English as a official language

On February 23, The Washington Post published an article of Petula Dvorak about Frederick County forces immigrants to speak English

First, one of the things that makes a nation a nation is a common language. The author makes a great case for the need to have English designated as the official language of the US. It would save the federal and state governments billions by reducing redundant printings of government forms (and websites).

We should gladly accept immigrants... those who have an education or skills, who know or want to learn English, who can support themselves and want to be Americans and join us. If you come here, it should be because you want to be an American, and that means speaking English to communicate with us. 

Petula sadly misses the real point, which is that, when you immigrate, you are expected to confirm to the culture that you are now living in. English should be the only language offered anywhere for all services as a matter of law. Don't like it? Then go back where you came from. 

Though I found this article to be a little confusing. Her personal story about herself and her parents is sweet and show how learning a country's predominant language helps immigrants by giving examples of common experience of all Americans, but her conclusion that English-only supporters are xenophobes makes the whole article contradictory. 

"The folks who pushed for this legislation in Frederick aren’t doing it because they want to commune with their new neighbors. They aren’t offering English immersion classes or anything else constructive". Frederick Community College does exactly what she accuses them of not doing. Dvorak generally is pretty weak on actually making any conclusion. 

We welcome anyone here who wants to become American. But the very first step to becoming American is to speak English. All you have to do is try: we are very happy to teach you. 

U.S. government regularly monitoring news blogs, social media

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security regularly monitors dozens of websites, including Facebook, Twitter, WikiLeaks, YouTube, .....

The NOC’s Media Monitoring Initiative, approved in November, means the government can collect personal information from news anchors, journalists, reporters or anyone who may use "traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience situationally aware and informed"

To sum it up, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will keep tabs on who says what from now on. The department says that they will only scour publically-made info available while retaining data, but why invest the time, resources and especially the money towards the effort?

The openness and the freedom of expression allowed through blogs, social networks, video sharing sites, and other tools of today’s communications technology has proven to be an unprecedented and often disruptive force in some closed societies. Governments that seek to maintain their authority and control the ideas and information their citizens receive are often caught in a dilemma: they feel that they need access to the Internet to participate in commerce in the global market and for economic growth and technological development, but fear that allowing open access to the Internet potentially weakens their control over their citizens. The ongoing situation of Google in China is representative of these issues.

The double whammy of the WikiLeaks ruling and the DHS National Operations Center (NOC)’s Media Monitoring Initiative have serious implications for not only journalistic freedom, but to all American's freedom.