Don't Track Me, Bro

The White House and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have been asking the Senate for a law that would protect Internet users from having their online activity tracked for commercial purposes. Yesterday, Senator Rockefeller (D-WV), chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, introduced S.913, the Do-Not-Track Online Act of 2011, which would make it illegal for Internet companies to collect data on browsing behavior of people who have "opted out" via their web browser or their mobile device.

Some browsers have voluntarily included do-not-track tools already, but no company is required to honor that request without legislation in place. If the bill becomes law, the FTC will create and enforce the rules by which companies will then have to abide.

Check out the text of the bill, or a short summary of each section.

2011 Economic Report of the President

The Economic Report of the President, 2011 is now available from the U.S. Government Printing Office. It is issued by the Executive Office of the President and the Council of Economic Advisers and transmitted to Congress no later than ten days after the submission of the Budget of the United States Government. The Economic Report of the President is available from GPO's Federal Digital System at: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collectionGPO.action?collectionCode=ERP.

Documents are available in ASCII text and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), with many of the tables also available for separate viewing and downloading as spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel (XLS).

The Economic Report of the President includes:

1. Current and foreseeable trends and annual numerical goals concerning topics such as employment, production, real income, and Federal budget outlays;
2. Employment objectives for significant groups of the labor force;
3. Annual numeric goals;
4. And a program for carrying out program objectives.

Also included is the Annual Report of the Council of Economic Advisers.
Each year, the Council of Economic Advisers submits this report on its activities during the previous calendar year in accordance with the requirements of Congress as set forth in section 10(d) of the Employment Act of 1946 as amended by the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978.

The Economic Report of the President, 2011 will be distributed to Federal depository libraries in paper format under:
* Title: Economic Report of the President, Transmitted to the Congress Feb. 2011 Together with the Annual Report of the Council of Economic Advisers* Class: PR 44.9:2011* Item Number: 0848-F-02* Shipping List: 2011-0032-S* PURL: http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS5348* CGP System Number: 582665.The Economic Report of the President, 2011 is also being shipped as House Document 112-2.

* Title: Economic Report of the President, Transmitted to the Congress Feb. 2011 Together with the Annual Report of the Council of Economic Advisers* Class: Y 1.1/7:112-2* Item Number: 0996-F* Shipping List: 2011-0032-S* PURL: http://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo4325* CGP System Number: 795910

In addition, copies of the Economic Report of the President, 2011 are available for purchase from the U.S. Government Online Bookstore at: http://bookstore.gpo.gov/collections/erp.jsp.

3... 2... 1... Liftoff

The space shuttle Discovery sets off on its final mission (STS-133) today at 4:50pm. The Discovery will complete an eleven-day voyage to the International Space Station and then enjoy a long retirement, maybe work on its golf handicap, putter around in the garage, the usual stuff. Follow minute-by-minute coverage of the events at Kennedy Space Center, read about the shuttle's past missions, and watch the launch at NASA's Launch Blog.

Documents Used to Promote Rumsfeld's New Book

Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush's Secretary of Defense through 2006, has recently published a memoir, "Known and Unknown." In order to promote his book, he's been making the talk-show rounds, and has created a website that he calls "The Rumsfeld Papers," which includes a collection of "hundreds of declassified or previously unreleased documents." The visitor is invited to browse the documents online, but they appear to be accessible only by searching keywords (if you can find a way to actually browse them, let me know).

The documents cover three administrations: Presidents Nixon, Ford, and G.W. Bush. There are scattered documents from his days in Congress and a special archive for the famous "snowflake" memos that inundated his staff during his years under Bush. With the right sort of indexing and verification this will be an extremely valuable collection, addressing a controversial period in our country's history.

