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 r&b guitarist and bandleader Jimmy Liggins. Enjoy!
Jimmy Liggins - I Ain't Drunk
“This is the most transparent administration in history.”
-- Barack Obama
News and Opinion
US ordered to explain withholding of Iraq and Afghanistan torture photos
The Obama administration has until early December to detail its reasons for withholding as many as 2,100 graphic photographs depicting US military torture of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, a federal judge ordered on Tuesday.
By 12 December, Justice Department attorneys will have to list, photograph by photograph, the government’s rationale for keeping redacted versions of the photos unseen by the public, Judge Alvin Hellerstein instructed lawyers. But any actual release of the photographs will come after Hellerstein reviews the government’s reasoning and issues another ruling in the protracted transparency case.
While Hellerstein left unclear how much of the Justice Department’s declaration will itself be public, the government’s submission is likely to be its most detailed argument for secrecy over the imagery in a case that has lasted a decade.
“The only thing that bothers me is that we’re taking a lot of time,” Hellerstein told a nearly empty courtroom.
... Said to be even more disturbing than the infamous Abu Ghraib photographs that sparked a global furor in 2004, the imagery is the subject of a transparency lawsuit that both the Bush and Obama administrations, backed by the US Congress, have strenuously resisted.
American Exceptionalism at Play in Interpreting the Convention on Torture
The truth about torture is Obama never wants you to find it
If America is so opposed to Bush-era atrocities, why does it keep covering up the evidence to protect the CIA?
The cover-up of the CIA’s secret surveillance on the US Senate Intelligence Committee is only getting deeper. As the Huffington Post’s Ali Watkins and Ryan Grim reported on Tuesday afternoon, a still-classified Inspector General report alleges CIA officials “impersonated Senate staffers in order to gain access to Senate communications and drafts of the Intelligence Committee investigation” while Senate staffers were completing their now infamous – but still somehow unreleased – report on the CIA’s Bush-era torture program.
You would think the White House might be aghast at such revelations, given that it’s the Senate Intelligence Committee’s job to oversee the CIA. But instead of worrying about the Constitution or legal violations, all the Obama administration seems to care about is saving CIA director John Brennan’s ass. ... The intel committee voted to release of some of its 6,000-page report way back in April, and we still have no idea when the public will learn the full truth about Abu Ghraib, the secret rendition facilities, and all the rest of the Bush atrocities – despite repeated assurances that we will. The release date has gone from July, to August, to September, and now to the end of October, thanks to foot-dragging and obfuscation from Langley to Pennsylvania Avenue. Anyone who thinks Obama’s White House is going to let this thing into the wild between the midterm elections and Isis Fever has got to be kidding themselves. ...
The CIA, for its part, is content for the truth to be withheld as long as possible. The agency redacted the report so much that it reportedly is incomprehensible, now they’re fighting with the Senate over what can and can’t be released. ... The Justice Department has already refused to prosecute American torturers anyway. And even the Most Transparent Administration in History™ is very adept at arguing for extreme secrecy on the photos of torture at Abu Gharib, or the videos of force-feeding at Guantanamo, or a dozen other cases they’re fighting.
Obama And Torture: Another Win For The CIA?
[S]ome things are not really open to compromise. And torture is one of them.
We have seen Obama’s rock-solid support for John Brennan’s campaign to prevent any accountability, even to the point of spying on the Senate Committee tasked with oversight, across his two terms. We have watched as the White House has refused to open up its own records for inspection, as it has allowed the CIA to obstruct, slow-walk and try to redact to meaninglessness the Senate Intelligence Committee’s still-stymied report on torture. Our jaws have dropped as the president has reduced one of the gravest crimes on the statute book to “we tortured some folks,” while doing lots of “good things” as well. ...
The Obama administration is actually now debating whether the legal ban on torture by the CIA in black sites and brigs and gulags outside this country’s borders should be explicitly endorsed by the administration in its looming presentation before the UN’s Committee Against Torture (which might well be an interesting session, given the administration’s consistent refusal to enforce the Geneva Conventions).
