House conservatives introduce bill to extend PATRIOT Act

March 13, 2009

Jared Allen reports in The Hill:

More than a dozen of the GOP’s most conservative members on Thursday introduced a bill to reauthorize controversial Patriot Act provisions set to expire later this year.

The group of House Republicans – who include Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Judiciary Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) – want to extend for an additional 10 years the ability of national security agencies to conduct “roving” wiretaps, have access to library patron information and greatly expand the reach of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Those provisions of the Patriot Act were set to expire this year.

Earlier in the year than we had expected …

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Posted by jdp23

Feingold to give the Obama administration “a few more weeks” to introduce FISA reform legislation

March 5, 2009

In a comment on What does it mean to “get FISA right”?, Ben Masel wrote:

I caught up with Senator Feingold last Sunday, at his Birthday Party/Re-election fundraiser.

He’s going to give the Administration “a few more weeks” to come up with a bill to roll back the FISA amendments, introduce his own bill if they don’t.

One more reason why Get FISA Right ♡ Senator Feingold!

So now’s a very good time to think about activism related to whatever legislation gets introduced: a “50-state strategy” of feedback to all the Senators and Representatives from their consituents — including in-person meetings and cable TV advertising — as well as pressure on President Obama and his administration.  Continuing the discussions on What does it mean to “get FISA right”? is a key part of it; it’s a chance for us to take the initiative.  So please check out that thread and contribute your opinions.

More details as we get them.  Other thoughts on how we should proceed?

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Posted by jdp23

Bloggers wanted, part deux

March 4, 2009

First of all, apologies to everybody for being so quiet — I was sick for the last couple of weeks.  I’m feeling better now but am overwhelmed by other stuff so don’t expect to hear a lot from me.

Which is a pretty natural transition to the topic of this post.  Now’s a great time to transition the blog from being Jon-centric to being a group effort.  So we’re looking for bloggers — you, hopefully.  In particular:

  • volunteers to do the “dailyish updates”.  it’s pretty straightforward: check the blog for recent posts, look at the Google group and discussion board on the wiki to see if there are any hot topics, and check the news.
  • a weekly legal roundup, summarizing what’s happening and linking out to other analyses.  You don’t need to be a lawyer to help here, but you have to be comfortable with the level of detail that’s typically discussed by emptywheel, Threat Level, or Glenn Greenwald.
  • guest posts in the “what does it mean to get FISA right series”.  See Jim Burrows’ first post and my comment for more.

Other topics are welcome too…

If you’d like to help out, please reply in a comment!

Thanks,

jon

PS: Experienced bloggers are welcome, of course, but if you’re new to blogging, this is a great chance to learn.

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Posted by jdp23

What does it mean to “get FISA right”?

March 4, 2009

Thanks to Jim Burrows for taking the lead and kicking off a series of posts on this difficult subject.  With the Obama DOJ currently mirroring the Bush Administration’s stance, we see it as increasingly likely that the issue of FISA is going to come up in Congress relatively soon.  So now’s a great time to start framing the issue positively and proactively: what outcome do we want?  We’ll update this post with links to future posts in the series … more details soon! — Jon Pincus

As a member of “Get FISA Right”, I find myself asking, “What does ‘get it right’ mean?” I don’t have a definitive answer, but let me give a few thoughts as a basis for a discussion of the topic.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was originally passed in 1978 order to balance the legitimate need to spy on the nation’s foreign enemies, with the Constitutional rights of her citizens, and especially to curb existing abuse. Technology has changed dramatically since it was written, and our enemies are different. Also, there has been a new round of abuse. All of these must be addressed.

To “get it right”, let me suggest that we need:
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Posted by Jim Burrows

Hearting Feingold in Fond du Lac

February 14, 2009

I didn’t know what to expect before I went to Sen. Russ Feingold’s listening session in Fond du Lac this morning, but all early indications warrant immense confidence that progressive activists in general and Get Fisa Right in particular can leverage these for impressive results. My experience this morning has made me supremely confident that our goals for the “GFR Heart Sen. Feingold” campaign are entirely reachable, and I think it will be a boon not only for our work but for the progressive movement in general if we take advantage of these!

First things first—-a recap of what these listening sessions are like. Sen. Feingold pledged upon his first senatorial run to hold open meetings in all 72 counties in Wisconsin every single year. This must be quite the strain on him, yet this strain did not seem to mitigate the utility of these open meetings as he went beyond the call of duty (and over the time limit) to ensure that he answered EVERY SINGLE QUESTION posed to him.

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Posted by harrywaisbren

Coming attractions (and dailyish update)

February 13, 2009

Over 100 views for yesterday’s Dailyish update! Today, check out our new section “coming attractions”

For more about Get FISA Right’s Dailyish updates, please see Jon’s post on The Seminal

Coming attractions

Upcoming blog series: “what does it mean to “get FISA right”?  Jim Burrows will kick it off on change.org — draft here.

Discussion and voting on whether to endorse Patrick Leahy’s call for a truth commission
(see Leahy calls for

Introducing ourselves to Senator Feingold, Feb 14-March 15.  More on the wiki (also on change.org and the blog).

Volunteers needed

If you’d like to help, please leave a comment!
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Posted by jdp23

Dailyish update (February 11)

February 11, 2009

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Posted by jdp23

GFR (heart) Sen. Feingold: continuing the planning for our February/March discussions

February 11, 2009

The planning’s for Get FISA Right taking advantage of Senator Russ Feingold’s upcoming visits to Wisconsin continues.  With the first opportunity this Saturday on Valentine’s day (February 14) at a Listening Meeting in Chilton, I’ve decided to dub this project “Get FISA Right (heart) Senator Feingold”, or “GFR heart Sen. Feingold” for short.*

There’s a lot going on here, with additional events in Madison and Milwaukee on March 1, a potential cable advertising opportunity in Green Bay on March 4, and an event in Kimberly on March 15.  To keep track of it all, we’re going to use a wiki page as the planning hub for this.  For example, here’s the current versions of our goals for the project.

  • get a better understanding of the situation in Congress and Senator Feingold’s strategy
  • get Sen Feingold to make a video on “what it means to get FISA right”
  • introduce ourselves to Senator Feingold and get a working relationship in place
  • pilot techniques that we can use as part of a 50-state strategy
  • get blog and media attention, at least at the local and state level, and hopefully nationally as well

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Posted by jdp23

Dailyish update, February 10

February 10, 2009

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Posted by jdp23

Senator Feingold to listen to Get FISA Right! (Help wanted)

February 10, 2009

Update: please digg here.

One of the topics that came up in our phone call on Saturday was Senator Russ Feingold’s early March visit to Wisconsin.  Green Bay resident Jean told us that at his Listening Meeting there on March 4, she and several others were planning on bringing up domestic spying.  And lo and behold, Green Bay is on the ever-growing list of cities our partner SaysMe.tv supports!

So it’s a great opportunity to introduce ourselves to Senator Feingold and his staff, and to get some media attention as well: at least in Green Bay, probably in Madison and statewide, and hopefully even more broadly.  And in the broader context, this is a prototype for something that we’re going to want to replicate in all 50 states.

There are several different things we’ll need to be working on in parallel for this:

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Posted by jdp23

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