I won't even pretend this isn't inspired by my recent reading material but this isn't the first time I've personally visited the subject of the illegal wiretapping the NSA asked ATT and a few other Telecoms to do. Right now there are people in congress still trying to grant the NSA and the telecommunication companies immunity. They want to go back in time and make it legal. That would mean that if you cared to you couldn't sue them for surveilling you. You might not care but you could see why someone might. Not everyone is so forgiving of having their constitutional rights violated.

They basically tapped the internet, it's the same wires that our phone calls also go over too.

And how do we know this? One of my personal hero's squealed on them. His name is Mark Klein and he was a just a technician. He noticed that a lot of NSA only rooms were popping up in data centers, a lot more then was needed to monitor just international traffic. So he deiced to speak out. He's just a normal guy, he retired after 22 years of working to do this. I wish his wiki page had more. UPDATE I found a nice wired article with a statement from him!

So what can you do?
Make 2-3 phone calls. That's all that's really needed. To who? Head over to StopTheSpying.org and enter your zip code. Or just click here if you live near me. And let your congressmen know what you think. Remind them how you want them to vote.

I'm going to take a moment to do this myself.
Done!

I wanted to say something along the lines of "House leadership is reportedly working with Senator Rockefeller on a new FISA bill that may include telecom immunity. I urge him to continue standing up for the rule of law and the Constitution as FISA legislation is brought back to the House!" and make them feel how passionate I feel about this. That text being taken directly from the website. But I managed to work out a meager "Hi, I'm a constit... constituent and I'd like to thank the congresswomen for her strong stance against telecom immunity and the illegal spying and stuff.". My next two phone calls went a little smoother, but it was the same message.

Representative Jarrold Nadler's aid was very happy to hear from me, says it's something he strongly believes in, he took my name and email. Representative Yvette Clarke's aid was confused as to why I was calling and asked where I lived, I said brooklyn. "Oh good.. thank you" and then we were done. Representative Nydia Velazquez's aid was short and to the point, said she's pass my message along.

I know a lot of you (or so it seams) don't like to talk on the phone. There is always email and the links are provided for you right there. So go do it! Especially if you're representatives do support telecom immunity! At the very least check!

So to recap;
Check out a brief overview of what's going on.
Check out your representatives and then call them if you can, just remember nobody will do it for you.

-Francis