Just more proof Republicans are greedy, money grubbing, nazis from hell.

lol we are only talking about a small percentage of people that actually still receive tv over airwaves anyways. This is people waiting til the last minute to get something done, not the governments fault.

if people are not prepared for the Dtv transition then to bad. tindytim how are the Republicans greedy, money grubbing, nazis from hell? if you want to talk about greed then just look at B.O.'s inauguration. about $150 mill

Actually, I think that we shouldn't have given out coupons at all. It's not a right to have TV, it's a privilege. People have known about the switch for about a decade. If they were able to afford a TV in the last 10 years then they should have bought one with a digital tuner. I'm not a Republican either. I'm just tired of the mob mentality of this country thinking that they deserve something for just living here. The only right you have is a fair chance. This goes for the big bailouts as well, they screwed up, let them fail. Someone will step into the power vacuum and start hiring people again. Sorry for my rant the first poster kind of pissed me off.

The Republicans did something right this time. This country has become minority-centered on everything, whatever the issue might be. The latest being the peanut butter overreaction. Anyways, this prevention of progress has gone on long enough, and a considerable amount of warning has been issued. This is just another example of what issues Congress wastes time and money on (both Dems and Repubs) when there are a lot more pressing stuff to focus on. Stick to the schedule. Analog good-bye!

First, I agree with not delaying any further. How long has this transition been planned - and this time they made sure everyone was well informed by using a barrage of television advertising.

Second, I strongly disagree with the no coupon idea. TV is not solely an entertainment media. It provides news and weather, including very informative graphics. Some use it as an educational tool for pre-school aged children. State of the Union and State of the State addresses come over TV, and emergency broadcasts also come over TV. True, there are alternatives but none are quite the same - in the US (like many other countries), we are truly a television culture.

Since the government stands to make money selling the spectrum they are freeing up and creating a (relatively) sudden change in cultural norms - especially for those in the lower income ranges - it is the government's responsibility to TRY to provide a smooth transition for all.

Perhaps, however, it would have been wiser to first issue coupons based on income tax returns or welfare benefits in order to help out the impoverished first. Maybe even they should have just sent them converter boxes and then said "if you don't need them, sell them".

"said that the government risks leaving those who are most reliant on over-the-air broadcast television for their information literally in the dark"

First, Rockefeller needs to understand what the word LIERALLY means. (Do the lights go off in the homes of people who don't have converter boxes?)
Secondly, how much info do you get from over the air broadcast television? (bit of sarcasm here)
Thirdly, there is nothing preventing people from PURCHASING the box for an extra $40... This is

hen I heard that the gov was giving out free boxes I thought it was a joke; I didn't believe it. I still can't understand it. It's these IDIOT liberal dems that keep wanting to waste more & more of our money & keep as many people beholden to them as possible. And now they want to postpone the deadline? I wonder...where is my free CD player when we switched from analog cassettes to CDs? And my free DVD player when we switched from VHS to DVD? And my free Blue Ray? Ridiculous!
BTW, Nazis were socialists and hence would have come up with this idea of the free boxes as they too wanted the people to think that they were beholden to them (kinda like their idea of the "peoples car".) Please don't make outrageous and idiotic comparisons about Nazis as these remarks tend to desensitize people to the true horror and evil that they unleashed upon humanity.

Nazis were fascists, similar in economic and social policies as democrats.

I also think the switch to digital should be done. Your TV would have had to been made 3 decades ago to need a converter box. Chances are that thing will have a tough time broadcasting anything with electronic degradation.

LOL yeh if people arent ready by now its freaking 2009 get with it folks. And republicans being greedy, nazis, lol. Typical lefty believe what you hear in the media garbage. Look at the outcry Bush had spending 50 million dollars on his inaug in 2000 and the economy was in good shape then. Look at the econmy now and B O is spending more than double that, give me a break! Dems are going to ruin this country the next 4 years, all of you who voted for the Anointed one will be sorry you did!

