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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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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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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The Great Decoupling of Corporate Profits from Jobs, Robert Reich.org, July 26, 2010, by Robert Reich, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

Second-quarter earnings reports are coming in, and they’re making Wall Street smile. Corporate profits are up. And big American companies are sitting on a gigantic pile of money. The 500 largest non-financial firms held almost a trillion dollars in the second quarter, and that money pile is growing larger this quarter. Profits that plummeted in the recession have bounced back. Big businesses have recovered almost 90 percent of what they lost.

So with all this money and profit, they’ll start hiring again, right? Wrong – for three reasons.

First, lots of their profits are coming from their overseas operations. So that’s where they’re investing and expanding production.

GM now sells more cars in China than it does in the US, but makes most of them there. The company now employs 32,000 hourly workers in China. But only 52,000 GM hourly workers remain in the United States – down from 468,000 in 1970.

GM isn’t just hiring low-tech assembly workers in China. Last week the firm broke ground there on a $250 million advanced technology center to develop batteries and other alternative energy sources.

You and I and other American taxpayers still own over 60 percent of GM. We bought GM to save GM jobs, remember?

GM officials say no American taxpayer money is being used to expand in China. But money is fungible. Because of our generosity, GM can now use the dollars it doesn’t have to spend in the United States meeting its American payrolls and repaying its creditors, for new investments in China.

Second, big U.S. businesses are investing their cash in labor-saving technologies. This boosts their productivity, but not their payrolls.

Last Friday, for example, Ford reported a $2.6 billion second-quarter profit. The firm is already more than two-thirds the way to equaling its record 1999 profits. But due to labor-saving technologies, Ford now has half as many employees as it did a decade ago.

Wall Street analysts are happy with Ford’s “commitment to keeping capacity in check,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Ford shares rose 5.2 percent Friday. “Keeping capacity in check” is the Street’s way of saying “no new hiring.” In fact, the Street is advising investors to sell the stocks of companies that talk openly of expanding capacity.

Finally, corporations are using their pile of money to pay dividends to their shareholders and buy back their own stock – thereby pushing up share prices.

Last Friday, GE announced it would raise its dividend by 20 percent and reinstate its share-buyback plan. It’s GE’s first dividend increase since the company cut its dividend in early 2009. As a result, GE shares are up more than 5% in the past few days.

Bottom line: Higher corporate profits no longer lead to higher employment. We’re witnessing a great decoupling of company profits from jobs.

The next supply-side economist who tells you companies need more incentive (i.e. lower taxes) before they’ll hire is living on another planet.

The reality is this: Big American companies may never rehire large numbers of workers. And they won’t even begin to think about hiring until they know American consumers will buy their products. The problem is, American consumers won’t start buying against until they know they have reliable paychecks.

Watch Foreclosures on Pace for Record, AP Video on YouTube — 1:01

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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Howard Dean tells Fox: Your coverage of Sherrod was racist, The Raw Story, July 25, 2010, by David Edwards, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

In an appearance on Fox Sunday, Howard Dean took the opportunity to tell the conservative network exactly what he thought of their coverage of the USDA worker who was forced to resign last week.

Dean told Fox News’ Chris Wallace that the network had behaved in a racist way when they reported on the tape of Shirley Sherrod that was posted to Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com.

Breitbart posted a video clip that appeared to show Sherrod saying she had withheld help from a white farmer because of the color of his skin. The NAACP condemned Sherrod and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asked for her resignation. After the unedited video surfaced, it was clear that Sherrod was actually telling a story about how she overcame racism. The NAACP and Vilsack both quickly apologized for their mistake.

Appearing alongside Newt Gingrich, Dean was blunt with his accusation. “I don’t think Newt Gingrich is a racist and you’re certainly not a racist but Fox News did something that was absolutely racist,” said Dean.

“They had an obligation to find out what was really in the clip. They have been pushing a theme of black racism, phony Black Panther crap and this business and Sotomayor and all this other stuff. The Tea Party called out their racist fringe and I think the Republican Party has got to stop appealing to its racist fringe,” Dean continued.

