Happy 4th: On Class, Ethnicity & Immigration

My fiance and I are dog-sitting for my mom this weekend.  Hopefully we're walking them along the beach in her CT town, enjoying the sun, whose warmth I've forgotten in the cloudiest June in Massachusetts in over 100 years.

Here's some interesting links for that downtime between the BBQs and naps I hope you're enjoying today:

MySpace is the ghetto, trailer park, or barrio of the internet.  Discuss.

The Obama Administration is halting Bush's Nothin' But Raids approach to immigration and going after employers who hire undocumented workers.  It's most high-profile case is against American Apparel, which raises questions about the effectiveness of this approach.  It's definitely more humane.  But will a fine of $150,000 make a remote bit of difference?

Police Chiefs from Miami, Austin, and Sacramento come together to call for immigrant legalization and a separation of duties between local police forces and immigration enforcement.  Money quote: “When you remove the emotion from the debate,” [Austin] Chief Acevedo said, "no one can argue that it is in the best interest of public safety to keep these people living in the shadows.”

Finally, Richard Trumka is on track to move from Secretary-Treasurer to President of the AFL-CIO.  Perhaps most famous for his moving speech on racism in the labor movement during Obama's candidacy last year (video above), Trumka "a former coal miner and fierce critic of corporate America...would bring a more combative style to running the federation at a time when organized labor seems to be growing weaker in the nation’s workplaces but stronger in Washington."

This fighting style is right up my alley, of course.  Others worry he'll be too polarizing.  There's a hilarious-in-its-irony quote from an exec at the US Chamber of Commerce, fretting about Trumka's aggressiveness and potential bad publicity for the "employer community."  As we document here at Poverty in America, I think Corporate America's already doing a bang-up job there!  Good luck to Trumka and the labor movement.  Don't forget: Support EFCA!