Get FISA Right

Mark Dorlester posted this to our Organizing for America list … interesting, so I wanted to share it more broadly  — jon

Being a long-time Maryland activist, I have had interactions with Sen Ben Cardin (D-MD), co-sponsor of the Leahy Patriot Act Renewal bill to undergo markup tomorrow (Oct 1).  I first met him more than 30 years ago.

In pressing his staff for Cardin to support incorporate the Feingold JUSTICE Act provisions into the Leahy-Cardin bill, I emphasized that, contrary to Bush and Obama assertions, the Constitutional oath for President (Article 2, Section 1, paragraph 8) says nothing about keeping the people safe.  It requires the President to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution), and hence urging a Senator to vote in Congress to violate the Constitution in the name of allegedly protecting the people is … unconstitutional.

I specifically mentioned the assertions of certain White House and DOJ staff who are pressing, e.g., Dianne Feinstein of the Judiciary Committee, to block JUSTICE Act provisions.

I got a rather good reception.  We’ll see tomorrow.

-Mark

My post Our best chance yet to fix the PATRIOT Act and FISA! is going to hit Pam’s House Blend front page later this morning.  Please check it out!

Here’s the “how you can help” section:

• On Twitter: tweet the link to this post. Then follow the action on the #patriotact hashtag and retweet early and often! Here’s three tweets to start you out:
  

  Our best chance yet to fix the #PatriotAct and FISA. Support the Justice Act! http://bit.ly/justiceact Pls RT

  @SenArlenSpecter Support the JUSTICE Act! Fix the #patriotact and FISA http://act.ly/ln (please RT)

  Call @SenArlenSpecter at (202) 224-4254 and ask him to Support the JUSTICE Act!

• On Facebook: share this link in your feed, and join the PASS the JUSTICE Act group.
• On the phone: call your Senators and ask them to support the JUSTICE Act. You can find our talking points here.
• On the web: CREDO Action, ACLU, EFF and DownSizeDC all have sites which make it easy to email your Senators.
• If you blog: repost these instructions

As always, any assistance is appreciated!

Tomorrow’s our best chance to fix the #PatriotAct and FISA. Help Support the Justice Act http://bit.ly/justiceact Pls RT

@SenArlenSpecter Support the JUSTICE Act! Fix the #patriotact and FISA http://act.ly/ln (please RT)

A preliminary assessment of PATRIOT Act reform bills (via @normative) http://is.gd/3OMiO

RT @getfisaright: retweeting help, please: http://is.gd/3OMLe #patriotact #privacy

Thanks much,

jon

Another excellent call!   Thanks to Cynthia from Momocrats; Mandy from ACLU; Marcy and Bill rom Emptywheel; Matt from CREDO; Jim Babka from Downsize dc; Kevin from EFF; Julian from Cato; James Cook; and Manny, Korkie, Mark, Sally, and Harry from Get FISA Right.  Detailed notes at http://bit.ly/sep29notes thanks to Harry’s transcription magic.  Here’s the highlights.

• The Senate Judiciary Committee markup on Thursday is our best chance yet for significant reform to the PATRIOT Act and FISA.  Conversely, if a weak bill comes out of the SJC, the path forward in the Senate is much more difficult.  So over the next 48 hours, we need to put pressure on Senators Whitehouse, Specter, Schumer, and all the other SJC Dems.
• The “ask” continues to be “support the JUSTICE act”: add provisions to the Leahy Bill on Thursday’s markup, and co-sponsor S. 1682.

Read the rest of this entry »

The folks at Twazzup have been kind enough to set up http://getfisaright.twazzup.com/, which makes it easy to use follow the action on PATRIOT Act debates via Twitter — even if you don’t have a Twitter account!

The page is pretty self-explanatory, with areas for the most popular tweets and most-retweeted links.  There’s also an area for “featured tweeters”.   The combination makes it easy to keep up with with what’s going on even when the action gets intense.  If you want to focus on a particular subject, you can use the search box or buttons near the top of the page.

