Faster, Wendy! Faster!

I live in Texas, which used to be a great, great state but now it only leads the nation in categories like poverty rate, lousy air-quality, teen birth rate, lowest funding for education, and dead last in health care. But what do you expect when Republicans run the place?

Luckily, we Democrats have a dandy candidate running for governor this year, one who goes by the name of Wendy Davis. You might remember her as the lady legislator in the pink sneaks filibustering some pretty heinous anti-abortion laws last summer. The race for gov is pretty tight but her campaign still needs all the help it can get and the one demographic that could make the biggest difference is the youth vote. Unfortunately, as a group, they're notoriously hard to motivate during the mid-terms but I think I have a solution for Ms. Davis:

Promise, as governor, to do everything you can to bring city or state-controlled gigabit internet to every Texas home.

Impossible? Think again.

Chattanooga, Tennessee has a world-class, city-owned 1Gbps system that's been operating for the past four years and the cost to users is just $70 a month. (There's also a measly little 100 Mbps connection for $60 a month.) It's paid like a utility, lumped in with the water bill, or so I'm told.

(What's doubly aggravating is that many U.S. cities already have fiber systems in place but the cable companies have made deals with city governments to keep it off-line, causing artificial shortages and higher profits for the ISPs.)

Young people are tired of mistreatment by the greedy,  uncaring cable companies, Ms. Davis. Give them hope that you're serious about a faster, cheaper internet, something the Republican party cannot do, and you'll have their attention. And their vote.

=Lefty=