If you spend any time on the Internet, you’ve likely run across some form of protest against SOPA and/or PROTECT IP, bills before Congress that supporters claim are necessary to protect copyrights and opponents say will destroy the Internet as we know it.     [FULL  STORY]

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the police kept the media away “to prevent a situation from getting worse and to protect members of the press.”

But according to the New York Times, one journalist told a police officer “I’m press!” and the officer just responded “Not tonight.”

If the mayor of our country’s largest city thinks protecting the press means silencing them, we’re in big trouble. And he’s not alone. Police harassment of the media has been reported during “Occupy” protests in Chicago, Denver, Oakland, Portland and beyond. More arrests are expected today as protests continue nationwide.

It’s time to tell mayors across the country to uphold our press freedoms.

Tell Mayor Bloomberg and the U.S. Conference of Mayors to publicly commit to defending the First Amendment and letting journalists do their jobs.

The NYPD is using more than words to fight journalists. On Tuesday, 10 reporters were arrested, another was put in a choke hold, and others were subjected to police harassment.

In fact, since the birth of the Occupy Wall Street movement two months ago, 23 journalists have been arrested^{2, 3} and countless others have been roughed up, tear-gassed and pepper sprayed. There have even been reports of police using high-powered strobe lights to disable video cameras and block people from recording their actions.

Demand that all U.S. mayors publicly commit to protecting freedom of the press.

Please sign this action and we will deliver your letter to Mayor Bloomberg and the Conference of Mayors and demand that they drop all charges and make this crucial commitment to upholding the First Amendment.

The freedom of our press is fundamental to our identity as Americans. As elected representatives charged with serving the people, our mayors must rein in these aggressive and violent tactics by local law enforcement.

Please take action right now.

Josh Stearns
Associate Program Director
Free Press
www.freepress.net

P.S. Great news: If we raise $300,000 by Dec. 31, 2011, two longtime supporters will kick in an additional $300,000. Donate today and your gift will pack double the punch in the fight to protect the First Amendment and journalists everywhere. Thank you!

1. Brian Stelter, “Reporters Say Police Denied Access to Protest Site,” New York Times, Nov. 15, 2011: http://act2.freepress.net/go/7342?akid=3062.9559736.jA1aHR&t=9

2. See a list of all journalists arrested at Occupy events since September, plus related videos and articles. http://act2.freepress.net/go/7343?akid=3062.9559736.jA1aHR&t=11

3. See a statement from the Society of Professional Journalists condemning the arrests. http://act2.freepress.net/go/7344?akid=3062.9559736.jA1aHR&t=13

A report in The New York Times suggests that the “Super Committee” in Congress—which has the power to fast-track it’s recommendations to reduce the deficit—is close to backing mandatory cuts to Social Security instead of tax increases for the richest one percent.

No way we can let this happen. This is a rotten deal that we have to stop.

Send a message that cuts to Social Security come with hell to pay from voters.  Click on this link

Discarded plastic bottles account for around 30% of trash at the Grand Canyon, so in an effort to reduce the amount of waste left behind by the oodles of visitors, the park was all set to launch a ban on the sale of bottled water. But then, after the folks at Coca-Cola voiced their concerns, a top national park official decided to pull the plug on the program.    [FULL  STORY]

China is dumping counterfeit electronic parts into the Pentagon’s supply chain, two senior lawmakers alleged on Monday.

Two Senators, John McCain, Republican-Arizona, and Carl Levin, Democrat-Michigan, said the counterfeits are putting U.S. troops at risk and undercutting the American economy.

One day before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the issue, the Senators offered details of the panel’s ongoing investigation.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2058849/Chinese-counterfeit-electronic-parts-putting-U-S-military-risk. [FULL STORY]

A Texas Judge, Judge William Adams took a belt to his own teenage daughter as punishment for using the internet to acquire music and games that were unavailable for legal purchase at the time. She has had ataxic cerebral palsy from birth that led her to a passion for technology, which was strictly forbidden by her father’s backwards views. The judge’s wife was emotionally abused herself and was severely manipulated into assisting the beating and should not be blamed for any content in this video. The judge’s wife has since left the marriage due to the abuse, which continues to this day, and has sincerely apologized and repented for her part and for allowing such a thing, long before this video was even revealed to exist. Judge William Adams is not fit to be anywhere near the law system if he can’t even exercise fit judgement as a parent himself. Do not allow this man to ever be re-elected again. His “judgement” is a giant farce. Signed, Hillary Adams, his daughter.

‘I had heard and seen battle injured soldiers before but this screaming raised the hair on my neck” – Dr. Phil Leveque, reference to using GOMCO clamp to circumcise infant

This “tea party downgrade” is a shameful blow to our nation’s honor and risks throwing us right back into recession. Worst of all? It was completely avoidable.

But when given the choice between extremist posturing and responsible leadership, tea party Republicans chose wrong. And now, amazingly, they’re blaming it all on Barack Obama.1

John Boehner and the rest of the Republicans hurt our economy and the whole country needs to know it