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Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features jazz and blues pianist Mose Allison. Enjoy!
Mose Allison - Your Mind Is On Vacation
“You [demagogues] are like the fishers for eels; in still waters they catch nothing, but if they thoroughly stir up the slime, their fishing is good; in the same way it's only in troublous times that you line your pockets.”
-- Aristophanes
News and Opinion
Senate staffers slipped secret CIA documents from agency’s headquarters
Congressional aides involved in preparing the Senate Intelligence Committee’s unreleased study of the CIA’s secret interrogation and detention program walked out of the spy agency’s fortress-like headquarters with classified documents that the CIA contended they weren’t authorized to have, McClatchy has learned.
After the CIA confronted the panel in January about the removal of the material last fall, panel staff concluded that the agency had monitored computers they’d been given to use in a high-security research room at the CIA campus in Langley, Va., a McClatchy investigation found.
It remained unclear Wednesday if the monitoring, the unauthorized removal of classified material or another matter were the subject of a recent CIA request to the Justice Department for an investigation into alleged malfeasance in connection with the committee’s top-secret study.
The documents removed from the agency included a draft of an internal CIA review that at least one lawmaker has publicly said showed that agency leaders misled the Intelligence Committee in disputing some of the committee report’s findings, according to a knowledgeable person who requested anonymity because of the matter’s extraordinary sensitivity.
The Inverse of Oversight: CIA Spies On Congress
In the wake of an explosive new allegation that the CIA spied on Senate intelligence committee staffers, one senator felt this morning that he needed to make something clear.
“The Senate Intelligence Committee oversees the CIA, not the other way around,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M) said in a press release.
In normal circumstances, that would have been a statement of the obvious. Today, it was more a cry for help. ...
Heinrich, in his statement, complained: “Since I joined the Committee, the CIA has refused to engage in good faith on the Committee’s study of the CIA’s detention and interrogation program. Instead, the CIA has consistently tried to cast doubt on the accuracy and quality of this report by publicly making false representations about what is and is not in it.”
The resistance to oversight about torture mirrors similar problems legislators have experienced when it comes to trying to monitor surveillance programs and other secret activities, with one huge exception: The torture report was championed and endorsed by Senate intelligence committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and other senior members of that committee. By contrast, Feinstein and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) have emerged as the strongest defenders of surveillance activity, leaving the so-far-losing battle for disclosure to be fought by more rebellious legislators.
The consistent theme is that members of Congress are finding themselves at an ever-increasing disadvantage when it comes to even finding out what intelligence agencies are doing — not to mention reining them in.
Maddow: This is death of the Republic kind of stuff.
CIA and senators in bitter dispute over Capitol Hill spying claims
John Brennan, CIA director, rebukes intelligence committee as tensions over torture findings explode into public sphere
Relations between the CIA and the US senators charged with its political oversight were at a nadir on Wednesday after the head of the agency issued a rare public rebuke to lawmakers who accused it of spying on their staff.
John Brennan, the director of the CIA, said the claims by members of the Senate intelligence committee were “spurious” and “wholly unsupported by the facts”, and went as far as suggesting the committee itself may have been guilty of wrongdoing. ...
Earlier on Wednesday reports surfaced that the CIA inspector general had opened an inquiry, said to have been referred to the justice department, into claims that CIA employees had acted improperly. Suggestions that the CIA had monitored the computer networks of committee staffers had shocked the senators that sit on the panel. Some observers believe that such actions might be criminal.
Senator Mark Udall, a member of the committee who has been vocal in his critism of the CIA, had earlier written to Barack Obama alleging that the president knew about the “unprecedented action” carried out by the agency.
In his statement on Wednesday Brennan hit back in unusually strong terms. “I am deeply dismayed that some members of the Senate have decided to make spurious allegations about CIA actions that are wholly unsupported by the facts,” Brennan said.
“I am very confident that the appropriate authorities reviewing this matter will determine where wrongdoing, if any, occurred in either the executive branch or legislative branch,” Brennan continued, raising a suggestion that the Senate committee itself might have acted improperly.
This will make interesting reading...
Bernie Sanders: “I Am Prepared to Run for President of the United States”
Bernie Sanders says he is “prepared to run for president of the United States.” That’s not a formal announcement. A lot can change between now and 2016, and the populist senator from Vermont bristles at the whole notion of a permanent campaign. But Sanders has begun talking with savvy progressive political strategists, traveling to unexpected locations such as Alabama and entertaining the process questions that this most issue-focused member of the Senate has traditionally avoided.
