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Join 
organizations, and millions of citizens throughout the U.S. in making
tomorrow, Wednesday, January 25 a national day of activism on the
PATRIOT Act and other governmental excesses.
Your phone calls to your Senators and Representative can help curb
unchecked government power!
Last December, Congress extended until February 3rd the 16 PATRIOT Act
provisions that would have otherwise expired on December 31, 2005.
Meanwhile, we have learned about intrusive domestic surveillance by the
FBI, the National Security Agency and the Defense Department. We need
to ensure that the powers in the PATRIOT Act are subject to appropriate
checks and balances, and then move on to addressing the more recent
disclosures of ineffective and over-broad government surveillance.
Your phone calls to your Senators and Representative on January 25 in
support of meaningful reforms can make the difference in restoring our
rights to privacy, free speech, and due process.
We encourage you to:
1. Pass this invitation on to others.
2. Go to http://www.cdt.org/action/patriot/ to get the Washington phone
numbers of your Senators and your Representative, plus info on where
they stand so far. Become better informed, with the resources on our
web site http://www.cdt.org/s...verview2005.php and
http://www.cdt.org/s...riefingbook.php and at the Bill of
Rights Defense Committee web site:
http://bordc.org/inv...esdefending.php ."
It is extremely important that you respond to this CDT Activist Alert. According to this article in the Washington Post http://www.washingto...415.html?sub=AR , talks on improving the privacy provisions of the 'patriot' act are being stalemated by Sensenbrenner: "The chief House negotiator -- Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) -- has said his chamber is finished with talks, dimming hopes for a breakthrough. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) had accepted the House-Senate compromise as a less-than-perfect option. Yesterday, he told colleagues that it probably is the best deal they can get.
"I can tell you, after talking to Chairman Sensenbrenner, that the House feels that they've gone as far as they can go on compromises on the act," Specter told colleagues. "And I think the reality may be that we're looking at either the current act extended [beyond Feb. 3], or the conference report," which continues to draw opposition from most Senate Democrats and four Republicans."
As I've mentioned before, the whole war to rein in excessive, illegal government extensions of power will be decided by this one particular battle over 'patriot' act re-authorization - because it's happening right now, prior to and independant of any future "hearings" over abuse of Executive powers.
You...need...to...call...your...Reps...today. What you say to them is up to you, but what I'm going to say is the following:
"As your constitutent, I am totally opposed to passage of the "conference report" on the 'patriot' act re-authorization as written. I urge you to either demand adoption of the Senate version, keep the OLD 'patriot' act in force with no further expansion of powers and with the four-year reviews kept IN - or to allow all 16 "sunset" provisions to SUNSET."
(Driving home that message by backing up the phone call with a FAX or an email that says the same thing would be helpful in the extreme also. Go to http://www.theorator.com/senate.html and http://www.theorator...ment/house.html to get the FAX and email addresses of your Reps and send it to all of them).
Lose this battle and you lose the war. It's that simple. Pete
