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 shouter and a powerful influence on rock and roll Wynonie Harris. Enjoy!
Wynonie Harris - Good Rockin' Tonight
“A state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens.”
-- Sandra Day O'Connor
News and Opinion
Jeremy Scahill with Tom Engelhardt, Talk, 30 October 2013
Scared Silent: NSA Surveillance has 'Chilling Effect' on American Writers
Recent disclosures of the NSA's widespread dragnet program coupled with its frequent targeting of journalists are having a 'chilling effect' on American writers, stifling their freedom of expression at great detriment to society, says a new report Chilling Effects: NSA Surveillance Drives U.S. Writers to Self Censor.
Published Tuesday by the group PEN America—an organization of writers dedicated to advancing literature and promoting free speech for writers around the world—surveyed 520 American writers and found they are "not only overwhelmingly worried about government surveillance, but are engaging in self-censorship as a result." ...
Journalists and nonfiction writers responding to the poll were overwhelmingly concerned over how best to protect their sources in this new climate of repressed press freedoms. Eighty-one percent of writers surveyed said they are "very concerned about government efforts to compel journalists to reveal sources of classified information, and another 15% are somewhat concerned."
"The NSA’s surveillance will damage the ability of the press to report on the important issues of our time," note the report authors, "if journalists refrain from contacting sources for fear that their sources will be found out and harmed, or if sources conclude that they cannot safely speak to journalists and thus stay silent."
Senate to Start Sweeping Intel Review This Month
A Senate aide told The Cable that the review will proceed in two stages. The first stage, which will begin before Thanksgiving, will examine "how the [intelligence community] receives orders" about what subjects they should be paying attention to. That will be followed by what the aide described as "a longer stage" that will examine how the agencies structure their programs to collect information on those subjects. The entire review is expected to take nine months. ...
By definition, any review of all intelligence collection programs could include not just the NSA but the CIA, numerous Defense Department and military intelligence agencies, and elements of the FBI. The last time the intelligence community was subjected to an expansive congressional review of its operations was during hearings chaired by Sen. Frank Church and Rep. Otis Pike in the mid-1970s. They investigated illegal activities at the NSA, CIA, and the FBI, including spying on political activists and U.S. government officials. The so-called Church-Pike hearings led to legal restrictions on intelligence agency activities inside the United States or directed at Americans overseas. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs NSA spying on Americans, resulted from the hearings.
If the revelations of NSA spying result in another major round of intelligence hearings in Congress, it could be the most pronounced and significant effect of the Snowden leaks. But important details about how the new inquiry will be conducted remain unclear. One former U.S. official questioned whether the committee even has enough staff members to launch a broad review, considering that many of them are already working on investigations into how former NSA contractor Edward Snowden disclosed thousands of pages of classified agency documents, and the operational consequences of those leaks.
How Private is Your Online Search History?
The ACLU has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Justice to find out whether federal law enforcement agencies and prosecutors think they need a warrant to obtain people’s search queries from online search engine operators, or whether they think they can obtain it on a lower standard like a subpoena. ...
There are two kinds of information law enforcement might seek from a search engine: records of search queries entered by a particular person or persons; and a list of the names, IP addresses, or other identifying information for some or all people who have entered a particular query into the search engine’s webpage. Representatives of the two largest search engines, Google and Bing, have suggested that they think the government needs a warrant to get this information. But we don’t know what the government’s policies are, nor how the search engines have reacted when presented with a government request for users’ search query data. Other than a 2006 instance in which Google resisted an extremely broad Justice Department subpoena for search records, we don’t know of any cases where search engines have challenged government requests, in court or out. ...
The ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act request provides an opportunity for the government to explain whether it thinks it needs a warrant to obtain our private search histories, or whether its practices are at odds with the requirements of the Fourth Amendment.
Germans Rejected: US Unlikely to Offer 'No-Spy' Agreement
Senior German intelligence officials met with their NSA and CIA counterparts in the US last week to start trust-rebuilding efforts between the estranged allies. While a "no-spy" agreement seems unlikely, Merkel might learn what Snowden could still reveal.
There won't be a "no-spy" agreement was the message the two German emissaries received both at the NSA and subsequently in Langley, Virginia, where they met with CIA Director John O. Brennan. At most, the US is willing to consider a vague agreement between the intelligence services, which currently exists in a draft version. As the lead negotiator on the German side, BND Director Schindler plans to hammer out the exact wording of the agreement via video conferences with the NSA in the coming weeks.
