The Day We Fight Back - February 11, 2014

[LivioRazlo]

Did anyone see this floating around on their Facebook accounts today or in the past week at least? I have been trying to push this out there as much as I could, basically the gist of it all is contacting your state senators and representatives of the House to get their support for the USA Freedom Act and for them to oppose the FISA Amendments Act.

Out of the three calls I placed today, I actually got to speak with my State Representative Luke Messer. We had a delightful and thought-provoking conversation on the state of affairs in America and were it was headed. Representative Messer agreed with many of the comments I made and pledged to support the USA Freedom Act. FTW!

As for the senators of my state, only got to speak with their staff members, and one actually seemed to have a condescending tone with me as I had him take a message.

All in all, I did what I could and will be doing more for the fight for freedom here in America. Just wondering if any of you Avalonians took the time out of your busy schedules to fight back against the NSA tyranny?

The Day We Fight Back (https://thedaywefightback.org/)

[Hip Hipnotist]

Yes. I did today. A few hours ago.

I went the email route. The least anyone should do.

Anyone that cares and has one minute to spare.

[ulli]

Is this what was meant?

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/02/10/lights-out-for-nsa-maryland-lawmakers-push-to-cut-water-electricity-to-spy-agency-headquarters


The National Security Agency’s headquarters in Ft. Meade, Md., will go dark if a cohort of Maryland lawmakers has its way.

Eight Republicans in the 141-member Maryland House of Delegates introduced legislation Thursday that would deny the electronic spy agency “material support, participation or assistance in any form” from the state, its political subdivisions or companies with state contracts.

The bill would deprive NSA facilities water and electricity carried over public utilities, ban the use of NSA-derived evidence in state courts and prevent state universities from partnering with the NSA on research.

[BROWSE: Editorial Cartoons About NSA Surveillance]

State or local officials ignoring the NSA sanctions would be fired, local governments refusing to comply would lose state grant funds and companies would be forever barred from state contracts.

The bill was filed as emergency legislation and requires support of three-fifths of delegates to pass. It was referred to the chamber’s judiciary committee.

NSA facilities in Maryland use a massive amount of water and electricity, the supply of which might be jeopardized by the legislation.

[RELATED: California Legislators Propose Bill to Banish NSA]

The agency signed a contract with Howard County, Md., for water to cool a computer center under construction at Fort Meade, The Washington Post reported Jan. 2. The deal reportedly involves up to 5 million gallons of water a day for nearly $2 million a year. As of 2006 the agency headquarters purchased as much electricity from Baltimore Gas & Electric as the city of Annapolis, The Baltimore Sun reported.

The proposal is the latest in a series of state bills aiming to cut off the NSA one jurisdiction at a time for allegedly ignoring the Fourth Amendment with its dragnet collection of phone and Internet records.

The legislative wave is spearheaded by the Tenth Amendment Center, which along with the Bill of Rights Defense Committee launched the OffNow coalition last year seeking to cut off water to the NSA’s just-built Utah Data Center.

[johnf]

It looks like these are two different things.
It is encouraging that there is actual legislation trying to make things hard on the NSA.

JohnF