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.
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Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Big Bill Broonzy's half brother, blues singer and washboard player Washboard Sam. Enjoy!
Washboard Sam - My Bucket's Got A Hole In It
“The thought that human beings are considering saving lives by killing millions of their fellow human beings is so preposterous that the words 'saving life' have lost all of their meaning.”
-- Henri J.M. Nouwen
News and Opinion
A Plea for Caution From Russia -
What Putin Has to Say to Americans About Syria
The potential strike by the United States against Syria, despite strong opposition from many countries and major political and religious leaders, including the pope, will result in more innocent victims and escalation, potentially spreading the conflict far beyond Syria’s borders. A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism. It could undermine multilateral efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and further destabilize the Middle East and North Africa. It could throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance.
Syria is not witnessing a battle for democracy, but an armed conflict between government and opposition in a multireligious country. There are few champions of democracy in Syria. But there are more than enough Qaeda fighters and extremists of all stripes battling the government. The United States State Department has designated Al Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, fighting with the opposition, as terrorist organizations. This internal conflict, fueled by foreign weapons supplied to the opposition, is one of the bloodiest in the world.
Mercenaries from Arab countries fighting there, and hundreds of militants from Western countries and even Russia, are an issue of our deep concern. Might they not return to our countries with experience acquired in Syria? After all, after fighting in Libya, extremists moved on to Mali. This threatens us all.
From the outset, Russia has advocated peaceful dialogue enabling Syrians to develop a compromise plan for their own future. We are not protecting the Syrian government, but international law. We need to use the United Nations Security Council and believe that preserving law and order in today’s complex and turbulent world is one of the few ways to keep international relations from sliding into chaos. The law is still the law, and we must follow it whether we like it or not. Under current international law, force is permitted only in self-defense or by the decision of the Security Council. Anything else is unacceptable under the United Nations Charter and would constitute an act of aggression.
'Plea for Caution': Putin warns against diminishing intl law role
On Syria, Putin's Anti-War Case Outshines Obama's Call for Bombs
Though new diplomatic efforts are underway at the United Nations over Syria's civil war, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry set to begin two-day talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva on Thursday—a comparison of Putin's op-ed with Obama's televised address on Tuesday reveals an ironic twist for some observers who note that the former KGB official and noted authoritarian is running circles around the Nobel Peace Prize laureate when it comes to promoting a settlement in the region that doesn't include cruise missile strikes or a bombing campaign. ...
In contrast, many observers took Obama's Tuesday night speech as a continued assault against international law when he indicated that he alone could still order a war against Syria.
Declaring he still "possessed the authority to order military strikes," Obama also said that U.S. forces will remain on standby "if diplomacy fails."
But, regarding his claim to have "authority" to attack Syria without international or Congressional approval, The Progressive's Matthew Rothschild called the president's assertion "ludicrous," writing:
No you don’t, Mr. President. Only Congress has the authority to declare war, and ordering military strikes would be a clear act of war, thus violating the Constitution. It would also violate the War Powers Act, which says that the President can’t engage in hostilities without a declaration of war or specific Congressional authorization unless there is “a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces.” And Syria has done no such thing.
U.N. receives document from Syria on joining chemical arms pact
The United Nations said it received a document from Syria on Thursday on joining the global anti-chemical weapons treaty, something the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad promised as part of a deal to avoid U.S. air strikes.
"In the past few hours we have received a document from the government of Syria that is being translated, which is to be an accession document concerning the Chemical Weapons Convention," U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters.
Syria is one of only seven countries not to have joined the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, which commits members to completely destroying their stockpiles.
Israel Rules Out Ratifying Chemical Arms Ban
Syria has promised to sign the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the international community is working on a deal to destroy the nation’s considerable arsenal, meaning one of the world’s last holdouts on the ban is all but on board.
... Israel has today insisted that Syria’s move will not change their opposition to the treaty.
Technically, Israel signed the CWC in 1993 like most of the rest of the world, but it never ratified the treaty, citing Syria’s arsenal. Without Syria as an excuse, Israeli Foreign Ministry officials now say they won’t ratify the deal until everyone else in the world signs a peace treaty with them.
U.S. weapons reaching Syrian rebels
The CIA has begun delivering weapons to rebels in Syria, ending months of delay in lethal aid that had been promised by the Obama administration, according to U.S. officials and Syrian figures. The shipments began streaming into the country over the past two weeks, along with separate deliveries by the State Department of vehicles and other gear — a flow of material that marks a major escalation of the U.S. role in Syria’s civil war.
