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.
|
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features slide guitar virtuoso Bob Brozman. Enjoy!
Bob Brozman - Look at New Orleans
“If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.”
-- Steven Wright
News and Opinion
Judge probes destruction of evidence in NSA leak prosecution
A federal judge is investigating allegations that the government may have improperly destroyed documents during the high-profile media leak investigation of National Security Agency whistleblower Thomas Drake.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephanie Gallagher’s inquiry was launched after Drake's lawyers in April accused the Pentagon inspector general’s office of destroying possible evidence during Drake’s criminal prosecution, which ended almost four years ago, McClatchy has learned.
In a May 13 letter, Gallagher told Justice Department lawyers that the judge who had presided over the case asked her to evaluate the allegations from Drake’s lawyers “for further investigation and to make recommendations as to whether any action by the court is warranted or appropriate.”
The allegations raise new questions about a prosecution that had been excoriated by the presiding judge after the Justice Department’s case against Drake unraveled and resulted in the former senior NSA official pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge.
Jesselyn Radack, Drake’s current lawyer, declined to say what she expected from the judge’s inquiry, which McClatchy learned about independently. She said that her client is “grateful that the court sees this as serious enough to look into.”
“The fact that there is a court-ordered investigation is a partial vindication,” said Radack, who is national security director with the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower advocacy group. “As (the presiding) judge noted, Tom Drake has been through years of hell because of this prosecution even though this case collapsed in a spectacular fashion.”
Snowden's leaks forced NSA reform on Congress. The US would still jail him
The White House told reporters on Thursdaythat, despite the imminent passage of NSA reform, they still believe Edward Snowden still belongs in prison (presumably for life, given his potential charges), while at the same time, brazenly taking credit for the USA Freedom Act passing, saying that “historians” would consider it part of Obama’s “legacy.” Hopefully historians will also remember, as Ryan Lizza adeptly documented in the New Yorker, that Obama was handed every opportunity to reform the NSA before Edward Snowden, yet behind the scenes repeatedly refused to do so. Instead, the Obama administration was dragged kicking and screaming across the finish line by Snowden’s disclosures, all while engaging in fear-mongering that would make Dick Cheney proud. ...
And don’t kid yourselves when the White House talks about bringing Snowden to “justice”; his case has never been about “justice” when it comes to leaking government secrets to journalists. As US officials have shown repeatedly over the last year, they will happily leak classified details to newspapers more sensitive than what Snowden leaked if it means glorifying and defending their policies. Glenn Greenwald noted late last month that so many politicians and pundits in Washington DC seem to dislike Snowden not because what he leaked, but because he was able to shift the dominant narrative about national security away from the all-fear-all-the-time norm that so dominated in Washington for the last decade. ...
It is an ongoing travesty that the Espionage Act – a bill meant to punish spies who sell secrets to foreign governments – can be used in such a vindictive and draconian way against someone who wanted to hand the truth to the American people. Snowden told the Guardian two weeks ago that he saw the USA Freedom Act as the beginning and not the end of NSA reform. Hopefully Congress will one day soon also have the courage to give whistleblowers their normally-guaranteed right to defend themselves in court, and not send them to straight to jail or worse.
The secret FBI air force that spies on Americans
One Small Step for NSA Reform, One Giant Leap for Congress
Exactly two years after journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras traveled to Hong Kong to meet an NSA whistleblower named Edward Snowden, Congress has finally brought itself to reform one surveillance program out of the multitude he revealed — a program so blatantly out of line that its end was a foregone conclusion as soon as it was exposed.
The USA Freedom Act passed the House in an overwhelming, bipartisan vote three weeks ago. After hardliner Republicans lost a prolonged game of legislative chicken, the Senate gave its approval Tuesday afternoon as well, by a 67 to 32 margin. The bill officially ends 14 years of unprecedented bulk collection of domestic phone records by the NSA, replacing it with a program that requires the government to make specific requests to the phone companies.
After Snowden’s leak of NSA documents revealed it, the program was repeatedly found to violate the law, first by legal experts and blue-ribbon panels, and just last month by a federal appellate court. Its rejection by Congress is hardly a radical act — it simply reasserts the meaning of the word “relevant” (the language of the statute) as distinct from “everything” (how the government interpreted it).
