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 jazz saxophonist Coleman Hawkins. Enjoy!
Lester Young & Coleman Hawkins - Jumpin' with the Synphony Sid
“There is something about a closet that makes a skeleton terribly restless.”
-- John Barrymore
News and Opinion
Is Revealing Secrets Akin to Drunk Driving? Intelligence Official Says So
The intelligence community’s top lawyer on Friday defended the Obama administration’s hostility toward revelations of national security secrets — and likened the act of publishing them to drunk driving.
Robert Litt, general counsel to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, used the drunk-driving analogy to excuse his inability to cite any specific harm to individuals by news stories based on leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
“We ban drunk driving in this country,” Litt asserted, arguing on a panel with four top news editors that not every crime has an identifiable victim.
Litt made the same argument earlier this week, at an event in Washington for Sunshine Week: ”Not every drunk driver causes a fatal accident, but we ban drunk driving because it increases the risk of accidents. In the same way, we classify information because of the risk of harm, even if no harm actually can be shown in the end from any particular disclosure.” ...
Litt, who has become the point person for the administration’s defense of its surveillance programs, was speaking at a journalistic symposium on Secrets and Sources in the New York Times auditorium. He responded combatively to the event’s main theme: the importance of holding the government accountable.
“There ought to be an adversarial approach between the press and the government,” Litt said. “But,” he added with a touch of menace, ”it’s a two-way process.”
Human volcano Mike Rogers erupts sending up another giant cloud of gas and stupidity:
House intelligence chair says Edward Snowden backs Russian expansionism
The chairman of the House of Representatives intelligence committee, Mike Rogers, on Sunday stood by his claim that the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who last year provided thousands of secret documents to media outlets including the Guardian, had been helped by Russia. ...
“No counter-terrorism official in the United States does not believe that Mr Snowden … is not under the influence of Russian intelligence services. We believe he is, I certainly believe he is today.
“For the investigators, they need to figure out when did that influence start. Was he interested in co-operating earlier than what the timeline would suggest?”
Rogers also sought to link Snowden's actions to Russia's occupation of Crimea and concerns over the massing of Russian troops on Ukraine's eastern border.
He said: “He [Snowden] is under the influence of Russian intelligence officials today [and] he is actually supporting, in an odd way, the brazen brutality and expansionism of Russia. He needs to understand that and I think Americans need to understand that in its proper context.”
Snowden Debate at Oxford Union
transcript of Hedges' statement
Chris Huhne | Snowden Debate | Oxford Union
William Binney | Snowden Debate | Oxford Union
Annie Machon | Snowden Debate | Oxford Union
The full set of debate videos is here
China demands explanation from U.S. on Huawei spying report
China wants a clear explanation from Washington over a report that the U.S. National Security Agency infiltrated servers at the headquarters of telecoms giant Huawei Technologies Co., a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said on Monday.
Hong Lei, the spokesman, said China was "extremely concerned" about the spying allegations. ...
Questions over cyber-espionage have cast a shadow over China-U.S. ties, with each side accusing the other of spying.
Jimmy Carter on NSA: "If I Send an Email, It Will Be Monitored"
Former President Jimmy Carter says he suspects his communications are being monitored by the National Security Agency.
“I have felt that my own communications are probably monitored,” Carter said in an interview with Andrea Mitchell that was aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Yes, There Are Bad Guys in the Ukrainian Government
It's time for a frank conversation about some of the unsavory characters in Kiev.
Vladimir Putin insists Russia invaded Crimea to protect the ethnic Russians who live in that southern Ukrainian territory. Ukraine, the Russian president contends, has come under the control of "neo-Nazis and Nazis and anti-Semites," and the country's Russian population is under threat. It is easy to dismiss Putin's rhetoric -- he is, after all, a serial fibber and fabricator who conflates gays and pedophiles and heads a state where Cossacks gas and whip punk rockers in broad daylight. But while Western governments and pundits are correct to dismiss Putin's pretenses for invading Ukraine, they are wrong to presume his Ukrainian opponents are necessarily in the right. The uncomfortable truth is that a sizeable portion of Kiev's current government -- and the protesters who brought it to power -- are, indeed, fascists. If Western governments hope to steer Ukraine clear from the most unsavory characters in Moscow and Kiev, they will need to wage a two-pronged diplomatic offensive: against Putin's propaganda and, at the same time, against Ukraine's resurgent far-right.
