I love Sesame Street. When I moved out West the show followed me and did a show all about the Southwest with Big Bird riding a stagecoach, it was comforting to know that they escorted me there. My son who at the time was only 7 months old would pull himself up in the playpen and laugh hysterically at Bert and Ernie. It's one of my favorite shows and it emitted an aura of pure positive feelings. It served as a ray of hope and sunshine for a lot of inner-city kids such as myself, something which is lacking today in our government. Hopefully soon we will be free of all that gloom and doom coming from the right.

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They'll go to any extreme to kill Frontline.

They don't want to end children's programming, they want to kill True Journalism.

They'll paint it as Big Bird, may even trot out the Bert and Ernie gay thing again but the real target is Journalism.

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When my kids were little, they loved Mr. Rogers. But I was always a little uncomfortable with him. Then one day, I was watching as he leaned into the camera, looked me directly in the eye and said,"I like you just the way you are!"

As we grow up, we are trained to keep a distance from people - for some very good reasons. I was uncomfortable because he was invading my "personal space". I was suspicious of such a direct connection - even though it was positive. But I also understood why children - who have not yet learned this - would respond to it.

China owns $1.149 trillion of our debt. Our total debt is around $16.149 trillion, meaning China holds about 7% of it. PBS's annual subsidy is $450 million. 7% of that is $31.5 million, which is less than Romney made in 2010 and 2011 while running for President. It's a trivial amount of money (in government terms), but apparently Romney thinks being willing to off Big Bird will earn him credibility as a fiscal guardian. If voters don't bother to actually look at the numbers, he might get away with it. Of course, he has good reason to think most people won't look at the numbers, since voters' knowledge on important matters is so often hugely wrong.

No one thinks that defunding PBS will seriously have any kind of meaningful or measurable impact on the deficit or the Federal budget. What it will have a meaningful and measurable impact on is people in particular children and the way they access information, and culture. It would severely curtail the access of children to some of the basic tools in their early educational lives. Of those perhaps none more important than those aiding in the formation and understanding of ideas about science and the way the world works. You have to ask yourself who would benefit from that and how. This isn't a battle over $450 million dollars this is a battle over the hearts and minds of our children and what they are being taught and by who.

Not about Big Bird, but hey Rachel, did you see this? (April 18, 2012)http://www.freewoodpost.com/2012/04/18/ann-romney-why-should-women-be-paid-equal-to-men/

Ann Romney: “Why should women be paid equal to men? Men have been in the working world a lot longer and deserve to be paid at a higher rate. Heck, I’m a working mom and I’m not paid a dime. I depend on my husband to provide for me and my family, as should most women… and if a woman does work, she should be happy just to be out there in the working world and quit complaining that she’s not making as much as her male counterparts. I mean really, all this wanting to be equal nonsense is going to be detrimental to the future of women everywhere. Who’s going to want to hire a woman, or for that matter, even marry a woman who thinks she is the same, if not better than a man at any job. It’s almost laughable. C’mon now ladies, are you with me on this?”

I can't believe I've never seen this clip before. I grew up watching Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. I can remember how fascinating I found the episode with the video about how peanut butter is made, and it still makes me smile. I've lived in Washington, Iowa, and California and the local public stations always have a great selection of unique programs. I'm very thankful that PBS recieved this funding and continues to recieve funding. Thanks for posting the link to this video, MaddowBlog!

How can anyone that grew up in 20th century america, claim to be for education and be against PBS. THey provide thousands of hours of educational content to K-12 classrooms in thousands of public schools in the united states. On their website they note that they have 20,000 digital educational assets that are available to teachers worldwide. They provide lesson plans to make maximum use of this content and provide talking points to teachers to discuss what is being presented. It would cost much more to provide this content to public schools in lieu of PBS.

Mr Romney would do well to follow the Big yellow Birds shining example.

Besides Rogers' testimony, it's also remarkable to see the human interaction between him and Senator Pastore. The Senator came into the conversation skeptical and questioning, but actually spent his time listening and capable of being moved.

You got a problem with Big Bird? Then you got a problem with me!