Get FISA Right

By: Harry Waisbren

Our next organizing call will be this Tuesday, Feb. 16 at 5 pm PST / 8 pm EST. Here is our meeting page, and we couldn’t encourage you enough to use the chat room to comment on our agenda and goals and for general discussion!

Dialin: 1-270-696-2525  Access Code: 705723

We’ll be following up on our key takeaways from last week, including our focus on our Change.org Idea for Change, as well as continuing to solidify our short and longer term initiatives.

Hope to see you there!

By: Harry Waisbren

We had another quality call this week, discussing next steps to our long and short term plans. You can read the full transcript here, and please let us know when you can make our  next call.

Thanks to Mark, Shahid, Denzil, and Jon for joining the call, and you can find the key takeaways below:

• Shahid from BORDC relayed a particularly disturbing report that there will be a straight one year reauthorization bill rammed through the congress by embedding it within a jobs bill. We will send out information as we get it, as this would clearly impact both our plans’ short and long term trajectories alike.

• We are promoting our Change.org  idea for Ideas for Change, and you can check the link for details about how you can help based on our successful model from last year.
• Mark and Jim had a long conversation about establishing our “case statement”, and are focusing their energy on finishing it.
• We are focusing on more directly connecting ourselves with the grassroots civil libertarians, whether they be from the right or left, with a particular emphasis on veterans through Iraq Veterans Against the War.
• Our coalition is made up of people who privilege grassroots activism, which is why we are such fans of BORDC’s local ordinances initiatives. The key is coming up with local events that can be used as a vehicle to draw energy together, which we could presumably tie into our extensive outreach efforts as well.

The latest legislative news may be somber, but we will certainly be keeping up the fight! This debate must not be stifled, especially since it is one of the very few in which people all across the aisle agree, and is indicative of so much more relating to the core transpartisan identities we share as Americans.

Ideas for Change in America is a crowd-sourcing competition that empowers citizens to identify and build momentum around the most innovative ideas for addressing challenges our country faces.

The 10 most popular ideas will be presented at an event in Washington, DC to relevant members of the Obama Administration, and Change.org will subsequently mobilize its full community to support a series of grassroots campaigns to turn each idea into reality.

— Ideas for Change in America page

Thomas Nephew’s We’re Number 5! We’re Number 5! and Time to celebrate! recount Get FISA Right’s excellent performance in last year’s competition. Yay us! We also wound up with some great new allies, including Democrats.com and the Dream Activists.

This year, there are a couple of ideas already submitted:

• Sally Gellart’s Take back our rights: repeal the Patriot Act, currently at 53 votes in the Criminal Justice category
• BORDC’s Enact Local Ordinances to Restore the Rule of Law and Protect Civil Liberties, currently at 16 votes in the Government Reform and Transparency category

Last year we got 2171 votes in the first round, and change.org has grown since then so we should probably be shooting for at least 2500.  How to get there from here?  Co-promoting with BORDC is a no-brainer first step.  What else?

Some of the ideas that worked well last year:

• email and Facebook message blasts to our Facebook groups (need to be careful not to do too much of this on Facebook)
• a guest post on change.org’s Criminal Justice blog.  we might be able to arrange this again — and possibly also a guest post on the change.org Immigration blog specifically on how the Patriot Act and FISA target immigrants
• a mailing from Democrats.com
• a mention on DreamActivist.org
• blog posts by whoever has blogs, preferrably embedding the change.org widget
• detailed instructions on how to sign up to change.org.  this was a really challenging task for a lot of people last year, so good instructions probably make a 10% difference.

Yeah, we should try to do all of that.   Is there anybody who can take the lead on various topics — e.g., outreach to Bob Fertik at Democrats.com,or approaching the change.org Criminal Justics blog?  If so, please let us know in today’s call or in the comments.

And what else should we be doing?

