Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) said Tuesday that most opponents to his controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) are teenagers in their basements as the Obama administration threatened to veto the measure for its potential to violate civil liberties.

"People on the Internet -- if you're, you know, a 14-year-old tweeter in your basement … I took my nephew, I had to work with him a lot on this bill because he didn't understand the mechanics of it," Rogers continued. "I hear that a lot. Once you understand the threat and you understand the mechanics of how it works and you understand that people are not monitoring your content of your emails, most people go, 'got it.'"

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, reflected concerns shared by the White House and many civil liberties groups, arguing that the bill did not do enough to ensure that companies, in sharing cyber threat data with the government and each other, strip out any personal data of private citizens.

"They can just ship the whole kit and caboodle and we're saying minimize what is relevant to our national security," the Democrat said. "The rest is none of the government's business."

Rogers stressed that his bill doesn’t extend any extra surveillance powers to the federal government, despite condemnation from critics that say exactly that. “It does something very simple: it allows the government to share zeroes and ones with the private sector,” he said. Rather, he called it "a critical bipartisan first step for enabling American’s private sector to defend itself" and "improves cybersecurity without compromising our civil liberties."

“We have yet to find a single United States company that opposes this bill,” said Rep. Rogers.

But companies do in fact oppose CISPA. Facebook rescinded their support of the act, according to Cnet’s Declan McCullagh, because a spokesperson for the social media site says they prefer a legislative "balance" that ensures "the privacy of our users.” Facebook made the decision to rescind their support for the legislation after facing pressure from Demand Progress, the Internet freedom advocacy group founded by Aaron Swartz.

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(F-bomb warning.)

Recently, (2/8/13) I was arrested in Brooklyn while driving a van outfitted with a projector. Long story short, it was pretty horrible; friends and fellow activists have encouraged me to set down precisely what happened and put it in the public record.

If you don’t know, there is a van with a heavy duty projector that comes out of the roof like a turret. It was created by an OWS offshoot with funding from Ben Cohen, and was named The Illuminator. Some months ago, ownership and control was passed on to a campaign called the Stamp Stampede, created by Ben Cohen, and was referred to as the Project-O-Van.

A month ago, Animal New York, a website that covers culture and politics, arranged to carry out a joint action with the Stampede campaign, using our van.. Together, we visited a number of locations throughout the city to project images highlighting the problem of money in politics corrupting our democracy. We visited the offices of Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, Trump Tower, some walls in Soho and the LES, and…. Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s home on 79th Street.

It was exciting to get a picture of a ballot box being stuffed with money projected onto Bloomberg’s 3rd floor. As the residence is protected by police, our team was approached by cops who chatted with Animal New York folks and filmed our van. I stuck around for about one minute – just long enough to take a few photos.

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The American Civil Liberties Union is assisting nearly a dozen students and alumni of the University of California, Davis with a lawsuit against Lt.John Pike as well as University employees, including Chancellor Linda Katehi and other campus administrators in U.S. District Court in Sacramento.

Via:

Lieutenant John Pike achieved Internet infamy after he was photographed and videotaped delivering a heavy dose of pepper-spray to more than a dozen seated demonstrators outside a UC Davis building last year. Protesters had gathered at the school to demonstrate against rising tuition hikes and campaigned under the umbrella of the then-infant Occupy movement. As protesters sat peacefully, Pike attempted to disrupt their demonstration by debilitating participants with bursts of pepper-spray to the face. Unfortunately for Pike, the incident went viral online which, in turn, only strengthened the Occupy movement as more Americans became outraged by the establishment’s not-so-nice interpretation of the First Amendment.

Pike is now named in a lawsuit filed Wednesday, which is also aimed at the school’s chancellor, provost and other administration officials and campus police. The ACLU, representing the victims, charge the defendants with failing to properly train and supervise officers, which they say resulted in a “series of constitutional violations against the demonstrators. “

In a press release that accompanies Wednesday’s suit, the ACLU attests that “the University’s response to seated student protesters amounts to unacceptable and excessive force that violates state and federal constitutional protections, including the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”

By taking the matter to court, the ACLU hopes that institutions across America will think twice before allowing local law enforcement to follow in the footsteps of Pike.

David Buscho, a UC Davis mechanical engineering student who is among the plaintiffs, said he felt searing pain and had trouble breathing after being pepper-sprayed in the face.

"This was my first demonstration," Buscho said in a statement. "We had no idea there would be police in riot gear or that we would be pepper-sprayed because we were making our voices heard."

Barry Shiller, a spokesman for UC Davis officials declined to comment because they had not yet seen the lawsuit.

In a legal brief made public yesterday, the NYCLU argues that Brookfield Properties had no legal right to force Occupy Wall Street protesters out of Zuccotti Park on November 15th of last year. The civil liberties group intends to file an amicus brief in support of a protester named Ronnie Nunez, who was arrested when he refused to leave Zuccotti Park after the NYPD raid and eviction. According to the NYCLU, Brookfield had no legal authority to exclude people from the park, which Brookfield is legally required to keep open to the public at all times. . From the NYCLU filing:

City zoning law makes unambiguously clear that private owners must obtain the advance approval of the City Planning Commission (“CPC”) before enforcing any restrictions on public access to a privately owned public space [POPS]. The law also makes clear that before the CPC can authorize any restrictions, there must be strict compliance with important procedural protections that are designed to protect public access.

Since the creation of Zuccotti Park in 1968, the public has had a permanent license to be present. In lieu of CPC approval, Brookfield had no authority to exclude Mr. Nunez or anyone else from Zuccotti Park. Therefore, the accusatory instrument against Mr. Nunez is insufficient and Defendants’ motion to dismiss the information should be granted.

POPS are akin to “an easement held by the public on the owner’s property.” As spaces legally mandated to be open and accessible for the public’s benefit and use, POPS are subject to constitutional protections as traditional public fora under the First Amendment. Indeed, courts have acknowledged that when a space is explicitly designated for public use, like a POPS, it is clear that such areas are “inherently compatible” with First Amendment activity and subject to constitutional protections as traditional public fora.

Mr. Nunez is facing charges of trespassing, obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct. His attorney tells the New York Times, "All of those charges have to start with a lawful order, otherwise the cops are just bouncers with badges."

Any of you Occupiers out there who were arrested the night the LAPD evicted Occupy LA - November 30th - still have holiday shopping to do, or want to read up on civil rights? Good news from your local independent book store, Skylight Books:

Following this week's events at OccupyLA, Skylight would like to introduce an "Unlawful Assemblers' Discount": Did you stand up for your right to publicly assemble, and to challenge economic inequality through the Occupy movement? The police may not give you a break, but we'd like to. For the next month, bring in a booking slip or proof of your 409.PC charge from the night of the eviction and get 15% off your entire purchase.

I spoke with Megan Wade of Skylight earlier today, whose arrest during the raid on Occupy LA inspired the "Unlawful Assembler's Discount." "I believe it's really important to stand up when there are situations like those we're facing today with our economy and other issues," Megan explained. "We need to have a national dialogue that will help solve the problems faced by the majority of people in the country...protests and books are both great mediums to stimulate conversation."

Happy reading, all you brave outlaws.

You can find Skylight Books here:

1818 North Vermont Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90027
Phone: (323) 660-1175
Website: http://www.skylightbooks.com
Email: info@skylightbooks.com

Open 10am to 10pm daily.