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 Chicago blues harmonica player Junior Wells. Enjoy!
Junior Wells - Hoodoo Man Blues
“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.”
-- George Orwell
News and Opinion
Greenwald and Poitras’ return: What’s the real reason they weren’t arrested?
So why weren’t Greenwald and Poitras arrested?
Some have speculated that there would be too much backlash against the Obama administration were they to attempt to indict Greenwald or Poitras, who has faced intensive hours-long interrogations when she has passed through the U.S. in the past. This is an election year in which the Democrats already face low voter interest from longtime party members and other political activists, indicating extreme alienation from the more liberal segments of their constituency. There are many reasons for this alienation, some having to do with the shenanigans of various Obama administration officials, including the blatant deception of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who lied under oath in saying that Americans’ phones were not being wiretapped. The White House’s diminishing credibility in the face of the NSA scandal was not rescued in light of the pretext by the Obama administration to appoint a serious NSA oversight panel. As the Associated Press’ Stephen Braun reported last September, the members of the panel work in DNI offices, their statements are vetted through the DNI’s press office, and the transparency rule that is supposed to govern most federal committees has been suspended for them, thanks to the gracious intervention by Clapper himself.
The White House’s integrity was not enhanced in the slightest by its refusal to consider seriously the conclusion rendered by an independent watchdog group, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, namely that the NSA spying program was illegal. Stories continue to be churned out by Greenwald at the Intercept, the online magazine that he and Poitras founded through Internet billionaire Pierre Omidyar’s funding, and elsewhere by Barton Gellman, Ewan McAskill and others. As the public continues to hear new revelations about the U.S.’s surveillance activities, frustration surrounding the complicity of Democrats in not challenging the NSA’s scope or holding CIA and DNI officials to account could be expressed by significant losses of seats during the upcoming midterm elections. ...
Is there any credibility to the idea that the U.S. is a nation of laws and procedure, when the CIA itself faces accusations by Sen. Dianne Feinstein for hacking into Senate Intelligence Committee staff’s computers in order to eliminate all traces of congressional reports of illegal CIA torture activities that took place under the Bush administration? Do we call the administration’s actions abusive or merely autocratic when it refuses to publicly hold the CIA to account? How about when it refuses to call the Bush administration officials to account (“Look forward!”)?
Did the Department of Justice avoid a showdown with Greenwald and Poitras because of the fear of backlash from American citizens, or because it is too busy covering up wrongdoing on the part of the CIA, the NSA, the DNI — not to mention Bush administration officials — to worry about the reentry of two zealous investigative journalists?
FBI abruptly leaves Senate hearing after being asked about ‘Insider Threat’ program
While we've been disappointed that Senator Chuck Grassley appears to have a bit of a double standard with his staunch support for whistleblowers when it comes to Ed Snowden, it is true that he has fought for real whistleblower protections for quite some time. Lately, he's been quite concerned that the White House's "Insider Threat Program" (ITP) is really just a cover to crack down on whistleblowers. As we've noted, despite early promises from the Obama administration to support and protect whistleblowers, the administration has led the largest crackdown against whistleblowers, and the ITP suggests that the attack on whistleblowers is a calculated response. The program documentation argues that any leak can be seen as "aiding the enemy" and encourages government employees to snitch on each other if they appear too concerned about government wrong-doing. Despite all his high minded talk of supporting whistleblowers, President Obama has used the Espionage Act against whistleblowers twice as many times as all other Presidents combined. Also, he has never -- not once -- praised someone for blowing the whistle in the federal government.
Given all of that, Senator Grassley expressed some concern about this Insider Threat Program and how it distinguished whistleblowers from actual threats. He asked the FBI for copies of its training manual on the program, which it refused to give him. Instead, it said it could better answer any questions at a hearing. However, as Grassley explains, when questioned about this just 10 minutes into the hearing, the FBI abruptly got up and left.