Actually, even up to 2 years ago you could still get TVs with analog tuners. (I think you still can.) Anyways, TVs aren't indispensable...they're primarily entertainment and also used for news, etc. So if a person's analog TV goes out in Feb, it's not like their pacemaker is going to run out of batteries or something! Jeez! Whatever happened to radio, newspapers, internet, magazines, telephone, good-old word-of-mouth? If someone looses signal on an analog tv set, they can call the "repair man" or go to the store and find out what the heck is going on. We really do need to give Darwinism a chance to work here!

Actually, the Nazis were socialists. They were the National Socialist party, or Nazis for short. It was the Italians, under Benito Mussolini, who were the fascists in WWII.

Glad to see Republicans re-discovering their conservative roots. It's incredible that even this deep into a recession, democrats just cannot stop throwing money at problems to save their lives. Democrats won't necessarily worsen the recession, but they will certainly prolong it with attitudes like this.

And, no television can be sold today unless it has a digital tuner. That has been federal law for at least the past year.

The Democrats will do what they did 80 years ago. They will spend the nation from a recession into a depression. The New Deal did not get us out of the depression, it drove us into it and kept us there until WWII.

Soldier37, you're a douchebag. That's all I've got to say.

Nazi's where socialist in name only, they perfectly fit the definition of fascist, which is the extreme right. That's one of the reasons they hate the communist, extreme leftest.

Anyway this should be delayed any longer, folks need to wake up realize that their are consequences to dragging their feet. That's one of the biggest problems today nobody take personal responsibility anymore. This is the second round for these vouchers.

When I was a teenager we were one of the most advanced nations in the world. In less than 20 years we don't even rank in the top 25, sad very sad. Maybe we'll take notice when the Indians and Chinese pass us...

Soldier37 you are right the economy was good when that coward Bush took office and we had a surplus. Eight years later we are in two war of choice and buried in debt. He did the same thing with every company he's ever been with and now our country. I'm not a fan of the democrats but like his distant relative the 14th President Franklin Pierce he was an epic failure. I'm will to cut the new guy some slack because I don't think it's possible do a worse job than what we had for the last eight years.

Not everybody can afford $500-$2000 a year for cable. Free TV has always been a way of life, like FM radio - it doesn't mean you are cheap. I also don't think everybody will be willing to suddenly be forced to shell out 40 bucks a month for cable service. Likewise, just because you get a converter box, it doesn't mean you'll still get a picture - a lot of the converter boxes being sold are useless junk and don't work in fringe areas with moderate signal.

To mention one example, a relative bought a new CRT TV back in 2001 when digital LCD units didn't even exist. The TV is still working fine but he's in a fringe area where digital signals are weak but can still get analog signals. His options are to throw money at the problem, either spend $25/month for cheap dish network (no cable service available) or buy a converter box and spend $140 on a new rooftop antenna, landlord permitting.

I'm not against new technology or modernization, but it makes no sense abandoning something that still works, and many people rely upon. The number of working tube TV's still in use I'm guessing is in the millions, and while many of them won't be affected by the transition, quite a lot will end up useless when analog goes dead.

Technilogically, The united states is woefully behind most othe 1st world countries by a sizable margin. Take Internet speeds for instance. Or digital telivision even? Most other countries have abandoned this antiquicated method in place of digital a while before. It's not about IF it works. My great grandpa's Model T ford still works fine. (granted he's restored it twice) But that doesnt mean we stuck with an antiquicated design does it? No we advanced into bigger and better things.