This paper, provisionally called a "cooperation agreement," is only two passages long. The first spells out areas in which the intelligence services wish to work together closely. These include such global topics as counterterrorism, nuclear proliferation, human trafficking and cybercrime. This is the easy part, since both sides already collaborate closely in these areas.
The paper's second part has proven much harder. This section addresses the sensitive matter of espionage and potential no-spy accords. But the US is offering very little leeway here. The country's concerns are understandable, since explicitly renouncing espionage operations amounts to admitting to past misdoings. Another concern here is that if a binding no-spy agreement were implemented, it would be impossible to keep it secret, and its existence would be sure to whet the appetite of other nations as well.
One thing the German intelligence agency directors were offered while in the US was to be supplied with higher-quality information. The NSA has apparently figured out most of the data that Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor turned whistleblower, was able to copy before departing for Hong Kong in May. What's more, NSA Director Alexander has announced plans to put together a "Germany package" containing the material that Snowden is likely to release in the coming weeks.
John Kerry: world leaders have been understanding about NSA leaks
World leaders have been understanding about leaked revelations that the US spied on them as they know it was not all done under the orders of Barack Obama, the US secretary of state has said.
In an interview with the BBC, John Kerry said foreign governments understood the president did not personally authorise all the surveillance, which included tapping the mobile phone of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.
Asked about the talks held with foreign leaders over the revelations, Kerry said they had been "very respectful, very understanding. We're all trying to find a way forward that respects privacy, rights, that fights terrorism, that doesn't interfere with people." ...
Kerry told the BBC: "The president has ordered a full review into what we're doing. People understand that the president didn't order all these things, this happened over a long period of time, it's been an evolutionary process, we now need to define it more effectively and that's what the president is setting out to do."
Spying Scandal Alters U.S. Ties With Allies and Raises Talk of Policy Shift
Just as European and American negotiators resumed work on a groundbreaking trade accord meant to tie their two continents closer together, René Obermann, the chief executive of Deutsche Telekom, the German telecommunications giant, told a cybersecurity conference in Germany on Monday that his company was working to keep electronic message traffic from “unnecessarily” crossing the Atlantic, where it could fall into the hands of the National Security Agency.
Other German executives, and some politicians, are beginning to talk of segmenting the Internet, so that they are not reliant on large American firms that by contract or court order allow United States intelligence agencies to delve into their data about phone and Internet usage. Europeans are demanding that any new trade accord include data-privacy protections that the United States is eager to avoid.
Almost never before has a spying scandal — in this case the revelation of the monitoring of the cellphone of Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany — resulted in such a concrete, commercial backlash. ... Germany is now toughening its demands that the United States respect all domestic and international laws — code words for ceasing the surveillance on German soil amid rising anger at the United States.
Afghan Gov’t Abandons Wardak Probe over Reported U.S. Stonewalling
The Afghan government has reportedly abandoned a probe into the killings of civilians after being refused access to the U.S. soldiers linked to the crimes. The investigation centers around the disappearances of 17 men seized by U.S. forces in Wardak province. The bodies of 10 of the victims were later found buried near a U.S. military base used by a unit called "The A-Team." A recent report in Rolling Stone magazine said the disappearances and killings could amount to some of the gravest war crimes perpetrated by U.S. forces since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. According to Reuters, Afghan intelligence officers have stopped investigating after the U.S. military denied a request to interview U.S. Green Berets and their Afghan translators.
'State of Emergency': Iran, US relations sour with no nuclear deal & sanctions return
Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Neutrality Agreements
Today the Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether "neutrality agreements," where the employer promises not to fight the union, are really just a bribe, and therefore illegal.
As the legal system keeps choking organizing possibilities, it’s now a rare campaign in the private sector where the union doesn’t first extract a neutrality agreement to blunt the boss’s wrath.
Neutrality agreements create rules for union and employer behavior during organizing drives. Often an employer signs such an agreement only after years of targeted union pressure. The employer promises not to try to sway workers’ opinions, allowing them some breathing room when labor law is mostly on management’s side.
Such a deal may also include “card check” (the employer will recognize the union if a majority of workers say they want one) or improved rules for an NLRB-supervised vote, such as a quicker election.
Supreme Courts Considers Limiting the Right of Unions to Organize
Pittsburghers Try a Community Union
In the face of an awful economic climate and labor laws that too often favor employers, Pittsburghers are trying out a new organizing model: a rank-and-file community union.
The fledgling group brings union and non-union workers together to fight side by side on social justice issues and to seed workplace organizing committees through a Pittsburgh-flavored campaign called “Is Your Boss a Jagoff?” ...
