When we got there the speakers were already addressing the crowd of about 150 people.

     

The parachute read "RIGHTS NOT SPYING" over a stop watching eye and the URL stopwatching.us.

     

She explained that the next speaker would be Mark Klein, the first guy that tried to blow the whistle on the industrial strength data collection strategies of the NSA.

     

        

Mark Klein told us his story. He had been the technician whose job it was to wire in the splitters and run the cables to Room 541A, where the NSA had their listening port. He explained the how and what of it very well.

  

Meanwhile people were wandering through the crowd passing out fliers like the one above.

     

There are usually Revolutionary Communist Party activists selling their newspapers in liberal crowds in San Francisco, but this time their presence just seemed a bit more on topic than usual.

  

  

Then they played a story from MSNBC that featured another interview with Mark Klein that explained how shocking the job he was asked to do was.

  

  

Then they played a clip from an Obama speech where he said "The NSA is not listening to your conversations..."

     

     

On the fringes of the crowd were pairs of cops watching us in a nonthreatening but vigilant way.

     

Solnit said that "the time has come for us to fight back." He explained that we have tools to work with. He urged us to join him in reading them off the side of the building in voices so loud it will shake the connections in Room 541A loose.

  

The we read the First and Fourth Amendments in loud clear and deliberate voices.

  

Solnit explained that the tool that unlocks the power of the First and Fourth Amendments is the Declaration of Independence. We read the preamble of that next. Jefferson's words came out loud and clear when we yelled them together. It was a powerful experience.

        

There was more, but I wanted to see what other interesting sights I could share with you.

Barry Hermanson told me that his signature campaign is going well enough that he will be on the ballot running against Nancy Pelosi.

     

  

The singer had new lyrics for that old Eagles song "Lying Eyes". His version went "you can't hide your spying eyes".

Then we circled up and shared a minute of silence in memory of Aaron Schwartz.