San Francisco: Celebrating Michael

It's sad. It's tragic. But the guy gave us a lot of good stuff in his life.

The Day In 100 Seconds

Wednesday, Swiping Reform, Credit Card Bill Of Rights, Mr. Credit Card Company, Great Day For Consumers, Chicken Little, Dead Beats, On The Defensive, Gauntlet Hurled, Disqualified Herself, New Speaker, Lack of Respect For, Dangerous For The Country, Sense Of Confidence, Left-Wing Congresswoman, San Francisco, Weird Views Of Your Constituents, Hummuhna-Hummuhna-Hummuhna, Third In Line, Who Wants It, I'll Take It, Crazy People On The Left, Reputations Defended, Honor Defended, Haven't Been Attacked, Good Enough For Me, President Speaking, Getting Out Front, Energy Efficient, Remain Competitive, Electric Car, Three Tries, Big Problem, Roller Blades, Hot Digidy Dog Zigidy, I'm Excited

In Court Today: Civil Liberties - Class Action lawsuits heard Monday against the telecom industry

Wired is keeping a close eye on this one for us. Bless them.

From DU Blogger

SAN FRANCISCO — The Bush administration on Tuesday will try to convince a federal judge to let stand a law granting retroactive legal immunity to the nation's telecoms, which are accused of transmitting Americans' private communications to the National Security Agency without warrants.

At issue in the high-stakes showdown — set to begin at 10:00 a.m. PST — are the nearly four dozen lawsuits filed by civil liberties groups and class action attorneys against AT&T, Verizon, MCI, Sprint and other carriers who allegedly cooperated with the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program in the years following the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The lawsuits claim the cooperation violated federal wiretapping laws and the Constitution.



In July, as part of a wider domestic spying bill, Congress voted to kill the lawsuits and grant retroactive amnesty to any phone companies that helped with the surveillance; President-elect Barack Obama was among those who voted for the law in the Senate. On Tuesday, lawyers with the Electronic Frontier Foundation are set to urge the federal judge overseeing those lawsuits to reject immunity as unconstitutional. At stake, they say, is the very principle of the rule of law in America.

"I think it does set a very frightening precedent that it's okay for people to break the law because they can just have Congress bail them out later," says EFF legal director Cindy Cohn. "It's very troubling."


Source: WIRED

Peon Labors: Another labor union unites behind Barack Obama

San Francisco Chronicle

Labor leader urges members to help elect Obama

Monday, July 28, 2008

Associated Press - The head of one of the nation's largest unions is urging its 1.4 million members to work hard to elect Sen. Barack Obama to the White House. read more here