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 Texas blues singer and piano player Big Walter Price. Enjoy!
Big Walter Price - Pack Fair and Square
"After Hiroshima was bombed, I saw a photograph of the side of a house with the shadows of the people who had lived there burned into the wall from the intensity of the bomb. The people were gone, but their shadows remained."
-- Ray Bradbury
News and Opinion
"War Makes Everyone Crazy": Hiroshima Survivor Reflects on 69th Anniversary of U.S. Atomic Bombing
The Enduring Myth of Hiroshima
The U.S. atomic destruction of 140,000 people at Hiroshima and 70,000 at Nagasaki was never “necessary” because Japan was already smashed, no land invasion was needed and Japan was suing for peace. The official myth that “the bombs saved lives” by hurrying Japan’s surrender can no longer be believed except by those who love to be fooled.
The long-standing fiction has been destroyed by the historical record kept in U.S., Soviet, Japanese and British archives — now mostly declassified — and detailed by Ward Wilson in his book Five Myths about Nuclear Weapons (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013). ...
That most people in the United States still believe the “saved lives” rationale to be true is because of decades of this censorship and myth-making, begun by President Harry Truman, who said Aug. 6, 1945, “Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base. … That was because we wished this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians.”
In fact, the city of 350,000 had practically no military value at all and the target was the city, not the base three kilometers away. ...
Kept hidden for decades was the 1946 U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey’s conclusion that Japan almost certainly would have surrendered in 1945 without the atomic bombs, without a Soviet invasion and without a U.S. invasion. ... Adm. William Leahy, the wartime Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in 1950, “It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material success in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender.”
Nuclear Attack on Japan Was Opposed by American Military Leadership
Gaza ceasefire holding on second day, talks under way
A Gaza truce was holding on Wednesday as Egyptian mediators pursued talks with Israeli and Palestinian representatives on an enduring end to a war that has devastated the Hamas Islamist- dominated enclave.
Egypt's intelligence chief met a Palestinian delegation in Cairo, the state news agency MENA said, a day after he conferred with Israeli representatives. The Palestinian team, led by an official from Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, includes envoys from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group.
"The indirect talks between the Palestinians and Israelis are moving forward," one Egyptian official said, making clear that the opposing sides were not meeting face to face. "It is still too early to talk about outcomes but we are optimistic."
Egyptian and Palestinian sources said they expected later on Wednesday an initial response by Israel to Palestinian demands, which it has so far shown no sign of accepting.
Can Israel Claim Self-Defense Against the Territory It Occupies? Int’l Jurist John Dugard Says No
Gaza ceasefire gives Rafah residents chance to return to ruined homes
No one has yet assessed the physical damage wrought by this latest conflict, but the economic cost, adding to that of seven years of effective blockade by Israel and, to a lesser extent, Egypt, is evident. A biscuit factory, halfway between Rafah and Gaza City, is a smoking ruin. It employed hundreds. Huge amounts of livestock have died. Vast areas of agricultural land are littered with unexploded ordnance. Then there are the villages – and parts of Rafah itself – that have been effectively levelled. ...
Though few are yet in any condition to take stock, many in Gaza compared the latest conflict to those in 2008, 2009 and 2012. All say this has been by far the worst. "There is more destruction, much more. And so many dead," said Sabriha Idbari, 50.
The UN estimates that a third of a million children will need some kind of counselling, at the very least. ...
At the UN-run school in the centre of Rafah, where nine died on Sunday after what is now thought to be an Israeli missile landed metres from its gates, not a single family has yet formally swapped the fetid, cramped classrooms for their homes. Most are scared. Some are among the tens of thousands across Gaza whose houses are no longer habitable.
"We are too frightened," said Kamla Udwan, 55. Around 270,000 people are currently living in more than 90 schools, the UN says.
