Santorum wants to control the weather

April 22, 2005

Sen. Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum has been stranger than usual lately. He exploited the Terri Schiavo controversy to fly to Florida for campaign fundraising, he used a Wal-Mart jet to do it, he threatened to shut down the Senate unless he got his way on Schiavo legislation, he flip-flopped on Amtrak funding, flip-flopped again on the death penalty, and just this week decided he may want to push off the nuclear option after fighting for it for two years. (Maybe his falling poll numbers are affecting his judgment.)

All of this nuttiness aside, Santorum’s decision to go after the National Weather Service has to be right up there among his stranger decisions. (Thanks to AYM for the tip.)

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.

Let me get this straight. A senator, who claims to love the free market, wants to limit competition between the National Weather Service and private weather forecasters. A free government service, available to everyone online, would probably disappear, so a private service could flourish.

I recognize Santorum’s drive to privatize everything he can get his hands on, but weather forecasts? You don’t suppose this has anything to do with the fact that AccuWeather is based out of Pennsylvania, do you?

There’s more about this (including the connection between Santorum and AccuWeather) over at Kicking Ass:

http://www.democrats.org/blog/comment/00011922.html

  • Just like it’s a total coincidence that AccuWeather has contributed almost $4000 to Man On Dog’s reelection campaign (source). Although, $4K isn’t much money, so it looks like Man On Dog works pretty cheap. Wonder what he’d do for $10K? Maybe a bunch of us could get some cash together and find out.

  • As a graduate of Accu-Weather University (aka, Penn State) AND a life-long resident of PA., I must admit to being ashamed of this man and this venture.
    I’m already ashamed of my school because of Joe Paterno’s politics.

  • As a meteoroligist with several friends at the NWS I kinda take this personally.

    Just so it is clear, the present administrations goal is not only elimination of competition but complete elimination of the NWS. My friends have been in constant fear of their jobs since 200, and rightfully so.

    And another point is, where do you think Accu-Weather gets all their maps, model results, data? I’ll give you one guess.

  • Good catch, Carpetbagger. Stuff like this is why the powers-that-be will be doing their best to shut down the blogosphere.

  • It is misleading to call the NWS a free service. We pay for these agencies with tax dollars. As long as the weather is not classified why shouldn’t we have free access to the info we pay for.

  • As a weather geek I’ve been following this for several years, and the Repugs have been trying all along – not just Senator Anal Leakage – to kill off NOAA, including the NWS and all of the labs – the Storm Prediction Center, the Hurricane Center, etc. Dubya tried to kill off the Space Weather Center last year. As usual, the ‘pugs don’t care how many people die as long as their buds get rich. And people will die. Where do you think AccuWeather and The Weather Channel get their forecasts from? From information provided by the NWS. And no business in this benighted hogsty of a country is going to pay for a network of weather stations and satellites, so once that’s gone…it’ll be the 1800s all over again. Killer tornadoes ripping through towns with no warning. Hurricanes drowning thousands. And on and on. They don’t care.

  • George W. is a firm believer in the powers of Granny’s weather-predicting beetle – Cecil. Who needs the NWS when you got hillbilly superstition backing you up?

    Besides, the NWS supports belief in global warming.

  • And how about historical weather data? Will Santorum now make us researchers who use such data pay through the nose to get it?

  • Susan,

    Not to mention severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings. These things are important in the Midwest.

  • I think there’s another aspect to this as well. AccuWeather’s got that (aptly named) Bastardi guy working for them who’s one of the most vocal global warming deniers out there, basically his point is always the same: it was warm when my daddy was a weatherman too so all that science can’t be correct. If they can force everyone to go to only those sites that are supported by advertising dollars, it’ll be more likely that people will actually read and believe the drivvel guys like him spew.

  • Where is the Oklahoma delegation on this, specifically the representative for the 4th District, home of the National Severe Storm Lab? Along with the football team, the tornado chasers are the bigshots on campus. Why aren’t Coburn and the other senator kicking Santorum’s butt all over the place on this issue? Remember, whenever there’s a tornado special on Nova, or The Weather Channel, the people in the vans are University of Oklahoma meteorologists.

  • This is going to get flyers and sailors killed.

    Surely you don’t think Santorum has any care for those flyers and sailors. He likely thinks they are all gay or something.

  • What a complete nutjob. He should buy a vowel; an ‘i’ as in Sanitorium, where he belongs. I grew up in PA and count on the weather sites. But look at the positive side: all of his poor choices and poor decisions could well add up to him being defeated next time around and that lowers the majority in the Senate. The last thing we need is 55 rock-solid Republican senators. We need some cracks in the dam.