In some senses, Sanders is the unlikeliest of prospects: an independent who caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate but has never joined the party, a democratic socialist in a country where many politicians fear the label “liberal,” an outspoken critic of the economic, environmental and social status quo who rips “the ruling class” and calls out the Koch Brothers by name. Yet, he has served as the mayor of his state’s largest city, beaten a Republican incumbent for the US House, won and held a historically Republican Senate seat and served longer as an independent member of Congress than anyone else. And he says his political instincts tell him America is ready for a "political revolution."
Bernie Sanders: I Would Be A Better President Than Hillary Clinton
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has at least one candidate in mind to take on Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race -- himself.
In an interview with Time published Wednesday, the senator said he believes he'd make a better president than the former secretary of state and likely 2016 contender.
"I think in this particular moment when the problems facing this country are so severe, when we have seen class warfare being waged by the billionaires against the working families of America ... I think we need people in leadership roles in the House and the Senate and governors’ chairs, in the White House, who are prepared to stand up and say, ‘You know what? This country belongs to all of the people,'" Sanders said. "Do you think that's Hillary Clinton's agenda? I don’t think so."
Crimea votes to join Russia, accelerating Ukraine crisis
Crimea's parliament voted to join Russia on Thursday and its Moscow-backed government set a referendum within 10 days on the decision in a dramatic escalation of the crisis over the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula.
The sudden acceleration of moves to bring Crimea, which has an ethnic Russian majority and has effectively been seized by Russian forces, formally under Moscow's rule came as European Union leaders gathered for an emergency summit to find ways to pressure Russia to back down.
U.S. President Barack Obama took steps to punish those involved in threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, ordering the freezing of their U.S. assets and a ban on travel into the United States.
The U.S. Navy announced a guided-missile destroyer, the USS Truxton, was heading to the Black Sea in what it said was a long-planned training exercise and not a show of force.
The Crimean parliament voted unanimously "to enter into the Russian Federation with the rights of a subject of the Russian Federation".
The vice premier of Crimea, home to Russia's Black Sea military base in Sevastopol, said a referendum on the status would take place on March 16. He said all state property would be "nationalized", the Russian ruble could be adopted and Ukrainian troops would be treated as occupiers and be forced to surrender or leave.
From The Guardian's Ukraine liveblog:
Ukraine crisis: Obama says Crimea referendum would 'violate international law'
Obama repeated European leaders’ condemnation of the announcement of a Crimean referendum to join Russia for 16 March. He condemned Russia’s presence in Crimea as a violation of international law.
He warned of further sanctions if Russia does not change course. He said international unity was on display in the response to the crisis in Ukraine. He called on Russia to withdraw troops in Crimea to Russian bases and to let international monitors in.
He said the United States was keeping its “allies in Eastern Europe” in mind.
“But if this violation of international law continues, the resolve of the United states ... and our allies will remain firm,” he said.
Ukrainians Breathe Sigh of Relief As Diplomatic Efforts Continue Between West & Russia
Pentagon to send more warplanes to Baltics over Ukraine crisis
In a flexing of U.S. military muscle, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Wednesday dispatched six F-15 aircraft to patrol the skies over Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, more than doubling American warplanes' presence in the NATO mission.
Hagel said the move was done at the request of the three Baltic nations. His wording echoed Russian President Vladimir Putin's claim that Kremlin troops had seized effective control of the Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula at the request of deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich.
Hagel also boosted U.S. training flights with Polish military airmen in a separate move intended to signal American resolve in the face of the recent Russian aggression.
But in congressional testimony, Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, advocated caution and pushed a resolution of the nearly weeklong crisis that would avoid more direct military action.
And now as their special welcome-to-the-west, get-to-know-us special, "Yats" delivers the Ukraine its first delicious sip from the cup of disaster capitalism. If they like that, there'll be plenty more where that came from when the bill for all of those IMF loans that Yats is taking out in the Ukrainian peoples behalf come due...
Pensions in Ukraine to be halved - sequestration draft
The self-proclaimed government in Kiev is reportedly planning to cut pensions by 50 percent as part of unprecedented austerity measures to save Ukraine from default. With an “empty treasury”, reduction of payments might take place in March.
According to the draft document obtained by Kommersant-Ukraine, social payments will be the first to be reduced.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Social Policy reported on December 1, 2013, that an average pension in Ukraine is $160.
US imposes visa restrictions on Russian officials as Obama signs sanctions order
President Barack Obama has ramped up pressure on Russian president Vladimir Putin by imposing visa restrictions on officials for “threatening the sovereignty of Ukraine” and signing an executive order enabling further sanctions against Moscow.
