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 Chicago Blues harmonica player Carey Bell. Enjoy!
Carey Bell & The Sons Of Blues - One Day
“Withholding information is the essence of tyranny. Control of the flow of information is the tool of the dictatorship.”
-- Bruce Coville
News and Opinion
White House withholds thousands of documents from Senate CIA probe, despite vows of help
The White House has been withholding for five years more than 9,000 top-secret documents sought by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence for its investigation into the now-defunct CIA detention and interrogation program, even though President Barack Obama hasn’t exercised a claim of executive privilege.
In contrast to public assertions that it supports the committee’s work, the White House has ignored or rejected offers in multiple meetings and in letters to find ways for the committee to review the records, a McClatchy investigation has found.
The significance of the materials couldn’t be learned. But the administration’s refusal to turn them over or to agree to any compromise raises questions about what they would reveal about the CIA’s use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists in secret overseas prisons.
The dispute indicates that the White House is more involved than it has acknowledged in the unprecedented power struggle between the committee and the CIA, which has triggered charges that the agency searched the panel’s computers without authorization and has led to requests to the Justice Department for criminal investigations of CIA personnel and Senate aides.
“These documents certainly raise the specter that the White House has been involved in stonewalling the investigation,” said Elizabeth Goitein, the co-director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program at the New York University Law School.
Amid Senate Skirmish, Obama Continues to Shield CIA and Bush-era Torture
What's in the more than 9,000 pages of top secrets documents held by the White House that the Senate Intelligence Committee and investigators looking into the Bush administration's torture program are not allowed to see?
After an unprecedented public skirmish between the Senate Intelligence Committee and the CIA surfaced this week over an investigative panel's look into the agency's torture program, President Obama said Wednesday that he and his White House would not "wade into" the controversy.
But according to new reporting by McClatchy, the White House is not only not "uninvolved," it is actively keeping documents from the Intelligence Committee that it has repeatedly asked to see.
How ‘Looking Forward’ Tripped Up Obama
When historians set off to write the story of Barack Obama’s administration, they will have to struggle with why the 44th President chose not to hold his predecessor accountable for grave crimes of state and why he failed to take control of his own foreign policy.
This failure, which began with Obama’s early decision to “look forward, not backward” and to retain much of George W. Bush’s national security bureaucracy, has now led Obama into a scandal over the CIA’s resistance to the Senate Intelligence Committee drafting of a long-delayed report on the Bush-era policy of torturing “war on terror” detainees. ...
But the biggest mystery may be why the Obama White House has been so solicitous of the CIA’s desire to keep secret the history of a torture program authorized by President George W. Bush and overseen by Vice President Dick Cheney. ... Obama could simply issue a declassification order that would allow the release of both the Senate’s 6,300-page report and an internal CIA review (with whatever redactions would be appropriate). ... This idea that secretive CIA officials, who have already obstructed the investigation by destroying videotape of the torture sessions, should now have the right to block the report’s release indefinitely grants the spy agency what amounts to blanket immunity for whatever it does.
So, the question is why. Why does President Obama continue letting holdovers from the Bush administration, including current CIA Director John Brennan, control U.S. national security policies more than five years after President Bush and Vice President Cheney left office?
Nancy Pelosi: Nobody goes after the CIA without paying "a price"
Calls for Brennan’s Ouster Emerge Along With Details of CIA Search of Senate Computers
CIA Director John Brennan’s decision to search Senate committee computers was such a blatant violation of the constitutional separation of powers that some pro-accountability groups in Washington are starting to seek his ouster.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) disclosed in a fiery speech on Tuesday that Brennan told her in January that CIA personnel had conducted a search on computers at a CIA-leased facility that had been reserved for the use of committee staffers investigating the agency’s role in the Bush-era torture of detainees.
The Constitution clearly gives the legislative branch the authority to investigate the executive branch — and not the other way around.
