… and this time it’s worse!
The House Judiciary Committee approved renewing three awful provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act:
- Extend through Dec 31st, 2017 Section 215 powers which let the government secretly grab information about you without a court order;
- Extend through Dec 31st, 2017 roving wiretaps which let the government spy on people without even telling courts who they’re spying on;
- Make permanent the “lone wolf” provision which lets strip the rights of American citizens and treat them under the lower legal standards reserved for enemy governments.
The PATRIOT Act has increased the government’s ability to spy on us without adding the oversight needed to make sure the FBI and other agencies are not abusing these powers. This bill will come before the full House soon and now is the time to contact our Representatives and Senators and tell them that they should stand up for the privacy of all Americans and against government surveillance. Representatives Keating, Lynch and Tsongas were not with us and it vital that we contact them as well as a our Senators and tell them to defend our liberties!
You can email them or call them at the numbers listed below:
- 1st Congressional District – John Olver – (202) 225-5335 / (413) 532-7010
- 2nd Congressional District – Richard Neal – (202) 225-5601 / (413) 785-0325
- 3rd Congressional District – James McGovern – (202) 225-6101 / (508) 831-7356
- 4th Congressional District – Barney Frank – (202) 225-5931
- 5th Congressional District – Niki Tsongas – (202) 225-3411 / (978) 459-0101
- 6th Congressional District – Jonathan Tierney – (202) 225-8020 / (781) 595-7375
- 7th Congressional District – Ed Markey – (202) 225-2836 / (508) 875-2900
- 8th Congressional District – Michael Capuano – (202) 225-5111 / (617) 621-6208
- 9th Congressional District – Stephen Lynch – (202) 225-8273 / (617) 428-2000
- 10th Congressional District – William Keating – (202) 225-3111 / (617) 770-3700
To find out who your representative is, please visit Where Do I Vote MA and enter your address.
You can reach our Senators at:
Scott Brown
(202) 224-4543
http://scottbrown.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/emailscottbrownJohn Kerry
(202) 224-2742
http://kerry.senate.gov/contact/
Learn more about the issues…
We will be giving a talk entitled Culture Should be Shared, Not Monopolized at the Play-jurisms conference on May 21st at 4:30pm in Cambridge. There will be large number of talks on art and appropriation over Saturday and Sunday. You can find a schedule here.
You can RSVP for our talk at http://twvt.us/MPPJ11
… and if you cannot join us on May 21st why not the 29th!
Please join us on Sunday, May 29th, for our monthly meeting / social. The meeting starts at 2pm. We will start the grill around 4pm and go until 6pm. It will be at 25 Moore St., Somerville, MA. Please tell us whether you will attend by signing up at our Facebook event or via Tweetvite.
Looking to organize your neighborhood?
In order to help our fellow pirates organize their neighborhoods for the pirate cause, we updated our website with our latest flier, an organizing guide and a sign up sheet. You can find them at our Help Build the Party page. We would love to get your opinions on how we can improve them or you can update the organizing guide yourself. Thanks!
Links mentioned
USA PATRIOT Act – https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/USA_PATRIOT_Act
Email your representatives – https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
Play-jurisms conference – http://playjurisms.wordpress.com/
… and schedule – http://playjurisms.wordpress.com/schedule/
Tell us you will attend our Play-jurism’s talk – http://twvt.us/MPPJ11
Sign up for the Pirate Social on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=102255399862111
… and Tweetvite – http://tweetvite.com/event/MPMay11Soc
Our Help Build the Party page – http://www.masspirates/blog/help-build-the-party/
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