“If the mayor of our country’s largest city thinks protecting the press means silencing them, we’re in big trouble,” wrote Free Press Program Director Josh Stearns at the organization’s website. Stearns has been tracking harassment and arrests of journalists covering the Occupy movement for the last two months.

From the Free Press campaign web page:

In what appears to have been a coordinated effort to block coverage of the raid, many journalists said they were barred from reporting the police action. Ten reporters were also arrested, another was put in a choke hold and others described extensive police harassment.

This kind of police response is happening all over the country. Police harassment of the press has been reported during “Occupy” protests in Chicago, Denver, Oakland, Portland and beyond.

We need to send the message loud and clear to mayors across the country: They must drop all charges and publicly commit to protecting press freedoms in their cities. This is especially true for Mayor Bloomberg, who took full responsibility for the NYPD’s actions.

Speak out now: Tell Mayor Bloomberg and the U.S. Conference of Mayors to publicly commit to protecting journalists covering all protests and police actions. You can also call Mayor Bloomberg at 212-639-9675 to speak out against the most recent arrests of journalists.

Free Press launched a similar campaign after police attacks on members of the press during the Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities in 2008. The Free Press petition then garnered tens of thousands of signatures within days. Journalists were released from custody and some of them eventually received settlements.

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain’s campaign appears to be readying to run ads at Iowa’s leading network TV station, according to filings at KCCI-TV in Des Moines.

Leslie Gillette contacted the advertising department at the local CBS affiliate on Nov. 11 on behalf of Friends of Herman Cain, requesting rates for 30-second ads between Nov. 19 and Jan. 3. Gillette works for Victory Enterprises in Davenport, a conservative political consulting, technology and market research company.

Steve Grubbs, founder and CEO of Victory Enterprises, is Cain’s Iowa campaign chairman. He’s also a former state representative and chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa.

The Cain campaign last week released TV ads running statewide on FOX News Channel. A spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency said on Monday the claims made in those ads – that the EPA wants to regulate methane from cattle and dust from farms – are untrue.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, “Republican Russell Pearce, lost by 53 percent to 45 percent with all precincts reported, according to the Maricopa County Elections office. Pearce, 64, was defeated by Jerry Lewis, a Republican school administrator who has said he opposes Pearce’s enforcement-only approach to immigration policy.”

Businessweek adds: “Pearce, the first state officeholder in Arizona to face a recall election, became prominent nationally after lawmakers passed an immigration law in 2010 that sparked national boycotts.”

Pearce was not alone in his defense and support of S.B. 1070. Kris Kobach, current Kansas secretary of state and the coauthor of S.B. 1070 and other immigration enforcement-only efforts wrote in May: “[S.B. 1070] makes it a state crime for an alien to commit certain federal immigration violations while in Arizona,” adding that, “far from inviting racial profiling, the Arizona law actually makes racial profiling less likely.”

The Federation for American Immigration Reform — known as FAIR, a stong supporter of S.B. 1070 — writes:

“Alabama is now the number one state for immigration enforcement,” stated Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Kobach, who is also of counsel to the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), helped draft Alabama’s new law along with the bill’s sponsors, State Sen. Scott Beason and State Rep. Mickey Hammon.

Alabama, Georgia and several other states have followed in Arizona’s steps, passing similar immigration enforcement laws.

The National Immigration Forum writes: ”Pearce was one of the most powerful politicians in Arizona. Citizens in the very conservative district elected him six straight times,” adding that, “the defeat of Russell Pearce sends a loud and clear message that American voters are tired of politicians exploiting the immigration issue for cheap political points instead of focusing on real solutions to our immigration system.”

Pearce writes:

I believe it is wrong to allow liberal special interest groups to overturn the voters’ will. I was elected less than one year ago as the State Senator representing District 18. Liberal special interest groups from outside of District 18 and with funding from undisclosed sources organized a recall petition drive to overturn the will of the voters. If my Republican opponents wanted to replace me, there is a method — run in the primary and general elections in less than a year.

Businessweek adds that another candidate,

Olivia Cortes, pulled out after her candidacy was challenged as a sham. A judge found in October that Pearce’s supporters helped get Cortes on the ballot to draw votes that might otherwise go to Lewis. While votes for Cortes didn’t count, ballots had already been printed with her name. She polled about 1 percent of the vote.

The Credit Union National Association (known as CUNA) reports today that “at least 650,000 consumers across the nation have joined credit unions in the past four weeks, reflecting consumers’ reactions to rising fees at banks.”

CUNA “estimates that credit unions have added $4.5 billion in new savings accounts. More than four in every five credit unions experiencing growth since Sept. 29 attributed the growth to consumer reaction to new fees imposed by banks, or a combination of consumer reactions to the new bank fees plus the social media-inspired Bank Transfer Day.”

