NOAA Pressures Proactive Proenza to Shut Up

This may ramble today and if so I apologize but hey it's my blog and I am pissed. Really pissed, annoyed yet not surprised that the government's response to the problems with Proactive Proenza was to send a hit team down with an surprise inspection of his department to see if he is doing his job well enough to continue or whether they can find some way to either scare him to shut him up or shuffle him off to Buffalo.

Article from The Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/158757.html

Driving into Miami this morning I heard Jim Defede talking on the radio about the newest attempt by the government to shut Bill up. I smiled when I heard him refer to him as Proactive Proenza, giggled and asked my friend to turn that UP. The giggling ended when I heard that they decided poor Mary who was given the job to bring him a letter last month didn't seem to scare him so they sent an entire team of people down to Miami to do a surprise inspection.

Jim says he is part of some hit team specializing in looking for dirt and I believe him. I checked into Conrad and found he was involved in a few things that were diplomatically hushed up.
Here is a link to his previous service and background on Conrad and his help with the salmon industry.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/July05/Bacher0702.htm

So..now Conrad is working for NOAA after a wonderful career with the Navy and has been sent down to Miami with a whole team of people to investigate the National Hurricane Center while the NHC is trying to do their job and investigate the tropical wave far out in the Atlantic being monitored by QuickScat that might become Chantal sometime later in the forecast period.

Please note...Conrad has often spoke up himself and addressed the concerns of other government staffers who were harassed for speaking publicly. He defends his position in a letter written
In a response to a letter where someone complained that public officials were not being allowed to give their true opinion on Global Warming Conrad responded that they encourage their staff to speak freely and I quote from his letter that is online in many sources, this being one of them.

http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/index.php/csw/details/mahlman-lautenbacher/

or

http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=8610

Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.)states in his own words:

"Our media standards also reflect an open policy. We encourage our public affairs staff to keep abreast of media interests. I encourage our scientists to speak freely and openly."

Well, Conrad may say so in his "message from the Under Secretary" but I doubt seriously his surprise trip to Miami to make sure the NHC or as they would prefer it being called NOAA-NHC was to give Proenza an award for his lifetime of service or his speaking freely and openly. Of course once a long time ago before he spoke freely he was thanked by the President of the United States of America.




Previously, before making Surprise Exams at the Hurricane Center for the Government now in his second career after retiring from the NAVY he does many things besides making Surprise Inspections.

He even goes to schools and speaks before students trying to inspire them. Here is a picture of him from when he went to a school where his wife works on what was probably Career Day and tries to convince girls to study Math and showed them slides and information about hurricanes and his work. Very nice of him. He pointed out that, aside from a mother's job of waking young children to go to school it seems he wants girls to know they can grow up and go out in the world and be a part of the diverse work force the government employs. I don't know about Conrad but in my public high school the president of the Math Club was a very popular, cute, girl... not some stereotypical nerdy guy with a pencil protector in his pocket. But nice of Conrad to care.



Here is Conrad smiling at a girl who is showing off her mathematical skills. Perhaps he was thinking..gee I wish she'd grow up, go into government service and one day she can work with all the other gals at the NOAA NHC.. maybe one day she could even be the Head of the NOAA NHC!!!

Strike one up for Conrad who has a real grasp of motherhood.. waking up the children! Hey, I do it several times a morning because none of their alarms seem to work as well as me screaming "GET UP NOW I AM LEAVING FOR WORK"

Personally, I vote we send Conrad back to schools across America where he can continue to promote math and science as valuable careers at government facilities and maybe he can bring along a few of the women forecasters at the NHC with him next time he does "Show and Tell" on career day. And, I hope he isn't really the hatchet man that many in Miami say he is looking for some smoking gun they can blame on our Proactive Proenza who just got there and spoke so freely and openly to his staff and the Miami Herald and other reporters like Jim DeFede about getting that satellite that is about to break any day to be replaced before 2016 or 2017...

I sure hope that Jim who I admire greatly will do the same for Bill and help "Save Bill Proenza" as the head of the National Hurricane Center! I listened to Jim on the radio this morning, heard him use my phrase I have been using for weeks and smiled. And, he is right.. he is so right. Yes Sir Jim... I want the Director of the Hurricane Center to be a man who will stand up proactively and be watching over us before disasters strike and not AFTER.. And, Jim is right... he is just the sort of man who we do respect and it makes us respect the NHC MORE when there is someone like Bill in charge. As I said before and I will say it again no one since Neil Frank has inspired that level of trust or respect. We have had some great directors but they weren't Neil Frank. No one has been like Neil until Bill.

Bill Proenza makes you feel that he might not be able to stop global warming, he might not be able to stop the rain from falling this afternoon at 3pm with deadly lightning strikes, he might not be able to stop that invest in the far Atlantic from forming into a named system but he will do his best to protect us and publicize any problems we need to address in a proactive, strong way not some mamby pamby sort of folksy way towing the line, showing the cone and giving out pre-approved sound bites.

