No FREE Weather forcasting!

“http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/060105/met_18880556.shtml


Bill in Congress to restrict the National Weather Service.”

“What a load of BS”

“A load of BS from a great source of BS who will become a private citizen in due course.”

“This has been on the cards for quite a while. Wonder how much he's getting to sponsor this?

Got something great that's free. That's not right, someone should be making a profit from it. Though I'm sure there's some here that resent paying a tiny proportion of their taxes for something that benefits everyone.

Most serious users already subscribe to private weather services anyway. It's up to the private services to up their game if they want to win more business.
last edited: 6/01/05 2:35:58 PM”

“God I hate jacksonville.com”

“Two days after his PAC recieved $2,000 from AccuWeather?

What a whore!”

“I have more respect for whores than I do for Sanitorium.

Yeah Y2, we already pay for those weather products. I doubt this bill will fly very far.”

“I read that paid weather forecasting is a billion dollar a year business.

Sure... they need our subsidy and protection.”

“I think the general plan in Pennsylvania is to privatize Sanitorium.”

“Can't see it happening either.”

“Where's Arclite? He's whining about his taxes all the time, doesn't he live in Fla?”

“Speak not the name of the demon.”

“I've decided to get in on the forecasting business.

No rain today!!

That'll be 50 bucks - thanks!”

“It's about time these Senators step up to the plate to limit government infringement on private business.”

“Whoever said this means "no more free weather forecasting" sure is missing something.

None of it is free. It's paid by taxdollars, whether or not you need the info, you pay for it.

Plus, all this means is advertising and other methods will be used to pay for it. It's less out of our pocket and more out of private business pocket.

Take a chill pill and stop trying to create a phoney utopia which will never happen. What do you think pays for this stuff? Star Trek space tokens?”

“Don't worry sarge. We'd still be paying for it. It's just that to see the information, we'd have to go to a commercial source.”

“and there we go.”

“That ALL users of the NWS PAY any taxes....

I'd like to guess large corporations that pay NO income taxes make use of the forcasts to some extent, as do I'm sure the tax cheats who spend their tax dollars on boats and lake houses fer instance...”

“no corporation has ever paid a tax. Shareholders pay the tax.”

“I'm sure the military uses much of this data too, pilots, the navy. Sure they'll have some adaptations, but the NOAA has a huge array of data collection that the armed forces will tap into. It seems Sarge would like to cut support for them too.
Or maybe it's the idea not to cut funding to the NWS, to keep it going, and just cut the information provided. Well then that's just taking away something that's already collected and free at the point of delivery and then charging people for it, directly or indirectly.”

“It's just that to see the information, we'd have to go to a commercial source.

Try weather.com. It's pretty good. It's a commercial source, but I don't see how that's bad.”

“y2 - Why don't you tell everybody what I would like to do, and I'll tell everybody what you want to do.

Ok? Ready ... 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... go!”

“y2 wants to raise taxes $500 a month on every citizen to pay for better weather forecasting.

Geez! That's crazy y2!”

“Taxpayers can pay for it twice instead of once. Great idea Rick.

Combined, Joel Myers and his brother, Barry Myers, AccuWeather's executive vice president, have donated more than $11,000 to Mr. Santorum and the Republican Party since 2003, according to FEC filings compiled by PoliticalMoneyLine, a campaign finance tracking group.


http://washtimes.com/national/20050527-111304-1659r.htm”

“Here's the best line from the article:

The bill would prevent the weather service from competing for certain services offered by the private sector.

LOL! Man these big government peeps are whacked!

Hello! The government isn't supposed to compete with the private sector!”

“Sarge - weather.com is free, excluding ads, largely because they have to compete with NWS offering local forecxasts. Also, what about weather alerts, not necessarily hurricanes, but tornados and severe thuinderstorm warmings, flood watches. You really think someone is going to be able to provide this level of service in the private sector without charging? It ain't gonn happen.”

“With all the money these big government, spend and borrow republicans are wasting our tax dollars on the NWS is where they’re going to trim the fat?

Lets take something that provides a valuable service and has been a success story and ruin it for no reason.

I’d like to know if these private forecasters are incorporating free information from the NWS in to there paid for forecasts.”

