Quid Pro Quo?
May 27th, 2005 at 11:32 am by Susie
Gee. Sure looks suspicious, doesn’t it?
WASHINGTON - 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.”
I know I’m paraphrasing someone here, but what always gets me about these politicians is not that they can be bought, but that they can be bought so cheaply. $2000 lousy dollars to get your own monopoly? Wow. There must be something I need legislation to own.
Didn’t Bob Dylan have something to say about weather forecasting and politicians?
Indeed, Dianne.
The first time I noticed that was the S&L scandal.
I don’t remember the numbers involved, but the Keating 5 were bought for almost pocket change - an amazingly good investment for those involved, considering that the rule changes allowed them to more or less cash the FSLIC as a personal check.
Accuweather, based in State College, was founded by some Penn State grads, I believe. So it makes good local politcal sense for Rick to make them the only source of data from NOAA, paid for by taxpayers!