US Senator proposes to ban NOAA from providing free weather information

Under the guise of "modernization", Rick Santorum (R-Pa) is proposing that
any weather service already provided by a for-pay service must be prohibited
from being provided by NOAA.

http://tinyurl.com/cfxzj

(long link:
http://santorum.senate.gov/public/in...TOKEN=83234716 )

Perfect. Now, all I have to do is license the NOAA data for aviation
weather reports, resell the data, and the only folks who will be permitted
to compete with me will be those who also license the data and resell it.
NOAA will have to take all that stuff off their web site, ensuring that the
poor pilot will have to pay *someone* for it.

Yeah, this makes sense.

Pete

On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 00:49:07 -0700, "Peter Duniho"
wrote in
::

Under the guise of "modernization", Rick Santorum (R-Pa) is proposing that
any weather service already provided by a for-pay service must be prohibited
from being provided by NOAA.

http://tinyurl.com/cfxzj

(long link:
http://santorum.senate.gov/public/in...TOKEN=83234716 )


Just for the record, here's the good senator's press release:

Santorum Proposes to Modernize National Weather Service to Better
Serve Public

April 14, 2005 - For Immediate Release Contact: Christine Shott
(202) 224-0610

Washington, DC - U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), Chairman of
the Senate Republican Conference, today introduced the National
Weather Services Duties Act of 2005 to clarify the duties and
responsibilities of the National Weather Service (NWS) within the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

“With the support of my colleagues, we can pass this legislation
to modernize the description of the National Weather Service’s
roles within the national weather enterprise, so that it reflects
today’s reality in which the National Weather Service and the
commercial weather industry both play important parts in providing
weather products and services to the nation,” said Senator
Santorum.

Fourteen years ago the NWS took the extra step of carefully
delineating the respective roles of the NWS and the commercial
weather industry, in addition to pledging its intention not to
provide products or services that were or could be provided by the
commercial weather industry.

However, the parent agency of the NWS, NOAA, repealed the 1991
non-competition and non-duplication policy in December 2004. Its
new policy only promises to “give due consideration” to the
abilities of private sector entities. The new policy has enabled
NWS and NOAA to expand into areas that are already well served by
the commercial weather industry.

“This decision by NOAA to repeal the non-competition and
non-duplication policy detracts from NWS’s core missions of
maintaining a modern and effective meteorological infrastructure,
collecting comprehensive observational data, and issuing warnings
and forecasts of severe weather that imperil life and property,”
said Senator Santorum.

Senator Santorum’s bill restores the NWS non-competition policy.
However, the legislation leaves NWS with complete and unfettered
freedom to carry out its critical role of preparing and issuing
severe weather warnings and forecasts designed for the protection
of life and property of the general public.

Personally, I have found NWS forecasts to be far superior to
commercial weather information. But This Republican senator want's to
prevent the NWS from providing citizens with the product of the
infrastructure their tax dollars funded in the name of 'better serving
the public'! This is a sterling example of outrageous Republican
hubris, and reeks of PAC influence and Orwellian doublespeak. Write
your congressmen now.

You can tell the honorable Senator Rick Santorum what you think of his
bill he
http://santorum.senate.gov/public/in....ContactFor m

Santorum is a liberal. Old country club Republican lefty. A leftover
from when the Democrats were conservative and the Repbulicans were
liberials.

"Sport Pilot" wrote in message
oups.com...
Santorum is a liberal. Old country club Republican lefty. A leftover
from when the Democrats were conservative and the Repbulicans were
liberials.


What does liberal or conservative have to do with this issue. He is
pandering to commercial interests. That makes him a whore.

Mike
MU-2

On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 13:36:31 GMT, "Mike Rapoport"
wrote:


"Sport Pilot" wrote in message
roups.com...
Santorum is a liberal. Old country club Republican lefty. A leftover
from when the Democrats were conservative and the Repbulicans were
liberials.


What does liberal or conservative have to do with this issue. He is
pandering to commercial interests. That makes him a whore.

Exactly. I could care less if he supports liberal or conservative
views. His proposed Act will take away a free aviation weather
service in order to benefit a commerical entity.

On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 13:36:31 GMT, "Mike Rapoport"
wrote in
.net::

He is pandering to commercial interests. That makes him a whore.

Right. Our congressmen are supposed to represent the will of the
people of this nation, not inanimate corporate entities.

Larry Dighera wrote:
On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 13:36:31 GMT, "Mike Rapoport"
wrote in

He is pandering to commercial interests. That makes him a whore.

Right. Our congressmen are supposed to represent the will of the
people of this nation, not inanimate corporate entities.

And what planet are you living on these days?

