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 bluesman John Lee Hooker. Enjoy!
John Lee Hooker For President
"I'm also interested in getting the Republican Party back in a functioning state. Because this country has two parties, and we need both of them operating in a way that allows us to move forward."
-- Barack Obama
News and Opinion
Google engineer accuses NSA and GCHQ of subverting 'judicial process'
Anti-hacking expert claims British spy agency is 'even worse' than NSA for tapping private networks between Google's centres
A British engineer who works on anti-hacking systems at Google has furiously accused the UK and US spying agencies of "industrial scale subversion of the judicial process" by tapping the company's internal networks.
Mike Hearn, who says he worked for two years on the networks that replicate Google data between its different computing centres, says that "GCHQ [the British surveillance centre] turns out to be even worse than the NSA [the US National Security Agency]". He added that he joined an American colleague, Brandon Downey, "in issuing a giant fuck you to the people [at the NSA and GCHQ] who made these slides".
His complaint follows the revelation by the Washington Post of slides leaked by Edward Snowden which show that GCHQ tapped the private networks between Google's centres in order to monitor traffic.
Hearn, a senior engineer at Google since 2010, complains that "nobody at GCHQ or the NSA will ever stand before a judge and answer for this industrial-scale subversion of the judicial process".
The Washington Post slides show that GCHQ has been tapping into private optic fibre cables, which Google leases from Level 3 Communications to coordinate its data stores between Finland, Dublin and Belgium, in order to monitor traffic and extract data. Hearn says that one of the slides "shows a database recording a user login as part of this [anti-hacking] system" – itself prima facie evidence that the tapping occurred.
Westminster Whitewash: UK spy chiefs deny data harvesting, say Snowden aided Al-Qaida
Intel IG rebuffs Hill on surveillance probe
The inspector general who oversees the sprawling U.S. intelligence community said he lacks the resources to conduct a review of NSA's surveillance authorities, rebuffing a request from a bipartisan group of senators seeking answers about the the agency's work.
Led by Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), 10 lawmakers in September had urged the watchdog, I. Charles McCullough III, to investigate the NSA’s programs to collect phone call logs and Internet data and publish its findings by the end of next year — but McCullough, replying Tuesday, said such a review just isn’t possible.
“At present, we are not resourced to conduct the requested review within the requested timeframe,” wrote McCullough, before adding he and other agency inspectors general are weighing now whether they can combine forces on a larger probe.
That response didn’t sit well with Leahy, who raised the letter during a scathing speech on the Senate floor Wednesday that slammed the intelligence community for a “trust deficit.” Leahy also emphasized his belief that “the American people are rightly concerned that their private information could be swept up into a massive database, and then compromised.”
Barrett Brown’s Mother Will Be Sentenced Today, November 8, 2013
The mother of Anonymous-affiliated activist Barrett Brown, Karen Lancaster McCutchin, will be sentenced today, November 8, the Associated Press reports.
Back in May, she admitted helping her son hide two laptops from federal agents that were investigating the activist. The laptops were hidden in a kitchen cabinet just as FBI agents were executing a search warrant.
As per the plea agreement, McCutchin faces up to 12 months in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.
Germany and Brazil call on the U.N. to act against data spying
Germany and Brazil on Thursday called on the United Nations to back action to limit cyber snooping amid a backlash against US spying on its allies.
The two proposed a UN General Assembly resolution which seeks special monitoring for “ensuring transparency and accountability of state surveillance of communications.”
The resolution does not mention the United States but German and Brazilian envoys made clear the anger at allegations of US snooping on their leaders. ...
The resolution, expected to be voted on this month and would be non-binding, expresses deep concern at “human rights violations and abuses that may result from the conduct of any surveillance of communications, including extraterritorial surveillance of communications.”
It calls on UN human rights chief Navi Pillay to produce a report on data surveillance and for states to extend protections under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to communications surveillance.
Hegemony Abroad Requires a Security State at Home
Judge Demands US Gov't Hand Over Secret Docs Detailing Gitmo Torture
On Wednesday, a judge presiding over the trial of the five alleged 9/11 plotters currently held at Guantánamo Bay ordered the U.S. government to submit previously undisclosed Red Cross documents that detail the conditions of prisoners at the secretive military prison, referred to by a former detainee as "a black hole where supposedly no laws apply." ...
