Obama administration wants more warrantless surveillance of Americans, Daily Kos, July 29, 2010, by Joan McCarter, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

As Yglesias says, “The End of Probable Cause.” WaPo reports:

The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual’s Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation.

The administration wants to add just four words — “electronic communication transactional records” — to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge’s approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user’s browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the “content” of e-mail or other Internet communication.

This power would be conferred upon the same FBI whose agents have “cheated on tests on how to legally conduct domestic surveillance cases.” Maybe this is just the administration’s way of making sure these people won’t have to cheat on future tests–not they won’t have to worry about the pesky details of conducting domestic surveillance legally, since they won’t have to worry about warrants.

Matt raises the question of “misused work resources . . . for personal purposes.” The larger concern, and anybody who lived through Nixon and is old enough to remember it will share it, is the very real potential for the systematic misuse of information for political purposes. It’s happened before and will happen again, and our government should at least have to go through the niceties of taking actual legal steps in order to spy on us. As Matt also points out, it’s not that hard. All it takes is “some kind of cause—probable cause, let’s say—to suspect someone of involvement in terrorism, [is to] just get a warrant.”

Probable cause and warrants. The stuff of democracy. The stuff, in fact, of the Constitution, the fourth amendment to be precise.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

See ‘Private’ Browsing Sessions Not As Private As You Think, The Huffington Post, July 29, 2010, by Catherine Smith, excerpt quoted verbatim:

Surfing the Internet with a web browser’s “private mode” enabled may not keep users’ information as safe as they think, Switched reports, citing research conducted at Carnegie Mellon University.

Carnegie Mellon’s Collin Jackson told New Scientist that some sites may leave data on a computer’s hard drive, even if they were accessed while private browsing was enabled, effectively providing traces of what sites you’ve visited.

As Jackson and his team note, “sites visited while browsing in private mode should leave no trace on the user’s computer.” And yet, Jackson tells New Scientist that a hacker could “guess what sites you’ve been to based on traces left behind.” Switched summarizes the dilemma: “when your average surfer turns on the private mode in a browser, they expect their tracks to be erased, and erased they’re not.”

See Breaking a Promise on Surveillance, N.Y. Times Editorial, July 29, 2010, excerpt quoted verbatim:

It is just a technical matter, the Obama administration says: We just need to make a slight change in a law to make clear that we have the right to see the names of anyone’s e-mail correspondents and their Web browsing history without the messy complication of asking a judge for permission.

It is far more than a technical change. The administration’s request, reported Thursday in The Washington Post, is an unnecessary and disappointing step backward toward more intrusive surveillance from a president who promised something very different during the 2008 campaign.

In a 1993 update to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Congress said that Internet service providers have to turn over to the F.B.I., on request, “electronic communication transactional records.” The government says this includes the e-mail records of their subscribers, specifically the addresses to which e-mail messages were sent, and the times and dates. (The content of the messages can remain private.) It may also include Web browsing records. To get this information, the F.B.I. simply has to ask for it in the form of a national security letter, which is an administrative request that does not require a judge’s signature.

But there was an inconsistency in the writing of the 1993 law. One section said that Internet providers had to turn over this information, but the next section, which specified what the F.B.I. could request, left out electronic communication records. In 2008, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion saying this discrepancy meant the F.B.I. could no longer ask for the information. Many Internet providers stopped turning it over. Now the Obama administration has asked Congress to make clear that the F.B.I. can ask for it.

Jay Rockefeller — “It would have been better if the internet had never existed” – CSpan2 — 2:45 Amazing.

See Gates Assails WikiLeaks Over Release of Reports, July 29, 2010, by Charlie Savage.

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Obama v. Rockefeller on EPA carbon regulations, Daily Kos, July 29, 2010, by Joan McCarter, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

While the energy bill won’t do much in the way of carbon regulation, the EPA still can. That is, if coal state Senators can be stopped.

Via David Dayen, earlier this week the White House vowed to veto legislation that would block the EPA from writing new climate change rules.

Coal-state Democrats, led by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (W. Va.), Reps. Rick Boucher (Va.) and Nick Rahall (W. Va), are trying to limit the federal government’s ability to control greenhouse gases from power plants.

The coal-state proposals, which would block the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority for two years, would undercut what is widely seen as Obama’s alternative climate policy, now that Congress has punted on cap-and-trade legislation for the year. The Obama aide said the proposals won’t win the president’s signature if they managed to pass on Capitol Hill. Rockefeller’s bill is expected to reach the Senate floor at some point this year.

Back in 2007, a Supreme Court ruling mandated that the EPA regulate greenhouse gasses, and the administration is determined to follow that law.

And Jay Rockefeller is determined to try to stop it, possibly by attempting to amend the energy bill on the floor next week. One way to circumvent him, without forcing a veto of the entire bill, would be for Reid to refuse amendments to the bill, something he has indicated might happen.

Which would hamper efforts to strengthen the bill in other ways. One of the most popular proposals in committee was the Renewable Electricity Standard, which would mandate that utilities get a certain percentage of their power from renewables. There’s an effort afoot now to get this amendment allowed on the floor.

Meanwhile, Republicans have introduced an alternative bill, that would basically let BP off the hook by not applying a liability cap in it retroactively to apply to the Gulf spill.

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The Final Lesson of BP, Robert Reich.org, July 28, 2010, by Robert Reich, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

BP is starting over. It just named a new American president and its finances are looking up. BP’s second-quarter report showed surprisingly strong revenues of $75.9 billion, beating Wall Street’s estimates. (This includes a $32.2 billion writedown along with the $20 billion liability fund that the Obama Administration wanted.) The company has started to sell $30 billion of its assets to ensure it has all the money it needs to pay any liability claims. No wonder several Wall Street analysts are suggesting BP stock as a terrific buy.

It doesn’t seem to matter BP was responsible for the worst environmental disaster in American history. Consumers worldwide – including Americans – continue to slurp up its oil.

But wait a minute. If BP emerges from this debacle fatter and happier than anyone imagined a few months ago, whatever happened to the idea of corporate accountability? Does this mean any giant corporation can wreak havoc and then get back to business as usual?

Corporations aren’t people. They have no brains, no consciences, no capacity for intent or guilt. Every one of their moveable parts can be replaced, just like BP’s former CEO Tony Hayward was replaced. Corporate accountability and responsibility are meaningless concepts. Corporations exist for only one purpose: to make money.