More even than the act itself, some critics see Brennan’s lack of recognition of the extent of his violation of key constitutional principles to be the biggest cause for him to be fired. ...
Shahid Buttar, executive director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, said that the concerns about the Senate investigation that led Brennan to launch his search were “ridiculous, as well as simply incorrect.”
Buttar continued: “Given his false assurances to the Senate Intelligence Committee about CIA drone strikes, and his continuing failure to let the public finally know the facts about CIA torture, Brennan should resign or be removed from office so the Committee can examine and confirm new leadership.” ...
Brennan, in his own remarks after Feinstein’s speech on Tuesday, vaguely ridiculed allegations of CIA “hacking” and said that “when the facts come out on this, I think a lot of people who are claiming that there has been this tremendous sort of spying and monitoring and hacking will be proved wrong.” But nothing he said actually disputed Feinstein’s version of events.
Nothing to see here, move along Johnny, move along...
Obama: White House won't wade into CIA torture report dispute at this point
Barack Obama sought to distance the White House from the fierce dispute between top senators and the Central Intelligence Agency on Wednesday, claiming it would be inappropriate for his administration to become involved the clash over an investigation into the use of torture in post-9/11 interrogations.
In the president’s first remarks about the dispute since Dianne Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate intelligence accused the CIA of a cover-up and intimidation directed at her staff, Obama said it was not a matter for the White House to “wade into at this point”.
Obama’s remarks are likely to anger Democratic senators on the committee, who have been publicly calling on the president to get involved in the controversy, which has been characterised by bad feeling on both sides. ...
On Wednesday, Carney revealed that the CIA’s top lawyer, who filed an official criminal complaint about Senate aides to the Justice Department, informed White House attorneys in advance. Carney described the notification as “a heads-up” and said the White House did not intervene. “There was no comment, there was no weighing in, there was no judgment,” he said.
However in her speech on Tuesday, Feinstein repeatedly referred to White House involvement in the affair, including an incident in mid-2000, when the CIA claimed – erroneously, the chairwoman said – that it has been ordered by the White House to remove documents from computer drives being used by congressional staff working on the inquiry.
Almost 1,000 classified documents disappeared from the computers used by the Senate aides, who were working out of a facility run by the CIA, and the issue was only resolved after meetings with the then White House counsel in May 2010.
“The matter was resolved with a renewed commitment from the White House Counsel, and the CIA, that there would be no further unauthorized access to the committee’s network or removal of access to CIA documents already provided to the committee,” Feinstein said.
Foreign Officials In the Dark About Their Own Spy Agencies’ Cooperation with NSA
One of the more bizarre aspects of the last nine months of Snowden revelations is how top political officials in other nations have repeatedly demonstrated, or even explicitly claimed, wholesale ignorance about their nations’ cooperation with the National Security Agency, as well as their own spying activities. This has led to widespread speculation about the authenticity of these reactions: Were these top officials truly unaware, or were they pretending to be, in order to distance themselves from surveillance operations that became highly controversial once disclosed? ...
A new NSA document published today by The Intercept sheds considerable light on these questions. The classified document contains an internal NSA interview with an official from the SIGINT Operations Group in NSA’s Foreign Affairs Directorate. Titled “What Are We After with Our Third Party Relationships? — And What Do They Want from Us, Generally Speaking?”, the discussion explores the NSA’s cooperative relationship with its surveillance partners. Upon being asked whether political shifts within those nations affect the NSA’s relationships, the SIGINT official explains why such changes generally have no effect: because only a handful of military officials in those countries are aware of the spying activities. Few, if any, elected leaders have any knowledge of the surveillance.
Are our foreign intelligence relationships usually insulated from short-term political ups and downs, or not?
(S/SI/REL) For a variety of reasons, our intelligence relationships are rarely disrupted by foreign political perturbations, international or domestic. First, we are helping our partners address critical intelligence shortfalls, just as they are assisting us. Second, in many of our foreign partners’ capitals, few senior officials outside of their defense-intelligence apparatuses are witting to any SIGINT connection to the U.S./NSA [emphasis added].
