Act now, call your Congressperson
From: Patty Guerrero (pattypaxearthlink.net)
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2013 18:53:38 -0800 (PST)
I am sending only part of the article in the latest issue of WAMM newsletter.   
see below this first paragraph.  This was also stated on the sidebar:

THIS IS A GOOD BILL:

USA FREEDOM Act (acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling 
Rights and Ending Eavesdropping.  Dragnet Collection and Online Monitoring Act) 
 Senate File #1599 House of Representative File # 3361.   102 members of the 
House including Ellison and McCollum signed on as co-sponsors.  18 members of 
the Senate signed.  At the end of Oct. the bill was referred to the Senate 
Judiciary Committee.  Of the 17 members on that committee, Minn. and Utah both 
have two that serve , so these states could have more influence on the bills if 
citizens advocate for it.   Call Franken and Klobuchar and tell them to vote 
for this bill.   

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That’s why Edward Snowden blew the whistle. He said, “I don’t want to live in a 
world where everything that I say, everything that I do, everyone I talk to, 
every expression of creativity, or love, or friendship is recorded, and that’s 
not something I’m willing to support, it’s not something I’m willing to build, 
and it’s not something I’m willing to live under.”

Congress moved closer to creating that kind of world in November when 
legislation passed in the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Michelle 
Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office calls it, 
“Dianne Feinstein’s Fake Surveillance Reform.” She wrote that’s because:

the legislation would make clear in no uncertain terms that communication 
records like phone, email, and internet data can be collected without even an 
ounce of suspicion, pursuant to the so-called privacy rules already in 
place…For the first time in history, Congress would explicitly and 
intentionally authorize dragnet domestic spying programs targeting every day 
Americans.

The Feinstein bill also makes the current situation even worse. It gives the 
government a 72-hour grace period to warrantlessly spy on foreigners who enter 
the U.S., without even the attorney general approval that is currently required 
in emergency situations. It explicitly states that none of its provisions 
should be read to prevent law enforcement from digging through massive NSA 
databases for evidence of criminal activity.—

Richardson calls for real NSA reform instead. So, too, do Coleen Rowley, Daniel 
Ellsberg, Glenn Greenwald, former U.S. Senator James Abourezk, Naomi Klein, 
Laura Flanders, Cornell West, David Swanson and others in the Roots Action Team 
who endorse the Leahy-Sensenbrenner bill—dubbed the USA FREEDOM Act (the 
Leahy-Sensenbrenner bill S1599/HR3361). They say that it is a real step toward 
fully ending the NSA's outrageous abuses and quote Electronic Frontier 
Foundation, which also advocates for this legislation: "We know that no bill is 
perfect, but the USA FREEDOM Act [] could well be our best shot at fixing some 
of the worst problems with NSA surveillance. That's why we're urging members of 
Congress to support the bill, work to improve the bill through the amendment 
process, and above all to resist efforts to undermine the privacy protections 
offered by the bill."

Edward Snowden said he did what he did to get the nation to focus on discussing 
massive surveillance of the public. The critical for citizens to engage now 
because the discussion is in full force in Congress. Coleen Rowley, who lives 
in Minnesota and once ran for a congressional seat, comments that Minnesota’s 
senators Amy Klobouchar and Al Franken are both on the Senate Judiciary 
Committee but tend to follow Dianne Feinstein in voting. Let’s be sure they 
hear from us and throw more light on the issue.

ACTION: Call your senators today, or go to RootsAction.org to have an 
electronic message sent.


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