The unemployment data is due tomorrow, and it’s likely to be bad, with an expected 300,000 to 320,000 jobs lost in July, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and others. That’s a big problem. But unfortunately, when it comes to getting the nation back to work, tomorrow’s unemployment rate isn’t the biggest problem we face.

What’s really troubling is long-term unemployment.

EPI economists see the economic stimulus as alleviating the jobs crisis created under Bush.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor was approved as the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The final Senate vote tally was 68 votes for her nomination, 31 votes against.

The one Senator not voting was Sen. Kennedy, who expressed support for her nomination but was not present today in DC for the vote due to his illness.

John Brennan’s explanation for his role in the illegal surveillance program are in some ways worse than Alberto Gonzales’ answers on the same topic.

I think they’ve overplayed their hand here. We saw this kind of raw ugliness during the presidential campaign at McCain/Palin events — and it backfired on them. Sure, they’re getting headlines — but do they want this kind?

Thanks to Congresssman Filner, and great job by Democracy for America, who worked with him and got a great video. They have been wonderful partners on this project, really terrific to work with, and have helped tremendously.   They’ve also done great work on the Ben Nelson front, and have vowed to continue, even when the White House telling liberal groups to stand down. That takes tremendous courage and integrity.

We’re adding Filner to our Health Care  Heroes page.  At a time when a lot of people are demoralized and are being told that the Blue Dogs are going to write this bill and that they are going to have to suck it up, Congressman Filner’s courage and leadership are inspirational.  So please consider thanking him with a donation.

Soft power is all well and good, provided the US is still capable of it. But if John Brennan is leading that effort, will it be legal, or will it be more abuse of power like the domestic surveillance program Brennan was intimately involved with?

The vote on Sonia Sotomayor’s SCOTUS nomination is likely to come at 3 pm ET today. Would that other legal positions were also a priority in the Senate. This is what happens when you fail to make the rule of law a priority…

Sen.

Listed below are the health care events for Democratic members of Congress. If you know of an event and you don’t see it listed, let us know here.

If you want to go to any event, you can sign up to join a group (if there is one) or create a group. You can also search to see if there is group near you planning on going to an event by searching here.

You can communicate with others at the event by using the hashtag #FDL combined with a hashtag of the member’s last name and state. We will contact people by mail to arrange meetup times in advance of the event.

You can find a list of best practices here. Please take flip cameras and photographs. Tell us what happened and upload videos and photos after the event here.

From the NYT, the White House deal with Big PhRMA to reduce the drug manufacturers’ prices by $80 billions over ten years included White House promises not to require the manufactures to face competition or negotiations with Medicare.

Just a bunch of ordinary Americans.