The official adds that there “are exceptions, both on the positive and negative sides.” He gives two examples: “For instance, since the election of a pro-American president, one European partner has been much more open to providing information on their own capabilities and techniques, in hope of raising our intelligence collaboration to a higher level. Conversely, another of our partnerships has stalled, due largely to that country’s regional objectives not being in synch with those of the U.S.” In general, however, many of these “relationships have, indeed, spanned several decades” and are unaffected by changes due to elections, in large part because the mere existence of these activities is kept from the political class.
The dangers posed by a rogue national security state, operating in secret and without the knowledge of democratically elected officials, have long been understood. After serving two terms as president, Dwight D. Eisenhower famously worried in his 1961 Farewell Address about the accumulated power of the “conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry,” warning of what he called the “grave implications” of “the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” He urged citizens: “The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.”
This is progress. Now the LA Times dares to run a piece about the people in the Ukraine government who are apparently invisible to Obama, the EU and the major media:
Ukraine's Neo-Fascist threat from within
It's become popular to dismiss Russian President Vladimir Putin as paranoid and out of touch with reality. But his denunciation of "neofascist extremists" within the movement that toppled the old Ukrainian government, and in the ranks of the new one, is worth heeding. The empowerment of extreme Ukrainian nationalists is no less a menace to the country's future than Putin's maneuvers in Crimea. These are odious people with a repugnant ideology.
Take the Svoboda party, which gained five key positions in the new Ukrainian government, including deputy prime minister, minister of defense and prosecutor general. Svoboda's call to abolish the autonomy that protects Crimea's Russian heritage, and its push for a parliamentary vote that downgraded the status of the Russian language, are flagrantly provocative to Ukraine's millions of ethnic Russians and incredibly stupid as the first steps of a new government in a divided country. ...
More to the point, why wave a red flag in front of a nervous bull? The answer is that for Svoboda, Right Sector and other Ukrainian far-right organizations, it was barely a handkerchief. These are groups whose thuggish young legions still sport a swastika-like symbol, whose leaders have publicly praised many aspects of Nazism and who venerate the World War II nationalist leader Stepan Bandera, whose troops occasionally collaborated with Hitler's and massacred thousands of Poles and Jews.
But scarier than these parties' whitewashing of the past are their plans for the future. They have openly advocated that no Russian language be taught in Ukrainian schools, that citizenship is only for those who pass Ukrainian language and culture exams, that only ethnic Ukrainians may adopt Ukrainian orphans and that new passports must identify their holders' ethnicity — be it Ukrainian, Pole, Russian, Jew or other.
Is it so hard to understand Russians' shock that senior U.S. officials (such as Sen. John McCain, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland) flirt with extremists who have been denounced as anti-Semitic, xenophobic, even neo-Nazi by numerous human rights and anti-defamation groups? That they were snapping pictures and distributing pastries among protest leaders, some of whose minions were at that same moment distributing "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" on Independence Square?
How Right-Wing Nationalism Rose to Influence in Ukraine
US financial aid to Ukraine in limbo as Congress wrangles with legislation
A political row over reforms to the International Monetary Fund threatened to frustrate US attempts to agree on financial aid for Ukraine on Wednesday as US president Barack Obama met with its prime minister in an attempt to show united western support.
Though warmly received in Washington, the visit by Arseniy Yatsenyuk coincided with the difficult process of assembling a coalition in the US Congress to pass legislation for a package of loan guarantees and sanctions against Russia.
The Senate foreign affairs committee passed a version of the legislation by 14 votes to three on Wednesday afternoon, but included controversial reforms to the IMF which the administration says will increase its flexibility to respond to future crisis.
These are opposed by many Republicans and a separate amendment initially intended to placate them was not included by the GOP’s ranking member on the committee, senator Bob Corker, for fear of further complicating the bill’s passage.
