Pending Patriot Act Extension Feb. 2011

[Patrick Bruckart]

Greetings Everyone,
If you have not already heard, several provisions of the Patriot Act
are currently up for renewal and I wanted to reach out to you for
help. There are currently 2 bills in Congress (possibly more):

HR 67 has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee: Subcommittee
on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security and the House Intelligence
Committee (Permanent Select).

S. 193 (Leahy) has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee
where it is scheduled to be considered ***** Feb. 3, 10:00am. ******

http://thomas.loc.gov/ (Information on Bills and Status)

On the Leahy bill:

Check out: http://leahy.senate.gov/press/press_releases/release/?id=16e3e765-00e7-48eb-add7-a64f415e9c1d
(Sen. Leahy's Press Release: Includes text of bill and Sen. Leahy's
comments on it.)

http://www.aclu.org/national-security/senator-leahy-introduces-bill-extend-problematic-sections-patriot-act
(ACLU Press Release on the Leahy Bill)

On the House Bill:

Please check http://thomas.loc.gov/ for further info.

-----

Here are a few links for general info:

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/the-sun-never-sets-on-the-patriot-act/
("The Sun Never Sets On The Patriot Act," by Julian Sanchez)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs4xgym8G4U (VIDEO: "Renewing the
Patriot Act While America Sleeps.")

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/oped/2011/jan/30/tdopin02-watchdogs-give-obama-a-pass-ar-806650/
(Richmond Times-Dispatch Op/Ed from Sunday, Jan. 30, On Obama's Civil
Liberties record. Also hits the Patriot Act pretty hard)

-----

Please call your Representatives and Senators and express your
objections to the Patriot Act and tell them to include substantive,
concrete changes to protect your civil liberties and/or individual
rights in any sections of the legislation that are extended.

Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121

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There is a petition to sign here:

http://act.demandprogress.org/act/patriotact/

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Additionally, If you're on Facebook, please visit the "Fix the Patriot
Act and FISA" group here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=134538932549

We have been posting links, engaging in discussion and encouraging
folks to call their reps. and get involved. Even if you only have time
to pop in and "like" a link or a comment, it would be a big help. In
doing so, you are essentially voting that content up, increasing its
relevance and ranking in people's "Top News" feeds.

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Thanks for your time and consideration of the above info.

-Patrick Bruckart

[Jon Pincus]

We'll be discussing Patriot Act extension on the Twitter Privacy chat
Tuesday at noon p.m Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Whether or not you're on
Twitter, you can follow along at http://tweetchat.com/room/privchat

For more about #privchat, see http://www.talesfromthe.net/jon/?p=2345

jon

--
liminal states <http://talesfromthe.net/jon>, my blog
qw3ries.net <http://twitter.com/qw3ries>, coming soon

[Patrick Bruckart]

I just received this article via a Google alert. It's not good news,
but could be motivation to move quickly on activism.

http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/2185-Democrats-and-Republicans-alike-rush-to-extend-the-PATRIOT-Act
"Democrats and Republicans alike rush to extend the PATRIOT Act"

"Notably, both Senate bills would extend the [Patriot Act] provisions
until 2013 while both House bills would extend them only until next
February. Apparently Republicans think having this reauthorization
debate again in 2012 is good for them [electorally]. Democrats, not so
much. Regardless of the political considerations, though, it’s pretty
clear that the powers that be, in both parties, want the PATRIOT Act
extended. There aren’t too many other issues that you’re likely to see
this level of quick, co-ordinated and top-down bipartisan action on."

-Patrick Bruckart

[Patrick Bruckart]

A few relevant and hopefully helpful links. Please post any comments,
additional links or action alerts that you've run across. Thanks!

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/01/31/5960563-eff-fbi-violated-your-civil-liberties
EFF: FBI Violated Your Civil Liberties (Retrieved 2/1/2011)

"The EFF doesn't want you to just absorb all this info and despair,
becoming discouraged and cynical about your own government. They want
you to do something about it! They want you, as a voter and actively
engaged citizen, to crank it up with your congressional reps and
revamp the USA Patriot Act, which is due to expire in late February."


http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/45976-leahy-reintroduces-bill-to-restore-reader-privacy-protections.html
Leahy Reintroduces Bill to Restore Reader Privacy Protections
(Retrieved 2/1/2011)

[Campaign for Reader Privacy Supports Leahy Bill]

“The Campaign for Reader Privacy, organized in 2004 by the American
Booksellers Association, the American Library Association, the
Association of American Publishers, and PEN American Center,
represents librarians, booksellers, authors, and publishers. The
campaign supports the USA Patriot Act Sunset Extension Act of 2011.
Still, the bill does not provide additional protection for bookstore
customers’ records, which could still be searched whenever the FBI
believes they are “relevant.” Barbara Jones, director of the ALA’s
Office for Intellectual Freedom, is asking Congress to protect the
privacy of reader records in bookstores as well as libraries.”


http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=10511 EFF exposes
extensive FBI violations (Retrieved 2/1/2011)

"'Congress, however, has an opportunity to remedy these abuses:
portions of the USA PATRIOT Act expire in late February, and a bill
has already been introduced in the House of Representatives to
reauthorize it,'" concludes the EFF.

“'Instead of simply rubber-stamping the intelligence community’s
continuing abuse of Americans’ civil liberties, Congress should seize
this opportunity to investigate the practices of the FBI and other
intelligence agencies, and to demand greater accountability,
disclosure, and reporting from these agencies. Until then, the FBI’s
pattern of misconduct will undoubtedly continue.'"

**(Source of above quote: https://www.eff.org/pages/patterns-misconduct-fbi-intelligence-violations)


-Patrick Bruckart