A forgotten narrative from our (anti) colonial past

Before Lexington and Concord, there was Worcester, where in 1774 militia from 37 surrounding towns seized control of the county court in defiance of the British, who had revoked the Massachusetts charter, and by extension, the authority of individual town meetings, in retribution for the Boston Tea Party. What citizens in Worcester did was quickly copied in other Massachusetts shire towns, except in Boston, where British troops guarded the courthouse.

In this TEDx talk, historian Ray Raphael asks why this early story isn't better known and asks who decides which stories are told. If we, the people, are the stewards of our own history, are we too focused on the narratives that come from established authors (Emerson, Longfellow), featuring individual and heroic leaders (Paul Revere on his midnight ride), blood and thunder (the shot heard round the world), and Davids overcoming Goliaths? What stories have we missed? What kinds of resistance might they inspire?

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The Wisconsin Wave points to the corporate connection

Protests continue today in Madison, with thousands of teachers and students, firefighers and police officers, nurses, clerks and, yes, taxpayers, out in the streets and inside the Capitol to oppose the proposed axeing of Wisconsin state employee's collective bargaining rights. Nationally, solidarity demos are planned across the country. (PR Watch has been liveblogging here--this is a great "one stop site" for keeping an eye on events.)

It didn't take long for connections to be made between Wisconsin's budget shortfalls and giveaways and tax breaks to big business, and for people to organize to spotlight and fight these deals.

The Wisconsin Wave is a new group determined to expose and end the kind of government collusion with corporations that's kept profits privatized, losses socialized, and a recession which was technically over in 2009 "live and kickin'" for the vast majority of Americans.

You can hear a press conference with Wisconsin Wave founders Ben Manski, Joe Conway, President of Fire Fighters Local 311 in Madison, Kevin Gibbon, co-president of the Teaching Assistants Association at UW Madison, and others here, thanks to Wisconsin Radio Network, and read about the conference here and here. The group plans to picket Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, a state group that lobbies for corporate interests, tomorrow.

Also of interest: this excerpt from Les Leopold's 2009 book The Looting of America," focusing on how the town of Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, joined with four other districts in a multi-million dollar investment plan with the goal of beefing up a school-employee benefits trust fund--long story short, they were pitched what looked like golden eggs but turned out to be a pile of goose poop, and lost bigtime. While it's possible to fault the school boards on due diligence, it's important to note that no one's yet voted millions in taxpayer money to bail out Whitefish Bay.

Lastly, sometimes solidarity comes with extra cheese: From PRWatch, last night: "Mary Bottari reports that Ian's Pizza, located a few blocks away from the capitol, delivered another 50 pizzas to the WI capitol building. Ian's has received calls from all 50 states and 12 countries from people wanting to support the students and workers. Employees Marty and Lexy have delivered over 1,000 pizzas in recent days. In a five minute perfectly executed operation, they drop off, pick up the empties, and zoom out the door. A cart helps them make it through the slippery streets back to their truck."

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What is corporate personhood?

What is corporate personhood and why is it so important whether institutions have personhood rights? Here's an excerpt from "The Santa Clara Blues: Corporate Personhood versus Democracy" by William Meyers, that lays out the history and the issues at stake. Follow the link to read the complete article.

In the United States of America all natural persons (actual human beings) are recognized as having inalienable rights. These rights are recognized, among other places, in the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment.

Corporate personhood is the idea (legal fiction, currently with force of law) that corporations have inalienable rights (sometimes called constitutional rights) just like real, natural, human persons.

That this idea has the force of law both resulted from the power and wealth of the class of people who owned corporations, and resulted in their even greater power and wealth. Corporate constitutional rights effectively invert the relationship between the government and the corporations. Recognized as persons, corporations lose much of their status as subjects of the government. Although artificial creations of their owners and the governments, as legal persons they have a degree of immunity to government supervision. Endowed with the court-recognized right to influence both elections and the law-making process, corporations now dominate not just the U. S. economy, but the government itself.

Read the entire article here.

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Make sure every vote counts!

A terrific list of to-dos and links, from United for Peace with Justice.

With the election less than a month away, now is the time to make sure that every vote is cast and counted!

