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Jindal's Mockery Of Volcano Monitoring Money Only Looking Dumber After Redoubt Blows
That line immediately drew criticism from just about everyone who understands what volcano monitoring involves. And now, it's looking even dumber.
As a slew of observers -- from local officials to geologists to bloggers to Paul Krugman ("the intellectual incohernence is stunning") -- pointed out at the time, volcano monitoring is crucial work. At the risk of stating the obvious, using advanced technology to predict when a volcano might erupt, at the most basic level, allows local officials to, um, save people's lives by evacuating them. It's hard to think of a better use of government money.
Why is Jindal's line looking even worse now? Because, as you've likely heard, Alaska's Mount Redoubt, 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, erupted last night. And a USGS geologist confirmed to TPMmuckraker that a portion of the stimulus spending for volcano monitoring that Jindal lampooned has been slated to go to USGS monitoring Redoubt.
Chris Waythomas, a geologist with the Alaska Volcano Observatory, a branch of the USGS, said that part of the money from the stimulus that Jindal was referring to would have been used to "shore up" monitoring of Redoubt, by adding new monitoring technology like real-time GPS. Redoubt, he said, was "very high on our list" of volcanoes that needed increased scrutiny.
In fact, thanks to its close monitoring of Redoubt, the USGS has known for months that it was on the point of blowing. The volcano had emitted ash and steam last week, alerting scientists to the likely imminence of a full eruption. Their efforts also meant they knew enough to raise the alert level to orange, or "watch" on Saturday, a day before Redoubt erupted. That, for instance, meant that the FAA received advanced warning that flight disruptions could occur, and it gave local officials time to draw up precautionary plans to evacuate people if needed.
So in this case, government scientists appear to have had access to enough information to anticipate the eruption, but there's no guarantee that that'll always be the case. Waythomas said that, because of funding shortfalls, monitoring efforts for several other volcanoes lacked some of the technologies that could be of crucial help to geologists.
"More [monitoring] instruments are always better," said Waythomas. "The more advanced warning really reduces the stress on everybody. After the fact is really too late."
Here's the key point: this weekend's eruption could hardly have offered a better example of the enormous value of the very activity that Jindal breezily disparaged in his speech.
Jindal's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Between 1980 and 1990, volcanoes worldwide killed at least 26,000 people and caused 450,000 people to flee their homes, according to the USGS*.
Late Update: Here's the part from Jindal's speech where he mocks volcano monitoring...
* This sentence has been clarified from an earlier version.
Josh
Zachary
I swear to God the day after the speech, I came on this site and said it would be tragic and yet hilarious if there was a major volcanic eruption (although I nemd Yellowstone) after Jindal's speech.
Thank you, Baby Jesus, for small favors.
March 23, 2009 1:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jeepers Lars, I wish you hadn't picked that one.
If Yellowstone goes in a way commensurate with past eruptions, the economy will be among the least of our problems.
March 23, 2009 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
A caldera ain't no puny volcanoe mountain like Redoubt, or Mt St Hellen's, or Krakatoa. Yellowstone is a caldera.
March 23, 2009 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's right. Yellowstone is a Super-Volcano. If -- or I should say -- When it blows, it will be a potential ELE (extinction level event).
But geological evidence shows that it only blows about once every 600,000 years. That's the good news. The bad news is that the last time it blew was approximately 600,000 years ago.
So be careful what you wish for, Lars!
-- ARG
March 23, 2009 5:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
I spell "volcano"/
You spell "volcanoe"/
Let's call the whole thing off.
March 24, 2009 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
How'd that "e" get in there" Damn!
March 24, 2009 4:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is silly! Everybody knows volcanoes are a myth, you silly billies!
It was probably just some witches making the mountain go boom!
March 23, 2009 1:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
To my knowledge Sarah hasn't said anything negative about funding USGS. It would be a very dumb thing to oppose in a state with natural resources that are kinda geologically involved, volcanoes, earthquakes, etc.
I'd like to invite Gov. Jindal to FLY up here himself to get a better look and decide whether government money for volcano monitoring is a good idea.
*Snark*
March 24, 2009 1:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
She so hated Obama's self-deprecating joke about his lack of bowling skills at the expense of the mentally disabled that in a courageous act of criticism she is rejecting stimulus monies for Special Education.
March 24, 2009 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
You can't make stuff like this up. God really is a Democrat.