[F]our months ago I sent a letter to the FBI requesting its training materials on the Insider Threat Program. ... I also asked for copies of the training materials. I said I wanted to examine whether they adequately distinguished between insider threats and whistleblowers. In response, an FBI legislative affairs official told my staff that a briefing might be the best way to answer my questions. ... Staff for both Chairman Leahy and I attended, and the FBI brought the head of their Insider Threat Program. Yet the FBI didn’t bring the Insider Threat training materials as we had requested. ... Unfortunately, neither my staff nor Chairman Leahy’s staff was able to learn more, because only about ten minutes into the briefing, the FBI abruptly walked out. FBI officials simply refused to discuss any whistleblower implications in its Insider Threat Program and left the room. These are clearly not the actions of an agency that is genuinely open to whistleblowers or whistleblower protection.
Chelsea Manning’s New Lawyers Will Challenge ‘Frightening’ Espionage Act Charges on Appeal
At an event at Georgetown Law Center last night, Chelsea Manning’s new lawyers provided a preview of what they expect to happen during the appeals process in her military case.
Nancy Hollander, a defense attorney who has defended various individuals accused of terrorism or national security offenses, and Vincent Ward, a former JAG lawyer with a background in the military justice system, both said they were at the “beginnings” of the appeal. They have not seen the record of Manning’s trial yet, however, they wanted to offer the public, especially Manning supporters, the opportunity to hear what their thoughts are on the legal process which lies ahead.
The “misuse of the Espionage Act,” the over-classification of information, the selective prosecution of individuals by the government for leaks, “unlawful command influence,” “unlawful pretrial punishment,” and violations of “speedy trial rights” will all be issues raised during the appeal.
Hollander said Manning’s convictions for violating the Espionage Act set a “dangerous precedent.” She added, “If this case stands, along with some other recent cases, whoever leaks a single page of classified information or even non-classified information runs the risk of prosecution under this act.”
Manning was found guilty of five Espionage Act offenses, which is quite significant in the war on leaks and whistleblowers that has been waged by President Barack Obama’s administration.
“The Espionage Act was meant to punish spies and saboteurs and people who steal things from the United States and take them to foreign countries to benefit that country or to specifically hurt the United States. It was never meant for whistleblowers. It should never be used in these kinds of cases,” she said.
Pulitzer Does Not Fully Express Power of Collaborative Snowden Reporting
The Pulitzers are first national (they honor U.S. journalism), second institutional (the entries are submitted by a newspaper or online newsroom) and third individual (writers with bylines are typically named, though not always.)
The Snowden story is an international enterprise, involving the press, and press law, in the UK, Germany, France, Brazil, Canada and the United States for starters. It involves collaboration and alliance among freelance journalists with their own standing (Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras especially, but also to a degree Barton Gellman) who are contracting with institutions and their unique strengths: the Guardian and the Washington Post won the Pulitzer but there are many others: the New York Times and ProPublica (with whom The Guardian shared some of the Snowden documents) Der Spiegel in Germany, O Globo in Brazil, CBC in Canada— and more. There’s no Pulitzer for that.
At crucial moments, the “networked” part of the surveillance story kept it from being contained by the authorities. The most dramatic is when Alan Rusbridger of The Guardian told the men from the UK government that he would comply with their demands to destroy the computer hard drives containing the Snowden files. But:
I explained to the man from Whitehall about the nature of international collaborations and the way in which, these days, media organisations could take advantage of the most permissive legal environments. Bluntly, we did not have to do our reporting from London. Already most of the NSA stories were being reported and edited out of New York. And had it occurred to him that Greenwald lived in Brazil?
In a sense it’s that moment that deserved the Pulitzer today.
Heartbleed makes 50m Android phones vulnerable, data shows
At least 4m Android smartphones in the US, and tens of millions worldwide, could be exploited by a version of the "Heartbleed" security flaw, data provided to the Guardian shows.
Worldwide, the figure could be 50m devices, based on Google's own announcement that any device running a specific variant of its "Jelly Bean" software – Android 4.1.1, released in July 2012 – is vulnerable.