Ukraine is home to Svoboda, arguably Europe's most influential far-right movement today. ... Svoboda began life in the mid-90s as the Social-National Party (a name deliberately redolent of the National Socialist Party, better known as Nazis), with its logo the fascist Wolfsangel. In 2004, the party gave itself an unobjectionable new name (Svoboda means "Freedom") and canned the Nazi imagery, and in the subsequent decade has seen its star swiftly rise.
Today, Svoboda holds a larger chunk of its nation's ministries (nearly a quarter, including the prized defense portfolio) than any other far-right party on the continent. Ukraine's deputy prime minister represents Svoboda (the smaller, even more extreme "Right Sector" coalition fills the deputy National Security Council chair), as does the prosecutor general and the deputy chair of parliament -- where the party is the fourth-largest. And Svoboda's fresh faces are scarcely different from the old: one of its freshmen members of parliament is the founder of the "Joseph Goebbels Political Research Centre" and has hailed the Holocaust as a "bright period" in human history.
Bush’s Neocon Spokesman for Illegal US Occupation of Iraq Slams Russia for Crimea
It just baffles me that failed Neocons like Dan Senor are still given a hearing inside the Beltway. ABC News actually interviewed Senor, the spokesman for the Bush administration’s illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq on the Crimea crisis! ...
As for Senor’s complaint that Washington is letting Putin get away with annexing Crimea, isn’t it reciprocal? Putin let Senor and his pals get away with illegally invading Iraq.
He also complained that Putin was getting his way in Syria, Iran, etc. I seem to remember that the Bush administration kept accusing Syria of enabling the guerrilla resistance against the US in Iraq. But I don’t remember Senor and his buddies doing anything about it. Nor did they do anything significant about Iran. As for Putin, Bush assured us that Putin was someone he could do business with: “I looked into his eyes and I saw his soul.” Senor has never criticized his former boss for that piece of naivete.
Being a Neocon means never having to say you’re sorry.
Ukraine Confronts Another Split
In Donetsk’s Lenin Square, Yuroslav Korotenko keeps a constant vigil inside a tent erected just a few feet away from a massive statue of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin.
“We stay here and save this monument and this place, because people in the West come [to] this place with war,” Korotenko told IPS. “People from Donetsk think about peace with Russian Federation and don’t want war in our town.”
Korotenko describes himself as a protector of the square, where thousands of pro-Russian protestors have held daily demonstrations in support of a referendum to join Russia and in opposition to the government formed in Ukraine after former president Viktor Yanukovych absconded to Russia.
“People don’t accept the new government that is now in Kiev,” said Alex Yoktov, a Donetsk native who attends the rallies. “It’s like one oligarch switched to another oligarch in the government.” ...
Home to about two million people, Donetsk is a major economic, industrial and scientific hub in the east located about 80 kilometres from Russia.
In early March, the city council of Donetsk called for a referendum on the future of the region to “protect the citizens from possible violent actions on the behalf of radicalised nationalistic forces.”
The council noted that it considers Russia a strategic partner.
Barack Obama seeks European support for harder line on Russia sanctions
The US president is visiting Europe for talks with fellow leaders of the Group of Seven industrial democracies, when he will try to persuade them to increase pressure on Russia. ...
Obama, whose trip includes visits to Belgium, Italy and Saudi Arabia, has threatened US sanctions against key sectors of the Russian economy. European allies have far closer economic ties to Russia than the United States and their still-fragile economies could face a backlash if they get tough with Moscow. ...
Privately, there is some doubt among US officials that Russian president Vladimir Putin can be persuaded to relinquish his grip on Crimea, where he took advantage of the ousting of pro-Moscow Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych to make a move.
While refusing to concede the loss of Crimea, Obama's goal in Europe is to lead an effort to isolate Russia and dissuade Putin from moving into southern or eastern Ukraine. ...
Obama is facing pressure from Republican lawmakers to do more to bolster Nato allies near Russia, such as the Baltic nations, and quickly move to stronger sanctions.
Obama will meet Xi Jinping of China in attempt to isolate Russia over Ukraine
The White House has added meetings with the leaders of China and Japan to Barack Obama's visit to Europe and Saudi Arabia next week, as it seeks to use the six-day trip to build an international coalition and isolate Russia over its annexation of Crimea.
Amid criticism that Washington has sent weak signals about international resolve over the crisis, national security adviser Susan Rice announced on Friday that the flurry of diplomatic action – including hastily-arranged G7 and Nato meetings – was an opportunity to prove the US can continue to provide global leadership on a host of vexed issues. ...
Despite fears that the Ukrainian crisis marks a return to a Cold War-style standoff between East and West, the White House had drawn succour from a Chinese decision to to abstain rather than vote with Russia during a United Nations vote condemning events in Crimea last Sunday.
