Great news! Fiscal conservatives chalked up yet another victory in their march to “stop the debt” yesterday, when three “tea party”-aligned U.S. senators unveiled a comprehensive balanced budget that closely resembles the grassroots-generated “Tea Party Budget” proposal.

The bold plan — unveiled by Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mike Lee of Utah, and Jim DeMint of South Carolina — would:

Cut $9+ trillion from the the budget over the next decade
Eliminate 4 departments (Energy, Education, Commerce, and HUD)
Repeal ObamaCare in its entirety
Reform entitlements
Balance the budget in 5 years, and
Stop the debt

Like The Tea Party Budget report on which it draws, the “tea party” senators’ budget would convert massive deficits to healthy surpluses by 2017.

Officially titled “A Platform to Revitalize America,” the senators’ bill would also privatize the TSA, shrink the EPA by 50 percent, freeze foreign aid at $5 billion a year, sell off excess federal land, and shutter or downsize dozens of unconstitutional or unaffordable programs and agencies.

This is the boldest, most serious budget proposal introduced in Congress in our lifetimes. We at FreedomWorks will be proudly encouraging our 1.5 million grassroots activist members to get behind it.

Read More at freedomworks.org By Dean Clancy, Freedom Works

Congress is doing it again: they’re proposing overbroad regulations that could have dire consequences for our Internet ecology. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 (H.R. 3523), introduced by Rep. Mike Rogers and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, allows companies or the government1 free rein to bypass existing laws in order to monitor communications, filter content, or potentially even shut down access to online services for “cybersecurity purposes.” Companies are encouraged to share data with the government and with one another, and the government can share data in return. The idea is to facilitate detection of and defense against a serious cyber threat, but the definitions in the bill go well beyond that. The language is so broad it could be used as a blunt instrument to attack websites like The Pirate Bay or WikiLeaks. Join EFF in calling on Congress to stop the Rogers’ cybersecurity bill.

Under the proposed legislation, a company that protects itself or other companies against “cybersecurity threats” can “use cybersecurity systems to identify and obtain cyber threat information to protect the rights and property” of the company under threat. But because “us[ing] cybersecurity systems” is incredibly vague, it could be interpreted to mean monitoring email, filtering content, or even blocking access to sites. A company acting on a “cybersecurity threat” would be able to bypass all existing laws, including laws prohibiting telcos from routinely monitoring communications, so long as it acted in “good faith.”

The broad language around what constitutes a cybersecurity threat leaves the door wide open for abuse. For example, the bill defines “cyber threat intelligence” and “cybersecurity purpose” to include “theft or misappropriation of private or government information, intellectual property, or personally identifiable information.”

Yes, intellectual property. It’s a little piece of SOPA wrapped up in a bill that’s supposedly designed to facilitate detection of and defense against cybersecurity threats. The language is so vague that an ISP could use it to monitor communications of subscribers for potential infringement of intellectual property. An ISP could even interpret this bill as allowing them to block accounts believed to be infringing, block access to websites like The Pirate Bay believed to carry infringing content, or take other measures provided they claimed it was motivated by cybersecurity concerns.

The language of “theft or misappropriation of private or government information” is equally concerning. Regardless of the intent of this language, the end result is that the government and Internet companies could use this language to block sites like WikiLeaks and NewYorkTimes.com, both of which have published classified information. Online publishers like WikiLeaks are currently afforded protection under the First Amendment; receiving and publishing classified documents from a whistleblower is a common journalistic practice. While there’s uncertainty about whether the Espionage Act could be brought to bear against WikiLeaks, it is difficult to imagine a situation where the Espionage Act would apply to WikiLeaks without equally applying to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and in fact everyone who reads about the cablegate releases. But under Rogers’ cybersecurity proposal, the government would have new, powerful tools to go after WikiLeaks. By claiming that WikiLeaks constituted “cyber threat intelligence” (aka “theft or misappropriation of private or government information”), the government may be empowering itself and other companies to monitor and block the site. This means that the previous tactics used to silence WikiLeaks—including a financial blockade and shutting down their accounts with online service providers—could be supplemented by very direct means. The government could proclaim that WikiLeaks constitutes a cybersecurity threat and have new, broad powers to filter and block communication with the journalistic website.

Read More at The Electronic Frontier Foundation By Rainey Reitman and Lee Tien, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Have you noticed that during Republican administrations homelessness was always in the news? I know you have. There were daily reports and weekly specials. Are we to assume that we no longer have a homeless problem in America? Did you notice that during George H. W. Bush’s administration that the press harped on unemployment numbers everyday and how bad the economy was? It was constant.

English scientist Charles Babbage (1791–1871) understood that scientists were often guilty of manipulating evidence to add credibility to a theory. He described three types of misconduct: forging (the outright invention of data), trimming (the cosmetic ‘massaging’ of data, so as to display them to best advantage), and cooking (discreetly losing the data that were out of line or did not help the hypothesis).[1]

What’s true of scientists is doubly true of politicians and their support staff. In order to boost President Obama’s election prospects in November, the unemployment numbers are being forged, trimmed, and cooked.

For example, the Labor Department reported that 227,000 new jobs were added in February. The claim is being made that this is the third consecutive month of job creation. All the reports from the mainstream media are telling us that this means the economy has finally dug itself out of the recession hole. President Obama’s policies are working. He deserves another four years.

Another set of numbers reports that our trade deficit has skyrocketed by $4.3 billion in January to $52.6 billion. This number is an indicator that we are not creating the type of jobs that indicate long-term growth. Many of the new jobs are in the service industry.

Read More at Godfather Politics

The rift between Sleep Train Mattress Centers and Rush Limbaugh apparently became permanent today after Limbaugh reportedly turned aside the Sacramento retailer’s attempt at a truce.

Limbaugh rebuffed Sleep Train’s request that the controversial radio host resume his duties as a paid spokesman for the company.

Sleep Train stopped advertising on Limbaugh’s show after he called a law student advocating for birth control coverage at Georgetown University a “slut” and a “prostitute” over her stance on contraception. The retailer said it can’t “condone such negative comments directed toward any person.”

Limbaugh, through his spokesman Brian Glicklich, turned aside Sleep Train’s attempts to resume advertising on the show.

“Unfortunately, your public comments were not well received by our audience, and did not accurately portray either Rush Limbaugh’s character or the intent of his remarks. Thus, we regret to inform you that Rush will be unable to endorse Sleep Train in the Future.”

Read More at The Sacramento Bee By Dale Kasler, The Sacromento Bee