The White House said the measures were a response to Russia’s “ongoing violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”, a reference to its intervention in the southern peninsula of Crimea.
In Brussels, European leaders were at an emergency meeting to decide whether to impose their own sanctions on Russia. Before the summit, the European Union froze the assets of Ukraine’s ousted Russia-backed leader Viktor Yanukovych and 17 other officials suspected of violations of human rights and misuse of state funds.
The Obama administration did not say how many people were subject to the visa bans or reference their nationality. However, the targets described as “officials and individuals” are believed to be Russians held responsible for the week-old occupation of Crimea.
The White House said the visa restrictions reflected “policy decision to deny visas to those responsible for or complicit in threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine” and was in addition to visa denials for figures close to the government of former president Victor Yanukovych, over oppression of protesters.
An excellent article which examines some of the contents of the Memory Hole utility.
Putin or Kerry: Who’s Delusional?
When Secretary of State John Kerry denounces Russia’s intervention in Crimea by declaring “It is not appropriate to invade a country and at the end of a barrel of gun dictate what you are trying to achieve. That is not Twenty-first Century, G-8, major-nation behavior,” you might expect that the next line in a serious newspaper would note Kerry’s breathtaking hypocrisy.
But not if you were reading the New York Times on Wednesday, or for that matter the Washington Post or virtually any mainstream U.S. newspaper or watching a broadcast outlet.
Yet, look what happens when Russia’s President Vladimir Putin does what the U.S. news media should do, i.e. point out that “It’s necessary to recall the actions of the United States in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Libya, where they acted either without any sanction from the U.N. Security Council or distorted the content of these resolutions, as it happened in Libya. There, as you know, only the right to create a no-fly zone for government aircraft was authorized, and it all ended in the bombing and participation of special forces in group operations.”
Despite the undeniable accuracy of Putin’s observation, he was promptly deemed to have “lost touch with reality,” according to a Washington Post’s editorial, which called his press conference “rambling” and a “bizarre performance” in which his words have “become indistinguishable from the propaganda of his state television network.” ...
Yet, it has been the Post, Times and other U.S. news outlets which have led the way in developing a propaganda narrative at odds with the known reality. For instance, the violent February clashes in Kiev are now typically described as the Ukrainian police having killed some 80 protesters, though the original reporting had that death toll including 13 policemen and the fact that neo-Nazi militias were responsible for much of the violence, from hurling firebombs to shooting firearms.
That history is already fast disappearing as we saw in a typical New York Times report on Wednesday, which reported: “More than 80 protesters were shot to death by the police as an uprising spiraled out of control in mid-February.”
Those revised “facts” better fit the preferred narrative of innocent and peaceful demonstrators being set upon by thuggish police without provocation. But that isn’t what the original reporting revealed. Either the New York Times should explain how the earlier reporting was wrong or it should respect the more nuanced reality.
35 Countries Where the U.S. Has Supported Fascists, Drug Lords and Terrorists
The U.S. is backing Ukraine's extreme right-wing Svoboda party and violent neo-Nazis whose armed uprising paved the way for a Western-backed coup. Events in the Ukraine are giving us another glimpse through the looking-glass of U.S. propaganda wars against fascism, drugs and terrorism. The ugly reality behind the mirror is that the U.S. government has a long and unbroken record of working with fascists, dictators, druglords and state sponsors of terrorism in every region of the world in its elusive but relentless quest for unchallenged global power.
Behind a firewall of impunity and protection from the State Department and the CIA, U.S. clients and puppets have engaged in the worst crimes known to man, from murder and torture to coups and genocide. The trail of blood from this carnage and chaos leads directly back to the steps of the U.S. Capitol and the White House. As historian Gabriel Kolko observed in 1988, "The notion of an honest puppet is a contradiction Washington has failed to resolve anywhere in the world since 1945." [Click the link for a brief A to Z guide to the history of that failure.]
Meanwhile, the US continues to stir the pot in Venezuela, hoping for a pretext for further intervention against the democratically elected Maduro government.
OAS to convene nations on Venezuelan crisis
The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States is set to talk Thursday about the crisis in Venezuela at a meeting requested by Panama and coming amid calls by U.S. lawmakers for action against the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Whether the effort will be significant is unclear. Jason Marczak, deputy director of the Atlantic Council's Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, said in a statement that the “senseless deaths and arbitrary arrests in Venezuela have gone unnoticed by many in the global community.” He said the leaders of Colombia, Panama and Peru stand out in Latin America for their calls for peace and dialogue, but added that “much of the region remains silent.”
