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 blues songwriter and lap steel player Sonny Rhodes. Enjoy!
Sonny Rhodes - Black Cat Bone
“Truth never damages a cause that is just.”
-- Mahatma Gandhi
News and Opinion
Mark Udall to consider all options to reveal CIA torture report
U.S. Sen. Mark Udall has seven weeks left in office, but the Colorado Democrat isn't prepared to go quietly — especially when it comes to the twin issues of CIA torture and government snooping.
In his first interview since Election Day, Udall told The Denver Post that he would "keep all options on the table" — including a rarely used right given to federal lawmakers — to publicize a secret report about the harsh interrogation techniques used by CIA agents in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
He also vowed to make one final push to curb the National Security Agency and its power to gather information on ordinary Americans.
"Trying to run out the clock ... is not an option," Udall said Thursday of the long-hidden CIA report. "The truth will come out." ...
Asked about Udall's comments, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who heads the intelligence committee, said little, other than to note that she planned to "release the study in the coming weeks, once work concludes on declassification."
Yet even that might not be enough for Udall.
"I'm not going to accept the release of any version of the executive summary that doesn't get out the truth of this program," he said. "Not only do we have to shed light on this dark chapter of our nation's history, but we've got to make sure future administrations don't repeat the grave mistakes."
Kevin Gosztola has excellent coverage of the UN Committee Against Torture grillings of the US delegates:
US Delegation Refuses to Explain to UN Committee Why Durham Review Ended in No Torture Prosecutions
Members of the United Nations Committee Against Torture reviewing the United States’ compliance with the Convention Against Torture (CAT) asked multiples times for further explanation of why a preliminary review into allegations of torture ended in no prosecutions. The US delegation, however, chose to keep the review shrouded in layers of secrecy, perpetuating a perception that the review was not credibly conducted.
Every four years signatories to the CAT are required to submit reports on how they are complying with the ban. The Committee reviews the country’s report and invites government officials from that country to attend a session to provide additional information. The session allows the Committee to put forward questions, which the government will then address. Today, the government addressed numerous questions, which had been posed on November 12.
One of the many critical issues raised was the fact that Attorney General Eric Holder had appointed Assistant US Attorney John Durham in 2009 to conduct a preliminary review into “whether federal laws were violated in connection with the interrogation of specific detainees at overseas locations.” But, in June 2011, Durham decided that only the death of two individuals in US custody at overseas locations warranted the opening of “full criminal investigations.”
By August 30, 2012, the criminal investigations into the deaths of those individuals were closed. The Department of Justice declined to prosecute “because the admissible evidence would not be sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt.” ...
Jamil Dakwar of the American Civil Liberties Union, who attended the proceedings, told Firedoglake, “We still have no assurance that there has ever been a top-to-bottom criminal investigation that has included an investigation of any possible criminal conduct by government officials who authorized or ordered the use of torture and abuse.
“The [Obama] administration should match its rhetoric with actions by supporting accountability for torture and ensuring a comprehensive investigation of the torture and abuse that occurred,” Dakwar added. The administration must also ensure that perpetrators, including senior military and civilian officials who authorized or acquiesced in torture, are investigated and prosecuted if warranted by the evidence. We still don’t have any assurance that this kind of investigation has ever been done—and there is no sign of any interest by the administration in doing it.”
US caught in strategy confusion over campaign against ISIS in Syria
Sooprise, sooprise, sooprise...
US military considers sending combat troops to battle Isis forces in Iraq
The top-ranking officer in the American military said on Thursday that the US is actively considering the direct use of troops in the toughest upcoming fights against the Islamic State (Isis) in Iraq, less than a week after Barack Obama doubled troop levels there.
General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, indicated to the House of Representatives armed services committee that the strength of Isis relative to the Iraqi army may be such that he would recommend abandoning Obama’s oft-repeated pledge against returning US ground troops to combat in Iraq.
Retaking the critical city of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest, and re-establishing the border between Iraq and Syria that Isis has erased “will be fairly complex terrain” for the Iraqi security forces that the US is once again supporting, Dempsey acknowledged.
“I’m not predicting at this point that I would recommend that those forces in Mosul and along the border would need to be accompanied by US forces, but we’re certainly considering it,” he said.
As Dempsey and the US defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, testified, Isis released a new audio message purported to be from its self-proclaimed leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an apparent refutation of suspicions that Baghdadi was killed or critically injured in air strikes over the weekend.
Bloodthirsty warmongers in Congress want some freakin' US boots on the ground, dammit!
