Mitt says he'll fire Big Bird!
 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...t-mitt-romney/

Just when you thought Mitt Romney couldn't get any colder...or more heartless?
Romney says he'll give the boot to PBS. He was speaking in regards to getting the budget under control. Being that PBS is a longtime target of the neocons, I'm not surprised. Another blunder? You betcha!

Ditching funding for this channel is the only way this jerk can kill the one last truly independent TV channel. Another good reason to vote for the President's re-election and against Romney. So, if you or your kids learned their ABCs via PBS's Muppets remember that it will be gone if R$R win. If you like any other great show like Antiques Roadshow, Euell Howser and so much more? That programming will be incinerated in the burn barrel of R$R's extreme political agenda. Count on it!

I guess Romney doesn't like the slogan "Be More!". He would rather make the world less of an interesting place for his friends. Burt, Ernie, The Cookie Monster and many, many others...they will all be fired. Great job Mitt.:( You jerk!:mad:

What is stopping PBS from finding funding like the other commercial networks do?

What's stopping Mitt for shutting his whiney puke hole and paying his fu**ing taxes?

Regards,
Dave

Commercials? :rolleyes::p

I thought we, as a general rule, liked commercials.;) Ever pay any attention to what goes on surrounding the Super Bowl?

Please, one Harry Reid is enough.:D

Whut's a Superbowl? :rolleyes:

The greatest invention of this century will be the DVR! I relish fast forwarding thru all of those pesky commercials. I am easily amused, I must admit...:D
The bigger question here is, why do you and Mitt hate Bert and Ernie?:rolleyes:

When he said that everyone laughed.

PBS is already half infomercials, generally about various musics of your lives and ethnic dancing, with some brain healthiness and fiscal help tossed in. A bargain at $100 a cd!

Pete

Their charter prevents it.

So, you don't see any value in having a source for news, learning and entertainment that isn't tied to corporate interests?

John

Didn't say that. I just don't see why the Feds have to be involved. If PBS cannot raise enough money on their own from the private sector to operate it seems to me they have a problem. Taking money from everyone by force of law to satisfy a few doesn't work for me.

It's not Bert and Ernie, it's that damn Barney!!:D

And then they'd be beholden to those donors. Bye bye objectivity.

JJ, do you know what the annual Federal contribution to CPB is?

$445 million. Chump change. Costs you about a buck forty. The only reason Romney even mentioned it was because it's tried and true redneck red meat. Has been ever since Gingrich declared war on PBS and NPR, saying we didn't need it because we had the Discovery Channel. Great if you want to learn about tattoos and tractors.

John

Discovery can be good, I've been watching Extreme Engineering on Netflix.

Pete

So let's get this straight. Assume that the average American taxpayer has an $8,000 federal income tax bill. That means that less than a dollar goes to public television. It also means that the average American taxpayer is about $25,000 short on his military bill every year.

But the problem is Big Bird?

Shit balls.

There was a time when I watched PBS all the time... "Michigan Outdoors", Loved that show. I haven’t watched it in years; cable has made it too easy with 24/7 outdoors channels...

Times are a changing…

It really is chump change John. A $1.30 per year for something that keeps the kids occupied and teaches them their ABCs without ginning them up for the latest toy or sugar loaded cereal is beyond a bargain. Antiques Roadshow alone is worth the price of admission, in my opinion.

What gets under the far right's skin is stuff like Bill Moyer's one hour show, once a week. Other than that, it's a hell of a teaching resource for our schools and local colleges. Maybe that's their problem? All of those brand new and bright eyed ethical journalists can be such a pain in the ass, at times...:rolleyes:

I thought Obama’s rant on that was funny as hell… Really I did.

Too bad he didn't do it during the debate; he could have scored some points

I do watch and appreciate PBS more than a little. I just think that we, as a government, are spending way too much more than we are taking in. That cannot go on for ever. We have to start cutting wherever we can. I know some expenditures are much larger than PBS. Everything has to be looked at. In our personal lives if things get tight we decide that we will fore go buying that shiny new car. We also cut back on entertainment expenses and buy the Budweiser or Old Milwaukee instead of the more expensive Micro-brew.

