Hot on the heels of the news that the NSA apparently doesn't have the capability to search its own employees' emails to answer a Freedom of Information Act request -- no, they really think we're that stupid! -- Reps. Amash (R-MI) and Conyers (D-MI) have proposed an amendment to the next defense authorization bill that would a) end our government's authority under the PATRIOT Act for blanket records collection and b) bar the NSA from using PATRIOT Act Section 215 authority to collect records on anyone not subject to a Section 215 investigation. The House plans to take up this amendment today; do we have any suitable action alerts? Do we ever! Daily Kos and Demand Progress help you email your Congressfolk in support of the Amash/Conyers amendment, while Free Press helps you call your House Reps in support of the Amash/Conyers amendment. (Demand Progress also provides a phone-in tool.) It's been all over the news, more and more Americans oppose blanket surveillance -- in short, it's a good time for action.

Meanwhile, MoveOn helps you demand that Congress raise the minimum wage. MoveOn reminds us that Congress has given its members a pay raise 13 times since 1991, while tipped workers haven't received even one minimum wage hike during that time; the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 would ensure that injustice never happens again, because, as you know, our minimum wage workers work a lot harder than our Congressfolk. We live in an era of ongoing economic fearmongering, an era of skyrocketing corporate profits and CEO salaries while working folks at the bottom, the folks who actually have to spend all their money on necessities, can't get a break from Congress because one party sets fire to everything and the other party wants to make sure the party that sets fire to everything is on board with the rebuilding plan. And, again: if raising the minimum wage KILLZ JOBZ!!!!, then why does Australia have a 5% unemployment rate with its $15/hour minimum wage?