National Hurricane Center chief told to button his lip.

[alfredo]

Looks like the truth is the enemy of the bush junta.

http://www.miamiherald.com/569/story/141782.html

'I don't think they can pull the rug out from under me right now,'' Proenza said, ``but there is no question they are trying to muzzle me.''

In recent interviews with The Miami Herald and other media, Proenza has strongly criticized leaders of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for spending millions of dollars on a public-relations campaign while hurricane forecasters deal with budget shortfalls.

One of his main concerns has been the imminent demise of a key weather satellite called QuikScat, launched in 1999 and long past its designed lifetime.

No replacement currently is in development and the loss of QuikScat could diminish the accuracy of some hurricane forecasts by up to 16 percent, Proenza and other experts have said.

[Turbineguy]

1. What fun is there

being President if you can't break the government?

[silverweb]

2. "Truth is the enemy of the bush junta."

No doubt about it. On every subject, on every level, and in every way.

Mr. Proenza is a brave man.

[aquart]

3. The American people are the enemy of the Bush junta.

They hate us for our freedoms.

[silverweb]

4. Indeed.

And one of those fast-disappearing freedoms is our ability to demand the truth -- because it is truth that will expose the gory, filthy, murderous reality of the Bush junta and accomplices.

[undergroundpanther]

9. No they hate us

Because we INSIST on having freedom.

[alfredo]

15. A step in that direction is to put bush Inc. before the Hague.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. Iffin we were to launch a war on stupidity, we would have to

turn our ships around out there in the big blue sea and you know how much trouble that would be. Too bad we only have one planet for now.

[DeSwiss]

6. That's all the Bushbots can do...

... is smoke and mirrors, which is their specialty. Just like with Katrina, Bush was all teary-eyed on the TeeVee talking about how "we're going to rebuild New Orleans." And of course that's worked out so well.

And now the Quikscan satellite is operating on a backup electrical supply that could go at any time. Its the only satellite that gives us real-time wind speed and direction for Atlantic storms. Meanwhile, all we get is more smoke and mirrors from the damned bureaucrats.

Remember those names: Mary Glackin and Louis Uccellini. They'll be featured prominently during the Congressional hearings after the next disaster we're inadequately prepared for or warned about while they explain what a "heckuva job" they've been doing....

[ruiner4u]

13. yeah and in 20 years

Mary will be secretary of the interior and Louis will be on the supreme court <who cares if he has a law degree>.. the lowliest 'con has a way of rising to the top

[whistle]

7. But some big money guy has a satellite up there right now which

...can do what QuikScat does and is keeping those results proprietary for their own profit and advantage, you can count on it!

Perhaps WALES (Water vApour and Lidar Experiment in Space) and SPECTRA (Surface Processes and Ecosystem Changes Through Response Analysis), I don't know, but obviously there are dozens if not hundreds of competing scientific and academic interests out there and guess where the money is all going? Yep, right down the Bush/Cheney and neocon Iraq War and 21st Century Imperialism Hegemony RATHOLE (which stands for Rats Ass To Hold Open Lieberman's Expectations)

[alfredo]

10. I remember Santorum wanted this agency privatized so one of his

contributors would be able to coerce us into paying for something we pay our taxes to receive.

[undergroundpanther]

8. Wonderful

Less time to escape hurricanes.

Bush is trying to get as many people killed as he can get away with by proxy. I'm convinced this is part of the "agenda".
Certain convergences of crisis threatens their precious "economic dream",which is a self serving so called "divine right"
for a few who are ruthless to live as kings at the expense
of all the other people and the health of the planet itself).

...Yet of the three factors environmentalists often point to as responsible for environmental pollution — population, technology, and consumption — consumption seems to get the least attention. One reason, no doubt, is that it may be the most difficult to change; our consumption patterns are so much a part of our lives that to change them would require a massive cultural overhaul, not to mention severe economic dislocation. A drop in demand for products, as economists note, brings on economic recession or even depression, along with massive unemployment.

For an example see this site linked below,die off. This site blames the coming crisis on too many people being alive. A psychopath like Bush would think killing off massive amounts of people would do the trick of fixing the crisis without having to change the consuming culture that makes his family live like kings at the expense of the many.Bush does not want to give up the"economic dream" So his solution let hurricaines kill people,let war,lack of health care,and stress and interpersonal violence,medical tests,and whatever else kill them off indirectly.A psychopath on the take's best buddy is PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY you know.

http://dieoff.org/

Politically the impact(of consumerism) could perhaps be seen as more significant:
This support for individualism was seen as very valuable because it was a form of subtly imposed social control, whereby it would individualize people in a way that would remove or loosen the strong political and social activism, as people would turn inwards to themselves only.

A group of people who were once concerned about social issues were largely transformed into exploring and fulfilling their individual desires through the purchase of material goods.


Truth is an enemy to people who are con men,Sociopath criminals..When they are trying to get away with something that would cause the people of conscience to get morally outraged at the injustices and take the Criminals in the government and remove their access to power and take AWAY the"economic dream"..or if that way fails remove the criminals themselves by force and a public take over the means of production taking it out of private hands..

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. ... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."

— U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William F. Elkins) Ref: “The Lincoln Encyclopedia”, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)

A VERY good website on the issues behind why things are as they are.Check it out!!
http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Consumption.asp

[area51]

16. "Bush is trying to get as many people killed as he can get away with by proxy."

Agreed. The nazis know this country is overpopulated, and letting the weather satellite stop working, making sure we don't have single-payer universal healthcare, accelerating offshoring, and letting poisoned Chinese imports kill people meets with their anti-life agenda to get rid of what they consider "useless eaters", which is iirc a Tricky Dick "go fsck yourself" quote.