Presidents come and go; Congressional majorities go back and forth; but the CIA remains. Because this administration never even considered enforcing the Geneva Conventions on the US – by refusing to investigate and prosecute acts of torture and abuse by government officials under the previous administration – the CIA knows it can get away with war crimes in plain sight.
So we have a true test of what this president is made of, as the administration preps for its first appearance before the UN Committee. Is this president serious about torture? Or is he a pawn, like so many before him, of a rogue agency that is accountable to no one? [Pfffttt - you really have to ask that question, Sully? - js]
Isis claims it has US airdrop of weapons
A US airdrop of arms to besieged Kurds in Kobani appears to have missed its target and ended up in the hands of Islamic State (Isis) militants.
Video footage released by Isis shows what appears to be one of its fighters for in desert scrubland with a stack of boxes attached to a parachute. The boxes are opened to show an array of weapons, some rusty, some new. A canister is broken out to reveal a hand grenade.
The Pentagon said it was investigating the claim but admitted that one of its airdrops had gone missing. If confirmed, it would be an embarrassment for the US, given the advanced precision technology available to its air force.
The seemingly bungled airdrop comes against a steady stream of US-supplied weapons being lost to Isis forces, mainly from the dysfunctional Iraqi army. Isis is reported to have stolen seven American M1 Abrams tanks from three Iraqi army bases in Anbar province last week
Kobane defenders hold out as Iraq Kurds vote on reinforcements
Kurdish fighters defending Syria's border town of Kobane held out against the Islamic State group Wednesday, anxious for relief as Iraq's Kurdish parliament was set to vote on sending reinforcements.
Backed by air strikes from a US-led coalition, the Kurds have been defending the town on the Turkish border against a fierce IS offensive for more than a month.
After initially losing ground to the jihadists the Kurds have fought back hard, with the US military saying Tuesday they had halted the IS advance and remained in control of most of Kobane. ...
A senior lawmaker in Iraq's Kurdish regional parliament told AFP it would vote later Wednesday on deploying its peshmerga forces to the battle for Kobane.
ISIS Fighters Once Again Nearing Mount Sinjar
ISIS began attacking the Kurdish frontier on multiple fronts yesterday, and is pushing into territory they’d lost months ago. They’re also nearing Mount Sinjar once again, which was the original pretext for the US launching the war.
ISIS seems to grow its territory in Iraq in spurts, seizing major swathes of territory and then stalling their advance, focusing on shoring up their defenses in those areas. It seems that once again they’re in a growth period inside Iraq, and neither the Iraqi military nor the Kurds seem to be able to stop them.
In U.N. Speech, Noam Chomsky Blasts United States for Supporting Israel, Blocking Palestinian State
Noam Chomsky at United Nations: It Would Be Nice if the United States Lived up to International Law
US Cities Criminalizing Sharing Food with Homeless: Report
As the number of U.S. cities criminalizing sharing food with the homeless continues to rise as a result of burdensome requirements on food pantries and individuals, rights groups are condemning the cities for their focus on punishment over solutions.
A report released Monday by the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) found that ordinances which have been adopted in 21 cities target food pantries, individuals, and homeless populations alike by perpetuating harmful myths about the effects of food-sharing and restricting the ways communities can do it.
"One of the most narrow-minded ideas when it comes to homelessness and food-sharing is that sharing food with people in need enables them to remain homeless," states the NCH report, Share No More: The Criminalization of Efforts to Feed People In Need (pdf).
"There is the myth that sharing food with low income people enables someone to stay homeless," Michael Stoops, NCH director of community organizing, told Common Dreams. "Another myth is that these food-sharing programs are not necessary as hunger or food insecurity is not a problem in the U.S. There is a 'food fight' going on in downtown America between the interests of economic development [and] tourism, versus people experiencing homelessness and the agencies that help them."
