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 blues singer Bertha "Chippie" Hill who recorded with (among others) Louis Armstrong.
Chippie Hill - Around The Clock Blues
“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything”
-- Albert Einstein
News and Opinion
More And Better Democrats, Please!
Rand Paul Exposes the Democrats
Republican Senator Rand Paul is a Kentucky conservative, and a proud Tea Party member. Paul publicly stated that he opposes the Civil Rights act of 1964, the legislation which at last gave some semblance of legal rights to black Americans. Paul typifies all of the beliefs central to right wing Republican dogma. He is against civil rights and a staunch opponent of abortion, a proud poster child for retrograde politics.
Yet when members of the United States Senate had the opportunity to stand against an imperial president claiming a right to murder, it was Paul instead of supposedly liberal Democrats who took to the Senate floor for thirteen hours in an act of protest against what ought to be a high crime. ...
The right wing southerner exposed the cravenness of the Democratic politicians and the blatant hypocrisy of progressives. Why was the Tea Party conservative alone in asking attorney general Eric Holder if the president claimed the right to kill United States citizens on American soil? That question should have been on the lips of every member of Congress, not just a man who had been dismissed as a racist and a crackpot. ...
Instead of using Paul’s filibuster as an opportunity to engage in reasoned analysis, progressive pundits mocked the senator and labeled him paranoid because he had the temerity to ask whether Americans are safe from their president. MSNBC’s cadre of butt kissers were front and center but so were other people who more than anything want to belong and to be friends of the powerful more than they want to see any political beliefs made manifest.
Ever since his filibuster ended there has been much debate about whether or not the senator should get credit for his actions, but the wrong question is being asked. The question is how do leftists disentangle themselves from useless and untrustworthy people who show time and time again that they are not worthy of their votes and their support. Like the broken clock that is right twice every day, Rand Paul proved himself to be somewhat useful. That is far more than the Democratic Party is able to say for itself.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus has
released another anti-austerity budget. It will predictably be ignored by the press, Congress and the White House because it doesn't cut your earned Social Security benefits.
Concgressional Progressive Caucus Releases 2014 "Back To Work Budget"
In the midst of ongoing hysteria about a 'non-existent deficit crisis' in Washington, the Congressional Progressive Caucus on Wednesday unveiled an alternative approach to destructive austerity economics by releasing their 'Back to Work Budget' plan for 2014.
Pushing back specifically on the dominant talking point of inside-the-Beltway elites, the budget challenges the idea that cutting programs, reducing corporate tax rates, and slashing investments is a pathway to economic prosperity. Its proponents argue the US does not have "a deficit crisis"—as those pushing for steep cuts suggest—but rather, "a jobs crisis."
Presented by CPC co-chairs Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva and Keith Ellison and backed by members of the caucus' Budget Task force—Reps. Jim McDermott, Jan Schakowsky, Barbara Lee and Mark Pocan—the plan describes how smart investments, not deep cuts to key programs, would create almost 7 million jobs over the first year of its implementation.
“Americans face a choice,” Grijalva and Ellison said. “We can either cut Medicare benefits to pay for more tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, or we can close outdated tax loopholes and invest in jobs. We choose investment.”
I've quoted two blog posts in this next section relating to Gene Sperling's comments today on chained cpi (or, if you prefer the new Luntzian term the Obama administration is rolling out,
superlative cpi). Frankly, I think we ought to one-up them and invent, "transcendent cpi."
Back on the Chained-CPI gang
Gene Sperling said today on his Reddit chat that the president really prefers the Chained-CPI and that it's not just an inducement to get the Republicans on board with the Grand Bargain. This may sound obvious, since it's been clear from before the inauguration that the administration wants to "reform" the so-called entitlements. But Sperling made it clear today that they believe in this on the merits:
The cost of living question relates to how the government measures inflation. Today, we use a measure of inflation called the “CPI” or consumer price index. An alternative would be to switch to what is known as the superlative or “chained” CPI. The superlative CPI makes two technical corrections to the standard CPI: it accounts for consumers’ ability to substitute between goods in response to changes in relative prices and accounts for biases arising from small samples. Most experts agree that the Superlative CPI provides a more accurate measure of the average change in the cost of living than the standard CPI.
