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 Kansas City jazz and blues piano player, singer and bandleader Jay McShann. Enjoy!
Jay McShann - Confessin' the blues
“Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.”
-- Laurence J. Peter
News and Opinion
Why Does the FBI Have to Manufacture its Own Plots if Terrorism and ISIS Are Such Grave Threats?
The FBI and major media outlets yesterday trumpeted the agency’s latest counter-terrorism triumph: the arrest of three Brooklyn men, ages 19 to 30, on charges of conspiring to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS. As my colleague Murtaza Hussain ably documents, “it appears that none of the three men was in any condition to travel or support the Islamic State, without help from the FBI informant.” One of the frightening terrorist villains told the FBI informant that, beyond having no money, he had encountered a significant problem in following through on the FBI’s plot: his mom had taken away his passport. Noting the bizarre and unhinged ranting of one of the suspects, Hussain noted on Twitter that this case “sounds like another victory for the FBI over the mentally ill.”
In this regard, this latest arrest appears to be quite similar to the overwhelming majority of terrorism arrests the FBI has proudly touted over the last decade. ...
Once again, we should all pause for a moment to thank the brave men and women of the FBI for saving us from their own terror plots. ...
How serious of a threat can all of this be, at least domestically, if the FBI continually has to resort to manufacturing its own plots by trolling the internet in search of young drifters and/or the mentally ill whom they target, recruit and then manipulate into joining? Does that not, by itself, demonstrate how over-hyped and insubstantial this “threat” actually is? Shouldn’t there be actual plots, ones that are created and fueled without the help of the FBI, that the agency should devote its massive resources to stopping? ...
The ACLU of Massachusetts Kade Crockford notes this extraordinarily revealing quote from former FBI assistant director Thomas Fuentes, as he defends one of the worst FBI terror “sting” operations of all (the Cromitie prosecution we describe at length here):
If you’re submitting budget proposals for a law enforcement agency, for an intelligence agency, you’re not going to submit the proposal that “We won the war on terror and everything’s great,” cuz the first thing that’s gonna happen is your budget’s gonna be cut in half. You know, it’s my opposite of Jesse Jackson’s ‘Keep Hope Alive’—it’s ‘Keep Fear Alive.’ Keep it alive.
That is the FBI’s terrorism strategy – keep fear alive – and it drives everything they do.
FBI Entraps Americans in Terrorism Sting Operations
A Canadian view of the progress of the war of terror:
Being stupid in the endless war on terrorism
Terrorists hate us for our values, including free speech. So we curtail it — as in Harper’s Anti-Terrorism Act; as in cutting off Parliamentary debate on it; as in prohibiting the media from interviewing the jailed Omar Khadr; and as in turning Ottawa into a walled fortress from where little information can seep out.
Terrorists hate us because of our freedoms. So Montreal blocks the opening of a new community centre by a controversial imam; Outremont cancels an Islamic graduation ceremony; Shawinigan rejects a mosque application; and Quebec’s third party, Coalition Avenir Québec, proposes a new body to vet all new Muslim institutions that may violate Quebec values, whose definition we do not know.
And Ottawa refuses the right of a woman to wear the niqab at a citizenship ceremony, and will spend millions of dollars appealing a court ruling in her favour.
There’s misogyny in the Muslim world. So we emulate it here by assuming that niqabi women are incapable of independent judgment and must be ordered, mostly by men in authority, what to wear or not and when.
We dread the sharia. So we copy it — Marine Le Pen, leader of the French far-right, calls for the return of the death penalty, and Harper gets tougher and tougher on crime.
The best antidote to terrorism is democracy. So we crush it in Muslim lands, by cozying up to autocrats there.
We have been losing the war on terror — witness the expanding number of groups and the territory they control. Less understood is that we have also lost our capacity to think straight — a grievous self-inflicted wound on democracies.
Who Is Bankrolling the Islamic State? Private Donors in Gulf Oil States Cited as Key to ISIS Success
Official Reports on the Damage Caused by Edward Snowden's Leaks Are Totally Redacted
Nearly two years after NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked thousands of pages of documents about highly classified government surveillance programs to journalists, intelligence officials continue to claim that his disclosures have caused grave damage to national security.
"It has had a material impact on our ability to generate insights as to what terrorist groups around the world are doing," NSA Director Michael Rogers said of Snowden's leaks at a conference Monday. "Anyone who thinks this has not had an impact… doesn't know what they are talking about."