McKeon: ISIS measure that restricts ground troops ‘dead on arrival’
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) is warning the Obama administration that any authorization of force against Islamic militants that restricts the use of U.S. ground troops will be “dead on arrival” in Congress.
“I will not support sending our military into harm’s way with their arms tied behind their backs,” said McKeon at a committee hearing Thursday.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey testified at the hearing on the administration’s strategy against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The hearing comes with President Obama sending 1,500 more troops to Iraq, doubling the U.S. presence to more than 3,000. ...
McKeon pointed out that former Defense Secretaries Leon Panetta and Robert Gates both say the U.S. needs “boots on the ground if there’s to be any hope of success in the strategy.”
“Yet, the president has doubled down on his policy of ‘no boots on the ground,’ despite any advice you give him,” McKeon continued.
ISIS Chief Emerges, Urging ‘Volcanoes of Jihad’
BAGHDAD — Dispelling rumors of his injury or death, the leader of the militant group that calls itself the Islamic State issued a new call to arms on Thursday in a 17-minute speech, belittling President Obama’s plan to send more soldiers to Iraq and urging disciples to “erupt volcanoes of jihad everywhere.” ...
Mr. Baghdadi’s speech appeared to end days of rumors that he had been killed or grievously wounded in an airstrike carried out in northwestern Iraq on Saturday by the American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State. ...
With characteristic bluster, Mr. Baghdadi exhorted Muslims throughout the Middle East to rise up against “the agents of the Jews and crusaders, their slaves, tails and dogs.” He declared, “We see America and her allies stumbling between fear, weakness, inability and failure.” ...
Mr. Baghdadi scoffed at that plan. “Here is Obama, who has ordered the deployment of 1,500 additional soldiers under the claim that they are advisers because the crusaders’ airstrikes and constant bombardment — day and night — upon the position of the Islamic State have not prevented its advance, nor weakened its resolve,” he said in the audio recording.
In a mix of anti-Semitic and other hateful language, he urged followers to prioritize violence against Shiite Muslims and, after that, the Saudi royal family. Of the group’s enemies, he said: “Dismember them. Snatch them as groups and individuals.”
Inside the CIA's Syrian Rebels Vetting Machine
Nothing has come in for more mockery during the Obama administration’s halting steps into the Syrian civil war than its employment of “moderate” to describe the kind of rebels it is willing to back. In one of the more widely cited japes, The New Yorker’s resident humorist, Andy Borowitz, presented a “Moderate Syrian Application Form,” in which applicants were asked to describe themselves as either “A) Moderate, B) Very moderate, C) Crazy moderate or D) Other.”
After Senator John McCain allegedly posed with Syrians “on our side” who turned out to be kidnappers—a report later called into question—Jon Stewart cracked, “Not everyone is going to be wearing their ‘HELLO I’M A TERRORIST’ name badge.”
Behind the jokes, however, is the deadly serious responsibility of the CIA and Defense Department to vet Syrians before they receive covert American training, aid and arms. But according to U.S. counterterrorism veterans, a system that worked pretty well during four decades of the Cold War has been no match for the linguistic, cultural, tribal and political complexities of the Middle East, especially now in Syria. “We’re completely out of our league,” one former CIA vetting expert declared on condition of anonymity, reflecting the consensus of intelligence professionals with firsthand knowledge of the Syrian situation. “To be really honest, very few people know how to vet well. It’s a very specialized skill. It’s extremely difficult to do well” in the best of circumstances, the former operative said. And in Syria it has proved impossible.
Putin says Russia prepared for oil price collapse as more sanctions threatened
Vladimir Putin has admitted for the first time that he is prepared for his country to face a “catastrophic” slump in oil prices, as David Cameron said Europe would have no choice but to step up sanctions if the Russian president did not abide by previous agreements to respect Ukraine’s independence.
Putin was speaking before a bilateral meeting with Cameron on the margins of the G20 summit in Brisbane. The meeting is likely to be a bruising affair, especially after the British prime minister likened Russia to Nazi Germany, saying Europe had learned lessons from history about the way that a big country could bully others.
Putin said Russia’s economy had the reserves to withstand a collapse in oil revenues, but added: “We are considering all the scenarios including the so-called catastrophic fall of prices for energy resources which is entirely possible and we admit it.”
He said he regarded sanctions as pointless, illegal and likely to harm not just Russian but world trade. “This contradicts international law because sanctions can only be imposed within the framework of the United Nations and its security council.”
He claimed that as many as 300,000 German jobs could be at risk if there were no contracts with Russia. Putin is also due to see Angela Merkel at the summit.