In 2000 and 2004, the right-wing machine went national with voter intimidation, misinformation, and other manuevers to steal elections. Possible illegal attempts to remove or block registration are underway right now in six states. Now is the time for the antiwar movement to join election activists in communities to protect the vote. Check with local chapters of NAACP, ADC, AFL-CIO, and the ACLU for efforts already underway (see contact info below).

Resources:

• Vote Early. And encourage others to do so! Thirty states allow early voting; check if yours is one here. Early voting flags registration problems, which can then be addressed before November 4th. In addition, your time can be freed up to help get people to the polls and to be a poll monitor on Election Day.
• Register. In some states, there is still time for people to register to be able to vote in this election. Check the deadline in your state here.
• Poll Monitor. Staffing the polls allows you to be a resource for voters needing assistance and to deal with problems when they occur. Volunteer here or here to be poll monitor in your respective area.
• Join election protection efforts in swing states. Help staff election protection phones: 1-866-OUR-VOTE and, in Spanish, 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA. Or sign up here .
• Legal Assistance on November 4th. Voters have the right to complain on Election Day if they are not allowed to cast their ballot for the candidates of their choice. If they call 1-866-OUR-VOTE or, in Spanish, 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA, they will get legal assistance.
• Write letters to the editors now, giving the numbers listed above to call if voters have problems. State that stolen elections will not be tolerated! Tell your Congressperson and Senator that you take this threat to our vote seriously. Let them know that you expect them to object to the vote count in any state where there are clear examples of election fraud. For background information on what happened in 2004 in Ohio, watch this short video. Click here for an overview of the situation.
• If you have helped register new voters, ask them to confirm their registration before Election Day. Most of this can be done online. Be sure everyone has the number to call if they encounter problems on Election Day. Remind people how important it is to call when problems occur, ideally before leaving the polling station!
• Consider seeking or providing civil disobedience training for election protection volunteers. If there is conflict, it is important to be able to respond in a way that does not fuel the right-wing's desire to discredit our efforts. Thousands of people were involved in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience to secure the right to vote for all. Check here for more information on nonviolent civil disobedience training, resources, and networking.
• Participate in local gatherings on November 5th to review and evaluate the process to make improvements for even better election protection during the 2010 election cycle.

For additional information and tips visit:

ACLU

AFL-CIO voter protection campaign

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

Election Defense Alliance

Election Protection - massive national effort by civil rights lawyers

Just Vote 2008

NAACP

Native Vote

No More Stolen Elections

Poll workers for Democracy

Steal Back Your Vote - a comic book piece to help inspire voter protection work

Video the Vote

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Martial law?

Okay, so what exactly did Brad Sherman mean by "a few members were even told there would be martial law in America" if Congress voted down the bailout plan? In a follow-up to his comments in the House debate, Rep. Sherman said he was simply repeating an example of "the increasingly unbelievable things that had been said while the House considered the bailout package."

Not everyone's reassured, given that the Army has brought a combat team stateside for active duty here in the US, the first time military forces have been deployed on a non-emergency basis on US soil since the Civil War. After watching our civil liberties being chewed away in at atmosphere of hyperpartisan fearmongering, and following hard on the mass arrests at the Republican National Convention, it's not hard to see the groundwork being laid for even wider suppression of Constitutional rights.

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Lawsuit seeks $250,000 in damages for police raid

Former AfD national council member Ted Dooley is one of the attorneys representing Michael Whalen, whose home was raided by St. Paul police working with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security during the Republican National Convention. On Friday, Ted and fellow National Lawyers Guild attorney Peter Nickitas held a press conference to announce that they are suing the city of St. Paul on Michael's behalf, seeking $250,000 in damages. Whalen’s duplex was cordoned off, he and his tenants and guests were held at gunpoint for several hours, and no one was allowed to leave or enter the building. The reason for the raid has never been made public, although charges made on the affidavit submitted for a search warrant don't jibe with charges made by police at the site. Michael's guests included independent media journalists, some of whom were raided again elsewhere during the RNC, and some arrested attempting to document police reaction to protest at the convention.

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Reminder: Two great films on election protection are making the rounds...make sure you see them before it's too late!

Make it a point to see these films soon, and to bring as many people as you can, especially if they're still not sure anything crooked happened in the last few elections.