Hedges & Wolin: Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist?
Heh, these guys need citizens united to consult with them to assuage their fears. Maybe we could send them the Roberts court...
Hong Kong Chief Executive: Democracy Would Empower the Poor
As talks between Hong Kong protesters and the Chinese government began on Tuesday, the region’s current chief executive C.Y. Leung spoke out against free elections on the grounds that it would empower the poor.
In his first interview with foreign media since the pro-democracy movement began, Leung said that if the public were allowed to nominate any candidate of their choosing, elections would be dominated by the large sector of Hong Kong residents currently living in poverty.
"You have to take care of all the sectors in Hong Kong as much as you can, and if it’s entirely a numbers game and numeric representation, then obviously you would be talking to half of the people in Hong Kong who earn less than $1,800 a month," Leung said. "Then you would end up with that kind of politics and policies."
Hong Kong protesters shout ‘shame on you’ outside home of city chief
About 200 pro-democracy demonstrators have marched to the home of Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing chief executive Leung Chun-ying, chanting slogans decrying his recent suggestion that democratic elections in the city would give too much voice to the poor.
At around the same time on Wednesday afternoon, demonstrators in the gritty district of Mong Kok, the site of violent clashes between police and protesters over the weekend, scuffled with a group of taxi drivers as they attempted to remove barricades blocking a major thoroughfare. In the early evening, one counter-protester attempted to pour paint thinner over the protesters’ supplies and set them alight before he was apprehended by onlookers.
The continuing demonstrations suggest that a televised dialogue between student leaders and government officials on Tuesday failed to ameliorate political tensions driving the so-called umbrella movement as it stretches into its fourth week.
Police did not interfere with the rally outside Leung’s residence, but waited in droves on side streets, riot shields and helmets at the ready. “Shame on you,” shouted the crowd, as it amassed at the gates of Government House, a stately British-built edifice on a bluff high above the central city.
Surprise: U.S. Drug War In Afghanistan Not Going Well
A new report has found the war on drugs in Afghanistan remains colossally expensive, largely ineffective and likely to get worse. This is particularly true in the case of opium production, says the U.S. Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.
In a damning report released Tuesday, the special inspector general, Justin F. Sopko, writes that “despite spending over $7 billion to combat opium poppy cultivation and to develop the Afghan government’s counternarcotics capacity, opium poppy cultivation levels in Afghanistan hit an all-time high in 2013,” hitting 209,000 hectares, surpassing the prior, 2007 peak of 193,000 hectares. Sopko adds that the number should continue to rise thanks to deteriorating security in rural Afghanistan and weak eradication efforts.
Though the figures it reports are jarring, the inspector general’s investigation highlights drug policy failures in Afghanistan that have been consistently documented for years. Indeed, Sopko himself has been raising concerns over the failing drug war in Afghanistan for some time. In January, he testified before the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control and described a series of discouraging conversations with counternarcotics officials from Afghanistan, the U.S., and elsewhere.
“In the opinion of almost everyone I spoke with, the situation in Afghanistan is dire with little prospect for improvement in 2014 or beyond,” Sopko told the lawmakers. “All of the fragile gains we have made over the last 12 years on women’s issues, health, education, rule of law, and governance are now, more than ever, in jeopardy of being wiped out by the narcotics trade which not only supports the insurgency, but also feeds organized crime and corruption.”
Facebook Tells the DEA That Fake Accounts and Covert Ops Are Not Welcome
[L]ast week Facebook told law enforcement agencies that the social media site will not be an option for officers looking to carry out covert operations.
The company reprimanded the Drug Enforcement Administration for creating a fake profile using a real person's information and personal photos to assist in an "undercover" sting investigation, saying that they found the activity "deeply troubling."
Facebook's chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, sent a letter to the agency on October 17 informing them that "the DEA's deceptive actions violate the terms and policies that govern the use of the Facebook service and undermine the trust in the Facebook community."