Meanwhile, former Guantánamo detainee David Hicks, convicted of “providing material support to terrorism,” broke his gag order on Wednesday to speak out against the tortuous conditions he experienced in the six years he spent detained at the prison and to file an appeal against his former conviction with the help of the Center for Constitutional Rights in a bid to clear his name.
Hicks, an Australian native who was taken into custody by U.S. forces in Afghanistan and was one of the first detainees at Guantanamo, claims he was coerced into a plea deal under the impression that it was "the only way to get out of Guantánamo and escape the ongoing abuse and torture" there, CCR reports.
“That ranges from typical physical beatings to a whole range of psychological ploys," Hicks told RT in an interview this week. "There was medical experimentation that was very scary to be subjected to.”
“Myself and everyone else were tortured on a daily basis,” Hicks said.
FAA Releases Initial Plan on Increased Domestic Drone Use
The Federal Aviation Administration has released an initial plan for domestic drones to be used more widely by 2015. The rules require agencies that will oversee drone testing to release plans for privacy, but it does not lay out what the practices should be. In a statement, an American Civil Liberties Union legislative counsel called for "concrete restrictions on how data from drones can be used and how long it can be stored." According to the FAA, more than 80 law enforcement agencies are already authorized to use drones.
Obama apologizes to people who lost health insurance over Obamacare
President Barack Obama will apologize to individual health care buyers who have lost their insurance care policies after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in footage released by NBC News on Thursday night.
“I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me,” Obama told NBC correspondent Chuck Todd. ... The interview comes on the heels of NBC’s report that Obama’s administration knew the majority of individual buyers would lose their policies, despite his repeated assurances that they would be able to keep their plans.
“We Are Living in the World Occupy Made”: New York City Voters Elect Mayor Who Vows to Tax the Rich
OMFG! How long has it taken this very-important-regulator-person to recognize that there's something fishy going on?
New York Fed Chief Discovers the Glaringly Obvious!
The head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Thursday that some of America’s largest financial institutions appear to lack respect for the law, a potentially explosive charge against an industry already roiling from numerous government investigations into alleged wrongdoing.
William Dudley, one of the nation’s top banking regulators whose organization helps oversee Wall Street banks including JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, made the comment during a speech focused on the problems posed by banks perceived to be “too big to fail,” and possible solutions to correct them.
But in an abrupt turn, Dudley suggested that regulators may be stymied by "cultural" issues that have negatively affected the nation's biggest banks.
“Collectively, these enhancements to our current regime may not solve another important problem evident within some large financial institutions -- the apparent lack of respect for law, regulation and the public trust," he said.
“There is evidence of deep-seated cultural and ethical failures at many large financial institutions,” he continued. “Whether this is due to size and complexity, bad incentives, or some other issues is difficult to judge, but it is another critical problem that needs to be addressed.”
[See if you can spot the head of the New York Federal Reserve in this video:]
Obama Brags About Falling Deficit as Jobs Disappear and Public Investment Falls to Post-WWII Low
President Obama brags that the deficit is falling at the fastest rate in 60 years. It’s true, and it’s terrible news for the economy. As economist Dean Baker (who was a guest on Moyers & Company last week) put it, “celebrating the sharp drop in the deficit… is a bit like celebrating a sunny day in a region suffering from drought.” ...
So while the deficit is indeed shrinking fast, the CBO estimates that the austerity package known as “the sequester” will cost the American economy 1.6 million jobs through the end of next year. ...
The jobs we’re hemorrhaging due to spending cuts aren’t the whole story. According to a study by the conservative Peter G. Peterson Foundation, uncertainty resulting from lurching from one contrived fiscal “crisis” to another has cost the economy another 900,000 jobs since the tea partiers came roaring into Congress in 2010.
Which Companies Dominate Your State's Politics?
Using data from www.FollowTheMoney.org, we mapped which industries gave the most to state-level campaign donors for the 2012 election (ballot initiatives and party PACs excluded) and limited our search to the top business in each state. We also excluded unions, law firms and nonprofits, since political giving from these entities can be associated with a variety of industries.