As Palestinians Go To ICC, Human Rights Watch Alleges Israeli War Crimes for Shooting Fleeing Gazans
Gaza: Israeli Soldiers Shoot and Kill Fleeing Civilians
(Gaza) – Israeli forces in the southern Gaza town of Khuza’a fired on and killed civilians in apparent violation of the laws of war in several incidents between July 23 and 25, 2014. Deliberate attacks on civilians who are not participating in the fighting are war crimes. ...
Khuza’a, which has a population of about 10,000, was the scene of fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups during an Israeli ground offensive in the area on July 23, Israeli news media reported. Israeli forces provided general warnings to Khuza’a residents to leave the area prior to July 21. While the laws of war encourage “advance, effective warnings” of attacks, the failure of civilians to abide by warnings does not make them lawful targets of attack – for obvious reasons, since many people do not flee because of infirmity, fear, lack of a place to go, or any number of other reasons. The remaining presence of such civilians despite a warning to flee cannot be ignored when attacks are carried out, as Israeli forces have done previously. ...
Human Rights Watch investigated several incidents between July 23 and 25 when, local residents said, Israeli forces opened fire on civilians trying to flee Khuza’a, but no Palestinian fighters were present at the time and no firefights were taking place.
On the morning of July 23, Israeli forces ordered a group of about 100 Palestinians in Khuza’a to leave a home in which they had gathered to take shelter, family members said. The first member to leave the house, Shahid al-Najjar, had his hands up but an Israeli soldier shot him in the jaw, seriously injuring him.
Israeli soldiers detained the men and boys over age 15 in an area close to the Gaza perimeter fence. Based on statements from witnesses and news reports, some were taken to Israel for questioning. Israeli forces released others that day, in small separate groups. As one group walked unarmed to Khan Younis, Israeli soldiers fired on them, killing one and wounding two others.
UK Activists In Standoff After Occupying Factory Supplying IDF Drone Engines
A group of UK activists is engaged in a standoff with local law enforcement after having shut down a drone engine factory that they say supplies the Israel Defense Forces.
The group London Palestine Action chained the factory gates shut and chained themselves to the roof of the UAV Engines Limited factory in Shenstone, England, around 5 a.m. Tuesday, saying they have enough food to stay a week.
UAV Engines Limited is a subsidiary of the Israel defense systems company Elbit. The company's stock recently reached a four-year high after climbing 6.1 percent between July 8 and 29, in the midst of Israel's latest attack on Gaza.
"Elbit Systems markets its drone technology as 'battle tested', a sickening boast that their drones have been proven to be effective at killing Palestinians," said Sara Cooper, 26, a teacher from south London. ...
In 2009, Amnesty International UK found evidence that drones with the company's engines were being used in Gaza as part of the IDF's attack strategy. On Tuesday, Amnesty International UK's Arms Programme Campaign Manager Oliver Sprague issued a statement in support of the group, saying "Quite frankly no UK-based company should currently be supplying the Israeli military with any arms or equipment."
“Before these protests escalate, Downing Street should announce an immediate suspension of any further arms to Israel," said Sprague. "We should not be complicit in war crimes.”
Greenwald: US Intelligence Enables Israeli Attacks
Israel Flagged as Top Spy Threat to U.S. in New Snowden/NSA Document
Israel was singled out in 2007 as a top espionage threat against the U.S. government, including its intelligence services, in a newly published National Security Agency (NSA) document obtained by fugitive leaker Edward Snowden, according to a news report Monday.
The document also identified Israel, along with North Korea, Cuba and India, as a “leading threat” to the infrastructure of U.S. financial and banking institutions. ...
In this new document, Israel was identified by the NSA as a security threat in several areas, including “the threat of development of weapons of mass destruction” and “delivery methods (particularly ballistic and nuclear-capable cruise missiles).” The NSA also flagged Israel’s “WMD and missile proliferation activities” and “cruise missiles” as threats.
In a section of the document headed “Foreign Intelligence, Counterintelligence; Denial & Deception Activities: Countering Foreign Intelligence Threats,” Israel was listed as a leading perpetrator of “espionage/intelligence collection operations and manipulation/influence operations…against U.S. government, military, science & technology and Intelligence Community” organs.