Stealing America: Vote by Vote is currently playing in selected cities. Make sure to check the film's website and if it's anywhere near you, go. In Cambridge, Mass., members of Election Defense Alliance have been doing Q&A sessions after some of the screenings and have found many people willing to take some pre-emptive actions to prevent election theft. Visit their website for much more information, action suggestions, and links to other national and state-level election protection groups. You can also sign up as a potential independent election exit poll or ballot count volunteer.

If you need another reason to see Stealing America, ask yourself how often a good documentary on a very timely national issue makes it into a "real" movie theater? Support this one now, and you may see more in the future.

And we've posted a few clips from Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections; here's a final one. This film is being screened "houseparty" style, so check their website for screenings in your area, or look up the film at Brave New Theaters. In the trailer, please make a note of the actions you can take to help safeguard the integrity of your vote and the votes of your fellow citizens. Make sure you do at least one of these actions before November (and check out the actions at Election Defense Alliance, too). Democracy protection is everyone's responsibility.

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RNC update

We received an email this morning from United for Peace and Justice on the situation in St. Paul. Briefly, demonstrators there have been met with a heavily armed and aggressive police presence. Police have on occasion deliberately provoked peaceful protesters, used excessive force, harassed people simply walking along the street, stopped and searched vehicles for no clear reason, and raided houses used by organizers.

Leslie Cagan, UFPJ national coordinator, writes:

On Tuesday afternoon, they literally pulled the plug and turned off the electricity at a permitted outdoor concert. The timing of this led to a situation where hundreds of understandably angry people ended up joining a march being led by the Poor Peoples Campaign for Economic Human Rights, a march that organizers were insisting be nonviolent. In other words, the police set up a dynamic that could have turned ugly, but the skill of the organizers kept things calm and focused.

All of this - and much more - needs to be understood in the context of the overwhelming presence of police. Police from all around the Twin Cities have been put to work, and they have also brought in police units from around Minnesota and from as far away as Philadelphia, PA. The National Guard and state troopers are in the mix, to say nothing of the Secret Service, Homeland Security and who knows who else from the federal government!

Clearly our rights to assemble, protest, and speak freely are under attack. With two more days of convention scheduled, UFPJ urges everyone to take two actions:

First, to call the Mayor of St. Paul, Chris Coleman, at 651-266-8510. Tell him you are watching events and that he must stand up for Constitutional rights and reign in the police.

Second, this is a story that's gotten scant play in the media--call the mainstreamers and tell them you have had enough of the Sarah Palin show. Demand they tell the real story of what's happening in St. Paul this week.

For background, UFPJ recommends Marjorie Cohn's Counterpunch article, "Raiding Democracy in St. Paul."

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With the RNC rebooting after Gustav, the focus is again on St. Paul, and its streets, where more than 10,000 protesters marched yesterday, with 284 arrests. Minneapolis St. Paul Indymedia has up-to-the-moment posts, street reports, pictures and video, at twincities.indymedia.org.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has video and photo coverage of the peaceful march and a less-peaceful splinter protest, and two searchable databases--one to the Ramsay County Jail bookings, and one to 2008 campaign contributions (although Twin Cities IndyMedia reports some people are being held without booking). Which side are you on? Check it out here.

Among those illegally arrested Monday was Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, who was called off the RNC convention floor when she learned her producers were facing arrest--she was handcuffed when she responded to investigate. She's charged with a misdemeanor and producers Sharif Abdel Kouddos and Nicole Salazar face felony charges. Read more on their site.

As of this morning, Justice Rising editor Jim Tarbell was not among those on the arrest list--read his dispatches at afdjusticerising.blogspot.com.

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Have you checked out the Headline blog recently?

Rights for nature in Ecuador, an investigation into Karl Rove's Cybergate, and a look at what could be in store for voters in November as they line up to cast their ballots on thousands of substandard and unsecure machines... all on Alliance for Democracy's Headlines blog. Take a look!

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Boston/Cambridge AfD on Cambridge Community TV

Boston/Cambridge AfD's Dave Lewit appeared on Cambridge Community TV on August 10 with housing activist Virginia Pratt. They talked about local chapter work and discussed the corporate role in the foreclosure crisis. With a lot to talk about, Dave may be back on the air with other AfD members in September. Topics might include water, democracy protection, and regional cooperation and autonomy, all areas of interest for the chapter.

