Welcome! "The Evening Blues" is a casual community diary (published Monday - Friday, 7:00 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!
Howdy! Tonight's music (and maybe for a night or two beyond) is a kind of tour through some country blues. The blues caught on not only in the African American community, but, musicians being musicians, when they hear something that tickles their ear, it winds up in their music, too. Early on the blues started appearing in the work of musicians like Jimmie Rogers and many others. Hope you all enjoy it!
Jimmie Rodgers - Waiting for a Train/Daddy and Home/BlueYodel
“When the green hills are covered with talking wires and the wolves no longer sing, what good will the money you paid for our land be then”
― Chief Seattle
News
New Anti-Fracking Film by Gasland's Josh Fox Targets Cuomo: 'Governor, What Color Will the Sky Be Over New York?'
"Are You Here to Save Face — or Save Us?": Brittany Trilford, 17, Addresses World Leaders at Rio+20
Injection Wells: The Poison Beneath Us
Over the past several decades, U.S. industries have injected more than 30 trillion gallons of toxic liquid deep into the earth, using broad expanses of the nation's geology as an invisible dumping ground.
No company would be allowed to pour such dangerous chemicals into the rivers or onto the soil. But until recently, scientists and environmental officials have assumed that deep layers of rock beneath the earth would safely entomb the waste for millennia.
There are growing signs they were mistaken.
Records from disparate corners of the United States show that wells drilled to bury this waste deep beneath the ground have repeatedly leaked, sending dangerous chemicals and waste gurgling to the surface or, on occasion, seeping into shallow aquifers that store a significant portion of the nation's drinking water.
Building a multi-platform media for—and by—the public
At first glance, the new rule approved last month by the Federal Communications Commission requiring local television broadcasters to make public their records on political ad spending might seem revelatory. But in reality, it represents a very modest change to longstanding policy. Broadcasters are required by statute to maintain a file in paper form that documents information about political ads, such as the sponsor, the amount paid, and the time slot; the new FCC rule simply requires that stations post this information online, rather than keeping the files in a back room collecting dust.
What is startling, by contrast, is the fierce response of the industry and its allies to this modest change. The National Association of Broadcasters has filed a court challenge to block the FCC’s decision. And earlier this month, Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) inserted a provision into a federal budget bill, which was later removed by the full committee, that would strip the FCC of its ability to enforce the disclosure requirement.
As Steve Waldman has written in CJR, for more than 50 years, television broadcasters have been allowed to use the public’s airwaves for free—based on the understanding that they would give something back to their local communities. These public service obligations, such as covering current affairs and providing children’s programming, are the foundation for broadcasters’ special status as trustees of the airwaves, a principle first established in the 1927 Radio Act. But the fact that over 35 percent of commercial broadcast stations do not provide any local news programming demonstrates that the trustee model is broken—and the broadcasters’ opposition to mere online disclosure of data they were already obligated to collect and make public underscores just how broken it is. If the broadcasters fight simple transparency requirements, should we ever expect them to dedicate significant time and resources to programming that informs the public?
Dimon in the Rough: How Wall Street Aims to Keep U.S. Regulators Out of Its Global Betting Parlor
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the main regular of derivatives (bets on bets), wants to extend Dodd-Frank regulations to the foreign branches and subsidiaries of Wall Street banks.
Horror of horrors, say the banks.
“If JPMorgan overseas operates under different rules than our foreign competitors,” warned Jamie Dimon, chair and CEO of JP Morgan, Wall Street would lose financial business to the banks of nations with fewer regulations, allowing “Deutsche Bank to make the better deal.”
This is the same Jamie Dimon who chose London as the place to make highly-risky derivatives trades that have lost the firm upwards of $2 billion so far – and could leave American taxpayers holding the bag if JPMorgan’s exposure to tottering European banks gets much worse.
Pollution, Poverty and People of Color: A Michigan Tribe Battles a Global Corporation
Head in any direction on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and you will reach gushing rivers, placid ponds and lakes – both Great and small.
An abundant resource, this water has nourished a small Native American community for hundreds of years. So 10 years ago, when an international mining company arrived near the shores of Lake Superior to burrow a mile under the Earth and pull metals out of ore, the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community of the Lake Superior Band of Chippewa had to stand for its rights and its water. ...
“The indigenous view on water is that it is a sacred and spiritual entity,” said Jessica Koski, mining technical assistant for the Keweenaw Bay community. “Water gives us and everything on Earth life.”
The Keweenaw Bay Indians are fighting for their clean water, sacred sites and traditional way of life as Kennecott Eagle Minerals inches towards copper and nickel extraction, scheduled to begin in 2014.
HR 1505 Passes; Tribal Borders and Treaties Await Senate
On Tuesday, June 19, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a broad land use bill called H.R. 2578 — “To amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act related to a segment of the Lower Merced River in California, and for other purposes,” also known as the Conservation and Economic Growth Act — in a 232-188 vote. And this legislation will affect Indian country; included in the 14-bill package on the House Floor was H.R. 1505, or the controversial National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act.
Authored by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) and featuring 59 cosponsors from across the country, H.R. 1505 would give the Secretary of Homeland Security, through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the authority to take control of “all land under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture within 100 miles of the international land borders of the United States.” ...
The text of the amended legislation reads, “The Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture shall not impede, prohibit or restrict activities of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection on land under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture to achieve operational control over the international land borders of the United States.” The six authorized activities include construction and maintenance of roads; construction and maintenance of fences; vehicle patrols; installation, maintenance and operation of surveillance equipment and sensors; use of aircraft; and deployment of temporary tactical infrastructure, including forward operating bases.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin'
Ai Weiwei: To Live Your Life in Fear Is Worse Than Losing Your Freedom
The Most Anti-Environment Congress in History: Here's the Record
A Little Night Music
Johnnie Temple - Louise Louise Blues
Johnny Young - My Baby Walked Out In 1954
Two Steps to Hell - Johnny Shines
Robert Petway - Catfish Blues
Dock Boggs - Down South Blues
Richard "Hacksaw" Harney - Hacksaw's Down South Blues
Blind Boy Fuller - Truckin' My Blues Away
Blind Boy Fuller - Step It Up And Go
Rev. Gary Davis - Slow Drag / Cincinnati Flow Rag
Rev. Gary Davis - Candyman