If we want corporations to act differently, we have to force them to do so through laws that are fully enforced and through penalties higher than the economic benefits of thwarting the laws.

Here’s the real outrage: In the wake of the BP spill, essentially no laws have been changed – not even a ridiculously low cap on damages private parties can collect from oil companies. Senate Republican leaders said Wednesday they wouldn’t support a bill retroactively removing the liability cap; and not even Democrats Mary Landrieu (D-La) and Mark Begich (D-Alaska) will support it.

Why isn’t Congress doing more – not only removing the cap on civil liability but also raising the level of penalties oil companies have to pay for violating safety and environmental regulations, permanently prohibiting deep-water drilling, and enacting a carbon tax?

Because of Big Oil’s political clout.

The same anthropomorphic fallacy that accords human attributes to giant corporations like BP distorts clear thinking about how to limit their political influence.

Consider the grotesque Supreme Court decision earlier this year in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which gave corporations the status of people with First Amendment rights to spend unlimited amounts of money on political ads. Citizens United ranks right up there with Bush v. Gore and Dred Scott as the most brainless and irresponsible Supreme Court decisions in history.

In March, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals decided that in light of Citizens United, there was no longer any basis for limiting contributions to so-called independent committees set up to support or oppose particular candidates. (Such committees are known as 527’s, after a loophole clause in the campaign finance laws.) The old contribution limit was $69,900 every two years. Now even that’s gone.

And the Federal Elections Commission has just interpreted these two court decisions to mean corporations, not just individuals, can now give unlimited amounts of money to 527’s.

To top it off, Tuesday the Senate failed (by only a few votes) to pass the “Disclose Act,” that would have forced corporate sponsors of campaign ads to reveal themselves and not hide behind innocuous sounding names like “Americans for America.” The bill also would have prohibited campaign ads run by U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies. (Think BP.)

Now all the limits are gone and the gloves are completely off. Even BP, incorporated in the UK, is officially free influence American politics to its heart’s content.

The will of the American people is being subordinated to the demands of giant money-making machines called global corporations that can now spend or threaten to spend unlimited amounts of money in support of any politician willing to help them make more and against any who might cause them to make less.

This is the final lesson of BP.

What should you do? As with the loophole-ridden finance reform law, and the new health law that richly rewards Big Pharma — get angry, not cynical. Commit to getting big money out of politics, even if it takes us years.

Robert Reich was the nation’s 22nd Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton and is Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations. In 2008, Time Magazine named him one of the Ten Most Successful Cabinet Members of the century. He has written eleven books, including “The Work of Nations,” which has been translated into 22 languages. His latest book is “Supercapitalism.” For Professor Reich’s book page for Supercaptialism at Amazon, go here. The above article is from Reich’s new blog, and can be viewed here.

Thanks to Professor Reich for permission to publish his articles on an ongoing basis.

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Income of very richest shot up by 281% since 1979, The Raw Story, July 28, 2010, by David Edwards and Muriel Kane, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

In the wake of BP’s calamitous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, CEO Tony Hayward is stepping down, but he will be receiving a severance package amounting to an estimated $18 million.

“That’s what he gets for presiding over a record oil disaster and massive losses,” commented Chris Hayes, Washington editor of The Nation, who was guest hosting MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show on Tuesday.

Hayes went on to note, however, that “Tony Hayward’s $18 million payoff is an absolute pittance compared to the kind of cash top CEO’s are raking in.” He cited a recent Wall Street Journal story which revealed that over the past decade, the two highest-paid CEOs at public companies each took in over a billion dollars in compensation, while others in the top 25 received compensation in the hundreds of millions.

What makes these pay rates really “infuriating,” says Hayes, is that “CEO pay is both a cause and partly a symptom of the staggering increase of inequality in this country.

Hayes cited a study recently released by the non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities which shows that if you’re in the bottom 20% of earners, “you’re making only 16% more today than you would have in 1979.” If you’re in the middle fifth, you’re making 25% more. “But the top fifth of earners in this country — they’re making 95% more.”

“And that’s not the really shocking part of this graph!” Hayes exclaimed. “Check this out. This is how much better the top 1% of Americans are doing now. The income of the very richest among us has shot up by 281% since 1979.”

“There’s a social pyramid in this country,” Hayes commented, “and as you climb it, you encounter a smaller and smaller group of people doing better and better, while everyone at the bottom stays where they were. And it’s precisely this kind of systematic inequality that incentivized the corporate fraud of the last decade.”

“A select group of people are able to completely immunize themselves from the fate of the rest of the society,” Hayes concluded. “Our entire social and economic way of life in this country is broken and unfair and inequitable and we need to figure out a way to repair it.”

Noting that the George Bush tax cut for the wealthy is due to expire next January, Hayes suggested, “We could let it. What remains to be seen is whether the Democrats in Congress have the political will to take that step.”

Rachel Maddow on outrageous CEO pay from July 27, 2010 — MSNBC – 5:30.

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Markets seem skittish and almost somewhat schizophrenic about the Fed’s pessimism versus growth in industry giants indicating the economy may move slowly forward after all.

Sputtering economy spreading new fears, Press Democrat.com, July 23, 2010, by Don Lee of The Chicago Tribune, excerpt quoted verbatim:

U.S. unemployment rate expected to remain high

WASHINGTON — Even with the extension of jobless benefits for millions of workers, a growing body of evidence suggests the U.S. is heading toward an economic netherworld, avoiding a slide back into recession but growing so slowly that unemployment will remain high, home prices low and incomes essentially stagnant.

Many Americans may continue to feel much as they did during the worst recession in half a century: Filled with insecurity, financial pressures and fading hopes for a quick return to better times.

“Extended unemployment benefits is helpful but hardly the booster rocket that’s needed to get out of the gravitational pull of this terrible economy,” said Robert Reich, a public policy professor at UC Berkeley.

The former secretary of labor during the Clinton administration painted a grim picture of what the continuing economic weakness will mean for large numbers of people, including those who have lost jobs.

“If they’re over age 55 (and unemployed), it’s unlikely they’ll ever be back in the workforce. Most families that depended on two wage earners will have to substantially tighten their belts for a long time. More young people will be living with their parents, and more families will be doubling up.”

