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!
Tonight’s featured artist is Gary Primich. He starts with “My Back Scratcher”.
“The Harmonica is the world’s best-selling musical instrument. You’re welcome.”
― Bob Dylan
Photos From Joe on the Road
Sorry to report that we have no photos from joe for tonight, but happy to report that he is on his way back east and will probably be bringing you some himself on Monday.
[ Editor's Note: joanneleon and KBO will be holding down the Evening Blues fort while joe shikspack is on his roadtrip vacation. When we can, we'll post photos and messages that he sends in and put them in this section of the diary. He'll be checking in regularly when he has connectivity, so feel free to leave him some greetings in the comments. Also, we would love to have your help with ideas for Evening Blues topics while he is gone, so feel free to lend your Blues and Roots music expertise and ideas in the comments! ]
News
(h/t joanneleon)
Sheldon Whitehouse Confirms FISA Amendments Act Permits Unwarranted Access to US Person Content
In the Senate Judiciary Committee’s markup of the FISA Amendments Act, Mike Lee, Dick Durbin, and Chris Chris Coons just tried, unsuccessfully, to require the government to get a warrant before it searched US person communications collected via the targeting of non-US person under the FISA Amendments Act. It was, as Dianne Feinstein said, not dissimilar from an amendment Ron Wyden and Mark Udall had tried to pass when FAA was marked up before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The debate revealed new confirmation that the government is wiretapping American citizens in the guise of foreign surveillance.
Egypt's former spy chief Omar Suleiman dies
Long-time intelligence chief and Hosni Mubarak's close ally has died in US while undergoing medical examination.
Omar Suleiman, Egypt's former vice-president and long-time spy chief to deposed president Hosni Mubarak, has died in the US, the official MENA news agency has reported. He was 76.
"Former vice president General Omar Suleiman died in the early hours of Thursday in a hospital in the United States," the agency said.
"He was undergoing medical tests in Cleveland," Suleiman's aide Hussein Kamal said, adding that arrangements were being made to return his body to Egypt for burial.
Spain erupts with mass austerity protests
Tens of thousands of public workers, trade unionists and others march in 80 cites to condemn latest cuts and tax hikes.
Tens of thousands of public employees, trade union members and other Spaniards are marching in 80 Spanish cities to protest the latest batch of austerity measures approved by the government.
The ruling conservative Popular Party used its majority in parliament to push through the measures on Thursday. They include a rise in sales taxes and a wage cut for civil servants.
As dusk fell, marchers in Madrid carried Spanish flags bearing black bows for mourning and banners saying, "No to the cuts'' and "You have ruined us''.
Bill McKibben:
Global Warming's Terrifying New Math
Three simple numbers that add up to global catastrophe - and that make clear who the real enemy is
If the pictures of those towering wildfires in Colorado haven't convinced you, or the size of your AC bill this summer, here are some hard numbers about climate change: June broke or tied 3,215 high-temperature records across the United States. That followed the warmest May on record for the Northern Hemisphere – the 327th consecutive month in which the temperature of the entire globe exceeded the 20th-century average, the odds of which occurring by simple chance were 3.7 x 10-99, a number considerably larger than the number of stars in the universe.
Meteorologists reported that this spring was the warmest ever recorded for our nation – in fact, it crushed the old record by so much that it represented the "largest temperature departure from average of any season on record." The same week, Saudi authorities reported that it had rained in Mecca despite a temperature of 109 degrees, the hottest downpour in the planet's history.
I missed this last week.
More on LIBOR: Plus, Spitzer takes on Bartiromo in Japanese Monster-Movie Epic
P.S. I advise everyone to check out the Godzilla-v.-Mothra death-battle between Spitzer and Maria Bartiromo from last Friday on her show on CNBC. Maria's always been a little nuts, but this latest crusade to rewrite history and cleanse ex-AIG chief Hank Greenberg of culpability in a fraud scandal that at the time led to the biggest financial settlement ever paid is an absolute head-scratcher.
The confrontation between the two of them on air is epic. In it, Bartiromo blasts Spitzer for going after Greenberg and accuses him of only targeting Greenberg for personal reasons. Spitzer counters by asking her if she's read a judge's opinion ruling that Greenberg had participated in a conspiracy to defraud. "Have you read this opinion?" he asks.
She hedges, pauses, and here's the funny part: Clearly she hasn't read it.
Spitzer asks her again, have you read the opinion? This time she decides to go all in, and immediately says she has read it. "I've read much more than I want to read on this case!" she shouts.
