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 soul singer O.V. Wright. Enjoy!
O.V. Wright - Ace Of Spades
“As every advance of Power is useful for war, so war is useful for the advance of power; war is like a sheep-dog harrying the laggard Powers to catch up their smarter fellows in the totalitarian race.”
-- Bertrand De Jouvenel
News and Opinion
Top German Prosecutor Considers NSA Investigation
Last Tuesday, on the sidelines of an Social Democrat party caucus in Berlin, German Justice Minister Heiko Maas ran into Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Maas pulled his fellow SPD member aside and warned him about what could become a difficult matter. "Something may be coming our way," Maas whispered, and noted that the foreign minister could be affected as well. Germany's federal prosecutor, Maas intimated, is currently considering opening an investigation into the scandal surrounding the surveillance of Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone by US intelligence. It's a step that would undoubtedly be considered an affront by the Americans. ...
In short, US President Barack Obama allowed Angela Merkel, his "friend," to be eavesdropped upon. It didn't go uncommented either. "We're no longer living in the Cold War," Merkel's spokesman countered. The chancellor also complained personally to Obama. Merkel staffers said Obama's reaction had been contrite, that he said he would quickly rectify the situation and that he offered far-reaching concessions. But Germany has been waiting in vain ever since. ... The risk is high that she will appear as powerless in the face of US obstinancy as her former interior minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich, did last summer. After his fruitless trip to Washington, he was ridiculed in the press and became the butt of numerous jokes. ...
Obama's speech on Friday didn't change much. Music played from violins and NSA chief Alexander and a number of important senators, including Dianne Feinstein, sat inside the Justice Department as they waited for what could have been a historical speech. But it soon became clear that Obama wanted to use the opportunity to announce a kind of democratic version of total surveillance. ... [V]oices within the German government calling for a tougher approach are growing more numerous. Domestic policy experts have been openly placing their hopes on German Federal Public Prosecutor Harald Range, who has spent months looking into a possible official investigation into the NSA for spying on German soil. ...
The new government seems split on the issue. Justice Minister Maas is sympathetic to the idea of opening an investigation. Both Foreign Minister Steinmeier and Chancellor Merkel haven't taken positions yet. Under German law, the justice minister has the right to order the federal prosecutor to either open legal proceedings or to prevent the agency from doing so. But it's a discretionary power used by the justice minister only very rarely. In this case, it would likely prove highly controversial.
NSA sets dangerous global trend for surveillance: Human Rights Watch
The United States is setting a dangerous example for the world with its sweeping surveillance programmes, giving governments an excuse for mass censorship of online communications, Human Rights Watch said in its annual report Tuesday.
The National Security Agency’s failure to respect privacy as a right will serve as a fig leaf for repressive states to force user data to stay within their own borders and crack down on free expression, New York-based HRW said.
“The US now leads in ability for global data capture, but other nations and actors are likely to catch up, and some already insist that more data be kept within their reach,” the group writes in its 667-page report examining the state of human rights in more than 90 countries, which was presented in Berlin.
“In the end, there will be no safe haven if privacy is seen as a strictly domestic issue, subject to many carve-outs and lax or non-existent oversight.”
It noted that the US government was “uniquely positioned to monitor global communications” as most of the world’s Internet traffic moves “through US territory or companies”, and thus bore particular responsibility to safeguard rights.
Meet COS, The Chinese Government's Contender To Battle iOS & Android
The government of China is not too fond of foreign mobile operating systems like iOS and Android, so the country cooked up its own homegrown solution: A Linux-based, open-source operating system called the COS, or China Operating System.
According to People's Daily, a government-run news organization in China, COS is a joint effort between the Institute of Software at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISCAS) and a company called Shanghai Liantong, which develops software and communication technology. According to China’s dedicated website, the COS was designed for smartphones, PCs, smart appliances and set-top boxes, and is “intended to break the foreign monopoly in the field of infrastructure software.” ...
With COS, China is taking advantage of the recent NSA scandal in the U.S. to push its own product; and yet, a government-approved mobile operating system, especially in China of all places, reeks of its own backdoor exploits for governmental spying.
