Here's more federal handouts for the Republicans to send back to Washington... oh, wait: South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds and his administration are pleased to announce that South Dakota is one of 17 states to receive stimulus money in the first round of rural broadband grants announced yesterday by Vice-President Joe Biden. SDN Communications will get a $20-plus-million grant to run 359 miles of new fiber-optic cable around the countryside.
Alas, no good news in this first round for Sioux Valley Wireless, Dakota 2000, and nine other South Dakota groups that bid for a chunk of that stimulus money to build some cool rural broadband projects. But sit tight: VP Biden's announcemenent yesterday marked just the $182-million tip of a $2.5-billion broadband iceberg of stimulus money to get the 'Net out to rural areas...
...unless of course the Tea Party can rise up with some candidates next year to "take America back" (to the sod houses and smoke signals?) and send all this evil federal money back to Washington.
I'm glad that they're doing fiberoptics and not that unwieldy, fault-ridden technology known as "broadband over power line" (BPL)!
ReplyDeleteCome on, Cory. Stop bashing us poor Republicans! Aren't we wrecking ourselves enough without any help? Everyone knows that we'll take whatever we can get, just like any other mortal humans.
I'm pretty sure that I, as an individual Republican, contribute more to the federal government in dollars than I take away from it. Yet that greatest of all benefits, the freedom to guide my own destiny, still remains available to me in the United States of America, and I can't put a dollar price on that.
Broadband in the boondocks: A great investment, and a freedom builder for sure!
Agreed, Stan! We need to bring back the information superhighway metaphor, to remind people that rural broadband is like I-29 and I-90: excellent infrastructure investments that will only improve the economy in South Dakota and other faraway places. I just hope they put a big "Brought to you by Uncle Sam" sticker on every mile of cable and every new router that gets hooked up, as a gentle reminder to certain folks who think the government does them no good.
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