bad news about this year's hurricane season

this is pretty unbelieveable to me. but, given that it's our government at work, i suppose it's not. apparently, the satellite which gives us our most accurate forecasts on where hurricanes are heading is about to crap out. a new one was supposed to be shot into space in 2009, but, apparently to "budget problems", is now scheduled to go up in 2016. no doubt, this is all part of the bush/katrina conspiracy.

fortunately for us, the loss of this satellite doesn't mean we can't track hurricanes...we'll just have to live with a wider cone....which, of course, means that the numbers of us who wait until the last minute to buy supplies will be increased by a significant amount, producing a boon for the economy and lining the pockets of retailers in geometric fashion.

good work, government!


luckily, the democrats are on the case. fresh from their tireless warnings that the levee system in New Orleans could fail if exposed to any category 3 or above storm...and their effort to squeeze money from the tight-fisted bush administration who only wanted to see the destruction of the democrat bastion of New Orleans...they've decided to push through their long-delayed legislation (which they had worked on for YEARS) to allocate funds to produce a new "green" satellite which will project hi-def satellite imagery into every middle-class household. ... oh, wait...no, i'm wrong.

according to the Sun-Sentinel:

Rush Limbaugh has long been a thorn in the side of liberals, but now, because of him, some Democratic politicians don't even want to join with a local radio station to broadcast hurricane information.

Radio station WIOD, AM 610, has been the official channel for emergency information from Broward County government for the past year. The County Commission, all Democrats, balked at renewing the deal Tuesday, unable to stomach the station also being home to Limbaugh's talk show.

Commissioner Stacy Ritter said she did not want to support a station that's out of step with area politics. Ritter, a Democratic stalwart in the state Legislature before being elected to county office, cited talk shows hosted by Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and WIOD's partnership with Fox News.

"They have every right to speak, but we don't have to do business with them," she said.

i've heard that this station is the most powerful in the area. this could be right-wing talk radio spin, but, even if it's not, this is pretty damn petty.