Northwest Progressive Institute Advocate

Panel description: A recently launched campaign in Europe calls on individuals to “vote for [their] digital rights.” However, no such movement has caught on in the United States, despite the upcoming election cycle. Rallies and events—including the Rally to End Mass Surveillance and the Day We Fight Back—have demonstrated wide support for surveillance reform. By educating the public about surveillance issues, digital rights activists can ensure voters understand where their elected leaders stand on defending our privacy and Constitutional rights. The election year also offers an opportunity to engage with Congress members directly on surveillance. This panel will discuss the political environment around surveillance reform, including grassroots engagement and the potential for leadership on the issues. The panel will conclude with a discussion of the ongoing challenges faced in communicating to the public audience on the so-called “balance” between national security and civil liberties.

This panel is moderated by Amie Stepanovich who is Senior Policy Counsel at Access. Amie is an expert in domestic surveillance, cybersecurity, and privacy law. At Access, Amie leads projects on digital due process and responds to threats at the intersection of human rights and communications surveillance.

Americans do get that surveillance is happening even though Obama says it’s not. However many Americans believe that it doesn’t directly affect them. The real problem in America is that many believe that “If I am not doing anything wrong, I should have nothing to worry about.” So there is work to be done in order to make NSA surveillance an election issue.

One success in fighting NSA Surveillance was an amendment, the Massie-Lofgren Amendment, added to an annual defense spending bill to end backdoor spying and sabotage commercial software with backdoor entry points. But more work needs to be done. The unfettered surveillance has a chilling effect on our democracy.

Since 9/11 there is a lot of sharing of this information going on. Your personal information that the NSA collects can go all the way down to the “bungling local cop”.

JTTF, or Joint Terrorism Task Force has secret contracts with local law enforcement which essentially draft local law enforcement into acting as part of the federal anti-terrorism force.

Fusion Centers were created by US DHS to facilitate sharing the collected personal data. All this data can be used to profile individuals. For example, a Muslim who makes many calls outside the US could be labeled as a terrorist suspect.

President Obama’s planned reform of data collection will immunize corporations. It is actually an expansion because not only will call metadata be collection, but cell phone connections will be logged. For instance, just cell phones being in the same room, being in range of each other will be logged.

One violation of the law that is currently happening is that if someone is being investigated, queries to the NSA database will return all information logged within the previous 5 years. This includes all indiscriminate data.

Another problem is that not all congressmen have access to what is going on in the intelligence agencies. Congressmen who don’t have access are told to just go along with those members who are on the Intelligence Committee, because “they are the ones who have the information”. However, those on the Intelligence Committee are not sharing much information with other congressional members.

Another problematic issue is that with Obama’s reform, secrets classifications can be awarded to those outside of the government, such as bankers. This would mean bankers and people in other corporations could have access to your personal information that the NSA has collected.

Executive order 12333 is also problematic because there is no oversight, either by congress or the courts. Even though the executive order involves collecting overseas data, a lot of domestic data is collected through this as well. Even Feinstein, who defends the collection of surveillance data including cell phone meta data, has said that there are no privacy protections built in.

NSA lost its push for the Clipper Chip in a previous battle to enable backdoors in encryption, however, the NSA is still working on putting backdoors into encryption standards. One driving force for this in a “surveillance state” is money. There is a lot of money to be made in surveillance technology.

Call to action: call your representatives out on the NSA Surveillance issues. Impress upon them on how important the issue is to you. It is essentially a virtual “stop and frisk” policy that violates your rights. Use tools to protect your own privacy from surveillance. There are many options, but to get started, you can check out “Reset the Net” Privacy Pack.

Good Morning from Detroit! This is the last day of the conference and we are beginning the day with keynotes from Mark Schauer, candidate to replace Snyder as governor of Michigan, and Senator Debbie Stabenow.

Lisa Brown is Schauer’s running-mate. Schauer promises to repeal “Right-To-Work-For-Less” and to support unions. Schauer promises equal pay for equal work. Schauer will work for affordable health care and will work with Obama and Stabenow on strengthening the auto industry in Michigan.