BTW byDesign, Nazis = National Socialist German Workers’ Party. They were more socialist than fascist. Regardless, the political spectrum is like a horse shoe or loop where the extreme left and right or practically right next to each other and extremely similar (which is why they hate each other so much.)
Luscious, you are woefully misinformed. 1st of all any analog tv tuner will continue to work (even better than it did with analog) once you attach a digital-to-analog converter box. With the coupons its less than $40 and if you had to (god forbid) buy it yourself, then it would be around $80. What's TBFD? You'll be receiving about 3 to 4 times more channels than ever before (varies from area to area) and in better quality than before and all for that magical 1 time fee of $80! And although morse-code clappers still work, I think it kinda makes sense to abandon them.
curnel_D, nice to resort to insults when you are unable to argue a point. BTW, the US is at the forefront of EVERY major advancement in technology. Just because some of our infrastructure is antiquated, doesn't mean that we won't catch up (and surpass) the others; but theses things happen in cycles. Example, our cell phone infrastructure is not as advanced as say europe or asia but ask yourself, how long have we had that infrastructure in place as opposed to them? It takes time & money to change these things. It's like if you get the latest & greatest PC and I have none, but then 1 year later I buy the latest & greatest...don't you think mine will be more advanced? Now imagine the time scale as decades instead of years and tens of millions of PCs instead of 1. Don't you think that whoever has the latest at the time is the most advanced? I mean honestly, really?

curnel_D eat it!

Also, what do you think will happen to those broadcasters in areas with currently-good analog reception but poor digital reception? If they don't strengthen the digital signals then they too will go the way of the Dodo. And again I say: how about radio, newspapers, internet, magazines, telephone (land line & cellular), and just good-old word-of-mouth? It's a tv set not a pace maker.

"Nazi's where socialist in name only, they perfectly fit the definition of fascist, which is the extreme right. That's one of the reasons they hate the communist, extreme leftest."

Lets do a comparison between facism and socialism
Facism the goverment has control over what it deams should be the optimal morality of the society, the goverment gets final control over who can produce what, and who can and cannot make money. The military is the center of the goverment controlling security of the society and policing any ideas that are consider harmful to the powers that be. Now communism, the goverment has control over what it deams should be the optimal morality of the society, the goverment gets final control over who can produce what, and who can and cannot make money. The military is the center of the goverment controlling security of the society and policing any ideas that are consider harmful to the powers that be.

Facism=Communism Communism=Facism. Be it right wing or left wing. A totalitarian state, is a totalitarian state.

I personally am not a big fan of the transistion but I understand that the cell phone companies need the bandwidth. I know of several people who will lose about 1-5 channels because of the range limitations of the current digital air. Good news is that its ment a lot of work for tower crews which I used to be employed by.
My personal response to the idea of postponement is that while yes it is true this will still come as a shock to many who still receive analog tv, there has been a full fledged campain warning people for a year. I heard about this 3 years ago and anyone who doesn't know by now deserves to have to cough up 50 bucks for converter box. I understand its hard times and trying to help out the lower class but we put 1.34 billion in this already. If you were lazy and didn't jump on a rebate in time its your fault and you only are out a 50 buck mistake. You don't push something back that has been in the news for as long as this has been.

Keep the polysci out we're talking broadcast tv.

Do you really want to keep the new lease holders waiting for their bandwidth?

It's progress and I didn't see free tv converter boxes in the constitution. I'm sure that many who asked for them have a compatable tv.

There is more money to be made by forcing the change over than by letting the broadcasters double dip by broadcasting on digital and renting the excess analog bandwidth like they have been doing for the last couple of years.

Bandwidth is a commidity owned by the people not companies. The quicker it is passed on to new users (companies), who have leases and are waiting for the change over, we will see new services/equipment for it. Hmmm... sounds like it could be good for the economy...

People have had a long enough warning about this transition. If you don't have a DTV too bad. Too many things ride on this transition. And for the Dems to spend more money? I see this country going into a depression if this keeps up. I will not re-iterate what others have stated because they have also made some of my points, so nuff said. And I am in no way a Republican. I am however a minority. Republicans have moved far left and moved away from the ideals that have kept this country a wonderful country.

My personal opinnion, great that there are 2+ million people who did not transition to DTV and now they cannot watch the misleading liberal tree-hugging communistic TV shows and news outlets. *Laughs* If TV Media and other Media outlets would just do thier job and report the news as it should be reported instead of a bunch of socialists taking thier liberal sides, we wouldn't be in this predicament and they would not be losing money - look at newspaper, they are going extinct.

