NYT:

The Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday to regulate broadband Internet service as a public utility, a milestone in regulating high-speed Internet service into American homes. Tom Wheeler, the commission chairman, said the F.C.C. was using “all the tools in our toolbox to protect innovators and consumers” and preserve the Internet’s role as a “core of free expression and democratic principles.” The new rules, approved 3 to 2 along party lines, are intended to ensure that no content is blocked and that the Internet is not divided into pay-to-play fast lanes for Internet and media companies that can afford it and slow lanes for everyone else. Those prohibitions are hallmarks of the net neutrality concept.

Conservatives are unhappy because... and this was a party-line vote because... I have no idea. You would think the RWNJs wouldn't want their shitty websites packed with anti-Obama conspiracy theories to wind up in the slow lanes with the porn blogs and alternative weekly newspapers. But Obama was for it, so they gotta be against it. Because. Maybe we should rename oxygen "Obamagen" and see what happens?

And let's remember who we have to thank for net neutrality...

Bloomberg:

Before June 1, 2014, just four episodes of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver had aired. The weekly, half-hour HBO show took on current affairs from comedic angle. Conceptually in debt to Oliver's alma mater, The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight nonetheless aimed for deeper dives on abstruse subjects, hardly a tried-and-true recipe for TV success. But as the fifth show began at 11 pm that Sunday, the British comedian introduced his latest explainer, joking that the Internet had vastly increased access to everything from cat pictures to "a case of coyote urine."

What followed was an acclaimed segment on net neutrality, that not only created significant buzz for his show but gave a bump to a political movement that will score its biggest victory to date on Thursday when the Federal Communications Commission is expected to buck cable companies, the GOP, and its own previous stance, to ensure protections for Oliver's beloved open-access Internet for millions of Americans.

During his 13-minute segment, Oliver name-checked Netflix, Google, Usain Bolt, Superman, the game Monopoly, and Mein Kampf, and compared the FCC hiring former cable company lobbyists to "needing a babysitter and hiring a dingo."

"Our government looks set to end net neutrality," Oliver warned, but there was a way to save it: The FCC was taking comments on rules. "Seize your moment, my lovely trolls," Oliver implored at the segment's climax as music swelled. "Turn on caps lock, and fly, my pretties!"

And it worked.

God bless you, John Oliver.

UPDATE: Barack Obama credits Reddit...