The Internet’s Own Boy: Film on Aaron Swartz Captures Late Activist’s Struggle for Online Freedom
No one is sure how public advocate at spy court would work
Serious questions shadow President Barack Obama’s proposal to add a public advocate to the secret court that oversees surveillance programs. The public advocate, Obama says, would provide an “independent voice in significant cases” before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The details, though, remain sketchy even as some of the administration’s own lawyers wonder about the wisdom of it all. ...
Obama offered the public advocate proposal, along with others designed to address surveillance and spying controversies, on Friday. A number of the proposals, such as the one for a public advocate, left up to Congress or the Justice Department the job of filling in the blanks. Skeptics abound.
“The advocate proposal is simply a cosmetic attempt to make up an appearance, without substance, of an adversarial proceeding,” said Carl Messineo, the legal director of the Partnership for Civil Justice, a liberal advocacy group.
The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said in a report last October that the “novel” public advocate proposal raises “several difficult questions of constitutional law” that ultimately might undermine the advocate’s authority.
Bowing to 'US PR Concerns,' UK Court Blocks Lawsuit for Drone Death
A UK court has blocked a lawsuit against the British government for participating in U.S. drone strikes on the grounds the case would make the U.S. look bad.
Twenty-eight year old Noor Khan sought accountability from the UK intelligence agency GCHQ for its role in a CIA drone strike on a local council meeting in North Waziristan that killed his father, a local elder, in 2011.
Khan brought the case against the UK government upon evidence that GCHQ has been aiding the CIA’s covert drone war in Pakistan.
According to human rights charity Reprieve, Khan's lawyers charged that the UK's participation in the drone campaign is illegal and could result in murder charges for UK officials.
Yet Khan was told by London's Court of Appeal on Monday that the case cannot continue because "the court would have to find the CIA implicitly guilty of a war crime before it could consider whether GCHQ had been involved," according to a Guardian summary of the ruling.
Canadian Government Bent On Expanding Weapon Sales Globally
U.N. chief boots Iran out of Syria peace talks
UN leader Ban Ki-moon threw Iran out of this week’s Syria peace conference after it refused to back calls for a transitional government to end the country’s war.
The unprecedented diplomatic action averted a Syrian opposition boycott of the talks which start in the Swiss town of Montreux on Wednesday.
But a key bloc in the opposition coalition broke away in protest at the proposed talks with President Bashar al-Assad’s representatives.
Ban on Monday withdrew his surprise invitation to Iran, a major Assad backer, less than 24 hours after he announced it.
Despite the offer to take part at the peace talks, Iran refused to back a communique adopted by an international meeting on Syria in June 2012 which called for a transitional government in Damascus.
Systematic killing evidence in Syria just tip of iceberg
The cache of evidence smuggled out of Syria showing the "systematic killing" of 11,000 detainees in Syrian jails may only be the tip of the iceberg, international aid agencies have said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, various United Nations bodies and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly complained of having next to no access to detainees and being stonewalled by Syrian authorities despite repeated requests to visit infamous detention sites, such as Sayednaya prison in Damascus.
They said Monday's report by three eminent international lawyers that at least 11,000 victims have been killed while in detention only represents numbers in one part of the country. ...
Syrian activists say an estimated 50,000 detainees remain unaccounted for. Tens of thousands of Syrians have been held in detention centres and released, often after months of deprivation and torture.
Owner's Ties to CIA Puts The Washington Post's Credibility in Question
Obama: Give me fast track trade
The White House is making a major push to convince Congress to give the president trade promotion authority (TPA), which would make it easier for President Obama to negotiate pacts with other countries.
A flurry of meetings has taken place in recent days since legislation was introduced to give the president the authority, with U.S. Trade Representative Mike Froman meeting with approximately 70 lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in the House and Senate.
White House chief of staff Denis McDonough has also been placing calls and meeting with top Democratic lawmakers in recent days to discuss trade and other issues.
