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!
Tonight's music features Blind Lemon Jefferson, the father of the Texas blues and an influence on countless blues guitarists and composers. Enjoy!
Blind Lemon Jefferson - See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
“What do nations care about the cost of war, if by spending a few hundred millions in steel and gunpowder they can gain a thousand millions in diamonds and cocoa?”
-- W.E.B. Du Bois
News and Opinion
Kucinich: Stop overthrowing governments to end attacks on U.S. embassies
“It is easy to blame someone else — like a civil servant at the State Department,” Kucinich said. “We all know the game. It is harder to acknowledge that decades of American foreign policy have directly contributed to regional instability and to the rise of armed militias around the world.”
“It is even harder to acknowledge Congress’ role in the failure to stop the war in Libya, the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the war in Pakistan, the war in Yemen, the war in Somalia and who knows where else. It is harder to recognize Congress’ role in the failure to stop the drone attacks that are still killing innocent civilians and strengthening radical elements abroad. We want to stop the attacks on embassies? Let’s stop trying to overthrow governments.”
Chief of US Security at Embassy in Yemen Assassinated
The Yemeni chief of security at the US embassy in Sanaa has been assassinated, officials there have said.
Qassem Aqlani, fifty-five, was on his way to work Thursday when he was gunned down, according to reports, by a masked gunman on a motorcycle who then fled the scene.
The seemingly targeted attack on Aqlani—who has worked at the embassy for nearly twenty years—comes as the US military, in collusion with the Yemeni government, wages an ongoing drone war of assassinations against Al Qaeda-affiliated factions in Yemen.
The US drone attacks have killed many innocent civilians, spawning nationwide anger and protest.
Neo-Liberal Capitalists Strengthen Control of Chinese Communist Party
Obama Ad About Big Bird Cannot Find One Prominent Wall Street Criminal Prosecuted By Administration
This is an amusing ad by the Obama campaign, poking fun at Mitt Romney’s comment in the first debate about eliminating funding for PBS and Big Bird. ... There’s only one thing that sticks out to me about this ad, though the casual viewer probably won’t notice it. Let’s look at that litany of Wall Street “criminals” and “gluttons of greed,” which later get juxtaposed with Big Bird. You have Bernie Madoff, Ken Lay and Dennis Kozlowski. So two CEOs prosecuted and convicted by George W. Bush’s Justice Department, and Madoff, whose son turned him in before Obama took office, in December 2008, and who pleaded guilty.
So the Obama campaign could not fill a list of three Wall Street criminals that the Obama Justice Department actually sent to jail. Heck, they couldn’t fill a list of one!
Mr. Schneiderman Presents His Case
If New York’s attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, cannot bring banks and bankers to justice for the mortgage debacle, it won’t be for lack of trying. It will be for lack of resources and political will that only federal partners can provide, including the Justice Department, the Internal Revenue Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission and, most important, President Obama.
Mr. Schneiderman’s civil suit against a unit of JPMorgan Chase, filed this week in New York State Supreme Court, contains familiar allegations in a new legal package. ... Unlike other cases brought by federal regulators that focused on particular transactions, the Schneiderman lawsuit alleges a broad pattern of fraud and misrepresentation. That broad scope presents an opportunity not only to punish wrongdoing at one bank, but to apply the methods and findings of the case to other banks.
The Schneiderman case does not name any individuals, and the time for pursuing criminal charges under state law is running short. But federal prosecutors have greater leeway to pursue such charges.
So where are the feds? If systemic fraud is alleged under New York law, why aren’t there parallel federal charges, civil and criminal, for violations of banking, tax and securities laws? Clearly, unless there is a pathway to criminal prosecution even a successful civil suit is likely to leave the impression that justice has not been done.
Elite crooks commit crimes with impunity in New York, while blocks away, innocent people get busted by cops who plant evidence:
NYPD Narcotics Detective Admits Cops Regularly Plant Drugs On Perps
A former NYPD Detective testified last week that he regularly saw police plant drugs on innocent people as a way to meet arrest quotas. Ex-Detective Stephen Anderson, who worked in the Queens and Brooklyn South narcotics divisions, was called to testify in the trial of Brooklyn South narcotics Detective Jason Arbeeny, who has been charged with falsifying public documents and business records. Mister Anderson's testimony was intended to reveal that, as the Daily News puts it, cop corruption wasn't limited to a single squad. In fact, it's pretty widespread!
Anderson was busted for helping plant cocaine, a practice known as "flaking," on four men in a Queens bar in 2008. He testified yesterday that he did it to help out fellow officer Henry Tavarez, whose "buy-and-bust" arrests had been low. "I had decided to give him [Tavarez] the drugs to help him out so that he could say he had a buy," Anderson testified in Brooklyn Supreme Court. Anderson avoided jail time by pleading guilty and agreeing to testify against other officers swept up in the corruption bust.
