Welcome! "The Evening Blues" is a casual community diary (published Monday - Friday, 8:00 PM Eastern) where we hang out, share and talk about news, music, photography and other things of interest to the community.
Just about anything goes, but attacks and pie fights are not welcome here. This is a community diary and a friendly, peaceful, supportive place for people to interact.
Everyone who wants to join in peaceful interaction is very welcome here.
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Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Junior Wells. Enjoy!
Junior Wells - Hoodoman Blues
“Without music, life would be a mistake."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
News and Opinion
Discussion of Brennan Nomination on UP with Chris Hayes
Wyden seeks secret opinions on killing Americans
Requests files from Obama's CIA director pick
“For the executive branch to claim that intelligence agencies have the authority to knowingly kill American citizens but refuse to provide Congress with any and all legal opinions that explain the executive branch’s understanding of this authority represents an alarming and indefensible assertion of executive prerogative,” Wyden wrote in the letter.
For more than two years, Wyden has been seeking these legal opinions and others but has either received insufficient responses to his inquiries or no response at all.
He has asked that prior to the start of Brennan’s confirmation hearing in the Intelligence committee that he and other committee members and their cleared staffs are given these opinions and that written assurance be given to the committee that future legal opinions related to this topic will also be provided.
It's not the first time a young guy who Heymann was prosecuting committed suicide.
Aaron Swartz's Lawyer: Prosecutor Stephen Heymann Wanted 'Juicy' Case For Publicity
Heymann is the son of Phillip Heymann, the former head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. The younger Heymann has had an interest in cyber crimes since the mid-1990s. He oversaw the "first use of a court-ordered wiretap on a computer network" in 1996 and brought the first federal prosecution of a juvenile computer hacker who disabled a regional airport’s control tower computer in 1998.
[...]
Swartz wasn’t the first young computer guru to come into contact with the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office who ultimately took his own life. Hacker Jonathan James killed himself in May 2008 at the age of 24, writing in a suicide note that he had “no faith in the ‘justice’ system.” His friend Christopher Scott was charged with breaching retail networks, and James was reportedly the “J.J.” mentioned in the indictment. James said he had nothing to do with the retail hack but believed that the feds would try to pin it on him. Scott had contacted him, and James believed he was working with federal prosecutors.
“The feds play dirty. Chris called me the other day. He was in jail and they let him out. That can only mean that he too is trying to pin this on me,” James wrote in his suicide note.
Four months after James’ death, the Justice Department announced it had reached a plea agreement with Scott. The prosecutor on the case was Stephen Heymann.
Two Days Before MIT and Cambridge Cops Arrested Aaron Swartz, Secret Service Took Over the Investigation
A lot of people are justifiably furious with US Attorney Carmen Ortiz and AUSA Heymann’s conduct on this case.
But the involvement of the Secret Service just as it evolved from a local breaking and entry case into the excessive charges ultimately charged makes it clear that this was a nationally directed effort to take down Swartz.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin'
A Little Night Music
Junior Wells - Snatch It Back and Hold It
Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, John Mayall - Messin' With The Kid
Junior Wells - Cryin' Shame
Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy & Junior Wells-Hoochie Coochie Man & Mannish Boy
Junior Wells' Chicago Blues Band - Help Me
Junior Wells - Trouble no more
Junior Wells - Everybody's Gettin' Them Some!
Junior Wells - She Wants To Sell My Monkey
Junior Wells & Buddy Guy - Little By Little
Buddy Guy/Junior Wells - Catfish Blues
Junior Wells - Come On In This House
Buddy Guy/Junior Wells - Vietcong Blues
junior wells - tobacco road
Junior Wells - Hey Lawdy Mama
Junior Wells - Watch Me Move
Junior Wells - Early In The Morning
Remember when progressive debate was about our values and not about a "progressive" candidate? Remember when progressive websites championed progressive values and didn't tell progressives to shut up about values so that "progressive" candidates can get elected?
Come to where the debate is not constrained by oaths of fealty to persons or parties.
Come to where the pie is served in a variety of flavors.
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." ~ Noam Chomsky
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