Open letter to my House Representative

[Joel Awesome]

Write your Rep! I did. This Thursday, the House of Representatives is expected to hand phone companies a get-out-of-jail-free card for illegally turning over your private phone records to the government. I'd hate to see national legal precident set for it being OK for phone companies to work with agencies like the NSA to monitor and track our communication _without a warrant_. Only way to stop this sort of shenanigans is to make enough noise.

Dear Representative Fillner, this isn't the first time I've written to you. Previously I expressed my concerns about net neutrality and your views were sympathetic to my own. I'm contacting you again to voice my strongest opposition to Domestic Wiretapping, illegal record sharing, and retroactive legislation to protect the Phone Companies from legitimate lawsuits resulting from their illegal dealings with the government.
The chilling effect on our civil liberties is felt everywhere; I was told that I couldn't go into a courthouse wearing a t-shirt with a graphic of a grenade on it because it could be "construed as a threat/weapon" and the officer threatened to arrest me when I told him that was retarded. Unfortunately I didn't have the time to be arrested that day to protect my civil liberties.
I have time today.
I don't want anyone listening to my phone calls without a legally issued warrant. I'm not a terrorist and I'm tired of being the victim of the preventative anti-terror program. Our way of life has been changed and hamstrung by terrorist which means that they've been effective. Unfortunately it created a stronger government that can use the "War on Terror" as a universal excuse to do whatever it wants.
I don't want anyone listening to my phone calls without a warrant. The post 9/11 slippery slope response to that is "Well we need to passively monitor all communication to make sure that no previously undetected terrorist are talking on their phones about terror stuff. You don't want them blowing up buildings because we weren't listening do you?"
I don't want anyone listening to my phone calls without a warrant period. There is no argument to that. I'm not a terrorist. Stop the House from setting a precedent that it's OK for a major civilian American institution to treat me like one.

[Donald Rilea]

Write your Rep! I did. This Thursday, the House of Representatives is expected to hand phone companies a get-out-of-jail-free card for illegally turning over your private phone records to the government. I'd hate to see national legal precident set for it being OK for phone companies to work with agencies like the NSA to monitor and track our communication _without a warrant_. Only way to stop this sort of shenanigans is to make enough noise.

Dear Representative Fillner, this isn't the first time I've written to you. Previously I expressed my concerns about net neutrality and your views were sympathetic to my own. I'm contacting you again to voice my strongest opposition to Domestic Wiretapping, illegal record sharing, and retroactive legislation to protect the Phone Companies from legitimate lawsuits resulting from their illegal dealings with the government.
The chilling effect on our civil liberties is felt everywhere; I was told that I couldn't go into a courthouse wearing a t-shirt with a graphic of a grenade on it because it could be "construed as a threat/weapon" and the officer threatened to arrest me when I told him that was retarded. Unfortunately I didn't have the time to be arrested that day to protect my civil liberties.
I have time today.
I don't want anyone listening to my phone calls without a legally issued warrant. I'm not a terrorist and I'm tired of being the victim of the preventative anti-terror program. Our way of life has been changed and hamstrung by terrorist which means that they've been effective. Unfortunately it created a stronger government that can use the "War on Terror" as a universal excuse to do whatever it wants.
I don't want anyone listening to my phone calls without a warrant. The post 9/11 slippery slope response to that is "Well we need to passively monitor all communication to make sure that no previously undetected terrorist are talking on their phones about terror stuff. You don't want them blowing up buildings because we weren't listening do you?"
I don't want anyone listening to my phone calls without a warrant period. There is no argument to that. I'm not a terrorist. Stop the House from setting a precedent that it's OK for a major civilian American institution to treat me like one.

Bravo, Mr. Awesome, for your letter and having the guts to submit it to your Representative. Here's hoping your letter, and the others being sent that way, will get at least the fair hearing and action on this issue that they deserve.