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!
Tonight's music features Memphis Slim, piano player and composer of a number of blues standards including, "Everyday I Have the Blues." Enjoy!
Memphis Slim - Everyday I Have The Blues
"The enormous gap between what US leaders do in the world and what Americans think their leaders are doing is one of the great propaganda accomplishments."
-- Michael Parenti
News and Opinion
‘Bloodshed, torture, medieval darkness brought to Libya with Western involvement’
CIA chiefs face arrest over horrific evidence of bloody 'video-game' sorties by drone pilots
A damning dossier assembled from exhaustive research into the strikes’ targets sets out in heartbreaking detail the deaths of teachers, students and Pakistani policemen. It also describes how bereaved relatives are forced to gather their loved ones’ dismembered body parts in the aftermath of strikes.
The dossier has been assembled by human rights lawyer Shahzad Akbar, who works for Pakistan’s Foundation for Fundamental Rights and the British human rights charity Reprieve.
Filed in two separate court cases, it is set to trigger a formal murder investigation by police into the roles of two US officials said to have ordered the strikes. They are Jonathan Banks, former head of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Islamabad station, and John A. Rizzo, the CIA’s former chief lawyer. Mr Akbar and his staff have already gathered further testimony which has yet to be filed. ...
In the first case, which has already been heard by a court in Islamabad, judgment is expected imminently. If the judge grants Mr Akbar’s petition, an international arrest warrant will be issued via Interpol against the two Americans.
The second case is being heard in the city of Peshawar. In it, Mr Akbar and the families of drone victims who are civilians are seeking a ruling that further strikes in Pakistani airspace should be viewed as ‘acts of war’.
The One Percent’s Power and Privileges
Anti-Austerity Allies Coming Together for Coordinated European Strikes - Spain's largest unions join call for multi-country day of "action and solidarity" against assault on public programs
In a new development for Europe's anti-austerity campaigners, Spain's two main labor groups, the Workers' Commissions (CCOO) and General Workers' (UGT), announced Friday they would meet the call of other European labor organizations for coordinated action by declaring plans for a national strike on November 14th.
Supported by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), which represents 85 labor organizations from 36 countries across Europe, the "day of action and solidarity" would the first pan-European protest coordinated by anti-austerity allies in Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Portugal, and possibly elsewhere. The ETUC said the day would include strikes, demonstrations, rallies and other actions. ...
Calling the newly announced coordination a "spectacular" development, CCOO spokesperson Fernando Lezcano said turnout could be massive due to the growing evidence that austerity prescribed by the so-called Troika—the European Central Bank, the IMF, and European Commission—has failed.
"After two and a half years of austerity policies," Lezcano said, "the member countries are suffering worse than before. We cannot take it anymore, we cannot wait any longer. The failure of these policies has been clearly demonstrated."
Britain's Unions Bring London to a Standstill
Could the Germans be tiring of their Austerians?
Merkel's party ousted by Greens in local election for first time in 40 years
Voters in Germany's south-western city of Stuttgart have elected the environmentalist Greens' candidate Fritz Kuhn as mayor, preliminary results showed on Sunday, with Chancellor Angela Merkel's party losing power there for the first time in almost four decades.
Mr Kuhn will be the centre-left party's first mayor in a German state capital, securing a victory in the run-off vote that will likely boost the Greens less than a year before planned national elections. ...
The result came about 18 months after the anti-nuclear Greens managed to oust Ms Merkel's Christian Democratic Party after almost six decades in power in traditionally conservative Baden-Wuerttemberg state, of which Stuttgart is the capital.
The Greens' leader Winfried Kretschmann since became the party's first state governor, leading a coalition government with the centre-left Social Democrats.
US civil rights groups ask international election monitors for assistance - NAACP and others say voter restrictions and ID laws ahead of 2012 US election require planned observer mission to expand
American civil rights groups have appealed to the world's biggest election monitoring organisation over concerns about controversial changes in voter registration ahead of the November 6 White House poll.
The eight civil rights group expressed their worry that millions, including those on low income as well as minorities, could be excluded from the vote for the presidency and for members of Congress.
They raised the issues during a meeting on Tuesday in Washington with representatives from the Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which represents 56 states in Europe, Central Asia and North America.
The OSCE is likely to refer to the concerns in an interim report on the US elections out at the end of next week. It is also expected to pass on the views of the civil rights groups to its team of international observers who are being sent to monitor elections in 40 states.
"Mayor 1%" Bloomberg: Elizabeth Warren could ‘bring socialism back, or the USSR’
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is warning that a win for Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren could effectively mean the return of the Soviet Union.