Obama will meet president Xi Jinping in the Hague on Monday on the sidelines of a wider summit on combating nuclear terrorism. Michelle Obama and her two daughters are currently on a visit to China that is billed as a form of “soft diplomacy” by the White House, which is anxious to lure Beijing away from its historic support of Moscow.
NATO: ‘Very sizeable’ Russian force massing at Ukraine border
NATO's top commander, General Philip Breedlove, said Sunday there was a "very sizeable" Russian troop presence on the border with Ukraine and warned of a possible incursion into the Moscow-backed separatist territory of Transdniestr.
"The force that is at the Ukrainian border now to the east is very, very sizeable and very, very ready," the head of the US European Command told the Brussels Forum. ...
Russia's military announced Friday that it had carried out exercises in Transdniestr, a Moscow-backed separatist territory of Moldova which lies on Ukraine's southwestern border. The Russian troops are massed to the east of the country.
NATO has previously observed several large-scale exercises by the Russian army, in which the "forces were brought to readiness and exercised and then they stood down," Breedlove said.
"Then, as we have all seen, a snap exercise, large formation brought to readiness and, boom, into Crimea we (Russians) went with a highly ready, highly prepared force," he said.
Egypt sentences to death 529 supporters of Mohamed Morsi
A judge in southern Egypt has taken just two court sessions to sentence to death 529 supporters of Mohamed Morsi for the murder of a single police officer.
Sixteen people were acquitted after lawyers said they had not been allowed to present a proper defence before the judgment was made.
The defendants were arrested last August during a wave of unrest in which supporters of the former president react violently to the clearance of a pro-Morsi sit-in in Cairo during which more than 900 people were killed. In addition to the murder, the 529 were accused of attempting to kill two other police officers and attacking a police station.
The death sentences are not final and appeals are likely; similar sentences have often been commuted in Egypt. But families of the accused and rights lawyers described the process as a miscarriage of justice.
Turkey steps up bid to block Twitter after users flout ban
Turkey has stepped up its efforts to block access to Twitter after many users found ways to flout its ban. Internet service providers in the country are now blocking the addresses used by the site, making it significantly more difficult to get around the restrictions, analysts have said.
The move follows threats last week from Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he would "root out" the social media network, which he claimed has been used to spread wiretapped recordings that have damaged his government's reputation.
Initially, Turkish internet service providers (ISPs) were simply redirecting traffic to a government webpage by forcing the DNS servers, which send to the correct IP addresses for the site they are trying to access, to redirect away from Twitter's homepage.
Now, however, ISPs have begun blocking the IP addresses used by Twitter themselves, according to an analysis carried out by internet monitoring firm Renesys. And a Turkish government webpage confirmed the block, citing court orders.
Madrid March: Thousands of anti-austerity protesters converge on Spanish capital
Hundreds of Thousands Fill the Streets to Protest Austerity in Madrid, Spain
If you live in the United States you may not be aware of it, but the citizens of Spain and Portugal are engaged in massive protests and strikes over their governments’ harsh austerity measures which have affected millions across the two countries.
Protesters have been organizing massive marches for weeks in cities around Spain, but on March 22nd, they all converged on Madrid, the nation’s Capitol and held a demonstration so large that the city was effectively shut down for several days. Estimates from reporters on the scene have protesters numbering in the hundreds of thousands, coming from across the country to the heart of the city from six different directions.
Spaniards in growing numbers are reaching the breaking point over how their country is handling its debt. Rather than focusing on economic growth, the Spanish government has been making deep cuts into Spain’s once robust social safety net. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his conservative People’s Party have gotten much of the blame. In their attempt to rein in spending, they have made problems worse, while at the same time destroying much of the public health and education systems that Spain used to be known for. Making matters worse, that sacrifice has done little to nothing to help people in the country.
Libya is a disaster we helped create. The west must take responsibility
The UN-authorised air campaign in 2011 is often lauded as a shining example of successful foreign intervention. Sure, the initial mandate – which was simply to protect civilians – was exceeded by nations who had only recently been selling arms to Muammar Gaddafi, and the bombing evolved into regime-change despite Russia's protests. But with a murderous thug ejected from power, who could object?
Today's Libya is overrun by militias and faces a deteriorating human rights situation, mounting chaos that is infecting other countries, growing internal splits, and even the threat of civil war. Only occasionally does this growing crisis creep into the headlines: like when an oil tanker is seized by rebellious militia; or when a British oil worker is shot dead while having a picnic; or when the country's prime minister is kidnapped. ...