Fight Back Pittsburgh operates similarly to a local union, with bylaws and an elected executive board. Members are active in six committees: communications, civil and human rights, fight back at work, membership, neighborhood action, and rapid response. ...
Some of the most exciting and innovative work is taking place in the Fight Back at Work Committee. The committee operates a Worker Justice Hotline, which it promotes through face-to-face conversations, its web and social media pages, and the “Is Your Boss a Jagoff?” campaign (playing off the popular Pittsburgh slang term).
Any worker who is running into problems at his or her workplace can call the hotline and speak with a committee member. Often, this turns into an opportunity for the worker to organize with co-workers to try to resolve—or at least improve—the situation.
For example, the hotline received several calls from workers at museums and libraries who are having their hours cut so their employers won’t have to offer health insurance. The workers decided to form an organizing committee called “Info Desk” and Fight Back at Work has been providing assistance.
Obama's record-breaking effort to tap wealthy donors for cash
A record-breaking fundraising spree by Barack Obama has seen him make 30 separate visits to wealthy donors since April, according to a Guardian investigation into campaign finance trips that are running at more than twice the rate of the president's two-term predecessors. ...
Travelling to the 30 fundraisers, mostly held in private mansions and luxury hotels across 10 cities, has also required him to clock up more than 20,000 miles on Air Force One at an estimated cost to the US taxpayer of more than $6m.
Obamacare mocked at Country Music Association awards
At the Country Music Association awards in Nashville, effectively the Grammys for country music, superstar hosts Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood performed a song skit mocking Obamacare, the Democrats' public health initiative that has proved hugely unpopular amongst conservatives.
Paisley, feigning a strained back, was attended to by Underwood who suggested he try Obamacare: "I started signing up last Thursday and I'm almost done!" They then launched into Obamacare By Morning, a spoof of George Straight's country classic Amarillo by Morning, attacking the initiative's slow service and inefficiency.
Is anybody out there going to be near Philadelphia Nov. 22nd feeling like raising a little hell and asking some probing questions?
Library to Feature Mercenary Leader in New Speaker Series
[T]he Free Library of Philadelphia is bringing Blackwater’s founder, Erik Prince, to town to talk about how Blackwater guards are awesome. ... Tickets to the events are $40 apiece.
Prince will speak on Nov. 22. He’ll be promoting his new book, Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story of Blackwater and the Unsung Heroes of the War on Terror. We’ll assume the “unsung heroes” aren’t the ones who kill lots of civilians, but who do make $1.5 billion over eight years providing security to government agencies apparently unable to fend for themselves.
Now Even Some GOP Members Reject Fast-Tracking A Bad Trade Deal
Giant corporations are trying to get Congress to give up its Constitutional obligation to consider and amend a trade treaty that requires our country to give up its sovereignty. Many organizations and legislators — including many Republicans — don’t appear to be falling for this one. ...
Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), if passed by Congress, bypasses the Constitutional obligation of Congress to oversee and carefully consider trade agreements. If Fast Track passes, Congress must vote on whatever trade agreement is handed to them without amendment, in a rush with little discussion, and with an “up or down” vote. Period. This enables the corporations to launch a carefully-timed massively-funded media-hysteria shock and awe campaign to make it appear that the public is demanding this treaty be passed, and to swamp any ability to oppose it. ...
Tuesday a group of 22 Republican members of the House circulated a letter opposing Fast Track TPA. In the letter the Representatives declare, “we do not agree to cede our constitutional authority to the executive through an approval of a request for ‘Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority.’ ”
On Wednesday a group of Democratic house members will announce and circulate a similar letter. (Last year more than 130 Democratic members of the House signed a DeLauro/Miller letter asking for transparency and Congressional consultation on TPP. No transparency and consultation has been forthcoming.)
House Dems Can Block GOP Food Stamp Cuts—by Killing the Farm Bill
The farm bill will almost inevitably include deep cuts to the food stamps program—unless House Democrats join with conservatives to kill the bill.
The food stamps program—which helps feed 1 in 7 Americans—is in peril. Republicans in the House have proposed a farm bill—the five-year bill that funds agriculture and nutrition programs—that would slash food stamps by $40 billion. But by taking advantage of House Republicans' desire to cut food stamps as much as possible, Democrats might be able to prevent cuts from happening at all.
To pull it off, Democrats would have to derail the farm bill entirely, which would maintain food stamp funding at current levels. Here's how it would work, according to House Democrats who've considered the idea.