But neither Rogers nor any other US government official has supported their catastrophic assessments with specific details about the damage Snowden allegedly caused. They say doing so would erode relations between the US and its allies, and reveal details about the US government's intelligence collection activities, which remain classified.
In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) recently released to VICE News more than 100 pages of internal reports prepared by a task force made up of two dozen DIA analysts that examined the alleged damage to national security resulting from Snowden's leaks.
But with the exception of some subheadings, the DIA redacted every page of its internal assessments.
FCC Vote Enshrines Net Neutrality Protections
The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday, in a 3-2 vote, approved the reclassification of the Internet under Title II of the Communications Act.
Though expected, the vote was greeted with cheers—applauded as "the biggest win for the public interest in the FCC’s history"— from supporters of net neutrality, the concept that says online traffic should be relegated to fast or slow lanes determined by the large telecom companies who control much of the nation's digital networks.
FCC overturns state laws that protect ISPs from local competition
The Federal Communications Commission today voted to preempt state laws in North Carolina and Tennessee that prevent municipal broadband providers from expanding outside their territories.
The action is a year in the making. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced in February 2014 his intention to override state laws designed to protect private cable companies and telcos from public sector competition. Wheeler took his cue from the federal appeals court ruling that overturned net neutrality rules; tucked away in that decision was one judge's opinion that the FCC has the authority to preempt "state laws that prohibit municipalities from creating their own broadband infrastructure to compete against private companies."
Nineteen states have such laws, often passed at the behest of private Internet service providers that didn't want to face competition. Communities in two of the states asked the FCC to take action. The City of Wilson, North Carolina and the Electric Power Board (EPB) of Chattanooga, Tennessee filed the petitions that led to today's FCC action. Each offers broadband service to residents and received requests for service from people in nearby towns, but they alleged that state laws made it difficult or impossible for them to expand.
“You can’t say you’re for broadband and then turn around and endorse limits on who can offer it,” Wheeler said today. “You can’t say, ‘I want to follow the explicit instructions of Congress to remove barriers to infrastructure investment,' but endorse barriers on infrastructure investment. You can’t say you’re for competition but deny local elected officials the right to offer competitive choices."
CIA Evidence from Whistleblower Trial Could Tilt Iran Nuclear Talks
A month after former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling was convicted on nine felony counts with circumstantial metadata, the zealous prosecution is now having potentially major consequences—casting doubt on the credibility of claims by the U.S. government that Iran has developed a nuclear weapons program.
With negotiations between Iran and the United States at a pivotal stage, fallout from the trial’s revelations about the CIA’s Operation Merlin is likely to cause the International Atomic Energy Agency to re-examine U.S. assertions that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons.
In its zeal to prosecute Sterling for allegedly leaking classified information about Operation Merlin—which provided flawed nuclear weapon design information to Iran in 2000—the U.S. government has damaged its own standing with the IAEA. The trial made public a treasure trove of information about the Merlin operation.
Last week Bloomberg News reported from Vienna, where IAEA is headquartered, that the agency “will probably review intelligence they received about Iran as a result of the revelations, said the two diplomats who are familiar with the IAEA’s Iran file and asked not to be named because the details are confidential.”
The Bloomberg dispatch, which matter-of-factly referred to Merlin as a “sting” operation, quoted a former British envoy to the IAEA, Peter Jenkins, saying: “This story suggests a possibility that hostile intelligence agencies could decide to plant a ‘smoking gun’ in Iran for the IAEA to find. That looks like a big problem.”
A Black Site in Chicago? Police Accused of Running Secret Compound for Detentions & Interrogations
Gestapo' tactics at US police 'black site' ring alarm from Chicago to Washington
- Shocked politicians and rights groups call for inquiries into Homan Square
- Rahm Emanuel faces questions as top supporters examine ‘outrageous’ abuse
Politicians and civil-rights groups across the US expressed shock upon hearing descriptions of off-the-books interrogation at Homan Square, the Chicago warehouse that multiple lawyers and one shackled-up protester likened to a US counter-terrorist black site in a Guardian investigation published this week.
As a second person came forward to the Guardian detailing her own story of being “held hostage” inside Homan Square without access to an attorney or an official public record of her detention by Chicago police, officials and activists said the allegations merited further inquiry and risked aggravating wounds over community policing and race that have reached as high as the White House.