During a recent interview with The New York Times, Bloomberg explained that he was supporting Republican Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) because he wanted to “find liberal middle-of-the-road Republicans and Democrats.” ...
Bloomberg offered the following thoughts on Warren: “You can question, in my mind, whether she’s God’s gift to regulation, close the banks and get rid of corporate profits, and we’d all bring socialism back, or the USSR.”
George McGovern Dies at 90: Remembering Democratic Senator, Antiwar Candidate’s Life and Legacy
American Indian activist Russell Means dies at 72
Sioux activist Russell Means, who helped bring the grievances of Native Americans to national and global attention in the 1970s before becoming a Hollywood actor, died Monday at the age of 72. ...
In a note two days before his death, Means urged fans to “dedicate yourselves to the work to which I have tried to commit my life: liberation and freedom for my Lakota people, for all indigenous peoples, and, in fact, for ALL peoples.”
Born on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation in 1939, Means was the eldest son of Hank Means, an Oglala Sioux, and Theodora “Feather” Means, a Yankton Sioux. The family moved to California when he was very young.
He rose to national prominence in the early 1970s by helping stage protests, including a prayer vigil on the heads of presidential statues at Mount Rushmore and a Thanksgiving Day demonstration in which they seized a replica of the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock.
Permit given for fracking near nuclear plant
Chesapeake Energy has a permit to frack just one mile from the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station in Shippingport. Whether that is cause for alarm, experts can’t say. ...
The new permit granted to Chesapeake is located 1.06 miles from FirstEnergy Corp. nuclear facility in Shippingport. According to DEP records, the permit for an unconventional well was issued to Chesapeake on Oct. 3. Drilling has not yet started.
DEP spokesperson John Poister said there are no required setbacks specifically relating to a required distance between unconventional wells and nuclear facilities, just a blanket regulation requiring a 500-foot setback from any building to an unconventional well.
With more than a mile setback distance, the newly permitted well would be well within the state’s regulations. But Poister did say he is not aware of any other nuclear power station located in an area where shale drilling is occurring.
Spanish earthquake which killed nine and injured hundreds 'was triggered by extraction of groundwater' - Findings could have wider implications for the extraction of shale gas
A major earthquake in Spain that killed nine people and injured more than a hundred was man-made following the extraction of groundwater, say scientists.
The magnitude 5.1 tremor struck the historic town of Lorca in south-east Spain last May. ...
Scientists led by Dr Pablo Gonzalez, from the University of Western Ontario in Canada, used satellite data to map the ground deformation caused by the Lorca earthquake.
They then carried out computer simulations of the fault slip. The results showed a pattern that correlated with stress changes due to loss of groundwater.
Since the 1960s, natural groundwater levels in the region have reduced by 250 metres.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin'
10 Facts About US Withdrawal from Afghanistan
A Secret War in 120 Countries - The Pentagon’s New Power Elite
Life expectancy in the US declines significantly for many poor: no one notices
Natl. Federation of Independent Business - Big, Secretive, Right-Wing and Unaccountable - by Raul Grijalva
A Little Night Music
Memphis Slim - Beer Drinking Woman
Memphis Slim - I'm lost without you
Memphis Slim - Panic Street
Memphis Slim - Grinder Man Blues
Memphis Slim - Guess i'm a fool
Memphis Slim - How long
Memphis Slim & Willie Dixon - Joggie Boogie
Willie Dixon & Memphis Slim - Go Easy
Memphis Slim, Big Bill Broonzy and Sonny Boy Williamson - Life is Like That
Sonny Boy Williamson, Memphis Slim - Same Girl
Buddy Guy & Memphis Slim - You Call Me At Last
Buddy Guy & Memphis Slim - You're The One
Memphis Slim - The Churning Man
Memphis Slim - Steppin' out
Memphis Slim - Me, Myself And I
Memphis Slim & Matt Murphy - Matt's Guitar Blues
Memphis Slim - We're Gonna Rock
Memphis Slim - If You See Kay
Memphis Slim - Forty Four Blues
Memphis Slim - Lend Me Your Love
Memphis Slim - I'll just keep singin the blues
Memphis Slim - Four O'Clock Blues
Memphis Slim - Harlem Bound
Remember when progressive debate was about our values and not about a "progressive" candidate? Remember when progressive websites championed progressive values and didn't tell progressives to shut up about values so that "progressive" candidates can get elected?
Come to where the debate is not constrained by oaths of fealty to persons or parties.
Come to where the pie is served in a variety of flavors.
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." ~ Noam Chomsky
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