Declan McCullagh is reporting that earlier this year the Department of Justice subpoenaed the left-of-center news aggregation site Indymedia.us for information including visitor lists and IPs, then issued a gag order forbidding them to talk about it unless authorized to do so. From CBSNews.com:

The subpoena (PDF) from U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison in Indianapolis demanded “all IP traffic to and from www.indymedia.us” on June 25, 2008. It instructed Clair to “include IP addresses, times, and any other identifying information,” including e-mail addresses,…

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Your host Richard Morrison welcomes returning guest co-host William Yeatman and special guest commenter Ryan Radia to the program for Episode 61 of the LibertyWeek podcast. We start with the FCC’s just-announced proposal for “net neutrality,” Treasury documents that reveal the true cost of cap-and-trade legislation and the plan for getting over California’s great depression. We then move on to the G20 Summit’s potential path to prosperity and the ever-expanding scandal that is ACORN.

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A headline in yesterday’s evening edition of Greenwire (subscription required) declares: ”Treasury; enviros go on offensive against media reports of cap-and-trade costs.” In fact, enviros went on defense.

As has been widely reported (e.g. here, here, here, and here), CEI, using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), obtained two Treasury Department documents discussing the cost of a cap-and-trade program. The first of these documents, dated 11/6/08, states (p. 1) that the administration’s plan to auction all allowances under a cap-and-trade program “could generate federal receipts on the order…

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Today the Washington Post carried a follow-up article on CEI’s release of Treasury’s estimates — through a FOIA request –  on the cost of cap-and-trade legislation.  The article by Steven Mufson was quick to find and quote those who said CEI’s interpretation of those costs - an extra $1,761 each year for each American household - were built on false assumptions.  What was more interesting about the article, however, is the subtle slant the reporter gave in his depiction of both…

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In his update to his post, Declan McCullagh notes an objection by the Center for American Progress:

The fourth objection is the most compelling. The Center for American Progress writes: “The potential benefits of clean energy legislation far outweigh the modest costs.” That’s a reasonable cost vs. benefit calculation, and it includes the claim that even with the extra taxes, cap and trade is so vital to America, it’s still worth it.

That’s the right approach to take: it would be a…

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As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, CEI has used the Freedom of Information Act to find out what the administration thought its proposal to introduce cap-and-trade would cost the economy. CBSNews’s Declan McCullagh can fill you in on the details:

A previously unreleased analysis prepared by the U.S. Department of Treasury says the total in new taxes would be between $100 billion to $200 billion a year. At the upper end of the administration’s estimate, the cost per American household would be…

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This story just hit the Drudge Report’s front page.  Declan McCullagh at CNET writes today about the latest revision of S.773, a bill that would give the president “emergency control” of the internet in case of a “cybersecurity emergency.”  Wayne Crews, CEI Vice President for Policy,  released a statement on the naming of the cybersecurity chief and wrote an article on this back in May.  See an excerpt below:

Policy makers should avoid collectivizing and centralizing risk management, especially in frontier industries like information technology.…

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