Surveillance vote in house imminent, EFF's call for action
The EFF's Tim Jones says,
On Tuesday, the US Senate approved a bill that would grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that illegally spied on millions of Americans' private communications.Link to more info.The fight is not over yet; the bill must be ratified by the House before it becomes law. This means the votes cast by your Congresscritter in the next couple days will likely be our last chance to hold the telecoms accountable and discover the full extent of the Bush administration's lawbreaking.
Phone or email them now!
Previously on Boing Boing:
* Senate votes to immunize telecoms over domestic spying
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I'd like to say at least the American people tried. I'm going to contact my congress-critter. Hopefully, if they get overwhelmed that could at least make the corporate news (in a blurb somewhere) and maybe show the world that at least the American people haven't given up on being a country that still wants human rights and freedom for its people.
I followed the link to the EFF, filled out the form, personalized the message and sent it to: Joe C. Knollenberg-R, Oakland County MI. But I do not think the likes of this Bush-ass-kissing-bigot will be moved by my effort.
What "millions" have been spied on? Any proof of that number? And no, this is not a violation of human rights. Ireland circa 1700s was a violation of human rights. Most realists would claim that this isn't on the radar.
Keep up the good work gov't.
Malcolmkass, is this a human rights issue or just a civil rights issue? We are protected against unlawful search and seizure by the 4th amed to the US constitution. There is a reason to be concerned. We currently have a legal way to tap lines, a hoop the athorities must jump through. The Hoops slow down the process and make it less efficient, but also help keep powers in check.
Thanks to everybody who's called in already.
There was a comment in the MSFT-bashing thread asking how many of those who had bothered to post a complaint about the MS Mobile sponsorship were planning on calling their congressional reps about the retroactive immunity. After all -- really -- isn't a blatant violation of our constitutional rights much more important than where Microsoft spends its advertising dollars?
To whoever posted that comment: thank you. It provided that last little bit of motivation I needed to get up off my ass and show my opposition against something that really matters. Hell, it's the first time I've ever called my representative's office, and it was so painless that I fully intend to call in again the next time Congress is poised to pull some boneheaded maneuver.
If you had time to complain about the MS Mobile sponsorship, do yourself a favor, put your money where your mouth is, follow the link, and phone your representative in Washington. Do it today. It's super easy. The phone call took me less than 90 seconds.
And seriously, what person without 90 seconds to spare reads BoingBoing anyway?
The House is *NOT* going to pass the Bill. While the Republican minority rants about the Democrats taking action on other things, let's look at the reasons being given for the Bill not being passed.
Retroactive immunity for the big telcoms. We already know that AT&T has a nice big room in California that ALL their traffic is going through. EVERYTHING is being monitored. There is not warrant, not even from a system that allows the government to get a warrant AFTER the fact. This is illegal. The government wants to protect the companies that have been helping them break the law.
Second is President Bush's apparent opinion that he can do whatever he wants when it comes to domestic spying. The FISA Bill clearly outlines what his authority is, however he refuses to accept the limitations that the laws of the United States place on his actions.
Gee...both things seem to boil down to, the President of the United States is *NOT* above the laws of the United States.
As for Bush's claims? The man claims that if FISA isn't passed the United States is at greater risk. This SAME President has refused to sign an extension of the act (offered by the Democrats) and has threatened to veto any bill that didn't include immunity for the folks over at AT&T and the like.
Gee, tell me again who is more important. AT&T or the citizens of the United States. Seems to be that our President thinks it is more important to protect the telcoms than it is to protect us from this clear threat that only he knows about.
So....
Is President Bush a liar or a traitor?
MALCOLMKASS : What "millions" have been spied on?
COW : AT&T shunted all Internet traffic (including traffic from peering links connecting to other Internet backbone providers) to semantic traffic analyzers installed inside the AT&T central offices in San Francisco, Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego. (Um... this is just the beginning of what we've found and we're ALREADY in the millions here)
MALCOLMKASS : And no, this is not a violation of human rights.
COW :
► In America, we have humans living here, right?
Humans? Check.
► In America, we've got the right to privacy, right?
Rights? Check.
Humans? Rights? Hmmm.... with a little more study of those two words, we can come to the conclusion that this is, indeed, a.... human rights issue.
MALCOLMKASS : Ireland circa 1700s was a violation of human rights. Most realists would claim that this isn't on the radar.
COW : During that time, Ireland was an autonomous Kingdom with its own Parliament, but the vast majority of its population were excluded from power and land ownership.
Gee...? That doesn't sound incredibly familiar?
CHART (BTW, this goes hand in hand with marketable assets such as real estate)
(That little red line is the vast majority of the population of the American people)
I'm not trying to treat you like a (complete) idiot... but, just in case you don't already know... wealth and power are completely interrelated: Idiot proof facts
MALCOLMKASS : Keep up the good work gov't.
