Welcome! "The Evening Blues - Weekend Edition" is a casual community diary (published Saturday & Sunday, 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 singer, songwriter, blues harp and guitar player extraordinaire Eddie Martin. If you've never heard Eddie Martin before, you're in for a treat! Enjoy!
Eddie Martin & The Texas Blues Kings - I Done Done It
The world is a library and its books are the stones, leaves, grass, brooks, birds, and animals.
Chief Luther Standing Bear, Oglala Sioux
News and Opinion
Police hunt 'accomplice' after Paris attacks
Hayat Boumeddiene, "armed and dangerous", reportedly out of country, amid plans to hold unity march in French capital.
French police are searching for a suspected female accomplice of the attackers behind deadly attacks on a satirical magazine and a kosher supermarket, amid plans for a large street march in Paris.
Hundreds of troops were deployed around Paris on Saturday, tightening security on the eve of the march which is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people to pay tribute to the victims of the attacks.
Security levels were kept at France's highest level for Hayat Boumeddiene, the partner of Amedy Coulibaly, who laid siege to the Jewish supermarket and was one of the three attackers killed on Friday.
Boumeddiene, 26, described as "armed and dangerous", remained on the loose, police said.
Al Jazeera's Rory Challands, reporting from Paris, said some French media outlets were reporting that Boumeddiene might have left the country and travelled to Turkey last week.
Ted Cruz & the new McCarthyism: Inside a dangerous response to the atrocity in Paris
For many politicians and pundits, the Charlie Hebdo tragedy is cause to stoke the fires of terror — and worse
Here are a few sentences I should not have to write but apparently must, all the same: Taking the life of another human being is an absolutely terrible thing for a person to do. By definition, murder is a crime — perhaps the most heinous one there is. No one should be physically threatened, much less killed, for sharing an opinion. Everyone should have the right to say, write, draw or otherwise express whatever sentiment they’d like without fear of violent reprisal. And anyone who thinks it’s not only appropriate, but righteous, to use violence or the threat of violence in order to silence those they disagree with is as profoundly wrong as they could be.
Some more things that should go without saying: The massacre of 10 journalists (and two law enforcement officers) at the offices of the Paris-based satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo that was carried out this week by Islamic extremists was an obscenity, a crime whose evil could never be adequately expressed with words. No matter how blasphemous, callous, insulting and bigoted the political cartoons produced by Charlie Hebdo over the years may have been, there is nothing — absolutely, positively and undoubtedly nothing — that could ever justify or excuse such fanatical sadism. The men who organized and perpetrated this slaughter were villains of the highest order, opponents of many of humanity’s greatest intellectual breakthroughs and moral achievements.
You can probably tell already, but I resent feeling that the above two paragraphs are necessary. But because I also happen to believe that many of the cartoons produced by Charlie Hebdo were mean-spirited, lazy, unfunny and sometimes baldly racist; because I do not believe that it is necessary for me to promote these cartoons in order to oppose their creators’ murder; and because some of the more influential members of the media and the government are trying to make lockstep support for Charlie Hebdo’s work a new litmus test of one’s belief in human freedom and dignity, they are. Indeed, for far too many people, it is seemingly impossible to hate the cartoon but love its creator. It’s a mindset that reminds me of nothing so much as McCarthyism — and as Matt Yglesias explained the other day in a thoughtful and sensitive post, it really sucks
When I think of the people insinuating, or outright claiming, that one cannot claim to be a true opponent of radical, eliminationist Islam unless one showers Charlie Hebdo with unqualified praise, there are a few folks — mostly former supporters of the Iraq War — that most immediately come to mind. My colleague Heather Digby Parton has quite skillfully dismantled Jonathan Chait’s latest piece of preening bravado already, but he’s hardly the only person of influence who’s responded to the attack by whipping himself into a frenzy of empty bombast and portending (or is it promoting?) a coming apocalyptic struggle. The New York Times’ Roger Cohen tweeted in response to the news that the “entire free world” must avenge the killers’ victims “ruthlessly.” Ayaan Hirsi Ali predictably agreed and wrote that “the West” must respond to the massacre by ceasing to “appease leaders of Muslim organizations in our societies.”