The figure, calculated using data provided exclusively by the analytics firm Chitika, is the first time an accurate estimate has been put on the number of vulnerable devices. Other estimates have suggested it is hundreds of millions, based on the number of devices running versions of Android 4.1. But most of those run 4.1.2, which is not at risk. ...
The devices would be vulnerable to a hack described as "reverse Heartbleed" - where a malicious server would be able to exploit the flaw in OpenSSL to grab data from the phone's browser, which could include information about part sessions and logins.
“Brightest Flashlight” Android app disclosed location of 50 million people, but FTC imposes no fine
Even judging by the low standards of creepy data-mining apps, “Brightest Flashlight” did something pretty egregious. The free app, which was installed by at least 50 million Android users, transmitted users’ real-time locations to ad networks and other third parties. It was, in other words, a stalking device disguised as a flashlight.
In December, the Federal Trade Commission exposed the app’s antics and also announced a proposed settlement with the app maker, GoldenShores Technologies, a one-man operation based in Idaho. In doing so, the agency explained how Brightest Flashlight used legal flim-flam in a privacy policy and user license agreement to obscure what the app was up to. ...
In a Wednesday announcement, the FTC confirmed that GoldenShores and owner Erik Geidl are not to collect app users’ geolocation without clearly explaining how and why they’re doing so and, in broad terms, say who is receiving that information. The flashlight app maker will also have to keep records for the FTC to inspect, and Geidl will have to tell the agency about any new businesses he decides to start in the next 10 years. He also has 10 days as of the order to delete all the data he collected.
On paper, the order looks like stern stuff but, in practice, it’s hard to see how this amounts to real punishment.
“Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere, that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union. This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power.”
-- Paul Wolfowitz
Ray McGovern Discusses Ukraine
Kiev launches 'anti-terror operation' in east
Here's a summary of where things stand [from The Guardian's liveblog]:
• In the first major deployment of Ukrainian military forces in the country's current crisis, Kiev sent troops, jets, helicopters and armored personnel carriers to positions near the eastern cities of Kramatorsk and Slovyansk.
• Ukrainian government forces ejected pro-Moscow forces from the airport at Kramatorsk and from an airstrip in neighboring Slovyansk. There were unconfirmed reports of casualties.
• As of Tuesday evening, the deployment appeared to be limited to the area around Kramatorsk and Slavyansk, the scene of violent clashes over the weekend. The timing and scope of the Ukrainian military objective was unclear. "We need to destroy this foreign invader," a Ukrainian commander said.
• There were no reports of substantial armed clashes by Tuesday evening local time.
• A tense standoff played out outside the Kramatorsk airport in which local forces threw rocks at Ukrainian troops and the troops fired warning shots into the air.
• Acting president Oleksandr Turchynov said Ukraine was undertaking an "anti-terrorist operation" to eject pro-Russian forces from police and government buildings in some eastern cities. The planned extent of the Ukrainian operation was unclear.
• Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned twice on Tuesday that Ukraine was on the brink of civil war. A spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin said "there are no Russian forces whatsoever" in Ukraine.
• The White House sent a message of strong support for the Ukrainian deployment, saying the government in Kiev “has to respond” to the takeover of administrative buildings by armed groups.
• The Ukrainian deployment follows a week of siege by pro-Moscow forces on government buildings in more than 12 eastern Ukrainian cities. The United States said the attacks were "coordinated" and compared them to the takeover last month of Crimea.
Alec Luhn has filed a lengthier description of what he saw outside Kramatorsk airport, including a skirmish in which incensed locals nearly dragged away a Ukrainian commander:
Ukrainian troops fired shots as they deployed to an airfield as part of an "anti-terrorist operation" in eastern Ukraine, wounding at least two.
The general commanding the operation, Vasily Krutov, told angry locals outside the airfield gates that his troops needed to open fire because armed men had opposed them. But locals said the troops had fired on men armed only with clubs. The Guardian saw a man in the crowd with a wound on his side that he said was from a bullet graze.
