This is the message I sent to Pres. Obama on the White House contact page:Mr. President, Congratulations on your Nobel Peace Prize—it certainly puts you in good company and gives you greater responsibility. I am curious to see how your status as a war president—they are now your wars, no longer Mr. Bush's—and a supporter of continuing the many provisions of the PATRIOT act that I feel have outlived their emergency usefulness, despite the FBI's claims to the contrary (they have a vested interest in making their work easier; my loyalty is to the Constitutional protection from unreasonable search). Naturally, I cannot as a citizen truly evaluate their claims, but if there is indeed a current TERRORISM-RELATED investigation that could be compromised by a nonrenewal of certain provisions, the renewal could be designed in such a way as to "grandfather in" that particular investigation and the provision in question be terminated upon the conclusion of that specific investigation. I was a supporter during your presidential campaign; I am a member of GetFISARight on Organizing for America and elsewhere, and I hope that the confidence in you that is expressed by the Nobel committee proves to be justified. Please, for our world, our nation, and yourself, make it so!
I offer it as the basis of our group letter, if you so choose, or start new! But please, let's get started!

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The site makes the opening statement: "We are a proud group of Obama supporters who believe in his call for hope and a new kind of politics." I have a number of problems with this statement. What specifically, is 'his call'? Forget the messianic feeling wording like 'his call' evokes. Is it a call to prayer, worship, war? I voted for the man, so I supported what I thought his words meant, but he must put accomplishment behind the words, and earn my support on a daily basis. I absolutely do not support any political or government leader as an individual personality. I support his presidency, so long as his presidency serves the interest of the common good of the people. Blind support for and faith in an individual can turn a leader with good potential into a tyrant.

'A new kind of politics'? Again, I do not know what this means, but it sounds so good. Everybody takes away their own personal image from the statement, yet, few agree what the image is. Have we not learned anything about political speech in the last thousand years? With this internet and mass media of ours, can we not do a respectable job of nulling this high-sounding, but 'meaning anything to anybody' language?

If the 'incremental and temporary improvements' of the pending FISA legislation are to be more than a fleeting appeasement, something that can be taken back by a dysfunctional Congress, or ignored, then we had better understand the interrelationship between some small words which provide cover for very hideous relationships and activities. Some of the small words are partisanship, special interests, corporatism, oligarchy, monopoly, etc, etc. Dysfunctional? How about 'counterproductive'? Let it sink in, it's not a trivial condition, counterproductivity of the Congress, given their theoretical role in the Democracy.

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top edhardy t-shirt www.lookedhardy.com

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What is ACTA? An international intellectual property trade agreement,
being negotiated in secret by U.S., EU, Japan, et al. Leaked proposed
wording indicates it may require ISPs not only to tell law enforcement
who is doing what but to disconnect customers for *suspicion* of
intellectual property violations:

http://www.eff.org/issues/acta

Who's against it? Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown, for two, and
notice their Cc: to Joe Biden:

http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/sanders_brown_acta.pdf

Should Get FISA Right include ACTA in its campaigns?

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Okay, we have a new kind of account at Change.Org, and I have the bare bones presence set up for it. Under its auspices, we've posted a petition using their new petition tool. Here are the things we still need to do:

1. Publicize the petition
* The URL is: http://www.change.org/get_fisa_right/actions/view/get_fisa_rights_open_letter_to_president_obama
2. Post a blog on Change.org point to the petition and everything else
3. Those of us who have change.org accounts should join the new non-profit
* The URL is: http://www.change.org/get_fisa_right
4. Someone (me at least) needs to buff up our about/mission/history statements
* For this you need an account at bloggers.change.org, I believe

For those who are confused about our new account and our existing presence on Change.org, here's what Robin at Change.org wrote to me:

"creating a nonprofit profile on the site is different from having an Ideas for Change presence. Ideas for change is an annual event and soon we will be launching a new version of the site where people will submit all new ideas. A nonprofit profile is for an organization to use that is going to regularly run campaigns on the site so they can all be housed somewhere."

Hope his explanation helps.

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Please keep it up. Don't have the energy to participate more actively atm, but I've been lurking and following.
I really think this issue is a good acid test for people of our outlook.

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http://rawstory.com/2009/11/feds-wanted-data-visitors-news-site/

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please help me out

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I agree that the NPP paragraph should be scrapped. However, if it is decided that we should reference the NPP, the intro should be short and to the point. Perhaps something like...

"Congratulations on winning the highly esteemed NPP; we proudly believe that you are a man on the cusp of greatness."

Also, imho, the second paragraph should be scrapped and it's points should be inserted into other sentences as needed.

Perhaps the first paragraph in this open letter should be like the third paragraph in the current draft... try something direct to the purpose of this letter... without a long rambling preamble... perhaps...

"Patriot Act and FISA reform are once again before Congress; now is the perfect time to follow through on your commitment to preserve American civil liberties and to curb executive branch abuses against the US Constitution."

Once the first sentence is settled, it will set the pace and tone of the remaining letter.

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I agree with ddearborn and suggest adopting her suggestions.
The tone of the letter seems derogatory to the President.
We should be able to site concerns than suggest changes politely.

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