Ever wonder about C SPAN? Well if you know me, you know that I can't keep my BIG nose out of anything. C SPAN just pisses me off. The Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C SPAN) claims to be a non profit org that receives no government funding. Wouldn't that be nice? I have to do some more digging but they claim to receive all funds from cable and satellite companies that carry their content. Here is some history.
Began in 1979, Expanded to 24 hours in 1982, Launched C SPAN 2 in 1986, Launched C SPAN Radio in 1997, 2001 came C SPAN 3, and now we have the C SPAN Bus. I don't know when Audio Now came about but if you dial 202-626-8888 you can listen to C SPAN Radio 24/7.
C SPAN was/is devoted to carrying the House and Senate without interruption. They started with 4 employees and now have over 3000. Who pays for this? If you have cable or satellite apparently you. I'm trying to find out if there are any government mandates for these companies to carry the programing along with government grants along the way. Also, I would like to find out if there is a way to drop the channels and reduce my cable bill. I'll get back to you on this.
C SPAN was created to carry the House, C SPAN 2 the Senate, C SPAN 3 all the other BS in Washington. Radio? I don't know. Maybe they are like me and just want to hear themselves talk. If it was up to me I would shut all of that non sense down and just keep it on the net. It's there anyway. That said if I had to keep them running, one could very easily cover all of the material on one channel. It may not all be live but do we really need to watch an empty floor for forty minutes waiting on a handful of votes to come in?
Now back to the internet. Some may say not everyone has internet access. I call Bullshit. OK, not Bullshit but MEGA BULLSHIT! Why you say? Well let me tell you. It's called universal tax. You have been paying for it since Billy C and Al (Mr. Internet himself). It is on every land line phone bill. It was designed to put cable in the classroom so "all" students could have access. When that was achieved the tax was never repelled. So you don't have a land line, neither do I. You may say HA, I'm not paying for it. What about that gas station you filled up at this morning, do they have a phone? Does the grocery store you picked up that loaf of bread have one? Mine does and the last time I checked those assholes were in business to make money. Damn them. They pass that cost right on to me like it's the proper thing to do. So we have cable in the classroom and the library. Everyone has access to the library the for the internet, not to mention the unknown number of free WI FI hotspots around the country.
Leave it up on the net, shut everything else down and save the money. We spend money like it's a drop in the bucket. Enough drops and they bucket over flows. Right Now "WE" could fill the Atlantic. As always, more to follow.