The arms shipments, which are limited to light weapons and other munitions that can be tracked, began arriving in Syria at a moment of heightened tensions over threats by President Obama to order missile strikes to punish the regime of Bashar al-Assad for his alleged use of chemical weapons in a deadly attack near Damascus last month.
The arms are being delivered as the United States is also shipping new types of nonlethal gear to rebels. That aid includes vehicles, sophisticated communications equipment and advanced combat medical kits.
U.S. officials hope that, taken together, the weapons and gear will boost the profile and prowess of rebel fighters in a conflict that started about 2 1/2 years ago.
Chemical Weapons Deal Only A Hiccup For Saudi Goals In Syria
[T]he Saudis were unnerved over two and a half years ago when Mubarak fell from power, when the uprising in Bahrain started. They see all of this as a potential threat to a particular kind of geopolitical order that has more or less dominated in the Middle East since the middle of the 20th century. But it's been a club of autocrats that have tightly held onto power and that have used their positions of authority to build up layers of privilege and access to both the West and to various networks in the region.
The Saudis have been committed to seeing that preserved, and they've helped restore a similar kind of order in Egypt. Of course they sent their military resources into Bahrain to make sure the revolution wasn't successful there.
While they would like to see Assad fall in Syria, they don't necessarily want to see a democratic outcome there. They worry about the empowerment of their peoples and the possibility that, you know, sort of the Democratic winds of change might spread more effectively across the region.
Now, in addition to their anxieties about democracy in the Middle East, of course, they also have a more basic kind of geopolitical balance of power concern. They've long been engaged, or at least over the last two generations or so, have been engaged in a regional struggle with Iran for supremacy in the Gulf and for supremacy in parts of the Arab world, because Assad and Syria are a client and have been a client of Iran for quite some time. The Saudis see Syria as a particularly important prize that, if they can win, they might be able to set the table, if you will, or to stack the regional balance of balance of power more in their favor and at the expense of Tehran.
Frontline: Dramatic report as Syria Army battles jihadists in ancient Christian village
What a surprise... Kerry just happens to cite the op-ed a friendly analyst who works for a group that just happens to have a contract with the government which was undisclosed.
Think tank fires Syria analyst Kerry cited to support claims about moderate rebels
A Syria researcher whose work was cited last week by Secretary of State John Kerry and Sen. John McCain in arguing for U.S. military strikes on that country has been fired for lying that she had a doctoral degree, the policy institute for which she worked announced Wednesday. ...
O’Bagy’s termination followed a controversy that erupted last week when it emerged that in addition to being an institute analyst, she worked for the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a non-profit group that lobbies for U.S. support for Syrian rebel forces.
The controversy arose after an opinion piece she wrote for the Wall Street Journal said that, contrary to news reports, the Syrian opposition isn’t dominated by al Qaida-linked groups. Moderate groups, she wrote, have made significant gains in some areas and deserve outside military aid. The assertions were greeted with skepticism by other Syria experts.
The article identified her only by her institute affiliation, but the Journal later acknowledged that she also was the task force’s political director. The Journal described the group as providing “aid to the Syrian opposition” under contracts with the U.S. and British governments.
Rania Masri and Chris Hedges On Obama's Syria Address
Syrian govt and opposition ‘both guilty of war crimes’ – UN report
Both the Syrian rebels and government forces are guilty of multiple war crimes, including mass killings and torture, a UN report alleges. Investigators say perpetrators have committed crimes against humanity without any fear of accountability.
"The perpetrators of these violations and crimes, on all sides, act in defiance of international law. They do not fear accountability. Referral to justice is imperative," said the report by the UN commission of inquiry, which is led by Paulo Pinheiro of Brazil. The inquiry is based on 258 interviews and other evidence gathered in the month leading up to July 15.
The document says that both parties have carried out indiscriminate killings of civilians and need to be held responsible for their crimes. However, the inspectors state: “There is no military solution to this conflict.”
“Those who supply arms create but an illusion of victory. A political solution founded upon tenets of the Geneva communiqué is the only path to peace,” said the report, calling on international backers to stop sending weapons into Syria as “they will be used to commit serious violations of international law.”