It's an idea rooted in the last food stamp fight: In June, the House failed to pass a farm bill that cut $20 billion from the food stamp program. The bill went down because 62 GOP conservatives thought the $20 billion in cuts weren't deep enough, while 172 Democrats thought they were too drastic. After the bill failed, House conservatives passed a much more draconian food stamps bill with $40 billion in cuts. But that bill was dead-on-arrival in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has vowed to pass a farm bill. ... In June, 62 Republicans voted against a bill with $20 billion in cuts. If Boehner loses the same 62 Republicans this time around ... Boehner is going to need some Democratic votes. ... And as Boehner saw in June, winning House Democrats' votes for a bill that slashes food stamps by billions of dollars is a heavy lift—after all, if no farm bill passes, food stamps spending would remain at current levels. Why compromise when you can win by doing nothing at all? "It would make sense," emails a House Democratic aide, "for progressives to vote against [the farm bill].
The game plan was the same in other
democracies demockerys. Will there be a coup de grace? Perhaps a full-on global
trade feudalism agreement?
It's business that really rules us now
It's the reason for the collapse of democratic choice. It's the source of our growing disillusionment with politics. It's the great unmentionable. Corporate power. The media will scarcely whisper its name. It is howlingly absent from parliamentary debates. Until we name it and confront it, politics is a waste of time.
The political role of business corporations is generally interpreted as that of lobbyists, seeking to influence government policy. In reality they belong on the inside. They are part of the nexus of power that creates policy. They face no significant resistance, from either government or opposition, as their interests have now been woven into the fabric of all three main political parties in Britain. ...
Tony Blair and Gordon Brown purged the party of any residue of opposition to corporations and the people who run them. That's what New Labour was all about. Now opposition MPs stare mutely as their powers are given away to a system of offshore arbitration panels run by corporate lawyers.
Since Blair, parliament operates much as Congress in the United States does: the lefthand glove puppet argues with the righthand glove puppet, but neither side will turn around to face the corporate capital that controls almost all our politics. This is why the assertion that parliamentary democracy has been reduced to a self-important farce has resonated so widely over the past fortnight.
So I don't blame people for giving up on politics. I haven't given up yet, but I find it ever harder to explain why. When a state-corporate nexus of power has bypassed democracy and made a mockery of the voting process, when an unreformed political funding system ensures that parties can be bought and sold, when politicians of the three main parties stand and watch as public services are divvied up by a grubby cabal of privateers, what is left of this system that inspires us to participate?
Times are tough all over....
Blue Bloods Breadline: UK nobles on verge of losing historic estates
Tina Turner formally ‘relinquishes’ U.S. citizenship
This item just in via an “activity” report from the U.S. Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, headlined “Soul Legend Relinquishes U.S. Citizenship.”
“Long-time Swiss resident Tina Turner” was in the embassy Oct. 24 to sign her “Statement of Voluntary Relinquishment of U.S. Citizenship under Section 349 (a)(1) of the INA” — the Immigration and Naturalization Act. ...
Turner has lived in Switzerland for nearly two decades. In July, she married her boyfriend of 27 years, German music producer Erwin Bach (unclear if related to Johann Sebastian). Turner had taken the oath of Swiss nationality April 10. She’s fluent in German, the report said, and she declared that she no longer has any strong ties to the United States “except for family, and has no plans to reside in the United States in the future.”
The key word in the embassy report apparently is the term “relinquishment.” That means, a knowledgeable source told us, that she did not “formally renounce her U.S. citizenship under 349(a)(5) Immigration and Nationality Act, but took Swiss citizenship with the intent to lose her U.S. citizenship.”
The Evening Greens
California, on track for record dry year, is ready to seed clouds
California, already parched and fire-scorched following two consecutive snow- and rain-deprived winters, is on track to experience its driest year on record.
“It’s absolutely dry,” Bob Benjamin, a National Weather Service forecaster, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “We just went through October where there was no measurable precipitation in downtown San Francisco. That’s only happened seven times since records started.” ...
As winter approaches, water officials are getting ready to take matters into their own hands: They plan to step up cloud seeding. The Sacramento Bee reports:
As California concludes a second drought year and water managers hope eagerly to avoid a third, utilities across the state are poised for that first mass of pillowy gray clouds to drift ashore from the Pacific Ocean.
When it arrives, if conditions are right, they’ll be ready with cloud-seeding tools to squeeze out every extra snowflake, with the goal of boosting the snowpack that ultimately feeds the state’s water-storage reservoirs.
