Originally Posted by ehasbrouck

Phil needs money more than anyone else here. He is out thousands of dollars (maybe an order of magnitude more than that) for private legal counsel and expenses to defend all our rights. To the credit of the Flyertalk community, that's where some of the contributions to his defense fund came from. But he's still got lots of legal bills to pay.

And the Identity Project is a nonprofit educational and legal organization, *not* a PAC or a lobbying organization.

All that said, we are pretty much the only group that has consistently tried to do many of the things being talked about here -- including doing what little we could (without being able to afford to represent him) to help Phil, limited by our own ability and by our resources.

Originally Posted by Fisher1949

Could you provide a link or mailing address for contributions so we know how to direct them to the correct fund? Thanks.

Originally Posted by FlyingHoustonian

First one needs proper organisation with public leader/board of directors. YOu could do it with people here. You also need a funded PAC (political action committee) tied to that org. that one registers with the Federal Election Commission (within 10 days if inception). YOu also need VERY GOOD records kept on the PAC side, especially for donations. "Connected" PACS are very much watched, and non-connected PACS are after 1000$ in donations-record keeping is a big deal.

Also on the PAC side you have to be careful in targeting politicians for donations. Many will not want to be seen as getting money from groups "Soft on terror" (YES I know the group is not soft on terror but that marketing term is easy to throw around---and effective). God forbid even a minor thing happen, and the groups reps will get skewered on the news, and the linked politicians will drop all support, even if it had nothing to do with the groups stated goals. So you have to make sure your leadership and spokesmen are level headed and articulate.

The leadership of the action organisation needs to pick a headquarters, though they can work from all over. Then you work on funding from like minded people and start working the PR angle. Money will be key up front, but having smart PR bullet points/sound bytes backed up by science will be huge. They also need to start getting sound bytes and interviews with the public who has been affected negatively by the inane TSA procedures. You need this to look calm and even handed but still show outrage. A good PR hire can make this happen. It sounds manufactured, but that is what most Media is and sadly it is very effective in NOrth America and Europe. I'd be happy to type up examples when I have more time (I have a flight to catch in about 3 hours).

The other big thing is time. People must be willing to devote serious time to this endevour. The money is huge, but you need several like minded folks willing to put forth the time to try and affect real change. Finally, after the first blitz of media and money, you also pick a target date in the future for a rally in DC. Get the mall really permits and actually work to ensure you get 30-50,000 people to show up. This is actually the hard part. Remember the million man march of 400,000 people. Don't overpromise. You must underpromise and overdeliver. This makes for a much better news story.
The PR person can ensure the rally gets covered, and you find out which news outlets are sending reps to cover the event and you send them pre-event releases with talking points and guidelines.

Finally you show how the changes would actually save the tax payer money, make the country safer, increase trade and business, and respect rights. You do this by linking all the events above in a post rally blitz of congress and the media.

To write a real guide would take pages and pages but I'd be glad to help when I have a bit more time to type.

Ciao,
FH

Originally Posted by ehasbrouck

The Identity Project has made our complete audio recording of Phil Mocek's TSA checkpoint trial available for streaming or download.

Originally Posted by TXagogo

Even if we can't agree on many points here (or any points here!) regardng this case and TSA, legal issues, police issues, lobbying, etc.... I am just curious about one thing. Does anyone disagree with the following statement:

"Phil stood up against an overzealous police force that attempted to bully him and initimidate him because he did not do as they ordered him to do, despite the fact that his actions were within the bounds of law."

Just curious - who agrees with that statement and who disagrees?

Originally Posted by pmocek

Thank you for asking. Donations to my legal defense fund can be made via PayPal (managed by Cannabis Defense Coalition, a 501(c)(3) non-profit I volunteer for; I was attempting to return from representing CDC at an international drug policy conference in Albuquerque when I was arrested there in 2009) or via postal mail to:

Originally Posted by InkUnderNails

Conceptually I am interested.

Give us some ball park numbers on funding if you can. For example, do not even think about it for less than $x, but $Y would be more reasonable. A really good organization can be put together for $Z.

You mention a good PR person. Is this a full time-hire or a contracted person typically in a start up?

What others? Writers? Someone to answer the phones?

As a business man, basic cash flow numbers will be good. How many dollars to start the process and how much monthly budget to support operations?

We may know very quickly if this is a project that we are able to do or not.

Thanks for the suggestion and help.

Originally Posted by TXagogo

Even if we can't agree on many points here (or any points here!) regardng this case and TSA, legal issues, police issues, lobbying, etc.... I am just curious about one thing. Does anyone disagree with the following statement:

"Phil stood up against an overzealous police force that attempted to bully him and initimdate him because he did not do as they ordered him to do, despite the fact that his actions were within the bounds of law."

Just curious - who agrees with that statement and who disagrees?

Originally Posted by pmocek

I'm very thankful that Edward and the rest of IDP made this happen.

Originally Posted by n4zhg

I agree with the statement so far as it goes, but it does not mention that the reason why the police were there in the first place is because TSA employees were butthurt that their badges weren't being licked properly. TSA bears some responsibility in this instance for pulling a Cartman first.

Originally Posted by deldel

Judge Napolitano just mentioned Phil's case on freedom watch. My favorite quote "This case is a huge victory for the rule of law in America. We have the constitutional right to travel as we please, and to record the govt in public, all without showing the govt our papers. This isn't East Germany it's America....no matter what cousin janet says."

Originally Posted by deldel

Judge Napolitano just mentioned Phil's case on freedom watch. My favorite quote "This case is a huge victory for the rule of law in America. We have the constitutional right to travel as we please, and to record the govt in public, all without showing the govt our papers. This isn't East Germany it's America....no matter what cousin janet says."