“y2 - My local television and radio stations track that and report on it when it's an emergency, usually preceeded by the nws, but that's a 30 sec blurb. After that, the station takes over. Doesn't your area do that? Oh, and they don't charge me at the time either, except for a darn commercial here and there. I can live with that.
last edited: 6/01/05 5:09:58 PM”

“With all the money these big government, spend and borrow republicans are wasting our tax dollars on the NWS is where they’re going to trim the fat?

Well, that's exactly what "trimming the fat" means.”

“well maybe they need to look elsewhere than a valuable service provided to all.”

“that is competing with the private sector, even though the private sector can provide the same service.”

“at an additional cost for data that is going to need to be collected and provided to government agencies and the military anyway.”

“They’re not trimming the fat, they’ll just spend that money and more on some senators special interest pork barrel legislation.”

“I don't know about anyone else but all of my local television stations weather reports are based off of NWS information.”

“y2 - What additional cost, specifically?

goog - So protest against that too. We shouldn't let any waste get through, not just the "best" waste.”

“Bad idea to not make it free. What will happen to NOAA radio? If that will be done away with also, I'm going to demand that Rick Santorum personally refund the money I spent on mine. Frickin' rich greedy bastard.”

“"Bad idea to not make it free."

"I'm going to demand that Rick Santorum personally refund the money I spent on mine."

LOL!
last edited: 6/01/05 5:23:31 PM”

“Well maybe the money saved can be used to pay for an Iraqi National Weather Service.”

“"Bad idea to not make it free."

"I'm going to demand that Rick Santorum personally refund the money I spent on mine."

LOL!
last edited: 6/01/05 6:23:31 PM”
Sarge
6:23:07 PM
6/01/05

I'm going to assume that you didn't read my entire message. Please go back and reread. Thanks.”

“Or ... now get this ... maybe it can be used by the citizens that actually earned the money to buy something that they want to buy.

Imagine that! What a crazy concept!
last edited: 6/01/05 5:32:41 PM”

“But seriously, I doubt if much money is going to be saved. Sarge they are still going to need to collect that data to provide accurate emergency weather forecasts and warnings, it will just be kept from average users. So what, you'll maybe save on a few guys running the website and possibly the radio.”

“Well luckyily enough sarge, many citizens, particualrly those hit by severe weather, will want a weather service they can rely on.”

“What will happen to NOAA radio? If that will be done away with also, I'm going to demand that Rick Santorum personally refund the money I spent on mine.

This says you paid money for your NOAA radio. What you called "free". Did you mean to write something other than you wrote?”

“y2 - Have you found a weather service people can rely on? Please share ...”

“yes, short of earthsat, which weather-sensitive companies pay a huge amount of cash to use, the best in the us at the moment is the nws. It also provides other data such as river levels and sea tempertures. It's pretty well the most comprehensive service out there. Still I guess you prefer your local weather person.

You should really look at it a little more closely. Doesn't seem like you know too much about it. Or maybe you'd best stick with you local news station.”

“Sanitorium is totally out of step on this one. His bill isn't going anywhere. But Sanitorium is going home, soon, to Pittsburgh.”

“Actually y2, before I asked you, I did some research. For example, King news, from my old residence in Seattle, is more accurate than the NWS. Overall, they (NWS) are about average for predicting weather. Did you find some research that contradicts that?

I don't use my local news station for weather reports.

Maybe since you know so much about this you could tell us how you know that the NWS is more accurate at predicting weather than local and national weather services, since that's what most people use them for, because the evidence I've seen contradicts that.”

“NWS does not compete with commercial weather services, it's the other way around....that's different. to belive otherwise invite a skewed thought process like:

So; if we believe that Government Services should not be competitive with the private sector, we should disband the US Army and let Blackwater take over National Defense because the Army competes with a commercial enterprise?

Let's not forget the phrase "Inherently Government in Nature".”

“Most private weather services get weather data from the National Weather Service, which is funded by taxpayers. If NWS forecasting is not available to the public, taxes will not be decreased accordingly, but the public will end up paying for the same information twice. And advertising that pays for weather.com and The Weather Channel (one and the same) costs whoever used those products or services. It's not free.

And with all the NOAA Weather Radios on the market and more still to be sold, it is highly unlikely that those services will end. Those NOAA Weather Radios are manufactured, marketed, and sold by private enterprise.”

“Sarge, because I cover an extremely energy sensitive business. They rely heavily on weather forecasts. Most of the big players use Earthsat.”