Follow the money - somebody's making a sh@tpile of money on the destabilized middle east:
Pentagon Poised for $13 Billion in Mideast Arms Sales
The Pentagon has notified Congress of US $13 billion in prospective Middle East arms deals over the past 10 weeks, with Saudi Arabia and Iraq leading the administration’s summertime manifest with $10 billion in pre-approved sales of defense equipment and services.
Since mid-June, the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) informed Congress of $6.4 billion in potential defense trade with Saudi Arabia, including a $4 billion National Guard modernization program, new Mark V patrol boats and follow-on support for the Royal Saudi Air Force.
In Iraq, DSCS notified Congress of $4.7 billion in possible sales, including a $2.4 billion integrated air defense system and $900 million worth of Stryker vehicles configured for nonconventional warfare scenarios.
During the same period, it informed Congress of a potential $1.1 billion early warning radar deal to Qatar; a $588 million package of C-130J airlifters to Libya and $200 million to support Kuwait’s fleet of F/A-18 fighters.
Hat tip Suejazz:
President Obama’s Doubtful Grounds for Military Action against Syria
Obama’s case for a US attack on Syria rests on three premises. The first is that a US strike would be relatively risk-free, since the Syrian regime has limited abilities to mount reprisals, and probably wouldn’t dare.
The second premise is that a US strike would deter Syrian military chem units from deploying their deadly weapons again.
The third premise is that the United States is special, or “exceptional,” and has a duty to intervene where it can to uphold humanitarian values.
All three of these premises seem to me deeply flawed. Something like a set of missile strikes on Syria in the midst of a civil war, and at a time of turbulence in the region, can have unexpected consequences. ... If the local military units have access to small warheads filled with sarin, then likely they will deploy it when they feel desperate or panicked. ...
The third idea, that the US is ‘exceptional’ and bears a special responsibility to intervene in Syria after the chemical weapons use seems to me not only incorrect but extremely dangerous. The US is a country like any other, and certainly no more virtuous than most others. It blithely polished off 200,000 Japanese women, children and noncombatant men at Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Some were made into shadows on the wall as their bodies carbonized. Thousands suffered from lingering cancer afterwards. No US official was ever so much as reprimanded for this war crime, which was carried out at a time when Japanese had been dehumanized and demonized with the worst sort of racism. The atomic bombs did not hasten the end of the war; the Russian advance into Manchuria did that. One could go on with US infractions against international law and shameless killing of innocents, from the Philippines to Nicaragua to Vietnam.
Obama’s Humiliating Defeat
Obama, who was reluctantly asking permission from Congress to violate the most fundamental tenets of international law – permission that Congress is not empowered to give – framed Syria as a rogue nation because it has not signed a treaty on chemical weapons like “98 percent of humanity.” This makes Syria ripe for bombing. The president does not explain that Syria’s neighbors, Israel and Egypt – both U.S. allies – have also not signed the treaty. He does not suggest bombing Tel Aviv or Cairo. ...
Barack Obama pretends to believe – at least I hope he’s only pretending – that it was his idea to wait for a congressional debate before blasting Syria to smithereens. “So even though I possess the authority to order military strikes, I believed it was right in the absence of a direct or imminent threat to our security to take this debate to Congress.” He didn’t take the debate to Congress; the congressional detour was forced on the White House on August 31 when it became clear that Obama lacked both domestic and foreign support for a speedy strike. That was Obama’s first big defeat. The second was a knockout, after Russia and Syria seized on Secretary of State John Kerry’s “joke” about Assad giving up his chemical weapons, at which point Obama’s handlers advised him that his political position was, for the time being, untenable. He arrived in front of the cameras shaken, angry, and humiliated – with a patched together script and a mouth full of crow. ...
It took more than 1,500 words before Obama acknowledged the existence of the real world, in which he was compelled to “postpone” a congressional vote on the use of force while the U.S., Russia, China, France and Britain work on a UN resolution “requiring Assad to give up his chemical weapons and to ultimately destroy them under international control.” Syria has already agreed to the arrangement, in principle. Obama must bear, not only the bitter burden of defeat, but the humiliation of having to pretend that the UN route was his idea, all along.
Expect him back on the war track in no time flat. What else is an imperialist to do?
NYPD Spying On Muslims Leads To N.J. Senate Committee Approving New Regulations
A New Jersey State Senate committee passed a bill Monday that would require law enforcement agencies from elsewhere to give notice when they plan to conduct counterterrorism surveillance in the state — a measure prompted by revelations about NYPD spying on Muslims.