Damn, that blue print get irritating doesn't it? Sorry.

Don't you get it? It's so simple!

Hey, I gotta get me one o' them tattoos, just like that dude on the teevee just got!

John

Already happens, JJ. What do you think all those pledge drives are about. They can't raise enough that way, never have and never will. They've even had to dip their toe in the water with "corporate underwriters" as the Republicans keep whittling away their budget.

What sort of reporting on the Gulf Oil Spill do you suppose you'll get if BP is an underwriter of The News Hour?

John

I think this shows why seriously cutting the budget won't happen till we're broke.

Pete

Your party is the one pining for a military that by itself consumes all that US citizens pay in federal income tax.

But you think Big Bird is the reason we are going broke? Now that's being bird brained.

I do know about the pledge drives from personal experience.:) I guess if a concern like PBS and/or NPR cannot support itself (cannot raise enough from pledge drives) then maybe it is time for them to fold up their tents. They are good products, no doubt about it. Ferrari s and Bentley s are also good products but we all can't afford them either.

Maybe pay per view?

Pete,

Too dumb to speak? Are your thoughts in knots again?

That graph doesn't address the issue of the US military consuming practiclly all of citizens federal tax money while Big Bird consumes practically none of it.

It shows that as a percentage military spending is DOWN. Therefore it is other issues that are killing the budget.

Well spoken enough?

Pete

Looks to me from that chart that you've made Ed's point. We spend far too much on the military by a huge margin but I guess it depends on what one's priorities are. If some bogeyman crops up again we are certainly capable of meeting the challenge by ramping up spending on the military. The huge chunk of GDP that it consumes year in and year out is going to bankrupt us. I would much rather see that money spent at home on infrastructure and taking care of our own people. I'm no rabid isolationist but that chart just shows me that the tail is wagging the dog since WW2. ie The so called defense industry has so much bloat and waste that it has become a monster in it's own right with it's own private army of lobbyists. BTW where is the big spike for the Iraq War on that chart?

That's a bullshit argument, sorry John.

They were never intended to "pay for themselves". The whole idea was to have the network paid for by the people through direct contributions and taxes. It's a worthwhile and workable scheme for providing a source for news, educational and public affairs programming that's free from outside influence. In fact, it WAS working until Republicans began trying to starve it to death.

John

Goddamnit Pete. That chart shows military spending as a function of GDP, not tax revenue.

What happens percentage-wise when taxes are cut and spending is kept constant or incresed? Find that chart and we can talk.

No, it shows that military spending is down (slightly) as a percent of GDP. It also shows a steady increase during the Bush/Cheney regime and a decline since President Obama came to office.

OOPS! EB beat me.

John

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...%80%932015.jpg

That's pretty stable over time.

Pete

So you say.

If the country were flush I would have no problem with the funding. The fact is we are hurting right now. Time for cuts in many, many places.

It's precisely when times are tough that we need a lot of "truth-telling". We don't get that from corporate media and we never will.

John

No argument from me on that point.

So PBS and NPR are important investments in our success and prosperity as a nation and as individuals.

John

Here's a comparison of Big Bird vs. Military spending as a percentage of income tax revenue. Mitt sure has leveraged Big Bird. He's good at that.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...tx_1994-20.png

Please don't put words in my mouth/posts.

Don't assume that I am.

John

I haven't had cable in years. Nowadays I can get pretty much anything online and OTA extra channels. Barney Miller, WKRP, life is good. Lots of college football on ESPN3. Also ME-TV is pretty cool especially the restored Gunsmoke. :)
Outside of regular ESPN I don't miss anything, especially the 24/7 news channels.
Now going without DSL is another matter...

Killing Big Bird is just window dressing. My local big market PBS stations don't need it but the rural stations would fold without it.
Penny-wise and pound foolish, smoke and mirrors budget cutting is what it is, nothing more.


Carl