[Firespirit]

11. Bump

And blogged.

So the White House is pissed off, huh? This pisses ME off! :grr: Dude, hang tight. The coasts can't afford to lose you and your staff to another Bushbot yes-man lackey.

[tiptoe]

12. Chaos and Disaster are opportunities for *Co to promote/"sell" their Privatization "argument":

(1) by demonstrating through bad performance how unreliable and inefficient (*Co's own) "US government" operations can be,...

(2) abetted by

    (a) guaranteed underfunding of gov't agency budgets as direct consequence of deliberate US Treasury drain via Norquistian "starve the beast" tax cuts for the wealthy and "perpetual war(s)" (...a domestic spending purpose for foreign-wars-based-on-lies?) and
    (b) agency-personnel-appointments, whose "performances" both analysts and victims of government-"run" operations (like *-FEMA's response to Katrina-chaos, or *-SBA's non-response to 9/11 with emergency loans) have attributed to "incompetence" (...even as * hands out "heckuvajob" acclamations)

Example of a current-developing "disaster opportunity" (in addition to the mentioned potential "weather disaster opportunity"):
FOOD FEARS: Is America's Food Supply Safe? - PBS

BETTY ANN BOWSER: So let's get into all this, this is all seafood, fish, right? Shrimp, seafood, some kind of dip. Tell us about these.
WILLIAM HUBBARD: Betty Ann, FDA's had tremendous concerns about imported Asian seafood from countries like China and Vietnam. They will often raise the fish in heavily polluted water and the fish are subject to fungal infections and bacterial infections. So the farmers will add illegal antibodies called fluoroquinolones or an anti-fungal agent called malachite green. And then that fish will arrive here in the United States with these illegal chemicals in them. And FDA has found tremendous problems with those. These are illegal drugs that are a big problem for human health and should never be in our seafood. But FDA has many times found problems with those. The same is true with shrimp.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: Wait a minute, let me stop you. Are these chemicals that have been given to these shrimp and fish, are they on this label anywhere?
WILLIAM HUBBARD: Oh absolutely not. These are illegal chemicals and drugs that are not allowed for use in the United States, but are used in these foreign countries to keep the fish from dying before they can send them to us. And then unfortunately they can be in the tissue of the fish when we eat them and FDA has found that problem repeatedly over many years. But it cannot go back to the foreign country and say you must stop sending us this tainted food.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: Why not?
WILLIAM HUBBARD: FDA has to keep looking and keep finding it. FDA has no authority to say to a foreign country, you continue to send us unsafe food, we're not taking anymore. Don't send it anymore until you'll fix the problem that you're in. FDA cannot do that.
...Shrimp has been a particular problem. Imagine the shrimp coming up from a hot Indian Ocean deck, put on a boat hours before it gets into port. And then it, it decomposes and it smells so bad you dump sodium saccharin all over to hide the odor and then ship it to the Americans. That's not something people want.

...

GAO Report in February: Federal Oversight of Food Safety

"Food safety — a High RISK Area...with...
   Inconsistent Oversight
   Ineffective Coordination
   Inefficient Use of Resources...
Food Poisoning — 76 million Americans contract food poisioning EACH YEAR ...resulting in about 5000 deaths"

David Acheson (FDA) says until Congress gives FDA more money and more regulatory authority...MOST OF THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR FOOD SAFETY WILL CONTINUE TO FALL ON THE SHOULDERS OF FOOD PROCESSERS [i.e. "private"]. IN THE PAST THAT HAS LED TO DISASTER: In March, 1000s of pet deaths were blamed on imported wheat gluten and rice protein, both contaminated with melamine. They were imported from China, by 100s of American companies that manufacture dog and cat food. Then weeks after its initial finding, the FDA said testing showed wheat flour [disguised as wheat gluten] containing melamine was the problem.
...
Sentiment is growing on Capitol Hill to create one SUPER AGENCY -- with twice the money and twice the personnel -- TO POLICE THE US FOOD SUPPLY. BUT SO FAR PASSAGE OF DEFINITIVE LEGISLATION IS NOT IMMINENT.
...
JIM LEHRER: On the domestic supply front, this week an Ohio company recalled its animal feed products because they contained melamine. The FDA said the levels were too low to pose a health hazard to humans, BUT IT'S INVESTIGATING WHY THE COMPANY WAS ADDING THAT BANNED SUBSTANCE IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Extended Interview: FORMER FDA Official Discusses Food Safety

(Originally Aired: June 8, 2007)
William Hubbard is a former associate commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. He spoke with NewsHour correspondent Betty Ann Bowser about his concerns about the FDA's ability to inspect foreign foods.

WILLIAM HUBBARD: I don't think people need to worry today that the food they're eating is unsafe. But they need to be worried that the regulatory system that protects them from someone who may send bad food is almost nonexistent. The FDA has had 10 straight years of budget cuts. They are incapable of protecting us. Plus Congress and the administration have cut their budget steadily.
...
"...in fact, it's really difficult to even find the processed food today that doesn't have foreign ingredients. So virtually everything we're eating is coming from foreign countries. The real question is: Can FDA screen those foods to make sure they're safe?
...
"FDA only has about 300 import inspectors to manage 13 million shipments of foreign food each year. So the real issue is will Congress beef up the FDA and allow it to check these foods out before they get to us?

BETTY ANN BOWSER: How would they do it?

WILLIAM HUBBARD: Well the first thing you do is you open the containers and sample them and examine them. And of course you can also do things like ask the other country to take more steps to protect the food before they send it here. USDA could do that for meat, but FDA cannot do that for the product it regulates.
...

[alfredo]

14. That does it, I am going back to being a vegetarian. I will

try to eat locally.