To Our Leaderz and Betters in the Village, $650 million dollars is chump change, barely worth a guffaw at a Beltway cocktail party joke, a rounding error in the DoD budget, peanuts. But it's not to me. It has been more than 12 years since I've given the broadcast, cable or satellite people a single dime of my money, and if I have my say, they can take my money from me out of my cold, dead hands.

I'll admit to hypocrisy. I rent movies and watch them on my computer sometimes. Most recently, I watched "Sicko" and a little while before that "The Battle of Algiers." Go on, uberpurists, beat me up for it. I'm sure there's something evil about Netflix and I'm just sticking my head in the sand. Guilty, I am.

But right about now, when I'm reading about 93yo retirees freezing to death because the power company has shut off their heat for unpaid bills, or children in Gaza starving to death while trapped in a bunker with the corpses of their dead mothers, or...you get the point. This is one of those moments when being polemical is only going to get me in trouble. Instead I'll ask: do you think you could do "more good" with $650m of taxpayer money (borrowed, at high interest, etc) than paying for people's HiDef converter boxes?

Gah. There's just so much wrong with this it's hard to start. Please, don't even try to argue that people "need" teevee. Just don't. And don't tell me to 'Be Happy!' that the same push also includes billions for internet coverage. Not the same thing, not by a long shot, and no need to group it all together. Hundreds of millions for teevee is *obscene* at a time like this. It's just fucking obscene. For once (perhaps not just once?) I get to say "Bush did a better job," as according to the article, he only allocated $250m for this shit.

I'll keep it simple: on the balance, what do these supposed poor, benighted rural people who 'can't afford' converter boxes watch, when they watch teevee? Same deal with the poor- what are they tuning into, that helps Dems and progressive causes in general? Can anyone tell me that? Or here, I have an idea: why don't we spend close to a billion dollars improving AM radio reception in rural areas, so they can listen to Rush with better quality and regularity? Is that a smart idea or what?

Feh. It's been a while, but I suppose I should thank Obama for reminding me of just how much I hate teevee. And giving me a new reason to bash it.