Here’s what real reform of the NSA looks like

Re:Here’s what real reform of the NSA looks like by deveac on Friday August 02, 2013 @11:20AM (#6147465)

The recent House vote to remove funding for the metadata collection program was much narrower in scope, and failed to pass.

The good news is that it failed to pass by a slim margin. This will probably fail to pass as well. My hope is that it will fail by a slim margin as well, and my dream is that opponents of overreach (both in the house and activists) will take this as an opportunity that they narrowly missed on the last vote and seize it.

At any rate, I hope anybody complaining about these programs on here has already contacted their representatives by phone and is continuing to do so as these bills are introduced and debated. Please.

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Re:Here’s what real reform of the NSA looks like by Tarrosion on Friday August 02, 2013 @11:24AM (#6147496)

It is my understanding that contacting via non-form letter is the best way to reach your representative. This comes from a chat with a friend who worked as an assistant in a congressional office; she said form letters were discarded, phone calls were usually from a few select cranks who called every day about the same esoteric issue, and custom letters were read and their contents summarized for the congressperson.

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Re:Here’s what real reform of the NSA looks like by w_t_payne on Friday August 02, 2013 @12:43PM (#6148039)

A (legible!) hand-written letter would probably fare even better ... as it shows that you care enough about the issue to take the time to write it by hand.

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Re:Here’s what real reform of the NSA looks like by 1337biz on Friday August 02, 2013 @01:31PM (#6148350)

Is there already some API for outsourcing this whole hand-writing letter thing?

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Re:Here’s what real reform of the NSA looks like by lallysingh on Friday August 02, 2013 @01:39PM (#6148410)

A printer, cursive font, and a shitty renderer?

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Re:Here’s what real reform of the NSA looks like by redthrowaway on Friday August 02, 2013 @02:48PM (#6148837)

This actually reminds me of the letters Peter Popoff sends out. Check out the fake handwriting on it:

http://www.jeffbelanger.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/...

One of my room mates discovered this trove of comedy gold and has been signing up all his friends to receive them. They're actually pretty convincing, although they lack the indentation marks one would expect to see from a real pen.

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Re:Here’s what real reform of the NSA looks like by 1337biz on Saturday August 03, 2013 @12:46PM (#6152568)

Impressive! I wonder why direct mailers aren't making more use of stuff like that. This should increase the response quota significantly.

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Re:Here’s what real reform of the NSA looks like by russellsprouts on Friday August 02, 2013 @02:43PM (#6148808)

An auto-pen.

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Re:Here’s what real reform of the NSA looks like by randall on Friday August 02, 2013 @02:25PM (#6148714)

Andrew Mason (of groupon fame) had an observation a few years ago at startup school that says activism is currently how long someone will inconvenience themselves. The longer the inconvenience and the more infrequent, the more seriously it's treated.

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Re:Here’s what real reform of the NSA looks like by mzs on Friday August 02, 2013 @03:47PM (#6149233)

I want to, but my question got lost in all the comments last time around:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6103172

I would like a small list of materials that my representative could read that make my case much better than I could.

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Re:Here’s what real reform of the NSA looks like by deveac on Saturday August 03, 2013 @10:17AM (#6152120)

>I would like a small list of materials that my representative could read that make my case much better than I could.

Honestly, I think it's fine to just take your pick of reasons why you are not happy and convey that. You don't need to be an expert or have a master crib-sheet. Your honest feelings on the issue as they are real, organic, and coming straight from an individual -some of the more important attributes to have for a message being sent to a representative imho.

I've always suspected that form letters and chain emails get mentally binned fairly easily quickly, as some of the comments by other users in this thread seem to reinforce.

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