COW : Indeed...
The cynic in me wants to know...
Can anyone point to any evidence that a barrage of phone calls and/or email has led to a politician changing their mind on a vote? [citation needed]
#8 posted by cyenobite:
cyenobite, there's this new-fangled thing called "Google" that just might have the answers you are looking for.
And, yes... public participation has been proven to work... over and over and over and over and over... (you can start by looking into the civil rights movement, for one).
The cynic in me wants to know...
Can anyone point to any evidence that a barrage of phone calls and/or email has led to a politician changing their mind on a vote?
The cynic in me wants to know: how much time did you spend writing that response, and could that time have been better spent by calling your congressional representative?
More to the point, though, I can give you an example of how effective a barrage of phone calls can be on this very issue. The Senate version of this bill was originally slated for a vote late last year. However, after Chris Dodd's office was buried in an avalanche of calls and email on the subject -- calls prompted by a call to action posted on Glenn Greenwald's blog at Salon -- he attempted to table the bill. When Harry Reid initially refused to honor Dodd's request, Dodd threatened a fillibuster, and so Reid relented. All because his office was inundated with calls. While things are looking grim for us now, it was a temporary victory.
By the way, most of those politicians who were up in arms over Janet Jackson's boob appearing for a split second during the Super Bowl a few years ago? They couldn't care less about the tiniest glimpse of a single breast. But they did care about all of the calls and letters that they received social conservative groups called on their members to make a stink. Making a token crackdown on "indecency" was an easy way to score political points.
Participatory democracy requires participation beyond just voting in order to be truly effective. As long as progressive causes bow out of the "participatory" aspect of participatory democracy, we cede ground to those who would move our society and our country backwards. So, please pick up the phone. Thanks.
Yeah, call your congress-crittur, awreddy.
What will you tell him/her?
Which bill?
The Dodd-Feingold amendment to S.2248 is history,
but H.R.3773 is the one under consideration.
It helps to be specific.
#9 Cowcide -
Thanks for the response Cow, FYI, I did google it, and I didn't find anything (perhaps I didn't use the right keyword combo).
My question was not whether "public participation" or even if the "civil rights movement" worked or not... obviously that's true.
My question was whether or not Flooding a phone with calls, or sending emails has ever worked before.
Neither of which you answered. So thanks for your sarcastic reply, next time loose the attitude and try helping someone who asks a question, rather than belittle them.
#10 Puke -
Thanks Puke, that was the type of answer I was looking for. I'm knew to the world of politics, so this was an honest question for me.
Called all the congressmen in my state to fight this thing. They all wanted my address. Looking forward to some snailspam I guess. But I feel really good about myself for doing that - for telling those Republican fuckers (they're not all fuckers but they are if they walk out ala this link - http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/02/fisa_faceoff_republicans_walk.html), to quit being so damn evil. And yes I was nicer than that. Also sorry Republicans for calling names, some of you just make me mad sometimes.
PS: That link is a pretty big addition to this topic, methinks.
Why is domestic surveillance such a big deal? I have nothing to hide. lol.
#12 posted by cyenobite:
I'm just sick of lazy, do-nothing nay-sayers and the further destruction of our country. Many Americans are TIRED of the very thankless job of carrying the load while other apathetic American putzes sit around and "never find the time" to pitch in or even bother to look into the welfare of our country... and then, to top it off, many ignorantly chastise those of us who are actually trying to do something!
WTF? We happen to very much value our time as well! We have much more enjoyable things in life to do, believe it or not.... dammit, the other Americans lack of participation and self-responsibility for what our country has become is, quite frankly, enraging.
It looked to me with your {citation needed] thing and your "... can anyone point to any evidence that a barrage of phone calls ..." comment thing, that you were belittling our efforts without doing a modicum of research to back your apparently dismissive attitude. If I read you wrong, I'm sorry. Otherwise, you can bite me. I've noticed that you still haven't said whether or not you've picked up your damn phone, BTW.
Chris Dodd is the one senator that is on our side in this. If everyone called or emailed him and told him that you support his efforts it would be great. He is planning on filibustering this. A good source of info on what is what is Talkingpointsmemo.com.
Chris Dodd is
http://dodd.senate.gov/
U.S. Senator Chris Dodd
448 Russell Building | Washington D.C., 20510
Tel: (202) 224-2823 | Fax: (202) 224-1083
30 Lewis St Suite 101 | Hartford, CT 06103
Tel: (860) 258-6940/(800) 334-5341 —CT only
Fax: (860) 258-6958
@cow...
Even your apology is laden with 'tude - I think someone needs a hug.
And yes... I sent a *Damn* email to my representative. :)
fyi: [citation needed] was an attempt at humor to reference xkcd.com
http://xkcd.com/285/