POLITICS: Republican Senator to Take Away Public National Weather Service Information

Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has proposed a bill that would prevent the public from obtaining weather information over the Internet. This denial of tax paid public information is for the benefit of Commercial businesses such as The Weather Channel and Accuweather. Critics complain of not wanting to pay for the same information twice.



This is a clear cut case of Republican philosophy of making the worker pay twice. Your and my Taxes created, and pay for, The National Weather Service. To now be asked to pay a private company for access to the information we already paid for is outrageous.

The rampage of corporate overlords is the downfall of humanity. Anything in the name of Profit, and allegiance only to the Holy Dollar ...the Mantra of the politically insane. Where will we draw the line at milking the sweat of human equity? How deep will greedy politicians dig into your pockets?

[edit on 22-4-2005 by Terapin]

[edit on 22-4-2005 by Terapin]

[edit on 22-4-2005 by Terapin]

[edit on 22-4-2005 by Terapin]

[edit on 6-9-2005 by John bull 1]

This is ridiculous! Another example of political corruption just like the CC companies did with the Bankruptcy bill.

The Republicans have become truly pathetic. Please vote these clowns out while there is still a little bit of America left for the people. Weather.com has become a joke. They are pretty much worthless now. Their site has been reworked basically to allow more ad displays. You will see not only those convenient 7 day forecasts disappear but you will also see satellite images, radar, and forecast models vanish as well. The public must be denied anything that can allow them to make an informed decision.

Really.. why settle for inaccurate forcasting on the Weather Channel when you can find better things on the net? So lets find a way to force people to have to use the Weather Channel.

That is taxpayer funded data and it better be available freely to those who pay for it.

This is a major brain-fart on behalf of Santorum. I doubt he'll get much support on this from other Republicans. BTW, RANT has a regular discussion thread on this here: www.abovetopsecret.com...

oh please....if we were going to start naming the similar actions democrats have done or even independents there wouldn't be anyone in power....

Why in the heck does everyone has to turn what one person or a small group of people do into political propaganda?....

i don't agree with this but i don't think this is a reason to never vote for Republicans again..... this was a bill that one man wants to pass....

This story reaks of bias as well as some of the responses....

[edit on 22-4-2005 by Muaddib]

Yeah theres a thread RANT started on it. Turns out the Senator has finacial contributions made by private weather corporations as RANT includes.

heres the thread

Muaddib... I'm sure Dems do plenty of dumb things but it seems its the Republicans of late that have put everything up for sale. But to encroach on the NWS like that is justification to throw this clown out of office.

Indy...don't try to change your point now....you were trying to use this as an excuse to, as you say..."vote these clowns out of office".....

You, along some other members, were obviously using this to spew more rethoric towards all Republicans....

Anyways.... i don't think this bill will pass, but if you want to do something constructive about it, instead of trying to use this for your own agenda, send a letter to your representatives and tell them that you don't want this bill to pass......

I am a Republican and a conservative but I think this bill stinks and so did the Bankruptcy reform bill because they are both about politicians getting kick backs. I don't care if you are Republican, Democrat, Personal Choice, Green, Libertarian, or even communist all I care about is the right thing being done and these two bills are definitely the wrong things.

The "Agenda' of the article is simply... why be forced to pay for National Public Information twice. That it arises out of political greed is nothing new at all. What You will agree to, is something you should consider next time you vote for either party.

You shoud know my interesting in meteorology by now. I don't want some a** clown in DC taking away the data because he has been paid off to do so. But this endless string of sellouts by our leaders is getting OLD. If it had been a Dem then he would have been the one I complained about. But the fact is that it is a republican that is pushing this just like the bankruptcy bill. If you want to post links about special interest stuff the Dems are pushing then go for it.

This story reaks of bias as well as some of the responses....

Aren't opinions suppose to be biased? The story reaks of bias because the BILL reaks of corruption. People should be biased, they've paid so much money in taxes for it to get dissolved into corporations. Anyways, I'd be all for this BILL if I received 5% of all my taxes being paid-back.

Rick also loves to make money off of bleeding hearts trying to save a starving women from her deceptive "non-christian, evil, liar" husband, read this www.kyw1060.com...

Also, I was just paraphrasing, don't take my comments literally on the situation of the Terri Schiavo case.

If you bothered to actualy READ the article you would see that it is factual and not Bias at all. Any Bias is just a personal perception. Sure, members are encouraged to express personal convictions, that is what makes a discussion more liberating. Don't blame the story as Bias just because you don't like the facts it presents.

I don't believe it is bias, I was quoting another person's comments.




Also, please vote YES to my news submission, www.abovetopsecret.com...

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With these politicians everyting is for sale.

Sell out guarding the Southern border of US to companies that would rather hire a cheap illegal alien than you a citizen.

Sell out the right to bankruptcy to the Credit Card Companies, but leave exceptions for the Donald Trumps and other Billionaire bankruptcies.

Sell out the FDA to the Pharmaceutical corporations.

Sell out the Broadcast rules to Rupert Murdock, Viacom and ClearChannel.

Now you the taxpayer have to pay twice for the weather instead of just once.

Well, kids, the congress and President have sold out your country and your patriotism while you weren't looking.

Gives you a clue just how the majority of Senators got to be multimillionares.
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Originally posted by Terapin
If you bothered to actualy READ the article you would see that it is factual and not Bias at all. Any Bias is just a personal perception. Sure, members are encouraged to express personal convictions, that is what makes a discussion more liberating. Don't blame the story as Bias just because you don't like the facts it presents.

The story has merit and as i said i don't like this bill any better than you, yet it can be seen by your response that you changed this article from "one Republican trying to pass this bill" to "all Republicans and their agenda is one and the same"... That is bias, which was put in the story by you and other members.

If you want to address an issue then address it properly instead of puting the blame in all Republicans...

[edit on 23-4-2005 by Muaddib]

Muaddib, perhaps you should take a look at the News Submission form. Once you have included the relevant links and portion of the news item, you are SUPPOSED TO add your own commentary and give it any spin you wish to. That does not in anyway make the News Item itself Bias.

That the Republican agenda is Pro Business often at the expense of Taxpayers is something that they freely admit. The Senator in this article fully discloses that the reason for this Bill is to prevent the National Weather Service from allowing the general public to access data in a manner that would compete with private commercial companies. He wishes to pass a bill that would prevent you and me from gaining access to weather information that we have already paid for, so that a few private companies can make money from us. That is a clear Pro Business, anti taxpayer agenda if I ever saw one.

People who vote NO: Bias, to this story, are just trying to hide a news item they don't want others to read.... i.e. CENSORS! This story is not at all bias as it is simply factual. If others do not like the subject then they are invited to freely express their opinions. That is what makes an intelligent discussion liberating. To try and suppress a story as Bias when it is factual, is the hallmark of the oppressor trying to maintain control through denial of free speech. DENY IGNORANCE, discuss freely!!!!

just as global warming kicks in.....let's limit the availability of weather forecasts.....brilliant plan!!!!

wonder how many deaths it would cause?