  • Someone need to remind Sanitorium that many of the deaths from the Tsunami were the result of the lack of a public warning system. This proposal would essentially make rural parts subject to the same same sort of devastation and destruction without warning wherever in the US there is no economic incentive (ie TV ratings sufficient to sell ads) to support a private system of weather forecasting. Almost all of the data is collected by NWS except for ground level radar. Any PRIVATE system would require privatizning the existing data collection network – likely to a monopoly as having two systems wouldn’t be economically feasible – and then regualating that monopoly to enusre thay continue to serve rural areas.

  • No, I don’t believe that Santorum is crazy for proposing to let only the “right people” use our tax-supported government services.

    I believe he is scum. If you wanted to know what real conservative principles are, just watch Santorum. In the conservative world, only the “right people” are entitled to government services, while the rest of the people should simply pay for it.

    And that philosophy is only held by scum. You know, like Santorum. He knows what he’s doing. He’s not crazy – he’s evil.

  • Why aren’t Coburn and the other senator kicking Santorum’s butt all over the place on this issue?

    Because Coburn is also scum, believing that his constituents aren’t the “right people” and therefore don’t deserve services. Why do you think he worked so hard to steer road money away from his state?

  • Jaysus Aitch Christ. I have just reached my personal tipping point. Santorum needs a chainsaw jammed up his ass. And he can wait on a private ambulance to take him to a private trauma center (if her can find one).

  • I don’t know if anyone has been paying attention, but this is part of a larger trend. In a free market economist’s dream all services will be provided by the private sector and government will not play a role. Public trust and commonwealth are not terms that enter their vocabulary. Halliburton and KBR providing meals to the troops, Social Security privatization, deregulating the power industry, private school vouchers.
    Don’t be surprised to hear the Barnes and Noble can provide you with books more efficiently than your public library.
    BTW, it’s good to see so many readers commenting on this, by my calculations this has drawn the most comments since the Carperbagger added this feature.

  • Mark

    I would tweak your observation a bit. Santorum’s weather grab isn’t about privatization per se. It’s about private industries being given the exclusive rights to sell the
    products of publically-financed enterprises.

    AYM

  • I’m sure it’s clear that this administration can’t condone those NWS and NOAA types, who after all use a suspicious amount of that evil reality-based “science” in the liberal weather reports they produce.

    What does the Bible have to say about the weather? That seems to be the only “source” they’ll trust. Perhaps bringing back to the good-ol-days of reading sheep entrails would satisfy the evolution-fearers, climate-change-deniers, and other assorted evangelical wingnuts among the GOP leadership.

  • What about torndado sirens? Can’t they replace those with some kind of fee-for-service corporation? You subscribe, and they call you on your cell phone or something if there’s a tornado coming.

    One problem with that, though, would be — how could you prevent someone from alerting his (non-fee-paying) neighbors? Obviously no good citizen would do that — it would be an unauthorized distribution of proprietary information (the service would alert you, but would still own the information). But not everyone is a straight arrow. How would you police them?

  • All anyone needs to do is wet a finger, stick it up in the air, and say a prayer … in GWB’s land favored by God, a small voice will tell you what the weather will be

  • The Man on Dog is trying his damndest to send the US back to the dark ages—sounding for all the world sounds like something a horror novelist from the 1940s made up–“Dr. Santorum– man who wants your family to die in a tornado.”

  • The thing that hacks me about this is the Murphy-ness of it all. There are good systems in the pipeline that will allow very cool things to be done with the weather–great visualization tools that will allow one to see into a thunderstorm–visualize wind vortices in the upper atmosphere on your PC—amazing (and in some cases, life-saving) stuff. Now this clown is set to block all that. I suggest unpredictable weather disturbances with loss of life and property be dubbed “Santorums.” As in, “A Santorum blew in without warning yesterday and flooded Philadelphia.”

  • Santorum is a complete asshole.

    He and Ann Coulter and Jimmy Jeff Gannon Guckert should get together and raise some hell.

    Then go jump off a cliff, holding hands.

  • What sort of service does AccuWeather provide? A few years ago the NYTimes Science section published an article on long range forcasts offered on a subscription basis by AccuWeather and Weather.com. According to the article, as I now recall, when AccuWeather launched its service, Myers said in a press release, that it was a “quantum leap forward” in long range forcasting. The main point of the article was that such forcasts defied basic science. When asked about data to support his claim, Myers had none. His response was that if people were willing to pay for the service, he would offer it.

    There was also an interview with Joel Myers published in, I believe, the American Airlines inflight magazine a few years back. In this article, he explained how AccuWeather comes up with it published forcast. AccuWeather meteorologists first come up with an internal forcast. Next this is compared to the National Weather Service forcast. The published forcast splits the difference. The reasoning that Myers gave was that this maximized his chance of beating the competion. His yardstick for measuring the quality of his prediction is not how well he does against the acutual weather. It is how well he does against his preceived competitor. This is a prime example of how business corrupts science.