Lastly, don't tell me the reason why we are in this recession is because of BUSH. Its not all Bush's fault. Yes he's made stupid decissions but why don't you take a look at all the big financial institutions that went belly up and tell me who did they contribute the most to. I guarantee you, you'll find the president elect in the top three in cash contribution from these financial institutions. And of all top three, heck top ten, cash contributions from these financial institutions are to all democrats.

Whats this world comming to?

Ok, there's so much goin on here, it's boggling. One, anyone who thinks that the Nazis were socialists and not facists, has an extremely whacked view of history. Yes, they were the National Socialist Party... in -name-. I could call myself the High Mighty Ruler of the World, but I don't think anyone would start groveling.

Two, digital service -does- have definitive drop off points. There is no such thing as a "fuzzy" digital signal. It comes in strong or it doesn't at all. There are definately people in the range that can get analog, but would not get digital. I've played with that priciple myself; I've seen it happen.

Three, yes, they should have verified who was getting those coupons to weed out: the misinformed, who got one when they didn't need to, the greedy, who got one "'cause it was free!", and the rich, who "only got what they were entitled to."

The switch should go off without a hitch. If anyone needs a box, they'll figure it out on the 18th, and most of the boxes cost between 40-80 dollars. For a one time investment, and not having to buy a new TV, jeez, suck it up.

Seeing the talk about this transition about a week ago i decided to do my little research. Growing up in the Midwest (tri-state (mo/il/ia)area I called up a few true country folk, & Farmers from my home area to see what they knew. All of them having anywhere from 2-5 channels (NBC/CBS being the main). Not a single one have ever heard of this news not even on their local news they watch every night religiously. Just with Analog to Digital Changes on "Cell Phones" awhile back no news was reported to them till the actual change took place.

News & Government report the changes to the larger population groups (East/West Coast & major Citys) then complain about how rural people are still slow at transitions, when they lack to inform them in the first place. & running a midnight-3am broadcast doesn't count, unless your a bar hopping drunk.

No one cares about the Rural America cause they cant capitalize off them, complain they don't have HighSpeed Internet when you wont give it to them. Complain they don't convert Analog to Digital when you don't even try to tell them.

It's a terrible idea to give out coupons - the only beneficiaries are the manufacturers of those worthless analog to digital boxes. Those boxes probably cost $3 to manufacture in China. But because the gov't is giving out $40 coupons, that inflates the prices everywhere. After all, consumers are subsidized so demand will not go down because of the outrageous prices of $60/box.

This is the equivalent of financial aid to students. The unexpected result of all the government financial aid is that colleges feel they can charge outrageous amounts of tuition. The consumers/students don't care that much because they're insulated by the financial aid.

This is why I don't believe in universal health care - the same exact thing will occur.

Damn, I've got some great laughs out of these comments.

While, I don't believe we should delay this.. those who for some reason didn't know about it or were living under a rock, lose more than "Liberal Media" News.. they lose the Emergency Broadcast System and PBS. Yes, you can still receive the EBS over radio, but how often do people listen to the radio at home? Not as often as they watch TV.

However, it is up to every American to stay informed about what's going on in the country, it is not the duty of the government to hold everyone's hand. The coupons were fine, they helped those in need, prepare for the switch. I am damn sure most people who received said coupon has paid well more than $40 in taxes in their lifetime. It is also not their fault our bloated government most likely wasted just as much money designing this "program" as it did handing out coupons.

Blah blah, dems this, repubs that.. Tree-hugging, socialist, commies this, conservative, fascist, fat cat, tycoons that..

Most of you sound like sound bytes from either a Rush Limbaugh broadcast or Michael Moore "documentary".

Think for yourselves for a change, instead of regurgitating everything which is spoon-fed to you via talking heads who profit from sensational scaremongering.



Bad spellers it seems, if one were to gauge the future from the comments posted here.