Carl Meacham, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that the OAS’ preference for reaching consensus on most issues can be a strength but is also a potential weakness. The search for consensus can make it less likely the organization will push for strong action, he said.
One Year After Death, Venezuelans Celebrate Legacy of Hugo Chavez
Following a month of anti-government protests against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, tens of thousands of government supporters filled the streets Wednesday to commemorate the one year anniversary of the death of Maduro's ally and predecessor, Hugo Chavez.
As Reuters reports, "Tens of thousands of red-clad 'Chavistas' were gathering for rallies in Caracas and elsewhere in honor of the socialist whose 14-year rule won him the adoration of many of Venezuela's poorest." The day, filled with parades and events to honor Chavez, was a chance for Maduro "to reclaim the streets and show opponents that he too can mobilize."
Anti-government protesters in recent weeks have taken part in daily demonstrations, airing grievances against Maduro. Critics, however, say that much of the nuance of the political tensions in Venezuela have been left out of western coverage, with many U.S. outlets in particular portraying the movement as a massive country-wide uprising against the socialist president, threatening the stability of the country.
To the contrary, as many informed experts have pointed out, support for Maduro—who has largely carried on Chavez's policies—remains high, particularly among the lower and working classes of the country.
"'Chavistas' largely remain loyal to their hero's dying wish that they support Maduro," as Reuters reports. "So far, the protests have not spread far from a middle-class core, and the military seems loyal, making a Ukraine-style change unlikely."
US Drone Strike Kills US-Backed Afghan Soldiers
At least five Afghan National Army soldiers in Logar Province are dead and many others injured on Thursday after a U.S. drone bombed a former NATO-run military outpost in Afghanistan.
The latest incident of mistaken targeting by a U.S. drone—which the military and Obama administration call a "precision" weapon—is sure to further outrage ordinary Afghans as well as President Hamid Karzai who has repeatedly, and with increasing anger, criticized bother NATO and U.S. forces for their disregard of Afghan lives while operating within the country.
“We believe the strike was the result of poor coordination between the people on the ground and the operators of the drone,” said Din Mohammad Darwish, a spokesman for the governor of Logar Province, which is in the east of Afghanistan.
Senate Race-Baiting? Dems Join GOP to Block Obama DOJ Pick Tied to Legal Defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Senate rejects Obama nominee for Justice Department civil rights post
President Barack Obama’s fragile authority in the US Senate was dealt another blow on Wednesday as seven Democrats rebelled against the administration to block the appointment of Obama’s controversial pick to run the civil rights division of the Department of Justice.
Debo Adegbile, who has been a senior lawyer with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Legal Defense and Education Fund, was criticised for his role in the legal defence of a black activist convicted of murdering a police officer.
Despite recent changes to Senate filibuster rules that mean only 51 votes are needed to approve presidential appointments, and the unusual presence in the chamber of vice-president Joe Biden, who was there to break any potential tie, the leadership lost the vote by 47-52.
This final tally included a procedural ‘no’ vote from Senate majority leader Harry Reid in order to keep open the possibility of resubmitting the proposed confirmation. However, seven other Democrats voted against, including Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Mark Pryor of Arksanas, John Walsh of Montana, Chris Coons of Delaware, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania.
Adegbile’s appointment to the high-profile DOJ post had been opposed by police groups due to his involvement in legal appeals by Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of the 1981 killing of police officer Daniel Faulkner.
The Evening Greens
Dump Closure Leaves Nuclear Waste Stranded... In Parking Lot
With the U.S. government's only deep-earth repository for nuclear waste above the lowest levels of radiation still closed, dozens of containers holding nuclear waste are being storedabove-ground in a parking lot and a waste-handling building.
The federally-owned Waste Isolation Pilot Project, located in southeastern New Mexico, has been closed to underground waste dumping since early February as a result of a series of accidents, including an airborne radiation leak that contaminated at least 13 workers.
Under New Mexico state law, nuclear waste can only be held in the parking area for a maximum of 30 days and in the handling building for a maximum of 60 days. However, state authorities are extending the maximum allowable time. ...
The Department of Energy and Nuclear Waste Partnership, the contractor that runs the dump, still do not know what caused the radiation leak.
19 More Reasons to Be Worried About the Hanford Nuclear Site
Problems at the most contaminated nuclear site in the nation continue to unfold.
In 2012, the U.S. Department of Energy confirmed that one of the 28 double-shelled tanks storing nuclear waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation was leaking.