Libya: A Broken State
Three years after the Libyan revolution and the subsequent downfall of its dictator Muammar Qaddafi, the country has descended further into chaos and insecurity. Rebel militias, radical Islamists and former Qaddafi commander Khalifa Haftar are among the different groups vying for power and oil wealth, creating a vacuum in which violence and militancy reign supreme.
Cynics, Step Aside: There is Genuine Excitement Over a Hillary Clinton Candidacy
There is genuine and intense excitement over the prospect of (another) Clinton presidency. Many significant American factions regard her elevation to the Oval Office as an opportunity for rejuvenation, as a stirring symbol of hope and change, as the vehicle for vital policy advances. Those increasingly inspired factions include:
Wall Street, The Israel Lobby, Interventionists (i.e., war zealots) and Old school neocons
There are pockets of vibrant political excitement stirring in the land over a Hillary Clinton presidency.
US government planes mimic cellphone towers to collect user data – report
US Marshals Service reportedly fitting aircraft with ‘dirtboxes’ that interrogate phones on ground for identity and location
The US justice department is reportedly using electronic equipment on aircraft to simulate cellphone towers so it can collect phone location and identifying information on a mass scale from users on the ground below.
The allegations, reported in the Wall Street Journal late on Thursday, suggest that the US Marshals Service has for seven years flown Cessna aircraft outfitted with “dirtbox” devices that mimic cellular towers, permitting the collection of thousands of unique IDs and location data from users.
According to the Journal the planes operate from at least five metropolitan airports, permitting a “flying range covering most of the US population”.
The reportedly indiscriminate collection would permit the marshals and potentially other justice department agencies to avoid having to seek records from the phone companies themselves, especially in criminal investigations where a court order may be required.
The legal basis for the previously undisclosed program is unclear. It is not reportedly a national security or counterterrorism program, but instead used to target crime. The justice department is said to have modified the equipment so as not to interfere with 911 emergency calls.
[See also bobswern's fine diary on this topic. - js]
More Cracks in Google's 'Don't Be Evil' Mantra as Data Collection, Political Power Soar
Google is amassing huge amounts of personal user data while simultaneously accruing big-time political clout, a new report from Public Citizen confirms.
"Mission Creep-y: Google Is Quietly Becoming One of the Nation’s Most Powerful Political Forces While Expanding Its Information-Collection Empire" (pdf) looks at the ways Google is accumulating political power—through high-powered lobbying and sizable campaign donations—as well as massive amounts of personal information that make the company a "treasure trove for agencies like the NSA."
"Google is becoming exponentially more powerful in federal and state governments," said Sam Jewler, author of the report and communications officer for Public Citizen’s U.S. Chamber Watch. "At the same time, it’s pushing boundaries in technology, and it has shown that it can’t always be trusted to do the right thing with people’s information. When we see such massive influence, it raises the question, will regulators and lawmakers be reluctant to rein in Google?"
Meanwhile, the company's "qualms about peering into people’s lives seem to have steadily diminished," the report says. In September, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Google's practices are "almost identical" to those of the National Security Agency and its British counterpart, the GCHQ. The company's business model "is to spy," Assange said.
For example, Google has recently acquired new technologies such as Skybox, which owns satellites that capture high-definition images and video around the planet multiple times per day; Nest and Dropcam, home devices that monitor things like temperature, energy usage, proximity of the owner to the house, and take video in the home; and Emu, which could be used to monitor and advertise in online chats and text messages.
The combination of expanding technology and exploding political influence could be dangerous, Public Citizen warns.
British Man May Have Florida Double Murder Conviction Overturned After 28 Years in Prison
A British man who has spent 28 years in a Florida prison may have his double murder conviction overturned following a wealth of new evidence suggesting that he was framed for a crime orchestrated by Colombia's Medellin drug cartel.
Kris Maharaj, whose time in prison included 15 years on death row, was found guilty in 1987 of murdering Duane and Derrick Moo Young in a Miami hotel, but has always protested his innocence and doubts have been cast over the safety of his conviction.
Now, a Miami court has heard evidence that the killings were ordered by the notorious Medellin cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar and that Maharaj was set up to take the fall in a conspiracy involving police officers.
The evidence, which includes statements from former members of the cartel and of the police force, has been heard at a Miami evidentiary hearing — a preliminary hearing to decide whether there is enough evidence to proceed to trial.
How Deep is the Rot on Wall Street?
This is a great read and great information from dday (David Dayen), go ahead and click the link:
In market-rigging case, US Justice Department treats corporate criminals like juvenile offenders
What is it about internet chat rooms that causes Wall Street traders to incriminate themselves?
Whatever it is, the egregious proof those chatrooms provide is not enough to force the Department of Justice to actually send people to jail for corporate crimes.