Krutov was nearly dragged off by furious citizens after he came out to speak to hundreds of locals who had gathered. After he said troops were there conducting an "anti-terrorist" operation, people shouted, "What terrorists?!"
Ukraine: Military secures airport
In the first Ukrainian military action against a pro-Russian uprising in the east, government forces said they clashed Tuesday with about 30 armed gunmen at a small airport.
The clash came hours after Ukraine's acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, had announced an "anti-terrorist operation" against the armed, pro-Russian insurgents who had seized control of numerous buildings in at least nine cities in Ukraine's restive east.
The central government has so far been unable to rein in the insurgents, who it says are being stirred up by paid operatives from Russia. The insurgents are demanding broader autonomy and closer ties with Russia, and complicating the political landscape, many local security forces have switched to their side.
The clashes Tuesday came at Kramatorsk airport, just south of the city of Slovyansk, which is 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the Russian border. The city has come under the increasing control of the gunmen who seized it last weekend.
The precise sequence of events in Kramatorsk was mired in confusion amid contradictory official claims.
Criminal Case for Separatism Opened Against Ukrainian Presidential Candidate Severely Beaten in Kiev
A pro-Russian candidate for the Ukrainian presidency was beaten on Tuesday morning by a crowd in Kiev and remains in critical condition, the politician's press service said.
Oleh Tsaryov, a former Party of the Region's deputy, was attacked by armed men outside the ICTV television station, where the lawmaker had appeared on a live broadcast, Interfax reported, citing the candidate's assistant.
Tsaryov, who was rescued from the mob by government security forces, said that the incident won't force him to withdraw from Ukraine's presidential election, scheduled for May 25.
Mikhail Dobkin, a Party of the Regions member and a presidential candidate, was also reportedly doused in flour and green liquid before he could get to the same television studio, where he was to take part in televised discussions with Tsaryov and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. ...
RIA Novosti reports that Ukrainian authorities have opened a criminal case against Tsaryov on charges of "infringement of the territorial integrity" of Ukraine. A statement from the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office said that Tsaryov is thought to have called for the separation of the country in public appearances and to the media.
The statement added that confirmation of separatist rhetoric from the deputy would lead to an appeal to the Ukrainian legislature to strip Tsaryov of his parliamentary immunity and put a stop to his presidential bid.
Pro-Russian militias fill the vacuum as Kiev's control in eastern Ukraine slips
On the steps of Slavyansk's occupied town hall a group of armed men in fatigues posed happily for photos. ... Who exactly were they? "We're Cossacks," one of the group explained. "It doesn't matter where we are from." ... The mysterious "Cossacks" arrived in Slavyansk, 40 miles (65km) north of Donetsk, on Saturday. Similar "Cossacks" popped up in Crimea too, soon after Russia invaded and then annexed the territory. According to Kiev's hapless interim government, Russia is behind the apparently co-ordinated takeover by masked men in military uniforms of government buildings all across eastern Ukraine. The US and EU agree. Moscow denies the charge. It says that the west blames it for everything. ...
Over the past few days pro-Russian activists have seized the city administration in almost a dozen places. They are now camped out in a succession of late Soviet municipal buildings. On Monday an angry crowd armed with sticks hijacked the police HQ in the city of Horlivka, badly beating a policeman and smashing in the upper windows. Occupations continue in Donetsk, and a string of other Russophone eastern towns in the Donbass region. ...
With Ukraine's military either invisible or non-existent, pro-Russian militia have filled the vacuum. They have set up roadblocks heaped with black tyres. Masked youths, mostly armed with sticks, stop and check cars. Closer to Slavyansk the barricades get bigger. The route and main checkpoint lead over a bridge. Halfway across is an extraordinary sight: a group of women, mostly elderly, stand in a line holding gold-framed icons. They bow and pray – volunteer human shields.
