The PATRIOT Act is uglier than you thought, and what to do about it


The most outstanding and urgent hour of audio you'll hear this week is the On the Media history of the PATRIOT Act (MP3), and the most important website you'll visit this week is Sunset the PATRIOT Act, which lets you do something about it.


The On The Media special tells the story of how the PATRIOT Act was not only passed without any debate, but without any chance for Congress to read it, but goes on to point out all the ways in which mass surveillance, torture, and other gross abridgments of liberty were carried out without support from PATRIOT.

Our great and good friends at Fight for the Future, ringleaders of the SOPA and Net Neutrality fights, are using Sunset the PATRIOT Act activist site to pour the heat on the Senate, who have until the close of today's session to kill the mass surveillance parts of PATRIOT.

The lesson is that PATRIOT needs to die, but when it does, we have our work cut out for us.

This is a fight of our lives. People hate the Patriot Act — it’s what the NSA has used to violate the Constitution and monitor our private lives day in and day out for the past 14 years. But, after our epic outcry and a showdown last week, we’re on the verge of reaching a milestone that's always seemed out of reach: the Patriot Act is poised to sunset at midnight on June 1st. Now, the NSA's shills are making a final attempt this Sunday at the 11th hour to re-up on the Patriot Act. We need you more than ever to help secure this first historic move away from mass surveillance.

Sunset the PATRIOT Act [Fight for the Future] [MP3]

The Bill That Nobody Read [On the Media]


(Image: ACLU)