“And Fox News is what did that. You put that on,” he said.

“Wait, wait, wait,” interrupted Chris Wallace. “I know facts are inconvenient things but let’s try to deal with the facts. The fact is that the Obama administration fired or forced Shirley Sherrod to quit before her name had ever been mentioned on Fox News Channel.”

While it’s true that Fox News Channel did not air the video until after Sherrod resigned, their Web sites did push the story before her resignation. The Los Angeles Times’ James Rainey reports:

Too bad that message didn’t reach the operators of Fox’s websites and commentator Bill O’Reilly. FoxNews.com posted the story on Monday, and the FoxNation.com website followed with the video and the accusatory headline: “Caught on Tape: Obama Official Discriminates Against White Farmer.” That night, O’Reilly called on Sherrod to resign. (She had already agreed to leave her post before the O’Reilly segment aired.)

O’Reilly at least apologized for proceeding without all the facts. (Though he then proceeded to backhand Sherrod for two days running, suggesting she might be too dangerously left wing for government service.)

The Fox corporate rep who took my phone call this week wouldn’t explain why Fox’s Web newsers made the same mistake — failing to recognize that the Breitbart video was a clip job or that Sherrod’s story dated to a quarter-century ago, long before she worked for the feds.

“Fox News was not blameless during this,” countered Dean. “I don’t know if ever there was a clip of the white farmer saying ‘Wait a minute, this woman helped us save the farm.’ Did that ever appear on Fox News?”

“I don’t know because I wasn’t covering that part of the story but we certainly reported that part of the story,” Wallace replied.

“Did Fox News play the clip that turned out to be inaccurate?” asked Dean.

“After she was fired,” answered Wallace.

“Right. I don’t think it matters whether it was before or after. The fact is you played it. You didn’t do your job,” said Dean. “There’s been this ongoing theme [at Fox News] about black racism in America.”

Watch a video on this at The Raw Story.

Tobacco Giant Philip Morris is Hooked on Child Labor, In These Times, July 16, 2010, by Michelle Chan, (Photo by Moises Saman for Human Rights Watch), excerpt quoted verbatim:

Everyone knows smoking is a costly habit, taking a toll on your health and your wallet. What you probably didn’t know is that the tobacco industry extracts a much dearer price from children laboring in the remote fields of Central Asia.

Despite some legal and political troubles in recent years, the Philip Morris empire is still squeezing handsome profits from a vast migrant labor regime in Kazakhstan. A report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently shamed the company by revealing that migrant tobacco harvesters, many of them young children, are regularly subjected to abuse, wage theft, and even physical captivity. (Video below.)

Of course, labor abuse in the cultivation of tobacco is as old as the industry itself. In the colonial era, the tobacco crop gave rise to a thriving international trade in the Chesapeake, leading to environmental destruction, the displacement of indigenous communities, and political clashes. Over time, the great tobacco plantations helped institute the chattel slavery system that came to define the Southern economy.

Today, tobacco is still king in Kazakhstan, a major destination for migrant labor from relatively impoverished neighboring countries.

HRW interviewed scores of workers and family members, primarily in the Enbekshikazakh district of Almaty province. Migrants and their children typically cross the porous border from Kyrgyzstan in search of temporary work. Landowners here directly contract with Philip Morris Kazakhstan, part of the Philip Morris International network that serves international brands like Marlboro, Parliament, and Virginia Slims. The tobacco harvested in Kazakhstan, however, is used for small regional brand cigarettes.

An ordinary workday might include up to eighteen hours of “planting, watering, weeding, fertilizing, harvesting, stringing and drying tobacco.” A nine-month season might include just 14 days of rest. Workers are exposed to hazards like toxic contamination from pesticides and the tobacco leaves themselves.