Afghanistan rally hails Charlie Hebdo attackers as 'heroes'
(Reuters) - Hundreds in southern Afghanistan rallied to praise the killing of 12 people at the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo, calling the two gunmen "heroes" who meted out punishment for cartoons disrespectful to Islam's prophet, officials said Saturday.
The demonstrators also protested President Ashraf Ghani's swift condemnation of the bloody attack on the satirical newspaper, according to the officials in Uruzgan province.
The rally came after worshippers left Friday prayers at a local mosque in Chora district and swelled to several hundred people, said Chora police chief Abdul Qawi.
"The protesters were calling the attackers heroes and were shouting that those who had mocked the Prophet Mohammad were punished," Qawi said.
Paris shooting cases demonstrate spy agencies' limits
(Reuters) - This week's deadly attacks in France by Islamist gunmen showed the limits of spy and anti-terrorist agencies, which often have information about perpetrators in advance but are only able to assemble all the clues after the bloodletting has taken place.
From the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States in 2001 through a series of outrages in Europe and other parts of the world, U.S. and European security and intelligence officials say a key problem has been making connections from a mass of data.
"Whenever something goes bad, one of the first things you do is check all the data bases," said retired Gen. Michael Hayden, a former director of both the CIA and the U.S. National Security Agency. "Invariably, you do have something. It's inevitable."
Bruce Riedel, a former top CIA analyst, said: "The problem for the French intelligence and security services is that there are so many French citizens who have gone to Syria or Iraq or elsewhere to join the jihad and then come home that they can not monitor all of them 24 hours a day."
Charlie Hebdo attack: A French intelligence failure?
Nearly every modern terrorist attack is followed by accusations of so-called intelligence failure.
In the case of this week's attacks in France, the charge has added force: the suspects were known not just to French but also to other European and American authorities; one had travelled to Yemen over a three-year period and another had been convicted of earlier seeking to travel to Iraq; and they were plugged into long-established European jihadist networks.
So did the French drop the ball?
The answer isn't clear-cut. True, the suspects weren't unknown quantities. Cherif and Said Kouachi, who committed the Charlie Hebdo massacre, Amedy Coulibaly, who took hostages in a kosher shop, and Hayat Boumeddiene, Coulibaly's girlfriend, were connected both to each other, and to a large network of extremist organisers in Europe.
The younger Kouachi, Cherif, had been jailed for seeking to join Iraqi jihadists nearly a decade ago. In prison, he was mentored by the al-Qaeda-linked Djamel Beghal, who himself had spent time at Finsbury Park mosque in London, where he was an associate of the radical cleric Abu Hamza.
The older Kouachi undertook military training in Yemen in 2011, where he met the influential preacher Anwar al-Awlaki.
FBI, Prosecutors Want Felony Charges Against General Petraeus
Is Petraeus receiving special treatment at a time Mr. Holder has led a crackdown on government officials who reveal secrets to journalists?
FBI and US Justice Department prosecutors are recommending bringing felony charges against disgraced former CIA Director David Petraeus, the New York Times reported last night.
It is up to outgoing Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to decide whether to seek an indictment that could send Petraeus to prison.
Petraeus resigned from the C.I.A. in November of 2012 when it became public that the married Petraeus was having an affair with Paula Broadwell, an Army Reserve officer who was writing his biography.
F.B.I. agents discovered that Petraeus was giving Broadwell highly classified top-secret documents that she was not authorized to see or possess.
"Mr. Holder was expected to decide by the end of last year whether to bring charges against Mr. Petraeus, but he has not indicated how he plans to proceed. The delay has frustrated some Justice Department and F.B.I. officials and investigators who have questioned whether Mr. Petraeus has received special treatment at a time Mr. Holder has led a crackdown on government officials who reveal secrets to journalists," the Times reported.
