Telecom Immunity Showdown in the Senate Today 221
CPeanutG writes "A make-or-break moment for telecom immunity has arrived — after months of back-room committee-meetings, the FISA bill will finally reach the Senate floor on Monday! Unfortunately, a previously-reported version of the bill that grants telecom immunity will be presented to the Senate on Monday morning. The clock is ticking. Write your Senators now."
Senate contact info (Score:5, Informative)
Writing won't work... Try this (Score:5, Informative)
Here's what you you:
1. Hand write the letter of your dreams and include these aspects:
a. Make sure it's not overly emotional
b. Mention how you will be "posting the response in our place of business" near the end
c. Mention how many voters currently work in your office and that you are all anxiously awaiting the response
d. Include a response fax number, email, and more
2. Fax the letter to the congressman's office (you can usually find their number online)
3. Watch for your reply!
Apparently this method will get your letter to the top of the pile since it's personalized, instantly delivered via an underutilized technology, and it mentions votes.
Enjoy!
Chris Dodd leads the way (Score:5, Informative)
Here's a good outline [dailykos.com] of what will be going down.
Crooks and Liars (Score:4, Informative)
Anthrax (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Well, let's see (Score:3, Informative)
Maybe, but I have helped to change a few people's votes here. The best thing to do is get enough people to call in to let them know this is a decision that would force many people to consider them unelectable. In other words, they go into the anyone but them box. I am not saying it is easy, but is can be done.
Businesses may have the dollars, but the people have the votes, and grass roots can work - albeit with time.
InnerWeb
Re:Nice exclamation point (Score:2, Informative)
The issue at hand is whether companies should be granted immunity for performing illegal and criminal actions if they are asked to do so by the government.
Another issue is the government should not be allowed to amend laws to make something legal, after the fact, just because the government did something illegal.
During the Nuremberg and other war crimes trials many people claimed they weren't responsible for the atrocities they committed on the grounds that they were just following orders. This is the exact same thing. There are always industries propping up criminal regimes and this is no different. In this case the telcos KNOW they're doing something illegal and unconstitutional, spying on every citizen, and so they're trying for a "get out of jail free" card.
There must be some industry protections (Score:4, Informative)
OK. Let's do some math here. It was the goal of the NSA to make records of every phone call made within the US and who it was to and from. Let's be conservative and say they only succeeded in recording the phone logs of 10% of the population and were in violation for 4 years.
(300000000/10)((4)365)(100) = $4,380,000,000,000.
Over four trillion dollars in civil liability, and that's being conservative. Even AT&T can't absorb that much. Think about what would happen if AT&T, Verizon and South Central Bell all went bankrupt at once. Think about the stock market. Think about the mutual funds which presently hold telecom stock and all the pension funds and non-profit endowments that are currently invested in them. Think about trying to get a job in the tech sector when you're competing with all the unemployed telecom workers. Think about broadband deployment in unserved areas for sure.
Knocking out communications infrastructure is something invading forces do. It's not something that governments are supposed to let happen.
There are some executives who need to have their heads on pikes, but the industry itself needs protection.
Letters to your Senator (Score:3, Informative)
Having worked as an intern on the hill (the ones who actually sort all of your letters, and faxes), I can tell you that unless you personally know someone up there your letter (by itself) means little, no matter how it is sent, most likely it will be logged into a database program and assigned a basic form letter reply.
A letter writing campaign may change a Congressman's mind if he gets enough correspondence from registered voters in his district, but a Senator isnt going to change his mind on a major issue like this due to correspondence from voters. Still though its good to voice your opinion.
See Section 222 of the Communications Act (Score:4, Informative)
Wrong. They might not be bound by the Bill of Rights, but there are other (federal!) laws that apply. Please see Section 222 of the Communications Act.
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode47/usc_sec_47_00000222----000-.html [cornell.edu]
Here, allow me to quote it for you.
Every telecommunications carrier has a duty to protect the confidentiality of proprietary information of, and relating to, other telecommunication carriers, equipment manufacturers, and customers, including telecommunication carriers reselling telecommunications services provided by a telecommunications carrier.
Some of the supporters... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Nice exclamation point (Score:3, Informative)
ex post facto adj. Formulated, enacted, or operating retroactively. [Med Lat., from what is done afterwards] Source: AHD
In U.S. Constitutional Law, the definition of what is ex post facto is more limited. The first definition of what exactly constitutes an ex post facto law is found in Calder v Bull (3 US 386 [1798]), in the opinion of Justice Chase:
Re:We all know how this is going to turn-out... (Score:0, Informative)
Some facts about this bill.
1. The bill put forward by Harry Reid as the main bill is the one presented by the republicans and dick cheney...sooo its the bad bill that gives immunity to the telcos and bushco (BAD BILL)
2. The Democrats to defeat the bad bill put forward by Reid must be filibustered BY the democrats OR they need 60 votes to defeat the telecom amendment to that bill.
Long story short, yeah we're screwed.
Re:Nice exclamation point - MOD PARENT WAY UP (Score:2, Informative)
Err, did you read what he posted? The constitutional restriction against ex post facto laws is specifically regarding making things illegal retroactively. Making them not-illegal retroactively is perfectly fine.
Re:Writing won't work... Try this (Score:3, Informative)
It's a shear numbers game. Most aren't even from people in their district. Whenever a hot button topic is up for a vote, the interested parties will rally their faithful and bombard them with form letter emails or calls to action. For example, a telephone company will probably circulate an email telling the thousands of employees to email their congressman to vote for/against whatever is in their interest, and even have the whole thing written up with just a "Submit" button and email textbox left for the sheep to fill in.
The Senator said that this is essentially useless, as they have all caught on, and that it's probably not representative of actual people's opinions, just special interests using people as tools. Phone calls are a little more effective, but it's indirect. You end up talking to an intern who then relays "100 for, 345 against today's bill Sir".
The handwritten letter is the best. It shows time was taken. Faxing it usually gets noticed since nobody faxes things to them. It's all email or postal service. When you throw in the "I'm going to post the response in my office", that's usually what takes the cake.
For this one Senator, he said it worked every time.