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News from Boston-Cambridge and North Bridge chapters

So far this summer, members of the Boston-based Boston Cambridge Alliance and the Concord-area North Bridge Alliance have continued work on some long-term initiatives.

BCA member Joanna Herlihy has been editing video from the 2006 New England Roundtable, which took place in 2006 in Burlington, Vermont. The Roundtable brought academics and civic leaders together to discuss participatory budgeting and democratization of city and regional management. In participatory budgeting, residents come together to discuss and decide budget priorities for their town or city. Some 300 cities and towns in Brazil practice participatory budgeting, including Porto Alegre, a city of 1.3 million people, in which residents meet in city assemblies, determine how money should be spent, and then elect a city budget committee to allocate the city's $200 million dollar budget according to popular priorities. You can read more here.

BCA'er Dave Lewit and North Bridge member Cynthia Ritsher will be helping with the editing process. The video will be used to organize and publicize a proposed new roundtable on regionalization, which chapter members hope to hold early next year.

Chapter organizing for a proposed state-level trade commission continues as well. Dave Lewit attended a June 25 meeting of New Hampshire trade activists, at which two members of that state's Citizens Trade Commission were present, and BCA members Jed Schwartz joined Dave Lewit and former State Rep. Karen O'Donnell to observe a meeting of the trade commission in Concord, New Hampshire on July 7. Vermont Assistant Attorney General Elliot Burg explained to the commissioners how Vermont’s trade commission used hearings and legal handholds to affect pro-corporate US trade agreements. The NH commission proceeded to set up their first hearing. Meanwhile, creation of a Massachusetts commission waits on the passage of our Globalization Impact Bill, which will not emerge from Rules Committee this legislative session, and will depend on our activist efforts beginning again in January.
Chapter members are talking to other state commission members and fair trade organizers to get some ideas on how to improve and update the Massachusetts bill, and we'll be consulting with the bill's sponsor, Rep. Byron Rushing.

Returning from a 4th of July event in Vermont, Cynthia Ritsher and Dave Lewit dialoged with VT state police Sgt. Morton about Democracy Protection. He stressed how Homeland Security used $$ for local staffing to entice police reluctantly into Homeland Security work... Meanwhile Dave is spanning bureaucratic hurdles in dealing with Boston police and ACLU to start a Democracy Protection/Homeland security discussion in Boston. We'd also like to bring the project to Cambridge. To participate, email afd@thealliancefordemocracy.org, or call 781-894-1179. For info on the Democracy Protection toolkit, see the New England chapters' website at www.newenglandalliance.org.

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Updates on war funding and civil liberties legislation

From United for Peace (AfD is a member group), an update on some war funding and civil liberties legislation.

The Iraq funding bill will go back to the House for another vote. UFPJ points out that media coverage has focused on GI Bill funding, and ignores funding the occupation with no strings attached for another year. For talking points to change the discussion, click here. For roll calls on the bill click here.

The Defense Authorization Bill, which funds the Department of Defense to the tune of $600 billion, had a few good amendments attached and some bad ones trimmed. Click on the links for roll calls.

The Lee Amendment passed 234 to 183. It requires congressional approval of any agreement between Bush and Maliki on the long term presence of U.S. troops in Iraq.

The Pierce Amendment, which would have authorized $10 million for a new nuclear warhead, failed 145-271

The Holt Amendment passed 218-192. It requires soldiers in the field to videotape interrogations of prisoners, to prevent abuse.

The Braley Amendment, which requires the President to submit a report to Congress on the long-term costs of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom within 90 days of enactment, passed as well, 245-168.

The Homegrown Terrorism & violent radicalization bill has died in the Senate Homeland Security Committee. But a new FISA bill is being drafted behind closed doors, possibly including the Senate bill's full retroactive telecom immunity provision with only a few cosmetic changes. Once a deal is struck, it could come to the House floor with little warning. So, please contact your representative now and remind them that we're watching. Click here for information.

One last item: Sen. Joseph Lieberman is going after YouTube, asking the online video site to remove postings by “Islamic radical groups”. YouTube said removing content was not so simple, especially without consideration of whether these videos were legal, non-violent, or contained no hate speech. Read more here.