Eleven Nations Pledge Support, Robin Hood Tax Gains Foothold in Europe
The European push for a financial transaction tax received a boost Tuesday following the agreement by financial ministers from eleven nations to support such a levy during a meeting in Luxembourg.
The financial transaction tax—known also as the Tobin Tax, a Robin Hood Tax, or simply FTT—would place a tiny tax on financial trades that advocates say would reduce the damaging impact of speculative and high-speed trading while at the same time raising much-needed revenue for social programs and public investment.
The proposal, which was pushed aggressively by France and Germany, was also backed by Belgium, Austria, Slovenia, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Spain, Estonia and Slovakia.
Europe's staunchest opponents to the tax remain the UK, Sweden, Poland and others who fear that their financial markets would suffer as traders move their transactions to centers without such structures. This argument spurs FTT supporters to counter that this is why a global financial transaction tax is ultimately necessary so that the financial industry cannot duck its social responsibility by constantly moving operations to those markets with the least accountability to public service.
Report: ExxonMobil Majority Owner of Tar Sands Pipeline Project to Cross New England
Unbeknownst to most of the public, a major portion of the proposed tar sands pipeline that would cut across the Great Lakes, Ontario, Quebec and New England to Portland, Maine, is actually owned by oil giants ExxonMobil, Imperial Oil, and Suncor Energy – all of whom have a deep stake in tar sands extraction. Knowing who the major players really are and whose interests are being served is crucial as citizens weigh the risks of a tar sands pipeline going through our backyards.
Canada’s tar sands region is one of the fastest-growing industrial enterprises in the world but, lacking major coastal access, the oil produced there has been predominantly confined to North American markets. In recent years the oil industry has sought cross-continental pipeline routes that would allow it to ship its product overseas, which would spur a dramatic expansion of tar sands extraction in Alberta’s boreal forest. As proposed tar sands pipelines like TransCanada’s Keystone XL (from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast) and Enbridge’s Northern Gateway (from Alberta to British Columbia’s coast) have become front page news, the companies involved have come under heavy scrutiny. Awareness of the risks of tar sands pipelines is on the rise, but many people are unaware of the Big Oil power behind the proposal to send tar sands from Canada to Portland, Maine. This project—and the companies behind it—must be put under the same magnifying glass as the others.
With regionally-anchored names like “Montreal Pipe Line Limited” and “Portland Pipe Line Corporation,” it’s easy to see why people might be in the dark about who is really driving the tar sands pipeline proposal often referred to as the “Trailbreaker” project. But with public safety, health and the environment at risk, citizens and local governments need to know that some of the biggest names in oil, and the largest developers of the Alberta tar sands – companies like ExxonMobil, Enbridge and Suncor – are the real players looking to move tar sands oil toward East Coast ports in hopes of reaping even bigger profits.
Report: EPA struggling to keep pace with ‘fracking’ boom
Congressional auditors conclude in new reports that the Environmental Protection Agency faces big hurdles overseeing a U.S. oil-and-gas drilling boom that’s creating “unknown” long-term health risks. ...
“Officials at EPA reported that conducting inspection and enforcement activities for oil and gas development from unconventional reservoirs is challenging due to limited information, as well as the dispersed nature of the industry and the rapid pace of development,” the report states. ...
“Oil and gas development, whether conventional or shale oil and gas, pose inherent environmental and public health risks, but the extent of these risks associated with shale oil and gas development is unknown, in part, because the studies GAO reviewed do not generally take into account the potential long-term, cumulative effects,” the report states.
After Decades of Uranium Mining, Navajo Nation Struggles With Devastating Legacy of Contamination
New Rule - Iffy Pop
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin'
US supreme court finalizes gift of immunity to the telecom giants
The Missing Debate Within the Debate
'The Raiders of Your Lost Retirement' #2 -- Saving Dems from a Social Security Austerity Disaster
A Little Night Music
Blind Lemon Jefferson - Black Snake Moan
Blind Lemon Jefferson - Easy Rider Blues
Blind Lemon Jefferson - Matchbox Blues
Blind Lemon Jefferson - Jack of Diamonds
Blind Lemon Jefferson - Hot Dog
Blind Lemon Jefferson - Piney Woods Money Mama
Blind Lemon Jefferson - One Dime Blues
Woody Guthrie - New York Town
Guy Davis - Matchbox Blues
Cassandra Wilson - Easy Rider
Paul Geremia (Blind Lemon Jefferson) - Mosquito Moan
Remember when progressive debate was about our values and not about a "progressive" candidate? Remember when progressive websites championed progressive values and didn't tell progressives to shut up about values so that "progressive" candidates can get elected?
Come to where the debate is not constrained by oaths of fealty to persons or parties.
Come to where the pie is served in a variety of flavors.
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." ~ Noam Chomsky
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