Despite our best efforts, the "Back to Work" budget failed to pass the House; the final tally was 84 in favor and 327 against, and more Democrats voted against it than for it. That's the bad news. The good news? They voted on it at all, and we now have 327 House Reps on the record as opposing a budget that would actually cut the deficit, close corporate tax loopholes, and create jobs. That makes the Senate Democrats' budget, S.Con.Res. 8, the next-best option; Sen. Murray's budget would raise taxes on the rich, jack up clean energy investment, and permanently extend ARRA's improvements of the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit. Both the National Women's Law Center and the AFSCME help you support the Murray budget. (Incidentally, the House narrowly passed the Zombie Ryan budget; the Senate will take it up soon. More details as they arrive.)

Speaking of budget matters, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State helps you tell your Senators to oppose school vouchers in their budget resolutions. Why? Because vouchers don't guarantee admission, don't cover the entire cost of tuition, don't help students learn better, and should be used to make the public school system better. Also, because the schools that accept vouchers don't have to comply with federal civil rights laws, and (all together now) if you're going to take federal money, you have to play by federal rules. Or, more precisely: if you're going to take our money, you have to play by our rules. They're going to spend the same amount of money to get worse results -- where did we hear that before? Oh, right, in the Zombie Ryan budget's Medicare "vouchers." When did spending the same amount of money to get worse results become "conservative"?

Finally, if you've missed previous opportunities to tell President Obama to threaten a veto of CISPA, the cyber "security" bill that would let corporations share your private information with our government at their mutual pleasure, Roots Action (which calls CISPA the "Corporate Intrusive Spying Permission Act") provides one more. The bill not only gashes all our other privacy laws and lets corporations and government decide what information can be protected and what can't, but it gives corporations immunity from prosecution for sharing your information! You have to wonder why corporations need immunity if they're not doing anything wrong. Mr. Obama was steadfast in his opposition last time (not that this should make us forget the 2011 NDAA, continued warrantless wiretapping, Guantánamo still standing, or drone killings), but he'll only be so again if we press him.