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 singer, songwriter and guitarist Bonnie Raitt. Enjoy!
Bonnie Raitt, Tracy Chapman, Jeff Beck and Beth Hart - Sweet Home Chicago
"Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do."
-- Will Rogers
News and Opinion
Senators to investigate NSA role in GCHQ 'Optic Nerve' webcam spying
Three US senators are planning to investigate any role the National Security Agency played in its British partner’s mass collection of Yahoo webcam images.
Reacting to the Guardian’s revelation on Thursday that UK surveillance agency GCHQ swept up millions of Yahoo users’ webcam chats, senators Ron Wyden, Mark Udall and Martin Heinrich said in a joint statement that “any involvement of US agencies in the alleged activities reported today will need to be closely scrutinized”.
The senators described the interception as a “breathtaking lack of respect for privacy and civil liberties”.
On Friday, the Internet Association – a trade body representing internet giants including Google, Amazon, eBay, Netflix, AOL and Twitter – joined the chorus of condemnation, issuing a statement expressing alarm at the latest GCHQ revelations, and calling for reform. ...
Neither NSA nor GCHQ addressed the Guardian’s questions about US access to the images themselves. Outgoing NSA director Keith Alexander walked away from a reporter on Thursday who asked the army four-star general about the NSA’s role in Optic Nerve.
Peeping Webcam? With NSA Help, British Spy Agency Intercepted Millions of Yahoo Chat Images
The Moazzam Begg Arrest: Part of the Effort to Criminalize Muslim Political Dissent
Moazzam Begg, a native-born British citizen of Pakistani descent, spent three years incarcerated in the most notorious detention camps created in the post-9/11 “War on Terror”: all without ever being charged with any crime.
Arrested in Pakistan in 2002, he was transferred to Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, where he suffered torture and witnessed U.S. interrogators beat an innocent taxi driver to death, and then onwards to Guantanamo Bay where he would be detained for the next three years in conditions he’d describe as “torturous”.
Throughout this time Begg, now 45, was repeatedly deprived of legal counsel and was prohibited from even viewing the alleged evidence against him. After public outcry in his home country resulted in his repatriation to England in 2005, Begg went on to become a human rights activist — writing books, and advocating for other post-9/11 detainees through his organization Cageprisoners, whose self-described mission is: “working to empower communities impacted by the War on Terror”; “campaigning against the War on Terror”; and “working with survivors of abuse and mistreatment across the globe.”
Much of this work has included investigating the claims of others who were tortured with the complicity of the British government. It is in retaliation for this activism, he says, that he has been repeatedly harassed, including repeated interrogations and the confiscation of his passport last December at Heathrow Airport, when agents told him it was “not in the public interest” for him to retain it. ... On Tuesday, Begg was arrested in an “anti-terror raid” on his home outside Birmingham, charged with “terrorism” offenses for having allegedly traveled to Syria to assist Syrian rebels. He was among four other people arrested that day, all due to Syria-related offences.
Curiously, however, Begg’s last visit to Syria was in the relatively distant past. He visited the country last in December 2012 — for what he said were advocacy purposes and to continue his investigation on torture victims renditioned to the country by Western intelligence agencies. ... While the timing of his arrest makes little evident sense from a national security perspective, it does appear to correspond remarkably to his advocacy work. ... [T]he timing [of his arrest] coincides with the planned release of a CAGE report on Syria and a major news piece that was due to be televised soon.
Obama's Commandments
(Photo: Original Jim Crimmings / Flickr / cc / re-purposed by Common Dreams)
In January 2009, Barack Obama entered the Oval Office projecting idealism and proud to be the constitutional law professor devoted to turning democratic principles into action. In his first weeks in office, in a series of executive orders and public statements, the new president broadcast for all to hear the five commandments by which life in his new world of national security would be lived.
Thou shalt not torture.
Thou shalt not keep Guantanamo open.
Thou shalt not keep secrets unnecessarily.
Thou shalt not wage war without limits.
Thou shalt not live above the law.
Five years later, the question is: How have he and his administration lived up to these self-proclaimed commandments? [Click the link above to see full article.]
