While You Were Out

The murder trial of Oscar Pistorius in South Africa and the evidence of domestic violence on the part of Baltimore Ravens football player Ray Rice against his wife were big news, no question about that.  So let me just comment on both stories briefly: Maybe Pustoirus did kill his girlfriend thinking it was an intruder, and not on purpose, but he still deserves to go to jail.  Ray Rice?  Good riddance to bad rubbish; Roger Goodell ought to be thrown out as NFL commissioner, too.  But here are some stories form the past week that might have missed your attention:

Bloggers and Web site owners, including big-time social media outlets such as Meetup.com, deliberately slowed the loading process of their sites this past Wednesday to show what would happen if big Internet service providers got their way and charged exorbitant fees for faster service and faster downloads that only big, deep-pocketed companies could pay.  Curiously, the PBS NewsHour didn't mention it.  A decision from the FCC on whether to allow such fees and destroy Internet neutrality is expected Monday.

On Thursday, while Americans observed the 9/11 anniversary, the Senate had a vote on a constitutional amendment reversing the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision and declaring that corporations were not people.  Even though the Senate had agreed to consider it on Tuesday, Republicans filibustered it to death on Thursday.  Ed Schultz - a former football player - was too busy talking about the NFL scandals on his show to invite independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont to bitch about it.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is bitching about the Senate Democratic agenda and vows to shut it and the President's agenda down completely when (not if, when - it's gonna happen!) the Republicans regain control of the Senate in November.  Senate Democrats will also be shut down after they're told to shut up.

Democrats may not even be able to take solace in winning key gubernatorial elections this November.  Republican Governor John Kasich is expected to win in Ohio, Democratic Governor Patrick Quinn is expected to lose in Illinois, and yesterday in Wisconsin, Republicans were able to get a restrictive voted ID law reinstated, helping GOP Governor Scott Walker (or, as I call him, "WalKKKer") in a tight race with Democratic challenger Mary Burke.

So, eh, you still want to talk about sports?