WA Residents: Ask Your Officials About Illegal Spying

		ACT LOCALLY Lawmakers need to hear from their constituents today. Help make the case for civil liberties directly to your elected officials by meeting with them in person while they're home this week. Get started now. Here's the rest of your August to-do list: 1.Call your Member of Congress. 2. Send a letter to the editor. 3. Host a viewing party of the ACLU’s Stop the Abuse of Power DVD. We’ll send you the DVD for free! 4. Get 10 friends to sign up for the ACLU’s action list. 5. Join us at the ACLU Membership Conference October 15-17 in Washington, D.C. Congress may be on recess, but we're not taking a break from the fight to protect the Constitution and the rule of law. This week and in the weeks to come, you have a unique opportunity to make a difference and help keep the pressure on your elected officials. Many senators and representatives are home meeting with and listening to the people they represent, which includes you. We urge you to meet your lawmakers while they're home this week and ask them to stand up to the Bush administration's ongoing abuses of power. Get started right now with our simple instructions and a list of questions to ask. President Bush has shown an alarming and reckless disregard for the rule of law. He has directed the National Security Agency to wiretap Americans without a warrant and violated long-standing treaties designed to protect basic human rights. Our federal lawmakers need to hear from people like you that these actions are unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue. You can make the case for civil liberties with your elected officials by meeting with them face to face while they're home this week. Ask the tough questions, demand the truth, and hold them and the administration accountable. Lawmakers need to hear from their constituents that America can, and must be, both safe and free. Already, our courts are rejecting the president's claim to unlimited power. A federal court in Detroit recently found the NSA's warrantless spying program both illegal, and unconstitutional. And the Supreme Court ruled that President Bush's military commissions were illegal. Votes are expected on these issues as soon as Congress returns in September, but it's important that Congress act to protect, and not undermine, the Constitution. Your elected officials must listen and remember that the president cannot act with indifference to Congress or the Constitution. With pivotal mid-term elections looming, the Republican-controlled Congress will likely push hard for symbolic, divisive votes on bills that will exploit the anniversary of September 11, 2001 and the public's fears, while doing little to actually make anyone safer. The election season is no excuse to rush through legislation that will chip away at the very freedoms and protections that define us as a nation. Our elected representatives should not legalize warrantless NSA surveillance of Americans without protecting our individual rights and without any meaningful checks on executive power. And lawmakers should not give their blessing to military commissions already rejected by the Supreme Court. Your representative and senators need to hear from you. Please take action online now. Lawmakers will continue to hear from the ACLU. But while they're home for August recess, we hope they'll hear from you too. Together, we can stop this president's unprecedented abuse of power. Thank you for standing with us and for the rule of law. Sincerely, Caroline Fredrickson Director, Washington Legislative Office American Civil Liberties Union