The dilemma for the authorities in Kiev is that these anti-Kiev militias – whether spontaneous or set in motion by Moscow, like so many spinning tops – enjoy substantial local support. Many here are convinced that Ukraine's new rulers are "fascists", the accusation from the Kremlin. Economic conditions, meanwhile, are dire. The prevailing uncertainty following months of upheaval in Kiev and revolution means that tourists are no longer coming to Slavyansk. ...
In this frenzied informational conflict it is clear which side is winning: it is not the US.
On the road out of town pro-Russian agitators had set up a roadblock on the edge of a pine forest. Their camp looked inviting. It was a sylvan scene – a tent, a new wooden bench, a pile of neatly stacked logs, and the smell of dinner cooking on a fire.
Someone had drawn a caricature of an American in a top hat with a dollar sign on it. On the American was the word: "Puppeteer". His fingers were pulling strings with a series of letters. They read: "Our government".
Obama warns Putin that Moscow faces further action
Barack Obama has told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a tense phone call that Moscow would face further costs for its actions in Ukraine and should use its influence to get separatists in the country to stand down.
Armed pro-Russian separatists seized more buildings in eastern Ukraine earlier in the day, expanding their control after the government failed to follow through on a threatened military crackdown.
In a call on Monday night that the White House said Moscow requested, the US president told Putin that those forces were threatening to undermine and destabilise the government in Kiev.
"The president emphasised that all irregular forces in the country need to lay down their arms, and he urged president Putin to use his influence with these armed, pro-Russian groups to convince them to depart the buildings they have seized," the White House said in a statement. ...
The Kremlin said Putin told Obama during the call that Russia was not interfering in Ukraine and urged Washington to use its influence to prevent bloodshed.
Earlier, US officials stopped short of announcing a new set of sanctions against Russia but said they were in consultations with European partners about the prospect.
The European Union agreed on Monday to step up sanctions against Moscow by expanding a list of people subjected to asset freezes and visa bans.
Russia says Ukraine close to civil war as Kiev begins offensive
Russia declared Ukraine on the brink of civil war on Tuesday as Kiev said an "anti-terrorist operation" against pro-Moscow separatists was under way, with troops and armored personnel carriers seen near a flashpoint eastern town.
Twenty-four hours after an Ukrainian ultimatum expired for the rebels to lay down their arms, witnesses however saw no signs yet that Kiev forces were about to storm state buildings in the Russian-speaking east that armed militants have occupied.
Interim President Oleksander Turchinov insisted the operation had started in the eastern Donetsk region, although it would happen in stages and "in a considered way". ...
At least 15 armored personnel carriers displaying Ukrainian flags were parked by the side of a road around 50 km (30 miles) north of Slaviansk, witnesses said.
Ukrainian troops wearing camouflage gear and armed with automatic weapons and grenade launchers were stationed nearby, with a helicopter and several buses containing interior ministry personnel near the road. ...
In Kiev, a radical pro-Russian candidate running for Ukrainian presidential elections due next month was beaten up by an angry crowd.
Rebel videos show first U.S.-made rockets in Syria
Online videos show Syrian rebels using what appear to be U.S. anti-tank rockets, weapons experts say, the first significant American-built armaments in the country's civil war.
They would signal a further internationalization of the conflict, with new rockets suspected from Russia and drones from Iran also spotted in the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.
None of that equipment, however, is seen as enough to turn the tide of battle in a now broadly stalemated war, with Assad dominant in Syria's central cities and along the Mediterranean coast and the rebels in the interior north and east.
It was not possible to independently verify the authenticity of the videos or the supplier of the BGM-71 TOW anti-tank rockets shown in the videos. Some analysts suggested they might have been provided by another state such as Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally, probably with Washington's acquiescence.
The Modern History of Venezuela from 1973 to the Caracazo Massacre
The 1% wants to ban sleeping in cars – because it hurts their 'quality of life'
Across the United States, many local governments are responding to skyrocketing levels of inequality and the now decades-long crisis of homelessness among the very poor ... by passing laws making it a crime to sleep in a parked car.