By: Harry Waisbren

We had quite the exciting conference call and online chat today, and are already building momentum for another one next week, so please let us know when you can make it. The addition of new participants and their fresh outlooks led to a litany of fantastic ideas both for our short and long term trajectory.

Thanks to Talat, Mary, Sally, Troy (sorry for the tech problems), Mark, Jim, Jon, and Chip for pre-meeting discussions for joining us!

Below you will find the key takeaways from the call amidst the action items we have to complete such audacious goals:

• Harry and Jon to reach out to BORDC, then others, on coordinating a 9/11 event
• All to vote for Sally’s Take back our rights: repeal the Patriot Actidea on change.org
• All on Feb 3 (BORDC lobby day) change FB status, email friends, share BORDC sign-on letter
• For change.org promotion, Mark to send out on OFA, Harry and/or jon to do a “how to promote” post
• Sally and Jim to start researching various interests for “network map” (as comments in blog posts)
• Chip and/or Shahid: update GFR on lobby day and next steps

Thanks again to everyone who made this possible—-it’s truly exhilarating to revel in the sense of shared passion and purpose made manifest within an organizing meeting like this one. The best part is that it is only the beginning and will continue to reverberate as we act upon these notions and witness the fruits of our collective efforts!

We’re holding an organizing call this Tuesday, Feb. 2 at 5 pm PST / 8 pm EST to reactive our network, sync with BORDC on their latest initiatives, and more.

Join us for this conference call and online chat in our new and improved meetings format.

On that front, it’d also be great if you could let us know in the chat room on the meeting page what you think of the new set up and whether you are having any issues with it.

Dialin: 1-518-825-1400, Access code: 705723

Hope to see you there!

By: Harry Waisbren

BORDC has three exciting initiatives in progress, and discussing them will certainly be big part of our upcoming organizing call Tuesday, Feb. 2 (let us know when you can make it if you haven’t already).

• The most timely of these initiatives is their grassroots lobby day to oppose domestic spying on 2/3, an event we are very proud to say we are cosponsoring. There is a conference call I’ll be attending this Friday, and I’ll relay more details/information as I receive it.

• They also have a sign-on letter buttressing the arguments the grassroots supporters will be making in person on 2/3 during the lobby day.
• Lastly, they have constructed model legislation to limit local law enforcement’s domestic spying (among other) activities. It offers an offline opportunity to any engaged groups in the same jurisdiction, and is designed to enable broad coalitions among civil rights, immigrant rights, and civil libertarian groups to connect within their cities or towns.

More to come on all of this. In the meantime, if you’re in the DC area, do your best to join the lobby day next Wednesday!

By: Harry Waisbren

Our latest call went well as we plotted out our strategy following the holidays and on into the new year. Our last call coalesced a series of aggressive initiatives which we are still responding to, and our ambitious docket of current and upcoming campaigns continues to increase as leaders step forward and as we achieve more and more partners. For our most current update, here is a link to the call transcript, and below you will find some of the key takeaways:

Legislative situation

• Mark relayed that there is nothing on either the House or Senate calendar scheduled. This is a good thing, as every day that passes towards the Dec. 31st sunset date increases the chances that we will get an extension as opposed to a civil liberties crippling bill.
• Mark also explained that the last extension, passed in similar circumstances, ran one only about a month, so even if there is an extension we should be prepared for it to be short.

Video outreach

• Mark has also been following up with Alexandra Pelosi’s staff, and the next step in the process is for word of his initial outreach to be passed along via her speaking agent.
• It is difficult to say for certain how our video projects will progress, but one thing is for certain, is that our networks of online activists present quite a system to promote any sort of video—whether it be a 30 second commercial, 5 minute explanation, or a full documentary. Spreading convincing arguments is activism in and of itself (well, more like citizenship than activism, yet citizenship is something you do), and as we gain traction in these realms we will be moving more and more aggressively to take advantage of the evolution of video.

