Re: Procrastinators win, public safety loses

rjbthunder — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:39:05 -0000

The procrastinators were the Bush administration. It was set up to fail. First fo all common sense and most behavioral studies would indicate that anyone still using analog are either very poor (can't afford a modern tv) or/and they are the so called "late adopters" of communications research. So its going to take a little bit to get them to move off the dime.

Second, many electronics outlets, ie. Best Buy, did not adequatley stock converters at the outset and only really got up to speed mid-2008 - is this a form of procrastination?

Third, the coupons had an expiration date of them - for what reason.......................?? They were then mailed out 4th class, instead of 1st - to save money?? Not important to meet the deadline. Anecdotal reports were that some received them after the expiration date.

Forth, insufficient funding was requested by the Bush administration as you noted and so the program ran out of money last fall, during the time that congress was basically in recess while the house and 1/3 of the senate were running for re-election. Not surprising that the fund was not replenished at that time. Poor planning by whom...........??

Fifth, the new administration immediatly asks for funds to complete the job and to extend the deadline for 4 months. The response? The Republicans in the house vote against the additional funds and the deadline extension to the extent that the needed 2/3 majority requirement fell short by a few votes (2/3 votes required because it was brought up out of order so as to get it done in time.).

Sixth, several days later the house leadership brought it to the floor again for reconsideration and a handful of Republiccans agreed to change their original nay votes to yehs.. So now it passed.

Seventh, the bill as passed does not mandate that all TV stations wait the additional 4 months, but urges them to do so. In fact, WILX , Channel 10 here in mid-Michigan announced today that it is going to proceed to do the change over to digital on Feb 17 as planned - apparently with no penalty.

So where is the harm? I haven't seen the name of a single public safety entity that is directly and operationally affected by this as of this date. Are there some....well apparently, but they seem to be few. There are about 6,500, 000 individuals that won't be able to see weatehr reports, announcements of impending dangers to their communities, etc that are actually affected - so whats the trade-off, the balance here?

Finally, it appears that you are lacking in topics to get angry about. There are lots of them out there.......try the short-changing of the public safety community for starters, such as the continual failure to fund the safe streets initiatives (started by Clinton) by the suceeding administration. And don't ignore the impact of Iraq and the lack of oversight on the financial/banking world as well as the mortgage fiasco - all of which occurred on you-know-whose watch. Not to mention the squandering of the surplus left in their care, etc, etc, etc.

No, your perspective is short, narrow and and almost irrelevant to the larger world and the situation we now find ourselves.

Sincerely;

Dick Baker

Re: Hoping for change might be a fool's errand

rjbthunder — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:05:13 -0000

Your comments are so selfish and egocentric as to be almost laughable. We are engaged in two wars, have an economy that is the worst since the great depression and arguably headed that way as well. Our basic infrastructure to even carry trucks and electricity is deteriorating fast. Yet you are critical that he wants to delay the transition to digital TV which will delay the full transition to 700 MHz!!!

Well the Bush administration did not adequately fund the voucher program for converters and so they ran out of money in November. As you might expect, the people needing those vouchers tend to be poor and don't have an extra $50 to spend for their old TV. So you would excoriate a president who is not even in office because his concerns may slow your pet project for a few months or so. A pretty weak reed to base a whole column on it. I don't read you regularly, but i wonder about your positions on the Bush presidency as it sucked the air out of every public safety initiative (from cops to automation) to fund two wars and allow the financial system to crater.????

And the inability "to get Federal, state and local agencies to agree on parameters, procedures and deadlines would be like pulling teeeth" is not a reason to push this way down the priority list as he confronts these other real present concerns??? And yet you are worried that some poor people are going to have another opportunity to get converters.!!! Pretty small thinking on your part.

Dick Baker, PMP
Project Manager
800 MHz REbandign Project

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