OK, maybe we can't do much to stop a bad bill from passing, but there are a few things we can do as a grassroots movement, both inside and outside of the political process. Don't blame Obama; as a junior Senator there's little he can do other than vote against a bad bill. We can encourage Obama, Feingold, and Dodd to filibuster, but they can't block the bill for the rest of the session.
First, call your Senator and tell him that you will actively oppose the reelection of anyone who votes in favor of a bill which includes telecomm immunity, or which prevents full investigation and prosecution of previous FISA violations.
Second, if your Representative has been a bad boy, call him and give him this message: anyone who has voted to whitewash illegal behavior on the part of the government or corporations should not be in public office, and that you'll work to make sure that people who don't care about the Constitution are removed from office. The original FISA wording was clear, and the law was broken - knowingly and willfully. If your Representative voted against the FISA bill, be sure to call and make your support known.
Outside of politics, you can vote with your pocketbook. Don't give your money to AT&T or Verizon, or any other company which has violated FISA. Ask your service provider about this issue, and if you don't get a satisfactory response about their past & current behavior, get a different provider. See if you can get out of your contract by raising the issue of possible privacy violations under FISA or the 1934 and 1996 telecommunications acts, and if they refuse, let them know that you will inform other potential customers about your concerns with this provider. Picket the cell phone store, and talk to customers on-site. Terminating a few contracts without penalty will be far less expensive than any future lost business for them. If you can't get out of your contract, let your provider know precisely why you won't be renewing at the end of the term. If you have an iPhone and can get out of your contract, consider unlocking it (with full knowledge of the risks). Talk to Apple and express your displeasure about their choice of provider, especially if you are a potential iPhone customer.
This is the question I asked my current cell phone provider:
Hi: I'm currently a Sprint customer and would like to determine what Sprint's policies are on providing customer call (CPNI) information to the government. In particular, does Sprint fully comply with the customer privacy provisions of the 1934 & 1996 telecommunications acts, and does Sprint under any circumstances provide any customer call data or voice data to any government agency (or other external agency) without a valid court warrant? I've previously asked this question of Sprint and received an acceptable answer, but recently media reports indicate that Dan Coats (a lawyer at King & Spaulding) is representing Sprint in lobbying Congress to provide telecomm companies retroactive immunity from lawsuits where violations of these statutes might have occurred. Thanks for your assistance in this matter.
Here's Sprint's customer service response:
Thank you for writing back to us.
I want to inform you that we are committed to maintain the privacy and security of our customers. Let me assure you that your information is safe and secure with us.
We do not leak any information of our customers to the third party. We do not release CPNI data (or other phone call data) to the government without a valid FISA or other court warrant.
We thank you for contacting us. Have a nice day.
I also received an adequate, more comprehensive reply from one of Sprint's corporate attorneys. I checked with my local provider (TDS), and got a very good reply.
However, we know for a fact that AT&T and Verizon are bad actors. This was AT&T's reply when asked the same question:
AT&T is fully committed to protecting our customers' privacy. We do not comment on matters of national security.
I didn't ask them to comment on "matters of national security". I asked if they followed the existing laws, as written. Apparently they don't. Verizon's response was even worse.
So who are the service providers who follow the law? Sprint may be, based on the answers I got. Qwest apparently is or was one, as they didn't play along with Bush's pre-9/11 wiretapping request. Unfortunately, Qwest is just a regional provider. Credo Mobile, which uses Sprint as a backbone, is also worth checking out. I have not asked Credo these specific questions, but they do use some of their revenue to support the ACLU and other worthy causes, so the odds are they are on the right side of this issue - but someone should verify this.
UPDATE per 1BQ: Credo is on the side of the angels:
Government Requests for Customer Records
We will refuse to comply with unlawful government requests for customer records or call content, and will only divulge our customer's private phone records or initiate a wiretap under court order or subpoena.
One more idea: foul the system. Embed "dangerous" keywords in all your personal email and voice communication, and encourage your friends and family to do the same. One result might be that you'll be an irritant, and consume a few extra CPU cycles in Maryland. Another might be that if the NSA has a phone number or IP address blacklist to keep such chaff out of the system, eventually your number will be blocked. In any event, make a conscious decision not to cooperate.