Transpartisan framing

• This past Friday, Dec. 11, Julian Sanchez appeared on NRANews.com and was interviewed by Cam Edwards, the host of “Cam and Company”. We tweeted out responses and notes to the interview, but couldn’t encourage all of you to check it out for yourselves.
• The interview went extremely positively, and Cam clearly understood and supported the rationale for NRA supporters to become involved in this fight. Bridges can hopefully be built here, as this truly is an issue that affects us all!

As Korkie emphasized on the call, the holidays are upcoming, and during such times of reflection it’s increasingly important for us to express our abiding appreciation for the help and time from all of our supporters as we collectively strive for true change and work to make our country a better place.

Thanks to Korkie, Mark, and Jon for joining the call, and to all of you, without whom, none of this would be possible!

We are going to use the comments section of this post to catalog all the varying multimedia at our disposal relating to FISA, the Patriot Act, civil liberties, etc. that might be helpful as we work to produce more video and media content.

The most important video we have is our very own 30 second Inauguration Day ad that we aired across cable TV through saysme.tv, which you will find embedded below:

Help us make this post as comprehensive as possible by posting links to the varying relevant videos and podcasts and such in the comments. While you’re at it, let us know what you think of them and how we may incorporate some of the material, ideas, or principles into our own projects as well!

By: Harry Waisbren

Marcy Wheeler wrote a fantastic post on a report from The Hill over how “the president picked up the phone several weeks ago to  find out why  Conyers was “demeaning” him.” The Hill discussed the story in context to how it highlights Obama’s sensitivity to criticism from the left, while Marcy wrote about it in regards to Obama’s view that criticisms from even his strongest supporters (chairing congressional committees no less) can be “demeaning”.

Conyers is far more than a disgruntled progressive falling out of love with Obama.

That said, he is in many ways the archetypal disgruntled progressive. The issues the Hill cites–Afghanistan, health care, Gitmo, and PATRIOT–are many of those that progressive everywhere split with Obama on.

Obama was always a hawk on Afghanistan. He was always a moderate on health care reform–though he did campaign on a public option. It’s the latter two issues the Hill cites–Gitmo and PATRIOT–that violate Obama’s campaign stance that “no one is above the law” and that he would revisit FISA immediately (the Administration has rejected such efforts now, including the HJC bill aiming to do just that). Conyers’ complaints with Obama are the complaints we all have.

Then again, unlike the rest of us, Conyers is Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, which just so happens to be the committee that oversees these “rule of law” issues.

And it’s on that level where the accusations of “demeaning” seem most important. Obama has asked Congress to roll over on issues and, in SJC at least, succeeded in getting top people (like Pat Leahy) to do so. On PATRIOT and Gitmo, Conyers has thus far refused to do so.

So who is demeaning whom? If the President demands that a Democrat who has served in Congress since Obama was four years old, one who paved the way on civil rights issues to make it possible to elect an African American man President, and one who played a key role in Obama winning the primary, just roll over on legislative issues, who is demeaning whom?

This is an important story in relation to Get FISA Right, as we are also a coalition who have supported Obama yet who have the gall to “demean him” by publicly disagreeing with his stances on the Patriot Act in particular while pushing for him to do better. If the president is making these sort of demands from Chairman Conyers of all people, regrettably, it might shed light on how he currently views our attempts to open up a substantive discourse with him in regards to these policies on which we would like to show him the way.

Such an attitude certainly betrays the notion—still expressed at the top of the Organizing for America website—that he is asking us to believe in our own ability to bring change to Washington. However, words have consequences, and the inspiration behind Obama’s words can not be undone.

We all must continue to believe that we hold this capacity, and just because Obama is in Washington now (and appears to be feeling its effects) it does not mean that we must go back to believing merely in his own ability to bring change.

It is a citizen’s duty to act—as Marcy says, citizenship is something you do—and we all should internalize the belief that YES WE STILL CAN!