Germany: Tens of Thousands Say NO! to Racism, NO! to Xenophobia
Saturday's protest counters last week's rally of the far-right Pegida
Tens of thousands of people are protesting today in the German city of Dresden against racism and xenophobia.
The Saturday rally was organized to counter the weekly racist and anti-Islamic demonstrations that have been taking place in Dresden. The weekly rallies are organized by the far-right Pegida, the German acronym for "Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West."
Last Monday's Pegida rally was the largest so far - drawing an estimated 18,000 neo-Nazis and Islamaphobes.
But Saturday's counter protest mobilized a much larger crowd.
German news agency DPA reported Dresden mayor Helma Orosz telling protesters that their city "won't be split apart by hatred."
Judge Orders NYPD to Release Records on X-ray Vans
The NYPD has a secretive program that uses unmarked vans with X-ray machines designed to detect bombs. ProPublica tried to find out more about it, but the NYPD refused to answer for three years.
A state judge has ordered the New York City Police Department to release records on a secretive program that uses unmarked vans equipped with X-ray machines to detect bombs.
The ruling follows a nearly three-year legal battle by ProPublica, which had requested police reports, training materials, contracts and any health and safety tests on the vans under the state's Freedom of Information Law.
ProPublica filed the request as part of its investigation into the proliferation of security equipment, including airport body scanners, that expose people to ionizing radiation, which can mutate DNA and increase the risk of cancer.
Richard Daddario, then the NYPD's deputy commissioner of counterterrorism, told the court in 2013 that releasing the documents would hamper the department's ability to conduct operations and endanger the lives of New Yorkers.
George Zimmerman must surrender weapons after Florida assault arrest
*Zimmerman charged with domestic aggravated assault with a weapon
*Judge orders avoidance of contact with alleged female victim
*Zimmerman acquittal over death of Trayvon Martin renews race debate
A Florida judge on Saturday ordered George Zimmerman, the man who was acquitted in the 2012 shooting death of the unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin, to surrender his firearms.
Zimmerman, 31, was arrested late Friday night, and charged with domestic aggravated assault with a weapon. Though the incident did not involve a firearm, judge John Galluzzo ordered Zimmerman to hand over all of his weapons as a precautionary measure, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
The newspaper reported that the weapon used in the alleged attack was a bottle of wine, which Zimmerman is alleged to have thrown, and said the incident occurred on Monday.
Galluzzo also ordered Zimmerman to avoid contact with the alleged female victim, who was not identified.
The judge set Zimmerman’s bond at $5,000 and ordered the former neighbourhood watch volunteer to stay out of Volusia County, where the alleged victim lives. His next court appearance was scheduled for 17 February.
United Nations: Brutal winter deepens crisis for Syria's refugees
International agencies are being overwhelmed by a global spike in need for aid driven by the Syrian crisis, amid cuts in food rations due to unkept donor promises.
Submitted by: NCTim
WASHINGTON — For tens of thousands of Syrian refugees, the hardship and indignity of living in tents now pale – in what is proving to be an unusually harsh winter – in comparison to the threat that heavy snow will collapse those tents.
High winds, heavy snows, and freezing rain are disrupting normal life across a swath of territory from Turkey to Jordan and Israel. But for the one-third of Syria’s 23 million people displaced by their country’s civil war, the winter is a much bigger challenge.
The bitter cold and dampness are even proving deadly for a small but mounting number of children and other refugees. At least two refugee babies have died from the cold in camps in Lebanon, according to Lebanese news reports, while this week three Syrians – among them a child – trying to flee to Lebanon were caught in a storm and died from exposure.
Syrians displaced by the civil war have lived through three other winters, but conditions are worse this year for a perfect storm of reasons: There are more refugees, assistance from United Nations agencies and other humanitarian sources is less, and this winter is proving to be the harshest.
Deadly suicide bombing hits Nigerian city
At least 19 people killed in attack in Maiduguri, and two more killed later in a blast in Potiskum, also in Borno state.
A suicide bomb attack by a young girl in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri has killed 19 people, while another a bomb-laden car exploded elsewhere in Borno state killing a further two people, police said.
