Get FISA Right

Earlier this month I was on a Privacy Coalition conference call discussing the post-election political situation in DC.  It was a great meeting, focusing on the opportunities for collaboration and cooperation among groups that may not typically see each other as allies, and I came away a lot more optimistic than I had expected to.  With the organizers’ permission, I’m posting my notes here to share more broadly.   The topics discussed included consumer internet privacy legislation as well as government action, so it’s a little broader than our usual scope here – hope that’s okay!

The Privacy Coalition is a nonpartisan coalition of consumer, civil liberties, educational, family, library, labor, and technology organizations that has been meeting regularly since 2001.   The members include a lot of names that are familiar from the fight against FISA and the PATRIOT Act.  It’s very much a “strange bedfellows” group politically, and the diversity of political perspectives on the call was very helpful!

Here’s the highlights

Read the rest of this entry »

By: Harry Waisbren

I discussed the latest fantastic news about Feingold’s surge in the polls in my update and retrospective post, but I dare say it’s worth expanding upon as we up the ante in our fundraising campaign for him to $3,000.

First, here’s Wisconsinite John Nichols analysis of the polls:

Now, however, one of the oldest and most respected polls of Wisconsin voters, the St. Norbert College Survey Center poll, sponsored by Wisconsin Public Radio, has the race narrowing to a toss up.

According to the St. Norbert Survey, it’s Johnson 49 percent to Feingold 47 percent. That’s well within the margin of error for this—and other—surveys, meaning the race can reasonably be described as a toss-up.

Nichols further elaborates on how Feingold has typically polled better than the average democrat, and right now is “running dramatically ahead of his party.” This shouldn’t be too surprising, as Feingold’s independence is one of his hallmark values, and his adherence to principle ahead of party is why I am so proud personally to call myself a Feingold Democrat.

If you needed any more evidence for why it’s so integral to keep someone like this in office, look no further than this video of Senator Feingold explaining FISA in 30 seconds:

If you care about FISA and civil liberties at large, you should care immensely about losing our issue’s greatest advocate. The contrast between his opponent couldn’t be starker either, with Jane Hamsher going so far as to compare Ron Johnson to Joe Lieberman.

We couldn’t appreciate the donations of your hard earned money more, because we know that Senator Feingold couldn’t appreciate it more either! On the flipside, you can also certainly donate your time to Feingold as well—the Progressive Congressional Change Committee has a very slick tool that lets you phone bank for your choice of candidates from a slate of progressives, including Feingold. If you have a few minutes of time and care to talk to some Wisconsinites, please do so—we really are a friendly folk!

It’s difficult to imagine what will happen if he does lose, and it’s a prospect that I personally find very frightening. If you can donate, even a small amount of money or a morsel of your time, please do so. There isn’t any other politician in our country who has earned it more in my book.

By: Harry Waisbren

We’ve had some big headway on our latest initiatives lately. Our support for Senator Feingold’s reelection has blown past our latest goal of $2,500, and groups just like us stepping up have certainly helped him as he has closed the gap to make the race a dead heat. We also have now concluded what has turned into a unanimous vote to sign the IAC Letter, which I have taken the pleasure to officially sign us up for–and simultaneously reach out to help more as an organization.

Considering we are at transitionary points with these two initiatives, I thought now might be a good time for a look back to remind everyone about some of our history. Our crowdsource model can really make it difficult to keep track of everything going on at once amongst our group, especially considering that we are likewise talking with so many other groups. Anyways, here goes…

First things first, the Get FISA Right concept began June 26, 2008 with a post from Mardi. He created a new group on the Obama social network, My.BarackObama.com, asking then Senator Obama, Please Get FISA Right.

Mike Stark kicked off what would become a robust blogosphere discussion about civic engagement and if Obama will feel the sting of social networking through his stance on FISA. The members rallied behind signing an open letter to Obama, and as the number of group members skyrocketed to 22,000, in unprecedented fashion, he was compelled to respond.

