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 Detroit and Chicago blues piano player Detroit Junior. Enjoy!
Detroit Junior - If I hadn't been high
“I am convinced that imprisonment is a way of pretending to solve the problem of crime. It does nothing for the victims of crime, but perpetuates the idea of retribution, thus maintaining the endless cycle of violence in our culture. It is a cruel and useless substitute for the elimination of those conditions--poverty, unemployment, homelessness, desperation, racism, greed--which are at the root of most punished crime. The crimes of the rich and powerful go mostly unpunished."
-- Howard Zinn
News and Opinion
'We crossed the line', US admits to UN anti-torture body
The United States said Nov. 12 it did not condone torture under any circumstances, but acknowledged to a UN anti-torture watchdog it had "crossed the line" following the September 11 attacks. ...
In its first review since Obama came to power, several delegates acknowledged abuses had occurred during the so-called "War on Terror" under the previous administration of George W. Bush. ...
The delegation faced a barrage of questions from committee members on how the country was dealing with rectifying and providing redress for acknowledged abuses during the "war on terror".
The US delegation was asked to explain why the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba remains open, why many detainees remain there without charge and when Washington plans to shut it down.
The committee members also questioned the treatment of prisoners there, and lack of redress for victims of the widely publicised abuses by US troops at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in the early 2000s.
Beyond the "war on terror" legacy, the committee members raised issues of abuses in US prisons, rape in prisons, the broad use of drawn-out solitary confinement, and long years on death row.
US: 'No Nation Is Perfect.' 'We Crossed the Line.' (But Don't Expect Accountability for Legacy of Torture)
Despite earlier indications, White House tells panel in Geneva that U.S. will abide by UN Convention Against Torture... for the most part
The Obama administration indicated on Wednesday that it will back away from a position held by the previous administration that claimed the United States is not obligated to abide by the UN Treaty Against Torture when operating on foreign soil. That's the good news.
In comments made before the UN Committee Against Torture during hearings that began in Geneva today, acting U.S. legal advisor Mary McLeod told the panel, "The US is proud of its record as a leader in respecting, promoting and defending human rights and the rule of law, both at home and around the world." ...
More specifically, McCleod added that "in the wake of 9/11 attacks" the United States "did not always live up to our own values. We crossed the line and we take responsibility for that."
However, ahead of the two-day hearings, a position paper released by Obama's National Security Council seemed to indicate that so-called "black sites" run by the CIA as well as current and former detention facilities established in Afghanistan and Iraq during the Bush years would not fall under the jurisdiction of the treaty.
Activists Arrested for Protesting Drone Killings Speak Out
U.S. to Revise Bush Policy on Treatment of Prisoners
A treaty ban on cruel treatment will restrict how the United States may treat prisoners in certain places abroad, the Obama administration is expected to tell the United Nations on Wednesday, according to officials.
That interpretation would change a disputed Bush administration theory that the cruelty ban does not apply abroad. But the Obama administration also stopped short of an unequivocal acceptance that the ban imposes legal obligations everywhere that American officials have a prisoner in their custody or control, as human rights advocates had urged it to say. ...
The Obama administration, after an internal debate that has drawn global scrutiny, is taking the view that the cruelty ban applies wherever the United States exercises governmental authority, according to officials familiar with the deliberations. That definition, they said, includes the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and American-flagged ships and aircraft in international waters and airspace.
But the administration’s definition still appears to exclude places like the former “black site” prisons where the C.I.A. tortured terrorism suspects during the Bush years, as well as American military detention camps in Afghanistan and Iraq during the wars there. Those prisons were on the sovereign territory of other governments; the government of Cuba exercises no control over Guantánamo.
Activists Carry Human Rights Message from #FergusonToGeneva
The family of Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager shot and killed by a white police officer this summer, and grassroots organizers from Ferguson, Missouri are in Geneva, Switzerland this week to testify before the United Nations Committee Against Torture, press for justice in Ferguson and other disenfranchised communities, and "to unite governments around the world against the human rights violations that result from racial profiling and police violence."
