Vital Steps Taken in the Global War on Weather Extremism
Lots of people talk about the weather, but President Bush, for one, is looking to do something about it.
Hoping to protect U.S. shores from being hammered by a tsunami, the White House directed federal agencies Friday to increase earthquake and volcano monitoring systems, deep ocean buoys and other high-tech means of alerting oceanside communities.
The tsunami plan was requested by President Bush and Congress after an earthquake on Dec. 26, 2004, caused a massive tsunami in the Indian Ocean. It killed or left missing at least 216,000 people in 11 Indian Ocean countries, and "demonstrated international vulnerability," said John Marburger, Bush's top science adviser.
It's not surprising that the President wants to take action against these kinds of events: he's been burned by one before, of course, and we heard recently that it still hurts his feelings everytime someone points out that he placed a higher premium on fixing Trent Lott's front porch than he did on saving actual people. What is surprising is that the President seems to have a functioning understanding of the fact that information on tsunamis cannot be obtained by detaining one and torturing it. It's a start.— DCEIVER