This happened most recently in Palo Alto, in California's Silicon Valley, where new billionaires are seemingly minted every month – and where 92% of homeless people lack shelter of any kind. Dozens of cities have passed similar anti-homeless laws. The largest of them is Los Angeles, the longtime unofficial "homeless capital of America", where lawyers are currently defending a similar vehicle-sleeping law before a skeptical federal appellate court. Laws against sleeping on sidewalks or in cars are called "quality of life" laws. But they certainly don't protect the quality of life of the poor. ...
Their hope, of course, is that homeless people will go elsewhere, despite the fact that the great majority of homeless people are trying to survive in the same communities in which they were last housed – and where they still maintain connections. Americans sleeping in their own cars literally have nowhere to go. ...
One finds the "vehicularly housed" in virtually every neighborhood, including my own. But the animus that drives anti-homeless laws seems to be greatest in the wealthiest cities, like Palo Alto, which has probably spawned more per-capita fortunes than any city on Earth, and in the more recently gentrified areas like Los Angeles' Venice. These places are ruled by majorities of "liberals" who decry, with increasing fervor, the rapid rise in economic inequality. Nationally, 90% of Democrats (and 45% of Republicans) believe the government should act to reduce the rich-poor gap.
It is easy to be opposed to inequality in the abstract. So why are Los Angeles and Palo Alto spending virtually none of their budgets on efforts to provide housing for the very poor and homeless? When the most obvious evidence of inequality parks on their street, it appears, even liberals would rather just call the police.
Who Goes to Jail? Matt Taibbi on American Injustice Gap from Wall Street to Main Street
Detroit makes deal with retired cops, firefighters
The city of Detroit has reached a deal with retired police officers and firefighters that would preserve current pensions but trim annual cost-of-living payments — the first major agreement with retirees in the bankruptcy case, mediators announced Tuesday.
The city retreated from its earlier proposed 6 percent cut in the pensions and elimination of the cost of living payments. Leaders of the Retired Detroit Police and Fire Fighters Association, which has more than 6,000 members, endorsed the deal.
It still is subject to a vote by retirees and a review by Judge Steven Rhodes as part of Detroit's plan to exit bankruptcy by fall. The agreement also is tied to the city getting $816 million from foundations, philanthropists and the state of Michigan. ...
The city still is negotiating with other retired workers, although their pension fund is in worse shape. Emergency manager Kevyn Orr has proposed a 26 percent cut to current benefits; even more if the $816 million rescue falls apart.
SEC is Kinda Thinking About Doing Something About High Frequency Trading
Before you get too excited about the notion that the SEC might actually be saddling up to Do Something about high frequency trading, the agency has roused itself to issue a leak….that it is pondering launching a limited trial to address all of one practice.
I’m not making this up. From the Wall Street Journal:
SEC officials, including some commissioners, are considering a trial program to curb fees and rebates they say can make trading overly complex and pose a conflict of interest for brokers handling trades on behalf of big investors such as mutual funds.
At issue are “maker-taker” fee plans, which pay firms that “make” orders happen—often high-frequency trading firms that specialize in trading strategies designed to capture payments. The plans charge firms that “take” trades—typically big investment firms looking to buy or sell a chunk of stock or hedge funds making bets on short-term price swings.
The trial program would eliminate maker-taker fees in a select number of stocks for a period to show how trading in those securities compares with similar stocks that keep the payment system.
Now let us consider the rather awkward position the SEC finds itself in. It sat by as the NYSE and Nasdaq allowed HFT firms to co-locate servers so as to get advantaged access to orders. The exchanges were eager to play ball because the high frequency traders paid for this privilege. And the fig leaf is that while FINRA, Wall Street’s self regulatory body, has a rule against brokers front-running their clients, the high frequency traders aren’t acting as brokers. As the New York Times noted:
There is no small paradox in the stock exchanges profiting by selling access to information that can be used for something that looks an awful lot like front-running, while Finra enforces a rule prohibiting brokers from doing the same thing.