The first blast happened at about 12:40pm local time (11:40 GMT) on Saturday near the live chicken section of the city's Monday Market, AFP news agency said.
The attacker was believed to be a girl as young as 10 years old, according to sources quoted by AFP news agency.
Ashiru Mustapha, a civilian vigilante, said the explosives detonated as the girl was being searched at the entrance to the market.
"I doubt if she actually knew what was strapped to her body," he told AFP.
After Comey's speech, critics still unconvinced by the FBI's Sony hack theories
Although FBI Director James Comey meant to clarify the agency's case against North Korea in the Sony hack this week, his comments did little to change the balance of a polarized, but largely skeptical, cybersecurity community.
Submitted by: NCTim
Brian Honan still doesn't buy it.
Even after FBI Director James Comey spoke this week about the agency's evidence tying North Korea to the Sony hack, Mr. Honan, a security specialist, says the connections remain too weak.
At a cybersecurity conference at Fordham University on Wednesday, Mr. Comey announced the agency's newest piece of technical evidence: Internet protocol address. The hackers, he said, blundered while sending e-mails and failed to mask the true IP addresses that represent their devices on a network. Those addresses, he said, were "exclusively” used by North Korea.
Recommended: In Pictures Inside North Korea: more circus than bread
But that wasn't exactly the smoking gun Honan and other skeptics in the security community needed to convince them that North Korea is the real culprit.
In Pictures Inside North Korea: more circus than bread
Photos of the Day Photos of the Day 01/09
"IPs can be spoofed and computers at IPs can be compromised," says Honan, director of BH Consulting, an Irish security firm. “In my experience, no IPs are every guaranteed to be ‘exclusively’ used by anybody."
‘Soviets invading Germany, Ukraine:’ Berlin faces tough choice on PM Yatsenyuk’s WW2 take
Submitted by: dharmasyd
This week, Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the USSR had invaded Germany and Ukraine in WW2. Despite attempts by the Western press to bury the story, Russia is now demanding answers from Berlin.
Nothing is louder than silence. I know this, you know this and you can be sure that Angela Merkel knows it too. Why then is the Chancellor’s government refusing to comment on Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s extraordinary remarks? The reasons are complex, as I will shortly outline. First, though, here’s what Yatsenyuk actually said.
"All of us still clearly remember the Soviet invasion of Ukraine and Germany," he told German-state broadcaster ARD. "We need to avoid [a repeat of] it."
"Nobody has the right to rewrite the results of the Second World War," he also added. "Russia's President Putin is trying to do exactly this."
When I saw the comments on my Twitter timeline, I was initially convinced it was a joke. So much disinformation is circulated on the platform that I automatically dismissed it as a misquote. Surely a senior politician wouldn’t say something like that? Only 24 hours later, when I saw Yatsenyuk’s words still swooshing through the Twitter-sphere, did I realize that he actually did utter those words.
NATO expansion in E. Europe ‘destroys EU security order’ – Gorbachev
The expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe has destroyed the European security order, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev told Der Spiegel, adding that the Ukraine crisis could easily lead to nuclear war.
“The expansion of the bloc in the east [of Europe] has destroyed the European security order which was written in the Helsinki Final Act of 1975,” the 83-year-old political veteran told the German newspaper.
He added that NATO’s expansion has become “a 180-degree turn drawing us away from the Paris Charter of 1990, which was made together with all European states to finally leave the Cold War in the past.”
NATO has recently been at loggerheads with Russia over the Ukrainian crisis. The bloc has been intensifying its build-up in Eastern Europe in recent months as it accuses Moscow of sending troops to Ukraine. Moscow has denied what it calls unfounded allegations.
However, following the recent attacks in France, NATO said it still strives for ‘a more cooperative and constructive relationship’ with Moscow in the fight against terror, the bloc’s chief said.
US to boost European contingent with 3,000 troops, 150 tanks in 2015 – report
The US plans to send 3,000 more troops and over 150 tanks to Europe by the end of ear to bolster its presence on the region, a top commander announced.
