WASHINGTON, D.C., October 23, 2014 – On Thursday evening eBay, the multinational e-commerce mega company, sent out an email to millions of its American clients blasting the U.S. Congress for attempting to implement an internet sales tax.
The email stated, “Over 18 months ago the U.S. Senate voted on a deeply unpopular Internet sales tax bill. Unfortunately, rather than find consensus, there are now plans to bypass the normal legislative process and attach the Internet sales tax bill to whatever legislative vehicle is most likely to pass in the short, post-election, ‘lame-duck’ session of Congress.”
eBay’s Vice President & Deputy General Counsel of Government Relations Tod Cohen sent the email and in it urged citizens to take action to prevent Congress from passing a bill that would introduce an internet sales tax.
Cohen stated, “Now is the time to let your senators know if you oppose an Internet sales tax bill that will harm online small businesses.”
You can read the full email here.
Dear Michael:
Over 18 months ago the U.S. Senate voted on a deeply unpopular Internet sales tax bill. Unfortunately, rather than find consensus, there are now plans to bypass the normal legislative process and attach the Internet sales tax bill to whatever legislative vehicle is most likely to pass in the short, post-election, “lame-duck” session of Congress.
Now is the time to let your senators know if you oppose an Internet sales tax bill that will harm online small businesses. Click here to ask your senators to keep Internet sales taxes out of the post-election “lame-duck” session of Congress.
Together, we can make a difference!
Sincerely,
Tod Cohen Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Government Relations eBay Inc.
As you know we are currently raising funds for the Second Season of the Truth in Media Project. Already, we have raised just under $30,000! If you have contributed, thank you so much for your support. If not, you can make a contribution right now by clicking here.
We can now project that we will have 3 Episodes fully funded for Season 2.
Those episodes include:
The Truth About Cannibas and Freedom of Choice
The Truth About The Prison Industrial Complex
The Truth About Palestinian Foreign Aid
Please stand with us to get our next three episodes funded as well.
These episodes will include:
The Truth About Fukushima Radiation
The Truth About Mandatory Prison Sentencing
The Truth About Police Militarization
More episodes to be announced. Together, we can do this.You can contribute via Indiegogo here:
1 year ago we set out to restore Truth in Media and we’ve come a long way!
When I decided to leave my anchor position at Fox 19 in Cincinnati, I did so because I believed in something….finding truth. With the help of Richter Studios and funding from thousands of passionate liberty loving people from here in America and around the world we launched the Truth in Media Project.
Today, we are launching the Truth in Media Project, Season 2 and with your help we are going to take truth in media to a whole new level!
This season, we are leaving the studio and pursuing stories across the nation. From the militarization of police, to families using the Charlotte’s Web strain of cannabis to treat epilepsy, to Fukishima radiation hitting the West Coast and even Human Trafficking… we are chasing the truth and reporting on issues the mainstream media won’t touch.
We are seeking to put people first because Humanity > Politics.
Please consider contributing to our Indiegogo crowd sourcing campaign. Together, we can continue the work we have done so far and can bring truth to media!
Here we are, on the first day of 2014! I am so excited about what this year will hold, especially as I look back on all that took place in 2013.
Consider for a moment that so much of what we have been talking about, the overreach of government, disregard by the feds and even the states of rule of law, NSA spying and data collection, the intrusion of government into every area of our personal lives and the the fact that both major political parties, Republicans and Democrats are really just to sides of the same coin, has reached a new level of pubic discourse. What a remarkable moment! Much of this moment must be credited to Edward Snowden.
Consider how the emergence of new media and social media prevented another American war in the Middle East, this time in Syria. Of course, we know that the U.S. is still funding those Al Qaeda fighters in Syria but the only reason that the U.S. has been unable to use military force to completely hand Syria over to Al Qaeda is because of the push back from the American people. Do not underestimate the significance of that victory.
At this time last year, I never would have imagined being where I am right now. Nor would I have guessed that the nation would have gone through such a dramatic swing since the 2012 Presidential process.
Our Truth in Media project has been very exciting and incredibly timely. 1,000,000 unique users have visited BenSwann.com each month since we launched in September. I want to thank everyone who has shared our stories and stood with us as we are building out this online platform.