March 23, 2009 1:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, if not a Democrat, then surely a liberal!
March 23, 2009 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thus explaining, at last, why reality has that "well-known liberal bias".
Who knew? God: the George Soros of the Universe!!
March 24, 2009 10:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
I feel no pity for a ninny who believes there is any reason of any kind to teach "creationism" or "'intelligent' design" in a SCIENCE class. I have a feeling kismet will trail this guy like a piece of toilet paper on his shoe. That's okay in my book.
How is it possible to forget the great Mark Twain line under these circumstances.
"God made man in his image and man, being a gentleman, returned the compliment."
March 23, 2009 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hope someone is asking for comment from more than just Jindal. His response to Obama's quasi SOTU was the official Republican response, a response that was certainly crafted prior to Obama's speech and presumably was edited and vetted at the highest levels of the GOP. So, why shouldn't any/every Republican leader be forced either to defend this now-even-more-evidently-ridiculous criticism of the stimulus bill or to reject what was clearly the national party's view of what counts as illegitimate federal spending?
March 23, 2009 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
YES. It was the official response, and both McConnell and Boehner should be asked about it. Probably Steele as well. TPM, the ball is in your court, because we know the MSM will ignore this.
March 23, 2009 3:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sarah Palin should be able to see the plume from her window.
March 23, 2009 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sweet! Now she she can say yup to "Volcano Expert".
March 23, 2009 5:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am a hard core liberal but at the same time how much money is best spent on volcano monitoring when we are in such a pitiful way.
The quote of more monitoring is better may be true but at what point is enough enough,.. I mean is 100 billion better,.? . probably but my road is falling apart.
If the damn thing is belching steam and tremors are felt,. then issue the warning. We do not need to spend another 140 million for fancy crap.
March 23, 2009 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
The point of monitoring is to find out if it's about to do something before there are obvious signs like steam belching and tremors.
$140 million is really not that much - it's much less than AIG is paying out in bonuses, for example.
March 23, 2009 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Have you ever heard of Pompeii? You're either joking or horribly uneducated. I sincerely hope you're joking. If not, you might want to read this link and put some information in your head:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/03/alaska_volcano_mount_redoubt_erupts_5_times.php?ref=fp8
Since the Air Force was able to shelter 60 aircraft because of the advance warning, I'd go out on a limb and say that they probably saved AT LEAST $140 million in labor hours, maintenance, and repair costs. That's to say nothing of the fact that, to the best of our knowledge, no lives were lost in this eruption.
At what point is enough enough? I don't know, but considering the fact that an ill-timed, unexpected volcanic eruption could probably end life as you know it regardless of where you are right now, I'm gonna guess that the number is somewhere above what should be spent on repairing your street...
March 23, 2009 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
$140 million is less than fifty cents per American.
It is significantly less than one percent of one percent of the federal budget.
In case you didn't read that correctly, I'll point it out explicitly: Not merely "less than one percent".
Less than one percent of one percent.
You're complaining about something that makes people safer and which costs essentially no money.
But I'm sure scientists will be thrilled to learn of your fantastic new idea for replacing their "fancy crap". You should publish an article in Nature to let them know.
March 23, 2009 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lessee... last time Redoubt erupted, a single plane got the ash in its engines, and need $60,000,000 in repairs. That plane also fell 2 miles before the crew could restart the engines. It could've just as easily crashed.
And $140,000,000... less than the repairs to 3 planes... isn't money well-spent? As pointed out, the USAF sheltered far more than 3 plans because of the warnings. The FAA is able to re-route traffic and avoid damage to civilian planes, and potential loss of life.
And that's a volcano in Alaska. What if it were Ranier? Or St. Helens? Or Hood? All three are slumbering volcanos outside of Seattle, where there's far more air traffic.
$60M cost for 1 plane in a remote area vs $140M for all the volcanoes we monitor in a program that's already underfunded. Even without taking into account the cost of rebuilding roads and other infrastructure if a volcano in a more populated region were to pop off... that's an incredibly sound investment in infrastructure.
March 23, 2009 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bill, while I'm quite sure that your basic premise is correct, do you maybe have an extra zero or two in that engine-repair figure? Lord knows, aircraft are expensive, but $60M for engine repairs seems a tad steep.
March 23, 2009 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
My thoughts too.
