WSJ.com - 'Net Neutrality' Debate Heats Up at Senate Hearing

WSJ.com - 'Net Neutrality' Debate Heats Up at Senate Hearing: "Google Inc. and other Internet companies pressed Congress for a law that would bar telecommunications networks from charging more for some services and controlling what consumers can obtain on the Internet.
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'There are 250,000 networks that make up the Internet. They are compensated by its users," said net neutrality advocate Vinton Cerf, Google vice president and Internet pioneer. "Allowing broadband carriers to control what people see and do online would fundamentally undermine the principles that have made the Internet such a success.'"

Somehow I suspect this absurdity (the proposal by Verizon et al) would have gone nowhere if we were in the second term of a Gore administration, but in a culture wherein, e.g., the State of the Union address includes appeals for energy conservation while the administration simultaneously proposes to cut $100M from programs promoting conservation (amid record profits for oil companies, etc...), it's pretty clear that anything goes -- or, more precisely, that big business interests come first.