Congress hasn't quite passed their evil tax "reform" bill, but they're turning their attention to the next continuing resolution (or CR) they have to pass to keep our government open -- or, more precisely, they're turning their attention to passing something quickly before you can pay attention to what they're doing! You know, just like with everything else they've done this year! So they're trying to sneak a reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, so the NSA can keep vacuuming up your email data without a warrant. That's right, they want to cement government spying powers in a must-pass bill, so you either don't know about it or are afraid to fight it! Considering how easy it's been to scare Americans to death over the last 15 years or so, it's telling that they're not even trying to do that this time -- they're just trying to sneak it past us. Well, too effing late! Defending Rights and Dissent helps you tell your Congressfolk to protect law and order by rejecting a Section 702 reauth in the must-pass spending bill.
Meanwhile, the International Labor Rights Forum helps you tell the government of Uzbekistan to drop charges against human rights activist/journalist Malokhat Eshonkulova What does the government of Uzbekistan allege Ms. Eshonkulova to have done? Well, the charge is "unauthorized pickets," which sure sounds like a made-up charge, but their real problem is almost certainly her work documenting and exposing Uzbekistan's habit of forcing its citizens to work the cotton fields every year, instead of making cotton corporations hire workers like a civilized nation would do. The fake charge isn't the end of their oppression of her, naturally -- they spent 11 hours searching her house for computers and cellphones recently, prevented her from leaving the country to address a labor forum, threatened to forcibly relocate her to a distant region of Uzbekistan, and have imposed $1400 in fines upon her -- in a nation where the annual per capita income is around $2,000. Why, it's almost like harassing her into silence is the whole idea. But nobody has to put up with that.
Finally, if you've missed previous opportunities to tell your Congressfolk to pass the DREAM Act by the end of the year, then the Friends Committee on National Legislation still helps you do that. I never favored forcing the DREAM Act into a must-pass appropriations bill, as national Democrats have been, but I have no problem with Congress simply passing a bill protecting those folks who came here as children and wouldn't recognize the country we'd force them to go back to. And this has literally nothing to do whatever immigration policies people let politicians get them angry about. DREAMers had literally no say in coming to America, since they came here as children, and if they're well-functioning members of society, it'd be cruel to send them back to someplace they don't even recognize (and wouldn't recognize them!). And the DREAM Act wouldn't even let all of these immigrants stay -- you'd still have to meet standards proving your fitness as a law-abiding citizen. Seriously, there's no reason to let haters have all the say about everything in America, even with the ultimate hater as our President.
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