The #FergusonToGeneva contingent—comprising Michael Brown, Sr., Michael's mother Lesley McSpadden, human rights advocates, and representatives from the Missouri-based organizations HandsUpUnited, Organization for Black Struggle, and Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment—will also present to the UN a report (pdf) released last month, condemning the Ferguson police department for Brown's killing as well as militarized law enforcement response to subsequent demonstrations.
The document says Brown's killing and force used by police officers during protests that followed the incident "represent violations of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment."
Those testifying before the committee are calling on the UN to intervene, defend human rights, and push for recommendations like the ones outlined in the report.
Hat tip
bobswern
Ferguson Decision to Indict Officer Darren Wilson Coming This Week
A member of the St. Louis County Grand Jury reportedly (illegally) leaked the fact that the decision on whether to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, the man who shot college-bound teenager Michael Brown six times, is coming this week. ...
Check out what the Ferguson Police Department, the St. Louis County Sheriffs Department and the Missouri State Police have planned in case demonstrators willingly express their First Amendment Rights of peaceful protests and demonstrations.
- Military assets such as heavily armored vehicles are being stored at Scott Air Force Base and McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas.
- The Missouri National Guard is on high alert and last week reserved 100 hotel rooms in downtown St. Louis.
- A Northrop Grumman Global Hawk RQ-4 arial drone has been assigned to monitor and possibly block communications.
- There are 300 homeland security vehicles parked in a three-story underground garage in St. Louis
- Ferguson is reportedly being monitored by Fusion Center. The center acts as an early warning station for terrorism in Ferguson
- There are 24 agencies getting orders from federal agencies
Why We Lost: Retired U.S. General Calls for Public Inquiry into Failures of Iraq, Afghan Wars
What Happened to the Humanitarians Who Wanted to Save Libyans With Bombs and Drones?
Just three years after NATO’s military intervention in Libya ended and was widely heralded by its proponents as a resounding success, that country is in complete collapse. So widespread is violence and anarchy there that “hardly any Libyan can live a normal life,” Brown University’s Stephen Kinzer wrote in The Boston Globe last week. ... AP reports this morning that an entire city, Darna, has now pledged its allegiance to ISIS, “becoming the first city outside of Iraq and Syria to join the ‘caliphate’ announced by the extremist group.” A report issued by Amnesty International two weeks ago documented that “lawless militias and armed groups on all sides of the conflict in western Libya are carrying out rampant human rights abuses, including war crimes.” In sum, it is almost impossible to overstate the horrors daily faced by Libyans and the misery that has engulfed the country.
All of that prompts an obvious question: where did all of the humanitarians go who insisted they were driven by a deep and noble concern for the welfare of the Libyan people when they agitated for NATO intervention? Almost without exception, war advocates justified NATO’s military action in Libya on the ground that it was driven not primarily by strategic or resource objectives but by altruism. ...
But “turning a blind eye” to the ongoing – and now far worse – atrocities in Libya is exactly what the U.S., its war allies, and most of the humanitarian war advocates are now doing. Indeed, after the bombing stopped, war proponents maintained interest in the Libyan people just long enough to boast of their great prescience and to insist on their vindication.
What’s most notable is how brazen these war advocates were about completely ignoring Libya once the exciting bombs fell and their glorious war victory dances were over. ... [T]he most prominent war advocates in both government and the commentariat seemed to completely forget that the country and its people – whose welfare so profoundly moved them on a deep humanitarian level - even existed. As the country spun into chaos, violence, militia rule and anarchy as a direct result of the NATO intervention, they exhibited no interest whatsoever in doing anything to arrest or reverse that collapse. What happened to their deeply felt humanitarianism? Where did it go? ...
