California Libertarian Alliance

“The biggest threat to the open internet is not Chinese government hackers or greedy anti-net-neutrality ISPs, it’s Michael McConnell, the former director of national intelligence.”

“McConnell’s not dangerous because he knows anything about SQL injection hacks, but because he knows about social engineering. He’s the nice-seeming guy who’s willing and able to use fear-mongering to manipulate the federal bureaucracy for his own ends, while coming off like a straight shooter to those who are not in the know.”

“When he was head of the country’s national intelligence, he scared President Bush with visions of e-doom, prompting the president to sign a comprehensive secret order that unleashed tens of billions of dollars into the military’s black budget so they could start making firewalls and building malware into military equipment.”

“And now McConnell is back in civilian life as a vice president at the secretive defense contracting giant Booz Allen Hamilton. He’s out in front of Congress and the media, peddling the same Cybaremaggedon! gloom.”

Ryan Singel exposes the real threat to internet freedom @ http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/cyber-war-hype/

1. Additional federal spending transfers resources from the more productive private sector to the less productive public sector of the economy. The bulk of federal spending goes toward subsidies and benefit payments, which generally do not enhance economic productivity. With lower productivity, average American incomes will fall.

Chris Edwards has 5 more reasons to downsize the federal government @ http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2010/03/03/six-reasons-to-downsize-the-federal-government/

The Cato Institute has dedicated a new  website to Downsizing the Federal Government:  http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/

“President Obama has introduced his budget for next year. He proposes that the government spend $3.83 trillion in fiscal 2011. To put that number into context, let’s take a trip down memory lane.”

Chris Edwards shows that President Bush busted the budget every year in office, and that President Obama is acting like big spender Bush on steroids @http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11182

“President Obama didn’t even get past the title of his budget before starting the lies. “A New Era of Responsibility,” President Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget proposal, would increase the current year deficit to a new record $1.56 trillion. That’s an increase in the size of the deficit of $300 billion since his fiscal 2010 budget last spring. The new budget proposal would also increase the fiscal 2011 deficit to $1.267 trillion, an increase by the same $300 billion figure over his proposal last year, and more than double the national debt from its current $12 trillion to more than $25 trillion over 10 years.”

“Of course, it’s possible Obama and his budget officials weren’t lying in the title of their budget but were instead shooting for irony. If that was the case, they certainly succeeded. But it’s not funny.”

Thomas R. Eddlam looks at President Obama’s record spending proposal @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/politics/2868-obamas-budget-building-record-deficits-higher

 “By the end of the year, the federal government may have totally restructured the American healthcare system. This health-insurance industry takeover may lead to widespread taxpayer subsidies for elective abortion. A new national energy tax may be imposed to reduce carbon emissions. The secret ballot for union organization may be effectively eliminated, swelling Big Labor’s ranks and coffers. Or maybe none of these things will have happened. “

“Hard as it may be to believe, that last prospect looks most likely….”

Jame Antle III looks at how conservative opposition to big government – so silent when big government conservatives ran the country under Bush – may save us from the Democrat’s full monty http://www.amconmag.com/article/2010/jan/01/00012/

“The National Security Agency is building huge new storage facilities to store the unconstitutionally gained data on the American people’s telephone calls and Internet traffic permanently, including new buildings in suburban Salt Lake City, Utah, and San Antonio, Texas.”

“The NSA has been keeping permanent records of all American’s telephone call habits and Internet traffic since shortly after September 11, 2001, according to major news reports, without the constitutionally required warrants from a court.”

“No longer able to store all the intercepted phone calls and e-mail in its Ft. Meade, Maryland, headquarters, the NSA is engaging in its own housing boom. How much data will these giant, multibillion dollar new facilities hold? According to James Bamford of the New York Review of Books, the facility in Utah alone could hold data that will be measured in Yottabytes. Never heard of Yottabytes?…”

Full column by Thomas R. Eddlam @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/constitution/2177-nsa-supercenters-to-store-americans-private-data-permanently

David Boaz of The Cato Institute looks at the new Gallup Poll which shows Americans think government is taking too much power. Mr Boaz points out that  “The independents who swung the elections in 2006 and 2008 clearly think things have gone too far. An administration as smart as Bill Clinton’s will take the hint and rein it in.”

Full commentary by David Boaz  @ http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/09/22/americans-dont-want-it/