Lonnie Kane, who makes fashionable women’s sportswear, has similar concerns.

“I’m more worried about not getting better than about having a double dip,” said Kane, president of Karen Kane Inc. in Los Angeles. “I see it as just staying flat — and that’s not healthy.”

Although not all economists and business leaders see a gray future, and long-term forecasts often have been wrong, concerns over signs of renewed weakness have intensified in the past few weeks.

Policymakers at the Federal Reserve recently lowered their economic outlook, as have many private economists. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke chilled markets Wednesday by saying the economic outlook is “unusually uncertain” and predicting unemployment would remain stubbornly high for several years.

The attitude reflects a broad range of indicators that have grown increasingly anemic or negative in recent weeks: Consumer spending is softening. The trade deficit is widening. Housing sales are faltering. And manufacturing is losing steam.

The slowdown prompted Kane last month to cut by half his budget for capital spending this year. He also put off hiring more product-development workers. As for his staff of 165, Kane had intended to give them raises later this year after a two-year wage freeze.

“But now we’re having second thoughts,” said Kane, whose business is in its 31st year. “I just don’t have the confidence to spend the cash.”

Some analysts said the recent economic retreat could be a pause in the economy as it shifts from one supported by government to one buoyed by the private sector. Business spending for equipment and software remains solid. And the $34 billion bill to extend jobless benefits, signed Thursday by President Barack Obama, also would have a positive effect on the broader economy.

Even so, economic growth of less than 3 percent this year is widely forecast because of recent setbacks. And that won’t create enough jobs to make a meaningful dent in the nation’s 9.5 percent unemployment rate, given increases in productivity and the population.

“What it means is that millions of people unemployed or underemployed (and forced to work part time) or too discouraged to look for work won’t find jobs,” said Martin Regalia, chief economist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

He said many of the remaining employed will face smaller wage increases and fewer opportunities to move into new jobs and boost their incomes.

Further economic stimulus by the federal government is one possible way out of the malaise, possibly including zero-interest loans to businesses and more infrastructure projects. But with deficit hawks in Congress and across the nation digging in their heels, the chances of passing major new stimulus programs anytime soon look slim.

Obama pushed through a $787 billion economic stimulus early last year, which many agree helped rescue the economy from recession. But that’s done little for Obama’s standing with the public, and he and his advisers don’t appear interested in fighting for another large-scale stimulus.

“I think they’ve decided it’s less risky to ride it out and presumably things will be better in 2012″ when Obama is up for re-election, said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington.

It’s not that corporate America doesn’t have the wherewithal either.

Although many small businesses lack funds and credit to invest and expand, larger companies are sitting on mountains of cash earned from sharply rebounding profits in recent quarters. Much of that cash came from layoffs and other cost-cutting moves.

The Federal Reserve tallied companies’ so-called liquid assets at more than $1.8 trillion at the end of March, up nearly $400 billion from a year earlier. That’s money that could be used for more plants, equipment and staff.

But without American consumers spending more freely, many companies are holding back. While some corporations, such as Boeing Co. and Intel Corp., are building new plants or upgrading facilities in the U.S., others are buying rival businesses, which often leads to consolidation and job cuts. Still others are investing more abroad to tap markets in faster-growing economies in Asia and South America.

“It doesn’t seem like there’s going to be any reason to spend (the cash hoard) in the next 12 to 18 months,” said Ken Goldstein, an economist at the Conference Board.

The New York research group is projecting an anemic 1.5 percent to 2 percent growth rate in the second half of this year, a pace that would probably push the unemployment figure even higher.

Coming out of the last two deep recessions, in 1975 and 1982, the American economy gathered powerful steam at this stage of the recovery, and in both of those cases, all of the jobs lost during the downturns were recouped within a year.

By most accounts, the current recovery is already a year old. But apart from a brief burst of growth late last year, the recovery has been so tepid that the nation has recovered just 10 percent of the 8.4 million jobs erased in 2008 and 2009.

In one widely followed gauge, the University of Michigan said last week its index of consumer expectations fell last month to the lowest level since March 2009, when the nation still was mired in the recession.

“People focus on the double dip, but it’s sort of beside the point,” Baker said. “The main issue is we’re looking at a very weak growth. . . . It’s going to feel pretty bad even if it stays positive.”

See Foreclosure activity up across most US metro areas, AP on Yahoo News, July 29, 2010, by Alex Veiga.

See Fed eyes steps to bolster sputtering economy, © Evansville Courier and Press, July 14, 2010, by The Associated Press, excerpt quoted verbatim:

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials cut their forecasts for growth this year and signaled they stood ready to take new steps to keep the recovery alive if the economy worsens.

A new document, released Wednesday, revealed a more cautious mood among the Fed policymakers in light of Europe’s debt crisis, a volatile Wall Street, a stalled housing market and high unemployment.

With risks growing, Fed officials at their June 22-23 meeting saw the need to explore new options for bolstering the economy. That’s a turnaround from earlier this year when they were moving to wind down crisis-era supports.

No new specific steps were disclosed or agreed upon at that time.

However, if the recovery were to deteriorate, Fed policymakers have options. They could revive programs to buy mortgage securities or government debt. They could lower the rates banks pay for emergency Fed loans. The Fed also could create a new program to spark more lending to businesses and consumers in a bid to lure them to ratchet up spending and grow the economy.

The economic and political hurdles for taking such action would be high, economists said.

“If the economy takes a nasty spill, then yes, it would take new policy action. But if we continue to see kind of mediocre, ho-hum growth, then that won’t be enough for them to move,” said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan Chase.

See Hope For Economy In Strong Manufacturing Reports, WSMV Channel 4.com, July 22, 2010, by ALAN ZIBEL, AP Business Writers, excerpt quoted verbatim:

Hope For Economy In Strong Manufacturing Reports

Leading People aren’t spending money like they used to. Unemployment is still flirting with double digits. And the housing market is still shaky. So the future looks bleak for the economy, right?

Not necessarily.

A handful of surprisingly good earnings reports Thursday suggested that some of the major U.S. companies that make things and move them around – including Caterpillar, 3M and UPS – could lead the way to an economic recovery.

It would be an unusual path back to better times. Consumer spending and housing usually lead the way.