Several journalists have already begun to dig through the memos and policy documents in order to compare them with information available during the early years of our war with Iraq. Jeremy Hammond, in Foreign Policy Journal, revisits the much-criticized decision to disband the Iraqi army in May of 2003. Bush, Rumsfeld, and V.P. Cheney have all claimed not to have authorized the order given by Paul Bremer, despite the fact that he reported to them and no disciplinary action was taken after he issued the order. As Hammond points out, documents on the website show that Rumsfeld was well aware of Bremer's intent to disband the Iraqi army; he had ample opportunity to refuse permission for such a move (one that largely led to the Iraqi insurgency we still see today). Bremer has claimed for years that he was not acting alone in this decision, and the documents on Rumsfeld's website appear to corroborate the accusation that at least Rumsfeld was complicit in this decision -- a decision that ran counter to the policy recommendations of his own Defense Department advisors and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Keep an eye out to see what else the document detectives come up with!

President's Budget of the United States Government, 2012

Looking for the President's Budget as mentioned in this New York Times article? Well, we have just the thing for you!

The President's Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2012 is now available from the United States Government Printing Office (GPO). The public can search or browse the budget, which is accessible from GPO's Federal Digital System at: <http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collectionGPO.action?collectionCode=BUDGET>. FY 2012 Budget documents are available in PDF, with many of the tables also available for separate viewing and downloading as spreadsheets in excel format.

We will be getting the paper document soon at Jackson Library. For now you can see it using the links below:

* Title: Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2012
* Class: PREX 2.8:2012
* PURL: http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS2343

* Title: Appendix, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2012
* Class: PREX 2.8:2012/APP
* PURL: http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS862

* Title: Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2012
* Class: PREX 2.8/5:2012
* PURL: http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS17351

* Title: Historical Tables, Budget of the United States Government Fiscal Year 2012
* Class: PREX 2.8/8:2012
* PURL: http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS17353

Read GPO's press release about the President's FY 2012 budget at http://www.gpo.gov/pdfs/news-media/press/11news12.pdf

Fun Stuff

Tracks in the Stacks

A couple of weeks ago, the Library of Congress received its largest-ever donation of audio recordings. Universal Music Group is shipping hundreds of thousands of masters on metal or lacquer discs, or reel-to-reel tapes – mostly from the 1930s and ‘40s – to the library’s National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Virginia.

The LoC will not only preserve and catalog the collection; they’ll eventually digitize the songs and make many of them freely available for streaming from their website (though the record company retains all copyrights). Sony-BMG is collaborating with LoC on the project, called “The National Jukebox.”

The Decca record label supplies a substantial part of the donated material; sadly, recordings from the Chess and Motown labels aren’t included in this deal (maybe later). Some of the most recognizable artists represented in the collection are Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Billy Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Bill Monroe.

GPO goes 2.0

The Government Printing Office is gettin’ all social-networky with its new Facebook page and its Twitter feed. Keep up with the latest news from the GPO and the Federal Depository Library Program.

Putting Budget Cuts in Perspective

This quick little video (about a minute and a half) isn’t government-produced, but it’s a good reminder of how to think about large numbers – the kind that are involved in any government-related budget discussion. Being alert to rhetoric is a good way to separate solid government information from politics. [Re: the legality of destroying pennies in the process of creating an educational video... Um, I dunno. It’s probably discouraged.]

Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Report

Just released through the Federal depository system...

Published by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report investigates the causes of the financial and economic crisis of 2007-2010. On May 20, 2009, President Obama signed into law an Act that established the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to "examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States." During the course of its investigation, the ten person bipartisan committee reviewed millions of pages of documents, interviewed more than 700 witnesses, and held 19 days of public hearings in New York, Washington, D.C., and communities across the country that were hit hard by the crisis.

The final report presents the Commission's findings and conclusions and also contains 126 pages of dissenting views. The Commission terminates sixty days following the release of its final report.

Our library should receive The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report in paper format soon (check the library catalog for more information), but you can also view the document using the PURL below:

* Title: The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report: Final Report of the National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States. Official Government Edition, January 2011.
* Class: Y 3.2:F 49/2/C 86
* PURL: <http://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo3449>

The final report is available on FDsys in PDF format <http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/pagedetails.action?packageId=GPO-FCIC> and for purchase from the U.S. Government Bookstore <http://bookstore.gpo.gov/collections/fcic.jsp.

You can also read a New York Times article on the report: Financial Crisis Was Avoidable, Inquiry Finds