The wrong way to respond to a storm

[babylonsister]

Posted with permission.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_08/the_wrong_way_to_respond_to_a031834.php

August 28, 2011 8:00 AM
The wrong way to respond to a storm

By Steve Benen


Hurricane Irene obviously has the attention of millions of Americans, but some are handling the threat better than others. On the right, some of the rhetorical responses haven’t cast conservatives in the best light.

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul wants to eliminate FEMA; congressional Republican leaders are reluctant to approve emergency disaster relief; and Fox News is running pieces like these, calling for the elimination of the National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service.

As Hurricane Irene bears down on the East Coast, news stations bombard our televisions with constant updates from the National Hurricane Center.

While Americans ought to prepare for the coming storm, federal dollars need not subsidize their preparations. Although it might sound outrageous, the truth is that the National Hurricane Center and its parent agency, the National Weather Service, are relics from America’s past that have actually outlived their usefulness.

The Fox News piece touts private outlets, including AccuWeather, without alerting readers to a key detail: these private outlets rely on information they receive from the National Weather Service. Indeed, the NWS makes this information available to the private sector for free, since the NWS is a public agency and the data it compiles is public information.

The Fox News item goes on to say, in reference to the Weather Service, “It issues severe weather advisories and hijacks local radio and television stations to get the message out. It presumes that citizens do not pay attention to the weather and so it must force important, perhaps lifesaving, information upon them.”

This is not, by the way, a parody.

Glenn Beck, meanwhile, told his radio audience on Friday that Hurricane Irene “a blessing. It is God reminding you — as was the earthquake last week — it’s God reminding you you’re not in control. Things can happen.”

This divine “blessing” has already killed at least eight people.

[kestrel91316]

1. I give up. I. EFFING. GIVE. UP. Give the Repigs every effing thing they want.

And let them and the fools who vote for them suffer the consequences.

I'll stick around to help with the fires to burn all the bodies when We the People decide that WE matter and WE have rights and WE need not return to the Dark Ages and accordingly seek revenge on the RWers.

[geckosfeet]

2. Except we suffer right along with them - probably more since we speak up.

[kestrel91316]

6. I'm tough. I can deal with it. God knows, they have given me enough

practice already.

[tridim]

3. Republicans only like government programs that kill life.

That says a lot about who they really are.

[OwnedByFerrets]

10. Actually, repugs are the first in line to recieve the goods

when disasters strike. I've lived thru multiple hurricanes ( living on the Gulf Coast ) and have noticed that they have NO problem taking those "handouts" and then decry the needy when THEY take advantage of Government help.

[Skink]

4. Fox Mulder was skeptical about fema too.

[Patiod]

5. Accuweather only recently dumped their climate-change denying LT forecaster

Joe Bastardi, who claims that private companies make better forecasts than the government (using government data and satellite images, no doubt). Fucking hypocritical conservatives.

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/02/21/207573/accuweather-joe-bastardi-resigns/

[izquierdista]

7. At the state level.....

Here in Georgia we have the Georgia Automated Environmental Monitoring Network, a system of weather stations all over the state collecting data and making it available for farmers and anyone else who needs it (see http://www.georgiaweather.net/). The cost of running it is a small fraction, less than 1%, of the cost of crop damage from not having that data. But it's been on the chopping block since early in the year, and seeing how the good folks in the legislature shooed away the farm workers before they could harvest the crops, I'm not going to hold out much hope that it will continue to operate.

[lunatica]

8. Jesus! I didn't realize they were quite that stupid

Really. I thought they were socially functional enough to appear to be normal. Now they're exhibiting a real dearth of common sense.

[annabanana]

9. What with eyeball seeking media and chest-thumping pols . .I take

refuge in numbers. Go past the headline pages online about hurricanes and just look at the radar, the wind speeds & direction,the time of the tides and the phase of the moon...

That way I avoid panic.

[treestar]

11. There is no end to their stupidity

A National Weather Service is one thing one would think they could support.

We have far more warning of the storm than we would have with a scattering of private sources. Where would they get access to information the way the federal government can?

[Pab Sungenis]

14. Of course they don't

not when someone "private" can profit off of it. Just like they all but privatized the military under Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld.

[Pisces]

12. We need to eliminate sensationalized news. When the real threat is bearing down on us no one will b

believe it. 24/7 coverage of what amounts to "A Hard Rain" is ridiculous.

[LiberalFighter]

13. So was it a divine blessing that not more were killed

because we have FEMA and other emergency services?

[cottonseed]

15. Awesome. Can't wait to see true progressives usher these guys into office.