At the same time, the Freedom Act explicitly reauthorizes — or, rather, reinstates, since they technically expired at midnight May 31 — other programs involving the collection of business records that the Bush and Obama administrations claimed were authorized by Section 215 of the Patriot Act. In fact, even the bulk collection of phone records, which was abruptly wound down last week in anticipation of a possible expiration, may wind up again, because the Freedom Act allows it to continue for a six-month transition period.
And while the Freedom Act contains a few other modest reform provisions‚ such as more disclosure and a public advocate for the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, it does absolutely nothing to restrain the vast majority of the intrusive surveillance revealed by Snowden.
Rand Paul allies plan new surveillance reforms to follow USA Freedom Act
Several of Rand Paul’s allies in the US House of Representatives are seeking to capitalize on the momentum of surveillance reform as the USA Freedom Act continues through the Senate by attempting to stop the National Security Agency from undermining encryption and banning other law enforcement agencies from collecting US data in bulk.
Thomas Massie, a libertarian-minded Kentucky Republican, has authored an amendment to a forthcoming appropriations bill that blocks any funding for the National Institute of Science and Technology to “coordinate or consult” with the NSA or the Central Intelligence Agency “for the purpose of establishing cryptographic or computer standards that permit the warrantless electronic surveillance” by the spy agencies. He is joined in the effort by Democrat Zoe Lofgren of California. ...
“The USA Freedom Act is definitely not the last word. Whenever a program expires or whenever funding is required, those are must-pass pieces of legislation that present opportunities for refinement,” Massie told the Guardian on Tuesday.
Lofgren and another civil libertarian, Republican Ted Poe of Texas, will propose an amendment to the same appropriations bill that would block the Federal Bureau of Investigation from inserting vulnerabilities into encryption on mobile devices. ...
Another congressional privacy advocate, Democrat Jared Polis of Colorado, will push a further amendment to the appropriations bill that would in effect block the Drug Enforcement Agency from collecting Americans’ phone data in bulk – a recently exposed surveillance program that preceded the NSA’s now-shuttered bulk collection. ... Polis told the Guardian he wanted to “rein in” the DEA’s “unwarranted and unconstitutional program”, calling the Freedom Act “the beginning of a reform process, not the conclusion of one”.
Rand Paul’s New Crusade: The Secret 9/11 Docs
Senator Rand Paul, the man of the hour when it comes to pushing back against government secrecy, is throwing his weight behind a fresh push to declassify 28 pages from a 2002 Senate inquiry into the causes of 9/11.
The Kentucky Republican is sponsoring legislation called the “Transparency for the Families of 9/11 Act,” which would force the release of the disputed pages. With his support, an important issue that has languished far too long may be finally gaining traction.
Paul is a big catch for the 28 pages movement, as advocates describe their effort. Former Florida senator Bob Graham, who has been banging the drum on the classified pages for years, will appear alongside Paul at a press conference at the Capitol on Tuesday morning to lend his gravitas to the occasion.
Graham led the Senate inquiry and drafted the pages that have been kept under wraps. Without violating his oath of secrecy about specifics, the Democrat has been quite outspoken, saying the redacted pages “point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia as being the principal financier” of the 9/11 attacks. He has also said the U.S. government’s protective stance toward the Saudis allows them to continue spreading the extreme Wahhabi version of Islam that has led to the rise of ISIS.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has long been on record supporting the disclosure, and he is co-sponsoring the legislation. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is described as “definitely interested,” and as the 9/11 family members continue to press for answers, they hope the moment is coming when this long-festering report will see the light of day, either by legislative action or by President Obama deciding enough is enough.
Wow, Baghdad Bob is back, only now they call him Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken!
US Claims They’re Winning ISIS War
With most of the Paris summit on the ISIS war in Iraq focusing on just how bad the conflict is going, Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken, the US representative at the meeting, seemed to remain in denial about the problems, insisting the US is winning the war against ISIS.
That’s been the official US position all along, and it gets reiterated all the more often the more obvious it gets that ground is being lost to ISIS forces. The loss of Ramadi, a city of 500,000 people and capital of Iraq’s largest province, is the latest evidence the war is being lost.