The term “manipulation/influence operations” refers to covert attempts by Israel to sway U.S. public opinion in its favor.
Israel and Ukraine: Ridding the Nation of the ‘Undesirables’
The military operations undertaken by the Ukrainian and Israeli governments in East Ukraine and Gaza, although frequently being represented as "anti-terror operations", in fact involve the mass killing of civilians on the ground, with US support, under the pretext of the state defending itself. As wars are being waged in both countries, the Ukrainian and Israeli militaries are heavily bombarding civilians as Human Rights Watch has confirmed. The civilian toll in Ukraine has been at least 1,129 so far and 1,650 people were killed in Gaza. The UN condemned the massive shelling of schools and seniors’ homes by the Ukrainian military as it condemned the bombing of a UN school by Israel, saying these violated international law. ...
The slaughter of civilians, be they ethnic Russian or Palestinian, cannot be divorced from the fact that both the Ukrainian and the Israeli Governments have no intention of granting autonomous rights to these respective populations under their control and may ultimately even see their lives as disposable. The unelected Ukrainian Government did not accept the referendum held in the Donbass in which over 90% of residents voted for self-rule, while in Israel, Netanyahu recently said that he would never support a sovereign Palestinian state. Indeed, both the Ukrainian and Israeli government share highly racist views of these targeted populations. ...
The highly racist manner in which both Ukraine and Israel view residents under their control who do not fit into the image of the nation they claim to represent, cannot but disturb those who pay attention. The former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk termed Russians in East Ukraine "subhumans", therefore repeating the phrase "untermenschen" used by the Nazis towards Russians during World War II. Yatsenyuk made no secret of his intentions towards ethnic Russians in Ukraine by writing that "we will commemorate the heroes by wiping out those who killed them and then by cleaning our land from the evil", therefore suggesting that ethnic Russians citizens of Ukraine are contaminating the ‘pure’ Ukrainian nation. A leading Ukrainian politician, Julia Tymoshenko, expressed her wish to wipe out the 8 million Russians who reside in the Crimea. ...
In both East Ukraine and Gaza, plans or suggestions have been laid out to repopulate the war-torn territories after a victory is achieved. The Ukrainian government openly said that land in Southeast Ukraine, where ethnic Russians and Russian speakers currently reside, will be given to Ukrainian soldiers for free, in return for their participation in the fighting against residents of these areas. In Israel, Member of Parliament Moshe Feiglin of the Likud Party, suggested that "subsequent to the elimination of terror from Gaza, it will become part of sovereign Israel and will be populated by Jews."
Russia urges intl humanitarian mission for besieged E. Ukraine cities
UN: Nearly a million Ukrainians have fled fighting in east
Almost 1 million people have been displaced by escalating warfare in the two east Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, and hundreds of thousands of those have fled across the border to neighboring Russia, the United Nations said Tuesday.
Russian authorities say over 5,000 refugees per day are pouring into the southern Rostov region, which abuts the war zone, and that the numbers are putting strains on local facilities and infrastructure. ...
As Ukrainian forces tighten a steel noose around the rebel-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, the numbers of civilians desperately trying to escape the war zone is spiking. Credible reports have documented the widespread use of heavy artillery and unguided rockets against civilian targets by both sides in the conflict.
Before the war, about 6.5 million people lived in Donetsk and Luhansk, or around 14 percent of Ukraine's population. The few reports coming out of those places now show widespread ruination and empty streets. A report by the Kremlin-funded RT network from Luhansk on Tuesday said that about a quarter million inhabitants were still trapped in the city, without power or water, with dwindling food supplies and facing constant shellfire from outside the city.
Ukraine's revolution dream stalling due to war in the east and political stasis
President Yanukovych is long gone, but war-weariness and a sense of politics as usual are fostering whispers of a 'new Maidan'
The Maidan movement achieved its main goal: the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych. But in the months since, Ukraine has lost Crimea to Russian annexation and seen a civil war take hold in the east of the country, with Moscow's support.