Most Say U.S. Should ‘Not Get Too Involved’ in Ukraine Situation
As Russian troops remain in Ukraine’s Crimea region and Crimea’s Parliament has set up a secession vote, Americans prefer the U.S. to not get too involved in the situation.
By a roughly two-to-one margin (56% vs. 29%), the public says it is more important for the U.S. to not get involved in the situation with Russia and Ukraine than to take a firm stand against Russian actions. ...
[P]artisans generally agree that the U.S. shouldn’t get too involved in the situation. Half of Republicans (50%) say it is more important for the United States not to get too involved; just 37% think the U.S. should take a firm stand against Russian actions.Modest Partisan Differences in Views of U.S. Actions in Ukraine Among Democrats, 55% prefer not getting too involved and three-in-ten (30%) say the U.S. should take a firm stand.
Those who say it is more important for the U.S. taking a firm stand against Russian actions in Ukraine were asked if the U.S. should consider military options or only political and economic options. Most of this group – 19% of the public overall – said the U.S. should consider only political and economic options in addressing the situation, while just 8% of the public think that military options should be considered.
EU moves toward sanctions on Russians; Obama meets Ukraine PM
The European Union agreed on a framework on Wednesday for its first sanctions on Russia since the Cold War, a stronger response to the Ukraine crisis than many expected and a mark of solidarity with Washington in the drive to make Moscow pay for seizing Crimea. ...
The EU sanctions, outlined in a document seen by Reuters, would slap travel bans and asset freezes on an as-yet-undecided list of people and firms accused by Brussels of violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the measures would be imposed on Monday unless diplomatic progress was made. ...
The measures outlined by the EU are similar to steps already announced by Washington, but would have far greater impact because Europe buys most of Russia's oil and gas exports, while the United States is only a minor trade partner. The EU's 335 billion euros ($465 billion) of trade with Russia in 2012 was worth about 10 times that of the United States.
The travel bans and asset freezes could cut members of Russia's elite off from the European cities that provide their second homes and the European banks that hold their cash.
Obama, Ukraine premier outline potential opening over Crimea
Just days before a referendum in Crimea to decide if it should become part of Russia, President Barack Obama and Ukraine's prime minister outlined a potential diplomatic opening on Wednesday that could give Russians a greater voice in the disputed region.
The United States and its European allies are trying to head off the referendum that Crimea's pro-Russian parliament is to stage in the southern region of Ukraine.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk told an Atlantic Council forum in Washington that his interim government was ready to have a dialogue and negotiations with Russia about Moscow's concerns for the rights of ethnic Russians in Crimea, which has already been seized by the Russian military.
Asked what a political solution would look like, Yatseniuk said: "If it is about Crimea, we as the Ukrainian government are willing to start a nationwide dialogue (about) how to increase the rights of autonomous republic of Crimea, starting with taxes and ending with other aspects like language issues."
"We are ready to start this dialogue - but a constitutional one, in the Ukrainian parliament, having everyone sitting at the table, discussing every single issue and making each step in the constitutional manner," he said.
[Funny that a guy who came to power by way of unconstitutional acts is suddenly so hot and bothered about acting "constitutionally." - js]
Ukrainian oligarch Firtash, wanted by United States, arrested in Vienna
Austria has arrested Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash at the request of the United States which has been investigating him since 2006, government sources said.
The Federal Crime Agency on Thursday identified the suspect only as Dmitry F., 48, but government sources said it was Firtash, one of Ukraine's richest men.
"Based on years of investigations by the U.S. FBI and an arrest warrant issued by a U.S. federal district court, Vienna prosecutors issued a national order to detain the businessman," the agency said in a statement.
It said he was suspected of violating laws on bribery and forming a criminal organization in the course of foreign business deals. A spokesman for the agency said the Austrian order to take him into custody came this month.
Firtash's close links to Russia and involvement in the gas, chemicals, media and banking sectors gave him substantial influence, notably during the administration of recently ousted, Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovich.