Stabenow welcomes Netroots to Detroit and thanks them for choosing Detroit for the location of the conference. “Detroit is a great city with great hard-working people who are working to turn Detroit around”. Stabenow thanks Betty Wiggens for creating gardens in the public schools in Detroit.

Michigan is #1 on clean energy patents. Michigan has created 70,000 jobs, but still has work to do to get employment back to where it was. Stabenow says it is an outrage that thousands in Detroit are without water.

“The game is still rigged for the majority and only benefits the few at the top”, say Stabenow and makes reference to the Koch brothers. “What we need is to raise everyone up with good jobs, healthcare, Social Security”. Stabenow says that everyone deserves a fair shot at getting ahead in Michigan.

“If a fair shot can work 100 years ago, a fair shot can work today”, Stabenow said in reference to the beginnings of the auto industry when good wages were paid.

“Too many students are left with only one choice for education and are left with mounds and mounds of debt.”  Stabenow reinforces the need for “equal pay for equal work”, good healthcare and Social Security.

Stabenow has introduced the “Bring Jobs Home Act” and asked everyone in the audience to call their Senators and Congressmen and ask them to support this bill. Stabenow says that we need to bring back the jobs that were off-shored.

Stabenow: “I need Gary Peters in the Senate” in calling for people to help organize and campaign to help Peters win the election.

Stabenow closes by reinforcing the need to keep up the good fight for progressive values.

Welcome to our continuing coverage of Netroots Nation 2014 in Detroit, Michigan. This afternoon, for the first time in the history of the convention (which began in 2006), the Vice President of the United States will be speaking to the thousands of activists who reunite every year to coordinate the building of a stronger progressive movement in the United States and around the world.

The speech is Biden’s third stop of the day. Previously he attended an event for the Michigan Democratic Coordinated Campaign Committee at the Westin Book Cadillac. He then visited the Step IT Up America program at Wayne County Community College with Mayor Michael Duggan. His speech at Netroots Nation will be his last official event of the day before returning to the District of Columbia.

We are currently waiting for Biden to arrive. He’s late, but there’s apparently a very good reason for that. Most attendees have at least a smartphone or tablet to keep them occupied, if not table companions.

UPDATE, 4:15 PM: The motorcade has arrived and we should be getting started in a few minutes. What follows will be a recap of the Vice President’s speech.

Biden was introduced by ProgressNow’s Arshad Hasan, who repeatedly praised the vice president for his candor and determination, before asking the convention to give the vice president a roaring welcome. And the crowd certainly did.

A jovial Biden made his way to the podium as he received a raucous standing ovation. Thanking Hasan for his introduction, he joked that he could “almost hear the press salivating.” Addressing his remarks on Meet the Press supporting marriage equality, which Hasan had referred to and which preempted President Obama’s ABC News interview on the subject, he said his comments were not planned, but he likes to be direct when he gets questions.

Biden told attendees that what he loves about the netroots is our passion. Discussing the recent advances made by advocates for LGBT civil rights, Biden said he didn’t free the LGBT community, they and many decent straight people deserved the credit for the forward momentum on marriage equality and civil rights.

Biden explained that he was nearly an hour late arriving for his speech because he had been dealing with the crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, which went down in Ukraine today. Some three hundred lives were lost, and the plane was apparently deliberately shot down. Biden explained that he had been on the phone with the Ukrainian President regarding the tragedy. A passenger manifest has not confirmed yet, but plane may have been carrying American citizens.

Joe Biden studies the audience at Netroots Nation during his Thursday afternoon keynote. (Photo: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)

Shifting gears, Biden said that one thing he has learned in his many years in politics that showing up is half the battle. He thanked the netroots for showing up and making change, and for reframing the debate… for example, helping Americans recognize that healthcare is a basic right and not a privilege. “We share a commitment to the values that made this country exceptional,” Biden told the audience. He added that when he gets asked abroad what makes America great, he responds that it is our sense of fairness and caring for others.

In a rebuke to former Vice President Dick Cheney, Biden proceeded to declare that he takes a back seat to no one on national defense. But he says that it is just as important to feed people in our country as it is to defend America.

Biden compared himself to Mikey from the Life cereal commercials when it comes his role brokering deals in Congress, which brought laughter from the crowd. He stressed the need for the progressive movement to define what is for and what it wants to accomplish both in the short and long term.