Petro Poroshenko, a chocolate tycoon who threw his lot in with the protests from the start, came to power in May's presidential elections promising a new type of political culture. But the conflict in the east has deflected attention and financial resources away from the renewal of government and governance, and analysts warn that serious economic problems are just around the corner.
Poroshenko and his government now face criticism from two sides. On the one hand, eager to end the standoff in the east as soon as possible and faced with an enemy that appears to have a constant supply of heavy weaponry from Russia, Ukrainian forces have resorted to tactics that have been strongly criticised by international bodies.
On the other hand, there is a growing sense in Ukrainian society that not enough has changed since Maidan, and a radicalisation of the mood has increased mutterings for a "new Maidan". ...
Yehor Sobelev, a journalist and Maidan activist who now leads the Lustration Committee – a body that wants to force all Ukrainian public officials to undergo checks for past links to corruption and misgovernance – says Poroshenko has not done nearly enough during his time in charge.
"I see little evidence that he wants to change the corrupt system, just that he wants to lead it," says Sobelev. "I think there will be a new Maidan led by the people who come back from the front lines in the east, who have seen the effect that corruption and mismanagement has first hand. And I'd be surprised if all our current political leaders make it through that Maidan with their lives intact."
Beware the New York Times’s Michael R. Gordon
Judith Miller’s co-author on false 2002 NYT “report” on Iraq WMD continues his lying
Those in the U.S. who are enthralled by relentless reports of the most demonic acts attributed to President Vladimir Putin and the rebel Eastern Ukrainian federalists a in the NYT (New York Times), NPR, ETC. would do well to look at the track record of the “reporters” dishing out this stuff. What they will find is a trail of deception that is piled with corpses of hundreds of thousands of innocents.
Principle among the purveyors of these bloodletting falsehoods is Michael R. Gordon, chief military correspondent for the NYT, serving over the decades as a trusty pipeline from the Pentagon to you. Although his name should be in profound disrepute, many opposed to war are unaware of his ignoble career or may have forgotten it. Most notoriously he is the co-author with Judith Miller of the front page NYT article planted by Dick Cheney’s minions, which claimed that Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), relying on the idea that aluminum tubing being purchased by Iraq was to be used for purifying uranium. ...
But unlike Judith Miller the well connected Gordon escaped punishment for these criminal fictions. ... So what is the intrepid Gordon up to these days? Unsurprisingly he is on the job covering the crisis in the Ukraine. He and the rest of the NYT are frantically peddling the wildest of lies about Ukraine, Russia and the ever evil Vlad. Here is a good example from the page one article by Gordon and others on July 18, entitled “U.S. Sees Evidence of Russian Links to Jet’s Downing.” It begins:
“The United States government has concluded that the passenger jet felled over Ukraine was shot down by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile launched from rebel-held territory and most likely provided by Russia to pro-Moscow separatists, officials said on Friday. While American officials are still investigating the chain of events leading to the destruction of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on Thursday, they pointed to a series of indicators of Russian involvement……”
Where is the evidence? The only evidence is that “officials said.” There is no indication of who the “officials” are or precisely what they said. Then there is the hedge phrase “most likely.” And finally Gordon and his co-authors tell us that the unnamed officials are “still investigating.” Finally although there is no conclusion, there are a “series of indicators.” (At the same time the Russian Ministry of Defense has released a lot of verifiable information on the incident, readily accessible on RT.com, whereas the U.S. has produced nothing other than some suspicious anecdotes on social media and a lot of speculation.) Not only should Gordon and his co-authors, Peter Baker and Mark Mazetti, the Judith Millers du jour, be summarily dismissed but also the “editors that let this trash appear as news rather than the unfounded propaganda that it is.
NATO fears ground invasion as Russia masses troops on Ukraine border
Russia has massed around 20,000 combat-ready troops on Ukraine's border and could use the pretext of a humanitarian mission to invade, NATO said on Wednesday, its starkest warning yet that Moscow could soon mount a ground assault against its neighbor.