Ex-leftist rebel Salvador Sanchez Ceren wins El Salvador presidency
Former leftist rebel commander Salvador Sanchez Ceren has won last Sunday's presidential election in El Salvador by a razor-thin margin, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said.
He inherits leadership of a country beset with widespread poverty and violence from powerful street gangs.
He beat rightist Norman Quijano by less than half a percentage point, said the tribunal, which now must give the latter three days to appeal the tally.
Sanchez Ceren of the ruling Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front won 50.11 percent of the votes, compared to 49.98 percent for Quijano of the right-wing ARENA party, the tribunal said as it reported the final count from the runoff election. The first round was February 2.
"Obama Is Trying to Vanish Us": Immigrants Fight Record Deportations With Protests, Hunger Strikes
Every year the Congressional Progressive Caucus puts together a budget. Every year it embeds the values that most Americans claim to hold into legislation that moves those values towards reality. Every year the media and the neoliberal Obama administration utterly ignore the CPC's budget in favor of austerity and economic smoke and mirrors.
Here they go again. OFA, set your sensors to maximum "ignore."
The Audacity of Common Sense: Progressive Caucus’ ‘Better Off Budget’
The CPC’s focus is to put Americans back to work. It estimates that its budget will create 8.8 million jobs by 2017, bringing unemployment down to 5.5 percent and moving us closer to the full employment economy necessary to begin to lift wages across the board. It offers middle- and low-income Americans a tax break in the first three years to help boost consumer demand and the economy.
Its core strategy is to invest in areas vital to our future, putting people to work on jobs that need to be done. The CPC would meet the challenge of repairing our decrepit infrastructure, and expand investments in R&D and renewable energy. It offers aid to states and localities to rehire police, fire fighters and rebuild public services. It creates jobs corps that would employ the young. It provides a major boost to educating our children, with expanded appropriations for teachers, preschool and rebuilding schools. And instead of shredding the safety net, as Republican budgets demand, it would strengthen it, protecting veterans, expanding child nutrition and food stamp programs, providing seniors with a responsible cost of living adjustment that expands their benefits to meet their costs rather than decreases them.
Then, rather than duck how it would pay for its reforms, as the Ryan budgets do, the CPC details progressive tax reforms and spending cuts to pay for the reforms while paying down the national debt.
The tax reforms are designed to ensure that the rich and corporations pay their fair share of taxes. The CPC would hike taxes on millionaires. It would close oversea tax dodges, thus requiring multinationals to pay taxes at the same rate as domestic corporations. Investors would pay the same tax rates on their investment income as workers on their wages. It would end subsidies to Big Oil, the giveaways to Big Pharma, and limit subsidies to agribusiness. The ten biggest financial institutions would pay a special tax, designed to limit their competitive edge over smaller banks, while repaying taxpayers for the perils they impose on us, a proposal lifted from Republican Rep. Dave Camp’s tax reform bill.
The CPC would also tax bads, rather than goods. It would levy a financial transaction tax to help curb destabilizing speculation. It would impose a carbon tax, with rebates to low-income households, vital to meet the challenge of catastrophic climate change.
New York City’s Charter School Showdown Reignites National Debate on Privatized Education
George Soros warns British EU exit would trigger foreign company exodus
Billionaire speculator George Soros on Wednesday waded into the political row about Britain's membership of the EU with a warning that a decision to quit would lead to an exodus of foreign-owned companies.
Soros said the argument for Britain remaining part of the EU could be summed up in one word – jobs – as he outlined his concerns that Europe could be pulled apart by decades of slow growth and Japanese-style deflation.
The man who helped to force the pound out of the exchange rate mechanism on Black Wednesday in 1992 stressed that Britain had the best of all worlds by being part of the EU but not the euro.
