Some Comcast users on the East Coast are learning what the world is like without Net Neutrality, as attempts to connect to Google and Gmail have failed throughout the day. Ted Stevens (Republican Senator/idiot from Alaska, for those of you not paying attention) fought against Net Neutrality on the Senate floor, even attempting to explain how the internet works to Senators who are 40 years his junior. His heart nearly exploded during the tirade, which included the classic line, “it’s not a truck, it’s a series of tubes.”

Net Neutrality prevented internet providers from charging premiums for bandwidth used by high-traffic websites. Imagine a fueling station charging truck drivers an extra $.50 per gallon because they use a lot of fuel. There is no reason why the internet providers need to charge this extra amount. If they excessive bandwidth (which all websites are buying at the market rate) is costing them lots of money, raise the price! Essentially, Ted Stevens’ anti-Net Neutrality bill allows cable companies to target any website, block them from their service, and then extort money from the website before unblocking them.

Ted Stevens, who like a starfish can split into many pieces and fit into the pockets of dozens of corporate executives, has no problem with the legal extortion of some punk website as long as it benefits his buddies at the cable company.

It’s unclear at this time if the problems with Comcast and Google (and also the Firefox browser, from what I’ve heard) are a deliberate attempt by Comcast to make some money off the Internet giant or if it’s just a problem with their servers. Either way, it’s a look at what the future of the Internet may be like, thanks in part to Ted Stevens.

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