Blinken insists that the US has always had the “winning strategy” in the war, backing Iraq with huge amounts of military aid and providing air strikes. During today’s summit, the US and other nations agreed to even more shipments of aid to Iraq, including anti-tank missiles.
Wow, 10,000 ISIS fighters killed and only 2 civilians by the US government's count. That's incredible!
More than 10,000 Isis fighters killed since start of coalition assault, US claims
More than 10,000 Islamic State fighters have been killed since coalition forces started their campaign against the militant group in Iraq and Syria nine months ago, according to the US deputy secretary of state, Antony Blinken.
Speaking after leaders from more than 20 countries met in Paris for discussions on how to combat Isis, he said there had been a great deal of progress but the Islamists remained resilient and capable of taking the initiative.
US-led coalition to ramp up operations against IS
The 25 countries that make up the US-led coalition against "Islamic State" (IS) militants have pledged to ramp up their strategy to fight the extremists.
"We will redouble our efforts," said US Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who was leading the Paris delegation on Tuesday in place of John Kerry. Kerry is recovering in the US after breaking his leg in a biking accident in France over the weekend.
The IS "stands for nothing and depends on people who will fall for anything," Blinken said. The US also planned to make it easier for Iraq to obtain new weapons and would send anti-tank rockets to Iraq forces to use against IS' fortified tanks. ...
US-led coalition forces have launched more than 4,100 airstrikes on IS territory in Iraq and Syria, regaining 25 percent of the land occupied by the militants. However, the attacks haven't helped stem the flow of thousands of foreigners who have poured into the region to join the militant outfit.
Dude, where’s my Humvee? Iraq losing equipment to Islamic State at staggering rate
Iraqi security forces lost 2,300 Humvee armored vehicles when Islamic State overran the northern city of Mosul in June 2014, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Sunday in an interview with Iraqiya state television. Coupled with previous losses of American weapons, the conclusion is simple: The United States is effectively supplying Islamic State with tools of war the militant group cannot otherwise hope to acquire from its patrons.
In addition to the Humvees, Iraqi forces previously abandoned significant types and numbers of heavy weapons to Islamic State. For example, losses to Islamic State include at least 40 M1A1 main battle tanks, as well as small arms and ammunition, including 74,000 machine guns, and as many as 52 M198 howitzer mobile gun systems.
“We lost a lot of weapons,” Abadi admitted.
To help replenish Iraq’s motor pool, the U.S. State Department last year approved a sale to Iraq of 1,000 Humvees, along with their armor upgrades, machine guns and grenade launchers. The United States previously donated 250 Mine Resistant Armored Personnel carriers (MRAPs) to Iraq, plus unaccountable amounts of material left behind when American forces departed in 2011. The United States is currently in the process of moving to Iraq 175 M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks, 55,000 rounds of main tank-gun ammunition, $600 million in howitzers and trucks, $700 million worth of Hellfire missiles and 2,000 AT-4 rockets.
The Hellfires and AT-4′s, anti-tank weapons, are presumably going to be used to help destroy the American armor in the hands of Islamic State. The United States is also conducting air strikes to destroy weapons seized by Islamic State. It’s a surreal state of affairs in which American weaponry is being sent into Iraq to destroy American weaponry previously sent into Iraq. If a new sequel to Catch-22 were to be written, this would be the plot line.
ISIS Closes Ramadi Dam Gates, Cutting Water Flow to Govt-Held Territory
Dams all along the Euphrates River have become an increasingly important target in the ongoing ISIS war in Iraq. The capture of dams upriver has allowed ISIS to control waterflow into government-held areas downriver. Most recent, they have closed the dams in Ramadi, dramatically cutting water levels further east.
Anbar Provincial Council Chief Sabah Karhout warned that the lower water level to the east, the last part of Anbar that is still government-held, could mean a massive humanitarian crisis across Iraq. He is calling for the US to launch airstrikes on the dam to reopen the water flow.
That’s potentially hugely dangerous, not only because Ramadi is a major city of 500,000 people, but because the destruction of the dam is liable to flood parts of the surrounding area, at least temporarily.