Caught in the swirl of questions around the complex – still active on Wednesday – was Emanuel, the former chief of staff to Barack Obama who is suddenly facing a mayoral runoff election after failing to win a majority in a contest that has seen debate over police tactics take a central role.
Emanuel’s office refused multiple requests for comment from the Guardian on Wednesday, referring a reporter to an unspecific denial from the Chicago police.
But Luis Gutiérrez, the influential Illinois congressman whose shifting support for Emanuel was expected to secure Tuesday’s election, joined a chorus of colleagues in asking for more information about Homan Square.
“I had not heard about the story until I read about it in the Guardian,” Gutiérrez said late Wednesday. “I want to get more information, but if the allegations are true, it sounds outrageous.” ...
The justice department declined to comment to the Guardian on Wednesday.
Held for hours at secret Chicago 'black site': 'You're a hostage. It's kidnapping'
- Protester Vic Suter was shackled to a bench and denied access to a lawyer
- Suter claims officer told her: ‘You’re going to get a tour of hell inside Homan’
Vic Suter, a protester arrested before the 2012 Nato summit in Chicago, has told the Guardian about her experience of being detained inside Homan Square, a warehouse where multiple detainees allege they have been unable to contact legal counsel. Suter described a situation in which she was neither booked nor permitted a phone call – in defiance both of Chicago police procedures and a statement by police on Tuesday attempting to deny the Guardian’s reporting.
Suter’s account echoes that of Brian Jacob Church, whose story of extended detention without public notification and delayed legal access was featured in a Guardian’s exposé on Tuesday.
Arrested alongside Church on 16 May, 2012, Suter found herself taken to the same warehouse, only kept by herself in a different cell.
“You’re going to get a tour of hell in Homan,” she said the police officer who drove her to the warehouse told her.
Granted two breaks for the bathroom during 18 hours of shackling to the bench, Suter said she was interrogated in a good-cop-bad-cop fashion. The first officer, she said, barked basic questions about what she was doing in Chicago; the second brought her a burger from McDonald’s, which she didn’t eat. Suter was more concerned about the ankle cuffs that occasionally tightened when she moved in certain positions, cutting off her circulation.
“Not being able to communicate outwardly by making a phone call or talking to a lawyer, and not being booked in so that someone can find you, you’re a hostage. It’s kidnapping.”
Exporting Torture: Former Chicago Police Detective Tied to Brutality at Guantánamo
Fatal Protest in Acapulco Shows Tensions Remain High in Troubled Guerrero, Mexico
Claudio Castillo Peña, 65, a retired teacher, died early Wednesday from injuries sustained during the forceful removal on Tuesday of radical members of Guerrero's statewide teachers union, known in Spanish as CETEG. ...
Federal security forces began clearing them away from Las Naciones Boulevard at about 7:30 pm. Chaotic clashes followed as an estimated 1,000 anti-riot officers confronted more than 4,500 teachers and supporters. ...
The clashes showed that tensions have far from subsided in the state since a group of 43 rural teaching students were abducted by police and turned over to a drug gang in the city of Iguala last September.
Interim Guerrero governor Rogelio Ortega denounced the violence, but defended Tuesday's police action.
"There is a radical sector of administrative workers and some teachers that bypass the rule of law, vandalize, and they are also associated with a group of students that is becoming increasingly smaller," Ortega said, callously referring to the Ayotzinapa Normal School, where the missing students were enrolled.
Why shutting down the Department of Homeland Security would be a good idea
George W Bush’s creation is too inefficient, wasteful and disrespectful of privacy to keep around. If Republicans want to shut it down, Democrats shouldn’t stop them
DHS is a behemoth and a bureaucratic nightmare that is projected to cost Americans $38.2bn this year. This conglomeration of over 20 government agencies, under one umbrella of dysfunction and secrecy, was mashed together by George W. Bush after 9/11 to form a largely incompetent and corrupt spy machine. Examples of its awfulness abound.
Consider the DHS’ so-called “fusion centers”, which are little more than spying hubs that vacuum up information from federal and local authorities and store it for indefinite amounts of time. A scathing Senate report on the centers, which have cost the DHS at least $1.4 billion dollars, concluded that they produce “predominantly useless information” - one employee was quoted as calling it “a bunch of crap” - and that they also “[run] afoul of departmental guidelines meant to guard against civil liberties” and are “possibly in violation of the Privacy Act”. While they’ve spied on many people who were engaged in purely First Amendment protected activities, they’re not known to have stopped a terrorist attack. ...
