The Week's Best Late-Night Jokes
By Daniel Kurtzman, About.com Guide March 12, 2011
"It turns out that the Republican budget that they submitted for next year slashes funding for the agency that issues tsunami warnings and organizes responses to the tsunami. In their defense, Republicans say that tsunamis are just a theory, they are not a real threat like ACORN, the Black Panthers, NPR, and math teachers in Wisconsin."
-- Bill Maher
Good One, Bill Maher!
Hey did you hear that -- the GOP consulted their Think Tank advisers, and were told that they should "Demand more Time ... until we can all come a consensus -- that Tsunamis Threats ... really Do Exist."
Psst! Ditto that, for the Nuclear Power Threats too.
(yuk, yuk)
Too bad the GOP-Tea-Party Agenda is anything, But Funny ...
Sadly, the GOP Budgeting Cutting targets, are not really a laughing matter:
G.O.P. Cuts Could Hit Tsunami Warning System, Foes Say
By JOHN COLLINS RUDOLF, green.blogs.nytimes -- March 14, 2011
The plan cuts $126 million from the 2011 budget of the National Weather Service, which runs the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii.
The cuts amount to about 15 percent of the National Weather Service’s $900 million budget, but putting them into effect now would require the agency to reduce spending by nearly 30 percent through the rest of the year.
The Republican plan would cut more than $900 million over all from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2011 and 2012 budgets. The agency operates a broad array of weather monitoring programs, including the National Weather Service, and provides for hazardous materials response in the aftermath of industrial accidents and natural disasters.
[...]
The union representing National Weather Service employees said that the cuts would be felt during future extreme weather events. “In the next hurricane, flood, tornado or wildfire, lives will be lost and people will ask what went wrong. Congress’s cuts and the devastation to the well-being of our nation’s citizens are dangerously wrong,” Dan Sobien, president of the National Weather Service Employees Organization, said in a statement.
And the GOP's Austerity Axe doesn't end with the Weather Service either:
[...] according to Fox News, “the cuts go after common conservative targets, including the Environmental Protection Agency and Amtrak, but also cover everything from law enforcement to NASA.” And if these cuts are not enough, The Wall Street Journal tells us Republicans are also aiming to cut $16 billion from EPA, $2 billion from job training programs and $96 million from substance abuse and mental health services, along with several others. The cuts are enough to make anyone with compassion for the human race cringe.
Disaster prevention budget should not be cut
By Emily Shipp, Third-year English student, dailygamecock.com -- 14 March 2011
Those "Compassion Conservatives" may NOT care to "believe in" Tsunamis, or Earthquakes, or Climate Change, or Amtrak, or stopping Pollution, or healing Mental Illness, or just about anything ...
-- But one thing I want to know is --
When the Hell is the GOP going to start believing in America -- and helping fellow Americans again?
When the Hell is the GOP going to start investing in this Country's Future again!?
(most likely ... NOT soon enough.)
(my sincere condolences for the lost of life, and continuing suffering,
being endured by the citizens of our ally country and friend, Japan.
godspeed to them. may their recovery be swift and compassionate.)