Another set of damning bank-chat transcripts led to a $4.25bn fine for the world’s biggest banks: JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and UBS. Authorities in the US, Britain and Switzerland charge that the bank traders conspired with one another in Internet chat rooms to manipulate benchmark currency prices for the euro, dollar and Swiss franc.
Like so many other cases of egregious financial fraud over the past several years, regulators used softball tactics to go easy on the banks. No bank was even forced to admit wrongdoing in the orders by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Regulators avoided court and settled for cash, which the traders won’t pay – the bank’s shareholders will. Officials presented a minimal amount of evidence, lacking the full details of the traders’ misconduct. They sought no judicial review.
In short, banks got away with their crimes for a pittance; their stocks even rose on the news of the settlements because the market believes the trouble is over.
The banks are right. The trouble is over.
Civil rights pioneer laments school segregation: 'You almost feel like you’re back in the 60s'
Civil rights pioneer Ruby Bridges says America today looks a lot like the world she helped break apart 54 years ago: a nation with segregated schools and racial tension.
“You almost feel like you’re back in the 60s,” said Bridges, who is now 60 years old. “The conversation across the country, and it doesn’t leave out New Orleans, is that schools are reverting” to being segregated along racial lines, she said. “We all know that there are schools being segregated again.”
On November 14, 1960, Bridges – then six years old – became the first black student to attend a previously all-white elementary school in New Orleans. ...
Bridges said racism remains painfully real today.
She pointed to the tense events in Ferguson, Missouri, after a police officer shot and killed an unarmed black man, revelations about racist comments made by owners in the National Basketball Association and how so many American schools have failed to become racially mixed.
KKK Missouri Chapter Threatens Ferguson Protesters with ‘Lethal Force’
Members of a Missouri-based KKK chapter have been distributing fliers in the St. Louis metro area and on social media promising to use "lethal force" against Ferguson protesters they say have threatened police officers and their families.
In the flier, the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan refer to the protesters as "terrorists" masquerading as peaceful, and says that they have "awakened a sleeping giant."
"You have been warned by the Ku Klux Klan!" the flier exclaims. "There will be consequences for your acts of violence against the peaceful, law-abiding citizens of Missouri." ...
The flier cites Missouri law, which allows individuals to use physical force "when and to the extent he or she reasonably believes such force to be necessary to defend himself or herself or a third person from what he or she reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of unlawful force by such other person."
That's vague enough to potentially be very dangerous in a protest context. ...
[I]t was not immediately clear whether officials were taking measures to address the Klan's threats. Traditionalist American Knights Imperial Wizard Frank Ancona told MSNBC he has had "off the record" conversations with law enforcement. A spokesman for the St. Louis County police told VICE News that the department, which is one of several involved in monitoring the protests, had not met with Ancona, and noted that it is "taking measures to gather intelligence on any groups who may incite violence.
Two dozen arrests after workers protest against Walmart treatment
A protest at a Los Angeles-area Walmart has ended in some two dozen arrests.
Authorities say 23 men and women were arrested Thursday after they blocked traffic at a Pico Rivera intersection during a protest that began with a sit-down strike inside the local Walmart. ...
The sit-in strike, the first of its kind for Walmart workers, went on for about two hours. Managers of the store came by and checked protesters’ IDs and discount cards to verify that they really were Walmart employees.
Somedays I wonder about what America is becoming. Other days I am sure:
Want to feed the homeless? Be prepared to pay the government for the privilege.
Homeless people, by definition, have nowhere to go – but now in many cities, they have even fewer options. While real estate developers tout “green space” and the economic “revitalisation” of urban landscapes, it’s the sidewalks, parks and plazas that have become hostile territory for the poor. City lawmakers are trying to “clean up” the streets by barring homeless people from parks, shunting families into overcrowded shelters and, in some places, making it a crime even to help the homeless.
Last week, when a 90 year-old activist got arrested for feeding local homeless people at the beach in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, his outrage pointed to a nationwide trend of criminalising compassion in the United States. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, since the start of 2013, 21 cities have imposed measures to restrict people from sharing food with the needy in public. In downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, for example, churchgoers have been prohibited from distributing food to homeless people in a local park in a residential area. In Raleigh, North Carolina, local humanitarians have reportedly been banned from giving meals to the needy in city parks without first getting a temporary special permit that costs some $1,600 per weekend.
Meanwhile, local governments have used “quality of life” strictures as a pretext for barring homeless people’s public presence. About a third of the cities surveyed by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty have sought to destroy homeless dwellings by prohibiting “camping” in public – a 60% increase since 2011. About the same percentage of cities also ban “loitering” and some explicitly prohibit sitting or lying down in certain public places – presumably just to make sure the homeless don’t get too comfortable.
