Berkeley CSUA MOTD:Entry 37862
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2005/5/27 [Politics/Domestic/President/Clinton, Politics/Domestic/SIG] UID:37862 Activity:nil
5/27    Republicanism at work.  Rick Santorum takes political donation from
        AccuWeather, pushes bill that would prevent National Weather Service
        from offerring for free the data that AccuWeather (amongst many others)
        tries to sell to people.
        http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050527/ap_on_go_co/santorum_s_storm
        Very nice NWS site:
        http://www.nws.noaa.gov
        Compare with, for instance:
        http://weather.com
        \_ Nice troll. If you actually read the article you would note that
           there had been an existing standard for the past 14 years that would
           not allow the NWS to compete with private weather forecasting.
           Last I heard the Dems were still in power in congress in 1991.
           In addition, this rule survived through 8 years of Clinton.
           \_ Nice troll.  There was a rule change last year that allowed
              NWS to cover areas covered by industry, making this the new
              status quo.
              Santorum's bill would again restrict NWS services.
              \_ No shit sherlock. The point isn't that the rule expired,
                 dimwit, the point is that it isn't a "Republican plot"
                 as described by OP. If the rule was changed last year,
                 then it was changed under a Republican congress with a
                 Republican president at the helm, which again is completely
                 opposite of what the OP is saying.
        \_ Not Republicanism--scumbag politician bought by special interest at
           work.  R's and D's both have them.
           \_ That's funny, because when the Republicans were the minority, we
              kept hearing about how they were going to put an end to special
              interest politics.  Now it seems they've just replaced the
              Democratic interests with their own.
              \_ No argument there, and it pisses me off just as much as
                 it does you.  Probably more.
        \_ I found what looked like santorum in hotel room once. Yuck.
        \_ If it's run by a business it must be more efficient!
           Down with the socialist National Weather Service!
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news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050527/ap_on_go_co/santorum_s_storm
Opponents say the bill would endanger the public by preventing the dissem ination of certain weather data, and force taxpayers to pay for the data twice. The bill would prevent the weather service from competing for ce rtain services offered by the private sector. "I think the timing of it is what makes it so suspect," said Melanie Sloa n, executive director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in G overnment, a Democratic-leaning watchdog group. "It's like here's the mo ney and you're going to do what I want." Santorum said the $2,000 contribution, received from AccuWeather CEO Joel Myers on April 12, came during a fundraiser in State College that happe ned to be two days before the bill was filed. The donation was disclosed in the April filing to the FEC by Santorum's P AC, America's Foundation. "I don't think there's any coincidence between the two," Santorum said. " It's just that I happened to have a fundraiser in the town he was in." Combined, Joel Myers and his brother, Barry Myers, AccuWeather's executiv e vice president, have donated more than $11,000 to Santorum and the Rep ublican Party since 2003, according to FEC filings compiled by Political MoneyLine, a campaign finance tracking group. Barry Myers said it was ridiculous to think there was a correlation betwe en the "modest" donations and the filing of the bill. Santorum said his campaign could likely raise and spend $25 million for t he 2006 election. "We have no connection to how bills are filed, or how they are drafted or dropped at any given point in time," Myers said. "It certainly raises questions about motivation as to why someone would p ush a policy that is so obviously crummy," McLaughlin said. Under the proposed legislation, the weather service would be allowed to o ffer particular types of services only if the private sector does not of fer them, a provision similar to rules the agency was guided by for 14 y ears until last year. When the rule changed, the weather service and National Oceanic and Atmos pheric Administration expanded into areas already served by the commerci al weather industry, according to Santorum's office. In his letter, Nelson said Santorum's bill would bar weather service fore casters from giving one-on-one interviews to media. When four hurricanes struck Florida last year, the weather servic e Web site received 9 billion hits, Nelson said. He urged Bush to "publicly oppose this legislative attempt to push the we ather service back to a pre-Internet era and restrict the public's right to access government information." Trent Duffy, deputy White House spokesman, said the administration typica lly does not comment on legislation that has not reached the floor of th e House or Senate. The bill has been referred to the Senate Commerce Com mittee, but no hearing has been scheduled. Santorum said critics have misinterpreted the bill's purpose. He said sev ere weather information would still be released, and it would restore th e old rules that were changed last year. "The National Weather Service is not focused on it's core mission of prot ecting the nation's lives and property," Myers said. "There have been nu merous examples in the last year, situations where they have not devoted the resources to that." The informati on contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewr itten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associ ated Press.
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www.nws.noaa.gov
NOAA's 2005 Hurricane Season Outlook NOAA hurricane forecasters are predicting another above-normal hurricane season on the heels of last year's destructive and historic hurricane se ason. NOAA's prediction for the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season is for 12 to 15 tropical storms, with seven to nine becoming hurricanes, of which three to five could become major hurricanes.
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