The US, which already has around 67,000 troops in Europe, expects over 3,000 soldiers to arrive on the continent between March and the fall, Lt. Gen Frederick Ben Hodges, Commander of US Army Europe, told The Hill.
“I anticipate that almost the entire 1st Brigade of 3rd Division will come over in March, so you’re looking at probably over 3,000 soldiers that would be part of a brigade combat team like that,” Hodges said.
They’ll be followed by more than 150 tanks and other military vehicles that will be deployed in Europe “by the end of 2015,” the commander said.
“We will have an entire heavy brigade combat team of equipment – that’s enough tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles, self-propelled Howitzers, engineer vehicles, on and on, for three battalions and a reconnaissance squadron plus all the enablers,” he stressed.
EU Showdown: Greece Takes on the Vampire Squid
Greece and the troika (the International Monetary Fund, the EU, and the European Central Bank) are in a dangerous game of chicken. The Greeks have been threatened with a “Cyprus-Style prolonged bank holiday” if they “vote wrong.” But they have been bullied for too long and are saying “no more.”
A return to the polls was triggered in December, when the Parliament rejected Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ pro-austerity candidate for president. In a general election, now set for January 25th, the EU-skeptic, anti-austerity, leftist Syriza party is likely to prevail. Syriza captured a 3% lead in the polls following mass public discontent over the harsh austerity measures Athens was forced to accept in return for a €240 billion bailout.
Austerity has plunged the economy into conditions worse than in the Great Depression. As Professor Bill Black observes, the question is not why the Greek people are rising up to reject the barbarous measures but what took them so long.
Ireland was similarly forced into an EU bailout with painful austerity measures attached. A series of letters has recently come to light showing that the Irish government was effectively blackmailed into it, with the threat that the ECB would otherwise cut off liquidity funding to Ireland’s banks. The same sort of threat has been leveled at the Greeks, but this time they are not taking the bait.
The Real Reason Police Unions Enable the Worst Cop Abuses
Police unions were created to get rid of bad cops. But today they protect them.
There is no greater symbol for excesses in American policing than the unending tirades by Patrick Lynch, New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association president, in his war of words, work slowdowns, displays of disrespect, insubordination and complaints lapped up by right-wing media about NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration.
But there might be a cynical method behind the madness of Lynch’s ever-escalating feud that has not been widely covered. This loudmouth union leader may be trying to bully his way into a better deal for his 24,000 members after not having a contract for four years. Amid his tirades about City Hall not showing sufficient respect, he has said that raises recently accepted by eight other city uniformed officer unions were not good enough for him.
“Compared to our fellow police officers, we are the lowest paid,” Lynch said last month, frowning on the announcement that eight other New York City unions—including police detectives, lieutenants, captains and wardens—accepted an 11 percent raise over seven years. He’s recently added that the city has a “moral obligation” to correct pension “injustice.”
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Lynch’s advocacy is so selfish and cartoonish that it eclipses serious issues facing police in New York and nationwide. Namely, what can be done to reform a police culture that too readily embraces excess suspicion and force—from racial profiling, to pre-emptive arrests (both of which de Blasio pledged to stem), to protecting cops who kill unarmed people, to local police using military weapons at protests and during drug raids.
6 reasons the math on Obama’s college plan doesn’t add up
WASHINGTON — There are at least six reasons that community college won’t be free anytime soon, no matter what President Barack Obama says.
Obama, who traveled Friday to Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville, Tenn., to tout the America’s College Promise plan, said he wanted to make higher education as accessible as a high school diploma for all Americans.
But the plan has flaws that all but ensure it won’t be implemented and will serve only as a political proposal to make supporters happy. Among the reasons:
Keystone XL would destroy our native lands. This is why we fight
Submitted by: NCTim
The Oceti Sakowin, the traditional name for my Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota peoples, are rising up to protect Mother Earth. We are mobilizing a resistance that could prove to be the game changer in the fight to stop the proposed Keystone XL pipeline and help shut down the tar sand projects in northern Alberta.
