They just don't get it. At Free Press, we're fighting them in the media and on Capitol Hill to make sure that the Internet doesn't get slashed from the stimulus plan.

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The stimulus bill is moving very quickly, with a Senate vote planned for tomorrow. McCain and others have already cut $2 billion in broadband support from the Senate version. It will then need to be reconciled with the House bill — and that means more crucial funding is still in danger.

The broadband monies under threat would immediately put back to work engineers, technicians, equipment manufacturers, vendors and construction workers to lay fiber optic cable, raise wireless towers and connect American homes.

And that's just the start. Over the long term, Internet access would create hundreds of thousands of jobs, reduce health care costs, help our kids in school, and make it easier for citizens take part in our democracy.

Contribute today. Tell Congress: Internet Access Is Essential to Our Economic Recovery.

Free Press is working overtime to protect the broadband funding in this stimulus package and make certain we build the Internet infrastructure future generations need to prosper. Here's what we'll do with your contribution:

1. Continue to push out our message via mainstream and alternative media networks. In just the past few days, we have spoken out in favor of an open Internet in the pages of the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and on NPR and major online news sites and blogs. We need to continue this media push to protect broadband as the stimulus bill enters the final stages.

2. Mount a major letter-writing campaign mobilizing our nearly 500,000 online activists to pressure Congress to keep their hands off funds that would make the Internet available to more Americans at prices they can afford.

3. Work with the more than 850 allied organizations that make up Free Press' SavetheInternet.com Coalition to ensure that Net Neutrality and open access are mandated on any publicly funded networks.

4. Draft, promote and pass a national broadband plan that puts people first, holding the Obama administration to its pledge to give every American a chance to get online.

McCain, Limbaugh and Dobbs aren't interested in the facts — they're only interested in playing politics. At the expense of every American, they’re using the broadband funds as part of a push to kill the stimulus bill and hand President Obama his first legislative failure.

The Internet is a tremendous engine for growth across every sector of the economy. We need to work fast, before these dinosaurs succeed in gutting the bill and derailing America's digital future.

Please join us with your most generous contribution today.

With thanks,

Timothy Karr
Campaign Director
Free Press
Free Press Action Fund