Republicans have noticed a change in the administration’s interest in the issue, which is expected to be a part of Obama’s State of the Union address in one week. ...
Legislation introduced last week to give Obama trade promotion authority was sponsored by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), as well as Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the ranking member on Finance.
No House Democrats are co-sponsoring the bill, however, and Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.), the Ways and Means Committee ranking member, and Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), the panel’s former chairman, have both criticized it. They said the legislation doesn’t give enough leverage and power to Congress during trade negotiations.
White House Selling "Free Trade" Deal, But Who's Buying?
Though progressives both inside Congress and out have come out strongly against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and a bill introduced last week that would give President Obama "fast track" authority to sign the "free trade" pact without legislative wrangling, the White House appears to be redoubling its efforts to get what it wants. ...
Earlier this month, more than 150 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to Obama describing their concerns about the TPP and the fast track legislation under consideration.
“For too long, bad trade deals have allowed corporations to ship good American jobs overseas, and wages, benefits, workplace protections and quality of life have all declined as a result,” said Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and George Miller (D-CA) in a joint statement alongside the letter. “That is why there is strong bipartisan opposition to enabling the Executive Branch to ram through far-reaching, secretly negotiated trade deals like the TPP that extend well beyond traditional trade matters. At the core of the Baucus-Camp bill is the same Fast Track mechanism that failed us from 2002-2007.
“Our constituents did not send us to Washington to ship their jobs overseas, and Congress will not be a rubber stamp for another flawed trade deal that will hang the middle class out to dry. Instead of pursuing the same failed trade policies we should support American workers by making the necessary investments to compete in today’s global economy.”
Mystery of iconic 1908 Lincolnton child labor photo is solved
Lewis Hine – the father of American documentary photography – captured the haunting image of the too-young textile employee in 1908.
It became one of the historic pictures among more than 5,000 he made while working for the National Child Labor Committee, documenting abuses of child labor laws in textiles and other industries.
[From the historian's website]
This little girl, identified by Lewis Hine simply as "spinner," has been staring out the window for 105 years, waiting for someone to give her a name. The waiting is over. Her name is Lalar Blanton. ...
The girl looking out of the window has become one Hine's most beloved and talked about images. For his work, he used a large camera, with a wide-angle lens and a very slow shutter speed. He had to mount it on a tripod. Consequently, he usually posed his subjects, and tried to get them to hold still, not an easy task for a child. For the flash, he had to ignite magnesium powder, not a good idea in a lint-filled cotton mill; so he had to find a spot with adequate light. Hine would have understood that having the girl facing the light-filled window was ideal.
But most people think that there was another reason. The caption said, "A moment's glimpse of the outer world." It is easy to conclude that Hine was tugging at our hearts by placing the girl in that location to create a romantic image of a poor mill worker dreaming of a better life somewhere out there, or just wishing she were home. But all of Hine's captions were field notes he jotted down in a pocket notebook, and some were later edited and/or added to by the National Child Labor Committee. Hine often complained about that. So we don't know for sure what Hine intended, but we do know that he created a picture that is unforgettable.
But for some reason, Hine did not record her name. Perhaps the family was reluctant to reveal their names to a stranger.
Independent voters’ numbers rise
Fed up with the Democrats and Republicans who run Washington, growing numbers of people are calling themselves independents. ...
Voters are increasingly wary of anyone with ties to the political establishment. A McClatchy-Marist poll last month found 41 percent of registered voters called themselves independent, a much higher percentage than either political party can claim. ...
The impact on next fall’s congressional and gubernatorial elections is hard to gauge precisely. Many voters retain emotional links to political parties and might still be susceptible to partisan pitches. But independents have shown a tendency to move away from candidates they’re uncomfortable with in recent elections, and polls suggest they’re ready to do so again.
George Soros funds ‘solidarity’ health and legal help centers to help Greeks hit by economic crisis
George Soros has extended his financial support for Greece by establishing the first in a series of “solidarity centres” for those worst-hit by the country’s economic crisis.
The opening of the centre in the northern city of Thessaloniki comes as ever more Greeks are forced to turn to charities for help.