Cenk Uygur on Maria Bartiromo's Interview of Eliot Spitzer about Hank Greenberg
Research backs up claims of medical marijuana's benefits
Over a dozen years, California's historic experiment in medical marijuana research brought new science to the debate on marijuana's place in medicine. State-funded studies - costing $8.7 million - found pot may offer broad benefits for pain from nerve damage from injuries, HIV, strokes and other conditions.
California's famed Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research - established by the Legislature to answer the question, "Does marijuana have therapeutic value?" - has now all but completed America's most comprehensive studies into the efficacy of pot.
The money is gone. State-commissioned clinical trials totaling more than 300 research subjects are over. The last data are being crunched for medical journals. And it is unlikely that medicinal pot research on such a scale is going to be repeated any time soon.
[ ... ]
"Every one of the studies showed a benefit," said Dr. Igor Grant, a neuropsychiatrist who served as director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research. "The convergence of evidence makes me convinced there is a medical benefit here and there may be a niche for cannabis."
Scalia on ruling in Bush v. Gore: ‘Get over it’
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Wednesday that the 5-4 decision that delivered the Presidency of the United States to George W. Bush in 2000 was the most controversial ruling of his career at the nation’s top court.
“I guess the one that created the most waves of disagreement was Bush v. Gore,” he told CNN’s Piers Morgan. “That comes up all the time, and my usual response is: get over it.”
“Get over the possible corruption of the American presidential system?” Morgan asked, as Scalia laughed. “Justice Scalia?”
Facebook app to enrol US voters
Application on the social networking website will allow users in Washington state to register for the upcoming election.
The state, Facebook and Microsoft have been collaborating on the project since last year, and it is expected to launch next week.
Once it is live, Facebook users will need to agree to let Facebook access their information, which will be used to prefill their name and date of birth in the voter registration form.
Families of U.S. citizens killed in drone strike file wrongful death lawsuit
The killing of three US citizens, one a 16-year-old boy, in targeted drone strikes last year were unlawful and violated their constitutional rights by not affording them due process, according to a lawsuit filed by their relatives on Wednesday.
Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric who was placed on a CIA “kill list” last year, died in a targeted strike in Yemen on 30 September that also killed Samir Khan, an alleged propagandist for al-Qaida, in the Arabian Pensinsula. Al-Awlaki’s teenage son, Abdulrahman, was killed in a separate strike 200 miles away in which six others died two weeks later.
The lawsuit accuses Leon Panetta, the secretary of defence, David Petraeus, the director of the CIA, and two military commanders of authorising and directing unlawful killings. President Barack Obama is not named in the lawsuit: presidents are immune from civil suits arising from their official actions.
Huge deal.
Bombing that killed Syrian officials signals new push to topple Assad, rebels say
AL TAL, Syria — A bomb targeting Syria’s military leadership killed the country’s defense minister Wednesday and at least two other high-ranking officials, sparking questions about how long the besieged government of President Bashar Assad can remain in power and highlighting the differences between the United States and Russia over what steps should be taken to curb the violence that’s sweeping Syria.
The deaths of Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha, his deputy, Assef Shawkat, who was Assad’s brother-in-law, and Hassan Turkmani, a former defense minister, marked the first time the rebels who are fighting to topple Assad have managed to kill members of his inner circle. According to Syrian state media, the blast also wounded Interior Minister Mohammed Shaar.
Rebels said the men were part of Assad’s “crisis management” team, which met daily at different locations throughout the capital. Rebels have been targeting the group for months. In May, the rebels claimed to have killed Shawkat by poisoning him.
There are reports that the head of Iran's Quds force was also at this meeting and was killed, and our CIA was involved.
CIA “Command and Control” in Syria
Well now, that would be rather remarkable “luck,” wouldn’t it? Those feisty Islamist-tied rebels taking out Assad’s national security team and our enemy, all in one terrorist attack?
Additionally, Syrian rebels have seized the border crossing points between Syrian and Iraq, another pressing issue Ignatius rather presciently raised yesterday.
Blog Posts of Interest
The Evening Blues - 7-19-12 (with travelogue from joe) on dailykos by KBO sitting in for joe shikspack
Weaving Reality V: Diversity by rserven on DailyKos
The DUMBEST "Both Parties Do It" Column Ever Ian Reifowitz on DailyKos
Weaving Reality VI: On the Thickness of Skin by rserven on DailyKos
A Little Night Music
Here’s Gary with “Travelin’ Mood”
And from his Wildcards tour in the UK
“Money Talks”
Live at Jo’s – Pray for a Cloudy Day
Playing at a live concert:
At The World Harmonica Festival in 2001
And finishing with “Mr Lucky” , written by Gary and performed here, after Gary’s death, by his bassist Patrick Recob
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