Via NYT, White House Lays Out Case for Killing American Citizen without Trial
A little more than two weeks after reporting by the Associated Press revealed that the Obama administration was "considering" the extrajudicial targeted killing of a U.S. citizen it accuses of "terrorist activity" abroad, new and similar reporting on Friday by the New York Times is extending the president's case for assassinating a man now known as Abdullah al-Shami, a U.S.-born American citizen believed to be living in Pakistan.
The Times reporting, like the AP story on February 10, has all the hallmarks of an intentionally leaked story in which White House officials spoke with reporters on condition of anonymity in exchange for access to information deemed suitable for public consumption. ...
Taken with the earlier AP story, observant readers might conclude that the administration is utilizing these mainstream outlets in order to lay out the case for the killing of al-Shami in public an effort to soften the possible outcry if such an operation is ultimately ordered or carried out.
The details of al-Shami and his alleged activities provided by the Times—which are really just the selected bits of information leaked by the "American officials"—paint a picture of a man involved in terrorist activities, operating on the battlefield made borderless by the U.S. declared 'global war on terror'—in short, an acceptable and justifiable target for a U.S. hellfire missile attached to the bottom of an unmanned drone. But advocates of international law and civil liberties say that the Obama administration's claims of such authority to target an individual for assassination must be challenged.
“Given the significance of the authority the administration is claiming, it’s quite remarkable how little information it’s disclosed,” the ACLU's Jameel Jaffer told the Times. Human rights advocates and international jurors, of course, question the legality of the entire U.S. drone program that has resulted in the death of thousands of civilians and untold damage over the last two administrations. The case of al-Shami, however—like the killing of other American citizens abroad—raises specific questions about constitutional protections that reside within the broader moral and legal questions of the wider global war on terror and the clandestine use of drones over multiple countries.
I Was Beaten, Tortured: Pakistani Anti-Drone Activist Karim Khan on Being Abducted by Masked Men
Viktor Yanukovych urges Russia to act over Ukrainian 'bandit coup'
Ukraine's deposed president, Viktor Yanukovych, has said Crimea should remain part of Ukraine and called on Russia to act decisively against the new government in Kiev, as tensions in the region continued to rise. ...
"As the current president of Ukraine, I want to say that Crimea should stay within the boundaries of Ukraine," he said, adding that events in the peninsula – where gunmen seized control of two airports and raised the Russian flag above the regional parliament – were "a natural reaction to the bandit coup in Kiev". ...
Yanukovych, who had not been seen in public for a week since he fled Kiev, denied he was on the run and that he had been overthrown, and claimed he had been "cynically tricked" by the international community, who had allowed "fascists" to take over.
The ousted president said he would not take part in elections scheduled by Ukraine's parliament because they were illegitimate and he was still the president.
"If a president hasn't resigned, if he hasn't been impeached, and if he is alive – and you see that I am alive – then he remains the president," Yanukovych said, dodging a question about how he could possibly act further when even his closest allies had deserted him.
Ukraine's new leaders begin search for missing billions
As President Viktor Yanukovych apparently surfaced in Russia, claiming to still be the president and promising a press conference on Friday, Ukraine's parliament set about taking measures to recover some of the billions of dollars they say went missing under his kleptocratic regime. ...
Speaking in parliament, Yatsenyuk said that the former government had left the country with $75bn of debts. "Over $20bn of gold reserve were embezzled. They took $37bn of loans that disappeared," Yatsenyuk said. "Around $70bn was moved to offshore accounts from Ukraine's financial system in the last three years," he claimed. ...
Switzerland said it was ready to freeze any funds that Yanukovych might be keeping in its banks. The Swiss foreign minister said financial institutions had been ordered to show increased vigilance when dealing with Ukrainian funds. ...
Meanwhile, investigative journalists are sifting through a haul of documents retrieved by divers from the river near Yanukovych's lavish residential compound outside Kiev. The documents, which are being restored by specialists after being dried in one of Yanukovych's personal saunas, are gradually being posted online, and purport to show multimillion dollar corruption and financial mismanagement.
Swiss launch criminal probe against Ukraine’s Yanukovych, assets frozen
Judicial authorities in Geneva said Friday they have launched a criminal investigation into alleged money laundering by ousted Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych and his son.
The Swiss government also announced it was freezing the assets of 20 Ukranian officials, including Yanukovych and his son and a number of former ministers.