We also completed Season 1 of the Truth in Media episodes. I have included a special video at the top to thank everyone who contributed to the project, from those who gave $10 to those who contributed $5,000. Every last one of you helped us to create something that I believe is a great foundation for the road ahead.
This has been and continues to be a learning process. I know that there is much more to be done and as I said, I am excited about plans already in place for 2014. Above all else, I believe that 2014 will be an incredible year for the Liberty Movement. In the last 100 years, the idea of Liberty has not been stronger. This is our moment to really push back against a growing American tyranny, imperialism, the police state and the continued erosion of Constitutionally protected liberties.
2014 is our time. It will be an opportunity to continue to gain ground and push forward for the cause of Liberty. Make no mistake, this will not be easy. Do you really expect that those who have attempted to strip away every one of your natural God-given rights would simply just hand them back when confronted? Of course not. This is a marathon, not a sprint. I am proud to be a part of the fight.
Can’t wait to show you all that we have in store for 2014!
Ben Swann, two-time Emmy Award winning journalist, comes to Concord, New Hampshire, on Friday, July 26th. This event will also live stream across the country. Swann will make a major announcement regarding the launch of his “Truth In Media” project. Swann will be joined by alternative media figure Tyrel Ventura, Carla Gericke (Free State Project President), with Skype appearances by Judge Jim Gray, radio host Josh Tolley and award winning journalist Amber Lyon.
The live event will run from 7:00-10:00 pm EST upstairs at The Draft in Concord, NH. Tickets are $15 to attend the event and free to stream.
We are only days away from the official end of our Kickstarter campaign. As you may know, over 4,000 people backed the project to the tune of over $250,000!
Those funds will not be available to us through Kickstarter and those who have pledged WILL NOT be charged for those pledges. That is why we are asking those who have backed us on Kickstarter to take one more step. To donate that same pledged amount via PayPal or by check. You can find the information on how to do either right now at http://truthinmedia.com/contribute/ or look on the right hand side of the homepage.
If you make that donation before midnight July 27, 2013, you will still receive the reward promised at Kickstarter.
Thank you again for your support and having the courage to stand with us.
Here’s another big announcement about next Friday’s Truth in Media Live Event.
Today, I am very excited to announce that Judge Jim Gray and Amber Lyon will be a part of our event with important messages about why Truth in Media is so necessary.
Jim Gray
Judge James (Jim) P. Gray is a nationally known and respected author and speaker who has long advocated reform of the nation’s drug laws. A highly regarded jurist, Judge Gray served on California’s Orange County Superior Court from 1989 to 2010. His hundreds of media appearances have included Fox News, ABC, C-SPAN and radio stations across the country. He is the author of three books.
Amber Lyon
Investigative journalist and photographer. She is known for her work reporting human rights abuses against pro-democracy protesters in Bahrain, and police brutality against protesters in the United States. She described her investigation of how the US ally Bahrain was committing human rights abuses, but said that CNN and the US government pressured her to suppress the news. She said that Bahrain paid CNN for positive news coverage. Lyon said that Kazakhstan and Georgia also paid for positive coverage by CNN.
Many people have been asking about this Truth in Media Project Live Event in New Hampshire on July 26th. What is this event all about? This will be a night to remember as we lay out in detail our plans for the Truth in Media project, results of our crowd sourced efforts and what our long-term goals will be.
The event also includes guest speakers who will talk about the importance of truth in media. Over the next few days we will be announcing our lineup. Today, I am so excited to announce the first. Carla Gericke, the President of the Free State Project, will be with us on the 26th to talk about New Hampshire’s push for a state of liberty minded activists.
I have no doubt that many of you have heard of the Free State Project but some may not be fully aware of what the FSP is working to do. Above teaching ideas of individual liberty to friends and coworkers in New Hampshire, the Free State Project is recruiting more than 20,000 pro-liberty activists to move to the Granite State. According to its website, participants have pledged to “exert the fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society in which the maximum role of civil government is the protection of life, liberty and property.”
I am very excited to have Carla join us on July 26th to share her vision for New Hampshire and the Free State Project. If you can’t make it out to New Hampshire, you can watch a live stream of the event here: http://truthinmedia.com/ben-swann-live-events/
Stay tuned, more speakers will be announced this week.
