The Obama Administration wants to hand over access to your financial records to the CIA, NSA, and other law enforcement agencies. According to a new report from Reuters, a Treasury Department plan gives spy agencies full access to more raw financial data then ever before, under the guise of national security. Already, financial institutions are required to report “suspicious customer activity” to the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, but spy agencies must make case-by-case requests to access the FinCEN database.

Under the new plan, agencies would have unlimited access to the financial records of millions of Americans. A Treasury spokesperson said that U.S. Law already allows FinCEN to share information with agencies, and that there are privacy safeguards in place under the Bank Secrecy Act. But Michael German of the ACLU calls the proposal “a black hole” - saying, “Time and again, we have evidence, unfortunately well after the fact, that somebody's civil rights have been violated; that the intelligence community simply ignores the rules.”

Allowing more government surveillance is a bad idea. Over the past decade, we've seen Presidents and spy agencies chip away at our civil rights, all in the name of national security, and this plan is simply another attack on our privacy. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety” . We must stand up for the precious civil liberties guaranteed to us in the Constitution, or we'll soon find they no longer exist.

-Thom

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Wednesday's Daily Stack

Article: "Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina elected pope, takes name Pope Francis" by Jason Horowitz.

Book: "The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World's Religions" by Wayne Teasdale.

Book: "The Little Flowers of St. Francis" by Raphael Brown.

Book: "Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews, A History" by James Carroll.

Movie: "Constantine's Sword".

Article: "Pope Francis" by Wikipedia.

Book: "The Pope's War: Why Ratzinger's Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved" by Matthew Fox.

Site: "knightstemplar.com".

Article: "Swiss Guard" by Wikipedia.

What is the Back to Work Budget?
- Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ, 3rd District)

Article: "Back to Work Budget" by Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Hour Two: "Pop-tart" bill - isn't this really about guns?
- JB Jennings, Maryland State Senator (R-MD, District 7)

Article: "Soledad O’Brien Spars With Lawmaker Over ‘Unreasonable’ Bill To Counter ‘Pop-Tart Gun’ Suspension" by Meenal Vamburkar.

Article: "New bill on school discipline introduced to Senate" by Jennifer Allard.

Article: "Senate Bill 1058: Education – The Reasonable School Discipline Act of 2013" by Senator JB Jennings.

Article: "Why Are Pop Tarts the New Frontier for Pro-Gun Legislators? Find Out Here" by Mytheos Holt.

Article: "Obama meets with House Republicans, downplays 'immediate' debt crisis".

Article: "2nd Amendment".

Petition: "Socially Responsible Program for Guns in Albuquerque" by Laura White.

Article: "Transcript: JFK's Speech on His Religion", Sept. 12, 1960.

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Bob Ney

Book: "Sideswiped: Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Hit Men of Capitol Hill" by Robert Ney.

Article: "Former Rep. Bob Ney skewers John Boehner: ‘I don’t hate him now’" by Roxanne Roberts.

Article: "Obama: White House Tours Could Possibly Resume (VIDEO)" by Nedra Pickler.

Article: "Paul Ryan's Baffling Budget" by James Poulos.

Article: "Democratic Sen. Patty Murray’s budget plan delivers $1 trillion tax increase" by Cheryl K. Chumley.

Article: "Obama changing course, talking to Congress" by Anita Kumar.

Article: "Obama urges Libya's help in Benghazi probe, names new envoy" by Reuters.

Article: "37 percent of people completely lost" by Mark Morford.

Article: "What? Koch Brothers buying the L.A. Times?" by Andrew S. Ross.

Letter: "To George Wythe Paris, August 13, 1786" by Thomas Jefferson.

Article: "Insist That People Coexisted With Dinosaurs…and Get an A in Science Class!" by Dana Liebelson.

The good: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren slams Republicans: Worry less about helping big banks" by Eric W. Dolan.

The bad: "Family Research Council: Functioning societies ‘punish’ single people for having sex" by David Edwards (... 1972 Supreme Court case that established the right of unmarried people to use contraception was “the single most destructive decision in the history of the Court.”).

The very, very ugly: Steven Emerson: "The Muslim Brotherhood Is Coming, Oh My!" by karoli.

Book: "In God's Name: An Investigation Into the Murder of Pope John Paul I" by David Yallop.

Book: "The Imitation Of Christ" by Thomas a Kempis.

Petition: "Cancel the Sequester! Protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid" by Michael Phelan, Social Security Works.

Article: "Which Members of Congress Are Standing Up for Economic Decency – And Which “Progressives” Aren’t" by Norman Solomon.

Article: "Talkers Magazine 2012 Heavy Hundred".

Article: "Florida Lt. Gov. resigns amid internet cafe scam" by Kareem Gantt.

Quote: "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." -- John Kenneth Galbraith.

Site: "knightstemplar.com".

Site: "prioryofsion.com".

Article: "Missouri lawmakers vote to roll back income taxes" by Kevin Murphy.

Article: "Proposed sales tax increase would affect seniors, families, veterans on fixed incomes the most, Gov. Nixon says".

Article: "Gun Retailers Support Harsher Penalties On Gun Traffickers Than Some Congressional Republicans" by Zack Beauchamp.

Article: "Sick leave shark wrestler Paul Marshallsea sacked" by BBC.

Live from radio row at CPAC 2013 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, 201 Waterfront Street, National Harbor, MD 20745

Hour One: Meeting Thom again at CPAC...
- Jonathan Krohn, Freelance Journalist & Writer / former conservative turned liberal

Sequester
- Scottie Nell Hughes, the Tea Party News Network / Townhall.com

Seeking to return America to an "organic Christian society"
- John Horvat II, Author-Return to Order / The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property

Google: The Halliburton of the Obama Administration
- Erik Telford, Strategic Initiatives & Outreach-Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity

Hour Two: Sequester, budgets, jobs
- Senator Sherrod Brown, U.S. Senator (D-OH)

Latest news
- Terence P. "Terry" Jeffrey, CNSNEWS.COM

Live at CPAC
- Peter Ferrara, The Carleson Center for Public Policy.

Hour Three: CPAC doesn't represent Republican values
- Tim Young, Absolute Rights

Live at CPAC with Thom
- Dan Bongino, former US Secret Service Agent and Candidate for U.S. Senate (R-MD)

In for Thom for the last half hour
- Richard Fowler, host of the Richard Fowler Show on WE ACT Radio

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