unmanaged wrote:

Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) has introduced a bill that would bar the National Weather Service from competing with the commercial weather industry.

This law would reinstate a 1991 policy that said NWS would not distribute products or services that could be provided by the private sector. This includes specialized forecasts targeting agribusiness, utility companies, boating interests and business needs. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the weather agency, rescinded the non-competition provision in December, upsetting the commercial industry.

Backers of the bill contend that NWS spends too much money mimicking the private sector and sometimes withholds critical information, such as real-time snowfall accumulation reports and hurricane reconnaissance reports.

Surely you are not actually expecting us to back this? The people complaining about this "competition" are the people who refuse to let you so much as know what the temperature is without having to install their damn spyware, toolbars, and popup generator, on whatever operating system they've decided was acceptable.

I, for one, would actually like access to the data my tax dollars pay for, without having to give some asshole money for something that they are getting for free.

RE: Keep NWS out of data distribution...