses, listen for the "I told you so's!" to resound in your ears.
In 1995 deficeits were evil, Pres. Clintonsubmits balanced budgets the U.S. goverment is at its smallest employee count since Pres. Kennedy's administration and Pres. Clinton passes on a goverment surplus to the incoming administration of G.W. Bush... Remember deficiets are evil, so within 8 months of him being in office the surplus was gone, and a month later he couldn't keep the Homeland safe, he tripled the deficeit before his last year in office and the he added another 1/3 dueing his last year before pushed out the door. They penelized any scientist who wouldn't rewrite their work to fit false ideology. Then a deficeits don't matter congress run by Speaker Gingrist and his mental midget enforcers Dick Army, Tom Delay and almost Speaker Livingston I could just go on and on but...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOh ya now they think deiceits are bad again because the can't pay their buddies any more with No-Bid contracts and bridges to nowhere, or to clean up after hurricanes, suspend the Davis-Baker act so the company they gave the clean-up contract to; Haliburton could hire their $ 5 phr help to do the wonderful job on that clean-up and finish it ahead of schedule, that too was a No-Bid contract, plus they hadn't had any experience running F.E.M.A. before so that was fun. There are just too many examples of the republicans trying to save our money for us and our grandchildren that it almost seems endless for those of us who were paying attention and oh yes Pres. Bush saved his most majical work for the end, sending the world economy into a depression after all he bankrupted every company he ran and then got a bail-out from some wealthy Arab family
Change is difficult. The U.S. is moving from basing its environmental policies on religion to policies based on science. Conservative evangelical christians and right wing republicans are still free to deny reality and pray for rain but are no longer able to dictate the long term public policies that affect all of us.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJindal made me laugh, what’s not funny is battle Obama will have with the GOP to really getting green energy moving. We need new ideas here not just mainstream alternative energy. I have read two interesting articles on new energy ideas. One talked about creating star power here on earth. The other was about a company working on a new cold fusion process. It’s called SuperWaveFusion. They have had some strong results and may be the break through we need for this possible energy source. Big Oil lines the pockets of GOP so they will fight this and other new idea
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt seems very appropriate to me to provide funds for things like volcano monitoring in an economic stimulus package. Two of the fundamental principles involved are: spending funds on things that are needed (volcano monitoring would fit into this category along with infrastructure development) and any number of others); and spending funds on things that create economic benefit - e.g. create jobs or prevent the loss of jobs, prevent the loss of value. Investment in volcano monitoring has the potential to prevent the loss of valuable things, including human lives. Natural disasters that occur without adequate warning don't just cost lives, they cost real dollars and have the potential to bludgeon an already disabled economy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSoon someone will wonder why waste money for something about genes, electrons, ...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMount Redoubt erupted yesterday. Maybe Republicans need to denigrate the Department of Homeland Security? What? That isn't very nice to their defense industry friends who get so much off the books pork? Such hypocrites.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is no real surprise hearing this from the same man who pushed through legislation making Louisiana the only state to support creationism in public schools.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI imagine he would be livid if anyone criticized something called hurricane monitoring. This guy is a total moron.
It is no real surprise hearing this from the same man who pushed through legislation making Louisiana the only state to support creationism in public schools.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI imagine he would be livid if anyone criticized something called hurricane monitoring. This guy is a total moron.
Even Governor Palin put earmark requests in the federal stimulus package so basically the Republicans are being disingenuous. Federal stimulus isn't very effective at increasing quality of life when people die from volcanoes so I think it's pretty obvious the Republicans need to rethink their philosophy toward science rather than invent the idea that Jindal wasn't making a blanket criticism of "something called volcano monitoring" - a direct slap in the face at USGS scientists. It goes right along with Palin's criticism of DNA research in fruit flies which would simultaneously help the US olive industry and research into autism - a direct slap in the face at scientists again from the GOP. If the GOP really wanted to cut federal spending they should stop trying to increase United States' reliance on fossil fuels because that leads to more oil wars and bigger budget deficits than any federal spending on scientific research can accomplish.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs someone who lives in the Pacific Northwest, I can personally attest to the usefulness of volcano monitoring. And it creates or saves jobs just like a common construction project. Many of these projects have had to be scaled back; we can save these projects that can save lives.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn honor of Jindal's remarks, I propose that we stop monitoring hurricanes, tornadoes, hell any severe weather as well. Why bother? Apparently it's wasteful spending.
Idiots.
Ask Europe whether or not it might be a good idea about studying and monitoring volcanoes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOh, and by the way maybe some research on what a safe ash particulate level might be where the risk of flying was acceptable?
If you don't study these things then nobody knows anything.
But then, if all you need to know is in the Bible..... everything is an act of God.
ergo, study nothing. (Did we learn anything from the dark ages?)
Monitoring volcanoes doesn't seem quite so stupid anymore, does it? And Barry.... with the disruption of air traffic and the economic impact that is making, maybe being down to the last 149 mil would be well spent on monitoring these natural occurrences that create such havoc. Setting aside the hypocrisy of a Governor sitting smack dab in the path of hurricanes to say such a thing....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisKnee-jerk response by liberals? No. We just knew that a volcano would erupt. Knee-jerk response by a conservative would be to take very real concerns from a very real scientific view point and make it a "liberal thing". Talk about losing credibility....
Leave the science to the scientists, not the politicians. That's this liberal's knee jerk response. Crazy isn't it!