I first posted this as just a comment to the Prowler’s note on Big Bird below, but I think it is worthy of its own post, so…: There’s a telling stat in the Prowler’s note. Back in 1995, the ENTIRE federal portion of the budget for public broadcasting was right at $100 million. Now they are talking of cutting $115 million, which is of course more than the whole budget was 11 years ago — and I’ll bet, although the Prowler doesn’t say it, that even AFTER the $115 million cut, the remaining budget is still well over $100 million. Any info on that, Prowler? Anyway, the point is, such has been the spending orgy on Capitol Hill for the last 8 1/2 years that something the GOP once tried to eliminate now apparently will have MORE money left in its account even after cutting (if successful) a total that is GREATER than its whole account originally was. Even after taking inflation into account, this is an amazingly discouraging statistic.