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Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney warned voters on Wednesday that President Barack Obama might eventually curb the rights of gun owners since he is also requiring all health insurers to cover contraception for women.

A man at an event in Fargo, North Dakota asked the candidate how he would "protect our right to the Second Amendment and our right to bear arms."

"I like all the amendments," Romney replied. "And I like the Second Amendment. And I like the Constitution. It is my blueprint and I will protect the right to bear arms in this country for any lawful purpose -- self protection, hunting, what ever purpose people have. I have a couple of guns myself. Shotguns, that is."

"I know there will be an attack on the Second Amendment, just as there was recently attack on the First Amendment," the former Massachusetts governor asserted. "Obamacare is interpreted by this administration to say, for instance, to the Catholic Church that they have to provide to the employees -- let's say universities that are in the Catholic Church -- they have to provide to them sterilization treatment free, contraceptives and morning-after pills. And that violates the conscience of the church, the conscience of the individuals. And fortunately, there is an effort in Washington to stop that, to reverse that."

"But this is a president, I agree, who is attacking the principles of the Constitution: the First Amendment, the Second Amendment and there will be more. And by the way, the Tenth Amendment is the one most constantly under attack."

On Wednesday, Romney calmed the fears of one supporter in Ohio who worried that the candidate was going prevent gun owners from protecting themselves from a “tyrannical government.”

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Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Monday complained that Occupy Wall Street protesters were "blocking" his right to free speech.

The former House Speaker told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he had canceled an event at his campaign headquarters, where protesters were waiting outside the front and back entrances.

"Some of the Occupy Wall Street people, frankly, have a touch of anarchism in them," Gingrich declared. "I think, ultimately, the society’s going to have to say there are limits to those kind of folks blocking people from having their right to free speech. But we decided it wasn't worth risking some kind of big confrontation and so we, frankly, decided to skip past that particular event."

"I do think we can't be held hostage by those kind of people," he added.

The Georgia Republican said that Ron Paul supporters, on the other hand, were "pretty civil and pretty decent."

At the same time Gingrich was accusing Occupy Wall Street demonstrators of infringing on his free speech, police in Manchester, New Hampshire were investigating allegations that one of his staffers assaulted a protester.

"He pushed me roughly, and he said, 'Get out. We don't want you here,'" Rebecca Burton, who was holding a protest sign at a Gingrich event, recalled to Hartford Courant.

"He grabbed me and shoved me with absolutely no provocation. I said I wanted an apology. ... It was completely out of the blue. I had my back to him," she explained. "I was assaulted without an injury."

(H/T: Politicker NY)

Who knew that Adolph Hitler would have a better, more complete understanding of the inherent evil of SOPA than our own corporate toadies elected congress?

White House Petition: http://bit.ly/uU2qdS

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Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Tuesday that he was a "big believer" in free speech, but the "court has gotten it wrong" on pornography.

At a town hall-style campaign event in Belle Plaine, Iowa, a woman asked the Pennsylvania Republican what he would do about the Occupy Wall Street protests as president.

"In all due respect, nothing because that's not really the role of the president," Santorum replied. "This is a First Amendment right, but a First Amendment right isn't an absolute right."

He added: "I'm a big believer in the First Amendment. I think the court has gotten it wrong on some cases, particularly with respect to pornography and their rulings on that."

"But with respect to the Occupy Wall Street people, they have the right to protest. But they don't have the right to take over a community and terrorize it."

In their 1969 Stanley v. Georgia ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated all state laws that prevented the private possession of "obscene" materials.

However, the court ruled in 1973 that obscene material was not protected by the First Amendment if it appealed "to a prurient interest," showed "patently offensive sexual conduct, and "lacked serious artistic, literary, political, or scientific value."

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Countdown's Keith Olbermann talked to Jan Rodolfo, Midwest Director of the National Nurses United Union, who was one of the nurses arrested during the Oct. 22nd late night crackdown at the Occupy Chicago protest.

Rodolfo explained that she and others were arrested when they refused to take down the medical tent set up there for the protesters after the Chicago police department demanded they leave the park at the 11pm curfew.

When asked about Mayor Rahm Emanuel's statement that “the city has a balancing act and has to enforce the law as well as respect people's First Amendment rights” and whether she thought the arrests were balanced, Rodolfo responded:

Absolutely not. Rahm Emanuel apparently believes that First Amendment rights end at 11pm in the city of Chicago. We think that Constitutional rights extend 24/7 and that people should have the right to protest and to raise their voices and to reflect the anger and suffering that are out there across the country. Other mayors, in Albany, as you mentioned have figured out a way to do it and it's time for Rahm Emanuel to let there be a long-term encampment in Chicago.

You can follow Rodolfo on Twitter at @NurseJanIAm. And as Nicole noted in her post, you can contact Mayor Emanuel’s office at 312-744-5000.

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A planned protest of Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) fizzled Thursday after officials reportedly cut cell phone services at some stations.

BART spokesman Linton Johnson told a KTVU reporter, who had noticed the disruption, that the public relations department had suggested that phone service be shut down.

Another BART spokesman, Jim Allison, reportedly admitted that the tactic had been "part of a larger strategy."

But Allison later claimed that he had been mistaken and phone service was not blocked.

