GOP to West Coast: Drop Dead

It's like shooting fish in a barrel, it really is.

Remember when Gov. Bobby Jindal (R.-La.) gave the Republican response to the 2009 State of the Union speech, and he mocked funding for monitoring volcanoes, and then the Mt. Redoubt volcano in Alaska erupted a couple of months later?

The GOP's federal budget proposal cuts tsunami preparedness and relief, and today -- basically as I type this -- tsunami waves (albeit small ones) are hitting the West Coast of the United States, Hawai'i is assessing its damage, and American holdings in the South Pacific may have been washed over completely after yesterday's earthquake in Japan, which registered mind-boggling 8.9 on the Richter scale.

Tens of millions of Americans live in tsunami danger zones. Tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions don't quit just because of a budget crisis and a global economic recession. But the GOP would rather have the West Coast drown than end the Bush tax cuts for billionaires.