If you're a blogger, please try to find time for a post about the PATRIOT Act There's a big Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday, October 8, with votes likely on two amendments from Russ Feingold: one to strengthen protections against abuse of National Security Letters, and another to repeal retroactive telecom immunity. This is a key battle in the PATRIOT Act reauthorization process and so it would be great to get support from bloggers of all stripes. It doesn’t have to be a fancy post -- even a short one is enough to make a difference So If you get a chance between now and Tuesday evening, please try to get something up with three key messages for your readers: There are major votes this Thursday in the Senate Judiciary Committee on the PATRIOT Act and FISA We are planning some online activism during the hearing, so please sign up for the Action to fix the Patriot Act Facebook event On Twitter, thank Arlen Specter for his vote last week, and ask him to support Russ Feingold this Thursday. See How to help bring Justice to the Patriot Act and FISA for more things you can do right now The rest of this page has information, links, images, and videos ... feel free to copy anything here and use it as a starting point. And once you do post, please tweet it to the #patriotact hashtag on Twitter so people can find out about it. You can follow the conversation on #patriotact on our wiki at http://get-fisa-right.wetpaint.com/. We could really use the support from the blogosphere. Please try to find a few minutes to help.

Summary

The Senate Judiciary Committee markup of the Leahy PATRIOT Act reauthorization bill is continuing Thursday, October 8, with votes scheduled on amendments from Russ Feingold to strengthen protections against abuse of National Security Letters and repeal retroactive telecom immunity. These votes will have a major impact on the Senate legislation, so this is a key battle to win.

Between now and then, we need to pressure Democrats on the SJC to support Russ Feingold, Dick Durbin, and the other Senators who have sponsored the JUSTICE Act, a comprehensive approach to reforming the PATRIOT Act. A broad coalition including EFF, the ACLU, Bill of Rights Defense Committee, the American Library association and many other organizations support the JUSTICE Act

Our ask is straightforward: "Support the JUSTICE Act": vote for the amendments on Thursday, and sign on as co-sponsors to the JUSTICE Act.he Leahy PATRIOT Act reauthorization bill is the best chance yet for significant reform.

Ways to help

• On Twitter: tweet the link to this page, then follow the action on the #patriotact hashtag and retweet early and often! Here's three tweets to start you out:
• RT @getfisaright: Facebook action Tuesday night to fix the #patriotact: http://bit.ly/oct6fb #privacy
• RT @eff: Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger: PATRIOT Edition: http://eff.org/r.1n #patriotact
  
• @SenArlenSpecter: Thanks for your #patriotact vote. Please support @RussFeingold this Thursday! http://act.ly/mp (pls RT)
• On Facebook: share this link in your feed, and join the PASS the JUSTICE Act group.
  
• On the phone: call your Senators and SJC members and ask them to support the JUSTICE Act. Contact information for the SJC members is below.
  
• On the web: ACLU, EFF, DownSizeDC, and CREDO Action all have sites which make it easy to email your Senators.
  
• If you blog: repost these instructions -- or see our blogger resources page if you'd like to do more
  

For more information

• Can Skittles help fix the PATRIOT Act and FISA?, Jon Pincus, The Seminal
  
• Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger: PATRIOT Edition -- Kevin Bankton's latest update from EFF.
• PATRIOT Reauthorization Begins. Badly. -- ACLU
  
• Lawmakers Cave to FBI in Patriot Act Debate, David Kravetz, Wired's Threat Level
  
• Real Reform for the PATRIOT Act, Julian Sanchez, The American Prospect (also posted on Cato@Liberty)
• Comparisons of the JUSTICE Act and Leahy's bill from Center for Democracy and Technology, Julian Sanchez on Cato@Liberty, and Marcy Wheeler on Emptywheel
  
• Action Alerts from the American Library Association, DownSizeDC, and Democrats.com
  
• Reform the Patriot Act, with a wealth of information
• Letter to the Senate Judiciary committee from a coalition of 23 organizations
  
• The coalition's letter in Support of the JUSTICE Act and statements of support from EFF and the ACLU
• Senator Feingold's JUSTICE Act announcement

Embeds

Stop spying on Americans image (courtesy of CREDO Action)

http://act.credoaction.com/images/campaigns/doj_stop_spying.gif

act.ly petition

<script src="http://act.ly/widget/firebox/ln?recruiter=GetFISARight" type="text/javascript"></script>

Feingold successfully offers sneak-and-peak amendment (Oct. 1)

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Feingold questions Assistant AG David Kris


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Franken video

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Contact information for the Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats we will be showing the way on this issue:

SJC Senate Democrat	DC Office Phone Number	Facebook Account	Twitter Account
Chairman Patrick Leahy	(202) 224-4242	Leahy Facebook
Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI)	(202) 224-5653	Kohl Facebook
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)	(202) 224-3841	Feinstein Facebook
Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-WI)	(202) 224-5323	Feingold Facebook	@RussFeingold
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY)	(202) 224-6542	Schumer Facebook	@ChuckSchumer
Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Illinois)	(202) 224-2152	Durbin Facebook
Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD)	(202) 224-4524	Cardin Facebook
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)	(202) 224-2921	Whitehouse Facebook
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)	(202) 224-3244	Klobuchar Facebook
Sen. Edward E. Kaufman (D-DE)	(202) 224-5042	Kaufman Facebook
Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA)	(202) 224-4254	Specter Facebook	@SenArlenSpecter
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN)	202-224-5641	Franken Facebook

About Get FISA Right

The "Senator Obama, Please Get FISA Right" MyBo group started organically before a group of volunteers helped it go viral in 2008. Bloggers were undoubtedly instrumental in that effort through their writing----and we need your help again today!

As the MyBo group gained a large following, we used a wiki/collaborative process to create an open letter to Obama. A vast amount of blog coverage begot MSM coverage, and in unprecedented fashion Obama responded to the group both on MyBo and on the Huffington Post. We lost the legislative battle--and the content of Obama's response was not what we were hoping for--but we were successful at helping change the national debate, attaining Obama's attention, and successfully opening up a direct line of communication with him.

Now, with PATRIOT Act and FISA reform coming up, many of us are back and ready to expand upon last summers' successes. Please join us Organizing for America, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and Wetpaint.