• Fixing the System from within. Ever try to find out how to run for local office? Go ahead try. See how hard it is to find the information, much less make sense of it and act upon it. You really need a consultant, a lawyer, not to mention the fee it takes to run and the signatures to get your name on the ballot. There is a reason that few people other than lawyers, doctors, and the wealthy elite run.
• Protesting the System. Free speech has been consigned to the internet. Have you recently tried to stage a large rally, protest or march anywhere will people will notice and see you? It is hard to do. Permits and free speech zones, fees and forms abound.
• Engaging with the System. Thanks to the flattening of wages, outsourcing of jobs to third-world counties, and the murderous conservative work ethic in our country, people are working more and more and not thinking anything of it. Most of us work 40-50 hours, and paid terrible salaries and wages when adjusted for inflation and compared to income in the 70s-before the conservative backlash. Our economy keeps us mobile so we lack community. We don’t have the time we really need to engage and take leadership roles in our community and activist organizations. We need a progressive economy which takes work life balance into account just as it takes living wages into account.
• Understanding the System. While many do not have the time or energy-or inclination-to really try to understand the problems and possibilities in our society, those that do experience the problem of information overload. We can find multiple, respectable points of view on the same topic. We can find libertarian, conservative, progressive, radical writings on any topic of the day. We can find so-called scientific studies disproving humanity is responsible for the climate crisis; we can find evidence that humanity appeared on the earth one day a couple thousand years ago and the skeletons showing evolution are meaningless. Without really digging into these articles and sources of information, and learning about their authors, source of funds, institutions which produce them, it is hard to know how to evaluate them.
• Tuning Out the System. Easier to do everyday.
  

I write this not to sound uselessly cynical, or to make others feel helpless or powerless, but quite the opposite. I often am baffled by people’s lack of engagement.  When I can not think of one friend or colleague who is as politically active as I am (aside from my wife), and when I think about people’s apathy I feel apathetic and angry myself. But considering these obstacles listed above, and trying to think about ways around them, or ways to change them helps me understand that people themselves are not necessarily apathetic and lame, but are made so by our current situation.

When I have more energy, I will post a mirror entry which articulate the ways it is easier to engage with society– like blogging.

Their tireless fight for civil liberties, human rights, and for the constitution is inspiring and unwavering.

They do a good job of reaching people. Not all organizations do. The ACLU utilizes a variety of media. They have a great website (linked above). They have a blog. They utilize a You Tube Page. They produce television shows. They sell t-shirts and books at their website store.

They get it: people can’t just read about court battles, they need to be engaged and educated on a variety of levels and in different ways. But there is a difference between reaching out to single people for single events, and organizing people into a movement.

The ACLU and our civil liberties needs a movement.

I am a MoveOn volunteer and so am biased having worked as an organizer. So I am biased in favor of an activism model which brings together groups of people for events, and enables them to keep coming back together. MoveOn has spent much of its energy building core groups of volunteers in cities all over the country and they are activated for every event, and thus are able to build a community of like-minded people, who can reach out to the other nearby MoveOn members and activate them as well.

I think this is what ACLU needs. Take ACLU’s latest campaign… I’m a Constitution Voter.

It is brilliant up to a point. Here is their description…

Today we’re launching a new campaign, “I’m a Constitution Voter.” We’re pledging to make the Constitution our focus and our guide for this election and in the future. We hope you’ll join us, take the pledge and spread the word. Together, we can make a statement that no politician can spin away.

And on September 17, Constitution Day, we’re asking all civil libertarians to flood local and national media with letters to the editor, call-ins to radio shows and comments on the blogs urging them to cover civil liberties issues when talking about the election.

There are many ways to participate in this campaign in addition to those above. You can go canvassing, you can host parties, you can write letters to the editor. You can take photo of yourself holding a sign which says I’m a Constituion Voter and upload it and people see a visual representation of your signing the constitution petition.

But the thing you can’t do is find others like yourself. Let me put that another way– unless you already know people interested in this issue, the ACLU has no way to help you. There could be plenty of other people in your area who are interested in this issue, but there is no mechanism through which you may find them and join up with them.  For example in this campaign how are you to host a house party?

