I've had Sirius satellite in my car for almost a year now, and now that I've begun listening to Sirius Left, I can definitively say why folks like George W. Bush end up being President of the United States.

First of all, it took me a while to even be able to listen to the sort of liberal media bias I'd been looking for. This is because Sirius found the woman with the most irritating voice on earth, decided she'd make a good radio personality, and placed her on when I drive home. It's entirely possible that my fellow left-wingers have become accustomed to this voice, have decided it's OK, and are emulating it. Now this, I must say, could be enough to make anyone vote Republican.

Good Sunday morning, this weekend, I had to good fortune to watch on VH-1
Classic, the making of Aja, the classic Steely Dan album, and it made me realize how much I miss music.

(Full disclosure:  I've been a Sirius subscriber for about four years now, and have been following this story for some time.)

Today, the Justice Department announced that they have approved the merger between the two satellite radio companies, Sirius and XM.  Although larger media conglomerates such as Clear Channel are screaming bloody murder today, this was the correct decision and will be beneficial to both consumers and to artists.

Now, I understand that there is apprehension from some on the left about whether or not this constitutes a monopoly.  But that is not the case here.

The Justice Department has just announced approval of a deal for the only two satellite radio companies -- Sirius and XM -- to merge.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department approved Sirius Satellite Radio's $5 billion buyout of rival XM Satellite Radio on Monday, saying the deal was unlikely to hurt competition or consumers.

The deal was approved despite opposition from consumer groups and an intense lobbying campaign by the land-based radio industry.

The buyout received shareholder approval in November. The companies said the merger will save hundreds of millions of dollars in operating costs - savings that will ultimately benefit their customers.

The Justice Department, in a lengthy news release explaining its decision, said the two companies compete not just with each other but also with other forms of radio and entertainment.

It is so sad that Rep. Louise Slaughter-- so good on so many issues-- is one of our elected representatives who are beholden to the National Association of Broadcasters and their monopoly on radio.  She is one of the people blocking the Sirius XM merger.  And of course, Clear Channel (and their homeboy Mitt Romney, who is a partner of theirs, I understand from an Air America report) is lovin' this.  

These guys took ONE meeting to approve of Exxon Mobil's disastrous monopoly-- but because they are bought and sold by terrestrial radio-- they are holding up a deal that benefits consumers and employees and stockholders of Sirius/XM??

We need to fire it up.  This talk of a monopoly is b.s.   Progressive voters should demand our progressive leaders do what's best for the economy, for CONSUMERS, and not for their campaign funds.

After the jump, some info from Jim Cramer (who has annoyed me in the past, but he's right about this:

As some of you know, XM radio dropped MSNBC this week.  Robin Diane Goldstein has made a tremendous effort to prevent this from happening.  She set up a website and has done an online petition.  So far, the efforts haven't been successful.  Below the fold is an email she sent out tonight.

Last week I wrote a diary here at Daily Kos after hearing that XM Radio will drop MSNBC in September.  http://www.dailykos.com/...

Today I received an email from Robin.  She doesn't have an account here and can't post a diary herself, but she asked me to post this petition:  

http://www.petitionspot.com/...

Robin said that in a call with someone from XM, they told her they had only received about 70 complaint calls.

In the grand scheme of things, this might not be so important, but damnit, I'm pissed off.  This afternoon as I was driving home from the office of Phyllis Busansky (a plug for my Congressional candidate in FL-9), I heard an announcement on my XM radio.  After September 4th, XM will no longer carry MSNBC due to changes in their schedule line-up.  They gave a number to call, but since I was driving, I wasn't able to write it down.  When I got home, there was nothing about it on their website and the customer service rep I spoke to knew nothing about it.

There's more...

Gilliard says Howard Stern's move to Satellite radio will help kill old radio. Sirius' subscription base has already grown to 3 million from 600,000 thanks to Stern''s move, and millions more will likely follow.

Like me. And not because of Stern. I don't mind Stern, I just never listen to radio since I work from home and radio is generally sooo bad. But all the talk about satellite radio and Stern made me finally take a close look at the programming available. And you know what? Here in the Bay Area I can't get a decent salsa/merengue station so it's hard for me to keep up with the latest Latin music. But Sirius and XM both have Latin stations that would give me access to that music.

Of course, that brings up the big challenge -- Sirius versus XM. I don't care about Stern, but Sirius has the NFL and NBA. XM has MLB and Air America. XM also has a tropical station dedicated to salsa/merengue, while Sirius' tropical channel also includes Reggaeton -- a hot new blend of Reggae and Latin rap that is all the rage but which I could do without. Still, having the NFL and NBA would be nice. And Sirius' hardware is much nicer (and smaller).

Ugh. If anything slows the adoption of satellite radio, this might be it. Perhaps I'll just wait for the inevitable merger.