Ominously, Libya's chaos is spilling across the region. The country is awash with up to 15 million rifles and other weapons, and a report by the UN panel of experts this month found that "Libya has become a primary source of illicit weapons". These arms are fuelling chaos in 14 countries, including Somalia, the Central African Republic, Nigeria and Niger. Qatar is helping to deliver Libyan armaments to Syria, where Russian-made weapons bought by Gaddafi's regime are being given to fundamentalist Islamist rebels. ...
There is a real prospect of the country collapsing into civil war or even breaking up. Unless there are negotiated settlements to its multiple problems, Libya will surely continue its descent into mayhem, and the region could be dragged into the mire with it.
No wonder western governments and journalists who hailed the success of this intervention are so silent. But here are the consequences of their war, and they must take responsibility for them.
What's the Difference Between Force Feeding and Waterboarding?
The Department of Defense this month publicly released its newest rationalization for the abusive force-feeding program at Guantánamo Bay. In this latest memo on hunger strike policies, the abusive force-feeding program is referred to as "medical intervention." ...
According to medical experts, long-term feedings should be treated with a singular tube that is not removed from the patient's nostrils except once every four to six weeks. ... Compare that standard with the policies at Guantánamo where the feeding tube is inserted up to twice a day for detainees on hunger strike. According to the statement of one detainee, that frequency of tube insertions causes severe pain and can damage the esophagus and stomach.
Medical equations in the newly released protocols call for 2,300 ml of liquid (a liquid meal replacement such as Ensure plus water) to be pumped down a detainee's esophagus over the course of one feeding. That's just under two thirds of a gallon of liquid. An older version of the newly released text – made public in March 2013 – states that this feeding is to take place over the course of 20 minutes. ... For comparison, the American Gastroenterological Association recommends that medical service providers feed patients no more than 260 ml of liquid (about a cup) per 15 minutes. The volume administered at Guantánamo is almost seven times that recommendation. ... According to one professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota, the speed of the feeding causes extreme pain and "increases the risk that stomach contents will be regurgitated into the lungs".
Force feeding is a practice universally considered cruel, inhuman, and degrading – and one that violates international medical ethics standards. And it can rise to the level of torture.
Taxpayers fund creationism in the classroom
Taxpayers in 14 states will bankroll nearly $1 billion this year in tuition for private schools, including hundreds of religious schools that teach Earth is less than 10,000 years old, Adam and Eve strolled the garden with dinosaurs, and much of modern biology, geology and cosmology is a web of lies.
Now a major push to expand these voucher programs is under way from Alaska to New York, a development that seems certain to sharply increase the investment. ...
Decades of litigation have established that public schools cannot teach creationism or intelligent design. But private schools receiving public subsidies can — and do. A POLITICO review of hundreds of pages of course outlines, textbooks and school websites found that many of these faith-based schools go beyond teaching the biblical story of the six days of creation as literal fact. Their course materials nurture disdain of the secular world, distrust of momentous discoveries and hostility toward mainstream scientists. They often distort basic facts about the scientific method — teaching, for instance, that theories such as evolution are by definition highly speculative because they haven’t been elevated to the status of “scientific law.”
And this approach isn’t confined to high school biology class; it is typically threaded through all grades and all subjects. ...
Some 26 states are now considering enacting new voucher programs or expanding existing ones, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Hat tip don midwest:
This Statistic Should Shut Down Any Talk Of Cutting Social Security
When this story broke earlier this week, it did not get nearly the attention it deserved, so it bears repeating now: 36 percent of workers, according to one poll, have less than $1,000 saved for their retirement.
That comes from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, which does an annual retirement confidence survey. That has jumped up from 28 percent who reported having less than $1,000 stashed away for retirement last year.
That is one of the statistics that should shut down any conversation about pushing back the retirement age for Social Security or reducing the cost-of-living adjustment for benefits. The idea, often put forward on the right, that people will be able to compensate for benefit cuts with their own savings is not panning out in the real world – and won’t as long as we’re in a slow-growth economy with high unemployment and stagnant wages.
Dear White People: Film Tackles Racial Stereotypes on Campus & Being a "Black Face in a White Space"
The Evening Greens
25 years later, Exxon Valdez oil spill still clings to lives, habitats
The herring of Prince William Sound still have not recovered. Neither have killer whales, and legal issues remain unresolved a quarter of a century later. Monday is the 25th anniversary of the disaster, in which the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef and spilled at least 11 million gallons of oil into the pristine waters of the sound.
Prince William Sound today looks spectacular, a stunning landscape of mountainous fjords, blue-green waters and thickly forested islands. Pick up a stone on a rocky beach, maybe a dig a little, though, and it is possible to still find pockets of oil.