Gunmen seize two Crimean airports in 'military invasion'
Unidentified armed men have seized two airports in Crimea overnight, causing Ukraine's new interior minister to talk of "a military invasion and occupation" by Russia.
Ukraine's newly appointed top security official, Andriy Paruby, accused Moscow of commanding the armed groups. "These are separate groups … commanded by the Kremlin," Paruby said in a televised briefing in Kiev.
In tandem, the Russian parliament began considering a law that would allow Moscow to add new territories to Russia in a simplified manner. There are fears that the Kremlin, unhappy with the events that led to President Viktor Yanukovych fleeing Kiev last weekend, is trying to sow unrest in the largely pro-Russian region. ...
In further worrying signs for Kiev, Russia's parliament began considering two new laws on Friday. One of them offers eased citizenship requirements for Russian-speaking Ukrainians, removing the requirement that they should have lived in Russia for an extended period, while the other makes it easier for Russia to add new territories to its existing boundaries.
The latter law, which appears to be aimed pointedly at the Crimea situation, says territories can be added by a local referendum "in the case that a foreign country does not have effective sovereign state authority".
Russian military surround Ukrainian border guard post in Crimea
At least 20 men wearing the uniform of Russia's Black Sea fleet and carrying automatic rifles surrounded a Ukrainian border guard post on Friday, in a tense standoff near the port city of Sevastopol in Ukraine's Crimea region.
A Reuters reporter in the Balaklava district saw Ukrainian border police in helmets and riot gear shut inside the border post, with a metal gate pulled shut and metal riot shields placed behind the windows as protection.
A servicemen who identified himself as an officer of the Black Sea Fleet told Reuters: "We are here ... so as not to have a repeat of the Maidan."
He was referring to Kiev's Independence Square, the cradle of a popular uprising that ousted President Viktor Yanukovich.
Joe Biden pledges support for new Ukrainian government
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday welcomed the formation of a new government in Ukraine in a phone call with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk and pledged U.S. support for reforms, the White House said.
Russian spy ship docks in Havana during surprise visit to Cuba
A Russian spy ship has slipped into Havana for an unannounced visit, a day after the country's defence minister announced plans to expand Russia's worldwide military presence.
The Viktor Leonov SSV-175, part of the Vishnya class of intelligence ships, quietly entered Cuban waters this week and docked at a cruise ship terminal on Thursday, its crew casually taking in the view of the old colonial section of the Cuban capital as passersby looked on in surprise.
Russian warships have come and gone in Cuba since the collapse of the Soviet Union, usually with much publicity and the opportunity for Cubans to visit the ship. This time there was no mention in the Cuban state-run media.
On Wednesday in Moscow, the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said Russia planned to increase its military projection abroad, including in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
The Russian navy intelligence vessel in Havana was commissioned by the Soviet Union in 1988 near the end of the cold war. It is outfitted with electronic surveillance equipment and missile defence systems and is a signals intelligence asset of the Russian navy, according to the Russian government.
Venezuela issues arrest warrant for second opposition leader as protests continue
Venezuelan authorities issued an arrest warrant for a second opposition figure, ramping up the pressure on protesters who have staged nationwide rallies this month in the biggest threat to President Nicolas Maduro since he came to power.
Near-daily demonstrations have seen dueling pro- and anti-government protesters face off in sometimes violent confrontations that have left 14 people dead in the deeply polarized oil-rich country since the start of February.
Leopoldo Lopez, of the opposition Voluntad Popular (Popular Will), turned himself in last week after a warrant went out for his arrest and the party said Thursday that Maduro’s underpressure government was now seeking Carlos Vecchio, the party’s national political coordinator.
The party said the arrest warrant issued by Judge Ralenis Tovar Guillen ordered the general directorate of military intelligence to capture Vecchio “for the alleged crimes of arson, public incitement, damage and association,” the same charges brought against Lopez.
Court officials have not confirmed the move against Vecchio.
Jailed Venezuela protest leader mocks Maduro's peace talks
Imprisoned Venezuelan protest leader Leopoldo Lopez scoffed on Friday at President Nicolas Maduro's efforts to open talks with opponents and businessman after a month of demonstrations and violence that have killed at least 17 people.
Maduro, 51, seems to have weathered the worst of an explosion of protests against his socialist government that exposed deep discontent with Venezuela's economic problems and brought the nation's worst unrest in a decade.
