Get FISA Right

Get FISA Right started on June 26, 2008, with posts by Mardi S on my.barackobama.com and Mike Stark on Open Left.  We were the first high-profile grassroots social network activism campaign in the US and got enough attention that Obama responded to our open letter.  Still, we and our allies lost that battle over the disastrous FISA Amendments Act.   And since then, it’s been more of the same.

Five more years of the NSA vacuuming up our phone and internet information.

Five more years without meaningful oversight.

Five more years of evasion and outright lies in Congressional testimony.

Five more years of secret court rulings.

Five more years of legal maneuvering to try to prevent EFF, ACLU, or anybody else from challenging the laws’ constitutionality.

Five more years of Patriot Act and FISA reauthorization.

Happy f—ing birthday.

But after the firestorm of publicity in response to the recent leaks, I’m increasingly optimistic that momentum is building for a change.

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We did this in 2008:

1. Tackled an issue that was getting tiny MSM and not significant progressive coverage (right?) and dramatically amplified awareness of the issue.
2. Sourced our members directly from Obama supporters. “We love you, but.” — this provocative identity was an attention-grabber.
3. Had at least one very specific goal: pressure Obama to vote a certain way on a certain issue (corporate immunity for domestic spying lawsuits).
4. Tackled a wonky issue.
5. Used online/social media for organizing in a way that was novel at the time.

(What am I missing?)

Now i’ll address each of those as they apply today.

1: The issue is getting a ton of press. The progressive press is doing a pretty good job and even the MSM coverage isn’t horrendous. So i don’t think we have anything special to add here.

2: Is there anything we can do that’s analogous today? “We are ______ supporters, but.” There’s nothing I can think of, but maybe others have more ideas.

3: We have no specific goal to strive toward.

4: Here’s somewhere we can maybe add something. We are pretty wonky, and if we make it a goal then our wonkiness can expand.

5: Hopefully we can do a competent job with organizing via social media again. But… maybe there is something more we can add? Some other new media/method we can foray into?

In summary: if we are just wonky, I don’t know how much we can get done. If we can think of a provocative identity, this would significantly help focus us and get attention. If we can think of a way to be innovative with spreading information and organizing then that will help us further and will be fun. And maybe if we stick around for a while, we’ll figure out a specific goal to strive for.

What do you think? Who should we be, and what should we do? Discuss in the comments below!

Taking stock of where we are and looking at next steps.

Draft agenda here

If you’ve got suggested topics, please leave them as comments here!