Amid Food Stamp Slash, Fat Cats Plunder Farm Subsidies
Less than a week after supplemental food assistance was slashed by $5 billion and as Congress debates deeper cuts to the federal food stamp program within a new five-year farm bill, a new report released Thursday highlights how billionaires continue to collect taxpayer-funded farm subsidies and may soon be eligible for even more.
According to the report Forbes Fat Cats Collect Taxpayer-Funded Farm Subsidies, authored by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), between 1995 and 2012 the federal government paid out $11.3 million to 50 billionaires or farm businesses in which they had an interest.
Though the billionaires' subsidies amount to a relatively meager portion of the federal budget, the report notes that a number of these 'Fat Cats' are eligible for even greater payments through the crop insurance loophole.
Unlike farm subsidies, crop insurance premium subsidy recipients are legally non-disclosed. Further, crop insurance subsidies are not subject to payment limits, conservation requirements or means testing, which permits the denial of subsidies to individuals with a certain amount of annual off-farm income. ...
The report notes that proposed changes to the farm bill put forth by both the House and Senate will "shift subsidies from programs currently subject to means testing to the more generous crop insurance program," allowing a greater percentage of the funds to be doled out to undisclosed recipients of unknown net worth.
Cut In Food Stamps Forces Hard Choices on the Poor
For many, a $10 or $20 cut in the monthly food budget would be absorbed with little notice.
But for millions of poor Americans who rely on food stamps, reductions that began this month present awful choices. ... And for many, it will mean turning to a food pantry or a soup kitchen by the middle of the month. ...
Christopher Bean, the executive director of a Bronx food pantry that is operated by a nonprofit organization called Part of the Solution, said that about 60 new families had visited the pantry in the past week because their food stamps had been cut. ...
At a Met Foodmarket in the Bronx, where 80 percent of the 7,000 weekly customers use food stamps, overall food sales have already dropped by as much as 10 percent. ...
During lunch at the Neighborhood House soup kitchen in Charleston this week, discussions about how to cope with cuts to food stamps were not hard to find.
People said they felt desperate. Many stuffed extra bread or cake into their pockets for later in the day, and traded advice on which agencies might be handing out free groceries later in the month
''People at this level of need are already going hungry,'' said Sister Noreen Buttimer, a nun who works at the soup kitchen, a Catholic charity. ''It's frightening how we think about the poor.''
How Can the New York Times Endorse, the TPP, an Agreement the Public Can't Read?
The New York Times' editorial board has made a disappointing endorsement of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), even as the actual text of the agreement remains secret. That raises two distressing possibilities: either in an act of extraordinary subservience, the Times has endorsed an agreement that neither the public nor its editors have the ability to read. Or, in an act of extraordinary cowardice, it has obtained a copy of the secret text and hasn't yet fulfilled its duty to the public interest to publish it.
Without a publicly available agreement, readers are forced into the uncomfortable position of taking official government statements at face value. That's reflected in the endorsement, which fails to note the myriad ways in which TPP has been negotiated undemocratically, shutting out public oversight while permitting corporate interests to drive the agenda. Given these glaring issues, it is disconcerting that the Times would take such a supportive stance on an agreement that is likely to threaten innovation and users' digital rights well into the 21st century.
That situation leaves unanswered questions. Does the editorial board, for example, support the TPP provisions that would give private corporations new tools to undermine national sovereignty and democratic processes? Because “investor-state dispute settlement,” slated for inclusion in both the TPP and the EU-US trade agreement, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), would give multinational companies the power to sue countries over laws that might cut into expected future profits. This could allow corporations to unravel any policy designed to protect users against violations of their right to privacy or free speech online. The paper's endorsement notes that copyright enforcement could be expanded to suit legacy media companies, but provides no explanation of why a trade agreement is an acceptable venue for deciding such issues. ...
The paper's statement emphasizes how the Obama administration strives to make TPP's policies “an example for the rest of the world to follow.” But if that's the case, then it's all the more important that the agreement be published immediately. Such a significant body of international law regulating digital policy must not be negotiated without proper, informed public debate. The secrecy of the process itself ensures that only some private interests will be represented at the expense of others. In addition, the U.S. Trade Representative's history of pushing forth extreme copyright enforcement policies through other trade agreements gives little assurance that users' rights will be considered in the TPP.