“Greece, to a great degree, has become a failed state,” said Aliki Mouriki, a sociologist at the National Centre for Social Research. “It is unable to provide basic facilities for its citizens because of budget cuts,” she said. “In the absence of public welfare, and with around one and a half million officially unemployed, growing numbers are looking for substitutes elsewhere.”
The centre – a hub for NGOs offering health care and legal counsel – has been deluged with requests only days after opening its doors.
Soros committed $1m for heating oil last year after local mayors, unable to heat schools, appealed for help. Among them was Tassos Karabatos, mayor of Naoussa, also in northern Greece, who turned to the US investor after taking the unprecedented step of shutting down all 54 schools in his municipality when he saw that oil tanks were running dry.
The Evening Greens
Now Deemed 'Safe,' Water Supply Sickens Over a Hundred W. Virginia Residents
Over a hundred West Virginia residents were treated by the hospital over the weekend, days after the local utility finished flushing the water system and lifted the ban imposed after a toxic coal cleaner was spilled in the region's water supply.
"More than 400 people have been treated in 10 hospitals since Jan. 9," when the spill occured, Al Jazeera reports. "At least 100 of those entered hospitals within the past two days."
Further, nearly 1,600 additional residents have placed calls to poison control with complaints of symptoms including red, itchy skin, eye irritation, vomiting and diarrhea.
On Friday, West Virginia American Water completed the process of flushing the affected areas and announced that the water was once again safe to drink and use. Despite giving the 'all-clear,' the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday that, "out of an abundance of caution," pregnant women should continue to drink bottled water.
Use of water 'your decision,' West Virginia Governor Tomblin says
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin on Monday told 300,000 state residents that they should make their own decisions about using water from West Virginia American Water's Elk River plant in the wake of this month's leak of the chemical Crude MCHM.
"It's your decision," the governor told reporters during a news conference at the Capitol. "If you do not feel comfortable drinking or cooking with this water, then use bottled water."
Tomblin emphasized that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the water is safe as long as it contains less than 1 part per million of the coal-cleaning chemical, which leaked into the Elk River from the Freedom Industries tank farm 1.5 miles upstream from the water intake.
Outside public health experts, though, have said the lack of much data on the chemical -- not an unusual situation for most chemicals -- makes it hard to be sure the CDC number is adequately protective, especially for young children.
Water company says proposed Freedom loan 'smells of collusion'
West Virginia American Water Company wants a bankruptcy judge to deny Freedom Industries' request for a loan, which the water company says the deal "smells of collusion."
Freedom Industries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday, about a week after a chemical leak at the company fouled thousands of West Virginians' water. ...
In its filing Sunday, WVAWC calls Freedom's request a "loan to own scheme."
"Freedom seeks to stampede this court into irrevocable and improvident actions which will likely result in the selective dismemberment of the Debtor's business to the permanent and immeasurable detriment of its creditors," the water company's filing states.
In its bankruptcy filing, Freedom described the DIP agreement as being negotiated between the parties "in good faith and at arms-length." But the water company notes that the fact that the DIP lender owns Freedom isn't disclosed in the bankruptcy filings.
"The terms of the DIP facility would provide the lender with a lien on all of the Debtor's assets, a superiority claim, and the ability to foreclose selectively on the assets and take away the most valuable assets from the Debtor's estate, leaving behind only the toxic facilities and huge damage claims caused by the Freedom spill," the water company's filing states.
In documents filed Sunday, West Virginia American Water says that it has been sued 23 times over Freedom's chemical leak. Because of that, the water company says, it is Freedom's "largest single creditor" in the bankruptcy case.
Japanese fishermen finish controversial Taiji dolphin hunt
Japanese fishermen have finished killing some of the 250 dolphins trapped recently in what environmental activists claim was the biggest roundup they have witnessed in the last four years.
Sea Shepherd, best known for its anti-whaling activities, said the fishermen first selected 52 dolphins to keep alive for sale to aquariums and other customers. They included a rare albino calf and its mother.