Hosting a debate watching party is a fun and exciting way to experience a political debate, and an excellent way to engage your friends and family…..Invite your guests to come at least a half-hour before the start of the debate so that you can get acquainted. Inviting people through an online invitation service or by email is a simple way to get the word out —but don’t forget that following up by phone is an integral part to building a good RSVP list.

How are you really supposed to find people? How are you going to organize yourselves? Hope that someone just happens to look at Meet Up.com or something like that. How are you going to report back to ACLU how many people showed? What do you do afterwards? What do those other people do afterwards?

How are these events linked? Here is the rub–while the event might be great, there is no momentum to build. So in short my question is: how are you to build a movement?

The ACLU has people sign petitions and make donations, and sign up for emails constantly. Why not allow people the option of meeting these other people in their community? There are groups working to do this, like BORDC. But why doesn’t our country’s premier civil liberties group do this?

No legislator is going to listen to one person who just shows up. A single canvasser can cover very little ground. A house party with family is not going to get very far outside the range of your daily life. These are all great ideas, and great singular events–but there is no way for a few drops to turn into a flood.

We need constitution voters, but we really need a constitution movement.

PSST…. Join our Civil Liberties Google Group. Your civil liberties will thank you.

Engineers who help run the Internet said that it would have been impossible for the United States to maintain its hegemony over the long run because of the very nature of the Internet; it has no central point of control.

And now, the balance of power is shifting. Data is increasingly flowing around the United States, which may have intelligence — and conceivably military — consequences.

Hmm why would the military and intelligence agencies care about internet tubes?

Because yes they really do want to spy on you– and the world.

Indeed, Internet industry executives and government officials have acknowledged that Internet traffic passing through the switching equipment of companies based in the United States has proved a distinct advantage for American intelligence agencies…

How does this work exactly? Gotta love those telecoms:

In December 2005, The New York Times reported that the National Security Agency had established a program with the cooperation of American telecommunications firms that included the interception of foreign Internet communications…..

“Since passage of the Patriot Act, many companies based outside of the United States have been reluctant to store client information in the U.S.,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. “There is an ongoing concern that U.S. intelligence agencies will gather this information without legal process. There is particular sensitivity about access to financial information as well as communications and Internet traffic that goes through U.S. switches.”

Granted, there are other factors involved, like economics, and the dot com bust, but I think this is a clear case of the Patriot Act hurting economic interests, and clear case that our War on Terror is sparking a concrete backlash against us. If other countries don’t trust us with this infratructure, they will build it themselves. And they don’t trust us.

So when people say let the government spy, what does it matter? Tell them it is hurting us economically, and tell them other countries are treating us like Russia and China.

The same governmental powers which allowed things like COINTELPRO are about to return.

Just recently the FBI proposed that it be allowed to spy on Americans with out evidence of wrong doing. That news broke August 20th But there is yet another twist in this already twisted game:

Even worse, the Justice Department is also preparing to amend federal regulations that prevented local and state law enforcement from engaging in this sort of suspicionless investigation….. How would this work on a practical level?…… they’d have free reign to do whatever they want short of those activities – which includes a lot. They could talk to your neighbors and coworkers. They could follow you around. They could sit in on the peaceful meetings of community organizations you attend

So follow the focus of power and spying here– Patriot Act, and FISA were broad based, national and international laws. Once they got those in place the FBI proposed that it should be able to spy on people with no cause. Such a thing would have been unthinkable previously. Now the Justice Department wants states and local officials to have the same powers as the FBI. They knew people would be less resistant to some nebulous force spying on them, but now that they have that power, they’re working to enable the cop down the road to do this to you. This the Overton Window of Civil Liberties – the strategy by which conservatives incessantly push on an issue moving it further and further to the right until the unacceptable becomes acceptable.

If that is not bad enough here is the most damning piece of analysis of these proposals….

Another consequence is that law enforcement will return to its pre-Watergate activities of surveilling peaceful protests and organizations that threaten mainstream values or institutions, even when there is no indication that the groups or individuals will commit a crime or an act of violence.

For those who don’t remember what COINTEL PRO was or need a reminder….

COINTELPRO was a secret FBI program designed to monitor and “neutralize” domestic groups deemed by the FBI to be a danger to national security. Such groups included anti-war groups and civil rights groups and individuals like Martin Luther King, Jr. and even Eleanor Roosevelt.

