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 music (very) loosely related to elections, presidents, etc. Enjoy!
Betty Boop for President
"We think that democracy can change a lot of things, but we're being fooled, because democracy is not the election. We've been taught that democracy is having elections. And it isn't. Elections are the most horrendous aspect of democracy. It's the most mundane, trivial, disappointing, dirty aspect."
-- Gael Garcia Bernal
News and Opinion
Re-elected Obama would push quickly for fiscal deal -party aides
If President Barack Obama wins re-election, he's expected to move quickly, perhaps within a day, to renew his bid for a bipartisan deal to avert a "fiscal cliff" that threatens to push the United States into recession, top Senate Democratic aides said on Monday.
A victorious Obama could reach out to Republicans as early as Wednesday and pledge that, with the election decided, it's time to find common ground to deal with the year-end expiration of Bush-era tax cuts and the launch of automatic spending cuts that would suck $600 billion out of the economy in 2013.
"He wants to get the process started immediately," one aide said. "We could move quickly," another aide said, explaining that the basic ingredients of any deal - increased tax revenues coupled with cuts in entitlement programs - have been debated thoroughly for the past two years.
"Everyone knows what needs to be done," he said.
Austerity and Low Wages will Lead to Years of Recession
Greek workers stage mass anti-austerity walkout
Greek workers began a two-day mass walkout on Tuesday, bringing public transport in Athens to a halt, as public anger mounts over a new government austerity bill aimed at securing international aid needed to prevent the debt-crippled nation from defaulting.
Public bus workers in the capital joined taxi drivers as well as metro, tram and train workers in the strike, paralysing traffic in the capital.
Many flights were to be cancelled or rescheduled as traffic controllers staged a three-hour work stoppage. Ferry services were also crippled, as ships linking to Greece’s islands remained docked.
Judges and lawyers also joined the strike while publicly-run museums, archaeological sites and post offices were shut.
Police and anti-riot troops were out in force around parliament and government offices in Athens city centre, with water cannon at the ready to disperse the crowds in case of trouble arising from a demonstration called by the country’s two main labour unions, the GSEE and ADEDY.
Supersized Politics in the 2012 Election
Possible Record Turnout as Warren Leads Brown for Massachusetts Senate
Voters are turning out "in droves" Tuesday as Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren faces incumbent Sen. Scott Brown in a bitter race for a traditionally Democratic seat representing Massachusetts in the Senate, according to a new poll.
The University of Massachusetts Lowell-Boston Herald poll (pdf) released Sunday shows Warren leading Brown 50.3 percent to 45.8 percent, The Huffington Post reports, although other polls suggest the final county may be closer.
"Lines crawled down hallways of schools, outside firehouses and community centers around Cambridge, Somerville and Braintree just outside of Boston," reports Stephanie McCrummen in The Washington Post.
In Tight Race, 11th Hour Voter ID Laws, Suppression Could Decide Ohio and Other Swing States
Is Ohio voting software vulnerable to fraud? Court to hear Election Day case
A federal lawsuit filed Monday in Columbus, Ohio, charges the secretary of state's office with illegally installing untested software on voting systems in dozens of counties – a step that creates a digital “back door,” which someone wishing to alter vote totals might be able to exploit. ...
The suit seeks a temporary injunction to prevent the state from using the software in Tuesday's election. A hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. in the US District Court for the southern district of Ohio, eastern division. If granted, an injunction could prevent Ohio votes from being formatted by the new software and sent to the office of Secretary of State Jon Husted (R) after polls close. ...
The suit alleges that the secretary of state's office used a legal loophole to install software on electronic voting systems in 39 counties across the state without having it checked by the Ohio Board of Voting Machine Examiners, the state's technical board charged with reviewing elections software. State officials say they have followed federal guidelines and that the equipment is secure.
The software is installed on the central vote-tabulation machines in the counties. It is designed to make the process of tabulating votes faster and more accurate. Previously, reports generated by counties' tabulation systems would have to be entered by hand. ... In an affadavit supporting the filing, James March, an expert witness on voting machines, testifies that the 28-page contract between the state and the firm that sells the software describes in detail the requirements for the software – showing that a third-party could gain access to county vote totals.
Judge rejects lawsuit's Ohio voting software claim
Bob Fitrakis presented only theories and opinions that the software might cause voting night irregularities, U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost said in a 10-page decision issued a few hours after a hearing.