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Call Congress on war funding and SOA amendment

Here's two reasons to get on the phone to Washington--the Congressional switchboard number is 202-224-3121, and a song by Benny Skyn to get you inspired.



First, the Senate will be voting as early as today, May 21, on a $169 billion bill, which will extend the war and occupation in Iraq until next summer. Last week, the House unexpectedly voted down the war funding bill, and it's hoped that with pressure from constituents, the Senate will do right at last and end funding this disaster.

Meanwhile SOA Watch reports that Congress will vote on an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would require that the School of the Americas/WHINSEC release the names, ranks, country of origin, courses and dates attended of students and instructors at the institute. The amendment will be offered by Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA), Representative Joe Sestak (D-PA) and Representative Sanford Bishop (D-GA) and a vote is expected Thursday, May 22.

For the past few years, despite the WHINSEC PR machine proclaiming an open and transparent school, the WHINSEC has been unwilling to provide information about the students and instructors. Freedom of Information Act requests for FY 2005, 2006 and 2007 have all been denied, proof of WHINSEC's unwillingness to submit to oversight from the public whose tax-payer dollars help fund the school.

Access to information regarding SOA/WHINSEC graduates of previous years has been a valuable asset to human rights organizations who have been able to identify Latin American military officers and police that have committed human rights abuses or engaged in criminal activity in their home countries after attending the school as instructors or students. SOA Watch supports the release of this important information at all U.S. military training facilities in the spirit of openness, transparency, and the public's "right to know".

SOA Watch asks you contact your Representative today, Wednesday May 21, and tomorrow, Thursday, May 22. More information is available at their website.

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Our letter to DOJ on collecting DNA

Yesterday the Alliance for Democracy National Council sent a letter to the Justice Department to protest proposed changes to the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005--specifically a change to require collection of DNA from anyone detained by the federal government, including protesters.

Here's the letter:

May 19, 2008
David J. Karp
Senior Counsel, Office of Legal Policy
Room 4509, Main Justice Building
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.
Washington, DC 20530

Re: OAG Docket No. 119

Gentlemen,

The Alliance for Democracy national council is extremely concerned about the Justice Department’s proposed changes for implementation of the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005.

In 2000, the Alliance for Democracy organized the Democracy Brigades—peaceful civil disobedience, exercising our First Amendment rights, in the Capitol Rotunda to call attention to the influence which corporate campaign donors had over policy development in several areas critical to the wellbeing of American citizens. We were proud to take a stand even when doing so meant being arrested, and risking imprisonment or fines. More recently, we have supported members and organizations who have risked similar arrest in order to protest the Iraq war and inaction on climate change.

We believe that harvesting DNA samples from every person arrested is an unnecessary and unwarranted intrusion on civil liberties and personal privacy, designed more to deter individuals from acting on conscience than to protect the public. This proposed change turns the presumption of innocence—a cornerstone of human rights—on its head by presuming that every citizen arrested, for whatever reason, is likely to be guilty of a crime in the future.

We also object to rule changes that will allow DNA to be collected and information stored by private contractors. This will increase the possibilities of loss of, or abuse of, sensitive private information. It will also decrease transparency and accountability. DNA is not just a fingerprint. It is medical information, and should be treated with the same care and confidentiality.

Lastly, this rule, as written, will swell the government’s DNA database with an estimated one million additional samples per year, increasing the chances of mismatches, especially in the case of migrants and minority citizens, who are more likely to be arrested and detained than whites.

The proposed changes are a threat to privacy and civil liberties and will
disproportionately impact minorities and the right to dissent. They should not be implemented.

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Tell the Justice Department to leave your DNA alone!

Let’s say you participate in peaceful civil disobedience on federal property and you’re arrested. If the Justice Department has its way, you won’t just be fingerprinted—you’ll have to give a cheek-swab's worth of DNA to a national database, currently limited to those convicted of crimes, but which the Justice Department would like to expand to include the DNA of anyone arrested or detained by federal authorities (including peaceful protesters).

If you’re found innocent you’ll have to request that the sample be removed, which could be difficult, according to Jesselyn McCurdy, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. The rules change also allows private contractors to collect DNA samples.

