Jindal Versus The Volcano

With Monday's massive volcano eruption in Alaska likely to leave Anchorage and Gov. Sarah Palin's hometown covered in ash, a Democratic strategist sends over the reminder that just a month and a half ago, another up-and-coming Republican star, Gov. Bobby Jindal, mocked the very notion of volcano monitoring.

Speaking in the non-State of the Union rebuttal, the Louisiana Republican said that instead of spending $140 million "for something called 'volcano monitoring,'" Congress "should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C."

It was a comment not well received among geological experts and one that now seems to pit Jindal against Palin on a minor but important spending provision.

Then and now, the U.S. Geological Survey, which will receive the stimulus money for volcano monitoring, had been keeping track of several active volcanoes across the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii and, of course, Alaska.

And the agency's efforts seemed to pay off. As early as February 6, indeed, residents of cities near Mt. Redoubt were preparing for a volcano eruption because of information gleaned from early monitoring systems. As reported by USA Today, taxicab drivers were replacing air filters more frequently and local citizens began purchasing dust masks and preparing to be stuck inside their homes for lengthy periods of time.

Many Alaskans took issue with Jindal's comment, the Anchorage Daily News reported. "Of course Alaskans want to know if a volcano is going to blow," a Palin press aide told the paper.

A call to Governor Jindal's office for comment was not returned.

Comments

[mickeydougal]

10:48 PM on 04/01/2009

You people are hilarious. You keep talking about science, but what you obviously need is to learn a little about math. You're worried about volcanoes, yet you have no idea of what the definition of a trillion is, and worse what it's implications are!

[jimbeaux1961]

12:23 PM on 03/28/2009

Wouldn't it be cheaper to just toss a virgin into the volcano? OOH!OOH! Or Jindal could EXORCISE it! Even better!

[learnsomething]

02:01 PM on 03/25/2009

When are Louisiana's citizens going to protest in the streets like Alaskans did, to get their backwards governor, Jindal to accept the stimulus funds, they so desperately need.

Are the people of Louisiana passive.

[ericmiami]

09:07 AM on 03/25/2009

What, me worry?

[indy girl]

06:06 AM on 03/25/2009

That nature business is just so silly anyway! Volcanos are as irrelevant as endangered species, right, Mr. Jindal?

[HST]

04:47 PM on 03/24/2009

What do you expect from people who live next to a volcano -those people should just move. If the volcano erupts it's the state's own fault for not having a plan to evacuate everyone in an instant. We won't miss the poor people who live next to volcanoes anyway. Obama can send relief supplies to them in about a month or two if their governor doesn't get in the way.

[Thirdstone]

01:05 PM on 03/24/2009

If we do away with volcano monitoring, can we ditch hurricane warnings too, Governor?

Just askin'.....

[hollybork]

12:48 PM on 03/24/2009

Ha! These Republicans are so into state's rights, they forget the states were meant to be their brother's keeper.. We are part of a UNION. The South lost the War, for God's sake.

[MorpheusXNYC]

04:11 PM on 03/24/2009

We should just let Southern States secede from the union and cut them off from all federal funds, let them issue their own currency and trade with them like any other foreign nation.

Let's see how fast they degenerate into a Lord of the Flies type of place...

[ChiGuy]

12:05 PM on 03/24/2009

Word is that Sarah Palin is dismissing the seismological signs as e_vil polar bears trampling on her land, and steadfastly denying the eruptions occurred.

[HatingTheGame]

12:05 PM on 03/24/2009

Volcano monitoring? Man, wanting that is as silly as what... hurricane monitoring in the Gulf. Who the hell would want that? Both are ridiculous. We should focus on more important stuff, like teaching abstinence and figuring out exactly how many days it took g0d to create the universe.

[ChiGuy]

11:33 AM on 03/24/2009

The Republicans' ridiculous dismissal of science continues.
Nothing new here.

[Bardmess]

11:50 AM on 03/24/2009

This is too funny. Volcano weighs in on stimulus debate. Obviously, science is wasted on people like Jindal, but it could be a warning from God.

[SurrealPumpkin]

11:11 AM on 03/24/2009

It seems that Mother Nature is a liberal.

[Eyeswideopen1]

11:20 AM on 03/24/2009

You would be too if you have been abused by Conservatives yelling "drill baby drill"

[arvay]

10:55 AM on 03/24/2009

For some of the uneducated know-nothings such as Huckabee among the Republicans, this could be written off as ignorance.

Jindal is highly intelligent and well-educated, for him, this is political posturing of the worst sort -- dishonest and patronizing.

Here's some of what H.L. Mencken wrote about William Jennings Bryan - - -

It was hard to believe . . . that he had traveled, that he had been received in civilized societies, that he had been a high officer of state. He seemed only a poor clod like those around him, deluded by a childish theology, full of an almost pathological hatred of all learning, all human dignity, all beauty, all fine and noble things.

If he keeps on this course, this is how Jindal will be remembered some day.

[learnsomething]

02:03 PM on 03/25/2009

He doesn't act intelligent.

[Shayrae]

06:18 PM on 04/14/2009

He is not intelligernt and that's no act. Jindal, despite his loud protests to the contrary, is desperate to be president. Ain't gonna happen and I live in Louisiana. The idiots here who voted for him are now whining and having buyers remorse. Heaven forbid we get another Katrina here in this swamp.

[JRsNana]

10:48 AM on 03/24/2009

God has such a great sense of humor and irony at times.

[stormynite03]

10:42 AM on 03/24/2009

omg, i'm dying laughing. he looks like such a big dunce. Maybe he should throw out funds for hurricane monitering, he's already did nothing with the katrina funds anyway!