The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is one of the finest examples of a useful government service. They provide weather data for everyone. If you've ever been through the impending doom of a hurricane, you know that NOAA is orders of magnitude more useful than the diaper party fags called “local TV weathermen.” Because the government is constitutionally mandated to “provide for the general welfare,” NOAA isn't going to force you to sit through commercials or pay a subscription fee to see how Mother Nature plans to give you the beat-down.
While the weather data has always been available to the public, it's only very recently that it's been accessible to the public in an open data format called XML. This allows you, your business and, in a not-so-farfetched possibility, your children to create programs and projects based on this freely available and accessible weather data from NOAA.
The malignant senator from Pennsylvania, Dick Santorum, wants to change all of that. Criminal organizations like Accuweather resell this data to everyone from the private citizen that already owns the data to your local fire department and airport to the sports league that certainly has the ability handle weather data in-house. They found a malleable cranium and the assumed position with Senator Playdoh. Santorum sees providing the citizens with easily accessible data that they _paid_ for as NOAA “competing” with private industry. In “competing” with private industry, NOAA is an apparent burden to the economy and Santorum seeks to eliminate their existence if possible.
What kind of weather disasters occur in Pennsylvania? None? Not surprising. Santorum is openly hostile to even the most benign functions of government.
If any legislation should be introduced regarding the weather data from NOAA, it should be about making resale of government information without added value a capital crime. Unfortunately, that's not how our twisted legislature works. By carrying out its mission, NOAA is hurting companies that don't own any of the infrastructure or contribute to the data in any way.
There are always people that cannot do stuff themselves. The only effect of NOAA's XML data is keeping the DIY, libertarian types happy. If Accuweather wants to charge for weather data, they should grow up and launch their own satellites. If the entire business model of a private corporation is to sell publicly available data, they built their business on a foundation of sand. There is no “right to exist” for corporations in a republic.
