It's pretty clear that the network neutrality debate has returned. Mark Cuban is fielding his usual fact-optional rants about how broadband video is dead, and an endless supply of telecom industry astroturfers, paid by companies like AT&T, have once-again sallied forth to smear and distort the concept of network neutrality until it resembles the very worst sort of evil. These pseudo-scientists are little more than PR-wizards pretending to be academics, paid by industry to argue.

As Stop The Cap points out, there's several groups firing up their unreality engines this week, including the pseudo-science Heartland Institute, a group whose classy history involves working for the Tobacco industry to dispute the cigarette industry's direct and indisputable link to cancer deaths. James Lakely, a Heartland "research fellow" (which sounds so much better than "paid PR flak for repeatedly discredited junk science firm") sounds off on the latest network neutrality bill in an editorial in Philadelphia's The Bulletin. Of course it does nothing of the sort. The bill (which none of this week's critics appears to have read) allows carriers ample freedom to manage their network capacity as they see fit, but aims to protect consumers from unreasonable restrictions motivated by anti-competitive behavior. James goes on to pretend that consumers facing anti-competitive practices can simply switch providers, which is the oldest and worst sort of fiction.

As noted earlier in the week, this is the third effort by select members of Congress to pass laws protecting a consumer's access to the content and services of their choice, but it's likely going to meet the same fate of the previous two, and likely for the same reasons. Telecom lobbyists control congress, and employ a vast network of hired PR agents and lobbyists tasked with destroying any new consumer protection laws of any kind.

Once again, each piece of legislation needs to be debated on its individual merits, but that's nearly impossible in a climate where paid mouthpieces with limitless budgets have so severely distorted the issues. As consumers have seen during the last two rounds, the network neutrality "debate" really is no such thing, as lobbyists aren't paid to reach a middle ground -- they're paid to win. And unfortunately for consumers, they almost always do.

Still, all is not lost. Fortunately for consumers, while this network neutrality legislation won't pass, the threat of network neutrality regulation remains a very viable threat that shouldn't be overlooked. In instances like Comcast's use of TCP packet forgery, or Time Warner Cable's attempt to impose overage charges up to 2,000% over cost -- the very threat of regulation was enough to correct poor ISP behavior.