Webcasting without archiving is nearly worthless. Because committee meetings move around, start and stop times are ignored, and agenda adjustments, it would be impossible to set your VCR or DVR to record anything – you would still be stuck with wading through hours of recordings to find what you wanted. Without book marks of some kind, viewers would have no idea even of what piece of legislation was on the table.

There are only two real obstacles to archiving – technology and cost. Neither plays; the technology is there, and so is the money; a few tens of thousands of dollars.

The real reason to not archive is simple, they lack the moral courage to be held honestly accountable for what they do and say in committee meetings and on the floor.

Further, the language that reads; “… cameras configured and operated in such a way that as much of the chamber is displayed as practicable … ) means more “google earth” coverage where you cannot make who is speaking much less look into their eyes. The practice of recognizing speakers according to their district, “the chair recognizes the gentleman from timbuctoo” will further confound watchers, unless they are conversant in the names of legislators and the districts they represent.

The sum total of what they have done is a cop out, they’re still cutting us out of the process.