Debt bondage is apparently common, as workers arrive at the fields already indebted due to the costs of being transported by middlemen. They often must work the entire season before seeing any wages, and their vulnerability is deepened by the common practice of bosses confiscating  passports. For children in the fields, work takes precedence over school. While some child workers are native Kazakhs, migrant children face especially severe educational barriers due to their marginal status.

A bad harvest could wipe out the entire season’s earnings and more, since landowners skim wages for food and other expenses. One family’s story traces the debt cycle that chains migrants to the farm:

When the family first came in April 2007, the landowner paid an exorbitant fee to the intermediary who brought Ulkan U. and her children from Kyrgyzstan and expected her to repay this and other expenses, such as food costs, at the end of the season. After a modest harvest, Ulkan U. found herself in debt, and the employer demanded she remain another season in order to repay him. Although she repaid her debt at end of 2008, she still did not have sufficient funds to return home and worked with her children during the 2009 tobacco season as well. Her children have not attended school since 2007.

Such practices clearly violate both international labor standards and Kazakh law. But the HRW reports that formal redress is nearly impossible for isolated, poor and transient noncitizens. Despite mandates under international human rights law, “in most cases the government of Kazakhstan has not fulfilled its obligations in its treatment of migrant workers: it has neither provided sufficient legal protections nor made existing protections effective.”

Kazakhstan hosts anywhere from 300,000 to one million migrant laborers, according to HRW. Under the country’s quota system, most seek only informal employment, especially since the government recently restricted the importation of guestworkers in response to high domestic unemployment. As with immigration restrictions elsewhere in the world, the migrants who find themselves stuck in the country illegally are in the worst bind, since, as HRW states, “workers with irregular status have no rights.”

HRW says Philip Morris Kazakhstan and Philip Morris International have, in light of the group’s findings, “committed to taking measures to address the abuses and exploitative practices.” But company executives contended that their own inspections “did not find evidence of some of the worst abuses documented by Human Rights Watch, such as forced labor or debt bondage.”

Nonetheless, they promised to cooperate with Kazakhstani authorities and non-governmental organizations to deal with migrant children’s education issues. The company also plans to engage an independent monitoring organization to track future reform programs.

While Philip Morris may seek to demonstrate good corporate citizenship, the report suggests that the exploitation of migrants in Kazakhstan is just a regular part of doing business in this part of the world. (Meanwhile, the ongoing conflict in neighboring Kyrgystan portends further regional destabilization and mass migration.)

Read the full article here.

In Other Human Rights and Social Justice News:

Slavery in Our Time

See Slavery in Our Time, In These Times, July 21, 2010, by Michelle Chen, excerpt quoted verbatim:

For the first time, the U.S. government acknowledges modern-day slavery in the United States.

One-hundred-and-fifty years after the abolition of slavery, the State Department has acknowledged that people in the United States continue to be bought and sold as property.

The department’s 2010 "Trafficking in Persons" (TIP) report, a global review of human trafficking and civic and legal responses to it, lists the United States for the first time among the nations that harbor modern-day slavery.

Watch Modern Slavery – Human Trafficking, YouTube video – 5:14. In the heyday of slavery, as MOST people think, 150 years ago, the value in today’s dollars of a strong male agricultural slave was the equivalent of about $40,000 U.S. dollars. Today, you can buy that same agricultural worker for about $300. There are more slaves today than at any time in modern history. This video is a real eye opener you really need to see.

BP Hides Use of Mostly Black Prison Labor For Oil Gusher Cleanup, Daily Kos, July 23, 2010, by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, excerpt quoted verbatim:

When the BP oil gusher mess first began, BP hired prison labor in order to reap tax benefits instead of hiring coastal residents whose livelihoods crashed with the explosion of the wellhead. When the community expressed their outrage, BP did not stop the practice of using phttp://evans-politics.com/wp-admin/post-new.phprison labor. No, apparently BP simply tried to literally cover-up the use of prison labor by changing the clothing worn by the inmates to give the appearance of a civilian workforce. Big surprise.

