This Newsweek article by technology writer Stephen Levy ought to be printed out and mailed to every rural legislator in the country.
The choice of the word "sticks" is unfortunate, but Levy hits the nail on the head. He compares the possibility of getting $500 million from the USF for rural telecom to the huge roads bill ($286 billion), and this gross disparity highlights the lack of understanding that legislators have of the issues facing rural communities.
It's not really a broadband crisis. And I've said so many times before, money has nothing to do with it. It's a leadership crisis. We're spending $286 billion of our tax dollars on roads--20th century transport systems. What is wrong with this picture? Why are our legislators so woefully misinformed about the issues?
Maybe the solution is to present broadband as the "new pork?" I'm joking, sort of, but if the Federal government has $286 billion to spend on 20th century road systems, what *would* it take to get legislators to spend a little on 21st century road systems?