With fighting escalating and rebels losing ground in the weeks since a Malaysian airliner was shot down over separatist-held territory, Russia has announced military exercises this week in the border region. ...
Residents in Donetsk, east Ukraine's main industrial hub and now the principal rebel redoubt, said Ukrainian warplanes had carried out air strikes overnight.
Reuters journalists heard the planes roar overhead and massive explosions during the night. In the morning, an industrial district 2-3 km (1-2 miles) from the city center was pocked with craters, including two huge holes 7 meters (7 yards) wide and 2 meters deep, ripped into the asphalt.
"The planes were flying low. Then there were two massive explosions and the glass was blown out of the window. It was terrifying. This is war. There will never be peace," said Nadezhda, a woman who lived nearby.
Government military spokesman Lysenko denied Ukrainian planes had carried out air strikes: "The Ukrainian military does not bomb the towns of Donetsk and Luhansk or any other similar populated places," he said.
Report: Russia Poised to Announce Oil Deal With Iran
Reports of a 5-year, $20 billion trade deal between Russia and Iran were looming large over trading in the energy markets today, with the price of Brent North Sea Crude oil dropping 1.5 percent early in trading before paring the losses to close down only 0.7%. ...
Oil sales are the big factor here, as US sanctions have severely limited Iran’s ability to export crude, and Russia has large enough market share to be able to circumvent those sanctions. The deal is estimated to have Russia buying 500,000 barrels per day, which is about half of Iran’s current export level.
Top senator rejects CIA torture report redactions ahead of public release
The key senator behind a landmark congressional investigation into the CIA’s use of torture has rejected redactions made by the Obama administration ahead of a planned public release of the politically charged report.
In the latest struggle between senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who chairs the intelligence committee, and the CIA, Feinstein said she would delay a heavily anticipated disclosure of portions of the report in an attempt to reverse redactions that “eliminate or obscure key facts that support the report’s findings and conclusions”.
“Until these redactions are addressed to the committee’s satisfaction, the report will not be made public,” said Feinstein, who added that she intended to outline the committee’s desired disclosures in a private letter to President Barack Obama.
Another powerful senator and Obama ally, Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the armed services committee and who spearheaded his own investigation into US military torture, called the redactions “totally unacceptable.” ...
“Classification should be used to protect sources and methods or the disclosure of information which could compromise national security, not to avoid disclosure of improper acts or embarrassing information,” Levin said in a statement.
“But in reviewing the CIA-proposed redactions, I saw multiple instances where CIA proposes to redact information that has already been publicly disclosed in the Senate armed services committee report on detainee abuse that was reviewed by the administration and authorized for release in 2009.”
Senate Intelligence Committee members protest administration deletions to CIA torture report
WASHINGTON — Senate Intelligence Committee members protested Tuesday over the Obama administration’s censorship of a report on the CIA’s use of “brutal” interrogation methods, charging that the deletions hid key facts and blacked out information that was made public years ago. ...
The White House had no immediate comment. ...
The statements from Feinstein and Democratic Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan and Mark Udall of Utah and Angus King, an independent from Maine, indicated that the dispute goes beyond redactions of pseudonyms of covert CIA officers and foreign countries that a Feinstein spokesman said Tuesday were in contention. ...
[Angus] King, who caucuses with the Senate’s majority Democrats, said: “The American public should be given the opportunity to read the report and reach their own conclusions about the conduct of the program. Getting to that point requires that we ensure the administration’s proposed redactions do not obscure the facts.”
[Mark] Udall, an outspoken critic of the CIA’s interrogation program, dismissed Clapper’s defense of the deletions.
“While Director Clapper may be technically correct that the document has been 85 percent declassified, it is also true that strategically placed redactions can make a narrative incomprehensible and can certainly make it more difficult to understand the basis for the findings and conclusions reached in the report,” he said.
“The CIA should not face its past with a redaction pen, and the White House must not allow it to do so,” said Udall, who called the CIA program “brutal and ineffective.”