Fears for Ukraine ceasefire after fresh reports of civilian deaths
Separatists in east Ukraine said 15 people in territory under their control were killed on Wednesday during battles around the rebel stronghold of Donetsk that is threatening to tip the country back into full-blown war. Two other deaths were reported in a government-controlled area.
Russian news agencies cited rebel armed forces chief Vladimir Kononov as saying the dead included fighters and civilians. The figure could not immediately be verified. ...
Implementation of the ceasefire agreement has foundered as low-intensity battles rage along several points of the 280-mile (450km) front. Negotiators from both sides met for talks in Belarus on Tuesday but the session concluded without obvious progress.
Reports of casualties among government and separatist fighters have continued unabated, but deaths among noncombatants had almost ceased. That trend has been disrupted in recent days in an indication that the warring sides were again resorting to indiscriminate shelling.
Neoliberal Policies and Foreign Intervention Fueling Violence in Yemen
Israel brands Palestinian-led boycott movement a 'strategic threat'
Netanyahu and Israeli government turn up heat on BDS over its calls for Israel to be boycotted for its occupation of Palestinian territories
Israel and key international supporters have sharply ratcheted up their campaign against the Palestinian-led Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, with senior Israeli officials declaring it a strategic threat.
Using language the Israeli government usually reserves for the likes of Hamas or Iran’s nuclear programme, senior figures – including the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and a key backer in the US, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson – have turned on the movement, which is prominent on university campuses and among international trade unions.
The moves came as the UK’s National Union of Students (NUS) voted on Tuesday to formally ally itself with the aims of BDS. Following the vote, Hebrew media reported that Israeli MPs were due to hold a special session in the Knesset to discuss the issue.
The non-violent grassroots movement, founded with the support of dozens of Palestinian organisations, is modelled on South African anti-apartheid campaigns and calls for an end to the occupation, equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel, and a resolution for Palestinian refugees of 1948. ...
The latest rhetoric has coincided with growing evidence of pro-Israeli activism over BDS, not least in the US. Last week, a new website emerged whose aim was to identify US college students active in the BDS movement with the explicit aim of identifying then to future possible employers. It was not clear who was behind the site.
Obama: Sanctions Against Iran Can’t Last Forever
In an interview with Israel’s Channel 2, President Obama warned Israel is losing credibility as a peacemaker because of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hostility to the peace process, and warned that the policy of sanctions against Irancan’t just last forever.
The prospect of a deal between the P5+1 and Iran on Iran’s civilian nuclear program has fueled Israeli concern about the prospect that years of ever-increasing sanctions will begin to be released, and they really had hoped to make the sanctions a permanent fixture of Iran’s economy.
"Cultural Genocide": Landmark Report Decries Canada’s Forced Schooling of Indigenous Children
The US government could count those killed by police, but it's chosen not to
For centuries, black communities in America have faced physical abuse and unjustified deadly force at the hands of law enforcement. Modern policing even originated in slave patrols and night watches that captured people who tried to escape slavery. According to the most recent FBI data, local police kill black people at nearly the same rate as people lynched in the Jim Crow-era – at least two times a week. The Guardian’s latest count for the first five months of 2015 puts that number at around once per day.
But the verifiable impact on black lives of racially discriminatory policing remains largely unknown. Despite federal law authorizing the US attorney general to collect nationwide data on police use of force, there remains no federal database on how often police kill civilians, let alone abuse their authority.
According to Guardian’s The Counted, police killed 464 people in the first 5 months of 2015, including 135 black people. Their data shows that, in 2015 so far, the black people killed by the police are twice as likely to be unarmed as the white people. According to a recent Washington Post analysis, at this rate, police will fatally shoot nearly 1,000 people by the end of year. The federal government has no way to confirm or disprove this data, though they’ve long had the authority to compile it themselves. ...
Just last week, as part of President Obama’s executive order to limit the types of militarized weapons the federal government can transfer to local police, he expanded police data collection of police uses of force, pedestrian and vehicle stops, officer involved shootings and more. But President Obama’s executive action fails to address the scale of today’s policing crisis or make the data collection mandatory: of 18,000 police departments in the US, only 21 are participating in the new initiative.
St Louis eyes $15 minimum wage: 'If we can win here, we can win anywhere'
St Louis could be the next city to raise its minimum wage significantly, if Mayor Francis Slay has his way.