Grave Errors as Undead Rework Loans, The Wall Street Journal, July 23, 2010, by Ruth Simon, excerpt quoted verbatim:

Sarah Larson had been trying for months to get a break on her mortgage payments when a letter from her bank arrived in March. Sitting at the dining-room table of her Minneapolis house, the 33-year-old acupuncturist ripped open the envelope and pulled out a list of important documents demanded by Bank of America Corp.

Bank statements. A utility bill. Her death certificate.

See also Chicago Teachers Laid Off in Droves, In These Times, July 23, 2010, by Kari Lydersen.

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Obama says USDA “jumped the gun” on Sherrod ouster, Reuters, July 22, 2010, by Patricia Zengerle, quoted verbatim:

(Reuters) – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack rushed to judgment when he dismissed a former government official over racism allegations, U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview on Thursday.

“He jumped the gun, partly because we now live in this media culture where something goes up on YouTube or a blog and everybody scrambles,” Obama said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that will be broadcast on Friday.

Obama called former Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod on Thursday and expressed his regret about the events that led to her resignation this week.

Sherrod, who is black, has said her bosses pushed her to quit after conservative media repeatedly broadcast a tape that seemed to show her saying she had discriminated against a white farmer because of his race.

It was later found the tape had been edited to misrepresent Sherrod’s remarks at a meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People civil rights group. She had in fact said race should not matter.

In his interview, Obama said he had instructed his administration to learn from the circumstances surrounding Sherrod’s ouster.

“I’ve told my team and I told my agencies that we have to make sure that we’re focusing on doing the right thing instead of what looks to be politically necessary at that very moment,” Obama said.

“We have to take our time and, and think these issues through.”

The U.S. leader spoke to Sherrod for seven minutes, the White House said in a statement.

“The president told Ms. Sherrod that this misfortune can present an opportunity for her to continue her hard work on behalf of those in need, and he hopes that she will do so,” it said.

On Wednesday, Vilsack publicly apologized and the department offered Sherrod another job.

The White House said Obama had emphasized that Vilsack was sincere in his apology and his efforts to rid the Agriculture Department of discrimination.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, editing by Paul Simao)

See Politico editor: It’s the NAACP’s fault Breitbart attacked Sherrod, Daily Kos, July 22, 2010, by Jed Lewison.

See ACORN and Sherrod: Do the traditional media have integrity and honor?, Daily Kos, July 22, 2010, by Laurence Lewis.

See Breitbart offers a correction, Daily Kos, July 22, 2010, by Barbara Morrill, excerpt quoted verbatim:

Andrew Breitbart has finally updated the article that led to the firing of Shirley Sherrod. Still found under the title of, “Video Proof: The NAACP Rewards Racism,” Breitbart has added:

“While Ms. Sherrod made the remarks captured in the first video featured in this post while she held a federally appointed position, the story she tells refers to actions she took before she held that federal position,” the correction reads.

And now you have the whole story. Thanks, Andrew.

See Van Jones is talking now, Daily Kos, July 23, 2010, by Meteor Blades.

Links Courtesy of Progressive Blog Digest: "Sigh. Now we have sit through another of those Beltway Bubblies that’s all about how the Obama admin didn’t “handle” something properly, and not about the underlying fact of deceptive video editing and irresponsible journalism":

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/07/shame_on_obama.php

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/07/a_question_for_the_press_corps.html

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_07/024853.php

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40117.html

Who leaked? http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/07/white-house-concerned-about-meeting-leak/60213/

It’s the NAACP’s fault: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/7/22/886700/-Politico-editor:-Its-the-NAACPs-fault-Breitbart-attacked-Sherrod. This is overkill as we already covered this one.

Remember ACORN? http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/7/22/886542/-ACORN-and-Sherrod:-Do-the-traditional-media-have-integrity-and-honor. ditto.

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Woolsey to introduce ‘robust public option’ bill, The Raw Story, July 23, 2010, by Sahil Kapur, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

WASHINGTON – What, did you think the fight for health care reform was over?