The impetus for the proposal came from a series of articles by The Associated Press that revealed the NYPD operated secretly in New Jersey neighborhoods where Muslims lived and worked. They spied on Muslim organizations, infiltrated Muslim student groups and videotaped mosque-goers. ,,,
The NYPD has said its operations were lawful and necessary to keep the city safe. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said the NYPD can gather intelligence anywhere in the country it wants and is not required to tell local authorities. ...
Lawmakers want to require out-of-state law enforcement agencies to give the appropriate county prosecutor at least 24 hours’ notice that they intend to conduct surveillance. The prosecutor would then notify the state police, who would notify the state Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.
The American Way of Poverty: As Inequality Hits Record High, Sasha Abramsky on the Forgotten Poor
US Wealthy Have Biggest Piece of Pie Ever Recorded
The income gap between the wealthy 1% (families with incomes above $394,000 in 2012) and everyone else is the widest it's been since 1927, the new study from UC Berkeley, Striking it Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States, shows.
Breaking another record, the top 10% of earners took in "a level higher than any other year since 1917 and even surpasses 1928, the peak of stock market bubble in the 'roaring' 1920s," according to the analysis.
As the economy moved slowly away from the crash, incomes of the top 1% have grown more than 31%, while the incomes of the 99% grew 0.4%.
"The top 1% incomes captured just over two-thirds of the overall economic growth of real incomes per family over the period 1993-2012," the authors of the report, Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty, write.
“In sum, top 1% incomes are close to full recovery while bottom 99% incomes have hardly started to recover,” states Saez.
Snowden Documents Reveal NSA Gave Israeli Spies Raw Emails, Texts, Calls of Innocent Americans
College Students Chase David Petraeus on First Day of Class
Recent video shows former CIA director David Petraeus being chased down a New York City street by student activists at the City University of New York.
Petraeus was reportedly on the way to teaching his first class at CUNY’s honors college, entitled “Are We on the Threshold of the North American Decade?” He took on the teaching gig as part of rehabilitating his image following an extramarital affair scandal that led to his resignation from the CIA.
The students can be heard yelling “War criminal!” at the retired military officer who played a key role in the “counterinsurgency” strategy of the Iraq War. “Every class, David!” the students shout, suggesting they plan to protest him on a weekly basis, before every lecture.
Will Big Labor Pick Fight Over Obama's Corporate-Friendly Trade Deals?
AFL-CIO and Teamsters talk big when it comes to so-called "free trade" agreements, but will they put their political muscle into fighting back against corporate globalization?
Before concluding its national convention in Los Angeles this week, the membership of the AFL-CIO adopted a resolution calling for a new approach to global trade and summoned a collective threat that it might actively oppose the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement that has been pushed by President Obama and will soon be put before Congress.
Describing the global trade regime represented by secretive trade deals like the TPP as a system that promotes the "rise in corporate power at the expense of working people," the union resolution argues the history of so-called "free trade" agreements (FTAs) shows that regional agreements like NAFTA and various bilateral deals have fueled the profits of companies who "outsource and offshore" jobs while suppressing the "wages and standard of living" of average workers. ...
However, even though that language stands as a strong statement against the status quo concerning international trade, it does not go so far as to declare the AFL-CIO will necessarily launch a full blown campaign to block the deal in Washington.
As Celeste Drake, trade policy specialist with the AFL-CIO, told Politico in an interview, the resolution cannot be construed as an official and complete “statement in opposition — yet.”
In Historic Move, AFL-CIO Expands Ranks With Vote to Include Non-Union, Immigrant, Low-Wage Workers
Trayvon Martin medical examiner claims prosecutors intentionally lost case
Dr. Shiping Bao, the Volusia County medical examiner who handled teenager Trayvon Martin’s body after he was shot by George Zimmerman in February of 2012, claims that the prosecution team in the case were biased against the African-American teen and intentionally lost. Furthermore, Bao said that his attorney is poised to sue the state of Florida for $100 million, according to WFTV Channel 9.
Bao’s attorney told WFTV that the medical examiner was wrongfully terminated last week by the county. According to the former assistant coroner, his autopsy results showed that it was impossible for Martin to have been on top of George Zimmerman when the gunman pulled the trigger.
The medical examiner’s office, state attorney’s office and Sanford Police were all biased against the teenager, said Bao’s attorney Willie Gary to Channel 9. “He says their general attitude was that he got what he deserved.”