Of the rest, about 40 were killed, one became stuck in a net and drowned, and the others were released, it said.
A video released on Tuesday by Sea Shepherd shows dozens of fishermen on boats surveying the dolphins after they were confined to a cove with nets. Divers can be seen holding the dolphins selected for sale and guiding them to nets hanging off the boats.
While other dolphins have been killed since the hunting season began in September, Sea Shepherd said the 250 herded into the cove last Friday represented the largest group it has seen since it began monitoring the hunt.
TEPCO: Fukushima Leak Likely Radioactive Cooling Water
The highly radioactive water leaking from the No. 3 building of the ravaged Fukushima nuclear plant is probably the water that is used to cool melted nuclear fuel, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced Sunday.
“The leaked water is highly likely to have come from the water that was already used to cool fuel rods, and not from leaked rainwater or cooling water (on its way to the reactor),” stated a TEPCO official, according to The Asahi Shimbun.
TEPCO reportedly made the determination when samples of the leaked water were found to be hotter and more radioactive than rainwater and unused cooling water.
More oil spilled from trains in 2013 than in previous 4 decades, federal data show
More crude oil was spilled in U.S. rail incidents last year than was spilled in the nearly four decades since the federal government began collecting data on such spills, an analysis of the data shows.
Including major derailments in Alabama and North Dakota, more than 1.15 million gallons of crude oil was spilled from rail cars in 2013, according to data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
By comparison, from 1975 to 2012, U.S. railroads spilled a combined 800,000 gallons of crude oil. The spike underscores new concerns about the safety of such shipments as rail has become the preferred mode for oil producers amid a North American energy boom.
The federal data does not include incidents in Canada where oil spilled from trains. Canadian authorities estimate that more than 1.5 million gallons of crude oil spilled in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, on July 6, when a runaway train derailed and exploded, killing 47 people. The cargo originated in North Dakota.
'Devastating Weather Events' to Double Due to Global Warming
Extreme El Niño events, which cause devastating impacts around the world, will occur twice as frequently due to global warming, scientists said in a report published in the journal Nature Climate Change this week.
El Niño, a weather event that involves unusually warm ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific, occurs periodically. However, as average temperatures continue to climb due to rising carbon emissions in the atmosphere, the scientists said extremely powerful El Niños such as the one between 1997-98 that caused the hottest year on record will occur with more frequency—at least once a decade—adding up to twice as many extreme El Niños over the next 100 years. ...
"This is a highly unexpected consequence of global warming," said Professor Mat Collins of the University of Exeter, one of the researchers. "Previously we had thought that El Niño would be unaffected by climate change. ... El Niños, which essentially disturb global rainfall patterns, causing extreme drought in some regions and massive flooding in others, are ultimately "an 'irreversible' climate change phenomenon," said Collins.
This is an interesting, thought-provoking and sometimes amusing way to spend a half an hour:
Thank You For Not Breeding
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Why you can't "bootstrap" yourself out of poverty
A tip of the hat to BigAlinWashSt for this interesting link:
Possible Implications of Faulty US Technical Intelligence in the Damascus Nerve Agent Attack of August 21, 2013
A Little Night Music
O.V. Wright - A Nickel And A Nail
O.V. Wright - I'd Rather Be Blind, Crippled, and Crazy
O.V. Wright - I'm into something, I can't shake loose
O.V. Wright - I don't want to sit down
O.V. Wright - Eight men four women
O.V. Wright w/The Keys - That's How Strong My Love Is
O.V. Wright - I'll take care of you
OV Wright - You're gonna make me cry
O.V. Wright - Everybody Knows
O.V. Wright - Drowning On Dry Land
O.V. Wright - Your good thing is about to end
O.V. Wright - I Don't Know Why (I Love You Like I Do)
O.V. Wright - The Bottom Line
O.V. Wright - Poor Boy
O.V. Wright - Rhymes
O.V. Wright - Don't Let My Baby Ride
O.V. Wright - There Goes My Used To Be
It's National Pie Day!
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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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