It's a relief that the House of Representatives passed Superstorm Sandy relief in a 228-192 squeaker. In truly asinine fashion, the GOP congresscritters wanted to cut $13 million from the National Weather Service. Leave it to Republicans to want to cut funding from the National Weather Service in the wake of a huge weather-related catastrophe (I am reminded of Bobby Jindal's scornful remarks about "volcano monitoring", delivered while Alaska's Mt. Redoubt was being monitored due to an eruption threat). It's also reminiscent of their 2011 decision to cut funding for NOAA's hurricane tracking satellite system.
In the case of Sandy, continual monitoring was crucial, because the path of the storm was atypical, a once-every-700-years event. The European tracking models more accurately predicted the path of the storm than the American ones... thankfully, those socialistic scientists like to share data. If there hadn't been accurate models, the toll of death and destruction would have been unthinkable.
Once again, the Republicans have shown a willingness to continue their war on science... hell, they have Creationists sitting on the House Science Committee. In the case of their attitude toward the monitoring of natural phenomena that can result in mass death, their hostile attitude toward science can result in real harm.
Prognostication ain't pork, people.
Cross-posted at Rumproast
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5 comments:
And of course, FAUX Nooze.
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You'll notice the lesson they have learned throughout this process, particularly during the Obama era.
They simply don't make specific recommendations any more. They say "deep cuts to be negotiated" like that would ever happen. But it gets them out of the business of demanding cuts that cause people to heap scorn on their pointed heads. They may be anti-science, but they are objectively pro-asterisk...
Prognostication ain't pork, people.
Augury is chickens, however.
These clowns whine the only legit purpose of the federal gummint is defense.
Yet weather that will do more damage than any non-nuclear "terror" attack is somehow not to be defended against, I guess because there were few meteorologists around in 1790.
And of course they'd be happy to pay a corporation to provide forecasting, as long as that corp. could provide campaign funding.
A war on science beats a war on Christmas because there are real targets.
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