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more on Santorum: Still Disconnected
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2005 07:03:29 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Robert Lee <robertslee () verizon net> Date: September 9, 2005 8:15:22 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: RE: [IP] Santorum: Still Disconnected The single and pure idea that a government, national or local, should be prohibited from providing any service that a private enterprise wants to provide is idiotic. Let's say I want to start a company that puts out fires. Should I get a congressman or city councilman to introduce a law that outlaws cities from "competing" with me? I think my business model will be to negotiate the charge for this service at the time of the fire. I will charge X for putting it out within 2 hours, 2X withing 1 hour, and 4X for leaving immediately. Free enterprise at work. What if I want to start a company that does zoning? Policework? Santorum is the dumbest senator in Washington. The National Weather Service should collect all the data points but refuse to pass them on to the American public so that a private service can charge them? There are services that are common good services, that address the basic welfare of our people. Police protection, fire extinguishing, weather forecasting are services that address the basic physical welfare of a citizenry and anyone who wants to prevent the government from providing them is a fascist. If Santorum truly believes in free enterprise and free choice, let him encourage AccuWeather to convince their customers that their forecasts are worth paying despite those of the National Weather Service being free. The man is a disgrace. -----Original Message----- From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net] Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 7:38 PM To: Ip Ip Subject: [IP] Santorum: Still Disconnected Begin forwarded message: From: "Kevin G. Barkes" <kgb () kgb com> Date: September 9, 2005 7:23:10 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: Santorum: Still Disconnected Reply-To: kgbarkes () gmail com Union criticizes Santorum remarks about Katrina forecast SEAN D. HAMILL Associated Press PITTSBURGH - The National Weather Service Employees union on Friday said U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum should retract statements this week questioning whether the weather service had given sufficient warning of Hurricane Katrina's path and fury. "There's nobody else in the country saying the weather service didn't do a stellar job," said Dan Sobien, a meteorologist in Tampa, Fla., and vice president of the union. Union president Paul Greaves accused the third-ranking Senate Republican of trying to further his goal of limiting the weather service's role in favor of private companies, such as Pennsylvania-based AccuWeather. "We know Sen. Santorum is looking out for the interests of his constituents in Pennsylvania," said Greaves, a meteorologist in Albany, NY, "and one of those constituents is AccuWeather." During an interview Thursday with WITF Public Radio in Harrisburg, Santorum, R-Pa., said, in part, that "the weather service gave no warning, or not sufficient warning in my opinion, as to the effects when it came on land in Florida as a Category One hurricane." "Predictions were that it wasn't going to go out to the gulf and affect the western gulf coast, it was going to sort of head up to Florida or go right off the coast of Florida." "I'm not going to suggest when it comes to Katrina that there were any major errors," he went on to say in the same interview. "I don't know. This is something that I think needs to be investigated." Following the union's criticism, Santorum released a statement Friday saying that "I hope as we go forward to review the various aspects related to Hurricane Katrina that we also look at whether the forecasts and warnings provided the necessary information to preserve lives and property." But a fellow Republican senator, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, praised the weather service's performance, calling it in a statement Friday "one of the most accurate hurricane predictions we have ever seen." Spokesman Wesley Denton said DeMint was unaware of Santorum's comments or the union's response. DeMint cited the same documents referred to by Greaves and Sobien indicating that 2 1/2 days before Katrina hit New Orleans, the agency had accurately predicted it would hit there. "These early and accurate forecasts saved countless lives along the Gulf Coast," DeMint said. Earlier this year, Santorum introduced legislation that would limit what information the weather service, a federal agency, could provide to the public. He said the agency should focus on "severe weather forecasts and warnings designed for the protection of life and property," and leave the day-to-day predictions to private companies like AccuWeather, a point he made in Thursday's interview. On Tuesday, Democrat Bob Casey Jr., who is widely expected to challenge Santorum next year, criticized the senator's comment that people who didn't heed future evacuation warnings may need to be penalized if they had the ability to leave an area. On Friday, Santorum said in an interview that he didn't know exactly what kind of penalties could be put in place. "We have to somehow or another give local authorities some teeth for evacuation purposes," he said. "I know people who choose to stay behind can put themselves and the general public at risk." Regards, KGB ----- Kevin G. Barkes Email: kgb () kgb com | Web: www.kgb.com KGB Report: http://www.kgb.com Commentwear by KGB: http://www.commentwear.com National Temperature Index: http://nationaltemperatureindex.com DCL Dialogue on line: http://www.kgb.com/dcl.html Random Quotations Generator: http://www.goodquotations.com Over 12,000 searchable quotations. ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as robertslee () verizon net To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/ ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- more on Santorum: Still Disconnected David Farber (Sep 10)