Yesterday the temperature topped out around 70 degrees. Granted the skies were cloudy, it rained and the wind knocked out power for an hour or so, but the temperature was around 70. I if drove three hours north I could have helped Ben chip his car out of the inch or so of ice from the ice storm that hit DC. All of this on the same day that AlGore has the guts to go before Congress testifying that global warming is upon us. I'm shaking in my boots. If anyone is interested, I don't think the temperature will get over 40 today.
If anyone wants to know what the country will look like in a purely socialist setting, just take a look at the digital television (DTV) transition mandated by Congress to occur on February 17th of this year. I will say that again, MANDATED. By the government, not consumers. For the past couple of years, as a result, EVERY television station, network and content provider - except the low powered stations - has been transitioning to DTV, in some cases biting the bullet and going High Def. Aside from the cost of replacing almost EVERY piece of infrastructure in the buildings (one high def camera cable alone runs around $50,000), stations are operating two transmitters, doubling their operating cost for transmission alone. Now our new President, and the Congress in all their brilliance, doesn't think their low income, non tax paying, uninformed voting base did not follow the instructions that scroll across their television screen every 15 minutes by taking initiative to ask for a rebate card (funded by your tax dollars) to buy a converter box so they can watch more television. Their solution? Penalize the local stations who are already running their bottom line into the ground by delaying the DTV switch until June.
Still need proof that the government has no business in the private sector? How about this quote from Senator Jay Rockefeller from the same article:
"Delaying the upcoming DTV switch is the right thing to do," said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., author of the bill to push back the deadline. "I firmly believe that our nation is not yet ready to make this transition at this time."
Oh really, Senator? You should have thought about that way back when you and your comrades were thinking up you brilliant plan. But then again we all know you weren't concerned with giving the American people a better picture on their TV. And you sure didn't take into consideration the good possibility that city dwellers will no longer receive a usable signal much less the resulting possibility of major stations tanking as a result. No, we all know that you and your comrades found out you could get away with globalizing and selling the old television frequency spectrum to the highest bidders, taking PUBLIC AIRWAVES AWAY FROM THE PEOPLE and making them GOVERNMENT OWNED AIRWAVES without so much as a piece of legislation to be debated on and shot down.
5 comments:
Jondale, fascinating post!
I've been wondering why in the world the dim bulbs in Washington involved themselves in the analog/digital issue. I thought it might be a payoff to the cable and satellite industries. What you write is even more infuriating, since I was under the goofy impression that the airwaves belonged to the American people. Silly me!
They do, that's the problem. The FCC doesn't sell, or isn't supposed to anyway, airwaves. Part of it's job is to regulate them to make sure frequencies don't overlap in markets too close to each other.
Ha. You beat me to writing about this!
Don't forget to mention the $600 million in the bill the House just passed for more converter box coupons. Seems the gov't, in all of its glorious divine wisdom, UNDERESTIMATED how many people would need the f&$@ing box.
AND...the coupons expire. So people who signed up months ago and got a coupon now can't redeem them.
AND...retailers have run out of converter boxes with no clue how long they'll be out.
Glad I haven't bought one yet. Maybe by the June deadline the gov't will do away with the silly law.
Yet people still want some sort of universal health care. Have they not paid attention to rising universal health care costs in the rest of the world? Did they even pay attention to the failed attempt in Hawaii at universal health care?
I'm curious to know what your company is thinking/doing about this?
I was under the impression the extra $600 Million was for coupons for people who never signed up for them in the first place...the lower income families who probably already have a TV with a digital tuner via great deal at Best Buy or Circuit City.
The coupon expiration date brings up a great debate. The whole idea of an expiration date on a coupon implies that if you haven't used a coupon, you lose it's benefits. It's that simple. But again our elected officials "must" bail someone out because of a bad policy the enacted. It's nice to know this will be the general public's bailout.
My company skipped the DTV switch and jumped straight to High Definition which is digital anyway. The cost/benefit ratio justified the expense. From our crew's field acquisition to our current final transmission we are high def with a transmission path that also includes analog SD (I think that's still there at least. It'll be gone February 17th) and a DTV transmission I believe.
I remember those wires and cameras you showed me on the quick tour through your work...wow!
Yeah the last I heard about refilling the money for coupons was because the gov't ran out due to more demand than anticipated for the converters...but whatever!
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