NSA Critic, Justin Amash fends off nasty primary challenge
A leading congressional critic of the National Security Agency, Justin Amash, successfully fended off political attacks on his patriotism on Thursday. ...
Amash – who led the first attempt in the House of Representatives to rein in the NSA after revelations of mass domestic surveillance by Edward Snowden – comfortably defeated Brian Ellis for the Republican party nomination in Michigan’s third district.
Ellis had campaigned heavily against Amash’s record on privacy issues and his separate calls for the closure of Guantánamo Bay, enlisting military veterans to record attack adverts that referred to him as “al-Qaida’s best friend in Congress”.
Amash’s well-funded challenger was also supported by powerful elements in Washington’s security establishment, including House intelligence committee chair Mike Rogers, making this primary election perhaps the first real test of public support for NSA critics at the ballot box.
In an emotional acceptance speech Amash demanded an apology from Ellis for running a “disgusting and despicable smear campaign” and claimed his win represented “a remarkable margin of victory” [Amash won 57% to 43% - js] given the number of establishment interest groups against him.
Ray McGovern on NSA's new whistleblower
Visit the Wrong Website, and the FBI Could End Up in Your Computer
Security experts call it a “drive-by download”: a hacker infiltrates a high-traffic website and then subverts it to deliver malware to every single visitor. It’s one of the most powerful tools in the black hat arsenal, capable of delivering thousands of fresh victims into a hackers’ clutches within minutes.
Now the technique is being adopted by a different kind of a hacker—the kind with a badge. For the last two years, the FBI has been quietly experimenting with drive-by hacks as a solution to one of law enforcement’s knottiest Internet problems: how to identify and prosecute users of criminal websites hiding behind the powerful Tor anonymity system.
The approach has borne fruit—over a dozen alleged users of Tor-based child porn sites are now headed for trial as a result. But it’s also engendering controversy, with charges that the Justice Department has glossed over the bulk-hacking technique when describing it to judges, while concealing its use from defendants. Critics also worry about mission creep, the weakening of a technology relied on by human rights workers and activists, and the potential for innocent parties to wind up infected with government malware because they visited the wrong website. ...
The FBI’s use of malware is not new. The bureau calls the method an NIT, for “network investigative technique,” and the FBI has been using it since at least 2002 in cases ranging from computer hacking to bomb threats, child porn to extortion. Depending on the deployment, an NIT can be a bulky full-featured backdoor program that gives the government access to your files, location, web history and webcam for a month at a time, or a slim, fleeting wisp of code that sends the FBI your computer’s name and address, and then evaporates.
What’s changed is the way the FBI uses its malware capability, deploying it as a driftnet instead of a fishing line. And the shift is a direct response to Tor, the powerful anonymity system endorsed by Edward Snowden and the State Department alike.
Beyond the Minimum Wage: What’s Really Keeping Hourly Workers in Poverty?
Shift workers—especially those in the retail sector—are subject to unpredictable and erratic scheduling practices that make it nearly impossible to plan their lives and earn a stable income. An increasing number of these workers simply aren’t able to get the hours they need in order to support their families. They are essentially trapped in a cycle of poverty, with little time or resources to make any progress toward escaping it. ...
How can people working under these conditions set a budget? How do they schedule medical appointments or arrange care for their children? In addition to dealing with their erratic schedules, retail workers are often required to be on call—making sure they are available without any guarantee of a shift.
So while increasing the minimum wage is indeed a critical step in the fight against poverty, it is just one piece of a much larger, broken system in the low-wage sector. ...
That’s why the Schedules That Work Act —introduced last month by Representatives George Miller (D-CA) and Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), along with Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)—is so critical. ... At the local level, city and state governments are also demanding that the largest, most profitable retail corporations do right by their workers. Last week, Jobs With Justice San Francisco led a coalition of labor, community, advocacy and small-business groups in introducing a groundbreaking Retail Workers Bill of Rights ordinance. ...