The President would prefer to have this adjustment in the context of a larger Social Security reform, but he has said to Speaker Boehner that if it is part of a larger agreement that would include tax reform that would raise revenue by cutting loopholes and expenditures from the most well off, that he would be willing to agree to it because in divided government, if we’re going to make progress, we have to be willing to compromise. One important note: any agreement to make this change to the CPI must include a dedication of a portion of the savings to protections for low-income Americans, certain veterans, and older Social Security beneficiaries. Our current offer which reduces the deficit by $230 billion over the next 10 years includes those protections.
Chained CPI is not just bait; Obama actually “prefers” it
Why do low-income Americans, veterans, and the elderly need “protection” from something that’s desirable, “preferable,” and nothing more than an “more accurate measure”? [See highlighted text just above.]
'Racist Murder': Brooklyn in chaos after cops kill teen
US Spy Agencies to Get Access to Trove of Citizens' Private Financial Data
Multiple U.S. agencies will soon have access to a massive database of private financial data on citizens and individuals who do business in the U.S., giving national intelligence agencies the ability "to analyze more raw financial data than they have ever had before." ...
The private data, previously available only to the FBI, will now be widely accessible for a number of agencies including the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, raising privacy concerns among critics.
The database in question—called the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)— currently operates as a database for financial institutions who are required by law to file reports of "suspicious customer activity" to the FBI.
However, as Reuters reports, the database is flawed and commonly 'over reports' innocent citizens' personal information:
More than 25,000 financial firms - including banks, securities dealers, casinos, and money and wire transfer agencies - routinely file "suspicious activity reports" to FinCEN. The requirements for filing are so strict that banks often over-report, so they cannot be accused of failing to disclose activity that later proves questionable. This over-reporting raises the possibility that the financial details of ordinary citizens could wind up in the hands of spy agencies.
Former CEO reveals Blackwater worked as ‘virtual extension of the CIA’
The mercenary group formerly known as Blackwater worked as a “virtual extension of the CIA,” the company’s former CEO revealed to Daily Beast reporter Eli Lake, who obtained court documents showing the company argued as much when its executives were facing prosecution. ...
“[The] CIA routinely used Blackwater in missions throughout the world,” the company’s attorneys explain in defense filings. “These efforts were made under written and unwritten contracts and through informal requests. On many occasions the CIA paid Blackwater nothing for its assistance. Blackwater also employed CIA officers and agents, and provided cover to CIA agents and officers operating in covert and clandestine assignments. In many respects, Blackwater, or at least portions of Blackwater, was an extension of the CIA.”
Aaron Swartz Lawyers Accuse Prosecutor Stephen Heymann Of Misconduct
Federal prosecutor Stephen Heymann engaged in prosecutorial misconduct by withholding key evidence from the defense team of Aaron Swartz, the late Internet activist's legal team alleged in a letter to an internal Justice Department ethics unit.
Heymann took the lead in the much-criticized effort to imprison Swartz, who committed suicide in January, and was the attorney who handled the case on a day-to-day basis, reporting to U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz. Swartz' attorney Eliot Peters has filed a complaint with the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility, a step that indicates just how egregious the defense team considers Heymann's professional behavior. A redacted version of the letter was obtained by The Huffington Post.
In the document, Peters argues that Heymann withheld exculpatory evidence. At issue was whether the federal government had properly obtained a warrant to search Swartz' computer and thumb drive. Peters argued that the government failed by waiting more than a month to obtain the warrant. Heymann countered that he couldn't get a warrant because he didn't have access to the equipment. But an email in Heymann's possession, which was written to Heymann himself, showed that assertion to be untrue.
In an email that was not provided to the defense team until the last minute, Michael Picket, a Secret Service agent, wrote to Heymann on Jan. 7, “I am prepared to take custody of the laptop anytime after it has been processed for prints or whenever you feel is appropriate. As far as I know no one has sought a warrant for the examination of the computer, the cell phone that was on his person or the 8gb flash drive that was in his backpack." It would be more than a month before Heymann obtained a warrant -– far too long, in Peters' estimation, which means that the evidence found on the laptop could have become inadmissible.
US drones spread fear to Afghan villages
Erased US Data Shows 1 in 4 Missiles in Afghan Airstrikes Now Fired by Drone
Drones are now firing nearly a quarter of all air-launched missiles in Afghanistan, just as the US military deletes its drone figures.