But all three of those economic bellwether companies, plus AT&T and Union Pacific railroad, indicated business was picking up. And most said they expected it to get even stronger later this year.

Peter Buchanan, a senior economist at CIBC World Markets, said executives have taken pains lately not to raise hopes too high for big profits in future quarters. That spread fear among investors that the economy might stall.

But he says earnings results from UPS and Union Pacific should help ease such worries.

“If you’re moving stuff, it’s a broad indicator covering spending by both businesses and consumers,” Buchanan says. “Companies are erring on the side of caution in their forecasts … but on the ground the real results don’t look so bad.”

See Markets fall down after Fed economic report, AP on Kansas City.com, July 28, 2010, by Associated Press.

See Selfish and Stupid, Dubya’s Nightmare That Has Been Allowed to Continue, Daily Kos, July 28, 2010, by Badabing, excerpt quoted verbatim:

Nothing ever surprises me anymore….I am beyond the pale as they say, when I find out that Goldman Sachs, has gotten away with a bullsh*t $550 million dollar slap on the wrist, when I find out that now, according the MSM, that most ‘Americans’ think that the ‘Wars’ are ‘boring’ (so that they hope we do not pay attention to the new ‘Pentagon Papers’ of our century by WikiLeaks), or more recently, what the MSM has said: The BP Oil is now all ‘underwater’ where it does not ‘show’…you know..it must be………….wow……just ‘gone’ while BP just took $10 Billion of a subsidy paid by our own f**king government to pay off their $20 Billion so called ‘escrow account’……

Both parties, hope that if we can just ‘blame the Tea Baggers and the huge Right Swing’ in our own party’ (aka as the Blue Dogs) as being just another ‘strange beast’ that has shown up out of no where….we will all believe that same sh*t.

So I find it amazing, and hysterical that the Republicans are now calling the new Bio- Dubya’s New Book being called, ‘Selfish and Stupid’…….Let me tell you what ‘Selfish and Stupid’ really is: …

Read BP taking $10 billion tax credit from Gulf spill, a Discussion board over at Democratic Underground.

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Reid Leads in Nevada Senate Race – Democracy NOW! — 9:50.

Harry Reid to Bloggers at Netroots Nation: “I’m Proud of You for Taking On The Tea Party” — 9:29.

Uncertain Future for Reid Despite Rebound in Nev., ABC News Politics, July 25, 2010, by MICHAEL R. BLOOD AP Political Writer (Associated Press, quoted verbatim:

Despite Reid’s rebound in Nev. against GOP foe, Dems worry poor economy could drag him down.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid’s chances for six more years in Washington may be like tossing dice in a casino, even if he has made headway against Republican challenger Sharron Angle in a state with the nation’s highest rate of joblessness.

The four-term Reid holds a slight lead over Angle in the latest polling, thanks in part to her unsteady performance since winning the June primary and to Democratic ads portraying her as an extremist. Video of Angle scurrying away from reporters has mixed with television commercials of older voters upset about her call to phase out Social Security and Medicare.

But an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press says Reid has a “a serious problem” with voters frustrated with the economy and “receives a great deal of blame.” The July 15 memo is based on polling research conducted for Patriot Majority, a union-funded group that is running TV ads against Angle.

How did Sharron Angle blow an 11-point lead on Harry Reid in seven weeks?

How did Sharron Angle blow an 11-point lead on Harry Reid in seven weeks?, Christian Science Monitor, July 28, 2010, by Brad Knickerbocker, excerpt quoted verbatim:

Just a few weeks ago, Senate majority leader Harry Reid seemed headed for political flameout.

Nevadans were down on their senior senator, according to the polls. The “tea party” movement was zeroing in on him as representative of all that’s wrong with big-government politics back in Washington. And it looked like any of his likely GOP opponents could beat the four-term incumbent in November.

Shortly after Nevada Republicans chose former state assemblywoman Sharron Angle to run against Reid, the beleaguered Democrat was trailing his opponent by 11 percentage points in a Rasmussen Reports poll of likely Nevada voters.

But things can change in a hurry.

Reid has moved ahead of Ms. Angle in the polls – by as much as seven points in the latest Mason-Dixon Polling & Research survey for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The Angle campaign – with help from an increasingly worried national party – is having to beef up its campaign staff with outside professionals. And Angle is scrambling to change the subject regarding her earlier controversial positions and assertions.

“Reid has gone from being a very heavy underdog to being a slight favorite,” says Ted Jelen, a political scientist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “The fact that Sharron Angle won the primary was a major break for him.”

Meanwhile, Republicans “are growing increasingly frustrated with Sharron Angle and her lackluster campaign … fearing she is jeopardizing what they had long viewed as a sure pickup and costing them a chance to reclaim the majority,” reports CQ Politics.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), acknowledges the challenge his party faces in Nevada.

“While running for election is not rocket science, it does require knowledgeable people, it does require some discipline, and that’s always a struggle for every first-time candidate,” Senator Cornyn told CQ Politics.

See and watch Majority Leader Reid, live from Netroots Nation, Daily Kos, July 24, 2010, by Jed Lewison, video and transcript with updates. (we gave you the audio of Reid’s comments at Netroots Nation, above.

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Evans Liberal Politics, July 29, 2010, by Paul Evans with sources from The Raw Story. Thanks to The Raw Story for permission to republish their content on an ongoing basis:

Ariz. sheriff: I’ll jail immigration protesters

Listen to Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio as he says nothing will change for the new immigration law and it will be enforced. AP News – 1:45.

Ariz. Sheriff: I’ll Jail Immigration Protestors, Associated Press on the Raw Story, July 28, 2010, by The Associated Press:

The sheriff of the most populous county in Arizona says he’s “not going to put up with any civil disobedience” when the state’s new immigration law takes effect.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says that if protesters want to block his jail, he’ll put them in it.

The Arizona law, which takes effect Thursday, requires officers enforcing other laws to check a person’s immigration status if they suspect the person is in the country illegally.

Arpaio told ABC’s “Good Morning America” he doesn’t know “what the big hype is.”

He says it’s “a crime to be here illegally and everyone should enforce” the law.

Watch video on this from ABC’s Good Morning America, broadcast July 28, 2010.