Comments on the regulatory change are being taken now at the Justice Department website, but the deadline is Monday, May 19 at 4 p.m. Follow this link to comment (click on either the html or pdf icon to read the proposed changes).

Here’s some points you may want to add to your comment:

• Innocent people do not belong in a criminal DNA database
• DNA is not a mere fingerprint – it contains sensitive medical information that should not be recklessly collected and stored by the government.
• Allowing the collection of DNA samples by third-parties will drastically increase the incidence of errors and outright abuse of private genetic information.

More information and links are available here at Defending Dissent.

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Impeachment Rally in NH on Monday, April 14

FYI, everyone!
New Hampshire Rep. Betty Hall will speak with Daniel Ellsberg, Granny D, Ramsey Clark, Robert Bowman, John Nichols, Phil Burk and . . . Noel Paul Stookey & other honored guests

Monday ~ April 14 2008 ~ 7:00 pm

CAPITOL CENTER FOR THE ARTS
44 S. Main Street ~ Concord, New Hampshire

$14 General Admission Tickets ~ 603-225-1111

Free Parking at Capital Commons Garage on Storrs Street after 5:00 pm

Join us in the Gallery at the NH State House for the historic debate & vote on HR24 ~ April 16, 10:00 am

MORE INFO:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/nh

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Portland (OR) chapter starts postcard campaign against S 1959

David Delk writes from Portland:

The Portland Chapter has a post card campaign opposing the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act. We had a table at this weekend's World Without War rally (it rained but still had about 5000 people - small for Portland but still respectable) and handed out post cards addressed to both our Senators. We got about 75 pair back. We're scheduling meetings with senate staff, and we'll present the postcards then. In the meantime, we will continue to get more.

You can read the postcard text below, and can use it for your own campaign.

Dear Senator:
I am concerned that a stage is being set and that once in place, a play similar to that which allowed Senator Joe McCarthy to stifle political discussion in America will begin again.

The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act passed the House with only 6 "nay" votes because it is only supposed to "study" the problem.

Formed in 1937, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was only supposed to "investigate" the KKK and the rising Nazi threat. HUAC never did "investigate" their target, instead focusing on the political dissidents of the day.

By the time HUAC's reign of terror ended it had created an atmosphere of fear and political conformity that destroyed the lives and careers of thousands of Americans and threatened democracy itself.

We already have laws which appropriately punish action. The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act seeks to control thought and suppress all dissent. VOTE NO ON "THE VIOLENT RADICALIZATION AND HOMEGROWN TERRORISM PREVENTION ACT."

Signed

(The Portland chapter also distributed this article by chapter member Jules Boykoff, a political science professor at Pacific University, which appeared on Commondreams.org in November.)

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Portland (ME) speaks out against “the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act” (S1959)

AfD council member Bonnie Preston, from Maine, sent photos of a protest February 19, in Portland ME, against S1959. Maine's Senator Susan Collins introduced the bill in the Senate; it was passed earlier this year in the House.

RadioActive, a weekly news show on WERU-FM, community radio from Blue Hill, Maine, covered the demonstration, and you can listen to an archive of the broadcast here.

The demonstration brought about 50 people out to hear speakers including Maureen Block, one of the organizers of the event; Shenna Bellows of the Maine Civil Liberties Union; Logan Perkins of the Native Forest Network; and Robert Shetterly, activist/artist, creator of “Americans Who Tell the Truth”. Logan Perkins pointed out that activists are already being harassed in Maine, setting a precedent for even more intimidation if this bill is passed.

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Telecom immunity still at issue as Senate reconvenes

In mid-December, the Democrats in the Senate delayed considering a bill that would grant immunity to telecom companies that were complicit in warrantless surveillance. Thanks to calls to the Senate and a threatened filibuster by Sen. Chris Dodd, the bill containing this measure, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, was tabled until after the Senate’s holiday break in the hopes that a compromise could be worked out.

If you believe that telecom corporations who helped spy on citizens without proper warrants should not be granted immunity from future prosecution, please call your Senators and remind them to vote against telecom immunity.

For background, visit the Electronic Frontier Foundation (their alert is from December, but the information is still good.)

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