#restorethe4th roundup: resources, media attention, and videos

July 1, 2013

RestoreThe4thAs we head into the July 4 rallies, I thought it would be useful to collect some useful links.

For organizers — or people wanting to get the word out — the best place to start is Restore the Fourth’s website at restorethefourth.net, where there’s a a FAQ, list of protests, , the June 18 press release, and a resources page (including logos, flyers, and guides for organizers on media and outreach).  There’s also a wiki page with more resources on Reddit; and of course r/RestoreTheFourth subreddit which is the best place to go for links, questions, and discussions.  Bill of Rights Defense Committee’s How to protest against NSA surveillance on Fourth of July and the reddit threads on first-time protestors and  talking points all have great tips, tricks, and general advice.

The rallies are starting to get more and more attention. For example:

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Posted by jdp23

NSA Gathers Far More Than Phone Data (Julian Sanchez)

June 19, 2013

FISA expert Julian Sanchez of the Cato Institute discusses internet metadata and more.

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Posted by jdp23

Why The FISA Court Is Not What It Used To Be

June 18, 2013

Why The FISA Court Is Not What It Used To Be

Few if any experts in the Bush or Obama administrations believe that the FISA court has the enforcement teeth it once had. Many of those teeth were pulled out by the 2001 Patriot Act and the 2008 amendments to the foreign intelligence surveillance law. For good or ill, as one expert put it, the court has been defanged, at least until and unless Congress decides to restore some of its powers.

Good article by Nina Totenberg of NPR.

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Posted by jdp23

Well, it has been a long time. . .

June 6, 2013

. . . but today’s news brings me back here to process the insanity. It has been revealed that Verizon has been sending records on all telephone traffic to the NSA. The entire Twitter community, it seems, is sharing a joke—800,000 Tweeting, “Can you hear me now?” And, courtesy of the Washington Post, we have details about just how much our government is spying on us: http://wapo.st/1ba8gQL shows that they are mining data from nine Internet service providers.
Did the 23,000 of us who originally formed the group that ultimately set up this blog make the wrong call back in July 2008 and after, when we told our candidate, “You made the wrong choice on the FISA warrantless wiretapping act, but we will support you anyway”? Would we have been better to walk away and support a third-party candidate? There is no way to know, of course; the much-desired glimpse into an alternative universe for comparison is not possible except in science fiction. The clear truth is that we are at least disappointed, at most frightened for our democracy.
While we can still post here, spied upon or otherwise, welcome back to the conversation!

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Posted by sallijane

FISA Amendments Act Redux

May 27, 2012

The FISA Amendments Act is back, and our candidate from 2008 is sadly acting true to the form he established, which caused so many of us such distress back then. As he voted in July 2008, so now he is asking for full reauthorization of warrantless wiretapping. See the following article for details:

http://www.salon.com/2012/05/24/warrantless_spying_fight/singleton/

Here is a petition to sign and forward (Thanks, ACLU!)

https://www.aclu.org/secure/sem-tell-congress-fix-fisa-and-stop-warrantless-wiretapping?ms=gad_SEM_Google_Search-FISA_FISA-Name_fisa_p_14325892582

Time to get active again!

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Posted by sallijane

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

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