Accuweather donates to money to Rick Santorum and now Tricky Rick is on a mission to cut back funding to the National Weather Service, a government program. Cut backs to the NWS would mean one thing - more people & companies would have to pay folks like Accuweather for their weather reports. Isn't this some kind of kickback here. I mean, I'm still trying to understand the whole Abramoff thing and I do realize it's on a much larger scale then what's going on here. However, this is really needs to be brought up more about how Rick is whoring for Accuweather who is basically Rick Santorum's john at $2k a pop. Hell right after Katrina, Rick Santorum was out there badmouthing the NWS as useless even though NWS was dead-on right about Katrina.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=795841&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312Critics Question Timing of Santorum Bill
Critics Question Timing of AccuWeather Donation, Santorum's Weather Service BillWASHINGTON -
Two days before Sen. Rick Santorum introduced a bill that critics say would restrict the National Weather Service, his political action committee received a $2,000 donation from the chief executive of AccuWeather Inc., a leading provider of weather data.
The disclosure has renewed criticism of the measure, which Santorum, R-Pa., maintains would allow the weather service to better focus on its core mission of getting threatening weather info out in a "timely and speedy basis."
Opponents say the bill would endanger the public by preventing the dissemination of certain weather data, and force taxpayers to pay for the data twice. The bill would prevent the weather service from competing for certain services offered by the private sector.
AccuWeather, based in State College, Pa., provides weather data to a variety of outlets, including media organizations such as The Associated Press.
"I think the timing of it is what makes it so suspect," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government, a Democratic-leaning watchdog group. "It's like here's the money and you're going to do what I want."