TPP And Its Atlantic Cousin Set Stage For Corporatocracy
"The purpose of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is to remove the regulatory differences between the US and European nations. I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago. But I left out the most important issue: the remarkable ability it would grant big business to sue the living daylights out of governments which try to defend their citizens. It would allow a secretive panel of corporate lawyers to overrule the will of parliament and destroy our legal protections. Yet the defenders of our sovereignty say nothing.
The mechanism through which this is achieved is known as investor-state dispute settlement. It’s already being used in many parts of the world to kill regulations protecting people and the living planet.
The TPP and the TTIP would be a 1% kill shot on democracy in the developed world. All major political and economic decisions in Europe and Southeast Asia – excluding China – will be settled not in Congress or parliaments but in corporate board rooms. And by the time anyone even objects to one of the rules the corporatocracy implements and demands public hearings the corporate players will have already gotten ahead of the game in their own/the real halls of power. They have rigged the system completely in their favor."
Closing arguments next in Detroit bankruptcy trial
Detroit — Labor union and retiree attorneys will get their final shot Friday to argue in court why Detroit is ineligible for bankruptcy when closing arguments begin in a historic trial over the city’s financial collapse.
Testimony concluded Thursday afternoon in a trial that has seen Gov. Rick Snyder take the stand for an unprecedented court appearance to justify his decision to authorize Michigan’s largest city to seek bankruptcy protection.
The trial has centered on whether Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr and his team of attorneys and consultants negotiated in good faith with labor unions, the city’s pension funds and retiree organizations to avoid filing for bankruptcy.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes, who will decide if Detroit can move forward to the contentious debt-cutting phase of Chapter 9 bankruptcy, has signaled he may not rule on eligibility until after Wednesday. That’s the deadline Rhodes gave attorneys on both sides to file legal briefs about whether he should use labor law or bankruptcy code standard when judging whether Detroit officials made a reasonable effort to avoid landing in his courtroom.
George W. Bush to Raise Money for Group That Converts Jews to Bring About Second Coming of Christ
Next week, former President George W. Bush is scheduled to keynote a fundraiser in Irving, Texas, for the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute, a group that trains people in the United States, Israel, and around the world to convince Jews to accept Jesus as the Messiah. The organization's goal: to "restore" Israel and the Jews and bring about about the second coming of Christ. ...
This year's event is designed to bring in funds for the group's proselytizing operations. And the former president is helping out with more than just speech-making. The most expensive of the ticket packages, which range from $100 to $100,000, includes 20 invitations to a VIP reception and photo opportunity with Bush, 10 signed copies of Bush's book Decision Points, and passes to tour the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
At last year's event, members of the MJBI's board of directors explained the organization's mission of converting Jews to an audience of hundreds who were seated on a professional football field, wearing formal clothes, and eating pork barbecue.
The Evening Greens
Ottawa sued over Quebec fracking ban
An American company intends to sue the Canadian government for more than $250 million over Quebec's controversial moratorium on hydraulic fracturing or fracking.
Lone Pine Resources Inc., which is incorporated in Delaware but headquartered in Calgary, has filed notice that it intends to sue under provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Lone Pine says the Quebec government's move to cancel a natural gas exploration permit for deposits beneath the St. Lawrence River last year was "arbitrary, capricious and illegal."
Washington State Vote to Label GM Food Defeated By Corporations’ "Sophisticated Propaganda Machine
Global Fail: Govts Pour $500 Billion Into Fossil Fuel Subsidies
Governments are 'subsidizing the very activities that are pushing the world towards dangerous climate change,' states new report
While greenhouse gas emissions reach record levels, governments across the world are pouring hundreds of billions into fossil fuel subsidies, fostering "perverse incentives" to continue the race towards climate doom, a new report [Time to Change the Game, from the UK-based think tank Overseas Development Institute] details.
Though the subsidies pad the pockets of the industry, the report's Executive Summary states that if governments'
aim is to avoid dangerous climate change, [they] are shooting themselves in both feet. They are subsidizing the very activities that are pushing the world towards dangerous climate change, and creating barriers to investment in low-carbon development and subsidy incentives that encourage investment in carbon-intensive energy.
