Hey, Denny, still happy about campaigning and voting for Obozo?
Who got this outrageous amount of money in Montana? There should be an investigation, because certainly fraud had to be involved.
That definitely has to fall under the good and plenty clause of the Constitution.
No!!!
Geez, I could use some help paying my monthly highspeed bill.
I am sure the left will say its money well spent.
idiots.
What a nightmare this guy is and has been. It will be interesting to see how this debt crisis goes. We may not be able to take another year of this guy.
What can you say about 0bama? Waste creates waste.
I’m not sure what this is saying. So should we keep the liberal NYC folk on the leading edge and on the dole, and put the rural people that work and pay the same taxes as everyone else in an ill informed special cage without roads or communications infrastructure just because it costs more?
As a rural American I believe that I have the same rights as every other American and deserve the same opportunities.
Hey, Denny, still happy about campaigning and voting for Obozo?
*** It was $349,000 per home, and you and I paid it! ****
So where is mine? I’m rural! Still on dialup! I want my $349,000 broadband! OK, I’ll settle for the cash and stay on dialup! ;-D
But — but — Obozo has it all worked out. Each Montana subscriber will be billed $29,267.00 per month for broadband calculated on a 20 year service life before long range WiFi replaces hard-wire cable systems.
But, not to worry. Obozo has instructed those 7 homeowners to send the bill to you.
Enough talk from progressives and MSM about shared sacrifice and raising taxes.
and I’m starting to think that the government might as well have just cut a big ol check to every family in america. we could have spent it better. gotten out of debt, built things, bought things and jumpstarted to economy.
And you thought the Mob knew how to skim money in Las Vegas back in the day. This is SOOOO much better.
Head of Internet company that won $64M stimulus grant is big political donor
James Dolan Jr., the manager of Montana Opticom, also owns property at Big Sky, including a lot at the private Spanish Peaks housing and golf course community - which, so far, is home to the only customers served by Opticom, a small broadband firm based in Gallatin Gateway.
Dolan’s father is a former investment fund manager and founder of Ascent Data, the Pittsburgh-based parent of Montana Opticom, as well as a principal in the Spanish Peaks development. Dolan Sr. owns a home at the Yellowstone Club that is appraised at $11.5 million, according to state records.
The Dolans also are big political donors, having handed out nearly $230,000 to congressional candidates and political action committees the past 10 years, with nearly half the money dispersed the last two years. Almost all of their money has gone to Republican candidates and party groups or conservative political action committees - although Dolan Sr. did give $500 to the 2008 re-election campaign of Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat.
Federal campaign records do not list any donations from the Dolans to members of Montana’s congressional delegation.
However, U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., did write a letter to federal officials in August 2009 asking that they fund Opticom’s initial application for the broadband funds.
Rehberg, who voted against the stimulus funding bill and has criticized it as wasteful spending, also wrote letters on behalf of several other telecommunications firms competing for the money, because he “supports Montana entities competing for federal funding,” said his spokesman, Jed Link.
U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., also wrote a letter to federal officials supporting Opticom’s initial application, because he “wanted to support any effort to bring these broadband dollars to Montana,” said his spokeswoman, Kate Downen. He didn’t write a letter regarding the second round of applications, for which the company received the award.
******
Aug 4, 2010 – “Affordable and accessible broadband service is critical to economic growth in Montana,” said. Governor Brian Schweitzer.
“These funds will help a Montana business provide educational and economic opportunities in rural parts of our state.”
Ascent Data Subsidiary Awarded Gallatin Gateway Broadband Project In Montana
Broadband Project Will Improve Life Safety, Educational, Public Service, Business and Residential Telecommunications Services in Gallatin County, Montana
Ascent Data announced today that the Gallatin Gateway Broadband Project, a fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) infrastructure development project of Ascent Data subsidiary, Montana Opticom, has qualified for $64,127,332 of funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. When completed, the Gallatin Gateway Broadband Project will provide affordable and reliable high-speed data, voice, and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) to 11,864 households and businesses, and 58 critical community facilities in communities and rural areas within Gallatin County, Montana.
There is NO way that it would cost 7,000,000 per house to get broadband to a set of houses.
Unless the average distances to the homes is over 1500 miles for each one!!!!!!!!
The contractors just pocketed that money.
They bribed the elected officials and they got their payoff.
Life will be totally unfair until we as a nation have fulfilled every American’ God-given right to broadband internet. That and high speed rail.
Ahhh. I eat a lot of pork and chicken. Bout all I can afford. Might as well spend some money on this as to give it to the deadbeats so they as can eat ribeyes.
I wonder which one of The Internets they got.