March 23, 2009 4:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually cwnidog, BillMcD understates the cost of the repairs to KLM 867. It took $80 million (in 1989 dollars) to return the Boeing 747-400 to service, including replacing all four of the plane's engines (source: http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs030-97/).
A contemporary report on the incident, published on Dec. 16, 1989, by The New York Times (source: http://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/16/us/jet-lands-safely-after-engines-stop-in-flight-through-volcanic-ash.html), noted, "After the landing at Anchorage, a scheduled refueling stop, officials of the safety board and the KLM crew inspected the jet. 'It looked like it had been sandblasted,' one official reported."
Reskinning a 747-400 isn't cheap.
By the way, that particular airliner (tail number PH-BFC) remains in service today.
March 23, 2009 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I used to work on E-4's during my youth (the military version of the 747, not sure which 747 variant it was based on). I knew that you didn't pick one up for lunch money (note I didn't ask if Bill was short a third 0), but I must admit I'm stunned. A new one went for about $250M in 2007, so I imagine that in '89 $80M was a big chunk of the price of a new aircraft. I'm sure that they wouldn't do it if they didn't think they'd be saving money though.
March 23, 2009 6:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your point is correct, but your geography is a bit off. Mt. Hood is about 60 miles east and a bit south of Portland, which is about 180 miles south of Seattle, and Mt. St. Helens is also closer to Portland. In case of eruption, Seattle and Portland airports would probably be affected, but Seattlites aren't going to be too worried about mudslides from either.
Since I can see Mt. Hood from my window, I'm happy to contribute my $.50 of taxes for increased monitoring.
Mr. E.
Hood River, OR
March 23, 2009 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Seattlites might not have to worry too much about the lahar from Mt Rainier, but there's a good chance Tacoma will cease to exist. Not to mention the valley in between I-5 and the mountains. If the mud comes down the green river and hits Auburn and Kent (as the geographic record shows it has in the past), Tukwila is next downstream and then eventually all the way to the port of Seattle.
There's a USGS hazard map on wikipedia that shows lahars hitting Auburn, but the map cuts off about there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mount_Rainier_Hazard_Map-en.svg
March 24, 2009 4:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
$140M was the stimulus budget for the USGS, not just for volcano monitoring, if I remember right. One of many things Jindal got wrong in his pathetic speech. Among many things, the USGS is responsible for monitoring water flow, temperature, and various other water quality indicators in surface waters throughout the country - which here in CA is used to help stretch a very limited budget in planning water delivery/usage with minimal impact on water quality.
March 23, 2009 4:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
OK, then. Why don't you quit your job and go camp on Redoubt for, say, $30K/year, and just yell really loud when things get a bit unsettled?
Volcanoes kill people, and destroy towns.
March 23, 2009 5:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is your bumpy road threatening the lives of folks around the globe? If Redoubt really blew, we'd all have some alterations to deal with. Not so much your road, I'm thinking.
FWIW I live in the three B's turf in L.A. (Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood). This is top dollar real estate and there is a mile stretch of Wilshire Blvd. through said terrain that looks like it hasn't had work since 1952.
March 23, 2009 8:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry, but this is good for Jindal.
Jindal will now trumpet his foresight in raising the issue of volcano monitoring in his address.
All that matters in the GOP model of media manipulation is to grab ownership of an issue. The side they take is secondary as they will lie about which side they were originally on.
And the enablers in the establishment media will never challenge Jindal when he claims to have supported volcano monitoring.
March 23, 2009 1:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
And its fantastic news for John McCain. And even better news for Rudy 9iu11iani.
March 23, 2009 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's funny how short-sighted these Republican assholes can be.
March 23, 2009 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Skaren, with all respect you sound less lie a hard-core liberal and more like a hard-core NIMBY. There is lots and lots of money in the stimulus package for infrastructure repair. Instead of complaining about what may benefit some other locality than yours, why don't you start getting after your state and local governments to use that infrastructure money to fix your street?
As for volcano monitoring, I daresay that an erupting volcano has a lot more effect on the country as a whole than your messed up road. For example, when Mount Rainier blows again (and it will blow again), it will affect close to 10,000,000 people directly and millions more indirectly.
March 23, 2009 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
If Yellowstone blows (God forbid!), it'll affect about six and a half billion people.