Now, inspection report documents released by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) show that six other double-shelled tanks—which hold roughly 5 million gallons of high-level waste—have similar, significant flaws that could lead to a leak.
In addition, the reviews showed that 13 other double-shelled tanks holding roughly 12 million gallons of high-level waste also posed concerns over their "long-term integrity."...
In addition to the 28 double-shelled storage tanks, Hanford holds 149 single shelled tanks. According to a report prepared for the DOE in May 2013, 67 are suspected of having leaked roughly 1 million gallons.
Coal Giant Slapped With Record Fine for Years of Toxic Water Pollution
Coal giant Alpha Natural Resources Inc. [owner of Massey Energy] has been hit with a record $27.5 million fine for violating water pollution permits thousands of times, discharging toxic contaminants into Appalachian waterways for years, the Associated Press is reporting.
The fine marks the largest ever under Section 402 of the Clean Water Act.
According to details of the settlement filed in federal court Wednesday, Alpha and its subsidiaries must also spend $200 million on upgrades to reduce discharges of pollution from their coal operations in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
Between 2006 and 2013 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that the companies violated Clean Water Act permit limits at nearly 800 discharge points, totaling 6,289 violations and polluting rivers and streams across the five states.
Coal producer to pay hundreds of millions for pollution
West Virginians Raise Alarm as Research Links Coal Mining to Cancer, Birth Defects
In recent years, research has drawn new links between coal mining and health problems in the areas where that mining takes place. In response, local groups are working to support further research and boost awareness of these problems. The chemical leak that left 300,000 West Virginians without water for more than a week in January, the 108,000-gallon slurry spill on Feb. 11, and another slurry spill just days ago have brought national attention to the issue. Local advocates hope that this attention, in combination with new research, will translate into a more open dialogue on the health dangers of coal mining.
Janet Keating, executive director at the nonprofit organization Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, says that the spills should draw attention to the more chronic problems at hand.
"The day-to-day air and water pollution and associated health impacts from living with mountain removal and large-scale surface mining has been largely ignored by lawmakers and people in West Virginia living outside of the southern coal regions," she wrote in an email. ...
Mortality rates attributed to kidney, respiratory, and heart disease are significantly higher in Appalachian counties with high levels of coal mining, compared to non-mining areas, according to a 2009 study.
Cancer is a particular culprit. A study that compared two rural West Virginia communities, one with mining and one without, found that self-reported cancer rates were twice as high in the mining areas. In areas with mountaintop removal (or surface mining), rates of lung, bladder, kidney, and colon cancer, along with leukemia, are all higher than in non-mining areas. These findings control for other risk factors, like smoking and socioeconomic status. ... One of the most stunning findings of recent years: the risk for birth defects in areas where mountaintop-removal coal mining is prevalent is significantly higher than in non-mining areas, according to a study published in 2011. The study looked at two periods of time: 1996 to 1999, during which risk was 13 percent higher in areas with this type of mining; and 2000 to 2003, during which risk was 42 percent higher. Six of seven types of birth defects—including circulatory/respiratory, central nervous system, and gastrointestinal—were "significantly higher" in areas with mountaintop removal. This, again, is after controlling for other factors.
U.S. solar industry has record year: more built in 18 months than previous three decades
While attention in the energy sector has focused on fracking and natural gas, behind the scenes another energy source has seen a banner year: solar power.
Installation is up, way up. How up? The U.S. solar energy grid now generates enough energy to power 2.2 million homes. According to the U.S. Solar Energies Installation trade group, more solar cells were installed in the last 18 months than in the previous 30 years combined.
“Photovoltaic (PV) installations continued to proliferate, increasing 41 percent over 2012 to reach 4,751 [megawatts],” the Solar Energies Installation trade group said in a release Wednesday. “Solar was the second-largest source of new electricity generating capacity in the U.S. [at 29 percent], exceeded only by natural gas. And the cost to install solar fell throughout the year, with average system prices ending the year 15 percent below the mark set at the end of 2012.”
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Obama administration told to stop expanding "corporate rights" in trade agreements
Spring fails in Ukrainian plunderland
A Little Night Music
Mose Allison - The Seventh Son
Mose Allison Trio - Parchman Farm
Mose Allison - Young Man's Blues
Mose Allison - My Brain
Mose Allison - Your Molecular Structure
Mose Allison - V8 Ford
Mose Allison - Ask Me Nice
Mose Allison Quintet - Stop This World
Mose Allison - Don't Get Around Much Anymore
Mose Allison - Middle Class White Boy
Heh, I had to include this here:
Rube Bloom and his Bayou Boys - Mysterious Mose
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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