We want to hear from YOU. Use this post to convey your questions and ideas regarding Ben’s ‘Liberty Is Rising Truth In Media’ Kickstarter project. Simply comment on this post and either Ben or one of his staff members will respond as soon as possible. We look forward to answering your questions and hearing your ideas!
I want to begin by saying thank you for signing up for this email list and for your incredible support of my work with Reality Check and Full Disclosure over the past 2 years.
As promised, you are now the first to hear in detail about my- actually our- next step. Beginning next week on Monday, June 10, we will officially launch the “Liberty Is Rising Truth in Media Project” on Kickstarter. As I have told you, this is the most involved and meaningful project I have ever been involved in and it is not something I can do on my own.
The “Liberty is Rising Truth in Media Project” is a 3 step process:
Inform, Engage, Activate:
Step 1: INFORM
The first step of this project and the primary use of Kickstarter is to create high-end, high-quality Reality Check style segments that can be presented to the public via streaming content sites such as Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, or devices such as Roku and BenSwann.com. Our goal is to produce 100 high quality five to six minute shows and by launching this project independently, the restrictions on subject matter by corporate bosses will not be an issue.
Why do the videos need to be so high quality? Simple, we need to spread this message as far out as we can. Like it or not, we live in a very media-savvy culture and if the public at large is to take this kind of journalism seriously, they need to be able to hear and see it in a way that is deemed credible. You can watch network news programming all day and never hear anything of substance but it sure looks pretty. If we are to educate and inform the public on issues of war, the drug war, monetary policy, drone strikes, the NDAA, CAFR, crony capitalism, etc… it MUST be done in the style and format generations of Americans have been trained to accept as “professional”.
The films will be distributed via multiple platforms. First, we continue to share new content virally via Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, BenSwann.com, and continue to allow alternative media blog sites to use our films without charge and embed them, as long as they are shown in their entirety. This is important because we want as many people exposed to our journalism as possible.
We will be rolling out a highly interactive, informative website that will include all Full Disclosure episodes, a forum, Ben Swann podcasts, and a mobile app.
Also, as I mentioned, we are going to attempt to spread these films into new arenas such as streaming sites like Netflix, Hulu, and Spotify. Again, the goal is to engage the largest audience possible.
Step 2: ENGAGE
Each of us must impact our own circle of influence.
We are currently building out a multi-faceted platform of engagement where you and I will work together to take single issues and impact public opinion. This platform will contain resources like stats, infographics, archived articles, and other educational materials that will be available to download or share.
Students:
This platform will work directly with college student groups like Young Americans for Liberty, Young Republicans, Young Democrats and politically independent groups, giving students hard facts and data to share with peers and teaching them how to hold information sessions on campus.
Journalists:
We will work with journalists across the country challenging them to engage in critical thinking and questioning of local, state and national leaders on issues of importance. We’ll equip them on how to challenge the status quo in their newsrooms and move beyond reading press releases.
Faith Based Communities:
We will engage faith-based communities (Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, etc) and challenge the acceptance of government control over their religious activities.
Local Lawmakers:
We will engage local and state lawmakers and challenge the over-reach, over taxation, and policing for profit that is taking place in every city and town in America.
Tea Party:
We will engage those in the Tea Party movement who entered the movement for the right reasons, to protest over taxation and government control.
Occupy:
We will engage those in the Occupy movement who rightly protested the consolidation of wealth among a small group of people and who have created a crony capitalist system (that isn’t capitalism at all).
Building Consensus:
The goal is to help Americans escape the Left/Right paradigm of arguing with each other while politicians and big money run the nation and our lives. We desire to create unity among all these groups in the areas where we can agree. That happens when we are defined not by who we stand against, but what we stand for. It is not about Left vs. Right or Republican vs. Democrat… but Liberty vs. Tyranny.
You and I will go through this process together. Beyond just sharing the content, you will be instrumental to the gathering of information and the actual creation of that content. With your engagement we will be able to create public awareness and social willingness to drive change.
Step 3: ACTIVATE
The best part of this step is that the work you and I will have already done is key. Having forced important issues into the forefront of public awareness we will have already changed minds and that will allow action to be taken.