Asked about the potential consequences of Britain's withdrawal from the EU, Soros said: "I will leave it to the British business community, particularly the multinationals that set up factories here as an entry point into the common market, to explain to the public what they stand to lose. But in one word – jobs."
China premier warns on economic slowdown as data fans stimulus talk
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang warned on Thursday that the economy faces "severe challenges" in 2014 - comments that came as weak data fanned speculation the central bank would relax monetary policy to support stuttering growth.
Li, speaking at a news conference on the final day of China's yearly parliament, hinted Beijing would tolerate slower economic expansion this year while it pushes through reforms aimed at providing longer-term and more sustainable growth.
Data released shortly after his comments suggested that tolerance may face an early test.
Growth in investment, retail sales and factory output all slumped to multi-year lows, suggesting a marked slowdown in the first two months of the year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.
"A storm is coming," said Gao Yuan, an analyst at Haitong Securities in Shanghai, while Hao Zhou, the China economist for ANZ said "policy easing should be imminent."
Tech giants using offshore cash piles to earn tax-free interest from the U.S. government
Four of the biggest U.S. technology groups collectively hold an estimated $124 billion in U.S. Treasury debt, much of it offshore, earning them tax-free interest, the UK’s Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) said on Thursday.
The finding means Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp, Google Inc and Cisco Systems Inc hold a large proportion of the $254.9 billion held in their foreign subsidiaries in U.S. Treasuries, according to securities filings reviewed by the London-based BIJ, a not-for-profit news organization.
Bringing the money home would trigger a tax bill, so the companies keep it offshore, partly to fund foreign expansion but also, executives say, to avoid a tax hit.
New York homeless shelters housing record-high 53,000 people per night
The number of homeless people staying overnight in New York City shelters has eclipsed the record-high population reported last year, reaching an average of more than 50,000 people per night, according to a new study.
The annual report released Wednesday by the Coalition for the Homeless paints a bleak picture of the current state of homeless in New York City and offers a series of specific policy recommendations for new mayor Bill de Blasio.
In the past year, more men, women and children than ever before sought shelter, up 7% from 50,135 people in January 2013 to 53,615 people in January 2014. Another staggering figure: the number of homeless children sleeping in shelters has climbed 8% in the past year, with 22,712 children sleeping in homeless shelters in January 2014. And the average stay for homeless families with children stretched by two months to 14.5 months, another record high.
Also alarming is the number of people who have jobs, but no home. The report found that more than one in four homeless families in city shelters is headed by a working adult; and one of every six homeless single adults is employed. According to city data, the number of working homeless people has increased by 57% from November 2010 to July 2013.
The report blames the city’s homeless crisis on a combination of factors. It cites the “disastrous homeless policies” implemented by then-mayor Michael Bloomberg; the city’s worsening housing affordability; and the growing income inequality gap.
A War on Campus? Northeastern University Suspends Students for Justice in Palestine Chapter
The Evening Greens
Why American consumers will pay the price if right-wingers get their way on lifting the export ban to further their neocon wet dreams of bringing down the Russian Federation:
U.S. Propane Shortage Provides Lessons For Debate Over Oil and Gas Exports
As the nation charges toward energy independence, many Americans learned an important lesson this winter: Just because the country is awash in domestic fuel doesn't mean it will be there when they need it most.
From December into February, when winter temperatures plummeted to record lows across much of the country, residents in the Midwest and Northeast struggled to stay warm amid propane shortages and price spikes. Propane, also known as autogas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), is vital because it heats more than six million homes, fuels equipment and vehicle fleets, and is instrumental on farms for drying grain for storage and keeping livestock-filled barns warm in the winter.
This happened despite several years in a row of soaring domestic propane production—calling into question the commonly held belief that an abundance of American-made energy will automatically provide energy security and lower fuel prices for consumers. The nation's supply of propane—a byproduct of natural gas drilling, oil drilling and oil refining—has been surging alongside the oil and natural gas being pulled from shale formations from North Dakota to Texas and from Ohio to New York.
