[Public-list] Regarding Santorum bill on ending NOAA Wx broadcasts

[Daniel Sternglass]

A30 people,

I had been aware of this, but not the cutting off marine weather 
broadcasts specifically. I called the Boat US Political Affairs office, 
since this should be right up their alley. The man is handling this, 
Dick Thompson, is supposed to call me back, he's apparently tied up much 
of the day today. The secretary siad that they don't think this will fly 
becasuse it's so much of a safety issue, but I told her that they should 
not underestimate Santorum's power under the current administration. It 
seems like this is the sort of story that ought to be in all the local 
papers and generate real public outrage. If/when I speak to him, I'll 
post something.

The sad irony is that we taxpayers paid for this whole infrastructure 
out of our federal tax dollars, so we the public "own it," so to speak. 
If we only allow private companies to distribute the data, it's a huge 
corporate gift, the granting of a government (publicly) subsidized 
monopoly, and, we "get" to pay twice.

--Dan Sternglass
dans at stmktg.com