Gov Shutdown? National Weather Service Issues Coded Message ‘PLEASE PAY US’

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/coded-message-from-national-weather-service--%E2%80%98please-pay-us%E2%80%99-002058457.html

by flavmartins • 13 years ago

34 24 13 years ago

news.yahoo.com

GeorgeOrr• 13 years ago

I feel bad for whoever slipped this in. They will probably catch all heck from their boss.

I'd hate working for a company that can't meet its payroll. This really is awful, shouldn't the authorization to hire be the authorization to pay a person?

ck22• 13 years ago

The biggest problem with the shutdown is exceptions.

There should be zero exceptions, no police, no weather, nothing, absolutely nobody allowed to keep working.

No piecemeal pick-and-choose whom to re-enable, fund all or none.

Then this would be solved a tiny bit quicker.

Plus we should do what Australia does and dissolve Congress entirely and have new elections. But I guess that part is a fantasy.

Jtsummers2• 13 years ago

If police were federally funded that could make some sense, but they aren't. Is that part of the Australian constitution? We have no mechanism in place, presently, to do anything of the sort (I suppose we might be able to have local recall elections, but just checked. In 1967 courts ruled federal legislators weren't held to state recall laws. Things may have changed since then and a new court may rule differently.

ck22• 13 years ago

DC Police are federally funded. So is the military. All should be sent home, no exceptions, until everything funded again.

I've read a few places in Australia if your Parliament deadlocks, it is dissolved and that actually happened once?

All we have left is a "discharge petition" trick if 218 signatures can be assembled - it's actually something used in a movie. Which is insane. But that is the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discharge_petition

rz2k2• 13 years ago

Closing air traffic would be sufficient to make it a very big deal without all of the pain being focused on people who have little political voice.

The economic fallout would be terrible for everyone, but once upon a time that would prevented a shutdown in the first place.

Bockit• 13 years ago

It is part of the constitution. What they're referring to is the events of 1975 when Gough Whitlam and the Labor party government failed to pass a budget by the hostile senate, leading to the dissolving of parliament by the Governor General.

Basically the Governor General is the Queen's official representative in Australia and officially our head of state. They have the power in specific circumstances to dissolve parliament and force an election. One of those circumstances is if the government fails to legislate a budget. It's complicated how the scenario occurs, but it happened, the powers of the governor general were exercised and a new election was held.

In this case the scenario is only possible because we recognise a power higher than our own parliament, that of the Queen. The USA doesn't have that but perhaps an alternative system could be worked out (if it's even desired, I think it's a useful thing to have).

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Australian_constitutional_...

PhasmaFelis• 13 years ago

So, you want to force Congress to behave by...killing thousands of people?

cabalamat• 13 years ago

There should be zero exceptions

In particular, congress shouldn't be paid.

Amadou• 13 years ago

In particular, congress shouldn't be paid.

The problem isn't that congress is being paid, it is that so much of congress does not need to be paid because they are independently wealthy. Excluding non-revenue generating property like cars, houses, artwork, etc - nearly half are millionaires. Their circumstances find them disconnected from the reality of the majority of this country's citizens.

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/11/congress-enjoys-rob...

sneak• 13 years ago

Am I the only one that doesn't want the shutdown to continue indefinitely? Why does everyone see this as some bad thing that needs solving?

The federal government is massively overbudget. Even if all of this stuff stayed shut-down, we'd face tax increases. Turning it all back on means those tax increases will only be that much greater.

jasonwatkinspdx• 13 years ago

The shutdown will not save money.

First, the shutdown does not affect expenditures. Those have already been voted in, and the shutdown will not retroactively change those allocations. Those that voted for the shutdown do not intend to revisit those allocations because they benefit from them just as much as anyone else involved in legislation. In particular the ACA already has the force of law as non-discretionary allocation.

Second, those of us who remember the first time through this particular political dysfunction in the ninties can do the math. It cost us a couple billion back then. This time it's going to cost us an estimated 2% of our GDP this year. If you do not understand the implications of that number, I'm not sure what to even type.

And that's assuming the political theater is concluded before the treasury starts defaulting on already sold bills as part of the debt ceiling fight. If that happens we enter a new global economic regime. The US will lose its astoundingly privileged place in the global financial markets as the lender of last resort. A very likely outcome is that Russia or China will ascend rapidly to become the world's foremost economic power for the next century or more.

The only people who benefit from this action are those who think they can loot the building while it burns.

mturmon• 13 years ago

Reminds me of this stunt by Gov. Schwarzenegger:

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Did-Schwarzenegger-drop-4...

homakov• 13 years ago

Why pay you? Who needs weather info so much - nobody.

csmattryder• 13 years ago

I'm sure the people of Moore, Oklahoma, USA would've appreciated the 36 minutes [1] they had (albeit a short amount of time) to gather and leave before they were destroyed by the tornado that ripped through the town earlier this year.

The US's National Weather Service has saved countless lives, the opportunity cost of not funding these guys over DoD or FDA would give the Govt something to argue about in terms of mortality and healthcare.

[1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-21/tornado-alert-gave-...

nknighthb• 13 years ago

People who wish to remain alive and not suffer economic ruin.

We have all manner of destructive and lethal weather. You don't even have to talk about hurricanes and tornadoes, any severe wind and/or thunderstorm will happily bring down trees and power lines, and set fire to fields and forests. Flash floods, heat waves, fire weather, the national weather service warns us about them all and more. Even something as simple as a freeze warning may save a farmer's crops, or if not, provide them with proof of their loss for an insurance company.

Nick_C• 13 years ago

Aviation. No commercial pilot or airline would fly without a weather forecast for their destination. The public transport system, let alone cargo, would shut down.

shitlord• 13 years ago

What's awful is that someone is going to get in big trouble over this message... even though it is a bunch of politicians who created this giant mess.

acd• 13 years ago

The financial people have taken the money through artificially cheap interest rate created by the worlds central banks which is more debt than can be paid back.

The creature from Jekyll Island http://www.bigeye.com/griffin.htm

"calling for an end to the private creation of money by banks" http://www.compassonline.org.uk/the-green-party-takes-on-the...

dromidas• 13 years ago

Gov. Arnold did it better :)

Gov Shutdown? National Weather Service Issues Coded Message ‘PLEASE PAY US’

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