Judge blocks parts of Arizona immigration law

Judge blocks parts of Arizona immigration law, Associated Press on The Raw Story, July 28, 2010, by The Associated Press:

Judge blocks controversial sections of Arizona’s new immigration law

A federal judge dealt a serious blow to Arizona’s immigration law on Wednesday when she put most of the crackdown on hold just hours before it was to take effect.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton sets up a lengthy legal battle as Arizona fights to enact the nation’s toughtest-in-the-nation law. Republican Gov. Jan Brewer said the state likely appeal the ruling and seek to get the judge’s order overturned.

But for now, opponents of the law have prevailed: The provisions that angered opponents will not take effect, including sections that required officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws.

The judge also delayed parts of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places. In addition, the judge blocked officers from making warrantless arrests of suspected illegal immigrants.

“Requiring Arizona law enforcement officials and agencies to determine the immigration status of every person who is arrested burdens lawfully-present aliens because their liberty will be restricted while their status is checked,” U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton, a Clinton appointee, said in her decision.

She said the controversial sections should be put on hold until the courts resolve the issues. Other provisions of the law, many of them procedural and slight revisions to existing Arizona immigration statute, will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.

The law was signed by Brewer in April and immediately revived the national debate on immigration, making it a hot-button issue in the midterm elections. The law has inspired similar law elsewhere (21 other states, I believe — Paul Evans), prompted a boycott against the state and led an unknown number of illegal immigrants to leave the state. (About 400,000 illegal immigrants have been widely expected to flee Arizona. What the court ruling does is to possibly slow or diminish this flood of illegals from going to other, more friendly states. There are 46.9 million Latinos living in the United States plus 4 million who live in Puerto Rico. California is home to 13.5 million Hispanics, and Texas is home to 8.9 million. Hispanics also made up at least one fifth of the population in California and Texas, at 37% each, Arizona (30%t), Nevada (26%), Florida (21%) and Colorado (20%). If Republicans want 95 percent of these voting Democrat, I guess that’s their choice. — Paul Evans)

Read the full article, here.

UPDATE: Brewer: Fight over AZ law ‘far from over’

See Brewer: Fight over AZ law ‘far from over’, The Raw Story, July 28, 2010, by Agence France-Presse, excerpt quoted verbatim:

PHOENIX, Arizona — Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said Wednesday she would swiftly appeal a judge’s ruling blocking key parts of a new state immigration law, vowing to take it all the way to the Supreme Court.

“This fight is far from over. In fact, it is just the beginning, and at the end of what is certain to be a long legal struggle, Arizona will prevail in its right to protect our citizens,” Brewer said in a statement.

Opponents to take to streets against Arizona immigration law

Opponents to take to streets against Arizona immigration law, Agence France-Presse on The Raw Story, July 28m 2010, by Agence France-Presse.

Thousands are expected to march Thursday when an Arizona law making illegal immigration a crime goes into effect over government objections and amid fears it will lead to ethnic profiling.

Passed by the Arizona state legislature in April, the law has been challenged by the federal government with a possibility that a judge might delay its implementation. (now the judge’s ruling is a reality – Paul Evans)

But that will not placate its opponents.

“We are waiting for the court to decide, but even if it issues a temporary injunction… we’re still going ahead with our protests, because 21 other states want to follow Arizona’s footsteps with racist laws” of their own, Paulina Gonzalez, spokeswoman for the “We Are All Arizona” group told AFP.

The protest movement has come alive in Arizona, where one third of the 6.6 million population is foreign born and an estimated 460,000 are illegal immigrants.

The eyes of the entire nation are fixed on this southwestern state, as the issue of immigration has grown in national scope both due to the recent economic downturn and the upcoming November legislative elections.

“Thursday will be our national civil disobedience day, when we’ll stand up to a racist, discriminatory and hypocritical measure that targets the very people who work for those who speak against undocumented workers,” National Day Laborer Organizing Network director, Pablo Alvarado, told AFP.

Signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer on April 23, law SB1070 includes a provision especially rankling for civil rights group that allows police to ask for documents verifying a person’s immigration status while checking for any violation, such as during a traffic stop.

For the first time in the United States, the law makes illegal immigration a crime and penalizes anybody helping or giving work to undocumented workers.

Civil rights leaders fear the law will lead to widespread ethnic profiling.

Last week, federal judge Susan Bolton heard arguments for and against the law. (and the current ruling temporarily stays the most egregious parts of the law… Paul Evans)

White House lawyers argued in a packed court room that immigration policy is exclusively the government’s responsibility and that state laws cannot trump federal rules or the US Constitution.

Read the full article, here.

See Hating Hispanics: Has Arizona Ignited Firestorm After Decade of Simmering Tension?, ABC News, July 19, 2010, by Sarah Netter.

Visit the National Immigration Law Center.

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Progressive Breakfast: Tax Cut Battle Lines Drawn, Campaign for America’s Future, July 28, 2010, by Bill Scher, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

Battle Lines Drawn On Bush Tax Cuts

President Obama and House Minority Leader Boehner, square off in White House over Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. NYT: “Mr. Obama vowed that Democrats would extend current income tax rates except for the wealthiest taxpayers. But Representative John A. Boehner … said the tax cuts should be extended for everyone … [The President] reminded Mr. Boehner … that the tax cuts’ architects purposely left the deficit problem to a future administration … ‘I wasn’t there,’ Mr. Boehner quickly countered. ‘I didn’t structure that deal.’ The room briefly went quiet as participants seemed to ponder that statement from a legislator first elected in 1990.”

Joan McCarter of Daily Kos reports new poll showing large majorities oppose extending the Bush tax cuts: “Even 40 percent of Republicans say they should be allowed to expire–19 percent say repeal them just for the wealthy, and 21 percent for everyone. That suggests that 40 percent of Republicans, who have been hearing the deficit hysteria since Barack Obama took office, are smarter than your average congressional Republican or deficit peacock.”

Matthew Yglesias looks at the Bush tax cut policies and asks “Where was the growth?”: “…the era during which Bush’s tax policies prevailed was the first in which median household income declined… the worst peak-to-peak economic performance ever, followed immediately by the worst recession since World War II.”

