Help save PBS

OK, granted this is the 3rd or 4th time I've recently provided links to causes and petitions I believe in but I'll be damned if I let Congress take away Sesame Street (which I grew up watching). They're now set to vote on an almost 50% cut in funding for the Public Broadcasting System.

According to a recent L.A. Times article:

'The bill would cut $100 million from next year's budget of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the private nonprofit organization that distributes federal funds to local stations. Money set aside to help local stations convert to digital technology and to upgrade PBS' satellite system would be trimmed. And there would be $23 million less for "Ready to Learn" programs aimed for children, such as "Sesame Street" and "Postcards from Buster."'

Of course, the conservatives ready to pull the rug out from under PBS insist that it's just a coincidence that they recently had the fight over the Buster program and that the current head of CPB (which funds PBS), Ken Tomlinson, used taxpayer money to (perhaps illegally) monitor a Bill Moyers program for left-wing bias. That last one would include calling Republican Chuck Hagel a 'liberal,' which I'm sure he wouldn't be too happy about.

If you have enough sense to believe otherwise, there are a few places you can go to express your dismay and disgust with Congress over this:

PBS petition

Move On Petition

People for the American Way petition

Do you want to tell your kids someday that they didn't do everything you could to save Big Bird? Elmo I could do without but still...