TVSquad

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate followed President Obama's recommendation and approved a delay in the digital TV transition date from February 17 to to June 12. If a similar measure passes in the House, then we all know what that means: four more months of DTV transition ads! Woo hoo!

Seriously, though, will it matter if the transition date is February, June, or sometime in Obama's second administration? At this point, even the most casual observer has figured out that the transition hasn't been communicated very well to the American public. People who have cable or satellite still think that they need to buy a new HDTV or upgrade to digital cable in order to be compliant with the conversion, people who got discount coupons for converters early on have found that the coupons have expired and they can't get more, and the people who have converted are being surprised that some weak stations won't come in due to the "digital cliff effect."

Governor Blagojevich is nuts. Blame it on his flimsy grasp of reality or his hard-hat like haircut, the current (for how long, who knows) governor of Illinois is not quite there. How do we know this? Well, rather than appearing at his own impeachment trial he's decided to let the good citizens of the U.S. know that he's being railroaded by his own government via various media outlets.

The other determining factor on his nuttiness...he was considering naming Oprah Winfrey as Barack Obama's replacement to the U.S. Senate. Now, while Oprah is a respectable personality who has done much good for people around the globe, she is in no way qualified to become a U.S. Senator. I know that some of you Oprahites would heartily disagree with this, but even you know, deep down inside, that giving Oprah a Senate seat would not be a good idea.

And, frankly, I think Oprah would agree with you.

Man, I miss Fred Rogers. There are plenty of icons in children's programming, but you were never quite sure if the people you saw on screen were really that kind and nurturing in real life, or if the whole thing was just an act. Rogers, however, was the same kind and avuncular gentleman off camera as well as on camera. I'll admit his show didn't thrill me as a kid the way Sesame Street did, but there was something very genuine and very real about the man. Waxy.org found this clip of Fred Rogers addressing the US Senate in 1969, concerning a proposed endowment for the newly-formed Corporation for Public Broadcasting.