Public Citizen Report Reveals Dents, Holes in Keystone XL Southern Half Weeks Before Planned Startup
The southern half of Transcanada's Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is supposed to begin pumping up to 700,000 barrels of diluted bitumen per day through the Cushing, OK to Port Arthur, TX route within weeks. But is it ready to operate safely?
Public Citizen has released a chilling report revealing that the 485-mile KXL southern line is plagued by dents, faulty welding, exterior damage that was patched up poorly and misshapen bends, among other troubling anomalies.
In conducting its investigative report, "Construction Problems Raise Questions About the Integrity of the Pipeline," Public Citizen worked on the ground to examine 250 miles of the 485 mile pipeline's route. The group and its citizen sources uncovered over 125 anomalies in that half of the line alone. These findings moved Public Citizen to conclude the southern half of the pipeline shouldn't begin service until the anomalies are taken care of, and ponders if the issues can ever be resolved sufficiently.
After President Barack Obama temporarily denied a permit for Keystone XL's northern half in January 2012, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted Keystone XL's south half a legally dubious Nationwide Permit 12 to expedite construction. Soon after, President Obama issued his own Executive Order in March 2012 calling for the expedited building of the south half in de facto support of the Corps' permit.
Reality Check: The B.C. LNG Hyperbole
[Hat tip Agathena, who explains:
"The two levels of government, Federal and Provincial are staking our economy on LNG, liquid natural gas for export to China. It is Fracked shale gas which is destroying the landscape of Northern BC. Will require a pipeline to Kitimat harbour, a small harbour in the Douglas Channel. Will have supertankers navigating our rocky West Coast and the narrow, island filled Douglas Channel. And the stuff goes to China. The gov is using the phoney "offsets" to keep the GHG down but the UN doesn't use offsets or other games, they count the actual pollution. It's not only the GHG, it's the land disturbance, the water use, the threat of leaks and spills."]
In what has to be one of the most bizarre and misleading press releases I have ever seen, the B.C. government issued a report in reference to the province's Montney Formation, that claimed: "this potential [natural gas] supply can support development and LNG export operations for more than 150 years". ...
As noted by Metro News, the 150 year number comes from "domestic rather than global consumption" numbers. ... But here's the problem... Almost by definition, LNG is for export not domestic consumption. ... Canada contained (at the end of 2012) 1.1 per cent of global reserves. Doubling B.C.'s (not even Canada's proven reserves) would have a very small effect on global resource lifetime. ...
Instead of chasing the falling fossil fuel economy of yesterday, B.C. should be heading towards a prosperous future by developing its clean tech sector -- the sector involved in the generation, transmission, storage and end use of renewable energy.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin'
The Extra Legroom Society
Dmitry Orlov Reviews "Collapsing Consciously"
Hat tip cosmic debris:
WikiLeaks Release of Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP)
A Surveillance State Scorecard
Podcast link, hat tip Agathena:
The Disruptors: Glenn Greenwald on Snowden and spilling government secrets
Another Hour With Russell Brand
A Little Night Music
Wynonie Harris - Lovin' Machine
Wynonie Harris - Put It Back
Wynonie Harris - Keep On Churnin' (Til The Butter Come)
Wynonie Harris - All She Wants To Do Is Rock
Wynonie Harris - Sittin' On It All The Time
Wynonie Harris with Sun Ra - Dig This Boogie
Wynonie Harris and His All Stars - I Want My Fanny Brown
Wynonie Harris - Destination Love
Wynonie Harris - Shake That Thing
Wynonie Harris - Quiet Whiskey
Wynonie Harris - Bad News Baby (There'll Be No Rockin' Tonight)
Wynonie Harris - Around The Clock Parts 1 and 2
Wynonie Harris - Don't Roll Those Bloodshot Eyes At Me
Wynonie Harris - Rock Mr. Blues
Wynonie Harris - Tell a Whale of a Tale
Wynonie Harris - Lollipop Mama (Jump Mr Blues)
Wynonie Harris - Lightning Struck The Poorhouse
Arnett Cobb & Wynonie Harris - Good Morning Corrine
Wynonie Harris - Big Old Country Fool
Wynonie Harris - A Tale Of Woe
Wynonie Harris - Rebecca's Blues
Wynonie Harris - All She Wants To Do Is Mambo
Wynonie Harris - Good Mambo Tonight
Wynonie Harris - Stormy Night Blues
Wynonie Harris - Luscious Woman
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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