Nationwide, nearly eight million people are involuntarily working part-time hours. That leaves them vulnerable to poverty—nearly one in four involuntarily part-time workers lives in poverty, compared to one in 20 full-time workers. These low-quality jobs also impact the broader community because employers shift costs—particularly for health care for their workers—to our already overburdened public systems.
Gay marriage fights from four US states set for federal court hearing
A federal appeals court is set to hear arguments in six gay marriage fights from four states – Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee – in the biggest such session on the issue so far.
Three judges of the 6th US circuit court of appeals in Cincinnati will consider arguments on Wednesday that pit states’ rights and traditional, conservative values against what plaintiffs’ attorneys say is a fundamental right to marry under the US constitution. Large demonstrations are expected outside the courthouse by both opponents and supporters.
Michigan’s and Kentucky’s cases stem from rulings striking down each state’s gay marriage bans. Ohio’s case deals only with the state’s recognition of out-of-state gay marriages, while Tennessee’s is narrowly focused on the rights of three same-sex couples.
Attorneys on both sides in the Michigan and Ohio cases will go first and get a half-hour each to make their cases. Kentucky and Tennessee will follow, with 15 minutes for each side from both states.
Hundreds of gay marriage supporters rallied on Tuesday at a park near Cincinnati’s riverfront on the eve of the court arguments.
The Evening Greens
Here are some alleged Democrats that need a swift kick in the shorts:
Outrage in Colorado over Fracking Betrayal by Top Democrats
In what is being slammed as a hijacking of the democratic process—and a cave to pressure by the oil and gas industry—top Colorado Democrats have pulled two anti-fracking initiatives from the state's November ballot despite huge grassroots support behind the proposals.
On the day Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) was expected to hand in nearly 300,000 signatures in favor of ballot initiatives 88 and 89, which sought to provide greater local control over fracking operations, he announced that he had dropped support for the measures in favor of a deal brokered by Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper. Instead of allowing citizens to vote on shale oil and gas drilling in their communities, the politicians announced during a joint press conference that they are establishing a task force—led by XTO Energy President Randy Cleveland and taking input from business groups along with the oil and gas industry—that will craft drilling regulations. ...
Local environmentalists responded with an open letter to Polis, charging, "Your actions prove that we not only have an environmental crisis, but also a democracy crisis." ... Demanding the right to bring the anti-fracking initiatives to a vote, the letter concludes, "The democratic process is not yours to steal. It, like Colorado’s environment, is the common property of all Coloradans." ...
Local reporting indicated that "Democratic insiders" were concerned that the strong industry opposition to the anti-fracking initiatives would "effectively pump another $10 million into the GOP field operation this fall, likely imperiling [U.S. Senator Mark] Udall and [Democratic congressional candidate Andrew] Romanoff’s chances of victory."
After Monday's press conference, Sen. Udall issued a statement saying he "applauded" the compromise, adding that it is "welcome news and underscores how all of Colorado benefits when we find common ground."
'Massive Environmental Disaster' in Canada as Toxic Tailing Pond Floods Waterways
A middle-of-the-night breach of the tailings pond for an open-pit copper and gold mine in British Columbia sent a massive volume of toxic waste into several nearby waterways on Monday, leading authorities to issue a water-use ban.
Slurry from Mount Polley Mine near Likely, B.C. breached the earthen dam around 3:45 am on Monday, with hundreds of millions of gallons — equivalent to 2,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to Canada's Global News — gushing into Quesnel Lake, Cariboo Creek, Hazeltine Creek and Polley Lake. An estimated 300 homes, plus visitors and campers, are affected by the ban on drinking and bathing in the area's water.
Chief Anne Louie of the Williams Lake Indian band told the National Post the breach was a “massive environmental disaster.”
With salmon runs currently making their way to their spawning grounds, “Our people are at the river side wondering if their vital food source is safe to eat,” said Garry John, aboriginal activist and member of the board of directors of the Council of Canadians, in a press release.
