Verizon is Evil, Luuuuke I'm your father

CORPORATE POWER
Verizon's Villainy
"In an attempt to bridge the digital divide (http://www.ntia.doc.gov/reports/anol/NationOnlineBroadband04.pdf) and enhance their economic prospects, cities across the nation (http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB110116864041881375,00.html) , including Milwaukee, Cleveland, St. Louis and Philadelphia, are planning to deploy universal low-cost wireless Internet access. Meanwhile, moneyed telecommunications corporations and their army of lobbyists are doing everything in their power to ensure it doesn't happen (http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB110116864041881375,00.html) . In Pennsylvania, for example, the legislature passed a bill with a deeply buried provision -- inserted after intensive lobbying by Verizon Communications (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20041124/ap_on_hi_te/wireless_philadelphia) -- which would make it illegal for any city or other "political subdivision" in the state to provide low-cost Internet access to its citizens unless a corporation like Verizon gave them permission. Gov. Ed Rendell has until midnight tonight (http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB110177460936386225,00.html) to sign or veto the legislation. Email Gov. Rendell (http://www.americanprogressaction.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=klLWJcP7H&b=100385&action=1463&template=x.ascx) and tell him he should stand up to corporate lobbyists and veto the bill."

-- From AMERICAN PROGRESS ACTION FUND