US Senator proposes to ban NOAA from providing free weather information

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Tango Whiskey wrote:
Under the guise of "modernization", Rick Santorum (R-Pa) is proposing that
any weather service already provided by a for-pay service must be
prohibited
from being provided by NOAA.

Sounds suspiciously like how NIGA is trying to remove a public aeronautical
database (DAFIF) under the guise of 'security' so Jeppesen can charge us
more for our own information. Are we just going to sit here and take this
BS ?

Either way, this might not be an issue at all. Take a look at
this part of the proposed bill:

- --snip--
(b) COMPETITION WITH PRIVATE SECTOR- The Secretary of Commerce shall
not provide, or assist other entities in providing, a product or
service (other than a product or service described in subsection
(a)(1)) that is or could be provided by the private sector unless--

(1) the Secretary determines that the private sector is unwilling or
unable to provide such product or service; or

(2) the United States Government is obligated to provide such product
or service under international aviation agreements to provide
meteorological services and exchange meteorological information.
- --snip--

Part to there could be used as a loophole, exempting anything
aviation based for compliance, should this pass. Something to keep in
mind. Do all that you can to kill this bill, but if it passes, the
senator is too much of an airheaded PITA to use good, qualified english
on his proposals.

BL.
- --
Brad Littlejohn | Email:
Unix Systems Administrator, |
Web + NewsMaster, BOFH.. Smeghead! | http://www.sbcglobal.net/~tyketto
PGP: 1024D/E319F0BF 6980 AAD6 7329 E9E6 D569 F620 C819 199A E319 F0BF

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFCaVYYyBkZmuMZ8L8RAsW6AKDKJSGr0KkQGPXfDQqdES sxtwc+swCg0MQ3
Gt18bk5fJoHi/W6Le+sJNOY=
=YEe1
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----