Comments

1
We don't need volcano monitoring either!
2
Definitely a perk but certainly not a job the Federal Government needs to be doing. Losing 10% of the budget from last year. Should be more. Political grandstanding.
3
Come on!! This will help create jobs people!! Once we wipe out the west coast of Washington think of all the jobs created to do the clean up?

You cry-baby liberals...bitching about job creation!!
4
Who's going to do it then? I don't see a profit angle this service, do you?
5
@2, eat my donkey dick. Who should be doing it, then? It's a PUBLIC SAFETY ISSUE. There is no conceivable "private sector" rationale for this, but it's a BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS public sector task. This is exactly what the public sector is FOR.

Fuck you. When the big one comes I hope you and all of yours drown.
6
Hell, only one of these districts has any coastline.
7
Why do they hate America so?

Besides, who needs volcano monitoring - then we might be able to avoid dying in the Tunnel of Doom ... as the pumps and ventilation go out and we drown and/or suffocate below sea level, covered in a thick hot mud that we'll never be freed from due to the widespread multi-county-wide devestation that we literally lack sufficient airlift to even rescue kids in schools from ...
8
@5: Amen.
9
Shouldn't 'public safety' be privatized? What could go wrong?
10
this is nothing compared to what they're cutting from defense! wait, what are they cutting from defense?
11
@10:

The DoD is already essentially privatized, so clearly no reason to make cuts there. In fact, the only reason your typical soldier's BDU isn't already festooned with corporate logos is because they determined the only place that would work as effective camouflage is at a NASCAR race.
12
@5 - I said Federal Government. States and cities on the coast could provide this service.
13
Never undersetimate the Repugnant's ability to be short sighted fools that will always cost us vastly greater sums of money and lost lives in the future.
14
@12

Agreed. Everyone knows that when tsunamis hit, they limit their destruction to the coasts of particular states and cities.
15
@12 - so each coastal town can buy a buoy, position it hundreds of miles out, and monitor the data on their own?

Sounds like a great plan - maybe we can get rid of the FAA and do air-traffic-control based on this model.

Maybe even extend it to the interstate highway system - who needs pavement across the flyover states anyway?
16
@15 heck, while we're at it, lets get rid of their Amtrak funding too.
17
Fine. You guys win this round. Tsunami warnings now remain Federal in my world view. My accusation of political grandstanding still stands though.
18
I'm sure the residents of the Long Beach peninsula are so grateful that they traded for a Republican.
19
Or better yet, every household on the West Coast owning beach front property should be responsible for placing their own tsunami-warning buoy - because we're a nation of INDIVIDUALS, and why should you have to be responsible for the people next door? Let 'em buy their own damned tsunami-warning buoy if they're so concerned about it!
20
@12, Considering states are broke too this doesn't seem like a better plan. Also, since it's dramatically more efficient, both in cost and outcome, to have warnings and responses centrally coordinated over the several states that would be hit at once the Federal government is exactly who should be doing this. Also, if the entire west coast were hit by a tsunami the size of the one that hit Japan there's absolutely no way the states could handle the problems that would cause. Since the government would be on the hook for the follow up it makes sense that they would be in charge of making sure people were properly warned.

BTW, I could have sworn that Republicans had said something about sanctity of life or every life is sacred or the Federal government is there strictly to protect life liberty and pursuit of happiness, or that the fed gov is there to protect our borders from outside threats or something like that. I may have misunderstood when they said all of those things repeatedly over the course of many years where actually they meant FUCK YOU ALL YOU'RE GOING TO DIE! Of course they're just hoping the tsunami hits while Obama is in power so they can blame him.
21
@19, Great idea. Personal responsibility and all that right?
22
I vote we institute the Death Penalty for any Republican who cheats on their spouse.

Preferably by stoning.
23
@20 - Yes, good points. I admitted I was wrong on this issue at @17. Honestly, it was the sentence in the post that began "A union representing workers at the tsunami center" that got my troll blood boiling.
24
unions bad is a cliche.
25
...and a stupid one at that.
26
No, the bad and stupid cliches are that we'd revert to child labor and 80 hour work weeks if public sector unions went away.
27
Funny you should mention that. There are already threats to child labor protections being debated in bills in Missouri and Maine right now: http://bit.ly/eN9TlQ The Missouri bill's proposed changes would eliminate both the need for minors to get parental consent to work, and the limit the number of hours they can work during the school year, a restriction designed to prevent school-age children from being pressured into working too many hours.
28
I bet the incredibly large, bureaucratic, and expensive Japanese federal government has saved thousands and thousands of lives. Their disaster response and preparedness seems to be a great example of why these centralized investments are important. I doubt we'd fare so well in such a calamity.
29
@23: "Honestly, it was the sentence in the post that began "A union representing workers at the tsunami center" that got my troll blood boiling."

This is actually one of the (several) important functions that unions can perform - they can express the collective concerns of their members in a way that those members cannot by themselves.

Public sector employees, working for the government, are in a very difficult position when that government makes decisions that they feel are wrong-headed and/or dangerous. The union is able to express concerns about these decisions where individual members - employees - are required to remain silent.
30
@26,
The meat packing industry, which used to be unionized, but is now largely illegal immigrant filled, already does both of those things.

Maybe you should move on to a different thread, this one isn't working well for you.
31
@26:

Riiiiiiigghhht. Because, why ever would Republicans possibly think they could get away with such a "bad and stupid cliche" in this day-and-age?
32
fuck it. lets use the money to build more bombs and death machines.
33
@17 holy shit someone admitted they're wrong on the Internet!

Thank you.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.