[H]umanitarianism is not what motivates the U.S. or most other governments to deploy its military in other nations. If you have doubts about that, just look at how the supposed humanitarian concern for Libyans instantly vanished the moment all the fun, glory-producing and self-satisfying bomb-dropping was done. If there were any authenticity to the claimed humanitarianism, wouldn’t there be movements to spend large amounts of money not just to bomb Libya but also to stabilize and rebuild it? Wouldn’t there be just as much horror over the plight of Libyans now: when the needed solution is large-scale economic aid and assistance programs rather than drone deployments, blowing up buildings, and playful, sociopathic chuckling over how we came, conquered, and made The Villain die?
How Obama Took the Brakes Off the War Machine
Obama cited his Article II authority to justify waging war in Libya, a "pure humanitarian intervention" with "no conceivable self-defense rationale." And while he did not bomb Syria after its regime used chemical weapons, he argued at the time that Article II empowered him to take action unilaterally in order to "protect regional stability" and "enforce international norms," a standard that would permit an incredible variety of unilateral wars. As [Bush OLC head Jack] Goldsmith put it, "to decouple the use of force in such a clear way from self-defense" is a sweeping change. ...
In Libya, Obama waged war beyond [the 60 day period the War )Powers Act stipulates must be followed by congressional authorization]. The legal theory he put forth to justify that apparent breach of the statute?
"He basically said that the seven-month war from the air, which decimated Libyan forces, which killed hundreds and hundreds of people, which removed a leader from power, didn't count as 'hostilities,' and therefore the statute just wasn't implicated," Goldsmith said. By that logic, future presidents could order bombing raids for months, kill hundreds, and change regimes without ever going to Congress, so long as the war was waged from afar without "boots on the ground."
What's colloquially known as the War on Terror is fought under legal authority provided by the authorization to use military force, or AUMF, that Congress passed in 2001. ... Although ISIS didn't exist on September 11, 2001, and wasn't associated with al-Qaeda, Obama began waging war on the group under the auspices of the 2001 AUMF.
Few Americans understand the ways that Obama has made it easier for future presidents to wage war. This is due in part to the peculiar way Obama has set these precedents: he has done so while purporting to be a critic of executive power.
Escalation, But Obama’s War on ISIS Still Lacks Clarity
The decision to double the number of US ground troops in Iraq, and to send those new ground troops to the front line has been a significant escalation of the ISIS conflict, and one President Obama has presented as a “new phase” of the war. ...
To the extent officials have plans at all, they are as tight-lipped as ever. Without the excuse of the elections, it is less likely that they are simply holding their cards close to their chests, and more likely that they just don’t have a strategy at all.
Obama and his generals may not have a strategy that they can articulate to deal with ISIS, but ISIS seems to have a strategy for setting up a state and putting down roots.
ISIS Announces Plans to Introduce New Gold-Backed Currency
In a move that appears to be aimed at bolstering its claim to be the legitimate revitalization of the Islamic Caliphate, ISIS has announced plans to introduce a new, or rather very old, currency to its territory.
Details are still scant, but imams in Iraq’s Nineveh Province, an ISIS stronghold, say the plan is to introduce new gold and silver coins based on the specifications of those used during the original caliphate.
PKK Commander Tasked with the Defence of Syrian Kurds Claims ‘We Will Save Kobani’
Kobani cannot now be captured by the fighters of Isis but a million people in another Kurdish enclave in Syria are facing a mounting threat of being massacred or forced to flee by advancing jihadis, according to the Kurdish guerrilla leader overseeing the defence of Syrian Kurds.
In an exclusive interview with The Independent in his headquarters in the Kandil mountains in Iraqi Kurdistan, Cemil Bayik, the top field commander of the PKK, the Kurdish guerrilla organisation in Turkey, and also of its Syrian affiliate, says: “Kobani will not fall. We are advancing on the eastern and southern fronts.” ...
Mr Bayik says there is a growing danger to the Kurdish enclave or canton of Afrin, 120 miles to the west of Kobani which has a population of one million people, including 200,000 refugees. The Syrian al-Qaeda branch, Jabhat al-Nusra, after defeating more moderate Syrian rebels in recent weeks, is moving towards Afrin. ...