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), co-chair of the progressive caucus, is making good on her promise to continue pushing for a public health insurance option after the enactment of sweeping reform legislation.

On Thursday afternoon, the Northern California congresswoman will announce the introduction of a bill offering consumers a choice between private plans and a “robust” public plan in the health insurance exchanges set up by the law.

“The robust public option offers lower-cost competition to private insurance companies,” Woolsey told Raw Story. “This will make insurance more affordable for those who do not have it and keep insurance affordable for those who do. We are introducing the public option now so is will be available as a ready-made off set or deficit reducer in this or the next Congress.”

In an email, she promised it would “rein in the spiraling costs of premiums” and “save billions of dollars and improve health care while doing it.”

The bill currently has 121 co-sponsors in the House, Woolsey said, and has won strong praise from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

“I am very pleased that Congresswoman Woolsey and 120 of her colleagues in the House are introducing a bill to create a strong public option operating in every state exchange,” Sanders told Raw Story. “I have long been in favor of a Medicare-for-all, single-payer health care system, but in the post-Affordable Care Act world I think the very least we can do is to offer every person the option of choosing a government-run health insurance plan over a private one.”

While the insurance industry fears competition from the government, polls have suggested that a large majority of Americans support a public option, and the Congressional Budget Office estimates that such a provision would help reduce the deficit.

“It comes as no surprise to me that the CBO continues to recognize that such a public option will save significant amounts of money for the federal taxpayer,” Sanders said.

Progressives are enthusiastic about the provision, for which there is strong support in the House. But it could be a nonstarter in the Senate this year, due to the busy calendar and fast approaching November midterm elections.

Woolsey was a vocal supporter of a public plan during the grueling yearlong debate. Though she voted for the bill even after it was removed, she told Raw Story in February she wouldn’t stop fighting for the provision.

In an op-ed for The Hill last week, Woolsey called the Affordable Care Act a “historic first step,” but argued that the law enacted in March must be followed by “an even longer stride into history by establishing a robust public option.”

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Extension of Benefits for the Jobless Clears Senate Hurdle, © The New York Times, July 20, 2010, by Carl Hulse, excerpt quoted verbatim:

WASHINGTON — The Senate broke a stalemate on Tuesday over extending unemployment benefits for Americans who have been out of work for six months or more, voting to override Republican objections that the bill’s costs would add to the federal deficit.

On a vote of 60 to 40, the Democratic-led Senate agreed to cut off debate on the $34 billion plan to distribute added unemployment compensation through November for those who have exhausted their standard 26 weeks of aid.

The 60 yes votes were the minimum required to overcome the threat of a filibuster and advance the bill to a final vote, expected later on Tuesday, when it is all but certain to pass. Two Republicans, Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, joined 56 Democrats and two independents in voting for the legislation; 39 Republicans and one Democrat, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, opposed it.

An estimated 2 million Americans have seen their benefits run out over the past two months while the legislation has been stalled in the partisan impasse.

“Finally, finally, finally,” said Senator Barbara Milkuski, Democrat of Maryland. She called the unemployment insurance program a social compact with American workers that means, “when you hit a speed bump and have to be laid off through no fault of your own, there will be a safety net so that you do not fall.”

Republicans said they backed the idea of extending benefits, but were determined to prevent the costs from being piled onto the mounting deficit.

“We believe the federal debt has grown to an alarming level, where it is threatening the future of our children and grandchildren,” said Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate.

After the Senate completes its final vote on the measure, the House must still act on it, a vote that is expected to come on Wednesday. President Obama would then quickly sign the bill into law at the White House, freeing the aid.

The Senate action came just minutes after Carte Goodwin was sworn in as the new Democratic senator from West Virginia, replacing the late Robert C. Byrd. While the seat was vacant, Democrats lacked the votes to overcome the Republican filibuster.

At age 36, Mr. Goodwin, a former legal adviser to Governor Joe Manchin III, becomes the youngest member of the Senate, replacing the eldest.

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