{"id":2439,"date":"2011-02-06T09:45:13","date_gmt":"2011-02-06T16:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.talesfromthe.net\/jon\/?p=2439"},"modified":"2011-02-06T09:45:13","modified_gmt":"2011-02-06T16:45:13","slug":"action-alert-house-vote-on-the-patriot-act-coming-soon-time-to-make-some-noise-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/2011\/02\/06\/action-alert-house-vote-on-the-patriot-act-coming-soon-time-to-make-some-noise-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriot Act renewal: Time to make some noise. Fortunately, there’s an app for that!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Update, February 11: The House will be voting on HR 514 again soon.\u00c2\u00a0 Keep making noise!\u00c2\u00a0 Shahid Buttar’s Demand JUSTICE for the PATRIOT Act<\/strong><\/a> has the latest.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Key provisions of the Patriot Act will sunset unless Congress renews them by the end of February. The Obama Administration is working with its allies in Congress<\/a> to extend Bush Administration policies including National Security Letters , “sneak-and-peak”, and warrantless wiretapping.\u00c2\u00a0 On February 8, the House unexpectedly stood up and defeated HR 514, which would reauthorize the odious clauses until December.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s back for another vote, though.\u00c2\u00a0 With there are three bills in the Senate<\/a>, and Congress is on recess the last week of the month, it’s not a pretty picture.<\/p>\n

Time to make some noise.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, there’s an app for that!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

POPVOX<\/h1>\n

\"POPVOX<\/a><\/p>\n

Or more accurately, there’s a website for that.\u00c2\u00a0 POPVOX’ tag line is “share your opinion with Congress and the world” and it’s causing a lot of buzz in the non-profit technology community.\u00c2\u00a0 Nancy Scola’s Can We the People Use the Internet to Make Congress Smarter?<\/a> on techPresident <\/em>describes how POPVOX makes it easy for individuals to share their views with their legislators, and for advocacy and educational organizations to share their perspectives and get their members involved.<\/p>\n

So visit the POPVOX page for the bill they’re likely to be voting on in the House: H.R. 514, aka To extend expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act Improvement and Reauthorization …<\/a> You can get details about the bill from govtrack, or if you already know how you feel about it you can just click on oppose<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"oppose<\/a><\/p>\n

At this point, you can add a personal comment if you want; or you can decide to go back and do it later. Next, the system asks you for your name and address to route it to the correct legislators.\u00c2\u00a0 Once you click send, it’s easy to forward the link on to your friends and relatives using Facebook, email, or Twitter.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s similar to the change.org and Care2 petitions we’ve done in the past, with the big advantage that it’s been designed to make it easy for congressional staffers to report on the feedback they’re getting and so increase the chances that our messages are heard.<\/p>\n

Quick privacy note: POPVOX requires your real name and address in order to communicate Congress. When you sign up for POPVOX, you can choose whether or not you want your comments visible publicly and what screenname you want to use. I signed up using my Twitter account so I’m jdp23. POPVOX and Privacy<\/a> has a more in-depth discussion.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here’s the plan<\/h1>\n

Of course the House vote on HR 514 is only the first skirmish.\u00c2\u00a0 With bills from Leahy, Feinstein, and Grassley already in the Senate, there are likely to be fireworks.\u00c2\u00a0 In 2006, 2008, and 2009 the battle over the Patriot Act and wiretapping went on for months.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 So let’s get started.<\/p>\n

\"\"In the short term, what we need to do is get a lot of people to visit the POPVOX page, sign up, and click a few buttons. Fortunately, this is Get FISA Right’s core competence!<\/p>\n

Those of you who worked with us on my.barackobama.com in summer 2008<\/a> or in change.org’s Ideas for Change in America<\/a> in early 2009 already know the drill. The basic strategy comes down to “make it easy for people to help”, “tell everybody you know”, and “get allies involved.”\u00c2\u00a0 Here’s one way to approach it:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Write clear instructions with screenshots on how to use POPVOX to oppose H.514 and all three of the Senate bills, and a short easy-to-understand summary of all the reasons we shouldn’t just blindly extend the Patriot Act without debating it.<\/li>\n
  2. Start getting the word out via social networks (Facebook pages and groups, and on Twitter via the privacy chat<\/a>), blogs, and mailing lists<\/li>\n
  3. Ask members of the coalitions that have opposed Patriot Act renewal in the past to join us by letting their members know that the vote is coming (blogging, tweeting, action alert) and providing a link to a page where people can contact their Representatives. \u00c2\u00a0 Reach out broadly: libertarian and progressive groups, privacy and civil liberties organizations, past allies from Ideas for Change, etc.<\/li>\n
  4. Work with journalists who have covered<\/a> us in the past, and sites like Global Voices, Foreign Policy and Al Jazeera who have a deep understanding of social network activism, to begin priming the pump media coverage. In parallel, kick off an Op-Ed program similar to the ones we’ve done in the past and get time on talk radio shows.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Later this week, after the House vote, we’ll shift our focus to the Senate, starting with Thursday’s S.193 markup.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 We will probably want to formally launch a campaign — multiple simultaneous blog posts, emails, action alerts, a PR firm to help with media outreach, a press call … all that good stuff.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 We’ll also want to find partners to lead phone, email,and petition campaigns.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 POPVOX is only one way of communicating with Congress, and we want to hit them on multiple channels. Other organizations have far more resources and experience with those areas than Get FISA Right.\u00c2\u00a0 For now, though, let’s concentrate on HR 514.<\/p>\n

    Action items<\/h1>\n

    There’s a lot to do, and not a lot of time. In the short term, the most important action you can take is to ask your Representative to oppose HR 514<\/a> — via POPVOX<\/a>, on the phone, on their Facebook page, all of the above!\u00c2\u00a0 If you run into problems with POPVOX, please let us know: we want to discover problems now before things really start cranking.<\/p>\n

    Then tell your friends — on Facebook and MySpace, via Twitter, in email, and even (gasp) face-to-face.<\/p>\n

    For those who have a little time in the next few days:<\/p>\n