I wonder what Bobbie thought the monitoring was for, maybe scientific research?

Some few years back a commercial airline almost crashed after flying into an Alaskan volcano ash plume. For some reason the ash isn't good for jet engines.

Jindal is just too stupid to realize that there are real, active volcanoes in the U.S.

He probably thinks this is something like some "gee-whiz" science project in the Philippines or something he can lampoon as "wasteful."

It seems that you can't be a conservative politician and be educated and intelligent at the same time.

Oh, Bobby, Bobby, Bobby, reality bites, don't it?

Ash from Mt Redoubt has nearly killed the crew and passengers of a 747 before.

I think monitoring these things on a time-sensitive plan is important.

Well the response from Jindal will be of the form 'this proves how right I was to say how important Volcano monitoring is'. And the stupid GOP supporters will believe that is what he said after Rush and Coulter and the rest tell them that for a few weeks.

I said at the time it was a stupid thing for Jindal to say, the continental US has an average of one major eruption every 6 months or so and the big island on Hawaii is always erupting.

But don't underestimate the lack of shame these people have. They will simply claim to have supported the opposite of what they did. Just like they are now trying to pretend that they are vehemently opposed to bonuses for wall st fat cats.

Steve, I was hoping you would touch on this today. Thank you. I live in the proximity of several currently dormant or semi-dormant volcanoes (Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Baker). Most of the Pacific Northwest is part of the infamous Ring of Fire.

I shudder to think of the consequences of Mt. Rainier erupting without any warning.

When a volcano is going to blow, there's nothing you can do to stop it. Monitoring it is pointless.

Al (4:22 PM), monitoring give some warning and time to evacuate citizens. How many people would have died if we weren't monitoring Katrina and evacuated them?

Idiot.

Maybe Jindal thought the $140 million was for volcano monitoring in Louisiana.

You could tell by the way he phrased it "something called 'volcano monitoring'," that he didn't know what it was, and didn't give a damn. The point wasn't that he knew it was wasteful, it was that it sounded wasteful, just like all the programs that McCain twitters about. The purpose has nothing to do with actual fiscal responsibility, only what they can toss to their anti-government base so they can say "stoopid Dimocrats" and feel smart.

I guess Al doesn't look both ways before crossing the street. You can't stop the cars, so monitoring them is pointless.

This is apropos of nothing in this piece, but I figured some of you would want to know about the shitstorm Fox News has caused in Canada over some incredibly insensitve remarks about the Canadian Military (and on the same day that four more soldiers were killed in Afghanistan no less). Some yahoo named Greg Gutfeld was obviously trying to pull off some kind of Howard Stern sorta vibe, but just came off as ignorant and mean, and not even remotely funny.

Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuna2w2pgnM&feature=related

Anyways, it's set off a firestorm of indignation up here from both the Left and the Right, and has put our Conservative gov't in a rather tight spot once again. I gather nobody bothered to tell Fox News that over 100 Canadians have been killed in Afghanistan since the operation began back in 2001...oh and the RCMP don't ride horses and wear red jackets - those are dress uniforms. (I guess that means that the Marines fight with swords right?)

Honestly, I've never seen the Canadian intertubes so united, if there's one thing that'll get us all riled up together it's any perceived slight from the yanks ;)

(sorry for posting something so random - but I was dearly hoping that M. Benen was going to comment on it today...)

The only thing that would make this better is if Palin starts bagging on "wasteful use" of stimulus funds for "hurricane monitoring".

I wonder what Bobby Jindal is doing to prevent the next Katrina? That's where the political courage is needed, to spend money today to prevent a disaster in the future. Are the levees really sound?

I wonder what Bobby Jindal is doing to prevent the next Katrina?

He is gathering an appropriate assortment of priests, icons, and amulets to cast out Satan from his perch within those levees.

When a volcano is going to blow, there's nothing you can do to stop it. Monitoring it is pointless.

Goodness, why even reply? He's a drive-by troll. I don't know that I've ever seen him leave more than one comment. He's curiously efficient: He appears, drops a turd, and then moves on.

Thanks for that link, nielt (@4:35). I was only able to watch about the first 2 minutes before I had to turn it off. Otherwise, I would have had to buy a new monitor, computer and speakers.

I am SO glad I stopped watching cable news years ago.

That's why it's known as Knucklehead Conservatism; anything remotely scientific is RIDICULOUS! All of them pointy-headed thinkin' people. I hates 'em!

He's a drive-by troll.

There was a commenter "Al" who appeared here with regularity. Sometimes he'd reply after dropping his right-wing turds. The thing was that his statements were so ridiculous that someone else started using the name "Al" and posting even more ridiculous right-wing talkingpoints-style posts, sometimes before the "original Al" even had a chance to make his own comment. This annoying the "original Al" so much that eventually he stalked off (and can be found commenting on Matthew Yglesias's blog), but the "fake Al" remains, posting parody-but-sounds-like-it-could-almost-be-real right-wing comments.