The mainstream media picked up this story in a big way, and beltway insiders and tech luminaries alike recognized this social networking based engagement as a new style of democratic discourse. Despite not successfully convincing Obama to get FISA right, we did force the issue into the national discourse, and simultaneously provided a model exhibiting the power of social media-based political activism.

Initial leaders spreading the word & coordinating discussion included Dawn Teo, Ari Melber, Aviva Dancis, Chip Pitts, John Joseph Bachir, Carlo Scanella, Andy Famiglietti, Jon Pincus, and more. Despite Obama passing on getting FISA right, that strong base of support helped keep our momentum going to bring attention to FISA and civil liberties in other new and innovative ways.

From that base, the tactics we used developed quickly, and soon we were utilizing a crowdsource model to conceive and fund 30 second TV ads through SaysMe.TV, taking part in the Change.org/MySpace Ideas for Change, and making sure that our language was adopted as part of the Netroots Platform.

Our transition to the post-election environment was catalyzed even more during the 2009 Computers Freedom and Privacy conferences’ birds of a feather session: New Strategies to Fighting FISA & the Patriot Act. Afterwards, we began holding regular conference calls and online chats, in addition to calls specifically for bloggers, to coordinate online activism stemming from our Patriot Act Action Hub.

The conference calls and online chat model facilitated writing transcript style notes, and ‘key takeaways’ were further recorded from every meeting on this very blog. Such tactics have provided us with a meticulous documentation of the development of our strategy, and is a very useful resource for anyone looking to catch up to what we have been up to or that wants to go on a trip down memory lane.

The individuals and organizations taking part in these calls have changed with the legislative timeline and individuals’ personal capacity. Organizations participating include the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, FireDogLake.com, the Association for Research Libraries, etc. New Get FISA Right leaders emerged as well, including Mark Dorlester, Korkie Moore-Bruno, Thomas Nephew, Sally Jane, Jim Burrows, Amy Ringenbach, Talat Gilani Hamdani, and many more.

Hey everyone, here’s your final opportunity to weigh over whether or not we should sign on to the International Action Center’s letter to Stop FBI Repression of Anti-War Activists NOW: Condemn the FBI Raids and Harassment of Anti-War and International Solidarity Activists.

To vote ay or nay, just write a comment to this blog post. This way, you will also be able to explain your reasoning if you care to.

Update: and it’s unanimous! 16 ay’s to 0 no’s. We sign the letter.

I just got an email from the Feingold campaign:

Johnson’s support is slipping rapidly. His once commanding lead has dropped down to a statistical tie with Russ. Despite the millions in slash-and-burn ads special interests are dumping into Wisconsin media markets, Wisconsin voters aren’t having any of it. In fact, Johnson’s Washington, D.C. corporate special interest strategy has backfired – Johnson’s negatives are way up – more than 10 points in just the past week alone.

Johnson’s desperation means only one thing – a massive wave of attack ads targeting Russ. Even as I write this to you, I fully expect that Johnson and his corporate special interest cronies are plotting out their final wave of attacks. […]

Russ’s campaign is capitalizing on this shift in public opinion. We’re working with supporters like you to expand our grassroots operation throughout Wisconsin. Television and radio ads only go so far in an election; it’s our grassroots ground game that’s going to get the win for Russ on November 2.

Let’s dig deep and pitch in some more.  I know there are a lot of other pleas for money going around out there — but this is our guy, we need to stand by him.  Thanks to all who’ve given so far — now can you give a little more?  And if you haven’t, please give now — it doesn’t have to be $100, $5 and $10 is fine too.

Above all, start spreading this URL — http://actblue.com/page/gfr4russ — to the people on your email lists, to your Facebook friends, to your Twitter followers.  Let them know Russ is in a tight race, but it’s one he can win — with their help. And with yours.  Thanks!