As you may remember, Sens. McCain (R-AZ), Burr (R-NC), and Cornyn (R-TX) sponsored an amendment to a peripherally-related appropriations bill that would have expanded the FBI's power to collect information including browser histories without a warrant; the amendment failed by a mere two votes, but Senate Majority Leader/One True Real and Awesome Super-American President Mitch McConnell has said he'll bring it up for a vote again, and he might do that very, very soon. Hence the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and the Defending Dissent Foundation help you tell your Senators to reject this literally unwarranted expansion of government spying power. It does seem awfully likely that Mr. McConnell will be able to fearmonger two more Democrats into voting for this measure -- I mean, these are Democrats we're talking about, who spent the better part of two weeks filibustering and sitting in for gun-control measures dependent on expanded government spying power. But again: it doesn't matter what they want; it matters what we want.
Meanwhile, less than a week before Vermont's GMO labeling law goes into effect, the Senate plans a vote on S. 2609, yet another bill that would nullify state efforts to label GMOs and create yet another "voluntary" labeling system for genetically-modified organisms in food that no Big Ag or food processing corporation will ever use. (We know this because the four-digit PLU codes for produce can be five-digit codes headed up by a "9" -- for organic produce, I'm sure you've seen them -- or an "8," for GMO produce. Ever seen one with an "8"? Me neither.) S. 2609 would further let corporations make you jump through entirely non-voluntary hoops to find out if your food has GMOs in it -- instead of simply writing "this food has genetically-modified organisms" on the package like a civilized person would do, you'd get a website URL, a QR code, or even a damn phone number. They're calling this a "bipartisan" "compromise," but who cares? Regular folks like you and I don't care about "bipartisan" government; we only care about good government. Use the tools in the upper left-hand corner of this page to call your Senators and demand they reject S. 2607.
Finally, not all the news is bad -- the Pennsylvania Senate's Urban Affairs and Housing Committee has advanced SB 974, which would prevent discriminating in employment, housing, and public accommodations against good Pennsylvanians just because they're gay or transgendered. The full Senate may take a crack at it this week, hence Freedom for All Americans helps you tell your PA state legislators to support SB 974 and thus support freedom from discrimination for all good citizens of the Commonwealth. (The state House companion bill is HB 1510.) Naturally, right-wingers have noticed that "public accommodations" would include public restrooms, and are thus whipping their miserable-but-redeemable lot into a ZOMG TEH GAYZ IN TEH BATHROOMZ WITH TEH CHILDRENZ!!!! rage-orgy. (Rorgy? Nah, too hard to say.) Remember that the vast majority of child molestation in America is committed a) by men and b) against girls. Thus, you'd think the far right would more strenuously object to the presence of men in any public place where girls might reasonably congregate. They haven't, of course, so I presume they think it's just not that effective a way to propagate hate.
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