ACLU Opposes Obama Effort To Wiretap The Web

Christopher Calabrese, Legislative Counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), released the following statement today in response to reports that the Obama administration is considering requesting an expansion of federal wiretapping programs:

“Under the guise of a technical fix, the government looks to be taking one more step toward conducting easy dragnet collection of Americans’ most private communications. Mandating that all communications software be accessible to the government is a huge privacy invasion. With concern over cybersecurity at an all-time high, this proposal will create even more security risks by mandating that our communications have a ‘backdoor’ for government use and will make our online interactions even more vulnerable.”
 
“Congress must reject the Obama administration’s proposal to make the Internet wiretap ready.”

Reid Rakes Republicans Over Jobs

Minutes after President Barack Obama signed a $42 billion small business assistance bill into law, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) took to the floor to blast the GOP over its opposition to the bill.

“So far we’ve seen little to indicate that our friends on the other side of the aisle have any interest in protecting American jobs. Instead we’ve seen them fight with great enthusiasm to keep corporate tax loopholes as wide open as possible.”

Castle Independent Bid Could Hurt Coons

A new Rasmussen poll out today shows that a write-in campaign on behalf of Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) could take votes away from Delaware Senate candidate Chris Coons (D).

The new “telephone survey of Likely Delaware voters finds Coons with 49% support, while O’Donnell earns 40% of the vote. Castle, a longtime congressman who lost to O’Donnell in the state’s GOP Primary, picks up five percent (5%). Another five percent (5%) remain undecided,” according to a press release that accompanied the poll.

Polls previously showed Coons with a double-digit lead over O’Donnell…

U.S. Officials To Testify On Lockerbie Bomber’s Release

The Senate’s investigation into the release of the Lockerbie Bomber will continue Wednesday via a hearing with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The hearing, which will be chaired by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), will receive testimony from Nancy McEldowney, the State Department’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European Affairs and Bruce Swartz, a Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the Justice Department. Two health experts will attend the hearing as well.

The bomber, a Libyan citizen named Abdelbaset Ali Al-Megrahi, was released by Scottish authorities over a year ago on compassionate grounds. It was determined by the Scots that Al-Megrahi, diagnosed with prostate cancer, was expected to live less than three months.

Al-Megrahi was convicted for bombing Pan-Am flight 103 in 1988.

Wisconsin Prepping For Biggest Obama Rally Since ’08

The New York Times reports today that President Barack Obama’s campaign event tomorrow in Madison, Wisconsin will rival the ones he headlined during the 2008 campaign.

According to  Democratic source, “The event would be the biggest political rally since the end of the campaign and is meant to recapture “some of the old excitement and energy from the 2008 campaign that was so essential to Obama’s and Democrats’ success.”