“We have to state without apology what we are for and why. If everything is equally important to you, then nothing is important to you… We have to be crystal clear on what the fundamental principles that this democracy is built on and stick to those fundamentals. Which includes LGBT rights [and] equal pay.”

“The abuse of power is the worst sin that can be committed. And the worst is for a man raising his hand to a woman including sexual assault on college campuses.”

Biden also told the convention that it is important for Americans to have unfettered access to the ballot box. “This is a fight that may not be on top of everyone’s agenda, but it is a very important fight,” he said.

Touching on the need for environmental protection, Biden emphatically stated, “Climate change is real… if we don’t control it we will be mortgaging the future of humanity.” He expressed confidence that America could lead on tackling the crisis. The people with the courage to move are the ones who are fueling America’s dynamism, giving the U.S. credibility on the world stage.

Commenting on income inequality, Biden reaffirmed his belief that every American deserves a fair shot at a job. Biden told Netroots Nation he believes in a nation of earned income as well as unearned income. Workers need to be respected as much as Wall Street investors. However, many employers are not respecting their workers, who have become the most productive workers in the world. They are not sharing in the wealth created by that productivity. The bargain between worker and employer is broken today, Biden lamented. He added that fixing that bargain is the President’s top priority, as well as his.

“When the middle class loses its faith in the system, we lose the glue that keeps the political and economic systems stable,” Biden said. “When we act as one America, we succeed. The middle class needs to know that when they put in they get included in the deal and not cut out. The poor need to know that when they try, there is a chance they can succeed.”

“In a country as big and as diverse as America there will be divisions. How do you define an American other than by a set of principles they believe in?”

“But our politics have become so cynical, so corrosive, that the American people are sick and tired of politics today.”

Nevertheless, Biden said we cannot give up.

“We can rise to what the American people demand. We can debate without being demeaning. We can make sure we are heard and demonstrate that we are willing to listen. The American people aren’t divided [and didn't create the divisions that are portrayed in our media]; American politics have divided America.”

Joe Biden waves to the crowd at Netroots Nation after finishing his speech. (Photo: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)

Biden said he has always been an optimist and that won’t change.

“It is within our power to innovate new energy technologies. Imagine not calling abuse ‘domestic’. Imagine a country that not only leads by example of power, but by power of our example. Your energy and passion will continue to be the force that drives debate. The American people have always been ahead (civil rights, for example). We need you. The country needs you.”

Biden’s closing thought was an appeal to the convention to believe in America and the American people. “Ordinary people, hardworking people are smart,” Biden said. “Do not condescend that they do not know what they need.”

This session at Netroots Nation is led by Elana Levin who is Director of Online Organizing at Make the Road Action Fund.

Kenzo Shibata began by speaking about the battle he led against Rahm Emanuel’s tactics in attempting to bust the teachers’ union in Chicago. Shibata created a video associating Emanuel with the Tea Party in an attempt to embarrass Emanuel over his anti-union tactics. The video cost very little but made a big impact.

Sara Steffens is speaking about working in social media for an organization. Many involved in social media within an organization many times find themselves becoming overwhelmed by requests. Typically only one person ends up handling all the social media for smaller organizations. The key is to try to spread the responsibility and train others on it so that efforts do not become bottlenecked, particularly if the responsible person is unavailable due to unforeseen circumstances.

Build social networking capacity by holding training sessions to teach others in your organization about hash tag activism (Twitter) and other useful social media activities. Take advantage of those in your organization who are active on Facebook and other social media platforms to utilize their skills for the organization.

When running campaigns or developing a new website, include money in the budget for training others in the skills to help support the effort.

Levin brought up an example of organizing low-wage bank workers. Online organizing, particularly on Facebook, was much more effective than traditional methods, such as doorbelling and phone banking. It is easier to find who works for a particular employer on Facebook because many share where they work on Facebook. Facebook pages created around a cause are still very effective even though recent Facebook changes limit the posts that the page fans see on their news feed. Facebook photos with memes are also very eye catching and effective.

Emailing platforms such as Salsa are very useful because they include tracking of emails and records who opens the emails. You can easily see how well your email posts are being read.