Now I want to catch terrorists, and I want the FBI to ‘always get their man’ like anyone else. But this is un-American. This is dangerous. This will disrupt freedom of speech, thought, and action.

I don’t know if anyone out there is paying attention. But we have got to get some buzz about this going in the blogs. By only watching the election we are distracted while some serious shit is about to go down.

Thankfully some leaders have sprung into action. Senate Judiciary Leaders Leahy and Spector are calling for postponement of these measures until congress has had a chance to review.
Call them and thank them!

PSST! We have a Civil Liberties Google Group! Join.
Your Civil Liberties will thank-you!

A commercial airline pilot and convert to Islam who says his name is on the U.S. government’s secret terrorist watch list has [filed] a federal lawsuit against the Homeland Security Department.

In fact the list is so flawed even the Wall Street Journal spoke up.

The government’s main terrorist-watch-list system is hobbled by technology challenges, and the $500 million program designed to upgrade it is on the verge of collapse, according to a preliminary congressional investigation.

The database, which includes an estimated 400,000 people and as many as 1 million names, has been criticized for flagging ordinary Americans. Now, the congressional report finds that the system has problems identifying true potential terrorists, as well.

It’s that bad.
PSST. We have a civil liberties google group. Join us!

This is not quite true. About 50% feel that Bush is handling the so-called War on Terror poorly. Dissaproval for Bush’s War has increased ten-fold since 2001:

“Do you approve or disapprove of the way Bush is handling the U.S. campaign against terrorism?”
9/07: 40% Approve 57% Dissaprove
10/01 92% Approve 5% Dissaprove

This question is more of a catch-all, but we know momentum is clearly on the side of fixing the damage Bush has done and taking a different course. This is an issue which can be pushed. As thereisnospoon would say, we can move the Overton Window

The push won’t start at the top. It must start at the bottom. There are a lot of amazing groups working on civil liberties right now. And if they continue doing what they’re doing and join together, with grassroots support–we can push the civil liberties debate. The are several key arenas in which this strugle will be fought: the media, the courtrooms, the voting booth, and the local level.

The good news? We have groups working in each of these areas now.

Courtroom and Media Work
Obviously the ACLU and EFF are already well know for their legal battles, educating citizens through a variety of media, and activating its members via petitions and phonecalls to representatives.

The Voting Booth and Media Work
On August 8th we had the Accountability Now/Strange Bedfellows moneybomb which raised 175,000 in just one day. And they have more from previous fundraising. Here is what they plan to do with this civil liberty cash:

GG: I think that using this money to create a foundation for an organization, which is what it’s done, that enables us to affect the debate on those issues in a way that hasn’t been happening before. Targeting incumbents who have been jeopardizing those political values…or Democratic leadership that perceives that it can be indifferent to those issues. And then working in coalitions with other groups when it makes sense to do so…I think the key is that we’ve raised an enormous amount of money that will enable this organization to begin on a very firm footing. (My emghasis)

The Local Level
So we have have people fighting in the courts and educating the citizens; and now we have a coalition building organization with cash. There is one more piece. We need Civil Liberty Activists organizing in local districts and pressuring reps right in their hometowns. And a group is getting underway on this as well. The People’s Coalition for the Constitution is a group working to form coalitions and grassroots groups in every congressional district across the country. Their goals are as follows:

1. Initial Outreach
Invite people you know to work with you on the local campaign and plan further outreach.
2. Community Education
Promote the campaign and create dialogue about how threats to the Constitution affect your community.
3. Coalition Building
Build a coalition from across the political spectrum. Agree on demands to make to representatives and candidates about unconstitutional policies.
4. Public Campaign
Hold a public forum or attend a candidate event to demonstrate widespread community support for candidates to defend the Constitution.
5. Accountability
Monitor representatives’ votes and use public pressure to reinforce your coalition’s demands.

So my message is– there is a lot interesting and engaging work being done out there. If these three groups work together, and we join with them we can push the civil liberties debate. I highly recommend signing up with each of them, particularly with the People’s Campaign for the Constitution which will pack a mighty wallop as people begin building groups in every district.

Psst… we now have a Daily Kos Civil Liberties Google Group. If you want to help focus the Kos community more on civil liberties, come join.