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The music section of this edition of the Evening Blues is devoted to Doc Watson who passed yesterday. Doc was a national treasure and he will be sorely missed.
Doc Watson - I'll Fly Away
Some bright morning when this life is o'er
I'll fly away
To that home on God's celestial shore
I'll fly away.
When the shadows of this life have gone
I'll fly away
Like a bird from these prison walls I’ll fly
I'll fly away.
Oh, how glad and happy when we meet
I’ll fly away
No more cold iron shackles on my feet
I’ll fly away.
Just a few more weary days and then
I'll fly away
To a land where joys will never end
I'll fly away.
News
Folk Pioneer Doc Watson Dead at 89
Folk music pioneer Doc Watson died on Tuesday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, of complications from abdominal surgery, his manager has confirmed. He was 89 years old. Watson had been admitted to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center on May 21st, after suffering a fall at his home in nearby Deep Gap.
Born in 1923 in Deep Gap, Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson influenced generations of country, folk and bluegrass artists with his flatpicking approach to the guitar. Watson went blind at age one following an eye infection and quickly grew immersed in music thanks to his parents, who performed in the local church choir and sang secular and religious songs. By the age of five, Watson was playing the banjo and harmonica, and by 1953 he was playing electric for a local country swing band. Watson's solo career took off following a performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963, as folk music was developing into a cultural phenomenon; he released his solo debut, Doc Watson and Family, that same year.
Watson won seven Grammys and received the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement award in 2004. In 1997, then-President Bill Clinton presented Watson with the National Medal for the Arts, in recognition of his significant impact on national heritage music.
Krugman: This may be when it all falls apart
“There are a lot of ugly forces being unleashed in our societies on both sides of the Atlantic because our economic policy has been such a dismal failure, because we are refusing to listen to the lessons of history. We may look back at this thirty years from now and say, ‘That is when it all fell apart.’ And by all, I don’t just mean the economy.”
Report from Cairo: Protests Erupt in Egypt as Mubarak’s Ex-PM Secures Spot in Presidential Runoff
N.Y. Times reporter: Obama has ‘central role’ in drone strikes
Will Americans Speak Out Against Obama's Drone Warfare?
Who is furnishing the President and his aides with this list of terrorist suspects to choose from, like baseball cards? The kind of intelligence used to put people on drone hit lists is the same kind of intelligence that put people in Guantanamo. Remember how the American public was assured that the prisoners locked up in Guantanamo were the “worst of the worst,” only to find out that hundreds were innocent people who had been sold to the US military by bounty hunters? ...
Obama’s top legal adviser Harold Koh insists that this killing spree is legal under international law because the US has the inherent right to self-defense. It’s true that all nations possess the right to defend themselves, but the defense must be against an imminent attack that is overwhelming and leaves no moment of deliberation. When a nation is not in an armed conflict, the rules are even stricter. The killing must be necessary to protect life and there must be no other means, such as capture or nonlethal incapacitation, to prevent that threat to life. Outside of an active war zone, then, it is illegal to use weaponized drones, which are weapons of war incapable of taking a suspect alive.
Just think of the precedent the US is setting with its kill-don’t-capture doctrine. Were the US rationale to be applied by other countries, China might declare an ethnic Uighur activist living in New York City as an “enemy combatant” and send a missile into Manhattan; Russia could assert that it was legal to launch a drone attack against someone living in London whom they claim is linked to Chechen militants. Or consider the case of Luis Posada Carrilles, a Cuban-American living in Miami who is a known terrorist convicted of masterminding a 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. Given the failure of the US legal system to bring Posada to justice, the Cuban government could claim that it has the right to send a drone into downtown Miami to kill an admitted terrorist and sworn enemy.
Hundreds of Lawyers Join Montreal Uprising to Protest Bill 78
MONTREAL - Although they are sworn to uphold the laws of the land, hundreds of lawyers marched through Montreal streets Monday in a subdued challenge to Bill 78, which limits public protests.
“We don’t want to break the law but we want to contest it,” explained Pierre, a 23-year-old articling lawyer who would not give his last name. He was among an estimated 500 to 700 lawyers, notaries and other legal professionals who marched in their black robes and in near silence from the Montreal courthouse to Place Émilie-Gamelin, where they were greeted by wildly cheering protesters gathered for their own nightly march.
Ikea Products Made From 600-Year-Old Trees
STOCKHOLM - The home furnishing giant Ikea, founded in Sweden in 1943, is facing heavy criticism for the logging and clear-cutting of old-growth forests in the north of Russian Karelia by its wholly owned subsidiary Swedwood.
According to leading environmental organisations, such logging is destroying ancient and unique forests that have a high conservation value.
Top court rules Assange can be extradited to Sweden
[I]n an unexpected twist, Assange’s lawyer Dinah Rose asked the judge for 14 days to consider whether to apply to reopen the case on the grounds that the judgement referred to material not argued in the court.
The judge granted the request, which is highly unusual in the three-year history of the Supreme Court. ...
Outside court, Assange’s principal lawyer Gareth Peirce confirmed that the extradition was stayed while his legal team considers whether to apply to reopen the case, although the judgement still stands.
“They’ve allowed us two weeks to put in a written submission on the fact that the majority of judges have decided on a basis that was never argued in court by anyone, that was never addressed in court,” she told journalists.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
Last Weekend, Half of Germany Was Running on Solar Power
Bust 'Em Up: Who Needs Wall Street Giants? by Jim Hightower
U.S. Drone Policy: Standing Near Terrorists Makes You A Terrorist
A Little Night Music
Doc Watson - Shady Grove
Doc Watson and Jack Lawrence - Tennessee Stud Doc Watson and Jack Lawrence
Doc Watson - Milk Cow Blues
Doc Watson - Blues Stay Away From Me
Doc Watson - I am a Pilgrim
Doc Watson: "Nine Pound Hammer"
Doc Watson - Midnight Train Blues
Doc Watson - Sitting on Top of the World
Doc Watson - Black Mountain Rag
Further listening:
Doc Watson - Windy and Warm
Bill Monroe & Doc Watson - Sally Goodin
Doc Watson - Matty Groves