[Coral-List] "Lobbying" defined

[Jim Hendee]

   Okay,  I'm  going  to  crawfish into my hole on this lobbying question
   with    this    quote    from    the   Coral-List   information   page
   ([1]http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list):
   Lobbying   Prohibited   -  Internet  services  (such  as  e-mail  list
   subscription  services)  of Department of Commerce organizations shall
   not be used for direct or indirect lobbying or posting of links to web
   pages  that  engage  in such activities. Direct lobbying is defined as
   encouraging  members  of  the public to contact Congress to support or
   oppose  any  pending  legislation.  Indirect lobbying would be posting
   links  to  any  Web  page  that engages in lobbying or encourages such
   activity, or that engages in lobbying or posting links directly to any
   page that does.
   ~~~~~~~~~
   The  intent  is  to  prohibit the use of federal resources (e.g., this
   list) to influence Congress, as obviously this wouldn't be fair to use
   your  tax dollars to influence a lawmaker to agree with a position you
   didn't  agree  with..  Beyond that, I don't see where you can have any
   kind  of open discussion without some politics when it comes to making
   things better for the environment.  Whether it's okay to use this list
   to  try  to  enfluence the U.N. seems to me, now, to be okay, but some
   federal  official  out there may blast me on this.  In other words, it
   appears  that I was wrong in chiding Sara Maxwell the other day (sorry
   about that, Sara!).  Also, this list was used, effectively it appears,
   to influence legal action in the Dominican Republic earlier this year,
   and  nobody  whupped  me  upside  the  head  for  that  one.   So,  in
   conclusion, unless someone tells me I'm wrong, I think we just have to
   be careful about trying to lobby Congress or any other U.S. Government
   legal  authority  with  this  list,  but  you  can  raise  the  public
   consciousness for other areas (but be nice).
       Cheers,
       Jim

References

   1. http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list