Some House Dems consider breaking with President on permanent extension of middle-class tax cut. The Hill: “While the White House has pushed for making the middle-class tax cuts permanent, Democrats in the House are looking at other options, including temporary extensions that would last more than a year,  according to an aide to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) … Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who is crafting legislation that will extend the tax breaks, has backed Obama’s policy of extending the middle-class cuts permanently … Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), has also said he’s open to a temporary extension that could set the stage for [broader] tax reform…”

Dodd Cautions Against Avoiding Senate Confirm For Warren

Sen. Dodd argues against appointing Warren without Senate confirmation. TPMDC quotes: “Recess appointments. No, no, no … You’ve heard the Republicans talking about repealing this bill … One of the first efforts they’d need would be to repeal this agency. If it’s not set up and running, the case against it becomes easier. So you want an established entity, as quickly as you can, with credible leadership. And if you don’t have that then you leave it vulnerable to the attacks.”

Rortybomb piles on “Megan McArdle’s Hack Post on Elizabeth Warren’s Scholarship”: “Megan opens her critique by saying that there’s a massive bias in the data sample [from a major Warren study] implied by the low response rate of 20%. A commenter politely responds that the response rate is 50% … Megan then says she meant the interview rate … But notice how Megan just keeps on going. This is one of the major planks of her argument, that the sample is corrupted, and when someone points out that what she stated was factually incorrect she just changing the terms and keeps on going as if she what she wrote wasn’t wrong.”

Prez Push For Small Biz

President prods GOP to pass help for small biz. W. Post quotes: “We shouldn’t let America’s small businesses be held hostage to partisan politics.” President to meet with small biz owners at a NJ sub shop to push bill reports The Hill.

Deal on small biz bill may come soon, allowing for consideration of GOP amendments. CQ: “Unable to advance the legislation without at least one GOP vote, Democrats appeared ready late Tuesday to meet Republican demands, with some limitations. To force action, they released a new substitute amendment and filed cloture on the amendment and the bill. But an amendment deal looks like the only way to ensure passage and dispose of the issue this week.”

W. Post Harold Meyerson’s tackles the problem of profitable companies that are still killing jobs: “Across-the-board business tax cuts make no sense when business is already sitting on oceans of cash. Targeted tax cuts and credits for strategic investment and hiring within the United States, on the other hand, make excellent sense … Another source of jobs would be public, and public-private, investment in infrastructure … A U.S. infrastructure investment bank … could leverage significant private capital to begin America’s rebuilding, though the idea has encountered rough sledding in (surprise) the Senate.”

“Single Stimulus Program That GOP Wanted To Eliminate Has Created Hundreds Of Thousands Of Jobs,” reports Wonk Room’s Pata Garofalo: “…House Republicans launched a gimmicky website called ‘YouCut,’ which allows people to vote on which item, from a pre-determined list, they would nix from the federal budget … The very first YouCut ‘winner’ was the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Emergency Contingency Fund … In fact, it is on pace to help 240,000 unemployed individuals find jobs by the end of September.”

Scaled-Back Senate Energy Bill Still Sparks Conflict

The Hill rounds up reactions to Senate energy bill: “The electric car provisions drew cheers Tuesday from the Electrification Coalition, while the Alliance to Save Energy applauded the Home Star program that provides consumer rebates for efficiency overhauls, claiming it will create 168,000 jobs over two years. But giant ethanol producer Poet called the lack of ethanol incentives a ‘missed opportunity’ in a statement Tuesday. And the environmental group Earthworks is worried about the push for more use of natural gas … The American Petroleum Institute … bashed provisions that remove the cap on companies’ liability for damages from offshore spills.”

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Obstructionist conservatives opposing lifting liability cap on oil companies in spill bill. The Hill: “The Senate Democrats’ bill would retroactively lift a $75 million spill liability cap for oil and gas producers — leaving no cap at all. That unlimited liability ‘will be a very significant issue, not just for Republicans,’ [GOP Sen. Lisa] Murkowski said.”

“Surprise” push for electric cars. TNR’s Brad Plumer: “… it’s a tiny bill—the total cost comes to around $15 billion. And it won’t do all that much for the environment: …. the only significant surprise is the electric-car section … It calls on the Energy Department to create a national plan for deploying electric vehicles. It allows electricity to count as an alternative vehicle fuel. It provides grants to local communities that set up their own plug-in networks.”

President says new energy bill is only a step towards broader climate protection and clean energy jobs bill. AFP quotes: ” I want to emphasize it’s only the first step and I intend to keep pushing for broader reform, including climate legislation … We should be developing those renewable-energy resources and creating those high-wage, high-skill jobs right here in the United States of America … That’s what comprehensive energy and climate reform would do, and that’s why I intend to keep pushing this issue forward.”

WH leaves door open to revisiting carbon cap in House-Senate conference committee. The Hill quotes Press Sec. Robert Gibbs: “I don’t think the bill is essentially dead for the year … The House passed a very strong and very comprehensive energy bill last year. The Senate is going to take up a version that is more scaled down, but still has some important aspects … Once a bill passes each house, it doesn’t close the door to having some sort of conference.”

Coal-state Dem Sen. Rockefeller may try to add temporarily block on EPA from regulating greenhouse gases. The Hill: “…he’s mulling whether to try and add his bill that blocks EPA climate change rules as an amendment to energy and oil spill legislation heading for the Senate floor.”

Coal-state House Dems that voted for carbon cap compromise not thrilled with Senate inaction, prepare to defend. Politico: “‘[VA Rep.] Rick [Boucher] took on his own party to protect coal jobs in the energy bill,’ a narrator says in a new ad unveiled last week … Freshman Rep. Thomas Perriello, who won his Charlottesville, Va.-based district in 2008 by fewer than 800 votes, said he made the right decision. ‘The issue of energy independence is much more important than my reelection,’ Perriello said. ‘But every day the Senate doesn’t act, we get our butts kicked by China.’ … Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, said his group will be airing ads as Election Day approaches, thanking House Democrats for their vote on the climate legislation while also going after its opponents…”

Reid insists there are not 60 votes for stronger renewable electricity standards. The Hill quotes: “I know there are some people saying that, but I’d like them to give me the names, and I’ll be happy to check them off.”