Some students are still setting up roadblocks and clashing with police in Caracas and western Tachira state. But numbers have dropped, and many Venezuelans have begun heading for the beach to enjoy a long weekend for Carnival celebrations. ...
Lopez, a hardline opposition leader arrested on charges of fomenting violence, said Maduro's talk of dialogue was a hypocritical tactic intended to deflate the protests while failing to address the real problems behind them.
"'The dialogue' is a tactical retreat, as a result of the pressure in the streets. It's not real conviction," Lopez said in a message from Ramo Verde prison given to his wife who Tweeted it via her husband's account @leopoldolopez.
University of Chicago Hires Notorious Goldman Sachs Fraudster to Teach Economics to Undergrads
The lone individual found liable for committing fraud during the lead up to the financial crisis will soon be teaching undergrads the basics of economics at one of America's most prestigious universities. Former Goldman Sachs banker Fabrice Tourre—better known by his self-assigned nickname, "Fabulous Fab"—is studying to get his Ph.D. in economics from University of Chicago. Per the Chicago Maroon, the school's student newspaper, Tourre will teach a class this semester, offering honors students the opportunity to learn "Elements of Economics Analysis 3" from a man who owes over $1 million in fines to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Tourre is a poster child for Wall Street malfeasance. While working at Goldman in 2007, he designed a financial product called Abacus 2007-AC1. This collection of mortgage-backed securities was designed to fail—hedge funder John Paulson had asked Goldman to sell a package of bad mortgages that he could then bet against. Thanks to Tourre and the foreclosure crisis, Paulson made a cool $1 billion. Fab and Paulson knew Abacus was a bum product from the get-go, but Tourre hid that information from investors. Goldman rewarded Tourre handsomely for the scheme: He was promoted and earned a reported $2 million. ...
The course guide for the class Tourre will be teaching describes it as "an introduction to macroeconomic theory and policy." There's no word on whether dreaming up crappy new financial products to sell to unwitting investors will be on the syllabus, too.
For Services Rendered? Wall Street’s Big Paydays For Trade Negotiators
If you take the king’s shilling, says the old saying, then you do the king’s bidding. So what happens when you take 100 million of them?
Here’s one possible answer: You negotiate trade deals like NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the new pact that the administration is currently trying to ram through Congress. A recent report confirms that some of the officials crafting this latest agreement were paid handsomely by the Wall Street institutions that stand to benefit from it.
As the United States trade representative, Michael Froman has primary responsibility for the TPP. A new investigation from Republic Report reveals that Froman received more than $4 million in payouts from his then-employer Citigroup as he was leaving to join the Obama administration. ...
Republic Report also notes that “Stefan Selig, a Bank of America investment banker nominated to become the Under Secretary for International Trade at the Department of Commerce, received more than $9 million in bonus pay as he was nominated to join the administration in November.” ...
What does it mean when a banker accepts a multimillion-dollar payout just before he takes a government job – or, as they used to say in a more innocent time, “enters public service”? One pictures a police detective sitting face-to-face with a local crime boss in some small-town restaurant. An envelope is slipped across the table. And when it’s picked up, an understanding is reached.
There are those who will argue that this is an unfair analogy. After all, criminal and the detective are engaged in an illegal exchange. A bonus for “government service” is perfectly legal. But don’t we know what the money’s for? These treaties can forcefully promote Wall Street’s interests by ensuring that private finance flows easily across international borders.
Woman denied citizenship because objection to war based on secular, not religious, values
A California woman applying for U.S. citizenship had her application denied because immigration officials refused to recognize her secular beliefs.
Adriana Ramirez claimed she objected to the pledge to bear arms due to her sincerely held moral convictions, but her conscientious objector status was rejected because it was not based on religious belief.
Attorneys from the American Humanist Association (AHA) said immigration officials violated constitutional protections in denying the application
“Given the Supreme Court’s unequivocal instruction that, to be consistent with the Constitution, the government must interpret a statute permitting conscientious objection on the basis of ‘religious’ belief to include comparable secular moral views,” wrote attorney Monica Miller, of AHA. “Denying Ms. Ramirez’s citizenship on the grounds that her secular moral beliefs are not ‘religious’ is unconstitutional.”
