

White House silent on renewal of NSA court order - joshuaellinger
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/18/white-house-silent-renewal-nsa-court-order

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spdy
_At Wednesday 's hearing, Litt was asked by Bob Goodlatte, the chairman of the
House judiciary committee, if the administration thought if a surveillance
program "of this magnitude … could be indefinitely kept secret from the
American people?"

"Well," Litt replied, "we tried._

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tenpoundhammer
"We welcome a discussion about the balance of security and liberty, we just
don't care what you say and won't take any of your input. But discussion sure
is great. Yay for democracy"

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startupfounder
As concerned citizens who would sign a white house petition to block the
renewal of the NSA data collection order?

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1337biz
As a concerned citizen I believe white house petitions are the most
counterproductive tool to channel citizen rage.

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00rion
What would be a good alternative?

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1337biz
Honestly - anything that makes elective representatives experience it. Best
would probably be showing up at town hall meetings and asking smart questions.
But even a two line email "I disagree with your stand on x. Please reconsider
your position on x" is in my opinion making a much higher impact than any of
these petitions.

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nawitus
One effective strategy that was used in Finland was buying huge posters of the
politician in question and placing them in key areas where said politician had
a lot of voters.[1]

The socialist minister tried to impose new copyright-related taxes. The poster
says "Exploitation of the workers! Arhinmäki wants the buyers of computers and
phones to pay a blank media tax". A few days later he succumbed to pressure.

Demonstrations haven't been that effective.

1\. [http://imgur.com/b58pLB4](http://imgur.com/b58pLB4)

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1337biz
This is great stuff. Now who is up for a kickstarter? Feinstein definitely
deserves a few NSA billboards of her own!

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coldcode
We the people are not authorized to know the results.

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ihsw
Your knowledge of the results is not required. Talk to your congressional
representative about that.

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grandalf
I'd say the public deserves this for being so passive, but maybe everyone is
just scared that they will be targeted for speaking out.

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ihsw
Even if they are targeted, they may not know at all.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi#Zersetzung](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi#Zersetzung)

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qwertzlcoatl
The "Code of Silence" isn't only efficient in the Mafia.

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pivnicek
Whether or not the court order is renewed will be secret, won't it? Isn't the
whole point to make all the agency regulations secret? I mean, the original
court order wasn't public, why would the renewal be?

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00rion
If you haven't seen the video of the House judiciary committee meeting:
[http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/314032-1](http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/314032-1)