Our resistance to the Keystone XL pipeline and other tar sand infrastructure is grounded in our inherent right to self-determination as indigenous peoples. As the original caretakers, we know what it will take to ensure these lands are available for generations to come. This pipeline will leak, it will contaminate the water. It will encourage greater tar sands development, which, in turn, will increase carbon emissions.
As Oceti Sakowin people, we cannot stand silent in the face of the potential ecological disaster that the pipeline promises our homelands, along with our brothers and sisters of the Cree and Dene First Nations in Alberta, where this carbon-intensive dirty oil comes from. Our acts of resistance to the Keystone XL pipeline are a perfect example of us wising up to the ongoing modern colonialist game, and a proactive step toward protecting future generations from the worst impacts of climate change.
As indigenous peoples, as Oceti Sakowin, we were handed down the original teachings on how to live in balance with Mother Earth. We must see all aspects of life as related, to respect the feminine principle of creation and to maintain a sustainable relationship with the land. These tenets are antithetical to the extractive economy we are faced with today. The land, air, and water are commodified. Mother Earth is being drilled, fracked, clear-cut, and destroyed with such brutality. We are on the brink of climate catastrophe. In order to avoid drastic climate change, we need a moratorium on fossil fuel development and we need to invest in a zero carbon economy: our original teachings demand no less than this.
Republicans are forcing women to have abortions – and then telling us it's too late
Why is the GOP trying to end 20-week abortions when they’re doing such a good job forcing women to get them?
Submitted by: NCTim
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Republicans kicked off their first day in control of the US Congress this week by moving to ban all abortions after 20 weeks, first in the House and very soon in the Senate. The House already passed this back in 2013 – with exactly zero exceptions for women’s health, or rape or incest that hadn’t been reported to police.
But I must admit to being slightly confused: Why is the GOP trying to ban later abortions when they’re doing such a stellar job forcing women to get them?
After all, Republicans are the ones who want to spend millions on abstinence-only “education” – as in those medically inaccurate, ideology driven classes on sexuality telling students that condoms cause cancer and birth control pills cause sterility. I mean, why go through all the trouble of making up such fantastical lies if not to make sure that sexually active teens are more likely to have unwanted pregnancies, right? And it’s working! Teen pregnancy is highest in states with abstinence-only education.
Adults need not worry, though: the GOP is heavily invested in forcing women of all ages to wait weeks upon weeks to get an abortion.
Whether you’re in one of the 14 states with 20-week bans or not, 89% of counties in the United States lack an abortion provider, due in large part to efforts by Republicans to close down clinics across the country using TRAP laws: One-third of women seeking abortions have to travel more than 25 miles to get one, and 31% of women who live in rural areas had to travel over 100 miles to their nearest provider.
The First Four Things Republicans Are Trying to Change May Scare You
U.S. citizens were clearly looking for a change in direction when they elected Republicans to the majority of both the House and Senate for the first time in a decade. Still, voters may be surprised – and a little horrified – to see that change actually means regression. The Republicans have wasted no time in jumping on the following four issues:
1. Hindering Abortion
2. Advancing the Keystone Pipeline
3. Undoing Access to Health Care
4. Stripping Existing Wall Street Regulations
Romney to GOP donors: ‘I want to be president.’
Mitt Romney forcefully declared his interest in a third presidential run to a room full of powerful Republican donors Friday, disrupting the fluid 2016 GOP field as would-be rival Jeb Bush was moving swiftly to consolidate establishment support.
Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, has been mulling another campaign for several months, but his comments Friday marked a clear step forward in his thinking and come amid mounting tensions between the Romney and Bush camps.
“I want to be president,” Romney told about 30 donors in New York. He said that his wife, Ann — who last fall said she was emphatically against a run — had changed her mind and was now “very encouraging,” although their five sons remain split, according to multiple attendees.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal, which will feature a report on the inauguration of Alva Adams as Governor of the state of Colorado..
Tune in at 2pm!
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Obama will unveil new cybersecurity initiatives this week
President Barack Obama is set to unveil a series of initiatives to bolster U.S. cybersecurity that he will detail in speeches this week.