Sooprize, sooprize, sooprize! When you lay down with Billy Tauzin you get
fleas high drug prices. Of course what's amazing about this article is that there is no mention of the fact that Obamacare could have easily reduced the cost of drugs, but Obama cut
that deal with Big Pharma...
Chronically ill facing high drugs costs under U.S. health law
President Barack Obama's ban on discriminatory health insurance practices against the sick has not stopped insurers from increasing up-front charges for the expensive drugs needed to control chronic illnesses from leukemia to multiple sclerosis.
Actuarial studies of plans sold through health insurance marketplaces in some states found that many make consumers responsible for as much as 50 percent of the price of specialty drugs, which can cost $8,000 or more a month. ...
Insurers say they had to move toward greater cost-sharing due to higher prices for new drugs, some of which can cost more than $100,000 annually per patient. ...
"In the past, we've seen 10 or 20 percent coinsurance rates. Now we're seeing 30, 40 and 50 percent. So patients are being asked to bear more of the cost," said Brian Rosen, senior vice president for public policy at the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, which commissioned actuarial firm Milliman Inc to study the new plans.
"Patients are going to spend their entire out-of-pocket cap before they ever see a dime from the insurance company," he added.
Occupy-inspired protester interrupts Supreme Court for ‘Citizens United’ protest
For the first time, video footage of U.S. Supreme Court proceedings has been recorded and posted online. ...
The video shows a protester, later identified by the court as Noah Kai Newkirk, 33, of Los Angeles, California, who disrupted an oral argument on Wednesday. ...
Newkirk is a member of a group called 99Rise, which says on its website, www.99rise.org, that its aim is to “get big money out of American politics.”
Reached by phone on Thursday night, Newkirk confirmed that 99Rise had been able to smuggle at least one concealed camera into the courtroom. He declined to say who else was involved in the scheme and how it was carried out.
“I’m glad it’s helping us to elevate the issue,” he said in reference the media attention the group is now receiving. Newkirk, a long-time progressive activist, said 99Rise was formed by a small group of people in Los Angeles who were inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protests prompted by concerns that corporations had too much influence on public life.
Unprecedented Video Inside Supreme Court Shows Anti-Corruption Protestor Forcibly Removed
The Evening Greens
'Wake-Up Call' as Workers Test Positive for Radiation After Nuclear Leak
'Unusually high' number of employees contaminated at New Mexico site contradicts DOE's initial claim that workers were not exposed
Thirteen workers at an underground nuclear waste dump in New Mexico have tested positive for radiation following a leak of radioactive particles into the air earlier this month, the Department of Energy announced Wednesday.
"That is an unusually high number of workers to be exposed at any given time," said Robert Alvarez, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and former senior policy adviser to the secretary of energy under the Clinton administration, in an interview with Common Dreams. "This is very unusual and not supposed to happen. This is a wake-up call."
The federally-owned Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in southeastern New Mexico holds plutonium-contaminated military waste, generated by nuclear weapons production across the United States, including Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico. It is the only underground nuclear waste dump in the country, storing radioactive material deep beneath the earth's surface in salt formations. Officials say this facility was never supposed to leak.
The exposed workers were performing "above ground operations" on February 14th at the time the leak was detected, according to a statement by the DOE. "It is premature to speculate on the health effects of these preliminary results, or any treatment that may be needed," reads the statement, which notes that many more tests are needed to determine the full extent of the workers' exposure.
Findings that the workers have been contaminated contradict initial claims by WIPP managers that none of the 139 people working when the leak was detected had been exposed.
Furthermore, the number of workers contaminated could be even higher. "We are still reviewing staff assignments to determine if additional employees will need to be tested," states the DOE.
Juice News: Energy crisis spells the end of civilization
Oil rigs dumping billion of gallons of fracking waste off California coast with OK from feds
Wastewater from offshore drilling is being dumped into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, and it’s apparently legal.
Oil rig operators have federal permits to dump 9 billion gallons of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, waste into the ocean each year – enough to fill more than 100 football stadiums.
Federal regulators signed off on minor revisions to permits that allowed the oil company DCOR to begin fracking off the coast without completing any environmental reviews, according to a TruthOut report.