Secrecy is often the DHS’ response to inefficiency. The Office of Intelligence and Analysis keeps its budget classified, likely in an attempt to hide its uselessness. An inspector general report found that the TSA - a sub-agency of DHS that apparently has never caught a terrorist but routinely violates innocent people’s privacy - often arbitrarily holds back information that makes the agency look bad from the public. ....
In response to Republican threats, Democrats are in the midst of running a cringe-worthy “Don’t shut down our security” campaign. But why not recognize this as a blessing in disguise? Thanks to this contrived ultimatum, Congress can go a step further and do what should have been done a long time ago: dismantle this wasteful, invasive, secretive agency once and for all.
Well, duh...
Will U.S. troops be drawn back into Iraq war?
A coming Iraqi offensive to drive the Islamic State out of Iraq's second-largest city renews a debate on whether U.S. forces should play a larger role in the operation despite the risk of drawing them back into a war.
The White House has pledged to keep American forces out of combat, but Iraq would suffer a major setback in Mosul if its troops falter because U.S. advisers are restricted in what they can do, security analysts say.
Failure to retake Mosul from the militants would "reverse all the gains we made since August," when the United States launched airstrikes to stem the Islamic State's advances in Iraq, said James Jeffrey, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq.
Ukraine Ceasefire Holding, But US Keeps Threatening Russia
Secretary of State John Kerry angrily condemned Russia today, insisting they are violating the terms of the Minsk ceasefire and threatening to impose more US sanctions on the nation.
That’s not generally news, it’s a virtual daily occurrence that some top US official does so. What is news is that the Minsk ceasefire is holding up incredibly well, and that the day came and went without even a single death.
The big violation of the Minsk deal is coming from the US-backed Poroshenko government, which is refusing to follow through on a promise to withdraw heavy weapons from the frontline, despite the rebels beginning such pullbacks this weekend.
U.S. military vehicles paraded 300 yards from the Russian border
U.S. military combat vehicles paraded Wednesday through an Estonian city that juts into Russia, a symbolic act that highlighted the stakes for both sides amid the worst tensions between the West and Russia since the Cold War.
The armored personnel carriers and other U.S. Army vehicles that rolled through the streets of Narva, a border city separated by a narrow frontier from Russia, were a dramatic reminder of the new military confrontation in Eastern Europe.
The soldiers from the U.S. Army’s Second Cavalry Regiment were taking part in a military parade to mark Estonia’s Independence Day. ... Russia has long complained bitterly about NATO expansion, saying that the Cold War defense alliance was a major security threat as it drew closer to Russia’s borders. The anger grew especially passionate after the Baltic states joined in 2004, and Russian President Vladimir Putin cited fears that Ukraine would join NATO when he annexed the Crimean Peninsula in March last year.
Ukraine Faces Economic Ruin as Gas Dispute Remains Unresolved
Ukraine came under greater economic pressure after unexpectedly banning most currency trading and then abruptly reversing course, wreaking havoc on the hryvnia, just as a truce in the east took hold on Wednesday with no combat fatalities reported.With the long-awaited ceasefire coming into force, Russian President Vladimir Putin once again threatened gas supplies for the fourth time in a decade if Moscow did not receive advance payment. ...
The separatist war in the east has complicated efforts to stabilize an economy on the verge of bankruptcy, and the hryvnia currency has lost more than half its value so far this year after halving during all of 2014.
With the hryvnia currency in free fall as investors fled, the central bank halted nearly all commercial currency trading until the end of the week.
Hours later, the bank reversed the decision, giving no explanation for the abrupt change in policy. ... The ban had put the currency's true value in limbo, with little or no trading taking place to set a price, before the bank jumped in to buy $80 million at an official rate of 28.046 to the dollar, close to the rate at the start of the week and 12.8 percent higher than the close after a plunge on Tuesday.
Wall Street On Parade lays out the sad facts about Congressional oversight of the banksters:
Reforming the Fed: Who’s Right; Who’s Wrong?
Republicans are locked in some kind of mind warp where the remedy for every problem is to deregulate. Despite six years of books, academic studies, investigative findings, and a 600-page report from the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission proving that deregulation was responsible for the financial crash of 2008 – the greatest financial implosion since the Great Depression – Republicans refuse to let facts get in the way of pushing for more deregulation.