The U.S. president will lay out a series of legislative proposals and executive actions that will be in his State of the Union that will tackle identity theft and privacy issues, cybersecurity, and access to the Internet, reported the New York Times, quoting a White House official.
The recent, high-profile hack into Sony’s corporate networks, which federal investigators have blamed on North Korea, may strengthen the president’s hand as he attempts to get a cybersecurity bill passed by a legislature that is controlled by his political opposition. In addition, the recent increase in severity of intrusions into major U.S. retailers such as Home Depot and Target, which has cost millions of dollars in fraudulent credit-card transactions, has made identity-theft an even more urgent issue.
PEN America: "The Harm Caused by Surveillance...is Unmistakable"
PEN America published a report this week summarizing the findings from a recent survey of 772 writers around the world on questions of surveillance and self-censorship. The report, entitled "Global Chilling: The Impact of Mass Surveillance on International Writers," builds upon a late 2013 survey of more than 500 US-based writers conducted by the organization.
The latest survey found that writers living in liberal democratic countries "have begun to engage in self-censorship at levels approaching those seen in non-democratic countries, indicating that mass surveillance has badly shaken writers' faith that democratic governments will respect their rights to privacy and freedom of expression, and that—because of pervasive surveillance—writers are concerned that expressing certain views even privately or researching certain topics may lead to negative consequences."
Specifically, more than 1 in 3 writers living in "free" countries (as classified by watchdog Freedom House) stated that they had avoided speaking or writing on a particular topic since the Snowden revelations, and only seventeen percent of writers in these countries felt that the United States offers more protection for free speech than their countries. A whopping sixty percent of writers in Western Europe and fifty-seven percent in the remaining Five Eyes countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK) think that US credibility “has been significantly damaged for the long term” by NSA spying.
PEN also asked respondents to share their feelings about surveillance in their own countries, and found that in every grouping ("Free", "partly free," and "not free" by Freedom House standards), more than seventy-five percent of writers are "very" or "somewhat" worried about government surveillance at home.
Welcome To The Matrix: Enslaved By Technology & The Internet Of Things
“There will come a time when it isn’t ‘They’re spying on me through my phone’ anymore. Eventually, it will be ‘My phone is spying on me.’” ― Philip K. Dick
If ever Americans sell their birthright, it will be for the promise of expediency and comfort delivered by way of blazingly fast Internet, cell phone signals that never drop a call, thermostats that keep us at the perfect temperature without our having to raise a finger, and entertainment that can be simultaneously streamed to our TVs, tablets and cell phones.
Likewise, if ever we find ourselves in bondage, we will have only ourselves to blame for having forged the chains through our own lassitude, laziness and abject reliance on internet-connected gadgets and gizmos that render us wholly irrelevant.
Indeed, while most of us are consumed with our selfies and trying to keep up with what our so-called friends are posting on Facebook, the megacorporation Google has been busily partnering with the National Security Agency (NSA), the Pentagon, and other governmental agencies to develop a new “human” species, so to speak.
In other words, Google—a neural network that approximates a global brain—is fusing with the human mind in a phenomenon that is called “singularity,” and they’ve hired transhumanist scientist Ray Kurzweil to do just that. Google will know the answer to your question before you have asked it, Kurzweil said. “It will have read every email you will ever have written, every document, every idle thought you’ve ever tapped into a search-engine box. It will know you better than your intimate partner does. Better, perhaps, than even yourself.”
Another battle opens up in the oil markets
Saudi and Canadian heavy crude suppliers battle it out for US market
Submitted by: NCTim
New York: As a test of wills between Opec nations and US shale drillers fuels a global oil market slump, a brewing battle between Canadian and Saudi Arabia heavy crudes for America’s Gulf Coast refinery market threatens to drive prices even lower.
Two factors will come into play over the next few weeks: From the North, new oil pipelines will pump record volumes of Canadian crude to the southern refineries, many better equipped to process heavy crudes than lighter shale oil.