[For more on the story, see Agathena's new diary:
Massive Toxic sludge spilled into pristine wilderness]
Bubbles in the Sea, Craters in Earth Spark New Methane Worries
The headline in Nature World News on Tuesday was not subtle.
'We're F'd,' it stated caustically.
The subject? Methane plumes rising from the seabed witnessed by ocean researchers in the Arctic in recent weeks.
Seen by a team of international scientists led by Professor Örjan Gustafsson from Stockholm University travelling in the Eastern Siberian Arctic Ocean, the release of methane has long been feared by climatologists who suggest that a warming planet could trigger a mass melting of what are called methane hydrates—a frozen form of potent greenhouse gas methane trapped in permafrost or beneath the ocean floor.
The recent discovery of strange craters in northern Russia has also entered the scientific debate about the dangers of methane, with scientists suggesting that melting permafrost and a enormous release of the gas could be the culprit.
As the journal Nature reports:
A mystery crater spotted in the frozen Yamal peninsula in Siberia [in July] was probably caused by methane released as permafrost thawed, researchers in Russia say.
Air near the bottom of the crater contained unusually high concentrations of methane — up to 9.6% — in tests conducted at the site on 16 July, says Andrei Plekhanov, an archaeologist at the Scientific Centre of Arctic Studies in Salekhard, Russia. Plekhanov, who led an expedition to the crater, says that air normally contains just 0.000179% methane.
Since the hole was spotted in mid-July by a helicopter pilot, conjecture has abounded about how the 30-metre-wide crater was formed — a gas or missile explosion, a meteorite impact and alien involvement have all been suggested.
But Plekhanov and his team believe that it is linked to the abnormally hot Yamal summers of 2012 and 2013, which were warmer than usual by an average of about 5°C. As temperatures rose, the researchers suggest, permafrost thawed and collapsed, releasing methane that had been trapped in the icy ground.
Victory! New Era of Accountability for some of Nation’s Largest Dams
In a legal settlement with Riverkeeper, the Army Corps agreed to address the oil pollution seeping from dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers.
“This is a huge day for clean water,” said Brett VandenHeuvel, Columbia Riverkeeper’s Executive Director. “For years, the dams have discharged harmful oil pollution into the Columbia and Snake Rivers, and finally that will stop. With the dams coming into compliance with the Clean Water Act, hopefully we will see an end to toxic spills and chronic seepage of pollutants that have been harming our community.” ...
“Columbia Riverkeeper’s settlement has implications for dams operating without pollution permits across the country,” stated Melissa Powers, environmental law professor at Lewis and Clark Law School and expert in the federal Clean Water Act. “Like any industrial facility, dams are prohibited from discharging pollution until they obtain pollution permits.”
“Columbia Riverkeeper’s settlement demonstrates the power of citizen groups to hold government agencies accountable when other government regulators—here the U.S Environmental Protection Agency—sit on their hands,” stated Reed Super, an environmental attorney with over twenty years of experience who currently serves as the Legal Director for the international Waterkeeper Alliance.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
The Democrats' Defeatism
Chomsky: As Hiroshima Day dawns, why are we still tempting nuclear fate?
Robert S. McNamara and the Real Tonkin Gulf Deception
Slideshow - Gaza in ruins
Canadians deserve honest climate talk
Sick of this market-driven world? You should be
OPOL:
To the FCC on the issue of Network Neutrality
Agathena:
Massive Toxic sludge spilled into pristine wilderness
A Little Night Music
Big Walter And His Thunderbirds - You're The One I Need
Big Walter Price - San Antonio Rose
Big Walter - Oh Ramona
Big Walter - Gamblin' Woman
Big Walter Price - Get To Gettin
Big Walter And The Thunderbirds - Watusi Freeze
Big Walter Price + His Thunderbirds - Feelin' A Little Worried
Big Walter Price & Albert Collins - My Tears
Big Walter Price - Breakfast In Bed
Big Walter - Shirley Jean
J. Geils - Pack Fair and Square
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