Democrats on the other hand, despite overwhelming proof that the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act has actually allowed Wall Street to grow systemically more dangerous and more corrupt since its passage, is irrationally wedded to this legislation.
No amount of evidence will change the Democrats’ position on Dodd-Frank. JPMorgan gambling with hundreds of billions of bank depositors’ money in the London Whale fiasco where $6.2 billion got flushed down the toilet will not change their mind. Cartel activity among the big banks in the interest rate market, precious metals market, foreign currency market will not change their mind. Bank chat rooms called “The Bandits Club,” “The Mafia” and “The Cartel,” where brazen market rigging is alleged to have occurred will not change their mind. Endless criminal investigations and multi-billion dollar settlements will not change their mind. Scandal after scandal destroying public trust in Wall Street and its regulators will not change their mind.
Right-to-work bill passes Wisconsin Senate on way to desk of Scott Walker
The Wisconsin Senate on Wednesday narrowly approved a “right-to-work” bill that would bar private-sector employees who work under union-negotiated contracts from being required to join their unions or pay them dues.
The bill, which would make Wisconsin the 25th US state with a right-to-work law on the books, cleared the Republican-led Senate on a 17-15 vote following hours of debate marked by periodic angry shouts from opponents in the gallery.
Supporters of organised labor chanted “Shame!” as the legislation was passed and sent for further consideration to the state Assembly, where Republicans also hold a majority. One Republican senator, Jerry Petrowski, broke with his party and joined all 14 Democrats in the chamber in voting against the measure.
Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, a possible Republican presidential hopeful, is expected to sign the bill if it reaches his desk.
Stand Still to Fight "Right to Work For Less"
'Worse Than Wrong': Wisconsin Advances Bill To Gut Workers Rights
The Wisconsin State Senate passed so-called 'right-to-work' legislation late Wednesday night, against a backdrop of protests from those saying the bill represents pay cuts for working people and a direct attack on organized labor.
The Center for Media and Democracy, a Madison-based watchdog organization, has revealed that the state measure is taken verbatim from model legislation crafted by the right-wing, corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
"With out-of-state special interests calling the shots, Wisconsin citizens get left behind," Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO said in a statement Wednesday. "Right-to-Work is a continuation of the destructive policies of the Scott Walker administration that have cost Wisconsin jobs and economic opportunity."
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature editorials from the Appeal to Reason and Labor World on War and Capitalism.
Tune in at 2pm!
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Greece on a Path to Negotiate from a Position of Democratic Strength
Greece bailout saga strains German patience
Patience with Greece is running out in Berlin. It is also turning to exasperation because of what is seen as the intemperate tone of Tsipras and his team.
“There can be no reward for cheek,” said the bestselling Bildzeitung tabloid on Thursday under a one-word banner headline of “Nein, no more billions for greedy Greeks.” ...
The Germans expect the Greeks, beneficiaries of a €240bn (£175bn) rescue, to be grateful. Instead they are seen to be impertinent. No sooner was the ink dry on the deal on Tuesday granting Athens a 17-week loan extension than its finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, upped the ante and demanded the massive debt burden be partly written off.
Schäuble virtually accused the Tsipras team of lying. “The question now is whether one can believe the Greek government’s assurances or not. There’s a lot of doubt in Germany.”
The word in Brussels is that Schäuble and Varoufakis can hardly bear to be in the same room together. ... Whether the policies are working or not – and in Greece there are minimal signs of success – is beside the point. In the fight between Greece and its creditors, it is less about right than it is about might.
Can Tsipras stare down the combined forces of Germany and Spain, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund? Is he picking a fight he cannot win, just as two of his predecessors gambled recklessly and lost? The precedents are not encouraging.
How Radical is the SYRIZA Party in Greece? (2/2)
The Evening Greens
'Backwards Not Forward': Greens Slam 'Energy Union' Plan for Europe
Environmentalists and climate action groups are slamming the European Commission's publication of a plan on Wednesday that calls for unifying the 28 energy markets of all EU member nations into a single entity.
Upon its passage, the Energy Commission's Vice President Maroš Šefčovič, of Slovakia, called the plan "undoubtedly the most ambitious energy project" since the inception of the EU and said it would "make Europe less energy dependent and give the predictability that investors so badly need to create jobs and growth."
