Monday, March 23, 2009

As I'm sure you've noticed...

The Republican response to Obama's address to Congress included this bit:



wherein Gov. Piyush Jindal (R-LA) criticized spending on "something called volcano monitoring" as if it were some useless expenditure. Well, you know what's coming...

A volcano in southern Alaska erupted anew Monday, the fifth eruption since coming back to life Sunday night. Agencies including the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey were monitoring the situation...

The first [concern] is the ash clouds' effect on air traffic in the vicinity of the volcano. Aircraft carrying a total of roughly 20,000 passengers fly through the area on any given day, Salazar said...The second area of concern is for people on the ground near the mountain, he said, but noted that most residents know what precautions to take, as experts have been warning of an eruption for some time.

...In Anchorage, about 100 miles from the volcano, residents were getting ready for ash.The ash cloud was moving north, missing the bulk of the population in south-central Alaska, Murray said.

"We are continuing to watch the volcano very closely," he said. "We could have several more phases, such as we've seen."

"It does pose significant problems for mechanical systems, people with respiratory illnesses and aircraft," he said, adding that residents should be prepared to stay indoors.

Those lousy government big spenders, insisting on interfering with God's plan to kill Alaskan asthmatics with volcano ash.

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