Several factors, some caused by Mother Nature, others by company actions, led to the propane crisis. They included: a huge jump in propane use to dry corn, a separate demand surge to provide heat during a fierce winter freeze, company decisions that curtailed pipeline deliveries of propane, and record-high exports that continued to drain supplies into the peak heating season.
One reason companies proceeded with exports and pipeline changes that left propane consumers vulnerable this winter is that producers of many critical commodities—including oil, natural gas, propane, gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and heating oil—are not obliged to distribute those fuels in a way that benefits U.S. consumers. If it's more profitable for companies to sell those products overseas or reconfigure pipelines, then whenever possible, they will do so.
Those market dynamics are important to keep in mind as the debate heats up in Washington over clearing the way for more natural gas exports and removing the export ban on U.S. oil. There are no limits on exports of propane or refined petroleum products such as gasoline.
EU Votes to Save the Arctic
A pristine region of the Arctic was one step closer to becoming an international sanctuary on Wednesday following a vote in the European Parliament that passed a resolution promoting strong protections in the area.
In what the Arctic-campaigning group Greenpeace is calling a victory, European MEPs called for the establishment of a sanctuary in the high seas region around the North Pole, among other measures.
The resolution will bring the agenda to EU foreign ministers and EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton, "who have so far been reluctant to speak out against the rapid industrialization of the region by international oil companies including Shell, BP and Russia’s state owned energy giant Gazprom," Greenpeace writes.
Clause 38 of Wednesday's resolution states that the European Parliament:
Supports the initiative by five Arctic coastal states to agree on interim precautionary measures to prevent any future fisheries in the Arctic high seas without the prior establishment of appropriate regulatory mechanisms, and supports the development of a network of Arctic conservation areas and, in particular, the protection of the international sea area around the North Pole outside the economic zones of the coastal states.
This "2.8 million square kilometer zone of the global commons" would be the "biggest conservation zone in existence, protecting fish stocks, ice-dependent species, and a huge variety of cold water species," writes Neil Hamilton, Senior Political Adviser at Greenpeace Norway.
North Dakota Oil Rigs Producing "Dozens Of Tons Of Highly Radioactive Waste Daily"
Ohio Fracking Well Suspended After Quakes
Fracking operations at one site in the state of Ohio remain suspended until further notice after five small earthquakes over a period of twenty four hours earlier this week.
Yesterday’s tremor was recorded at 2.1, following earlier ones reaching 3.0 on the Richter scale, enough to be noticeable but not enough to cause structural damage.
According to local media reports, the US Geological Survey located the epicenter of the first earthquake almost directly below one of two fracking sites run by Houston-based Hilcorp Energy, which has drilled seven wells at the site over the last two years.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) has now halted operations: “Out of an abundance of caution, we notified the only oil and gas operator in the area and ordered them to halt all operations until further assessment can take place,” it said.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Reports: WH Won't Release 9K+ CIA Docs to Senate Intel Cmte., Calls For Brennan’s Ouster Increase
No matter vote’s outcome, Crimea will change
NSA 'hijacked' criminal botnets to install spyware
New York City DOE publishes new guidelines for transgender students
Wheeler's Debut: "The White House Has Been Covering Up the Presidency’s Role in Torture for Years"
A Little Night Music
Carey Bell & The Sons Of Blues - Easy to Love You
Carey Bell - Bell hop
Carey & Lurrie Bell - When I Get Drunk
Carey bell - Blues with a feeling
Carey Bell - Carey Bell Rocks
Billy Branch, Carey Bell, Phil Wiggins - Blues Harp Blues
Carey Bell - Let Me Stir In Your Pot
Carey Bell - Last Night
Carey Bell - Hard Working Woman
Carey Bell - Dirty Shame
Big Walter Horton & Carey Bell - Lovin' My Baby
Eddie C. Campbell & Carey Bell - Still A Fool
Carey Bell - Live at the International Jazz Festival
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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