David Hatch writes:
House Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., stunned the broadcast industry by suggesting that the nation's switch to digital television -- set to occur on Feb. 17, 2009 -- may be postponed. ...
... Dingell is concerned that a Republican-crafted voucher program designed to help Americans reduce the cost of new equipment needed to keep older TV sets operational is underfunded and ill-conceived. With 10 months to go before the first coupons are to be issued, no guidelines have been released, he complained during his address. ...
Link: National Journal. Thanks to Phillip Swann for the tip.
The poor schlub who gets elected president on 4 Nov. 2008 will, a few weeks into his or her term, inherit an angry electorate. Ditto the new Congress. They didn't poke the stick into the bees' nest but the bees don't care. The current administration nor the current legislature have done only a token amount to educate consumers and we're running out of time to get the necessary resources to mount an effective one. No one should be surprised to hear that those who avoid responsibility in nearly every other area of government responsibility might want to take the easy way out here also.
But this situation does give us the opportunity to coin two new related verbs: "To dingell" (after the above), meaning to delay taking responsibility until it's someone else's watch. Also, "to kneuer" (after NTIA head John Kneuer), meaning to avoid responsibility by doing the bare minimum required by law until it's someone else's watch. --Dennis
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