It would be a crime to punish a man of his caliber for addressing the need to replace a satellite that is about to break that is needed for forecasting. And, as for NOAA's 2 million dollar celebration of their 200th anniversary is a little bit over the top. Don't plan a celebration if you can't take the heat. I mean if they want to justify it.. hey let's party. In a day and time when we are asking local city officials to cut back and state officials to cut back on pork.. I think that's a lot of money for a NOAA celebration. Maybe Conrad could do a surprise visit into their books and see if the money is really available? I'm not good at math, I was in the English Club (run also by a cute, smart, sexy girl at my co-ed high school) and I know I can do the math on a calculator and it comes out to a whole lot of money that I think would be better spent in this day and age. $2,000,000 divided by 200 years = $10,000 per year.. now back in 1900 that was a whole lot of money. See I studied history too, joined that club also.. cute boy who liked history went with me. Even though I'm not a math major I know $2,000,000 is a lot of money.

On the day that Conrad went to do Career Day to talk about girls studying math the other topic being discussed was the one of Stewardship.. as in for our world, our environment, jobs, etc.
Link to article on his Trip to School

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/315957_mathgirls17.html?source=rss&q=

The article goes on to say:

"Stewardship was a key topic of interest to the rapt fifth-graders, who previewed their self-directed spy spoof movie called "Dive Another Day" for their guest. The movie featured a cast of bad polluters, played with delicious malevolence by the girls themselves, who are eventually defeated by the "Jane Stewards" of the world."

Well let me close this by saying two things..maybe three.

The job of the Director of the NHC is indeed one of stewardship and Bill Proenza does it well and yes.. proactively so worrying on the needs and concerns of the residents living in areas affected by Hurricanes is his job. Trying to keep the best possible equipment working and the best budget that can be given to the Director of the NHC to the handle the busy needs of his department is his job. He is a steward to the highest degree and one who is now being punished by speaking "freely and openly" to the public about his concerns for the QuickScat satellite needing to be replaced BEFORE the year 2017.

So, maybe Conrad should go back to school and study English and not put his foot where it doesn't belong. One.. either you can or can't speak "freely and openly" and two.. either you can or can't be a good steward of the NHC without worrying you will be fired and given an ultimatum.

Two.. people like Jim Defede and others should rally around Bill Proenza and PROTECT him if there is still a way at all... just like people rallied around Jim Defede
http://journalistsfordefede.blogspot.com/ and just like people have rallied around others who tried to make a difference in this world and speak honesty and from the heart. I'd like that before Bill ends up on whatever TV channel is left looking for someone to give his opinion or moving away to Texas like Neil Frank did when he left behind the politics of the job of the NHC for other meteorological pastures. We need someone like Bill in Miami.

So..write someone, start a blog, speak up... and tell people like Conrad and his superiors that we need more money for the National Hurricane Center to do their job better or to continue doing it as well as they have... we need that satellite fixed, we need more money for HRD (Hurricane Research Division) and less parties and celebrations of 200 year anniversaries.

Office of Under Secretary
Conrad Lautenbacher
phone: 2024823436
email: conrad.c.lautenbacher@noaa.gov

And, I seriously hope when the fictional 'Jane Stewart' becomes Director of the NHC someday she will be allowed to speak up freely and openly and not be asked to just say "Watch The Cone!"

Addresses below to write to show your support... and oh by the way we are currently monitoring a small disturbance, that is steadily moving west and managing somehow to keep it's convection about it way far out in the Central Atlantic. We know this from satellites like QuickScat as it is still beyond the reach of hurricane hunters and cannot be seen from the window of the tallest building in Miami... but our eye in the sky tells us it is there and allows those forecasters at the NHC to monitor it properly.. except for of course Lixiom Avilla who worries about people bugging him at Publix in the fruit section and who seems to be able to do his nice little government job no matter how many satellites go on the fritz. Maybe he has a direct link to Miss Cleo? Who knows.. Miami is a funky place to live while waiting for the tropics to pop.

Thank you anyone and everyone who writes any emails or makes any phone calls to anyone who can stop the harassment of Bill Proenza.

Thank you for reading this long post but more so..thank you for writing at least one email today to help Bill Proenza and have them take the pressure off of him so that he can continue to do his job because we need him there!

Write Bill Nelson:
http://billnelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

Bobbi
Ps...isn't she beautiful? Possibly Chantal
She's on invest at the NAVY site that uses QuickScat.

http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/tc_pages/tc_home.htm
click on Atlantic Invest.

Me thinks that NOAA has bigger things to worry about this season than parties and harassment!


AGAIN: Please write or call!

Office of Under Secretary
Conrad Lautenbacher
phone: 2024823436
email: conrad.c.lautenbacher@noaa.gov

WRITE BILL NELSON:
http://billnelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm


WRITE THE PRESIDENT, remind him why he was shaking Bill's hand for his life of service and stewardship of the NWS and NHC!
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Write Gov. Charlie Crist

http://www.flgov.com/contact_form


The Jim DeFede Show
Office: 954-862-3185
On Air: 866-801-0940
jim@jimdefede.com