March 23, 2009 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh I think its safe to say that it's aready belching steam and causing tremors and has been for, oh, quite a while now. I suspect we're going to need to be need data that's just a scoche more fine-grained than that if we're going to have any warning of an eruption, even if that does require us to spend a few grand on some "fancy crap."
March 23, 2009 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
The popularly discussed impact of a Yellowstone eruption (while enormous and certainly catastrophic)is very over-stated. The northern plains would be decimated, and heavy ash falls would extend to at least Chicago, with lesser ones further east. It would cause a period of cooling (akin to Krakatoa and Pinatubo, but on a larger scale), but to my knowledge there are no extinction events of any note associated with past Yellowstone eruptions.
Ranier, on the other hand, would likely life fully up to its expectations, and lahar flows (volcanic ash-mud) would most likely completely destroy Tacoma (Seattle, would actually be largely spared)
March 23, 2009 6:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wasn't talking about a risk of extinction, just a threat to civilization. Global grain supplies are still at near historic lows. If we have another Year Without a Summer, whether due to a Yellowstone eruption or due to a series of smaller events that are too close together, I guarentee you it will effect every person on Earth.
Hundreds of millions, to billions, would be starving. Mass migrations, disease, war and rumor of war across Eurasia and Africa. The U.S. and Canada wouldn't even be able to feed themselves --much less the rest of the world. A big chuck of three states, at least, would have to be triaged out of the equation.
The odds of a complete crack-up of civilization would be pretty high.
Not that volcano monitoring would really help much with any of that. It might hold down the direct casualty count, but the secondary kill would be just as bad.
March 24, 2009 9:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Fair enough, although my comments were more directed at the very large number of 'the sky is falling' buffoons I see here and elsewhere on the issue than at yourself. It was just a convenient thread to jump on. That and I am inclined to forget the broader human impact int hat kind of short-term... bad as it is... I'm a geologist, not a economist or climatologist, so the thing I catch most in these is when I run across people claiming North America east of Wyoming would be gone, ash falls in Western Europe, yadda yadda yadda, none of which there is any significant evidence for from past eruptions
March 24, 2009 9:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, this is purely from memory, so my facts may be a little off, but I thought that the following statements are all true:
1) Mitochondrial DNA shows that the human population was redcued to perhaps a few thousand people some 77,000 years ago, by some kind of near-extininction level event (NELE).
2) A super-volcano (aka caldera) called "Toba" erupted at about that same time (77,000 years ago). And evidence suggests that this was the NELE.
3) Yellowstone is larger than Toba.
Hence, I conclude that an eruption at Yellowstone will be a potential ELE.
-- ARG
March 25, 2009 1:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
And yes, the land around the volcano will still be there. It's the people I'm not so sure about.
-- ARG
March 25, 2009 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Its doubtful it would be ELE. Theres a solid enough record of past eruption events associated with the Yellowstone Plume (which, if you care, also formed the Snake River Plain and Columbia Plateau) did not cause any significant extinction events. Theres no extinction event associated with ~600,000 years ago (theres an older one at the end of the Miocene (~30,000,000) and at the end of the Pleistocene (tens of thousands).
Catastrophic, yes. Guaranteed to disrupt the whole social-economic structure of the planet? Pretty much. Extensive starvation in sectors of the human population, probably. But extinction? not so much (with the exception of some animals whose ranges have become limited to that area)
March 25, 2009 4:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Between 1980 and 1990, volcanoes killed at least 26,000 people and caused 450,000 people to flee their homes, according to the USGS."
Can anyone clarify that those are numbers for worldwide volcanoes (I would assume) and not for volcanoes in the U.S.?
March 23, 2009 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm going to go out on a limb that 26,000 people weren't killed by volcanoes in the US. :)
Its almost certainly worldwide.
March 23, 2009 3:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was gobsmacked when he made the snipe considering he relies so heavily on Hurricane protection and detection monies in La. It seemed he liked his "eruption of spending" line so much he just needed to include the jab on volcano research and detection in order to set it up.
March 23, 2009 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jindal is a regular Mr. Wizard with the science stuff, isn't he? As long as there isn't much in the way of empirical factual information, he'll run with it.
March 23, 2009 8:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Another example of how taking a stupid position for the sake of political expediency can quickly develop into foot-in-mouth syndrome.
March 23, 2009 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
As in, "That guy Jindal is hopping stoopid!"