In addition to the U.S., the countries with the greatest fossil fuel subsidies include Russia, Australia, Germany and the UK.
"The inconsistencies between climate goals and energy policies are becoming increasingly stark," writes ODI director Kevin Watkins. "Germany is providing lavish support for the construction of new coal plants. Britain offers generous tax concessions for oil and gas exploration, including bumper deals for companies involved in fracking. The United States spends heavily to subsidize gasoline and other fossil fuels. In all of these cases, bold climate-change targets are being undermined by business-as-usual subsidies."
Super Typhoon Haiyan: The Most Powerful Cyclone in History?
The eye of Super Typhoon Haiyan is a thing of terrible perfection: a gyre of furious thunderstorms anchoring one of the most powerful cyclones to ever menace the Pacific. One American meteorologist thinks it might be the most powerful in recorded history to hit land, although problems with measuring winds makes that unknown for now.
On Friday morning, Philippines time, the storm was throwing 195 m.p.h. sustained winds and occasional gusts of 235 m.p.h, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center – the speed equivalent of the strongest category of tornado, a monster EF-5. In the West it would be classified as a top-of-the-scale Category 5 hurricane, which causes "catastrophic damage" when it makes landfall, says the U.S. National Hurricane Center: "A high percentage of framed homes will be destroyed, with total roof failure and wall collapse. Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas. Power outages will last for weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months."
• No hurricane in the Atlantic has ever been this strong.
• It's possible Haiyan could become the strongest storm ever recorded to make landfall, anywhere on Earth.
• The storm is over 300 miles wide: The width is about equal to the distance between Boston and Philadelphia....
• A storm surge as high as 15 feet is possible in some parts of the Philippines.
• A 50-mile wide swath of 8+ inches of rain is predicted to cross the central Philippines, which will lead to dangerous flash floods and mudslides.
Jerks kill super-rare albino moose
If history has taught us anything, it’s that if there’s a rare, special animal in the wild, some dumbass will eagerly shoot it. Unfortunately, history just repeated itself near Belle Cote, Nova Scotia, where three hunting buddies killed a special white moose that the locals had kept alive for years. ... Well, this moose ACTUALLY WAS the sacred spirit animal for the Mi’kmaq people. Writes io9:
This moose was known to the local Mi’kmaq people for years, but they refrained from killing it because they consider all white animals to be sacred…Even hunters, aside from these clowns, don’t shoot albino animals for fear that it’ll bring bad luck — and despite the fact that it’s not illegal. These guys breached a kind of unwritten code of conduct that has also upset many in the hunting community.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin'
Trans-Pacific Partnership: "We Will Not Obey"; Building a Global Resistance Movement
The Surveillance State Puts U.S. Elections at Risk of Manipulation
Obama Wants to Cut Social Security
MSM: NSA Did Not Do a Good Enough Job Protecting Its Lawbreaking
This is an actual essay written by a college applicant to NYU
San Diego Gets in Your Face With New Mobile Identification System
"God didn't make garbage."
A Little Night Music
John Lee Hooker - Hobo Blues
John Lee Hooker - I'm A Stranger
John Lee Hooker - Big Legs,Tight Skirt
John Lee Hooker - Boom boom
John Lee Hooker - Boogie Chillen
John Lee Hooker - Boogie Everywhere I Go
John Lee Hooker - Crawlin King Snake
John Lee Hooker - Rock Me Mama
Bonnie Raitt & John Lee Hooker - I'm In The Mood
John Lee Hooker - Little Wheel
John Lee Hooker - Whiskey + Women
John Lee Hooker + Robert Cray - Mr. Lucky
John Lee Hooker - I`m going upstairs
It's National Pie Day!
The election is over, it's a new year and it's time to work on real change in new ways... and it's National Pie Day. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to tell you a little more about our new site and to start getting people signed up.
Come on over and sign up so that we can send you announcements about the site, the launch, and information about participating in our public beta testing.
Why is National Pie Day the perfect opportunity to tell you more about us? Well you'll see why very soon. So what are you waiting for?! Head on over now and be one of the first!
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