Kristen Christian, credited with creating Bank Transfer Day, writes, “While the Bank Transfer Day movement acknowledges the enthusiasm from Occupy Wall Street, the Bank Transfer Day movement was neither inspired by, derived from nor organized by the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the Bank Transfer Day movement does not endorse any activities conducted by Occupy Wall Street.”

Move Your Money — another movement similar to Bank Transfer Day — also calls on “individuals and institutions to divest from the nation’s largest Wall Street banks and move to local financial institutions.”

This week, about 200 people, representing a diverse array of organizations and unions, marched in Miami to demand accountability from Bank of America and to support the Occupy Miami movement. The protest came on the same day Bank of America announced it dropped a controversial proposal to charge $5 for using debit card use.

Paul has ads scheduled to run through early November at KCCI and WHO in Des Moines, the local CBS and NBC affiliates and the two biggest networks in Iowa’s capitol and largest city.

Paul has spent $172,336 so far at the two stations, unleashing a blitz in October that will apparently continue for the foreseeable future. He’s got $38,080 worth of ads ready to go through his most recent buys.

Meanwhile, Perry has made a splash in recent days, grabbing $56,137 worth of ads since late October. His most recent buy is $29,665 in spots running through Nov. 7 at KCCI.

Bachmann continues to lag in the ad war race after making a couple substantial buys in August. Her campaign spent $14,535 at KCCI for ads beginning Aug. 3, and $15,376 at WHO beginning that same date. But since then she hasn’t made any purchases, and her total stands at $35,138.

National frontrunners Herman Cain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney have yet to purchase ads in the Des Moines market; neither have former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum or former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who dropped out of the race after a mediocre showing at the Ames Straw Poll in August, $166,511 on ads at KCCI and WHO.

Overtures to the police was an important theme in a popular Foreign Policy article titled “Revolution U,” which highlighted the relationship between Egyptian leaders and the social movement that brought forth the Arab spring and a group called Otpor that helped bring down President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia a decade and a half earlier.

From the FP piece:

The other pillar was the police. From the beginning, Otpor had treated the police as allies-in-waiting. Otpor members delivered cookies and flowers to police stations (sometimes with a TV camera in tow). Instead of howling at police during confrontations, Otpor members would cheer them.

The American Independent caught up with Occupy leaders in Dallas and Washington, D.C. to find out if reaching out to the police was a ploy or part of a larger narrative.

Kooper Caraway, head of the Protest Committee in Dallas, was blunt: ”We’re just letting them know we’re not out here protesting, we’re fighting for their children and grand children,” he said. “We’re not nearly naïve enough to think that by telling a police man [they are part of the 99 percent] they’ll let us out of the handcuffs.”

At the larger Occupy movement in Washington D.C., protestors are also working on how they seem to police officers.

“There are various pillars that hold up the power structure, and the police are one of those,” said Dr. Margaret Flowers, a spokesperson for Occupy D.C. who advocates for single-payer healthcare. “A non-violent way of shifting power is to try to weaken those pillars, to help [officers] understand what we’re advocating for them.”

She added: “Police may break from protecting the one percent, and join the 99 percent.”

Flowers said organizing for the D.C. occupy movement began in April, and referenced video of Greek protestors interacting kindly with Athens police during the country’s austerity crisis as inspiration.

Many commentators have noted the Occupy movement has been fairly peaceful, though the events in Oakland may have to an extent undermined that claim. Justin Elliot, a writer for Salon, wrote a critique of the few participants who heaved bottles at Oakland police officers.

He writes:

It bears repeating: the balance of the reported violence in the Occupy movement has been by the police. Salon’s coverage of occupations in Boston, Washington, and the Rust Belt has found no instance of protesters initiating violence. But it will only take a handful of violent agitators to give right-wing commentators like Limbaugh — as well as the mainstream media — the fodder they need to dismiss protesters as “rioters.”

For these protestors, winning over the police may serve a tactical point, but their message of socio-economic unity resonates with the budget cuts and lost jobs 911 responders have endured.

“We are not out here protesting against the police as an institution, said Caraway. “We protest cuts to public service employees often,” and named police officers specifically as those who are “keeping the community safe, happy, and healthy.

“Those are the  last people whose salaries you should cut,” Caraway said.

“Doron Ofir Casting, in association with a major cable network, is looking for young hot politicos who care about America, follow the heated debates, rallies, protests, and scandals!” a release sent to press today reports. “We are looking for people of all party affliliations [sic] or those who are unaffliated [sic] as long as you’re outspoken, fearless, free thinking, unbound, unleashed, unrestrained, appear to be between 21-35 and are politically active and telegenic. WE WANT YOU!”

The translation that no one needs made: “We’re looking for sexy narcissists who aren’t afraid to drink too much and act horribly on television. Think Snooki and Anthony Weiner.”

Seriously, maybe staring into the horrific funhouse mirror that is reality TV will turn our politics around. Why not?