March 24, 2009 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
One of my college friends was Jindal's personal driver during the gubernatorial campaign for a while - I went to Facebook to send him a message to see if he would help out, but it seems he's taken me off his friends list. Damn! (Sent him a message anyway; I once did a nice profile of him for our college paper, he owes me something, right?)
March 23, 2009 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know I'll be criticized here on TPM, but Jindal is right! As a matter of fact I also have additional savings I can highlight. WHat about the dollars spent on monitoring hurricanes. They happen a lot more often than volcanos erupting and I bet everyone knows about where they're going to happen so why spend all that money? We even know pretty much when they're going to happen. I'm sure Bobby would agree with me.
March 23, 2009 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Stupid is as stupid does."
March 23, 2009 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Geology has a clear liberal bias.
March 23, 2009 4:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
You don't need "Big Government" spending on stupid stuff like volcano or hurricane monitoring...
Jindal knows you can just cast the demons out of the clouds. And the devil controls the fiery pits below the earth... just pray and them there devils will stay in San Francisco and New York where they belong.
Mass exorcisms are what we need... get them demons out of them democrats
March 23, 2009 4:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love it when Republicans do stupid crap in front of national television audiences like this. Next up: we need a national address by GOP leaders against the EPA's global warming endangerment memo the day before another chunk of the Ross Ice Shelf breaks off.
March 23, 2009 4:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
There are no volcanoes in the Bible.
Q.E.D.
March 23, 2009 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
....ERgo, there are no volcanos..perhaps they drowned in the Great Flood
March 23, 2009 5:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am actually more interested in Gov. Palin's response to the volcanic eruptions and Gov. Jindal's comment. She was, after all, very quick in blasting President Obama for insulting people with disabilities.
March 23, 2009 6:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lahars certainly threaten Tacoma, South Seattle and other smaller towns in Northern California to the Canadian border located near Cascade volcanoes. A directed blast at Ranier similar to what occurred at Mt. St. Helens, especially with a wind to the west, would be devastating.
Future Yellowstone eruptions may be minor to catastrophic. But there is no way of telling yet what the character of the next erution may be. However, a relatively minor erution at Yellowstone (considering its history) would be devastating to the farming economy of the northern plain states. And Willie Nelson won't be able to do a thing about it.
Oh, and BTW, Jindal is a jackass.
March 23, 2009 7:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think the big picture is that the Republicans do not want to be ready for a disaster any more than Bush was to respond to one. This volcano story falls into the same category as global warming, the energy crisis, and even the lack-of-oversight events like the housing/financial system or the savings and loan crises a generation ago.
The only thing that Bush worked at preventing was the terrorism, which one could argue was in itself counterproductive to terrorism,the energy crises, and the global warming, a sort of trifecta of woe all in one blow.
March 23, 2009 8:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
BREAKING NEWS:
Gov. Bobby "The Exorcists" Jindal and Gov. Sarah "My Witch Doctor" Palin have both agreed to meet at the foot of Mt. Redoubt to drive the evil Volcano Demons away.
*As stated by Gov. Jindal, "We do not need no stinkin volcano monitoring funds. We have the will of god."
Unfortunately for Gov Jindal, a Christian, he is misunderstanding the fact the Volcano God is not the same as the one he worships. Volcano God-1 and Christian God - 0.
* Obviously, this is not a true statement, I have used sarcasm as a source of humor, though this is not a laughing matter. I hope the best for the people around Mt. Redoubt and others in Alaska.
It does show you the ignorance of the Republican Party, or at least a few in the party.
You have to remember that Gov. Palin recently called the President to the proverbial carpet on his use of a certain word that he used on the Jay Leno Show. The Governor is so worried about special needs children, that she is going to deny the acceptance of the stimulus package which has billions of dollars for ummm -- special needs children.
Now back to the regularly scheduled program!
March 23, 2009 8:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Personally, I would like to see Mount Redoubt give us a good show and tell along he lines of Mount St Helen's - massive loss of property without any loss of life. It's far enough away from civilization (Anchorage) so as not to be an immediate deadly threat. Beside, it would give Obama the perfect opportunity to demonstrate to the public how FEMA is suppose to work - the exact opposite of Bu$h's Katrina/New Orleans fiasco. Also, with all that ash in the air and settling on everything it may show that the Witch from Wasilla isn't prepared to handle an extreme emergency with the potential of loss of life and property at the State level. Remember, she has all her eggs in one basket supporting only oil and gas resources - all she cares about is milking big oil for as much as she can get away with. If she has start acting like a real governor to get the State cleaned up, putting people's lives back together and figuring out where to put the debris, she'll have to turn aside her ambitions for an imaginary gas pipeline from Alaska to the lower 48 and forgo political ambitions for 2012.