NRDC’s John Walke, in Grist, says an attack on clean air protections is brewing in the Senate: “NRDC has obtained a copy of amendments that Senator George Voinovich (R-Ohio) appears poised to lodge next week in the Senate Environment Committee … The amendments repeal, delay, and significantly weaken clean air safeguards that reduce power plant emissions of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide (pollutants that cause smog and soot), as well as toxic mercury, arsenic, lead, hydrogen cyanide, and other acid gases. The Voinovich amendments represent a complete rewrite of bipartisan legislation to strengthen the Clean Air Act cosponsored by Sens. Thomas Carper (D-Del.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) [which] could be brought to a vote in the Senate Environment Committee next week.”

State Dept. delays decision on Canadian tar sands pipeline. NYT: “The department provided no timeline for completion of the environmental assessment, but at the least, a decision on the permit would be delayed until the end of this year.”

Damage To Gulf Not Yet Known

Understanding Gulf gusher damage will take damage, no need to rush and cut off claims. McClatchy: “Some of the economic consequences of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill may take years to identify, and BP’s compensation fund should be flexible enough to account for long-term losses, a panel of experts from Alaska’s Exxon Valdez tanker spill told a Senate committee Tuesday … The collapse of the herring fishery, for example, couldn’t be fully anticipated until nearly a decade after 11 million gallons of oil spilled into the sound…”

Mother Jones’ Kate Sheppard casts natural gas as the invisible villain in the Gulf disaster: “…the leaked gas could dramatically change the chemistry of the Gulf. When natural gas is present, certain bacteria that digest it flourish out of control and can quickly deplete the oxygen in the surrounding waters, creating ‘dead zones’ where little can exist.”

Expanded Gulf gusher criminal probe. W. Post: “While it was known that investigators are examining potential violations of environmental laws, it is now clear that they are also looking into whether company officials made false statements to regulators, obstructed justice or falsified test results for devices such as the rig’s failed blowout preventer … One emerging line of inquiry, sources said, is whether inspectors for the Minerals Management Service … went easy on the companies in exchange for money or other inducements.”

PreOrder Robert Reich’s new Book Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future, Due out September 21, 2010

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State Budget Crunch Risks Nearly 500,000 Jobs

HuffPo’s Arthur Delaney reports that state and local governments are ready to fire 481,000 state workers: “The National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that 270 local governments planned to collectively lay off 8.6 percent of their workforce from the previous fiscal year to the next one.”

GOP blockage of Medicaid aid crushing state budgets. AFL-CIO’s Mike Hall: “A new report from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) … shows that at least 25 states assumed an extension of the enhanced FMAP [Medicaid] funding for their 2011 budgets. Without it, according to the report, budget gaps could grow by more than $12 billion in the current fiscal year and as much as $72 billion next fiscal year, forcing cuts in vital services and jobs to make up for the shortfalls.”

Health Care Reform Kicking In Despite Attacks

AFL-CIO’s Mike Hall says that having failed to kill health care reform, insurers are now working to weaken it: “After spending tens of millions trying to kill the new health care reform law, the nation’s big health insurance companies now, says Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), are: ‘sparing no expense to weaken this new law and the protection it promises to America’s consumers.’ According to a new report by the coalition Health Care for America Now (HCAN), big insurers are trying to gut proposed new rules that require they spend a certain amount of premium dollars on actual medical care, not wasteful administration, marketing or executive pay and bonuses.”

Health care law already sparking reforms among doctors. LAT: “… many independent providers across the country are racing to mold themselves into the kind of coordinated teams held up as models for improving care … Three of San Antonio’s hospital systems are competing to form alliances with local doctors who are giving up their private fee-for-service practices in exchange for paid positions on a hospital’s team. Healthcare experts have long argued that such a unified approach to medical care offers the best hope for improving quality and saving money.”

Despite conservative demagoguery, Texas is carrying out health reform. NYT: “Obama administration officials, while noting the incongruity, said they had been impressed that politically antagonistic states like Texas were complying with, and taking full advantage of, the new law. The Texas Department of Insurance, for instance, has applied for a planning grant to create a more muscular process for reviewing proposed premium increases, a White House priority.”

GOP Filibusters Campaign Finance Transparency For Corporations

Democrats vow to keep pushing campaign finance transparency legislation after GOP filibuster. The Hill: “…Schumer promised that Democrats would hold additional cloture votes until the legislation passes … Asked by The Hill if he is open to making changes to the bill, the New York senator replied, ‘Yes.’ … Political experts have said the bill needs to be signed into law by August in order to affect the 2010 election. If the Senate passes a version with Schumer’s changes, it would need to be reconciled with the House version. And the House is scheduled to adjourn Friday for the summer recess.”

King Coal ready to use Supreme Court ruling to spend big on election campaigns. Lexington Herald-Leader: “Several major coal companies hope to use newly loosened campaign-finance laws to pool their money and defeat Democratic congressional candidates they consider ‘anti-coal,’ including U.S. Senate nominee Jack Conway and U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler in Kentucky. The companies hope to create a politically active nonprofit under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code, so they won’t have to publicly disclose their activities…’With the recent Supreme Court ruling, we are in a position to be able to take corporate positions that were not previously available in allowing our voices to be heard,’ wrote Roger Nicholson, senior vice president and general counsel at International Coal Group…”

Push For Filibuster Reform Hits Dem Resistance

Ezra Klein explains how to end filibuster with 51 votes: “The so-called ‘constitutional option,’ which is being pushed particularly hard by Sen. Tom Udall, but is increasingly being seen as a viable path forward by his colleagues. The constitutional option gets its name from Article I, Section V of the Constitution, which states that “Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings.” … Because stopping the Senate from considering its own rules would be unconstitutional, the chair can rule against the filibuster, and the Senate could then move to change its rules on a majority vote. One caveat: Many people, including Udall himself, believe this has to happen at the beginning of a new Congress, then Congress is considered to have acquiesced to the previous Congress’s rules … This is not a radical theory, or a partisan one: Both Richard Nixon, then the vice president and thus the president of the Senate, and Robert Byrd, then majority leader and considered the greatest parliamentarian to ever walk the chamber, have argued in favor of the constitutional option.”

But there may not be 51 votes. The Hill: “Five Senate Democrats have said they will not support a lowering of the 60-vote bar necessary to pass legislation. Another four lawmakers say they are wary about such a change and would be hesitant to support it. A 10th Democrat, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), said he would support changing the rule on filibusters of motions to begin debate on legislation, but not necessarily the 60-vote threshold needed to bring up a final vote on bills.”