The release:

DORON OFIR CASTING LAUNCHES THE CASTING CALL FOR THE HOTTEST POLITICOS IN THE USA!

LOS ANGELES, CA (October 24, 2011) – Doron Ofir Casting, the epic star making company behind Jersey Shore, Nashville Star, Millionaire Matchmaker and The A-List officially confirms and announces the nationwide search for political activists with personalities that rally behind a cause and influence others to do the same.

“It’s about time we give a mainstream media opportunity to the generation that has the fortitude to proudly live as a representative of their individual politial beliefs. What could be more American than that?” Doron Ofir – Executive Casting Director.

Doron Ofir Casting, in association with a major cable network, is looking for young hot politicos who care about America, follow the heated debates, rallies, protests, and scandals! We are looking for people of all party affliliations or those who are unaffliated as long as you’re outspoken, fearless, free thinking, unbound, unleashed, unrestrained, appear to be between 21-35 and are politically active and telegenic. WE WANT YOU!

You’ve volunteered for a local political campaign, stood in protest, logged over a thousand comments on blogs, tweeted Fox News or CNN on a daily basis, you run your own blog, vlog, stream, podcast, and are still looking for the right forum to express yourself. Whatever the case, we want to hear from you!

With personalities such as Ann Coulter, Bill Maher, Meghan McCain, Rachael Maddow, Keith Olberman, Glenn Beck, Jon Stewart, Arianna Huffington, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Moore and Bill O’Reilly influencing the world of politics and dictating our national conversation, shouldn’t it be your turn?

Register online on the digital application: www.partypoliticscasting.com

Got a tip? Story pitch? Send us an e-mail. Follow The Colorado Independent on Twitter.

In a press release from Bachmann’s New Hampshire team issued Monday, the candidate’s national team was described as “rude, unprofessional, dishonest, and at times cruel. But more concerning was how abrasive, discourteous, and dismissive some within the national team were towards many New Hampshire citizens.”

It also said voters in the state were “treated…more as a nuisance than as potential supporters.”

The New Hampshire team was “never involved in shifting strategy discussions,” the release continued, and was “repeatedly ignored for simple requests, sometimes going weeks with little or no contact with the national team.”

Alice Stewart, spokeswoman for Bachmann’s campaign, told NBC there was poor dialogue with the New Hampshire team. But she said Iowa has always been the campaign’s focus:

… Stewart brushed off those charges, saying, “I’m not going to comment on the personal attacks that they made.”

Stewart pins the fallout on local disappointment with a campaign strategy that puts Iowa before New Hampshire.

“We’ve been clear all along our focus is Iowa,” Stewart told NBC. “There’s only so many days to be in Iowa, and she has to take advantage of every single one of them, and be there.” …

Crossroads GPS, a conservative policy and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., is targeting Iowa voters with TV ads in the state’s largest media market.

Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, which has ties to former White House deputy chief Karl Rove, has spent $85,125 so far at KCCI, the local CBS affiliate in Des Moines and the state’s largest network TV station. The group has run ads since late June, and recently spent $13,472 for ads running between Oct. 25 and Nov. 3. At least a portion of the ads being run in Iowa target Democratic U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell.

According to OpenSecrets.org, the 501(c)(4) “outside spending” group spent $15.1 million against Democrats in the 2009-10 cycle and $479,619 for Republicans. It spent another $1.1 million on electioneering communications. The group doesn’t disclose its donors.

American Crossroads, a related “super PAC,” raised $26.5 million in 2010 and spent $21.5 million. It raised and spent the most out of any independent expenditure-only committees in 2010.

The super PAC, which must disclose its donors, has raised $6.6 million so far this cycle.

Crossroads GPS focuses on seven issues, according to its website: lower taxes, less government spending, building the private sector, reducing government worker pay, shutting down the borders, reworking health care reform, pushing for American energy development.

The group’s latest offering against Boswell was uploaded to YouTube Monday and is embedded below.

A press release issued by Presente.org and Florida Immigrant Coalition states:

Latinos, immigrants and their allies will hold a National Day of Action called “Obama, Immigration and the Latino Community” on Tuesday, October 18 in 10 cities across the nation – Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Milwaukee, New York, San Francisco, and Tucson. In conjunction with Presente.org, Latino community leaders, clergy, and family members devastated by the controversial Secure Communities (SCOMM) racial profiling program and the immigrant detention policies of President Obama will participate in simultaneous screenings of PBS Frontline special, “Lost in Detention,” airing in the evening on October 18.

Journalist Maria Hinojosa says her documentary Lost in Detention is about Secure Communities, “which allows the sharing of information in terms of immigrants”:

According to The Miami Herald, “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton said Tuesday his agency deported nearly 400,000 individuals during the fiscal year 2011 that just ended in September.”

The Herald adds: “ICE said about 55 percent of the 396,906 individuals deported had felony or misdemeanor convictions. Officials said the number of individuals convicted of crimes was up 89 percent from 2008.”