March 23, 2009 8:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Compared to Bobby Jindal, Bush had it easy snaring votes from GOP boneheads by pretending he never went to prep school, or Yale, or Harvard Biz and was instead just an inarticulate rancher who couldn't be happier than when he was out cutting brush with a chainsaw. Whereas Bush at Yale majored in drinking and minored in branding pledges at his frat house with hot coat hangers and thus can reasonably be assumed to be as ignorant as he appears, Jindal might actually have hit the books at Brown to get his degree with honors in biology (yes!) and public policy, given that he snared a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford. His masters thesis at Oxford: "A needs-based approach to health care." That sort of stuff is way out of the Bush league. Poor Bobby really has his work cut out trying to convince Republican ignoramuses that he's just like them, because he clearly is not. Thus the hypocritical attack on volcano monitoring coming from a Rhodes Scholar with an honors science degree from Brown. Makes me wonder too if the stilted, middle-schoolish delivery of his speech in January wasn't a put-on, too. It's almost impossible to over-estimate the duplicity of these GOPers.
March 23, 2009 11:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's amazing to see how one troll can derail an entire thread.
The $140 million Weird Bobby Jindal protested was the entire USGS scientific monitoring budget. Most of this $140 million is for maintaining and repairing stream gages. See here.
Any high school reporter could have figured this out, but here is TPM once again robotically repeating the lie because they just cut and paste from a story they didn't even read.
If TPM is going to just parrot AP stories which themselves are full of shit and are false, then you might as well fold up. This is why a journalism model based on one source stories and just reprinting stuff doesn't work. You need to fact check this crap before you put your stamp on it.
It's hurting your brand.
March 24, 2009 1:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
While most of us have been lazy in making the distinction between the AMOUNT for the full USGS monitoring and the volcano amount - I'm not sure much hinges on the lack of clarity.
We're laughing at Jindal's mockery of volcano monitoring as a worthy government expenditure, regardless of how much actually goes towards that - he's the one that singled it out as if it was unnecessary.
Also - an interesting point I didn't know - from the news paper article I cited above that basically makes fun of Jindal...
apparently 'common sense' monitoring (aka. no fancy instruments just see if it's rockin' and smokin') would have led to jets being in trouble because apparently the night time eruptions meant they wouldn't have known/seen the ash in the clouds without instrument monitoring.
March 24, 2009 1:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
A featured article on the Fairbanks News-Miner (newspaper) website starts this way...
"ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A month after Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal complained about wasteful spending in President Obama's economic stimulus package, including money for "something called 'volcano monitoring,'" Alaska pilots were grateful for such expenditures."
http://www.newsminer.com/news/2009/mar/23/alaska-volcano-monitors-warnings-mark/
March 24, 2009 1:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
you know for some one in Alabama/Georgia/ a volcano is something you see in a disaster movie, or some person you go to church with saw once in Hawaii. I left the south and Live in California now so I think we should worry more about earth quakes. I mean come on hurricanes, and of course why should I care about a tornado, it's not like it directly involves me or my family....
March 24, 2009 2:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thank God Bobby Jindal was around to warn us of the shocking waste of taxpayer money on such useless and unnecessary boondoggles as volcano monitoring! With that kind of foresight, he's in the wrong career - he should be making millions as a late-night television informercial psychic advisor!
March 24, 2009 10:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe Jindal can dig up his favorite dead sheriff and lead a fight against government red tape in any environmental clean up needed around the volcano. Oh wait, he's a Republican so the environment doesn't matter! My bad, Jindal moment...
March 24, 2009 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jindal is one of the brightest of the best and brightest. He should be put in charge of A.I.G.
You mean he already was?
Never mind.
March 24, 2009 2:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Gods have spoken. The only way for the GOP to appease them now will be to sacrifice the biggest, fattest bloviator among them (and I think we all know who that is). Jindal and Palin get to push him in.
March 24, 2009 6:55 PM | Reply | Permalink