The PATRIOT Act

Tomorrow is the big day.

Congress put expiration dates on the PATRIOT Act for a reason: when emergency powers become permanent, a piece of democracy dies.

Now, the Senate has a choice. They can renew mass spying. Or they can let the NSA’s PATRIOT Act powers expire, by doing the simplest thing ever: nothing.

And unless we make them, they won’t do it. Click here to give them a piece of your mind (again!) with a phone call or email – it matters today more than ever!

Why? Well, in narrow terms, if Congress doesn’t renew section 215 of the PATRIOT Act by 11:59pm on Sunday, the NSA has to stop tracking Americans’ phone calls, or use a weaker legal framework to do so.

And because the NSA’s activities are secret, this win *could* mean much more than we realize. Ending phone metadata collection may be only the tip of the victory iceberg.

Even better, this will be the first major rebuke of the NSA, the first clear step towards curtailing their powers since the Snowden revelations began. 

Now, in the last 36 hours, we need to pull out all the stops. Here’s what you can do right now:

ONE: Call the House and Senate. We created a phone number anyone can use to call Congress, that Reddit is generously running ads for, and that Edward Snowden himself shouted out last week. Use it to call your Senator right now: 920-END-4-215 (1-920-363-4215). 

TWO (and it’s been *blowing up* in the last 24 hours): Join the Congress Blackout. It’s an Internet Defense League campaign where over 14,000 websites are blacking out Congress and redirecting them to the naked photos of indignant NSA protesters, the #ifeelnaked campaign that many of you participated in.

THREE: Help supercharge our work. Ever since last weekend’s epic win when the PATRIOT Act reauthorization failed by 13 votes, we knew that tomorrow would be the final showdown. So we set out to sound the alarm, and it’s working. But in these last 36 hours, we need to be even louder. There are hundreds of high-traffic websites that support the cause and would be happy to sign up. We just need the staff time to approach them all — can you chip in $5 to give us the funds to make that happen?

Between all these different actions, our work has been *all over* the front pages of reddit lately. Thanks to all the redditors who made that happen, to reddit itself for generously donating ads, and to all the people and sites who’ve participated!

It’s not too late to take part. Call 920-END-4-215 (1-920-363-4215). Join the blackout with your site or tumblr. Submit a photo to #ifeelnaked.org. Or send an email and tell your friends. There’s less than *36 hours* left. Go berzerk.

Here’s to a beautiful sunset,

-- Holmes, Tiffiniy, Evan, Jeff, Charlie, Vasjen, Susan and the whole FFTF team.

P.S. Today is the last day of mega-popular DJ Bassnectar's contest to support ending mass surveillance! Winning gets you for VIP tickets to the sold out Electric Forest music festival to support ending mass surveillance! You can win tickets to the sold out Electric Forest music festival, an exclusive VIP package, and a chance to hang out with him. Click here and take action to win!

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