Gary maintained that Bao was scapegoated and wrongly fired from the medical examiner’s office because of his disagreements with how the investigation was conducted.
The Evening Greens
Perhaps one day, America's democratic process will be able to equal the level of democracy that is apparent in Romania:
It's the People vs. a Giant Mining Firm... and the People are Winning
After a week of massive protests against a Canadian firm's efforts to build Europe's largest open-pit gold mine in the pristine Apuseni mountain range, the Romanian government appears poised to cancel the deal, with Prime Minister Victor Ponta reversing his position and urging parliament to vote "no" on the project.
The signs of a people's victory, after more than a decade of deadlock over the planned mine, left officials with Gabriel Resources Ltd.—the corporation pushing for the deal—furious and hurling threats Monday that, if parliament does not give the company a pass, they will sue for billions for "multiple breaches of international investment treaties." ...
The company and some politicians have publicly championed the proposed mine on grounds it would bring much needed jobs to a country battling poverty and unemployment. However, critics charge that opening Romania for business to foreign corporations merely ensures that natural wealth will be siphoned out of the country while leaving a path of environmental and human destruction. ...
In the face of this opposition, [Prime Minister] Ponta announced on Monday that the bill in favor of the mine is no longer viable. "As long as it is obvious that there is a majority opposed to the bill, it is useless to waste too much time on it,” he stated Monday, noting a majority of lawmakers oppose the plan.
First Marcellus Fracked Gas Export Permit Approved by Energy Dept
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has granted the first ever LNG export permit license to Dominion Resources, Inc. to export gas obtained from the controversial hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") process in the Marcellus Shale basin. ...
Located in Lusby, Maryland, the Dominion Cove Point LNG terminal will be a key regional hub to take gas fracked from one of the most prolific shale basins in the world - the Marcellus - and ship it to global markets, with shale gas exports a key geopolitical bargaining chip with Russia, the biggest producer of conventional gas in the world. ...
"Subject to environmental review and final regulatory approval, the facility is conditionally authorized to export at a rate of up to 0.77 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day (Bcf/d) for a period of 20 years," LNG Global further explained.
It's a decision that is set to affect the course of U.S. energy markets, the global climate system and sensitive ecosystems for decades to come.
Ooops! Did somebody at BP forget to send a check to the campaign fund of Bobby Jindal?
Louisiana Governor Jindal Not Buying BP Spin on Gulf Coast Impacts
Have environmental priorities finally trumped extreme right wing politics in the deep south?
Louisiana's Republican governor Bobby Jindal has heard enough from oil giant BP, taking them to task recently for destroying sensitive coastal areas during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.
For those of us who live along the Gulf Coast, it's good to see that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is fed up with BP’s ongoing ad campaign. Designed to greenwash their performance as compassionate and caring, BP's ads instead suggest that the families impacted by the 2010 Gulf Coast oil spill are greedy and corrupt - it's the mirror opposite of reality.
At a recent gathering of the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council, Jindal said, “Three and a half years later, BP is spending more money -- I want you to hear this -- they are spending more money on television commercials than they have on actually restoring the natural resources they impacted.”
Mother Jones quotes Jindal to the Council: “BP needs to stop spending hundreds of millions of dollars on their public relations campaign telling us how great they are and start proving it by addressing their Clean Water Act and Natural Resources Damage liabilities now.”
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin'
Hat tip Suejazz; Charles Pierce nails it:
The Case Is Not Made
Stop the pointless demonization of Putin
D.C. corruption probe spreads to Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign
Obama's foreign policy just as bad or worse than Bush's - poll
U.N. Rights Panel Cites Evidence of War Crimes by Both Sides in Syria
Photo-Bombing for Peace
A Little Night Music
Washboard Sam - Diggin' My Potatoes
Washboard Sam - Ladies Man
Washboard Sam - Who Pumped the Wind in my Doughnut?
Washboard Sam - Let Me Play Your Vendor
Washboard Sam - Easy Riding Mama
Washboard Sam - I'm Gonna Keep My Hair Parted
Washboard Sam - Barbecue
Washboard Sam - Back Door
Washboard Sam - Soap And Water Blues
Washboard Sam - All By Myself
Washboard Sam - I Just Couldn't Help it
Washboard Sam - Gonna Hit The Highway
Washboard Sam - Phantom Black Snake
Washboard Sam - The Big Boat
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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