At least 12 rigs off the California coast inject potentially dangerous chemical into undersea rock formations to break them up and more easily extract crude oil, reported KCET-TV. ...
The fracking wastewater contains toxic substances such as methanol, benzene, naphthalene, and trimethylbenzene, as well as lead and arsenic that comes from deep inside the undersea rock formations.
Those toxins pose a threat to wildlife and anyone who lives near the ocean or eats fish from it.
More Details on Ocean Fracking Revealed as Environmentalists Challenge Federal Regulators
Federal regulators approved at least four hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," operations in the Santa Barbara Channel off the California coast this year by signing off on minor revisions to permits that regulators "categorically excluded" from environmental impact reviews. Now, an environmental group plans to take legal action if two federal agencies fail to halt offshore fracking and conduct the reviews that activists say are required under federal law.
Federal regulators, environmentalists argue, do not know enough about the risks posed by offshore fracking to assure the public that the technology is safe, and few regulators understood that fracking technology had been deployed in the Pacific Ocean before journalists and watchdogs started asking questions and filing information requests.
In July, a Truthout investigation confirmed that the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), the federal agency that issues offshore oil and gas permits, gave the oil firm DCOR a green light to use fracking technology to stimulate oil production from a well 1,500 feet from a seismic fault under the Santa Barbara Channel. [What could possibly go wrong with that? -js] Since then, new documents released to Truthout under the Freedom of Information Act show that, earlier in 2013, BSEE also gave DCOR permission to frack three other wells in the area. The fracking operations are scheduled to take place in early 2014.
Gosh, I hope these salmon know to stay away from California or anywhere the currents take those fracking wastes. Does one hand in Washington know what the other is doing?
EPA halts Alaska mine, says it would devastate salmon
The Environmental Protection Agency is putting the brakes on the massive Pebble Mine project in Alaska, saying it endangers the finest wild salmon run on earth. ... [T]he Army Corps of Engineers won’t be allowed to issue a permit for the mine.
“Extensive scientific study has given us ample reason to believe that the Pebble Mine would likely have significant and irreversible negative impacts on the Bristol Bay watershed and its abundant salmon fisheries,” McCarthy said. “It’s why EPA is taking this step forward in our effort to ensure protection for the world’s most productive salmon fishery from the risks it faces from what could be one of the largest open pit mines on earth.”
EPA released a report last month saying the mine could destroy up to 94 miles of salmon streams and 5,350 acres of wetlands, ponds and lakes.
Drought be dammed, Calif. lawmakers look to storing water
The California drought is stoking a congressional appetite for additional water storage, with new and larger dams back on competing menus.
The latest offering is expected Friday, as House members plan to introduce a package of bills to authorize a larger Shasta Dam, a new dam on the Upper San Joaquin River and an expanded San Luis Reservoir. Next week, a bill is expected that would call for construction of a reservoir northwest of Sacramento. ...
[Rep. John] Garamendi [D-Calif] is crafting a bill to authorize a new Sites Reservoir, northwest of Sacramento. His bill could be introduced next week.
Separately, Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., and some allies on Friday plan to introduce several other bills authorizing California water storage projects. One would green-light a new Upper San Joaquin River dam, commonly called Temperance Flat. Another would permit expansion of the San Luis Reservoir on the western side of the San Joaquin Valley, and a third would raise Shasta Dam.
The Republican-controlled House, on a largely party line vote, previously passed a California drought bill that included authorizations for the same projects, but explicitly ruled out federal funding.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
How US Evangelicals Helped Create Russia's Anti-Gay Movement
Portsmouth seeks to ignite transgender rights in New Hampshire
A Little Night Music
Bonnie Raitt - Love Me Like a Man
Bonnie Raitt, Keb Mo - No Gettin' Over You
Bonnie Raitt, John Lee Hooker - In The Mood
Bonnie Raitt - Richland Woman Blues
Bonnie Raitt - Write Me A Few Of Your Lines / Kokomo Blues
Bonnie Raitt, Ruth Brown, Charles Brown - Never Make Your Move to Soon
Bonnie Raitt - I Feel The Same
Bonnie Raitt - Let Me Be Your Blender
A.C. Reed (Feat. Bonnie Raitt) - Shes Fine
Eric Clapton, BB King & Bonnie Raitt - Have You Ever Loved A Woman
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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