I enjoy C-SPAN.

My TiVo is programmed to record five minutes of C-SPAN every day at 4 p.m., so when I get home from work it’s already on. (If I didn’t do that, it would be on History or Discovery, which the TiVo tunes itself to in the middle of the night.)

When I start my Web browser at home, the first page it loads is the C-SPAN schedule page.

Bakersfield is a good place for a C-SPAN fan, because Bright House carries C-SPAN 3, not just 1 and 2 like most cable systems.

I’m not a C-SPAN *junkie*. I can go a day without watching. And while I download three C-SPAN podcasts every week, I’m very behind.

But I like C-SPAN a lot. Between the three channels, it’s the only network on cable where you know there’ll be something good on, 24 hours a day. It’s not like Comedy Central’s mid-day bad movie or ESPN’s SportsCenter reruns or infomercials.

So when the bus stopped by our neighbors at the Chamber of Commerce this morning, I made sure to check it out.

It’s a pretty sweet machine, with a couch and TV screens in front, and a small TV studio in back they use to interview newsmakers, mainly elected officials.

The bus is also a promotional vehicle for C-SPAN, so it’s loaded with educational materials. The crew showed us campaign commercials from Eisenhower, Goldwater, Johnson and Reagan.

The bus will be over at CSUB this afternoon and at the Marketplace on Saturday. You should check it out. And then spend some of your TV watching time on C-SPAN. Watch some special order speeches, where Representatives get up and give speeches to an empty chamber. Watch a debate over a bill, and then watch in dismay when the vote comes down to party lines, even though the issue is clearer than that. Watch a Senate committee hearing and notice how the Senators from different parties try to promote or deflate the witnesses based on whose side they’re on, and which Senators ask questions rather than give speeches.

C-SPAN is not the be-all and end-all of political coverage — that would be a variety of sources matched with critical thinking skills. C-SPAN is just the best thing out there.