Now a word from Comcast

From Fight For The Future:

We’ve all come to expect the worst from Comcast and their ilk, but this is just over the top.

Last week, media reports exposed the fact that thousands “anti-net neutrality” emails sent to lawmakers came from a shadowy Koch-funded group that’s now being accused of “identity theft” for sending emails from people who had never signed up to oppose net neutrality. 1

If you think that’s bad, just wait. This morning, the New York times revealed that Comcast has been calling in favors from the many politicians, think tanks, and organizations that they “generously” donate to. Basically they’re bribing politicians and groups to send letters to Congress and the FCC in favor of Comcast’s takeover of Time Warner Cable. 2 It even looks like they straight up wrote Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel’s letter for him. 3

Money talks, and we know that Congress and the FCC will be hearing from all of Comcast’s well-paid friends. The only way to fight this is to make sure that the decision makers hear from hundreds of thousands of REAL people like you right now.

The deadline is approaching!

The Comcast / Time Warner merger is one of the worst possible things that could happen to the open Internet. It would combine the two largest, most hated cable companies into a single, massive monopoly with control over more than half the country's Internet users.

With Team Cable using shady tactic after shady tactic, we can’t let up for a second, and we definitely can’t let a company like Comcast get even bigger.

More than 700,000 people have already taken action to demand that Congress and the FCC block the merger -- but there’s a vote coming up and in light of Comcast literally buying support, we need all the signatures we can get. Plus, with all the press around the fake efforts of Comcast and their cronies, we know that breaking 1,000,000 real comments will make a splash in the media, which matters as the vote approaches.

Thanks for all you do to keep the Internet open,

Charlie

P.S. If you’re wondering about who in Congress has been going to bat for Comcast, check out Customer Service help -- we built it to highlight a few of Comcast’s most ardent supporters in Congress who also happen to get huge donations from Comcast every year. We released it last week, and it’s already started going viral.

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Illinois wants to penalize citizens for recording police and other public officials aka politicians

From Fight For The Future:

Illinois just passed a vague law that discourages people from recording their interactions with police by making it a felony to record cops and other government officials in certain circumstances.

The right to record our interactions with law enforcement and government officials is a basic freedom. It protects all of us from abuse. But the legislature of Illinois just hastily passed an amendment attached to a totally unrelated bill that will actually increase penalti es that people face if they record police or other officials in situations where they have a “reasonable expectation of privacy.”

The problem is that the bill’s language is so vague that it will leave Illinois residents wondering whether and when they have the right to record their interactions with police. This will have a chilling effect, and if it becomes a trend it and poses a threat to our First Amendment rights. Worse, this bill grants new authorities to police and informants to secretly record conversations without a warrant.

Sign the petition to the Governor of Illinois: veto the bill that makes it more illegal to record the cops than for them to record you.

People from across the political spectrum all agree on one thing: we want more transparency and accountability from our government. Anytime a state passes a law that limits our freedom, it’s important that we push back to prevent it from becoming a dangerous trend.

Please click here to sign the petition, and then forward this email to as many people as you can.

More than 10,000 people have taken action on this in just the first few hours of us learning about the bill. If everyone signs and shares this we’ll almost certainly strike a major victory for free speech and privacy.

Sincerely,

-Evan, Tiffiniy, and Holmes
Fight for the Future

Corruption and shoddy legislation in the Land of Lincoln? No tell me it's not so. I mean how can it be when Illinois has produced such esteemed leaders:

I mean with such esteemed leaders,especially a mayor of one of the safest cities in America. Oh no,how can this possibly be.