From the Middle East, top exporter Saudi Arabia is offering crude at discounted prices in an attempt to defend its remaining share of the important regional market, which has shrunk by more than half in recent months.
“So far, the Gulf Coast has suffered from an oversupply of light oil, but now there’s competition for heavier crude,” said Sandy Fielden at RBN Energy. With the Saudis already facing fierce competition for their light grades, the arrival of Canadian crude “could add insult to injury”, he said.
Oil rigs laid up as crude hits new low
Submitted by: NCTim
Oil exploration in the North Sea is set to be hit hard this year as companies mothball as many as half of the exploration drilling rigs in operation, resulting in thousands of job losses.
Big oil companies, such as Total, are suspending drilling after crude prices more than halved in six months.
The price of Brent, the benchmark, fell yesterday to $48.90 a barrel, its lowest since April 2009, as there was no sign of the global glut in crude supplies easing as demand weakens
Comet Lovejoy visible over U.S.
It was a tough decision for any space junkie. Comet sleuth Terry Lovejoy had just pinged me on Facebook Messenger answering my request for an interview. Then, my amateur astronomer husband, Jim Ribble, opened the garage door to shout that he had spotted Comet Lovejoy with his telescope from our driveway.
So -- do I chat with the man who found a new comet late last year, or do I go outside to see the comet? If you're a space rock lover, you know the answer. I told Mr. Lovejoy I would email him my questions and dashed outside.
The comet has Terry Lovejoy's name because he was the first person on Earth to spot it, an increasingly difficult accomplishment since he's competing with professional observatories. It's the fifth comet that he's discovered, but he denies having a secret formula for finding them.
Amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy has discovered five comets.
Amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy has discovered five comets.
"There is no real secret,"Lovejoy says. "My job in IT (information technology) has helped me a lot with automation of the telescope and the actual detection of new comets."
The latest Comet Lovejoy was found on August 17, 2014, from Lovejoy's home in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Kepler-438b and 442b: Are These the Planets We're Looking For?
Astronomers on Tuesday announced the discovery of eight new potentially habitable planets beyond our solar system, including two that are the most similar to Earth of any discovered so far.
First identified by NASA's Kepler mission, all eight of the planets are located in their distant suns' "habitable zone," or the region where liquid water might exist on the surface of an orbiting planet. Only two of them, however, are likely made of rock, like Earth.
Kepler-438b, which lies 475 light-years away, is just 12 percent bigger than Earth in diameter and has a 70 percent chance of being rocky, the scientists reported. Kepler-442b is 1,100 light-years away and about one-third larger than Earth; its chance of being rocky is 60 percent.
The new candidates have been added to NASA Kepler's "Hall of Fame" of small, promising habitable-zone planets.
The Evening Greens
Weekend Edition Editor - Agathena
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
William K. Black: “All is Vanity: Obama’s Vain Search for a TPP ‘Legacy’”
The Raiders of Your Lost Retirement: Sherrod Brown Speaks
American values in charts: Prisons over College
Hellraisers Journal: WV Judge on Mother Jones, "She..can tear down with the fury of a madman."
Top Russian, American and Polish Leaders Warn that Continued Fighting In Ukraine Could Lead to Nuclear War
Black People’s Grand Jury Indicts Cop for First Degree Murder of Michael Brown
Comings Out (Adding Context)
A Little Night Music
Eddie Martin & The Texas Blues Kings - Down The Road
Eddie Martin & The Texas Blues Kings - Natural Thing
Eddie Martin & The Texas Blues Kings - I Wanna Groove With You
Eddie Martin & The Texas Blues Kings - Pillowcase Blues
Eddie Martin - Play The Blues With A Feeling
Eddie Martin - Crossroads
Eddie Martin Band - Selfish Guy
Eddie Martin - Answerphone Blues
Eddie Martin - Ice Cream
Eddie Martin - Kind Lady Moon
Eddie Martin - Still Chasing That Fox
Eddie Martin Band - Put The Brakes On
Eddie Martin Band - Cherry Red
Eddie Martin Band - Let it Slide