The Down Side of President Obama

I didn't watch the speech or the rebuttal, but apparently Bobby Jindal came out against monitoring volcanoes in his speech:

http://volcanism.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/something-called-volcano-moni…

I wonder if the governor of Louisiana is also against monitoring hurricanes.

If he were against monitoring hurricanes, it would appear that the wrath of God was hitting his state a couple times a year.

He only wants those heathens in the volcano-laden parts of the West Coast surprise-smited.

(and Hawai'i - sorry for forgetting about you, Hawai'ians)

He only wants those heathens in the volcano-laden parts of the West Coast surprise-smited.

Is he taking it out on Saint Sarah and her fellow Alaskans? Or is he playing the populist against the airlines? Alaska has quite a bit of volcanic activity, as much if not more than the Lower 48 combined. Some of that activity affects business operations--primarily airlines that fly transpacific routes or to/from Anchorage.

I didn't watch the speech or the rebuttal, but apparently Bobby Jindal came out against monitoring volcanoes in his speech

I think it would be a bit short sighted to say that Jindal was against expenditures in general for the monitoring of volcanoes; more than likely he's simply against the inclusion of such spending in the stimulus package.

That makes sense to me. Why does a stimulus package need that kind of spending?

As an aside, that question reminds me of, "what does God need with a starship (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYW_lPlekiQ)?"

That makes sense to me. Why does a stimulus package need that kind of spending?

Because what's actually in the stimulus bill (as opposed to Jindal's strawman version thereof) is:

[F]or repair, construction and restoration of facilities; equipment replacement and upgrades including stream gages, and seismic and volcano monitoring systems; national map activities; and other critical deferred maintenance and improvement projects.

Everything in there (with the possible exception of "national map activities", since I don't know just what that means) involves either construction (which directly supports jobs), buying things (which supports the jobs of the people making the things), or both. That sounds pretty much like the purpose of the stimulus bill, from what I've heard about it.

Is he taking it out on Saint Sarah and her fellow Alaskans?

She is his big challenge in the 2012 Primary races! ;o)

I think it would be a bit short sighted to say that Jindal was against expenditures in general for the monitoring of volcanoes; more than likely he's simply against the inclusion of such spending in the stimulus package.

I would hope so - but then this is also a man who claims to have performed an exorcism.

It is incumbent on public officials to explain what they mean to the public. If he didn't make the distinction between not wanting us to monitor volcanoes and not wanting to spend stimulus money monitoring volcanoes, he has no right to assume that we know he's in favor of the former.

Also, why not spend it in the stimulus? That part of the bill offers money to pay for equipment upgrades and repairs that have been deferred on water and flood gauges and volcano monitoring stations. Why not get done what USGS years ago decided needed to be done, but didn't have the budget to actually accomplish?

Companies that make such equipment provide a useful service and can use the stimulus money just like any other company that gets money indirectly through this passage. It is also the sort of equipment that can be manufactured and put into service relatively quickly (especially compared to road projects, which are mentioned a lot in infrastructure discussions.)

I also felt that I had to watch/listen to Obama's speech. I say "had to" but after a few minutes it was positively pleasant to listen to a man who can speak eloquently about ideas and can refrain from smirking for an entire speech. He is damned impressive, and I hope he can pull it off. The contrast with the former President is stark.

Jindal, on the other hand ... I couldn't watch. It was too much like watching a fairly decent tenth grader give a fairly decent talk in speech class. I would just advise him to tape his next one and listen to it before he actually gives it in public. In addition to delivery, he also needs to work on content.

Watched Obama, skipped Jindal. Obama was impressive, he can articulate his ideas well. His promise to "end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don't need them," and his effort to discontinue the dishonest and irresponsible way that Congress has funded wars for the past seven years certainly resonated. The rest of the speech, though, was a disappoint. Although a better speaker than Bush, he doesn't appear to have any better understanding of economics.

The stimulus bill itself has degenerated into mechanism for shoveling money into pet Democratic projects. A few of these may accidentally do some good, but that good will be far out-weighed by the damage cause by deficits and growth in size of the federal government. It will be interesting to see what Obama has to say in the 2010 address. By then he will be known as President Stagflation.

"Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!" "David Johnston's voice crackled over the radio link from Coldwater Observation Post, north of Mount St. Helens, on the clear Sunday morning of May 18, 1980. Seconds later, the government volcanologist was engulfed in the volcano's gigantic lateral blast." - USGS Obituary

In Bobby Jindal's world this was just another "bureaucrat" wasting tax money monitoring a volcano. Unfortunately the thirty year old scientist didn't survive the eruption. Johnston spent his last weeks convincing the Washington State Patrol and USFS to evacuate the area around St. Helens. Lacking that evacuation thousands would have died, and the eruption would be remembered as an unmitigated disaster rather than a geologic novelty.