In a stunning defense of President George W. Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program, President Barack Obama has broadened the government’s legal argument for immunizing his Administration and government agencies from lawsuits surrounding the National Security Agency’s eavesdropping efforts.

In fact, a close read of a government filing last Friday reveals that the Obama Administration has gone beyond any previous legal claims put forth by former President Bush.

Responding to a lawsuit filed by a civil liberties group, the Justice Department argued that the government was protected by “sovereign immunity” from lawsuits because of a little-noticed clause in the Patriot Act. The government’s legal filing can be read here (PDF).

For the first time, the Obama Administration’s brief contends that government agencies cannot be sued for wiretapping American citizens even if there was intentional violation of US law. They maintain that the government can only be sued if the wiretaps involve “willful disclosure” — a higher legal bar.

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And, to his credit, non other than Keith Olberman called out Obama for “Change we cannot believe in”.

Who is really to blame for our economic woes?  Could our government be as blameworthy as the companies they used our money to bail out?

Media coverage of the upcoming tea parties continues to explode. In this article, USA Today analyzes the inspiration behind the rallies.

Read the article here.

Nobel prize economist and New York Times contributor, Paul Krugman, offers a bizarre critique of the tea parties, specifically focusing his attacks on the Republican Party.

We would encourage Mr. Krugman to conduct a little more research on the objectives, coordination, and non-partisan participation of the tea parties.

Read his op-ed here.

With a $17.7 billion budget deficit, the state of New York plans to institute about 100 new taxes, fees, fines, surcharges, and penalties. It will boost taxes and fees on cell phone usage, fishing permits, health insurance, electric bills, bottled water, cigars, beer, wine, and the like.

In addition, New York city is raising its top income tax bracket to 12.62%, crushing California’s latest increase to 10.55%. As these articles demonstrate, the myriad of new taxes will damage both high income and low income earners.

Ironically, the American Legislative Exchange Council said that New York possessed the worst economic outlook of all 50 states, and that was before the explosion of new taxes.

Read the articles here and here.