The “featured tweeters” list, by the way, includes organizations like EFF, ACLU, Cato Institute, and BORDC as well as Get FISA Right members and key bloggers, journalists, and Twitterers like Julian Sanchez, Sarah Jaffe, Marcy Wheeler, Baratunde Thurston, and Tracy Viselli.  And Get FISA Right of course!*  If there are other groups and people you think should be there, please reply with their names or Twitter profiles.

If we’re successful at sparking something viral on Twitter or in the blogosphere, this’ll be the best place to watch what’s going on.  So check it out!

And thanks to Twazzup, for the quick turnaround … much appreciated!

jon

*  Speaking of which, please follow us on Twitter, and join us on Organizing for America, Facebook, MySpace, and Wetpaint.

With the SJC markup on Thursday, it’s a great time to give bloggers an update on the legislative situation — and the activism that’s happening.  We’ll have people from EFF, ACLU, Cato Institute, and CREDO Action there.  And of course we’ll take about Get FISA Right’s activism as well.

(Speaking of which: please Digg Tracy Viselli’s care2 post and join the PASS the JUSTICE Act Facebook group … thanks!)

Last summer, Get FISA Right took off when the “big blogs” of the progressive blogosphere got involved; hopefully they’re still interested!  We’re also reaching out to libertarian and conservative bloggers, and many others.   We’ll also have a chat room going in parallel with the call, so you can follow along even if you’re not able to dial in.

Please join us!

Dialin information and RSVP here.

jon

PS: If you can’t make it to the call, we’ll have an audio recording and detailed notes available.

The JUSTICE Act would reform the PATRIOT  by limiting the use of sneak-and-peak warrants and National Security Letters, and hold telecom companies accountable for past abuses.  Here’s how you can help on Facebook.

This week, we’re going to be to be doing activism on Facebook, Twitter, and the blogosphere to pressure Senate Judiciary Committee members to adopt the JUSTICE Act’s strong reforms during their markup session on Thursday.  For now, we’re laying the groundwork.  Please join us!

Here’s how:

1. Join the PASS the JUSTICE Act group
2. Invite your friends to the group!  The Invite friends to group link is on the right-hand-side fairly near the top.
3. Let people know about this post by sharing it on your feed and on your friends’ walls!
4. Share the CREDO Action petition to repeal telecom immunity and roll back PATRIOT Act abuses … and while you’re at it, take a moment and sign on!
5. Thank Senator Dick Durbin for co-sponsoring the JUSTICE act by replying to this thread

Our next step will be to put pressure on some specific Senators … please let us know who you think we should target.  Stay tuned for more!

jon

PS: If you’re also on Twitter, please tweet this link — and check out our companion post, Five ways to help on Twitter

Another great call — excellent ideas, accomplished all the goals, and got done 10 minutes early.  w00t!  Thanks to Harry, Mark, Joan, David, Manny, Ben, Alan, Gina, Shireen, and Lavern for the participation, and Marcy, Jim, Charlotte-Anne, and Harry (again) for the pre-meeting prep.

The full chat log is available here.  Here’s the meeting highlights:

Key decisions

• we’ll use this weekend to gather forces on Twitter and Facebook, with campaigns asking people to join both groups, and continue our “thank you” act.ly petition and Facebook thread
• ramp up Sunday night or Monday with an OFA post
• blogger call Tuesday at 3 p.m.; use the time in between for prep

Action items

• all: join Facebook group; follow @getfisaright; act.ly petition and Facebook thread
• for initial blog posts: Jon to follow up with Marcy, somebody to follow up with Greenwald/Strange Bedfellows and McJoan.  for blogger outreach in general, ask them to send their blog posts to @getfisaright so we can add them to our retweeting schedule.
• Mark to work on draft blog post for OFA, and then kick off broad outreach on mailing lists
• Jon to set up blogger call for Tuesday
• Gina to follow up with Chris Bowers about Specter/Sestak situation
• Mark (and others) to follow up with NRA
• *done!* Jon to send out notes

Thanks once again, all … have a great weekend, and please check back here Sunday for updates!

jon