While a city can profit from the fines, fees, tourism revenues and real estate investment generated by commodifying public space, the ultimate cost is borne by those who can least afford it: the impoverished and the homeless. These days, even those who reach out with a simple act of charity are punished for their “misconduct”.
The Post-Bankruptcy Plan for Detroit
Action For Ferguson
The Evening Greens
Woooohooo!!!
Former Massey CEO indicted over West Virginia mine explosion that killed 29
The former CEO who oversaw the West Virginia mine that exploded in 2010, killing 29 people, was indicted on Thursday on federal charges related to a mine safety investigation that followed the blast.
US attorney Booth Goodwin said a federal grand jury indicted former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship on charges that include conspiracy to violate mandatory federal mine safety and health standards, conspiracy to impede federal mine safety officials, making false statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission and securities fraud.
Blankenship could face up to 31 years in prison if convicted.
Heh, he pledged
$50 billion for his HAMP program, but
it never made it to those he pledged to help. One is left to wonder whether this money will ever get distributed.
G20: Obama to pledge $2.5bn to help poor countries on climate change
Barack Obama will make a substantial pledge to a fund to help poor countries fight climate change, only days after his historic carbon pollution deal with China.
In a one-two punch, America plans to pledge at least $2.5bn and as much as $3bn over the next four years to help poor countries invest in clean energy and cope with rising seas and extreme weather, according to those briefed by administration officials. ...
The pledge to the Green Climate Fund was seen as critical to UN negotiations for a global climate deal. Developing countries have said they cannot sign on to emissions cuts at climate talks in Lima later this month without the funds.
US-China Climate Accord is Neither "Historic" nor a "Landmark"
US/India WTO Agreement: How Corporate Greed Trumps Needs of World's Poor and Hungry
The United States cheered on Thursday an agreement it reached with India as progress for the World Trade Organization (WTO). Critics, however, say deal is likely a win for corporations and economic loss for developing countries. ...
As the Associated Press summed up: "India had insisted on its right to subsidize grains under a national policy to support hundreds of millions of impoverished farmers and provide food security amid high inflation."
Regarding that food security program, the New York Times
reports, "Indian and American officials agreed to a peace clause that protects India’s program from a legal challenge until W.T.O. members reach a permanent resolution of the dispute." India had held out on this issue.
But as the Transnational Institute (TNI) pointed out in a report released this week: "The big question is why do governments even need the WTO to decide whether they can guarantee the right to food to their people? The right to food is a universal human right that should not be subject to trade rules." ...
The agreement also moves forward the WTO’s TFA, which is also problematic, critics charge:
The new agreement on "Trade Facilitation" would set binding rules on customs procedures and trade operations that would demand huge investments from developing countries and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to modernize and streamline - according to U.S. and EU standards -- their port operations. This means that while we still don't have binding international rules on, say, the right to water, corporations would have the "right" to have their products exported into developing countries quickly, easily, and cheaply. That's why nearly 200 organizations around the world opposed the agreement when it was being negotiated last year.
The TFA would also divert limited resources away from priority development needs such as health, education, and domestic infrastructure investments in LDCs and developing countries. Developed countries refused to make binding commitments on financial support during the negotiations. The World Bank announced on July 17 that it would make available, through its Trade Facilitation Support Program (supported by Australia, the EU, the U.S., Canada, Norway and Switzerland) an embarrassingly paltry $30 million for over 100 developing countries to assist them in implementing the TFA.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Art in a Time of Surveillance
Marcy Wheeler: Why I Don’t Support USA Freedom Act
Obama's 'Hot Anti-Wall Street Rhetoric'?
Hat tip, dharmafarmer:
Pentagon Review Says America's Nukes Are FUBAR
The battle for equality
A Little Night Music
Sonny Rhodes - Mean Mistreatin' Mama
Sonny Rhodes - Life's Rainbow
Sonny Rhodes - If the Blues Fits, Wear It
Sonny Rhodes - Another You
Sonny Rhodes - You Better Stop
Sonny Rhodes & The Texas Twisters - House Without Love
Sonny Rhodes - Ain't no Blues in Town
Sonny Rhodes w/Big Nancy - The Sky Is Cryin'
Sonny Rhodes - Honey Do Woman
Sonny Rhodes - It's Not Funny Any More
Sonny Rhodes - Blues is my religion
Sonny Rhodes & R.J. Mischo & Donnie Romano band - Think
Sonny Rhodes - The Bloodstone Beat
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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