Santorum wants to muzzle National Weather Service

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Rspaight
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Santorum wants to muzzle National Weather Service

Postby Rspaight » Fri Apr 22, 2005 1:57 pm

I guess "Man On Dog" got some healthy campaign contributions from AccuWeather and The Weather Channel.

Feds' weather information could go dark

By Robert P. King

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Do you want a seven-day weather forecast for your ZIP code? Or hour-by-hour predictions of the temperature, wind speed, humidity and chance of rain? Or weather data beamed to your cellphone?

That information is available for free from the National Weather Service.

But under a bill pending in the U.S. Senate, it might all disappear.

The bill, introduced last week by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., would prohibit federal meteorologists from competing with companies such as AccuWeather and The Weather Channel, which offer their own forecasts through paid services and free ad-supported Web sites.

Supporters say the bill wouldn't hamper the weather service or the National Hurricane Center from alerting the public to hazards — in fact, it exempts forecasts meant to protect "life and property."

But critics say the bill's wording is so vague they can't tell exactly what it would ban.

"I believe I've paid for that data once. ... I don't want to have to pay for it again," said Scott Bradner, a technical consultant at Harvard University.

He says that as he reads the bill, a vast amount of federal weather data would be forced offline.

"The National Weather Service Web site would have to go away," Bradner said. "What would be permitted under this bill is not clear — it doesn't say. Even including hurricanes."

Nelson questions intention

The decision of what information to remove would be up to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez — possibly followed, in the event of legal challenges, by a federal judge.

A spokesman for Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said the bill threatens to push the weather service back to a "pre-Internet era" — a questionable move in light of the four hurricanes that struck the state last year. Nelson serves on the Senate Commerce Committee, which has been assigned to consider the bill.

"The weather service proved so instrumental and popular and helpful in the wake of the hurricanes. How can you make an argument that we should pull it off the Net now?" said Nelson's spokesman, Dan McLaughlin. "What are you going to do, charge hurricane victims to go online, or give them a pop-up ad?"

But Barry Myers, AccuWeather's executive vice president, said the bill would improve public safety by making the weather service devote its efforts to hurricanes, tsunamis and other dangers, rather than duplicating products already available from the private sector.

"The National Weather Service has not focused on what its core mission should be, which is protecting other people's lives and property," said Myers, whose company is based in State College, Pa. Instead, he said, "It spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year, every day, producing forecasts of 'warm and sunny.'"

Santorum made similar arguments April 14 when introducing his bill. He also said expanded federal services threaten the livelihoods of private weather companies.

"It is not an easy prospect for a business to attract advertisers, subscribers or investors when the government is providing similar products and services for free," Santorum said.

AccuWeather has been an especially vocal critic of the weather service and its parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The company has accused the federal agencies of withholding data on hurricanes and other hazards, and failing to ensure that employees don't feed upcoming forecasts to favored investors in farming and energy markets.

Weather service expands data

The rivalry intensified last year, when NOAA shelved a 1991 policy that had barred the weather agency from offering services that private industry could provide.

Also last year, the weather service began offering much of its raw data on the Internet in an easily digestible format, allowing entrepreneurs and hobbyists to write simple programs to retrieve the information. At the same time, the weather service's own Web pages have become increasingly sophisticated.

Combined, the trends threaten AccuWeather's business of providing detailed weather reports based on an array of government and private data. AccuWeather's 15,000 customers include The Palm Beach Post, which uses the company's hurricane forecast maps on its Web site, PalmBeachPost.com.

NOAA has taken no position on the bill. But Ed Johnson, the weather service's director of strategic planning and policy, said his agency is expanding its online offerings to serve the public.

"If someone claims that our core mission is just warning the public of hazardous conditions, that's really impossible unless we forecast the weather all the time," Johnson said. "You don't just plug in your clock when you want to know what time it is."

Myers argued that nearly all consumers get their weather information for free through commercial providers, including the news media, so there's little reason for the federal agency to duplicate their efforts.

"Do you really need that from the NOAA Web site?" he asked.

But some weather fans, such as Bradner, say they prefer the federal site's ad-free format.

Another supporter of the weather service's efforts, Tallahassee database analyst John Simpson, said the plethora of free data becoming available could eventually fuel a new industry of small and emerging companies that would repackage the information for public consumption. He said a similar explosion occurred in the 1990s, when corporations' federal securities filings became freely available on the Web.

Shutting off the information flow would stifle that innovation and solidify the major weather companies' hold on the market, Simpson said.

Santorum's bill also would require the weather service to provide "simultaneous and equal access" to its information.

That would prevent weather service employees from favoring some news outlets over others, which Santorum and Myers said has happened in some markets. But it also could end the common practice of giving one-on-one interviews to individual reporters who have questions about storms, droughts or other weather patterns.