Jean-Claude Juncker, the Commission President, said the proposal—which has been called the Juncker Plan—"is about Europe acting together, for the long term." He argues the unified system will fulfill his desire to make "the energy that underpins [European] economy to be resilient, reliable, secure and growingly renewable and sustainable."
Though the deal will now need to find approval among the member states and a full vote by the European Parliament, experts on climate and sustainable energy appear convinced that the details of the plan—as well as the rhetoric and logic of those supporting it—will not withstand proper scrutiny.
Citing specific aspects of the proposal they argue will further entrench the continent's reliance on fossil fuels, critics of the proposal were quick to point out that the 'Energy Union' plan would be taking the European Union backwards, not forward, on the path to a truly sustainable energy system.
US Addiction to Corn and Cars Is Fueling Global Hunger and Displacement
U.S. and E.U. biofuel mandates 'drive up the cost and increase the volatility of food prices,' says report
Driven by the United States, global demand for food-based biofuels such as corn ethanol is unsustainable, threatening the food security of some of the world's poorest people and endangering already strained land and water resources, according to a new research published this week.
"Mandating Hunger: The Impacts of Global Biofuels Mandates and Targets" (pdf) was issued Tuesday by ActionAid USA, an international non-profit working to end poverty around the world. The study charges that "[b]y creating an inflexible and growing demand, mandates drive up the cost and increase the volatility of food prices." ...
Furthermore, states the report, "Demand for biofuels is also associated with land grabs in developing countries, where smallholder farmers growing food for their families are forced off their land to make way for energy crops for export."
In Guatemala, for instance, subsistence farmers are being forced to give up cultivation of multiple food crops for local consumption in order to cultivate just one crop that will likely be exported and used for fuel instead of food. Monoculture crops such as sugarcane or palm—both used as feedstocks for biofuels production—now take up 14 percent of the country's land, while small land holders use only 12 percent.
"In a country where half of children under the age of five are malnourished, more land is devoted to export crops than sustenance farming," reads the report.
Fracking-Friendly Ohio Justices Backed by Oil and Gas Industry, Analysis Shows
Two of the justices behind last week's pro-industry fracking decision in Ohio were the beneficiaries of that same industry's largesse, in the form of sizable campaign contributions, a Columbus Dispatch computer analysis has shown.
Ohio Supreme Court Justice Judith French authored the majority opinion in the 4-3 ruling that said state law trumped local ordinances intended to regulate permitting and location of fracking wells and related development. She received $8,000 from Ohio's oil and gas industry, according to Dispatch journalists Darrel Rowland and Jim Siegel. Another concurring justice got $7,200 from oil and gas drillers.
The Dispatch analysis found that, overall, the fossil fuel industry poured close to $1.5 million into the campaign coffers of legislators and other state officials in 2013-14, lending credence to what Justice William O'Neill wrote in his dissenting opinion: "What the drilling industry has bought and paid for in campaign contributions they shall receive."
"O'Neill is one of the only public figures on Capitol Square who can criticize the influence of campaign contributions and not come off sounding like a hypocrite," Rowland and Siegel write. "He raised only about $5,000 in his 2012 campaign, all from his own pocket. He did not take a single outside campaign contribution."
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Confidential Informant Played Key Role in FBI Foiling Its Own Terror Plot
Rodney Reed Will Not Die Next Week — But Texas Still Wants to Kill Him
Truth and reconciliation is coming to America from the grassroots
Forget Bibi: Let’s Hear More from Our NATO Allies
On whimsy
A Little Night Music
Jay McShann - Hold 'em Hootie
Jay McShann - Hootie's Jumpin' Blues
Jay McShann - 'Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do
Jay Mcshann - Blue Devil Jump
Jay Mcshann - Hootie's Ignorant Oil
Jay McShann - Bern Jazz Festival
Big Joe Turner with Jay McShann - The Blues!
Jay McShann's Kansas City Stompers-Trouble In Mind
Jay Mcshann Trio with Phil Woods - Kewpie Doll
Jay McShann - My Chile
Jay McShann's Kansas City Stompers - Come On Over To My House
Jay McShann - Swingmatism
Jimmy Witherspoon & Jay Mcshann- Destruction Blues
Walter Brown w/ Jay McShann's Orch. - Sloppy Drunk
Jay McShann and Priscilla Bowman - I've got news for you
Jay Mcshann - Crazy Legs & Friday Strut
Jay McShann - Voodoo Woman Blues
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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