Russ Feingold and DFA have a petition we should all sign. DFA will deliver the petitions to every Senator on Tuesday morning, right before the expected vote.
I stand united with Senator Feingold and opposed to the so-called FISA compromise bill. Any bill that untimately grants retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that helped President Bush spy on Americans must not pass. Vote No. Support a filibuster. I am depending on you to stop this bill.
I see that a celebrity from cable TV is leading the Rec List today with an attack on Glenn Greenwald. In the interest of discourse and pluralism, I include part of Mr. Greenwald's response to Mr. Olbermann, and a link to his full response in this diary.
I have no doubt that some will attack me for presenting a view contrary to the views presented by the cable TV celebrity. But the FISA bill matters. The Constitution matters. My own self respect and nearly 40 years of fighting for progressive change require me to provide this to those who wish to hear.
I understand Olbermann says: "I don't know much about Mr. Greenwald and I didn't read his full piece." Yes, Keith Olbermann is quite a celebrity. So fucking what that he does not know Greenwald!
Many here, including Markos, consider Greenwald an excellent progressive. I first saw Greenwald's work being quoted by Markos here. Now Markos may [or may not] disagree with Greenwald on this issue, and either position's fine.
I'm about principles, not persons. I don't even have cable TV and rarely see Mr. Olbermann. Please forgive me if I fail to genuflect to him and his ideas, just because they are from him and he is a celebrity.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced this evening that he will vote against the compromise FISA legislation and work with likeminded colleagues to strip immunity for telecom firms from that bill.
It is a position that puts the Democratic Senate leader at odds with his own party's presumptive presidential nominee, Barack Obama, who also has pledged to fight for the removal of immunity but will vote yes on the final package.
Today, the New York Times reports that the military exercise Israel performed a few weeks ago looks like a "rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities."
More tidings of possible war, and why Obama, while perhaps not perfect, is far better than McCain on this, after the fold.
For those of you who do not know what Juneteenth is, I'll have a little history for you after the fold.
As of June 2008, 29 states and the District of Columbia have recognized Juneteenth as either a state holiday or state holiday observance; these include Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming
In the year in which an African American candidate was nominated by the Democratic Party, which prior to the Civil War was a party complicit with slavery, the Juneteenth celebration this year is particularly special.
Rudy has been taking pot shots at Barack Obama lately for McCain, claiming that "Barack Obama appears to believe that terrorists should be treated like criminals -- a belief that underscores his fundamental lack of judgment regarding our national security."
Back in 1994 when terrorists who did the first attack on the World Trade Center were convicted, he said the complete opposite:
the verdict "demonstrates that New Yorkers won't meet violence with violence, but with a far greater weapon -- the law."
Yesterday, Barack Obama stood up for our Constitution.
Today, the demogogue running as the prospective Republican nominee struck back:
"Once again, we have seen that Senator Obama is a perfect manifestation of a September 10th mindset," McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann said.
Yesterday, John Edwards appeared on "This Week" interview with George Stephanopoulos as a "surrogate" for Barack Obama and his campaign. In a nine minute plus interview, John Edwards hit hard on McCain.
The big news, of course, was John Edwards saying that he was not ruling out completely running as Vice President if Obama chose him. I wrote about that yesterday:
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the tragic and preventable death of 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez. She died from heat stroke while laboring in a Stockton area vineyard when the company failed to provide her with the shade and water required by California law. Her body temperature was 108.4 degrees when she was finally taken to a hospital nearly two hours after she collapsed. Doctors found after her death that she was two months pregnant.
To date no one from the companies involved has had the decency to express condolences to Maria's family.
snip
We want to let Maria’s family know that people from all over North America care about this tragedy—that people from all walks of life and of all backgrounds recognize the value of Maria’s life and death. Tell the family that you share the sorrow of Maria’s death and pledge to do what you can, so other farm worker families do not have to endure the same agony.
Now, the United Farm Workers are asking people to sign a condolance card to her family.
Today, I have good news. A panel of the California Court of Appeal ordered the Cintas Corporation to pay more than $1.18 million in back wages and interest to hundreds of Northern California workers for violating the city of Hayward’s Living Wage Ordinance. This judgment likely is the largest living wage award in U.S. history.
"Cintas had a moral and legal obligation to pay workers a living wage, but they ignored it." says UNITE HERE General President Bruce Raynor. "The company would rather fight workers tooth and nail than pay them what they deserve."
Labor union officials and some liberal activists were seething Tuesday over Barack Obama's choice of centrist economist Jason Furman as the top economic advisor for the campaign.
The critics say Furman, who was appointed to the post Monday, has overstated the potential benefits of globalization, Social Security private accounts and the low prices offered by Wal-Mart -- considered a corporate pariah by the labor movement.
We all support Obama against McCain. And many of us support the labor movement also. Our support of Obama is not the kind of support that believes he can do no wrong: that's for those who support Bush.
Labor leaders are rightly critical of Obama's choice of Jason Furman as the economic policy director. While I continue to support Obama and work for his election, I must speak out here. This is the wrong direction.
With the news of a possible raise of oil prices to even $150 per barrel (see Meteor Blades' diary), I thought it was worth going back 31 years to a televised speech by Jimmy Carter in early 1977.
Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you about a problem unprecedented in our history. With the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetimes.
snip
We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources. By acting now, we can control our future instead of letting the future control us.
We did not listen, and now the "future" of energy shortages controls us. More, after the fold.
As Obama moves to unify the Democratic Party, he is sending his strategist Paul Tewes to join the DNC. But Howard Dean will remain. Obama campaign spokesperson Bill Burton:
"Senator Obama appreciates the hard work that Chairman Dean has done to grow our party at the grassroots level and looks forward to working with him as the chairman of the Democratic Party as we go forward."
I like what I'm hearing. Barack Obama spoke before the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Convention today. Yesterday, he said this about SEIU's help for him in the primaries:
"SEIU's endorsement has made a tremendous impact over the course of this campaign. Their trademark purple has been a presence everywhere—at rallies, at worksites, and most importantly, on the doors and phones, talking to voters about the kind of change we can bring about if we change our politics."
I have video of the speech below. It's great. Please watch it if you can. This is how Obama will win the votes of working folks. I hear in Barack Obama a key theme that attracted me to John Edwards:
Change is building an economy that rewards not just wealth but work and the workers who work hard every day
We need a nation that rewards work, not just wealth. Barack Obama will help make that change, if we all work for it.
A few of us used to do a diary called the Edwards Evening News Roundup (not to be confused with the eenrblog, which involves a few but not all members of the old Edwards Evening News Roundup) (and I speak only for myself in this diary).
I thought this might be a fitting end to a tumultuous primary season. Many of us who supported Edwards, including myself, now support Barack Obama. Some support Hillary Clinton. All who support any candidate are welcome tonight.