Now unless the high frequency tradingfuror dies down quickly (which it might, scandals can sometimes have a short half life), we are likely to have Congressional hearings and the SEC will have to explain itself.
US ambassador to Kosovo hired by construction firm he lobbied for
A US ambassador to Kosovo, who lobbied for the construction of a $1bn road through the war-torn country, has taken up a post with the American construction giant that secured the lucrative contract.
Christopher Dell, a career diplomat nominated by Barack Obama to represent the US in Pristina, was employed by the Bechtel Corporation, which he helped win a contract to build a highway to neighbouring Albania.
Dell took on a role as an African country manager with Bechtel late last year, months after ending a three-decade career at the State Department. ...
Pieter Feith, the senior EU diplomat in Kosovo when the contract was secured, criticised the way the US ambassador pushed through the deal, and has called for an inquiry. Feith accused Dell of withholding information about the Bechtel contract, and lobbying Kosovo to agree to what he describes as an ill-advised deal with a US company, which placed enormous pressure on the fledgling country’s budget.
It is routine for western ambassadors to push the business interests of companies from the countries they come from. But it is unusual for a former diplomat to land a job with a major corporation after using their sway to secure lucrative government contracts.
India recognises transgender people as third gender
India's top court has issued a landmark verdict creating a third gender category that allows transgendered people to identify themselves as such on official documents.
Activists say it will give relief to millions of people who face discrimination in India's deeply conservative society.
The supreme court directed the federal and state governments to include transgendered people in all welfare programmes for the poor, including education, healthcare and jobs to help them overcome social and economic challenges.
Before Tuesday's judgment, transgendered Indians had to identify themselves as male or female in all official documents.
The court noted that it was the right of every human being to choose their gender while granting rights to those who identify themselves as neither male nor female.
"All documents will now have a third category marked transgender. This verdict has come as a great relief for all of us. Today I am proud to be an Indian," said Laxmi Tripathi, a transgender activist who had petitioned the court.
The Evening Greens
Surge in deaths of environmental activists over past decade, report finds
The killing of activists protecting land rights and the environment has surged over the past decade, with nearly three times as many deaths in 2012 than 10 years previously, a new report has found.
Deadly Environment, an investigation by London-based Global Witness documents 147 recorded deaths in 2012, compared to 51 in 2002. Between 2002 and 2013, at least 908 activists were killed in 35 countries – with only 10 convictions. The death rate has risen in the past four years to an average of two activists a week, according to the report, which also documents 17 forced disappearances, all of whom are presumed dead. ...
"Many of those facing threats are ordinary people opposing land grabs, mining operations and the industrial timber trade, often forced from their homes and severely threatened by environmental devastation," the report said. Others have been killed for protests over hydroelectric dams, pollution and wildlife conservation. ...
Oliver Courtney, senior campaigner at Global Witness, said: "There can be few starker or more obvious symptoms of the global environmental crisis than a dramatic upturn in killings of ordinary people defending rights to their environment and livelihoods from corporate and state abuse. Yet those responsible almost always get away with it, because governments are failing to protect their citizens and the international community is not paying enough attention to their plight."
Deforestation of Central America rises as Mexico's war on drugs moves south
According to Kendra McSweeney: "Drug trafficking is causing an ecological disaster in Central America." McSweeney, a geographer at Ohio State University, is the co-author of a recent report on the little-known phenomenon of "narco-deforestation" that is destroying huge tracts of rainforest that are already under threat from other quarters.
Viewed from the air, the tropical forests of Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua are scarred with landing strips and roads built illegally by the narco-traffickers for transporting drugs to the US, the leading world market. "These protected ecological zones have become the hub for South American cocaine," according to McSweeney, who stresses that the annual deforestation rate in Honduras more than quadrupled between 2007 and 2011, a boom-period for drug trafficking. In 2011 alone, 183 sq km of forest was destroyed in the east of the country, including in the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, an endangered Unesco world heritage site. This was in addition to the pre-existing problem of forest destruction due to illegal logging.