By: Harry Waisbren

Our call this week was particularly exciting, as we made a whole lot of ground solidifying our strategy while also assessing next steps based on some huge progress in the last week or so. As always, we encourage everyone to go through our call’s complete transcript, and you will also find some of the key takeaways below:

Legislative Situation

• Bottom line: everybody involved in this fight believes there will be an extension of the Patriot Act that will be continued into next year extending the sunset time for another 3 or 6 months. This was the consensus from the multitude of experts consulted, including a series of legislators Mark was able to get in touch with in the past few days.
• Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats alike continue to profess their desire to extend current law, as well as the Obama administration speaking through the FBI.
• For more details, see Mark’s piece on this topic published in the Huffington Post.

In District Focus

• This is a key element in our effort to transition from being “rabble rousers” to influencing legislation.
• As Amy has pointed out, we need to start small with local stories in order to build up in the massive way we aim to, and we all must be more conscious of engaging our own state’s politicians as we move forward.

Transpartisan focus

• Privacy concerns transcend any notions of left vs. right, and most politicians in this day and age claim to be above the fray while speaking for “the people”—especially President Obama. However, both political parties are ignoring the civil liberties consensus amongst their constituents.
• Bipartisanship does not mean merely Republican and Democratic politicians working together, it is the agreement from the grassroots activists that is so powerful on this issue, and it is our job to amplify the wishes from both sides of the aisle in order to make their representatives bow to the will of the people.
• What this means for us is that we will be increasing our tangible outreach efforts to the very epitome of strange bedfellows, including conservative groups such as the NRA and liberal ones such as legalization advocates. These two groups in particular are the ones most at risk from Patriot Act provisions such as Sneak and Peek, and this effort represents a rare opportunity to bring such people together in the true definition of a transcendence of partisanship.

Pennsylvania Outreach

• Amy has been leveraging her local contacts and reaching out to both Sen. Specter and his primary challenger Rep. Sestak’s offices, and today held a meeting with Specter’s legislative aid and chief council to the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of our buildup to ensure civil liberties is a primary element of the Democratic primary campaign.

Nevada Outreach

• Rebecca emphasized the strong adherence to privacy concerns held amongst Nevada constituents in general, and this combined with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s looming election battle make this another state ripe for us to leverage our issues onto the national stage.
• Even better, Firedoglake has been exhibiting the degree to which Reid’s dire electoral situation can be leveraged through innovative new media based phone banking to the area pushing him to show true leadership in the public option fight.

• We feel a focus on Nevada is especially warranted considering one of our strongest allies, #p2 co-founder Tracy Viselli, is a resident and activist in the area.

Get FISA Right Video

• We have two videos we would like to make. One would be a quick overview totaling 3-5 minutes describing what’s the issue, what’s at stake, what do we want to have happen. The other being a 30 second TV ad to put on cable TV through saysme.tv.
• Our previous use of video have been extremely successful in the past, and we are looking to replicate the strategy used to produce and distribute our Inauguration Day video in particular, which is embedded below:

• we will also be establishing a “multimedia library” including all of the available video resources for us to spread and use as inspiration for these projects.

Google Wave

• Forest, aka tw3k, joined us for this call and suggested we engage further with Google Wave. This could solve our problem of creating a singular place to go that’s easy for anyone to update to see what’s going on for team members and other people working for civil liberties.
• We had already begun our first attempts at this, including this early attempt at uploading and acting upon our open letter, and we further invite anyone who would like to help out to let us know so we can get them invited to Google Wave and up to speed on how it works!

Clearly much was accomplished, yet with all these great ideas we have that much further to go to implement them in order to make the kind of impact that we desire.

Thanks to Amy, Mark, Jon, tw3k (Forest) Troy, Korkie, Jim, Kevin, and Rebecca for joining this call, to everyone else following along silently, and as always, to all of our other fantastic supporters without whom none of this would be possible!

We are quite excited by the new team members we have been picking up, and also hope older ones continue to come back into the fold as they find projects that interest them and as time becomes available.