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!
Tonight's music features Tracy Nelson who in the 1960's met and learned about the blues in Chicago from masters of the genre. Her career has spanned blues, folk and country music, but there has always been a strong blues influence in everything she's done.
Tracy Nelson w/The Mannish Boys - One More Mile
“The debates are part of the unconscionable fraud that our political campaigns have become, a format that defies meaningful discourse. They should be charged with sabotaging the electoral process.”
-- Walter Cronkite
News and Opinion
Secret Debate Contract Reveals Obama and Romney Campaigns Exclude Third Parties, Control Questions
Glenn Greenwald: Presidential Debates Highlight "Faux Objectivity" of Mainstream Journalists
Court Strikes Down CFTC Regulation to Limit Excessive Speculation
Vikram Pandit has abruptly quit as chief executive of Citigroup
The US investment bank said on Tuesday Pandit had stepped down as chief executive and left the company's board with "immediate effect". ...
The bank's president and chief operating office John Havens also resigned from the company. The bank said Havens "had already been planning retirement from Citi at year-end but decided, in light of Mr Pandit's resignation, to leave the Company at this time." ...
If no changes are made to Pandit's compensation package, Citigroup will have paid him about $261m in the five years since he became CEO, including $165m it paid to buying his Old Lane Partners LP hedge fund in 2007 in a deal that led to his becoming CEO, according to Bloomberg.
"Global Noise" Protests Against Austerity and Debt Spread Worldwide
NATO Airstrike Kills Three Afghan Children
A NATO airstrike killed three children in Afghanistan‘s Helmand province on Sunday, Afghan officials said Monday.
“Two Taliban mine-planters were identified and targeted by ISAF from the air and killed,” district police chief Ahmad Shah Khan told AFP. ”Three children, two boys and a girl, who were nearby collecting firewood were also killed,” Khan added. ...
The US-led coalition in Afghanistan confirmed the airstrike took place and said three insurgents were killed, but that it would investigate the claims that children were killed. ...
The NATO response to killing innocents in airstrikes is typically to claim an investigation has started, or that they formally apologize. No accountability for the loss of life is forced on the military occupiers who are needlessly killing Afghans.
Mission Creep in Libya: Drones in the Sky, Boots on the Ground
During a nationally televised debate last week, Vice President Joe Biden responded to a question about the attack in Libya that led to the death of four Americans, including US Ambassador Chris Stevens, by saying "the men responsible" would face "justice" from the United States.
"If you do harm to America," Biden threatened, "We will track you to the gates of hell if need be."
Now, the Associated Press reports—based on administration officials speaking under cover of anonymity—that armed US drones are flying over Libya and that US intelligence agencies are on the prowl for targets to strike.
According to AP:
If the administration does find a target, officials say it still has to weigh whether the short-term payoff of exacting retribution on al-Qaida is worth the risk that such strikes could elevate the group's profile in the region, alienate governments the U.S. needs to fight the group in the future and do little to slow the growing terror threat in North Africa.
Former senator and presidential candidate George McGovern admitted to hospice
Former US Democratic senator George McGovern, who galvanized opposition to the Vietnam War only to lose in a landslide presidential election in 1972, has been admitted to a hospice.
McGovern, 90, is best remembered for his lopsidedly failed bid to unseat Republican Richard Nixon as president on a platform urging the withdrawal of US troops from the bitterly divisive war in Vietnam.
McGovern has been admitted to Dougherty Hospice House in Sioux Falls, in his native Midwestern state of South Dakota, Lindsey Meyers, a spokeswoman for Avera McKennan Hospital and University Health Center, said late Monday.
“The family of Senator McGovern wishes to extend their gratitude and appreciation for the many prayers and well wishes and requests complete privacy at this time,” Meyers said in a statement.
Even Without Exemption from the Halliburton Loophole, It’s Still Not Regulated
When Congress passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, it included the now-infamous “Halliburton Loophole,” a controversial clause that excluded nearly everything used in fracking from being regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). However, in spite of Congress exempting an entire Pandora’s Box of chemicals and additives to be injected at high-pressure into the ground, diesel fuels remained off-limits...
SkyTruth has concluded that diesel fuels continue to be used in hydraulic fracturing despite known health hazards and in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Analyzing a database of voluntary industry disclosures, we found that kerosene and diesel fuels #1 and #2 were used on 448 separate occasions in 12 states between January 2011 and August 2012.
Vermont Leads Way for "Farm to Plate" Planning - 10 year plan seeks path to more sustainable local food system
Open to all farms, food system-related entrerprises and trade associations, coops, public agencies, nonprofit organizations, private funders, and community groups, the state program carves a ten year path to a more sustainable food system within the state and region. According to the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, which oversees the project, the program is designed to "catalyze and accelerate the development of markets for sustainably produced goods and services."
‘Local food is exploding in this state, and it’s because of consumer demand and consumer interest. It’s also really being led by entrepreneurs who see an opportunity and are finding new ways of accessing markets,’’ Ellen Kehler, executive director of the VSJF, told the AP.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin'
CNN Exposes 'Villain' Chavez's Dastardly Plot to House the Poor
Obama's carrying out Dick Cheney's energy plan
Maltreatment of gender-variant First Nations people
A Little Night Music
Tracy Nelson - It Hurts Me Too
Mother Earth and Tracy Nelson - There's gonna be changes made, You win again
Tracy Nelson - Lovey Dovey
Tracy Nelson - Miss You Like The Devil
Tracy Nelson - It's a sin
Tracy Nelson w/ Marcia Ball - Shoot My Baby
Tracy Nelson - Mother Earth
Memphis Slim - Mother Earth
Tracy Nelson - Temptation Took Control of Me (And I Fell)
Tracy Nelson - Living the Blues + Walk Away
Marcia Ball, Irma Thomas + Tracy Nelson - Yield Not To Temptation
Marcia Ball, Irma Thomas & Tracy Nelson - Love Maker
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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