The wave of devastation has been moving south down the American continent, as drug crackdowns have taken force in Mexico. This is known as the efecto cucaracha, or cockroach effect, with reference to the survival instinct this creature has of seeking refuge next door as soon as it has been of chased out of one house. In the Laguna del Tigre national park in north-east Guatemala, deforestation has increased by between 5% and 10% in the past seven years. That coincides with the war against drug trafficking launched at the end of 2006 by the former Mexican president Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), with backing from the US.
Race for Arctic resources heats up as gas reserves discovered
Alabama: The Next Tar Sands Frontier?
[L]ast year when I learned of a secretive plan to auction 43,000 acres of public land in the Talladega and Conecuh Nation Forests for potential fracking and drilling, I grew concerned and wanted to know more. Fortunately, public outcry delayed the sale of the land.
Now, an equally concerning development has come to my attention: Alabama may open up its northwestern Lawrence, Franklin and Colbert Counties to tar sand oil extraction, in order to become a “major oil-producing state.” MS Industries has already bought around 2,500 acres of land in Alabama counties. ...
In July 2013 Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, who also serves as chairman of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, announced a partnership with Mississippi’s Governor Phil Bryant to begin studying the Hartselle Sandstone, which crosses paths in each state. In a press release the governors touted that they have a lot to learn from Canada since it’s been developing tar sands oil for some time. Well I certainly agree – Canada should be used as a prime example – of why developing the Hartselle Sandstone is a shortsighted and irresponsible idea.
“The tar sands of northern Alberta are the fastest growing site of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada and the source of widespread documented toxic contamination of local watersheds. ‘Canada’s Mordor’ [Mordor is dark and barren landscape in Lord of the Rings] produces bitumen, the dirtiest oil on earth. This is no model for Alabama,” advises Maude Barlow from Council of Canadians.
California looking to recycled water to ease drought concerns
At two treatment plants in El Dorado Hills, millions of gallons of brown wastewater pour in every week, and millions of gallons of clean water pour out through purple pipes that irrigate the lawns of 4,000 homes.
Proponents call it water recycling. Critics call it “toilet-to-tap.” But as the drought has taken hold in California, opposition to the idea has been drying up, and recycled water is winning acceptance. It’s expected to be a significant source of landscaping and drinking water for many Californians in years to come.
Today, taxpayer money is flowing toward recycled water programs. As part of recent drought relief measures, the state allocated $200 million in grants to jump-start those efforts and slashed interest rates on $800 million more in loans.
“There’s a billion dollars for recycling we did not have available to us as an industry six weeks ago,” said Dave Smith, the managing director of WateReuse California, part of a nationwide group that advocates water recycling.
More than a billion gallons of treated wastewater are pumped into the Pacific Ocean each year, Smith said. The state wants to dramatically reduce that amount, and increased water recycling is seen as the way to do it, he said.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Ukraine crisis: five possible scenarios
Maidan or anti-Maidan? The Ukraine situation requires more nuance
Trials And Errors At Guantanamo
Hat tip to Don Midwest:
The Program
Is Putin Being Lured Into a Trap?
A Little Night Music
Junior Wells - What'd I Say
Junior Wells - Messin' With The Kid
Buddy Guy & Junior Wells - How Can One Woman Be So Mean
Junior Wells & Buddy Guy - Little By Little
Junior Wells - Cryin' Shame
Junior Wells - Snatch It Back and Hold It
Junior Wells - Trust My Baby
Junior Wells - Tobacco Road
Buddy Guy & Junior Wells - That's All Right
Buddy Guy/Junior Wells -Catfish Blues
Junior Wells - Shake it baby
Junior Wells & Buddy Guy - Trouble Don't Last Always
Junior Wells & The Aces - Junior's Whoop
Junior Wells - Trouble no more
Junior Wells - Watch Me Move
Junior Wells, Buddy Guy - Help Me
Messin' With The Blues
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