More Morford Musing

Mark Morford, of the SF Gate, slaps our science oriented "Leader" around a bit in classic Morford style about Katrina and Rita and Global Warming.

But he seems to think George will wake up. NOPE! W's trying to use Katrina to dismantle the Davis Bacon wage controls, further his voucher quest to weaken public education, enrich Halliburton and other big hogs at the trough and bypass environmental and toxic waste regulations. And some of his toadies in Congress, e.g. Rep. Pombo, are proposing to sell National Parks and million of acres of other federal lands to pay the Pipers. Wouldn't want the fat cats who benefitted from the Bush Tax Molestations to have to pony up anything.

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Kneel Before The Meteorologist

At last, one scientist BushCo will definitely -- albeit resentfully -- listen to. Sometimes

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/09/28/note...

So now we know. This is what it takes. This is how far the nation has to crumble and this is how many people have to die and this is how many tens of billions it has to cost and this is how far his dirt-low poll numbers have to fall before Bush will finally come out and say he agrees with one of those godforsaken gul-dang book-learned scientist types.
You know the ones. Those informed and well-educated data-crunchers he normally despises like a kid hates broccoli and whom he normally thinks are lower 'n a snake's belly to a mud puddle and whom the GOP normally treats the way a cockroach treats a dunghill. Which is to say, not very well at all.

.............

And now, whenever these damnable weather dudes march into the Oval with bad news of some damnable upcoming lethal storm readying itself to smash into the nation, well, Bush has to wake up from the hammock and take notice and alert the gutted FEMA teams and scowl and pretend to care, lest the nation impale him on the hot spike of his own incompetence, again.
Can you imagine how much he hates that? Can you imagine, after five years of bashing all the natural and finite sciences (and most of the arts and humanities, as a cute bonus), from stem cell research to evolutionary science to climate change to water quality to air pollution to turning the EPA into an impotent laughingstock, Bush has to actually sit his butt down and listen as some gul-dang scientist tells him he has to batten down the hatches and prepare his threadbare emergency teams to actually take care of -- ick -- poor people? He must despise it the way cats despise showers.

Ah, but there's a kicker. There's a catch (isn't there always)? There's another ugly and bitter side Bush no more wants to look at than a hung-over frat guy wants to look at Jenna in the morning. Here it is:
"Aside from predicting the weather, [atmospheric] scientists also attempt to identify and interpret climate trends, understand past weather, and analyze today's weather. However, weather information and meteorological research also are applied in air-pollution control, agriculture, forestry, air and sea transportation, defense, and the study of possible trends in the Earth's climate, such as global warming, droughts, or ozone depletion." -- U.S. Department of Labor

Did you catch that bitter and painful irony? The part most loathed by the GOP? Because it's these damnable meteorologists, these hideous scientists, they're often the same batch of heathen data sluts who join forces with other disciplines (geologists, oceanographers, biologists, et al.) to present the U.N. and the U.S. government with serious and undeniable proofs claiming that, for example, global warming is a horrific fact and that mankind is playing a brutal role and we have to do something about it, or else.

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Read and enjoy the entire article at: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/09/28/note...

Thanks Mark - we needed that.

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