A spokeswoman for the mayor, Maggie Crane, on Tuesday confirmed the Democratic mayor wants to see the city’s minimum raised.
“Mayor Slay is committed to raising the issue with the Board of Aldermen this summer,” Mary Ellen Ponder, Slay’s chief of staff, told the St Louis Post-Dispatch. “He believes, and he thinks most residents agree, that a higher minimum wage would be a good thing.”
Time is of the essence for St Louis and other Missouri cities that want to implement a different minimum wage from the state. Last month, Missouri passed a bill prohibiting cities from adopting local policies, including a local minimum wage. Only cities with a different minimum wage in place before 28 August would be exempt.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature From the Chicago Broad Ax: "Race Rioting in Chicago."
Tune in at 2pm!
|
Elizabeth Warren to SEC chair: you make a 'disappointing' Wall Street cop
Massachusetts senator condemns watchdog’s failure to finalize Dodd-Frank rules on CEO pay and allow many companies to settle cases without admitting guilt
Senator Elizabeth Warren launched a withering attack on the leadership of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairwoman Mary Jo White on Tuesday. In a 13-page letter, the Massachusetts senator told White she found her performance as Wall Street’s top cop “extremely disappointing”.
Among Warren’s main complaints are the SEC’s failure to finalize Dodd-Frank rules requiring companies to disclose the ratio of CEO pay to median worker pay, its failure to curb the use of waivers for companies that violate securities laws, and the number of SEC settlements that have not required an admission of guilt.
Warren said the SEC is supposed to act as “the cop on the beat for an honest marketplace” and that when it fails to do its job, “it touches every American family”. She also included six requests for information, asking that White respond and answer them by no later than later than 1 July. ...
After she took up her post, White defended the “don’t admit, don’t deny” protocol that allows companies to reach settlements without admitting wrongdoing. White called it a “major, major tool in [agency’s] arsenal”, which saves resources and allows the agency to get money to investors much more quickly. And while in June 2013 she said that the agency would be “seeking admissions in certain cases going forward”, she also stressed that the “don’t admit, don’t deny” protocol would remain for “majority of the cases”. ...
The White House stood behind White’s appointment as the chairwoman of the SEC.
“The president does continue to believe that she is the right person for the job,” Josh Earnest, the White House spokesman, said during the daily press briefing. “The president does continue to believe that the reasons that he chose her, based on her experience and her values, continue to be important today.”
Old and Broke in America? It Doesn't Have To Be This Way, Says Sanders
A new report by the Government Accountability Office released Tuesday shows that the savings and overall financial stability of Americans older than 55 has dropped dramatically in recent decades, leaving a worrisome situation as the ranks of the elderly are set to increase even more in the years ahead.
According to the report, more than half of this age group have no retirement savings whatsoever and most of these also have no pension (sometimes referred to has a defined benefit (DB) plan) or other spare savings to rely on once they stop working. The GAO says that Social Security currently provides most of the income for about half of households age 65 and older.
But with Social Security payments not keeping pace with the cost of living, experts worry that without finding ways to increase Social Security's reach the current crisis could turn into a full-blown disaster.
The GAO study was requested by Sen. Sanders, now a presidential candidate for the Democratic nomination, who earlier this year was the lead sponsor of legislation designed to increase Social Security benefits for recipients.
"This report makes it clear that there is a retirement crisis in America today," Sanders said in response to the GAO findings. "At a time when half of all older workers have no retirement savings, we need to expand, not cut, Social Security benefits so that every American can retire with dignity." ...
According to Sanders' office, the Social Security Expansion Act he put forth "would make the wealthiest Americans pay the same share of their income into the retirement program as other wage earners." That change, Sanders argues, would extend the solvency of Social Security through 2065 while allowing monthly payments to Social Security recipients go up. Under his proposal, Sanders says the average benefit would increase by $65 a month, cost-of-living adjustments would more accurately measure inflation, and an increase to the minimum benefit could lift millions of vulnerable seniors out of poverty in their final years.
The Evening Greens
Some of the World's Biggest Energy Companies Want a Price on Carbon Pollution
Six large European energy companies wrote a letter to the United Nations on Friday saying they want to help meet the world's growing demand for energy while also aiding in international efforts to keep global temperature rise within 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) of pre-industrial levels, the Financial Times reported.
