You see, it’s okay for the telecoms to block or throttle wireless access, because the openness of the Android operating system will magically cancel out any closedness of the spectrum. Awesome!

The FCC officially approved rules that reportedly provide net neutrality protections to wireline Internet but not wireless services, and which include a host of loopholes for both types of service.

I mentioned yesterday that the FCC hearing on net neutrality would be streamed live this morning, but the drama was removed from the proceedings last night, when Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn announced, with some reluctance, that they would support Julius Genachowski’s pretend net neutrality plan. We have terrible broadband in the US, and by all accounts, we’re now going to pay more for it, with less choice of content. It’s all very sad and I don’t know where the open Internet movement goes from here.

The crackdown on WikiLeaks — which puts our counterterrorism efforts to shame — is a response to the scope of this latest leak. Sure, it’s an attempt to prevent the next leak, on Bank of America.

But just as much, it’s about creating the excuse they need — the government and the legacy media protecting their turf — to undercut the power of the Internet.

Not only is this proposal horrible because it allows telecoms to ration traffic and basically destroys the principle of net neutrality, but as Copps says, it’s not clear that it’s going to stick. Because of the court rulings, a failure to reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service will always run into legal problems. FCC officials claim they have sufficient authority, but it’s very questionable.

As if there weren’t enough things going to pot today, the FCC has decided to come out with a proposal to pretend to institute net neutrality regulations.

The news that Level 3, which has just partnered with Netflix on online video delivery, thinks Comcast is charging them for fast service, brings the debate on net neutrality to a whole new level.

Of course, now that we have the next generation of wireless technologies, Google and the telecoms will do their best to control and monetize them. Not only have they persuaded gullible tea partiers to join the cause, taking advantage of baseless fears about government takeovers of the Internet (strike government and replace with corporate and you’re on to something), but they’re getting help from prominent Democrats as well.

I got a call yesterday from a telecommunications lobbyist who had an interesting and very plausible theory regarding the handling of the decision on net neutrality: What if Julius Genachowski, chairman of the FCC, is simply running out the clock?

In an exciting breakthrough, the FCC is set to reclassify broadband services in a manner that will protect net neutrality.