Our earth is a restless planet.

Monitoring her tremors and eruptions is important when humans are in the vicinity.

You can't separate earthquake activity from volcanic

rumblings.

Does Jindal want us to stop listening to the earth?

Monitoring volcanoes is also about science.

But you have to believe in science....and I don't mean creationistic psuedo-science.

Al: Thanks for making this thread about you. I love it when you try and derail threads. It's so mature and adds not one iota to the discussion(s).

So is Sarah Palin hopping on the next flight to Baton Rouge to whup Bobby Jindal's skinny ass?

Geology has a "librul" bias.

I still remember when Mt. St. Helens erupted back in '81 (I think it was). I was living in Great Falls, Montana, at the time. The day after the blast, we had maybe an inch of ash all over the city. From what I'm reading, Anchorage will be spared most of this, but my thoughts go out to the people up north who will be affected.

"Vancouver this is it!"

5/18/1980

http://geology.about.com/od/volcanology/a/aa051897MSH.htm

Look, Bobby Jindal thought it wasteful for Louisianans to pay for Volcano Monitoring. And he was right; there are no volcanos in Louisiana. So paying for the monitoring is wasteful. So what if there are volcanos in Hawaii and on the west coast? They can pay for their own monitoring.

OwnedByTwoCats,

I suppose then, by extension, Jindal doesn't think people outside of Louisiana should pay for hurricane monitoring or levee research.

There are simply some things that are beneficial to all Americans, and thus all Americans should help pay for them.

I think OwnedByTwoCats was kidding...at least, I hope so.
peace,
st john

Go check out mudflats blog (from Alaska), if you don't already read it:
http://www.themudflats.net/

Stuff on Mt. Redoubt, protests against Palin and a post by the blog author's infiltration of a Republican fundraiser that Palin attended. It's quite funny. It's here:
http://www.themudflats.net/2009/03/21/back-from-the-belly-of-the-beast-infiltration-of-the-republican-lincoln-day-dinner/

I believe I read in 'A Short History of Nearly Everything', a very entertaining book, by Bill Bryson that human society is only possible because we are living in a geological 'summer' of unprecedented length. So Al is right. The end is near. It could be a mere 10,000 years away. Why bother to monitor or regulate?

More evidence that God doesn't like Bobby Jindal.

Monitoring volcanoes in Alaska is a waste of taxpayer money. With the direction that winds blow, it probably wouldn't hurt or kill anyone important - just Alaskans & Canadians & maybe a few in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and the Dakotas.

Monitoring volcanoes in Hawaii is also a waste of taxpayer money. Wouldn't likely hurt or kill anyone outside of Hawaii & they vote democrat anyway.

I agree with you about the Washington state volcanoes Michael W.

One of the results of a truly amazing degree of urban sprawl during the 30 years since I first moved to King County (I have lived her most of the time since but not continuously) is that tens of thousands of new homes have been built in areas at serious risk of lahars. Most of the people in these new homes will die if they are not evacuated before an eruption (of course, it might not take an eruption to trigger a devasting mudflow, in which case there might not be enough of a warning to evacuate).

Speaking of Katrina, the Secretary of Interior himself held a briefing today on the USGS monitoring of Redoubt. Salazar. Because there's no way this administration is going to appear to be as out-to-lunch even with a minor disaster as the last administration was.

Oh, look...
another eruption of Stupid from Mt. GOP.

Right after the Bobby Jindal comments my father -- who used to work for the USGS -- mentioned that the airline industry considers volcano monitoring very important.

There was plenty of criticism of the Jindal comments right after the fact, but nobody really noted how crucial this is for air travel. And I certainly didn't write any letters, because it's not my area of expertise.

But, please note that volcano monitoring isn't just about protecting people who live near volcanoes. There's a lot of volcanic activity in areas that are sparsely populated. However, there's quite a bit of air traffic over many of those sparsely-populated areas, and ash can cause serious trouble --even bring a plane down.

You'll see a lot of mentions of the FAA in these stories about Redoubt's eruption. There were plenty of flights delayed, and they were delayed for a reason. The FAA needs warnings in order to adjust flight plans. If they don't have the warnings, they -- and we -- are in a world of hurt.

This is what Jindal, a governor of state ravaged by natural disasters, calls "wasteful." He really doesn't know what he's talking about.

Fixed.

Bobby doesn't believe in science. He believes the earth is 6000 years old! He probably thinks volcanos are messengers of the devil.

I guess there's no need to mention the supervolcano sitting underneath Yellowstone Park

Sadly owned by two cats is quite right about the republican mind set. Remember that spending one billion dollars on New Orleans's dikes was wasteful spending before Katrina.