Calling climate change "a critical challenge for our world," the companies — BG Group, BP, Eni, Shell, Statoil, and Total — urged the UN and governments around the world to introduce carbon pricing systems, which they said would stimulate investment in low-carbon technologies.
"For us to do more, we need governments across the world to provide us with clear, stable, long-term, ambitious policy frameworks," the companies wrote. "This would reduce uncertainty and help stimulate investments in the right low carbon technologies and the right resources at the right pace."
Not all of the world's energy majors agree.
The two largest US energy companies, Exxon Mobil and Chevron, said they're having no part of the push toward carbon pricing.
Fracking Protests Continue in Texas as New ALEC-Backed Law Bars Towns from Banning Drilling
Food, Water, Health, Life: UN Experts Warn of Threats Posed by Secret 'Trade' Deals
Echoing the protests of civil society organizations and social movements around the world, a panel of United Nations experts on Tuesday issued a stark warningabout the threats that secret international "trade" agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pose to the most fundamental human rights.
"Our concerns relate to the rights to life, food, water and sanitation, health, housing, education, science and culture, improved labor standards, an independent judiciary, a clean environment and the right not to be subjected to forced resettlement," reads the statement, whose ten signatories include Ms. Catalina Devandas Aguilar, Special Rapporteur on the rights of person with disabilities and Ms. Victoria Lucia Tauli-Corpuz, Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples.
In particular, the officials raise the alarm about the "investor-state dispute settlement" systems that have become the bedrock of so-called "free trade deals," included in 3,000 agreements world-wide, according to the count of The New York Times. Popularly known as corporate tribunals, ISDS frameworks constitute a parallel legal system in which corporations can sue state governments for allegedly impeding profits and thereby supersede democratic laws and protections.
The UN experts warn that "ISDS chapters are anomalous in that they provide protection for investors but not for States or for the population. They allow investors to sue States but not vice-versa." Under this framework, states have faced penalties for "for adopting regulations, for example to protect the environment, food security, access to generic and essential medicines, and reduction of smoking, as required under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, or raising the minimum wage," resulting in a "chilling effect," the officials warn.
As Planet Warms, Oceans Face Threatening Changes Unseen in 3 Million Years
Continued warming of the world's oceans may trigger disruptions to marine life not seen in 3 million years, according to a new study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Among the foreseen changes are extinction of some of the ocean's keystone species as well as the widespread influx of invasive plants and animals particularly in "temperate and polar biomes."
"Climate change may rapidly reorganize marine diversity over large oceanic regions,” states the report. "The intensity of this reorganization will depend, unsurprisingly, on the magnitude of warming."
According to the report, a "moderate warming" scenario, with projected global warming ranging from 0.9 to 2.6º C, "will increase by threefold the changes already observed over the past 50 years."
However, of most concern is that severe warming, with a projected increase of 0.8 to 4.8°C, "will affect marine biodiversity to a greater extent than temperature changes that took place between either the Last Glacial Maximum or the mid-Pliocene and today," impacting as much as 70 percent of the world's oceans.
Court Rejects Final Legal Challenge to Keystone XL South
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
For Terrorist Fearmongers, It’s Always the Scariest Time Ever
“It Would Have Been Un-American Not to Do It”: Anthony Russo, the Forgotten Whistleblower
Obama and Oil
OSHA issues transgender bathroom usage guide
40 minutes of Bernie
RIP Jean Ritchie
A Little Night Music
Bob Brozman - Highway 49 Blues
Bob Brozman - Love In Vain
Bob Brozman - Jinx Blues Hop
Bob Brozman - Come On In My Kitchen
Bob Brozman - Rattlesnake Blues
Bob Brozman - Death Come Creepin
Bob Brozman - Minnie the Moocher
Bob Brozman - Devil's Slide
Bob Brozman - Old man blues
Bob Brozman - Let's get it stomp
Bob Brozman - Hawaii Song
Djeli Moussa Diawara & Bob Brozman - Kanun
Bob Brozman - Obvious Blues
David Grisman, Mike Auldridge & Bob Brozman - Crash Can Stomp