    Joel Myers holds a doctorate from Penn State University in meteorology and is currently a trustee of the University. Over the years there has been much controvesy surrounding his dealings with the University. First, there were allegations that he stole the computer codes he used to start AccuWeather from graduate students in the meteorology department. I don’t know if the allegations were every investigated or proven. As a trustee he has had numerous business dealings with the University which raise concerns of conflict of interest. To be fair, he is not the only trustee with this problem.

    Myers term as an alumni trustee of PSU is up at the end of June and he is running for re-election. I would like to suggest that this election be made a proxy against fight Santorum. I encourge anyone who is eligible to vote in this election to vote against Myers.

    You would also be helping Penn State, a troubled institution. Last year Penn State fired two tenured faculty members, essential, for criticizing the administration.

  • Have any of you Demotwats actually read the National Weather Services Duties Act of 2005? Obviously not. Neither did the so-called NWS employee. With all of Carpetbagger’s links in the above posting, why didn’t he provide a link to the text of the bill? Or are we just supposed to take his word for it?

    Here’s a taste for you nuts who think this “new” limit on the NWS would eliminate warning the public:

    SEC. 2. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE….

    (a) IN GENERAL- (1) To protect life and property, the Secretary of Commerce shall, through the National Weather Service, be responsible for the following:….

    (2) The National Weather Service shall serve as the sole official source of flood warnings and severe weather warnings….

  • Santorum’s Senate Bill S 786 states its purpose as being: “To clarify the duties and responsibilities of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service, and for other purposes.”

    Just as an introductory quibble with that, I’d like to point out that the side-splittingly-funny phrase “…and for other purposes.” doesn’t clarify a thing, except for cynics and other wise people. If you’re trying to clarify a thing, you don’t append “et cetera” to your statement. I would suggest that the honorable Santorum go ahead and clarify that by substituting what I believe to be the actual meaning, as in “…and to make a boatload of money for AccuWeather and keep my campaign contributions coming in. Period.”

    However, it is US law that information from the federal government be made as freely available as possible, through all means possible, including the internet, a policy which I think has added immeasurably to the value we get from our governement information – one of the brightest bits of governmenat activity in the last 20 years. I agree with the reasoning behind this policy, and think that this attempted meddling with our right to freely access our goverment’s publicly-funded information as a dangerous assault on democracy.

    Because “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.”, (No, really?!) we should prevent access to government data that is already freely-available in order to create a false market and thereby create a profit for individuals? So my taxes go to NWS and from there in to the pockets of AccuWeather? I wonder if he listens to himself?

    I believe the Honorable Santorum is either congenitally stupid or is a blatant hand-puppet of commercial interests opposed to private rights.

    If businesses can create value-added services at a profit, fine, but needlessly restricting our access to data we’ve already paid for is insane and is one of the most egregious examples of attempted corporate welfare I’ve heard of lately. It’s the proposed theft of our property.

    The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 states as its purpose (in part):

    * ensure the greatest possible public benefit from and maximize the utility of information created, collected, maintained, used, shared and disseminated by or for the Federal Government;

    * coordinate, integrate, and to the extent practicable and appropriate, make uniform Federal information resources management policies and practices as a means to improve the productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness of Government programs, including the reduction of information collection burdens on the public and the improvement of service delivery to the public;

    * provide for the dissemination of public information on a timely basis, on equitable terms, and in a manner that promotes the utility of the information to the public and makes effective use of information technology;

    * ensure that information technology is acquired, used, and managed to improve performance of agency missions, including the reduction of information collection burdens on the public;

    National Weather Service Mission Statement

    ” The National Weather Service (NWS) provides weather, hydrologic, and climate forecasts and warnings for the United States, its territories, adjacent waters and ocean areas, for the protection of life and property and the enhancement of the national economy. NWS data and products form a national information database and infrastructure which can be used by other governmental agencies, the private sector, the public, and the global community. ”

    And, from the Six NWS Guiding Principles for Assessing Public/Private Sector Roles:

    4. The Taxpayers Own the Data
    Remember always that the taxpayers own the data, and that open and unrestricted dissemination of publicly funded information is good policy and is the law. The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 1996 support the proposition that taxpayer-funded government information is a national resource, and economic and other benefits to society are maximized when this information is made available in a timely and equitable manner to all.

    The National Weather Service has a long and proud history. I applaud their service and the work of NOAA with unstinting praise. I wish them all a long and happy future in the service of science and the common good.

    • Comments are closed.