"What we want is to make sure that whatever information is provided to one source is provided to all," Myers said.

But Johnson said it's importanst to answer reporters' questions so the public receives accurate information — especially when lives are at stake.

"We are not interested in turning off our telephones," Johnson said. "I would be concerned that that would actually be dangerous."
RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney

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Postby Rspaight » Fri Apr 22, 2005 2:04 pm

RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney

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Postby dudelsack » Fri Apr 22, 2005 3:04 pm

It's a bad idea to fuck with anything having to do with the weather. Santorum may have bitten off more than he can chew with this one...

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Postby Dob » Fri Apr 22, 2005 3:46 pm

I didn't know about the "man on dog" thing...so I googled it and just read the interview. Very interesting, thanks.
Dob
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Postby lukpac » Fri Apr 22, 2005 4:11 pm

Google "Santorum" sometime.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby Ess Ay Cee Dee » Fri Apr 22, 2005 4:20 pm

My favorite Santorum bits are from Dan Savage's sex column.

Dan Savage wrote:Hey, everybody: We have a winner. Savage Love readers, by a wide margin, want Sen. Rick Santorum's name to stand for... THAT FROTHY MIXTURE OF LUBE AND FECAL MATTER THAT IS SOMETIMES THE BYPRODUCT OF ANAL SEX! It was a landslide for that frothy mixture; the runner-up, farting in the face of someone who's rimming you, came in a distant second. So congratulations to WUTSAP, who nominated that frothy mixture, and a big thank you to the thousands who voted.

But now that the votes are all counted and a winner has been declared and the cheering has stopped, I see a problem. While everyone who has anal sex has to confront a little santorum now and again, no one likes to think about santorum, much less discuss it. A polite buttfucker says nothing about santorum to the embarrassed buttfuckee, and vice versa. They just get up and clean up. Since people don't discuss santorum even with people they've covered with santorum, getting the word into general use is going to be tricky. I'm willing to do my part, however: Please send me your santorum-related questions and/or santorum-related memories and I'll do a column or two on santorum. This will not only help to get the word out and into general use, but also help break the silence about santorum.


http://www.thestranger.com/2003-06-12/savage.html

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Postby Rob P » Sat Apr 23, 2005 7:16 am

My first experience with Santorum was in 1994, when he ran a highly negative campaign to get elected to Congress. I was in Delaware at the time, watching Philadelphia TV stations. His 100% negative ads rained down on the airwaves. He came across as a jerk who would sell his grandmother for a dollar to get elected to Congress. Giving the name Santorum for the mix of fecal material and choice lubricant couldn't have been a nicer tribute for that smelly hairless hamster.

Accuweather is the Fox News Channel of online weather forecasting. Almost all the time, they overhype weather events, storms, and modeling forecasts. It reminds me of the daily terrorist threats broadcast on FNC post 9/11. Myers talks as though he's actually offering something that people should use before the federal government's information. Accuweather's scare mongering is embarrassing, shameful, and stupid. This is what fellow Pennsylvanian asshole homeboy Santorum wants us all to use for our online weather forecasting.

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Postby Dob » Sat Apr 23, 2005 9:36 am

Why is this guy hated so much? I read the infamous interview and this analysis, which sums up the objectionable aspects. I also read about his sleazy ties with Wal Mart. Is there more? I'm not defending the guy, but his intolerance, prejudice, misconceptions, mudslinging, pork barrel bills, totalitarian/theocratic ideas, and cozy relationships with rich political contributors don't seem noteworthy or even unusual by Washington standards. Bush, for one, has him beat on most categories IMO...but I guess Bush's surname already allows plenty of room for sexual humor.
Dob

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Postby lukpac » Sat Apr 23, 2005 11:45 am

I think it's a combo of his various anti-gay stances and the fact that Dan Savage has made him that much more of a household name.

I saw Dan Savage here a few years ago, but that's another thread.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby Rspaight » Sat Apr 23, 2005 11:47 am

I saw Dan Savage here a few years ago, but that's another thread.


Which I hope you'll start eventually.

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RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney

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Postby lukpac » Sat Apr 23, 2005 11:53 am

Probably not. I think he was doing a book tour.

A friend of ours didn't know Dan Savage was gay. That was pretty funny.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby Rspaight » Sat Apr 23, 2005 11:57 am

A friend of ours didn't know Dan Savage was gay. That was pretty funny.


I'll bet.

Ryan
RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney

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Postby krabapple » Mon Apr 25, 2005 11:06 am

Savage is in a long-term committed relationship and has an adopted child -- perhaps Rick Santorum's worst nightmare.

There was a profile of Santorum in the Washington Post last week -- dont' have time for the link right now -, but you can look it up.
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