Through strategic partnerships with established political and student groups as well as individual experts in the fields or medicine, education, economics, security, drug policy etc. we will begin to crowd-source “change strategies”.
The end result of these strategies will include legal and legislative process for changing U.S. policy overseas and here at home. We will challenge lawmakers who continue to engage in hypocritical behavior and are unwilling to stand up for rule of law. As a long-term goal, we will eventually work with lawmakers to draft legislation to correct the nation’s trajectory. Dr. Ron Paul borrowed the words of Victor Hugo when he declared in 2008, “An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government.”
Ron Paul Said It Best:
I recently had the chance to interview Dr. Paul and we talked in depth about the changing media landscape. How has media changed for a man who has spent his entire life attempting to change the system?
“When I first started in politics in the 70’s, we basically had three major networks and they were very, very close together on philosophy…..But now the options are great…..Now the information is going out differently. It’s going out on handheld devices and computers and telephones and they can turn you on and off when they want. They have so many more choices.”
Dr. Paul then added: I’m optimistic that things are going to do well and I’m optimistic because you’re (Ben Swann) involved in this fight with us.”
Again, I want to thank you for your support so far. As you can see this next step is a very ambitious project. There is risk here but I believe that every great movement in history has been accompanied by great challenge and risk.
There has never been a moment like this before in world history where a society has had this kind of collision of technology and information. This is our moment. I hope that next Monday, you will commit to helping me to shake the media landscape in America! I leave you with these words from a great patriot Samuel Adams who once proclaimed,
“It does not take a majority to prevail… but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” – Samuel Adams
I would personally like to thank Bryan and the staff of Ron Paul Forums for hosting the Ask Me Anything. I had a great time answering the hard, thought out, and sometimes personal questions. If you would like to read the questions and my answers to them please visit http://www.ronpaulforums.com/forumdisplay.php?274-Ben-Swann-Q-amp-A-Event
Twitter: Ask Me Anything
I am happy to announce that I will be conducting an Ask Me Anything on Twitter on June 19th at 9pm to 10pm EST. To ask me questions please use #LibertyIsRising with your question between those times.
Reddit: Ask me Anything
To continue with my Ask Me Anything series I will be conducting an Ask Me Anything at Reddit on June 26th between 9pm and 10pm EST. I will pass along more details as we get closer to the event.
Thank you all for your incredible support. I look forward to reading and answering your questions.
I have always said that I learn more from you than any other resource. Hands down. Whether it’s a comment on a link, a personal message or a news story or perspective I would have otherwise missed, I can’t convey how much the success of what we are doing comes directly from you. People are often surprised when I say that during interviews because they don’t often hear that from many journalists or media figures. The number one reason for this is that those journalists and media figures don’t have the luxury of having such an informed, active and engaged community as the one we have, and for that I am truly grateful.
While I love being a journalist, making episodes of Full Disclosure and spreading our message through every possible media avenue, the one thing I really want is to hear from you directly. I want to be in the same room as you, to hear your individual stories and connect with you on a personal level. I haven’t truly had that opportunity yet, until now.
Big news. We are taking our message on the road.
I would like to officially announce the “Liberty Is Rising Tour”. During this speaking tour, we will finally have the opportunity to connect. Our first event is being hosted by Liberty Iowa in Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday, June 28th. You can find details here: http://libertyiowabenswann.eventbrite.com.
If we are not currently coming to a city near you, email Ron [at] BenSwann.com and let’s make it happen.
I can’t tell you how much I look forward to these events, as well as new opportunities that will arise. I finally get the chance to speak with you directly. True grassroots changes only come from being on the ground. See you soon..
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being on “The Peter Schiff Show”. I had a great time talking to Peter and his crew about the “Truth in Media Project”. I hope you enjoy the video as much as I enjoyed being on his show.
My favorite part is when Peter asked me about whether I should just make a few videos and see if they catch on… you’ll have to check out my response around the 11:00 minute mark.
BTW, wouldn’t it be fun to bring Peter into the “Truth in Media Project”? What if he guest hosted a couple of “Full Disclosure” episodes and gave us a little Austrian economics “Reality Check”?