"I haven't been able to find another incident in which this has happened," criminologist Casey Jordan told CNN's Suzanne Malveaux Friday. "I think perhaps it is unprecedented, and yet that's how these legal issues come to light and get debated. Whether it's legal or not it hasn't been tested in the courts. Public safety exceptions to or encroachments on our personal freedoms do happen."

"A lot of people are wondering, what happened to freedom of speech, assembly without government interference that's protected by the First Amendment?" Malveaux asked.

"They didn't try to shut down the protest. They simply turned off the cell service so it couldn't become viral," Jordan explained. "It really is just a cost/benefit analysis of where your freedom of speech begins to threaten the public safety."

The group No Justice, No BART had called for the protest following a string of killings by BART police.

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Sarah Palin says she's the victim of "blood libel" in the Arizona shootings. As one person put it on twitter,

"Really? "Blood Libel"? Someone tries to assassinate a Jewish member of Congress, and you use the phrase "Blood Libel"? Shame on you".

Howard Kurtz, who only a few days ago was defending her actions, now condemns her.

“Especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding,” Palin said in a video on her Facebook page, “journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.”

Blood libel, for those who are not familiar, describes a false accusation that minorities—usually Jews—murder children to use their blood in religious rituals, and has been a historical theme in the persecution of the Jewish people.

Had Palin scoured a thesaurus, she could not have come up with a more inflammatory phrase

John Oliver says Muslims are allowed to put a mosque near Ground Zero, just like Catholics can build a church next to a playground.

Another part showed Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the Iman behind the project, who FOX are now trying to make into some kind of boogeyman. Nevermind that a few months earlier he had appeared on FOX talking about plans for the Islamic cultural center.

Asshats.

The Daily Show have captured this farce better than the so-called legitimate news networks. But that's nothing new, is it?

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Keith talks to Rep. Alan Grayson who has introduced five bills in anticipation of this Supreme Court ruling which gives corporations the same rights as citizens in regard to free speech and 1st Amendment rights. You can also go sign Grayson's petition Save Democracy here.

OLBERMANN: In anticipation of today`s ruling, one Democratic in Congress, Alan Grayson of Florida, having introduced five bills last week, in an effort to prevent the expected flood of corporate cash. By title, they are: the Business Should Mind Its Own Business Act, the Public Company Responsibility Act, the End Political Kickbacks Act, the Corporate Propaganda Sunshine Act, and last but certainly not least, the Ending Corporate Collusion Act.

Congressman Grayson joins us now.

Thank you once again for your time tonight, sir.

GRAYSON: Thank you.

OLBERMANN: You were in the courtroom when the Supreme Court announced this decision. What`s your reaction to the decision? What has the reaction been to your five bills?

GRAYSON: I`m shocked. I`m shocked by the decision. This is the most irresponsible decision by the Supreme Court since the Dred Scott decision.

OLBERMANN: Agreed.

GRAYSON: . over 100 years ago. The one that you referred to, the Dred Scott decision has some analogy to it. In the Dred Scott decision, the court decided that slaves and their free born children do not have any constitutional rights.

Today, the court, in effect, decided only corporations have constitutional rights. This will lead to a drowning flood of money from corporations in exchange for favors. And it basically institutionalizes and legalizes bribery on the largest scale imaginable. Corporations will now be able to reward the politicians that play ball with them and will be able -- they will be able to beat to death the politicians that don`t.

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Larry King brought on Mr. Noun a Verb and 9-11 and touts him as some sort of national security expert. Sorry Larry, but just because Giuliani's been milking being the Mayor of New York for every dime he can get since 9-11 doesn't make him an expert on anything besides how to exploit a situation for personal gain. Of course Giuliani defends Dick Cheney's remarks when the Republicans would have been calling someone treasonous if we'd heard the same sort of attacks on President Bush right after 9-11 as we're seeing from the Republicans now with President Obama, and he conflates what is being said now to criticism of Bush for invading Iraq.

Of course Larry King wasn't going to call him out for any of this and just allowed Giuliani a chance to make partisan attacks which went completely unchallenged.

KING: Back with Rudy Giuliani. The president is fighting two wars, trying to keep the country safe at home. What kind of message does it send when the former vice president openly says that he is not seriously fighting the war? Do you think it's a good idea what Dick Cheney did?

GIULIANI: You know, Larry, nobody was really concerned about that when everybody criticized President Bush day in and day out including Democrats calling him all kinds of names when he was trying to prosecute the war in Iraq. And the reality is, that's just part of the First Amendment, part of debate. Vice President Cheney is entitled to his view. I share some of them. I don't share all of them.

My hope is -- and I really mean this. I hope that this administration does a mid-course correction much like President Clinton did, which I always thought essentially showed President Clinton's practicality in terms of being fair. I think he has gone way too far to the left, President Obama. President Clinton had some of those problems early in his administration. He made a mid-course correction and then accomplished a lot of good things -- welfare reform, other things like that, criminal justice reform.

I hope President Obama is in a learning process and we see a change for the good of the country. Forget partisan politics. I would like to see him reverse his decision on the trial in New York. And I would like to him treat these people who are trying to attack this country as enemy combatants so that we can get the maximum amount of information out of them. If he made corrections like that, I think that would show great leadership.

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