“I think the big surprise for all of us who have worked on this thing for the last 25 years has been the continued presence of relatively fresh oil,” said Gary Shigenaka, a marine biologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The question of how well Prince William Sound has recovered from what at the time was the nation’s largest oil spill is a contentious one. Exxon Mobil Corp. cites studies showing a rebound. ...
Government scientists have a different view.
The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, a state-federal group set up to oversee restoration of Prince William Sound, considers the pink and sockeye salmon to be recovered, as well as the bald eagles and harbor seals. Several other species are listed as recovering but not recovered.
Sea otters have had a rough time. Thousands died in the months following the spill, and the population has struggled to recover in the 25 years since. The U.S. Geological Survey reported earlier this month that the sea otters of the area had finally returned to their pre-spill numbers.
Listed as still not recovering are the herring, a group of killer whales and the pigeon guillemots, a North Pacific seabird.
Long Term Impact Of Exxon Valdez Oil Spill In Alaska Discussed On It's 25th Anniversary
Houston waterways shut for third day after collision, oil spill
Major Texas shipping channels that deliver crude oil for more than one-tenth of the nation's refining capacity were shut for a third day on Monday, as the cleanup from a spill threatened to last through the week.
The Houston Ship Channel was shut on Saturday following a collision between a Kirby Inland Marine oil barge and a cargo ship, spilling some 4,000 barrels, or 168,000 gallons (636,000 liters), of residual fuel oil. The channel allows oil barges and cargo ships to sail from the Gulf Coast to refiners and terminals further inland.
As of 7 a.m. CST, the channels to Houston and Texas City, Galveston and the Intracoastal Waterway remained shut near the entrance to Galveston Bay, where heavy fuel oil washed ashore and out into the Gulf of Mexico. ...
Cleanup crews have pumped all of the remaining fuel oil from the barge, which has been refloated and moved to a different position near the site of the collision in the channel.
Idaho Lawmakers Green-Light Legislation to 'Wipe Out' Wolves
Wildlife advocates are decrying legislation they say will "wipe out as many wolves as legally possible in Idaho."
Signed by state lawmakers on Thursday, it is expected to get the signature of Governor C. L. "Butch" Otter, who in 2007 said he would "bid for that first ticket to shoot a wolf myself," if gray wolves lost Endangered Species Act protection.
The legislation sets aside $400,000 for a board "to provide funds for the management and control of depredating wolves in Idaho." ...
Meanwhile, a group of over 70 congressmen sent a letter this week to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, asking that a proposal to delist the gray wolf from the federal endangered species list be rescinded because it is not based on the best available science.
Fossil Fuel Giants Guzzling World's Water as Poor Go Thirsty: UN
An unrelenting increase in energy production, including unconventional methods such as tar sands extraction and fracking, will severely damage the world's already dwindling water supply, the UN warned on Friday.
"There is an increasing potential for serious conflict between power generation, other water users and environmental considerations," says the World Water Development Report 2014: Water and Energy (pdf), published on the eve of World Water Day.
The energy sector, which has "great political clout," the report states, is set to consume an unfair share of this limited resource, "despite ongoing progress in the development of renewables." ... "Demand for fresh water and energy will continue to increase over the coming decades to meet the needs of growing populations and economies," the report says, "changing lifestyles and evolving consumption patterns, greatly amplifying existing pressures on limited natural resources and on ecosystems. ... There is clear evidence that groundwater supplies are diminishing, with an estimated 20% of the world's aquifers being over-exploited, some critically so."
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Russian sanctions as war and farce
Golden Dawn: courage of two women stems the rise of Greece's neo-Nazis
Greenwald: Some Facts About How NSA Stories Are Reported
Ukraine and Crimea: what is Putin thinking?
UN Raporteur Accuses Israel of "Ethnic Cleansing"
A Little Night Music
Coleman Hawkins - After Midnight
Coleman Hawkins - Disorder At The Border
Coleman Hawkins and Harry Edison
Coleman Hawkins Quintet - South Of France Blues
Coleman Hawkins, Django Reinhardt - Honeysuckle Rose
Coleman Hawkins - Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho
Coleman Hawkins - Soul blues
Coleman Hawkins & Django Reinhardt - Crazy Rhythm
Tiny Grimes & Coleman Hawkins - Blues Wail
Coleman Hawkins & Ben Webster - Blues for Yolande
Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter & Django Reinhardt - Out Of Nowhere
Coleman Hawkins - The Stampede
Coleman Hawkins - St James Infirmary
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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