Sullivan asked the DEA to "cease all activities on Facebook that involve the impersonation of others."
The letter was prompted by a lawsuit filed by Sondra Arquiett, who sued the DEA after her arrest on drug charges in 2010 led to her personal information and photographs — taken from a seized cell phone — being used to create a fake Facebook profile.
Missouri governor to set up 'Ferguson commission' in wake of unrest
The Missouri governor, Jay Nixon, announced on Tuesday that he would set up a commission to study the deeper problems in the St Louis area exposed by the intense unrest following the deadly police shooting earlier this year of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old.
The special panel will “conduct a thorough, wide-ranging and unflinching study of the underlying social and economic conditions” underscored by the continuing protests in the suburb of Ferguson surrounding Brown’s death.
The Democratic governor, who was sharply criticised for what many saw as a flat-footed response to the crisis in August, said that he would ask the commission to “make specific recommendations for making the St Louis region a stronger, fairer place for everyone to live”.
Nixon said that the so-called “Ferguson commission” would be established by his executive order but would be independent of his office. Missourians interested in serving on the commission were encouraged to apply via the state government’s website.
It's shopping season again and the big money wants to keep its bipartisan hold on congress.
Dark Money Spending in Key Senate Races 'Shattering' Records
Unknown donors and big-monied, outside groups are pouring record amounts of cash into key Senate races set to determine which political party will take control over the upper house come November's election, according to a new report published Tuesday by the Brennan Center for Justice.
The report, Election Spending 2014: 9 Toss-Up Senate Races (pdf), found that outside spending by undisclosed "dark money" groups is on track to "shatter previous records." According to newly-released data from the Federal Elections Commission, of the nine hotly-contested senate races this year—Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, and North Carolina—all but one is expected to beat the previous record for most outside money spent in a senate race, $52.4 million in Virginia in 2012.
The most expensive race in terms of overall spending, North Carolina at $64.8 million, is set to beat the record "several times over."
The Evening Greens
U.S. will take helm of Arctic Council this week, while Russia ramps up construction of Arctic military base
The U.S. will assume leadership of the international Arctic Council this week, as Russia and Canada flex their military muscles in the fossil fuel-rich polar region.
For environmentalists, by opening U.S. Arctic waters to oil drilling leases, the Obama Administration hasn't instilled confidence in its stewardship of the complex and swiftly changing ecosystem. Still, when U.S. presents its agenda for its two-year chairmanship of the Council this week, some are hopeful that the U.S. term will focus on mitigating, researching, and preventing climate change as opposed to plundering the region's natural resources. ...
The Arctic Council consists of representatives from eight countries—Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States—plus permanent participants representing indigenous peoples. ...
Meanwhile, Russia "is engaging in large-scale militarization of the Arctic, a vast area coveted by itself and its four neighbors: Canada, the United States, Norway and Denmark," the Guardian reported Tuesday. "Such moves may bring back the atmosphere of the cold war, when the region was the focus of US and NATO attention, as they were convinced that it would be a launchpad for nuclear strikes."
2014 On Track To Be Warmest Year Ever Recorded
Earth is on pace to experience its hottest year in recorded history, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Monday.
The new forecast is driven by temperature data from September 2014, the warmest September in 135 years of climate tracking. This May, June, and August were also record-breaking months. In fact, October 2013 to September 2014 marks the hottest 12-month stretch since record-keeping began in 1880, according to Jessica Blunden, climate scientist at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.
Most remarkable, says Jeff Masters, Director of Meteorology for Weather Underground, is the recent landmark heat has occurred in the absence of El Niño, the periodic warming of tropical Pacific Ocean waters that has produced high temperatures in past years.
El Salvador’s fight against gold mine will be decided in D.C.
SAN ISIDRO, El Salvador — Somewhere trapped in the earth below Francisco Pineda’s feet are an estimated 1.4 million ounces of gold, and he wants the ore to remain there.