Larry Dighera ) wrote:
: On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 13:36:31 GMT, "Mike Rapoport"
: wrote in
: .net::
:
: He is pandering to commercial interests. That makes him a whore.
:
: Right. Our congressmen are supposed to represent the will of the
: people of this nation, not inanimate corporate entities.
:

Don't forget India...

http://www.usindiafriendship.net/con...ds/friends.htm
Friends of India in the US Senate

"U.S. Senate India Caucus
by Aziz Haniffa in Washington DC (March 31, 2004)

A new bipartisan organisation called 'Friends of India' has been
formed in the US Senate, similar to the 10-year-old Congressional
Caucus on India and Indian Americans in the US House of Representatives.

This is the first time in the history of the US Senate that a
country-focused caucus has been constituted and announcing its
formation was the driving force behind the move Senator John Cornyn, a
freshman Republican Senator from Texas who recently visited India.

Cornyn, who was the keynote speaker at the Second Annual Capitol Hill
Gala Dinner of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin
on Tuesday night following AAPI's two-day legislative conference, said
co-chairing 'Friends of India' in the US Senate would be Democratic
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

He said that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican
and Minority Leader Thomas Dachle,South Dakota Democrat had also
agreed to become members of the Friends of India group and so had 18
other Senators from both sides of the aisle.

Cornyn said he 'undertook the job of creating an India Caucus in the
US Senate, because of the incredible experience I had in India and
because of the importance of US-India relations'.

"The response has been really outstanding across the political
spectrum to the formation of such a Caucus and to me that says a lot
to work on the good relationship we have in the Senate toward
promoting ties between our two democracies," he said.

Cornyn acknowledged that it was unfortunate that over the years, and
particularly during the Cold War years, despite both the US and India
being democracies with so much in common 'did not have good
relations', and described it 'as an accident of history', which has to
be put right. "We have to make up for lost time," he said.

Indian Ambassador Lalit Mansingh who has been promoting the idea of
the Friends of India Caucus in the US Senate among Indian American
groups said he was ecstatic over the news.

Mansingh, who was also present at the AAPI dinner, as Cornyn was
announcing the launch, said he had been in touch with the Senators and
others over forming such a group. He told rediff.com: "I have to
commend all the Indian leaders of the Indian American community that
finally made this happen."

"Cornyn came back very charged after his trip to India and said 'I
want to do something to promote US-India relations' and so we said
'this is something you can do'," Mansingh said. "So we were in contact
with him."

"Even though he was aware of the formation of such a group I wanted
them to say it," Mansingh said. He said there would be a formal
launch.

It is believed that some of the most powerful and influential
lawmakers like Senator Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, Charles Grassley, head of the Finance Committee, Thad
Cochran,chairman of the Appropriations Committee -- all Republicans --
and leading Democrats like Senators Paul Sarbanes, Joe Lieberman, and
Edward M Kennedy have all enthusiastically agreed to be part of the
'Friends of India' Caucus.

Members of Senate Caucus

John Cornyn, Senator Who Made the Difference"


--Jerry Leslie
Note: is invalid for email

Mike Rapoport wrote:
"Sport Pilot" wrote in message
oups.com...
Santorum is a liberal. Old country club Republican lefty. A
leftover
from when the Democrats were conservative and the Repbulicans were
liberials.


What does liberal or conservative have to do with this issue. He is
pandering to commercial interests. That makes him a whore.

Mike
MU-2


No. Actually Santorium is doing his job as a conservative. Less
government means that private business would do this. The fact that
they may charge more money, or not do the job as effectively, should
not be a factor. That said I do not believe in conservatism for it own
sake. If the government has been doing a good job then perhaps it
should be bid out to both the government and the weather service,
similar to the way many government sectors are contracted out.

"Sport Pilot" wrote in message
ups.com...

Mike Rapoport wrote:
What does liberal or conservative have to do with this issue. He is
pandering to commercial interests. That makes him a whore.

No. Actually Santorium is doing his job as a conservative. Less
government means that private business would do this.

No. If the private business were providing all of the data from scratch,
your point might hold. But AccuWeather (the company who bought this bill)
obtains their data from the NWS. The NWS still has to do the work; the bill
simply mandates a middle-man, blocking the people who have already paid for
the data from getting it at no additional cost.

That's hardly a true conservative attitude. Granted, those who call
themselves conservative these days, aren't very much any more. But Mike's
characterization is more apt than any "liberal vs conservative" take on the
issue.

I do find it amusing that you would initially say that "Santorum is a
liberal", but that he is "doing his job as a conservative". I guess that's
just par for the course on Usenet.

Pete