Protesting the PATRIOT ACT | |
The USA PATRIOT Act gives the government increased authority to wiretap your phone, monitor your e-mail and demand your medical, financial and student records from banks, vendors, doctors‚ offices, and libraries. Furthermore, it prevents anyone who is required to turn over your records from ever telling you or anyone else, even if the records turned up no wrongdoing. And did you know that the latest version of the PATRIOT Act contains a new provision that can throw protesters like us in prison for 10 years for disrupting major events such as political conventions? (In 2004 CODEPINK took our anti-war message to the floors of both the Republican AND Democratic Conventions.) Very soon Congress will have a chance to repair some of the PATRIOT Act's worst excesses. In December 2005, a bipartisan group of senators filibustered to stop the passage of a bill that would have reauthorized 16 expiring PATRIOT Act provisions. As a compromise, the provisions were extended for 5 weeks to give the officials more time to work out their differences. This temporary extension will run out on February 3, 2006. That's why it's so critical to join CODEPINK and millions of allies throughout the U.S. in a National Call-in Day on Wednesday, January 25 to repudiate the excesses of the PATRIOT Act and government violations of our civil liberties! The Senate version of the bill has much stronger protections of civil liberties and more meaningful opportunities to challenge unwarranted information requests and gag orders. Please call your representatives and senators, and ask them to support the Senate version of the bill. You can call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 or find your representatives and get their direct numbers by clicking here. Talking Points: Here are some specific points about the excesses we want to eliminate:
For more information, contact the Bill of Rights Defense Committee at http://bordc.org/threats/call-in.php. Sample letter:
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