He doesn’t want an Australian mining company to extract the metal.
“What will happen with the water? To separate the gold and silver, they’ll use cyanide. This will either filter into the water table or go into the river,” said Pineda, a stocky agronomist and environmental activist.
Those who share Pineda’s views don’t care if El Salvador remains the proverbial beggar seated on a bench of gold. They say their densely populated nation cannot absorb environmental distress from mining.
Yet the choice is not theirs.
The fate of the El Dorado gold mine won’t be resolved anywhere near this tiny Central American country. Rather, it’s being weighed by a three-judge tribunal on the fourth floor of the World Bank headquarters in Washington.
The unusual jurisdiction is a sign of how international investment laws are empowering corporations to act against foreign governments that curtail their future profits, sometimes through policy flip-flops. Critics say it’s giving trade tribunals leverage over sovereign nations and elected leaders who presumably reflect the will of their people.
The lawsuit could put El Salvador in a dilemma: Either allow OceanaGold to mine or pay the $301 million the company says it would’ve earned from the gold.
“For us, it is very tough that three judges will be deciding this case. They’ve never been here. They’ve never asked us what we want. It is really ugly that someone is deciding our future without asking our opinion,” Pineda said.
Water Shutoffs Robbing Detroit Residents of 'Dignified' Life: UN Investigators
Following two-day inquiry, UN experts release strongly worded warning condemning city's human rights violations
Detroit's "unprecedented" shutoff of water utilities to city homes condemns residents to "lives without dignity," violates human rights on a large scale, and disproportionately impacts African-Americans, United Nations investigators declared Monday following a two-day inquiry.
"Denial of access to sufficient quantity of water threatens the rights to adequate housing, life, health, adequate food, integrity of the family," wrote UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing Leilani Farha and UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, in a joint statement. "It exacerbates inequalities, stigmatizes people and renders the most vulnerable even more helpless. Lack of access to water and hygiene is also a real threat to public health as certain diseases could widely spread." ...
DeMeeko Williams, coordinator for the Detroit Water Brigade, told Common Dreams that it is absurd that people in the city have to appeal to the United Nations for support. "You can't get help from the city government, the state government is the main culprit, and the U.S. government is not doing anything, so what else is there to do? Who do we turn to?" he asked.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Canada, At War For 13 Years, Shocked That ‘A Terrorist’ Attacked Its Soldiers
Chevron Greases Local Election With Gusher of Cash
The Technology of Violence and its effect on prosperity and freedom
Jane Doe sues Connecticut DCF
Gun Fight in Parliament: Soldier Shot & Killed in Canada's Capital City Ottawa
A Little Night Music
Jimmy Liggins - Blues For Love
Jimmy Liggins and His Drops Of Joy - Cadillac Boogie
Jimmy Liggins - That's What's Knockin' Me Out
Jimmy Liggins - Drunk
Jimmy Liggins - Saturday Night Boogie Woogie Man
Jimmy Liggins - Brown Skin Girl, Dark Hour Blues
Jimmy Liggins - Boogie Woogie King
Jimmy Liggins & His Drops of Joy - I Can't Stop It
Jimmy Liggins & His Drops of Joy - Tear Drop Blues
Jimmy Liggins - Talking That Talk
Jimmy Liggins and His Drops of Joy - Ada From Decatur
Jimmy Liggins - Working Man Blues
Jimmy Liggins & His Drops Of Joy - Nite Life Boogie
Jimmy Liggins - Last Round
It's National Pie Day!
The election is over, it's a new year and it's time to work on real change in new ways... and it's National Pie Day. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to tell you a little more about our new site and to start getting people signed up.
Come on over and sign up so that we can send you announcements about the site, the launch, and information about participating in our public beta testing.
Why is National Pie Day the perfect opportunity to tell you more about us? Well you'll see why very soon. So what are you waiting for?! Head on over now and be one of the first!
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