agreed. according to the USGS, 11% of the world's active volcanos are in the United States, and about half of the most dangerous ones are "significantly undermonitored". but hey, why worry about what the scientists say?

Jindal is the new Quayle.

Indeed. Perhaps he'd like to shut down the hurricane watchers as well.

Bobby = mr rogers
xplain it to me like im a 5 yrold

About 15 seconds into that video it all made sense... He was talking to Democrats

^^^
Wow, is that really why he sounded like a 3rd grader? So he wasn't actually trying to address his own party or the American people, just Democrats? I fail to see the logic behind your line of reasoning. If you ask me, I think the only thing he was talking to was just the teleprompter.

Can anyone spot the epic failure of this comment?

It's kind of funny, you know, that whole Katrina story. Especially since he sort of made it up.

To think it, he's trying to own Katrina like Bush did with 9/11. Utterly pathetic.

Wow after lying directly to the American people with a straight face, he's absolutely right. Spoken like a true hypocrite. Also, I think that we should take heed of his words to "ignore those bureaucrats and go start rescuing people." I think that's what it's called when you ignore obstructionist lawmakers who are simply being unconstructive, Jindal & his ilk are the ones trying to drill holes in the boat while everyone else is trying to throw a lifeline to those who are already over their heads or soon will be without a way to stay afloat...

I hate to say it, but this is the reason why the Republicans are in trouble. They tried to out-Democrat the Democrats. The only thing I can think is "we've got to show we like brown people too. Find a brown Republican, anyone; I don't care what he sounds like...".

Until the Republicans put ideology and substance over imagery, they are in serious trouble.

It's tough being a true Conservative today. There is no one preaching our message.

What is the message?

Please no.
(Quayle won)

I think it was much more that the pool of potentially-national GOP talent is so very shallow right now, and as a result Jindal was one of a very small number of candidates for that speech. Whoever did his speech coaching should be fired.

I disagree. The GOP has gotten into trouble exactly because they put ideology first - the wrong ideology, extremist anti-abortion and "guns, gays and god" ideology that is increasingly out of step with voters.

It's up to the moderate conservatives to take their party back from the hard-right extremists, if they can. If not, they will continue their slide into irrelevance.

Off the top of my head try
Thomas Sowell
J.C. Watts
Clarence Thomas
Alan Keyes

I don't like any of them nor do I agree with them.

Basically

• You have the right to choose your actions, but not the consquences


• Life, and by extension the Government, doesn't owe you anything.


• There are evil people in the world who only understand force and must be delt with harshly


• By easing the life of those who make poor decisions, you create a society that encourages poor decision making.


• The transfer of wealth from rich to poor is both immoral and harmfull to the economy


• All life is precious, however human needs superceed that of plants or animals

Who says otherwise? Like, quote someone saying the opposite.

Well, I guess you're right -- I don't know that the government owes us the maintenance of a working system of property rights, with a functioning law and order system to enforce said rights.

But, last I looked, conservatives in large numbers were in favour of the government providing such things.

So perhaps the roles and functions of government aren't an issue of what it "owes" us.

Actually, I'm glad we agree on this point, because, frankly, most conservatives address it totally stupidly. Phew!

Again, name them. Robert Mugabe? Would he be one? You have any plans for him?

Just wondering. I mean, if there are evil people in the world, and I'm not disputing that that's a fair description of some (perhaps many), do you know who they all are -- and how do you plan to deal with them harshly?

Is being born into a poor family a poor decision?

Having an abusive parent?

Just, again, wondering out loud.

Odd. Some rich people give to charity. You better have a word with them.

And, uh, Republicans have been pretty supportive of financial support for Big Agribusiness, in the form of agricultural subsidies, which probably have some regressive effect. Is that the trick? One can be conservative and support some measures because the wealth transfer is upwards?

Again, you know, pondering your ideas out loud.

What are you saying here? That conservativces eat meat and liberals don't?

Last I looked, I knew plenty of liberals who are omnivorous, so I'm not sure I see your point.

Or is it not about food, but about, oh, I don't know, species preservation or something? You're trying to make some point about some endangered spotted owl or some such?

If so, man, are you confused. There are plenty of reasons to conserve nature generally, and various species specifically, that are all about satisfying human needs/desires. (In fact, I'm not going to talk about "needs" as I think that's shonky language. Most of what we "need" can be provided in a variety of ways, so we pretty much always have options.)

Reasons for looking after nature include maintaining balance in ecosystems that provide important ecosystem services -- knocking out a species can play havoc witrh predator-prey relationships and result in an area being overrun by pests, for example.

There's also value inherent in genetic information, which gets lost as we deforest. Not to mention that pesky carbon stuff.

Or, alternatively, a perfectly valid reason for preserving animals is that we humans like having those animals around. This is as entirely valid a benefit to human beings as having another Wii or another cold beer in hand.

So, having mulled over your statements of conservative principles, it all just seems ill-defined and vacuous.

Are all conservatives as confused as you?

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN

Anyhow, I heard that Jindal sounded pretty funny or something. True?