Republicans Cut NOAA Funds Just In Tiime For Hurricane Season

Elaine Meinel Supkis

The inconvenient truths NOAA hands out on a daily basis must be terminated by the GOP defunding much of NOAA. Of course, pretending the weather isn't happening is a stupid move, any organism that ignores the weather has bad chances of surviving long. Evolution at work, indeed.

The cuts are for various studies of the ocean as well as the atmosphere.

June 29, 2006 -- The U.S. House of Representatives passed an appropriations bill today that would cut approximately $500 million from the budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in fiscal year 2007.

The massive budget cut passed the House of Representatives less than one year after NOAA was widely praised for its success in forecasting hurricane Katrina and protecting thousands of people from death or injury. According to NOAA, the House bill would fail to fund day-to-day operations of the agency’s aircraft, which are the nation’s first line of defense for monitoring and forecasting hurricanes and tropical storms.

The House appropriations bill would provide $3.4 billion for NOAA in FY 2007, a decrease of approximately $500 million or 13 percent below its current funding level of $3.9 billion. The President proposed cutting NOAA’s budget to $3.7 billion in FY 2007, eliminating numerous congressional earmarks and increasing the budgets of some core research programs.

It should be obvious to everyone that the GOP plan to deal with overpopulation is to help natural disasters to be as bad as possible. And marine studies? If we pretend the oceans aren't being destroyed, this won't stop the oceans from being destroyed. They will die and so will we. Whenever there was a mass extinction event at sea this was always followed by a mass extinction event on land. The oceans occupy the greater mass of the earth's surface and are the key to our environment, the interaction of these mighty seas with everything else on earth is key to life on earth surviving.

The idea that humans can float above all this and live is lunacy. Bush proposed we bend our wills towards flying to the dead planet, Mars, and take a look-see as to what our planet will look like if GOP policies prevail. I suppose dead planets appeal to some psychotic minds. I don't find it very appealling.

The idea that us driving around like lunatics and flying all over is more important than keeping our own planet alive baffles me. Pretending we don't need to care about future generations irritates me. This collective death-wish is quite strong and the chances of it succeeding in its deadly mission grows greater by the hour.

Meanwhile, the GOP pretends gay marriages and flag burnings are life and death issues.

WASHINGTON, July 7 — Moderate Republicans say a planned summer push by the House leadership on conservative causes like gun rights and new abortion restrictions threatens the re-election prospects of embattled centrists, who are key to the party's drive to hold Congress.

Frustrated and angry, they say the leadership's new American Values Agenda, a list of initiatives heavy on ideological themes, seems short-sighted and ill-timed considering that few conservatives are at serious risk in November.

"It was stupid and gross," said Representative Christopher Shays, Republican of Connecticut. "They have this obsession to satisfy conservative Republicans who will probably be re-elected no matter what happens. They get job satisfaction, but they are making it more difficult for me to win my race."

A word to all the GOP clowns 'in the middle': you could quit your stupid party and do something brave and useful for once. Enabling them in their crusade to kill the planet isn't going to look too hot on one's resume', eh? The paralysis of the middle is typical. They don't want to stop feeding at the public trough nor do they want to take the arguments in DC back home and expose their own populace to any dissentions. They just want to keep the status quo limping along. As long as those deficit dollars flow, they will enable the rulers to continue destroying things.

Bush wants more money for science even as he cuts money for science.

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer 4 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Saturday urged the Senate to back increased government spending on basic scientific research.

The proposal is part of Bush's initiative to boost U.S. competitiveness in the global marketplace through innovation. He also wants to train thousand of new science and math teachers and extend a popular tax credit businesses can receive for investing in research and development. The total price tag over 10 years would be $136 billion.

Some Democrats have expressed concern that Bush is increasing federal math and science education spending while cutting overall discretionary spending on education by trimming money in areas such as the arts, parent-resource centers and drug-free schools.

This isn't about funding science. It is all tax cuts for corporate America which will spend a lot of it overseas where the real scientists are now working on the cheap. The science teachers gambit is a cover for yet more corporate tax cuts. If Congress was interested in science, they would be doubling the funds going into NOAA's climate research. If they had the faintest interest in saving our lives, they would double funding for NOAA.

So here we go, off the cliff. The Potemkin ecological laws being passed in the name of saving something being used as a Trojan horse for enriching the very wealthy corporate interests.

And this is why I supported Al Gore with all my heart and soul back in 2000.

March 13, 1998
Web posted at: 3:10 p.m. EST (2010 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Under instructions from Vice President Al Gore, NASA is scrambling to put a satellite in space that for the first time would broadcast live pictures of the Earth 24 hours a day for Internet users and television outlets.

The project, which would need approval by Congress, is expected to cost between $20 million and $50 million. Gore sees it as an invaluable resource for scientific, educational and weather research.

It would show hurricanes and other threatening weather patterns, forest fires, cloud formations and other phenomena in real time. There are no full-Earth images now available, although existing satellites track regions of the world.

In 1998 there were full earth images available and I tracked them daily on my computer. But the minute Bush walked into the White House, NASA terminated them online so now we don't have it anymore. Just seeing the earth as a whole is important, psychologically. It reminds us that we live on the most complex, interesting planet in the universe and we should be paying attention to this lovely place. Why do so many people hate the earth?

It seriously baffles me. The world's religion should be Gaia. We should be loving Mother Nature not a bunch of bloody, vicious, self centered godlings who want us to massage their twisted egos every day.

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