Republican Bobby Jindal's bizarre callout of "volcano monitoring" as one of those things government shouldn't be bothering with, in his rebuttal to President Obama, has already been amply mocked.
I'm most struck by his wording, which was not just dissing volcano monitoring, but more exactly, quote: "something called 'volcano monitoring'". That "something called" part was just strange... what, does the supposed new star of the Republican party not know that we monitor volcanoes? Or that volcanoes are real?
More to the point, what did he think "volcano monitoring" might refer to? I mean, there's only two words there -- which one didn't he understand? Did he think it was a euphemism for something? And if so, I almost hesitate to ask: for what?
Seriously, he had no Republican around him who could look at those two words, and know what they meant, and know that, for example, there's an eruption expected even as we speak that could threaten people and infrastructure in Alaska? Not one person? Not one person who said "you know, pal, maybe the governor of Louisiana doesn't want to come out snarfing against early warning systems for natural disasters. Just a friggin' thought."
Nothing like being proven to be a dumbass -- and more than that, to show yourself off as the leader of an entire staff of dumbasses. I'm dying to know what he and his people thought "volcano monitoring" meant -- if it was gay immigrant code or something. What. A. Putz.