The US military has stopped publishing data on drone use in Afghanistan, claiming missions that include drone strikes are ‘the exception’ – just 3% of all drone flights. However, the figures themselves demonstrate the increasingly important role played by drones in airstrikes by the US and its allies in Afghanistan.
The now-deleted figures show unmanned aircraft fired nearly one in four of all missiles used in coalition airstrikes in January – up from just one in 20 in 2011.
Greek unemployment reaches 26 percent
Greek unemployment surged to 26 percent of the workforce in the fourth quarter of 2012 compared with 20.7 percent in the corresponding period a year earlier, the state statistics agency said on Thursday. ...
The number of unemployed in the last three months of the year amounted to 1,295,535 while 3,681,926 were registered as employed.
'EU govt 'austerity' policies go against people's will'
Pope Francis: questions remain over his role during Argentina's dictatorship
Jorge Bergoglio was head of the Jesuit order in the 1970s when the church backed military government and called for patriotism
Despite the joyful celebrations outside the Municipal Cathedral in Buenos Aires yesterday, the news of Latin America's first pope was clouded by lingering concerns about the role of the church – and its new head – during Argentina's brutal military dictatorship.
The Catholic church and Pope Francis have been accused of a complicit silence and worse during the "dirty war" of murders and abductions carried out by the junta that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983.
The evidence is sketchy and contested. Documents have been destroyed and many of those who were victims or perpetrators have died in the years that followed. The moral argument is clear, but the reality of life at that time put many people in a grey position. It was dangerous at that time to speak out and risk being labelled a subversive. But many, including priests and bishops, did so and subsequently disappeared. Those who stayed silent have subsequently had to live with their consciences — and sometimes the risk of a trial.
Its behaviour during that dark period in Argentine history was so unsaintly that in 2000 the Argentine Catholic church itself made a public apology for its failure to take a stand against the generals.
Pope Francis’ Junta Past: Argentine Journalist on New Pontiff’s Ties to Abduction of Jesuit Priests
Massachusetts Attorney General: Pot shops allowed statewide
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley ruled Wednesday that medical marijuana dispensaries must be allowed statewide and individual municipalities cannot legally block them.
The ruling (PDF) was issued by Coakley’s Municipal Law Unit in response to a 2012 bylaw passed by officials in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Two other nearby towns also passed a similar ordinance.
The logic behind the ruling is simple: It says that the legalization of medical marijuana, enshrined in state law, “cannot be served if a municipality were to prohibit treatment centers within its borders, for if one municipality were allowed to do so, all could do so, making reasonable access impossible.”
Land prices rising even after year of record drought
American farmers may have suffered an historic drought last year, but the price of their land is skyrocketing.
In Iowa, the US’s biggest producer of corn, the land prices jumped 24 percent in 2012 and and have gained 63 percent over the last three years, according to a study by Iowa State University.
The drought and heat wave last year may have severely damaged crops, but ironically it has made crop land ever more valuable.
The higher prices for crops helped compensate for lower yields, for one thing.
Farmers also recovered some $14.7 billion in insurance payments for crop damage, a record sum.
India to give small plots of land to homeless rural poor
India’s government is drawing up a major new welfare reform which would hand small plots of land to millions of homeless poor in the countryside, reports said on Thursday.
The proposed entitlement programme, which comes as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s administration is struggling to rein in the public spending deficit, is seen as a potential vote-winner in rural areas ahead of elections next year.
The draft National Right to Homestead Bill, which must be approved by cabinet and then passed by parliament, would provide for a minimum of 400 square metres (4,356 square feet) to be given to each homeless family, The Indian Express said.
An estimated eight million rural families are believed to be homeless and landless.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin'
Patino hopes to resolve Assange Case this year
Bill Black: Which Aspect of the FDIC’s Litigation Failures is the Most Embarrassing and Damaging?
We’ll Get ‘Em in Mexico
A Little Night Music
Bertha "Chippie" Hill w/Louis Armstrong - Trouble In Mind
Bertha "Chippie" Hill w/Louis Armstrong - Pratt City Blues
Bertha "Chippie" Hill - How Long Blues
Bertha "Chippie" Hill w/Tampa Red - Christmas Man Blues
Bertha "Chippie" Hill - Street Walker Blues
Bertha "Chippie" Hill w/Louis Armstrong - The Flood 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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