Breakfast Sides

Paul Krugman shreds Mort Zuckerman’s claim the President hold antipathy for business: “… the only actual example of Obama’s alleged demonization of business that Zuckerman offers [is] essentially a mini-Breitbart, a quote taken out of context to make it seem as if Obama was saying something he wasn’t. That’s typical of the whole argument.”

Government intervention averted Great Depression, finds new economic report from Alan Binder and Mark Zandi. NYT: “…the economists argue that without the Wall Street bailout, the bank stress tests, the emergency lending and asset purchases by the Federal Reserve, and the Obama administration’s fiscal stimulus program, the nation’s gross domestic product would be about 6.5 percent lower … there would be about 8.5 million fewer jobs … and the economy would be experiencing deflation.”

Twenty years after its passage, Alternet’s Sarah Jaffe recounts how the Americans with Disabilities Act did the impossible: “Against all the odds, thousands of people with all manner of special challenges showed they were more than able to do the seemingly impossible. They forced a foot-dragging Congress to pass and a Republican President to sign the most significant civil rights legislation in 20 years. And every time we find a a step replaced by a slope — we have them to thank … Are the rest of us ready to get over our disabled way of thinking about what’s possible?”

House subcmte backs F-35 engine over Pentagon’s request. CQ: “‘I don’t know what more we can say or do to make clear that this is something we don’t want, we don’t need and we can’t afford,’ said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.”

IMF softens stance on China currency. Reuters: “The International Monetary Fund has chosen not to call the yuan ‘substantially’ undervalued, a move that recognizes China’s efforts to free up its exchange rate and avoids friction with an increasingly influential shareholder … [former IMFer Eswar] Prasad said IMF economists reckoned the yuan was still between 5 percent and 27 percent undervalued depending on the methodologies used.

Bill Scher is the online editor for Campaign for America’s Future. In addition to his blogging there, he has his own blog at LiberalOasis.com. I’m also the author of Wait! Don’t Move to Canada: A Stay-and-Fight Strategy to Win Back America, a contributor to The Huffington Post and Bloggingheads.tv, and a fellow of the Commonweal Institute.

See Geithner Dismisses Concerns on Letting Tax Cuts Expire, The New York Times, July 25, 2010, by Ginger Thompson, excerpt quoted verbatim:

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner pressed the case on Sunday for letting Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire later this year.

In appearances on two television programs, Mr. Geithner said that letting tax cuts expire for those who make $250,000 a year or more would affect 2 percent to 3 percent of all Americans. He dismissed concerns that the move could push a teetering economy back into recession and argued that it would demonstrate America’s commitment to addressing its trillion-dollar budget deficit.

On “This Week” on ABC, he said, “We think that’s the responsible thing to do because we need to make sure we can show the world” that America is “willing as a country now to start to make some progress bringing down our long-term deficits.”

Mr. Geithner added, “I do not believe it will affect growth.”

Most Republicans and some Democrats in Congress strongly disagree and have pledged to launch an all-out effort to extend the tax cuts for people of all incomes. The cuts were passed under President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003. Supporters of extending the cuts for everyone argue that raising taxes on any group, particularly one considered crucial for creating jobs, could endanger a precarious economic recovery.

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BP fails to put money in promised escrow account, Think Progress, July 24, 2010, by Nina Bhattacharya, quoted verbatim:

LISTEN to "BP defaults on $20 billion escrow account." – from GoLeftTV – 9:07

In a deal negotiated last month, President Obama and BP officials agreed the company would pay $5 billion annually over the next four years into an escrow account for damage its oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico caused. Ken Feinberg, who was appointed to administer oil spill claims out of the escrow fund, has said he “hasn’t been able to start writing claims checks” because BP PLC has failed to deposit any money into the $20 billion fund it promised to create:

Feinberg, who was appointed to administer oil spill claims out of the fund, said he doesn’t have the authority to force BP to deposit the money, but his hands are tied until it does. “I don’t want the checks to bounce,” he said.

The day after the escrow account’s establishment in June, BP CEO Tony Hayward told Congress that BP is “unwavering in our commitment to fulfill all our responsibilities” and the company “won’t stop spending until the job is done.”

See BP misses deadline to fund $20 billion escrow account, Las Vegas Democrat Examiner, July 25, 2010, by David Phillips.

Maybe they ARE thinking of paying this money though: See BP replaces CEO and posts $17 billion quarterly loss, Reuters, July 27, 2010, by Tim Bergin, excerpt quoted verbatim:

Reuters) – Oil giant BP Plc launched a plan to repair its battered image in the United States on Tuesday, ditching its gaffe-prone chief executive and promising to slim down by trebling an asset sale target to $30 billion.

However, the company, the target of public anger over its Gulf of Mexico oil spill, tempted further ire by denying it needed cultural change and by offsetting the costs of the spill, including expected fines, against its taxes.

The tax move will cost the U.S. taxpayer almost $10 billion.

BP said Tony Hayward would stand down in October, to be replaced by American Bob Dudley, as it unveiled a $17 billion quarterly loss due to the costs of the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.

“I believe that it is not possible for the company to move on in the United States with me remaining as the face to BP,” Hayward told reporters on a conference call.”

…SNIP….

BP shares traded up down 0.6 percent at 1247 GMT, against a 0.68 percent rise in the oil sector. Investors had cheered reports of Hayward’s imminent departure on Monday, sending BP shares up nearly 5 percent in London and New York.

Around $70 billion has been wiped off the London-based company’s market value since the rig blast.

UPDATE: See BP Envisions a Leaner Future Under Its New Chief Executive, The New York Times, July 27, 2010, by Julia Werdigier and Jad Mouawad.

UPDATE: See On the Surface, Gulf Oil Spill Is Vanishing Fast; Concerns Stay, The New York Times, July 27, 2010, by Justin Gillis and Campbell Robertson, excerpt quoted verbatim:

The oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico appears to be dissolving far more rapidly than anyone expected, a piece of good news that raises tricky new questions about how fast the government should scale back its response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Comment by Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans: Yeah, I’m sure the plumes at depth are disappearing fast. And on the surface of it, a 17 billion quarterly loss seems to imply that BP is planning on paying its money into the escrow account. It would be hard to rack up that kind of losses otherwise…. Time will tell.

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