Here's a communication from PEN
Dear Friends and Activists,
Notwithstanding the couple thousand valiant activists who submitted
our last action page on this, perhaps everyone missed that we also
just opened up a page on the new People Lobby resource to protest by
phone to members of Congress and the related committees about NSA
mass data collection.
Stop NSA Mass Surveillance with The People Lobby:
http://www.peoplelobby.org/?i=
PLEASE pick up a phone and make a couple toll-free calls to tell our
legislators to save the 4th Amendment. If you have not already gotten
set up on the new site, anyone who has can tell you how easy it is.
Using this new tool we can make a public record of what our members
of Congress are saying in response to our phone advocacy. We have
already had a real impact using it in the Trans Pacific Partnership
struggle.
And if you can't make any phone calls yourself, at least make sure
you have submitted our regular easy action page on this.
Stop NSA Mass Surveillance Action Page:
http://www.peaceteam.net/
We are still sending out our beautiful new "Don't Spy On Us" bumper
stickers to anyone who requests one, and there is no contribution
required, not even shipping. Of course, if you can make a donation of
any amount, this is what makes it possible for us to send free
stickers to anyone who cannot afford to make a contribution right
now.
Don't Spy On Us bumper stickers:
http://www.peaceteam.net/all_
It is appalling to us some of the email we have received on this
issue. There are actually people who say, "I'm not a terrorist, why
should I worry?"
Well, we'll tell you why. The FBI spent years spying on Martin Luther
King, and then actually tried to blackmail him over his non-criminal
marital indiscretions. When government seizes this kind of power it
ALWAYS ends up being used for POLITICAL purposes.
Now they are spying like that on EVERYONE. If Paul Revere were alive
today, he would be on his horse right now, "The NSA is coming, the
NSA is coming!" Except, they are here already.
We were astonished when the RNC came out the other day with a
statement in opposition to the NSA gross abuses. So where are the
voices of most of the liberals and progressives in this country? If
Dick Cheney were president today, and doing exactly what we know is
going on now, you all would be screaming at the top of your lungs.
And you know it.
It is a lie that they are not listening to our phone calls. They are
doing worse than that. They are recording and storing everything. The
new 2 billion dollar data center in Utah is conservatively estimated
to have a capacity of 12 exabytes ALREADY. That's 12 million 1
terabyte hard drives, which if they were stacked atop one another
would reach 189 miles into space, almost to the orbit of the
international space station.
That represents 50 years of the recorded content of every phone call
made in the US. The metadata is just the tip of the iceberg. There is
no excuse for developing this kind of storage capacity for any other
reason except the mass collection of all electronic data.
We actually got one email from someone today naive enough to think
that we can work on other issues, not bothering with this one. If the
government has the power to target and persecute people on a
political basis, all real possibilities of progressive policy change
are foreclosed. Without decisive action on this there is no other
issue.
And the worst part of it is that none of this is making us safer in
any way. The government just admitted in Court that not a single
terrorist plot as been foiled by all this mass surveillance. If
anything, it results in real threats been missed in the mammoth
haystack if irrelevant data. It makes the totalitarians safer, from
accountability, NOT the American people.
Whether you speak out in protest or not, they are still listening.
They are still recording and storing everything. So you might as well
speak out affirmatively. And whether or not you personally trust the
smiley president of the moment, despite all the compelling evidence
that you cannot, a slight shift of the political winds puts us all in
the crosshairs of the most authoritarian dictator you can imagine.
This is no joke. For crying out loud, even the RNC is starting to get
it. We'll ask it again, what is wrong with the rest of us?
You may forward this message to any friends who would find it
important.
Contributions to The People's Email Network are not tax-deductible
for federal income tax purposes.
If you would like to be added to our distribution list, go to
http://www.peaceteam.net/in.
Or if don't want to receive our messages, just go to
http://www.peaceteam.net/out.
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