Telecom Immunity Showdown in the Senate Today

CPeanutG writes "A make-or-break moment for telecom immunity has arrived — after months of back-room committee-meetings, the FISA bill will finally reach the Senate floor on Monday! Unfortunately, a previously-reported version of the bill that grants telecom immunity will be presented to the Senate on Monday morning. The clock is ticking. Write your Senators now."

Comments

Senate contact info

[Presto Vivace]

Senate contact information

Writing won't work... Try this

[CambodiaSam]

I was at a conference a few years ago where a former US Senator told us exactly how to get the attention of your congressman. Sending an email is a black hole and won't get noticed. A hand written letter is much better, but it has to go through all of that Anthrax screening and will probably get delayed 6-8 weeks. The solution? Faxing.

Here's what you you:

1. Hand write the letter of your dreams and include these aspects:
    a. Make sure it's not overly emotional
    b. Mention how you will be "posting the response in our place of business" near the end
    c. Mention how many voters currently work in your office and that you are all anxiously awaiting the response
    d. Include a response fax number, email, and more
2. Fax the letter to the congressman's office (you can usually find their number online)
3. Watch for your reply!

Apparently this method will get your letter to the top of the pile since it's personalized, instantly delivered via an underutilized technology, and it mentions votes.

Enjoy!

Re:Writing won't work... Try this

[CambodiaSam]

Sure, you can even go to congress.org and find them. The problem is really with priorities. As the senator stated in the speech I saw (it was a private function for a company annual meeting, so he didn't have to worry about cameras or reporters), they get literally thousands of emails a day.

It's a shear numbers game. Most aren't even from people in their district. Whenever a hot button topic is up for a vote, the interested parties will rally their faithful and bombard them with form letter emails or calls to action. For example, a telephone company will probably circulate an email telling the thousands of employees to email their congressman to vote for/against whatever is in their interest, and even have the whole thing written up with just a "Submit" button and email textbox left for the sheep to fill in.

The Senator said that this is essentially useless, as they have all caught on, and that it's probably not representative of actual people's opinions, just special interests using people as tools. Phone calls are a little more effective, but it's indirect. You end up talking to an intern who then relays "100 for, 345 against today's bill Sir".

The handwritten letter is the best. It shows time was taken. Faxing it usually gets noticed since nobody faxes things to them. It's all email or postal service. When you throw in the "I'm going to post the response in my office", that's usually what takes the cake.

For this one Senator, he said it worked every time.

Chris Dodd leads the way

[Liberaltarian]

Thankfully, Chris Dodd (D-Jowls) will be leading a filibuster in the Senate. Let's hope other Senators join and support him (call your congresscritters!).

Here's a good outline of what will be going down.

Crooks and Liars

[christurkel]

http://www.crooksandliars.com/ is running a thread where you can post a letter to be read by Senator Dodd during his filibuster.

Anthrax

[Presto Vivace]

After anthrax was sent to Senators Leahy and Daschle the mail procedures were change such that paper mail wont reach the Senate office until months too late. In a fight such as this volume everything. Contacting a Senator through his senate web site is the fastest, most convenient way, or telephone.

There must be some industry protections

[gambolt]

Here's the problem, from the FISA as it stands:

An aggrieved person, other than a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power, as defined in section 1801 (a) or (b)(1)(A) of this title, respectively, who has been subjected to an electronic surveillance or about whom information obtained by electronic surveillance of such person has been disclosed or used in violation of section 1809 of this title shall have a cause of action against any person who committed such violation and shall be entitled to recover--
(a) actual damages, but not less than liquidated damages of $1,000 or $100 per day for each day of violation, whichever is greater;
(b) punitive damages; and
(c) reasonable attorney's fees and other investigation and litigation costs reasonably incurred.

OK. Let's do some math here. It was the goal of the NSA to make records of every phone call made within the US and who it was to and from. Let's be conservative and say they only succeeded in recording the phone logs of 10% of the population and were in violation for 4 years.

(300000000/10)((4)365)(100) = $4,380,000,000,000.

Over four trillion dollars in civil liability, and that's being conservative. Even AT&T can't absorb that much. Think about what would happen if AT&T, Verizon and South Central Bell all went bankrupt at once. Think about the stock market. Think about the mutual funds which presently hold telecom stock and all the pension funds and non-profit endowments that are currently invested in them. Think about trying to get a job in the tech sector when you're competing with all the unemployed telecom workers. Think about broadband deployment in unserved areas for sure.

Knocking out communications infrastructure is something invading forces do. It's not something that governments are supposed to let happen.

There are some executives who need to have their heads on pikes, but the industry itself needs protection.

Letters to your Senator

[Anonymous Coward]

Having worked as an intern on the hill (the ones who actually sort all of your letters, and faxes), I can tell you that unless you personally know someone up there your letter (by itself) means little, no matter how it is sent, most likely it will be logged into a database program and assigned a basic form letter reply.

A letter writing campaign may change a Congressman's mind if he gets enough correspondence from registered voters in his district, but a Senator isnt going to change his mind on a major issue like this due to correspondence from voters. Still though its good to voice your opinion.

See Section 222 of the Communications Act

[DeadCatX2]

So, sorry to say it, but if telco's freely give information they own to the feds without a warrant, then no law has been broken.

Wrong. They might not be bound by the Bill of Rights, but there are other (federal!) laws that apply. Please see Section 222 of the Communications Act.

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode47/usc_sec_47_00000222----000-.html

Here, allow me to quote it for you.

Every telecommunications carrier has a duty to protect the confidentiality of proprietary information of, and relating to, other telecommunication carriers, equipment manufacturers, and customers, including telecommunication carriers reselling telecommunications services provided by a telecommunications carrier.