Fitrakis and his attorney had wanted the judge to order Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted to stop using the software and break the state's contract with Omaha, Neb.-based Elections Systems & Software.
A "back door" in ES&S software and hardware creates "an imminent risk" that people not supervised by election boards could "alter the recording and tabulation of votes cast by Ohio voters in the General Election," according to a lawsuit filed Monday on behalf of Fitrakis, a longtime Ohio elections activist.
Frost rejected those arguments after reviewing comments from a computer analyst testifying on behalf of Fitrakis at Tuesday morning's hearing. ... Simply put, Frost said, Fitrakis "has demonstrated zero likelihood of success based on the evidence presented to this Court."
REPORT: True The Vote Submitted Forged Documents To Ohio Election Officials
Volunteers with True the Vote, a Tea Party group that claims it is trying to fight voter fraud by challenging the right of voters to vote, may have committed fraud themselves. Plunderbund, an Ohio-based political blog, reported Monday that members of the group attempted to sign up as poll observers in African American-heavy precincts in central Ohio, but may have forged signatures to do so.
While local candidates officials had authorized members of the group to serve as designated observers on forms filed in October, five of the six Franklin County candidates had withdrawn permission to use their signatures prior to the submission of this week’s forms. According to one candidate, the True the Vote volunteers simply “forged” her name onto the document — possibly a 5th degree felony.
According to the report:
The forms have been rejected unanimously by all members (Rs and Ds) on the board. True the Vote observers will not be allowed in Franklin County polling locations tomorrow. Poll monitoring organizations expect they may still be stationed outside of polling locations. Board member Zachary Manifold told us he was ”amazed that a group that goes to such extreme lengths to claim voting fraud in Ohio would knowingly forge or misuse signatures to try to gain access to Franklin County polling locations.”
How to Rig an election - The GOP aims to paint the country red
Never underestimate the power of rock and roll:
Gov. Christie has a mancrush: Hug from Bruce Springsteen left him misty
Speaking outside a shelter in Keansburg on Monday, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) told a crowd that he’d confessed to President Barack Obama that getting a hug from famed musician Bruce Springsteen on Friday night left him “weeping.”
“Bruce [was] apparently flying around with the president today on the last day of his campaign, and Bruce said to me how proud he was of his state and how proud he was of the people of his state, and how tough they are,” Christie said. “He’ll be back to the Jersey shore soon. We had a good conversation today. It was great to talk to the president and even better to talk to Bruce.”
He added that Springsteen, a prominent supporter of Obama’s, gave him a hug during Friday night’s benefit concert aired on NBC.
“They asked me to come over to support their telethon for Hurricane Sandy victims,” Christie explained. “Bruce and I had a chance to chat on Friday night… Great. We hugged. We hugged. Yeah. And he told me it’s official: we’re friends.”
"We Need Help": Battered by Sandy, Desperate Residents of NYC's Far Rockaways Plead for Aid
Some media reports about Occupy Sandy
How Occupy Sandy's Relief Machine Stepped Into the Post-Superstorm Void
Occupy Sandy Emerges As Relief Organization For 21st Century, Mastering Social Networks
Occupy Sandy
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin'
Superstorm Sandy—a People's Shock? - Seizing the climate crisis to demand a truly populist agenda - by Naomi Klein
Urgent Help Needed #OWS, 350.org
Jeff Johnston, Focus on the Family's elimination portal
A Little Night Music
Some Green change we can all get behind:
Big Boy Henry - Mr. President
King Soloman - Please Mr. President
Mick Jagger feat. Jeff Beck - Tea Party
Canned Heat - Election Blues
Lulu Reed & Freddy King - Do The President Twist
Talking 2012 Election Blues
Chicago Beau - Be Careful How You Vote
Stevie Wonder - You Haven't Done Nothin'
B.B. King Group - Same Old Story
Levon Helm Band - Bourgeois Blues
Louisiana Red - Red's Dream
Tony Rice & Friends - White House Blues
Ry Cooder - FDR in Trinidad
Attila the Hun - Roosevelt in Trinidad
Bill Frederick - Hey, Hey, LBJ
Livin' In the White House - Johnny Shines + Sunnyland Slim
J.B. Lenoir - Eisenhower Blues
Johnnie Taylor - I Could Never Be President
XTC - Here Comes President Kill Again
Leonard Cohen - Democracy is Coming to the USA
Ry Cooder - How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live
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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