12 Days of EFF

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NSA Wiretap Voyeurs

Free the Airwaves

Since Google's announcement of the Free the Airwaves campaign, there has been renewed interest in wireless broadband, municipal wi-fi, white spaces -- all long-standing efforts to bring more Internet to more people by making Internet access available in the airwaves, instead of through underground wires. Faster, cheaper wireless Internet access is an exciting prospect with near-universal benefits to the American public -- but for the moment, its growth rests in the hands of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Within the next few months, the FCC is expected to decide the fate of cutting-edge wireless access through a proceeding titled "Unlicensed Operation in the TV Broadcast Bands". Ideally, the FCC will permit new technologies to take advantage of unused "white space" spectrum to send and receive data wirelessly. Allowing open, unlicensed use could pave the way for faster, cheaper wireless broadband -- leading to more ISP choices for consumers and a source of continued pressure for ISPs to maintain net neutrality.

Despite the obvious benefits to the public, the television industry and other broadcasting industries are fighting to keep the white spaces locked down. They claim that the new devices might interfere with the spectrum currently used for TV channels. While the FCC Office of Engineering Technology has been testing devices that dodge the spectrum used by TV channels, their findings are likely to avoid advising the commission to decide one way or another.

The public must be heard also -- don't let the massive TV broadcasting lobby kill this opportunity.

Tell the FCC to support innovation and the Internet by opening up the unused parts of the TV spectrum.

Repeal the REAL ID Act

The federal government has taken another step towards forcing you to carry a national ID in order to get on airplanes, open a bank account, enter federal buildings, and much more. But with state legislatures and Congressional representatives increasingly turning against the REAL ID Act, you can help stop this costly, privacy-invasive mandate. Write to your members of Congress and voice your opposition to REAL ID now!

In January, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the "final rule" on REAL ID, describing the requirements and procedures for transforming state ID cards into REAL IDs. Congressional leaders responded with scathing criticisms of REAL ID, recognizing that the provisions pass the cost of ID changes on to taxpayers, do not improve national security, and do not protect the privacy of Americans. Many of the Congressional leaders called for a repeal of REAL ID -- and they're supported by a number of states, some of which have even passed legislation opposing REAL ID.

The overwhelming sentiment shared by legislators, state officials, and citizens is obvious -- repeal REAL ID!

Contact your Senators and Representative

Tell Your Senator to Uphold Their Oath to SUPPORT and DEFEND the Constitution RIGHT NOW

Link

"I have to say that no senator, Republican or Democrat, should be voting for this Senate bill. Not one. Everyone who does so is in fact, I would say, violating his or her oath to defend the Constitution. But they can do better than that." - Daniel Ellsberg

"Think about what we’ve been hearing from the White House in this debate. The President has said that American lives will be sacrificed if Congress does not change FISA. But he has also said that he will veto any FISA bill that does not grant retroactive immunity. No immunity, no new FISA bill. So if we take the President at his word, he is willing to let Americans die to protect the phone companies. The President’s insistence on immunity as a precondition for any FISA reform is yet another example of his disrespect for honest dialogue and for the rule of law.

It’s painfully clear what the President’s request for retroactive immunity is really about. It’s a self-serving attempt to avoid legal and political accountability and keep the American public in the dark about this whole shameful episode." - Senator Kennedy




Frontline documentary

Don't Shred the Constitution after July 4th

Contact your Senators

After the Fourth of July holiday, the Senate will vote on the FISA Amendments Act (FAA), a bill that would betray the spirit of 1776 by radically expanding the president’s spying powers and granting immunity to the companies that colluded in his illegal program. Now that the House has passed the FAA, the Senate is the last front left in the battle against immunity, and every vote -- from cloture, to the amendments, to final passage -- counts.

Therefore EFF urges all patriots to celebrate the Fourth of July this year by demanding that their senators uphold the rule of law and stand up for civil liberties, by voting against the FAA and for the amendments to the bill that would eliminate or weaken its telecom immunity provisions.

FISA and Senator Feingold

Very cool - my good friend HC has a Senator that understands the basic issue at stake with the FISA Telecom Immunity provision of the bill - rule of law should never benefit anyone in particular - it should always be unbiased and objective and he's always stood up for that regardless of the bill or inquiry committee he's sat on.

Contact your Senators and let them know what you think about this issue. Telecoms should be heard in court by an unelected judiciary on domestic wiretapping and spying - this should not be legislated away as being ok while the President is using Americans as a test case to un-Constitutionally exceed check and balance authority without judicial review.

Senate Delays Vote on Immunity

Contact Your Senators

It's official: Thanks to overwhelming grassroots action, and the heroic efforts of Senators Dodd and Feingold, the Senate's vote on whether to grant phone companies immunity from the law for assisting in the President's illegal wiretapping program has been delayed until after July 4th Recess!

This is an unexpected reprieve for civil liberties and the rule of law. As recently as last night, the mainstream press was reporting that the immunity bill would see swift and uncontested approval. Senate Leaders emphasized that passing an immunity bill this week was one of their highest priorities. And yet, in the end, the bill simply wasn't as uncontested and noncontroversial as the pundits and politicans thought it was.

Net Neutrality Rock

Click to contact your Representative

AT & Treason

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End Warrantless Wiretapping

Contact your Representative then sign the petition.

Big Brother

The FBI is gearing up to create a massive computer database of people's physical characteristics, all part of an effort the bureau says to better identify criminals and terrorists. The FBI wants to use eye scans, combined with other data, to help identify suspects.

But it's an issue that raises major privacy concerns -- what one civil liberties expert says should concern all Americans.

"It's the beginning of the surveillance society where you can be tracked anywhere, any time and all your movements, and eventually all your activities will be tracked and noted and correlated," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Technology and Liberty Project.

People who don't think mistakes are going to be made I don't think fly enough," said Steinhardt.

He said thousands of mistakes have been made with the use of the so-called no-fly lists at airports -- and that giving law enforcement widespread data collection techniques should cause major privacy alarms.

"There are real consequences to people," Steinhardt said.

(Click title above to read full article or 'Big Brother' for George Orwell.)

Stop Senate from Giving Wiretapping Immunity

The Senate is voting whether to give AT&T immunity for illegally wiretapping customer phone conversations and giving them to the NSA without court order.

Click the image or title bar to email your Senators to oppose this effort, and pass it on!

No Amnesty for AT&T's Illegal Wiretapping

Contact your Senators and Representative - let them know you oppose a bill in Congress to let AT&T and other telecoms avoid a lawsuit for listening in on all phone and internet traffic of the citizens of the United States.

Escalation

NSFW

All Orwell's Works

All of George Orwell's writings online. The author of 1984 and Animal Farm (i.e. the Bush Administration) had some accurately prescient ideas about the present-day world half a century ago. The three tenets of Big Brother from his novel '1984' are eerily reflected in modern life:

1) War is Peace
2) Freedom is Slavery
3) Ignorance is Strength

“I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace.” - George W. Bush

Orwell was already furious at Cheney's lapdog Bush 50 years before they were appointed by the Supreme Court as a scourge on the planet.

Orwell is always great autumn Saturday afternoon reading - his intelligence and caustic wit make you look at the world in a new way, regardless of your beliefs.