4.23.2005

Rick Santorum: Obsessed Man with a Plan ::cough::

From The Carpetbagger Report, where comments also point out that AccuWeather, based in PA, has contributed heavily to Rick's campaigning:

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.

Rick? What about the hundred thousand or so you cheated the Pennsylvania school system out of to school your children specially when you and your children were not living in Pennsylvania? They've asked for you to repay them and you have not.