Mr Bayik accuses Turkey of having covert links with Jabhat al-Nusra and encouraging the jihadis to threaten Afrin. It is one of three Syrian Kurdish enclaves, all strung along Syria’s border with Turkey, and all of which have come under attack from jihadis.
He says that if Kobani falls or Jabhat al-Nusra attacks then “it will no longer be possible for the peace process to go on with Turkey”, and the 18-month-old ceasefire which started in March 2013 may end. He believes that Turkey has sufficient influence over Jabhat al-Nusra to prevent it attacking Afrin. “Kurds will not accept Kobani and Afrin being under threat of genocide and massacre.”
Even if the ceasefire does not end, the siege of Kobani has provoked anger among the 15 million Turkish Kurds against their government whom they accuse of aiding Isis. Protests and rioting provoked by fear that Kobani was about to fall in early October left some 44 people dead. A similar threat to Afrin would probably lead to outbursts of rage from the 30 million Kurds in the region who live mostly in Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria.
United Nations Condemns Australia Over 'Inhuman' Treatment of Asylum Seekers
Australia has been admonished by the United Nations Committee Against Torture over its treatment of asylum seekers in Pacific island detention centers, where the panel said conditions amounted to "cruel, inhuman or unlawful punishment."
Officials were grilled at a committee hearing in Geneva over the Australian government's controversial asylum policies, which have become increasingly strict under Prime Minister Tony Abbott and have drawn strong criticism from human rights and refugee advocates.
Under particular scrutiny was the Migration Amendment Bill currently before the country's parliament, which the committee heard would allow for people to be returned to countries where they faced a significant risk of torture — a violation of international law.
If passed, the bill would raise the level of risk of torture necessary before an asylum seeker can be granted refugee status from a "real chance" to "more likely than not."
Condemning the bill, the committee concluded that: "Human rights are given to human beings because they are born as human beings.
"If you introduce the notion of a risk which is 'more likely than not', you accept that some risk of torture is acceptable."
EU Scrutinizes Spyware Exports To Sketchy Regimes
The European Union will start paying closer attention to sales of invasive surveillance software, which has previously flowed from European companies to countries with questionable human rights records.
Under new EU rules issued recently, certain kinds of monitoring software will require a license to export. Those license applications would provide more transparency about where the software is going, and could potentially allow governments to block unsavory sales.
As The Intercept has reported, companies like Milan-based Hacking Team or FinFisher, of Munich, sell to countries where authorities appear to have used the software to spy on dissidents and the press. Hacking Team implants have been discovered on the devices of Moroccan and Ethiopian journalists, while leaked FinFisher documents showed that activists and political opposition members in Bahrain had been targeted.
“Time and time again human rights activists and their families have been spied on, detained and even tortured — all enabled by surveillance technologies made here in the EU,” said Wenzel Michalski, Director of Human Rights Watch Berlin, in a statement.
Watch out, the bipartisans are at it again and they mean you no good...
Watch out: the US government wants to pass new spying laws behind your back
Never underestimate the ability of the “do-nothing” US Congress to make sure it passes privacy-invasive legislation on its way out the door. In December 2012, the Senate re-upped the NSA’s vast surveillance powers over the holidays when no one was paying attention. In December 2013, Congress weakened video-rental privacy laws because Netflix [wanted] them to and nobody noticed.
Now, as the post-election lame-duck session opens on Wednesday in Washington, the Senate might try to sneak through a “cybersecurity” bill that would, as the ACLU puts it, “create a massive loophole in our existing privacy laws”. The vague and ambiguous law would essentially allow companies like Google and Facebook to hand over even more of your personal information to the US government, all of which could ultimately end up in the hands of the NSA and the FBI.
The House already passed a version of this bill earlier in the year, and the White House, despite vowing to veto earlier versions, told reporters an “information sharing” cybersecurity bill was on its list of priorities for the lame-duck session (while NSA reform is not).
Senate intelligence committee chair Dianne Feinstein says she’s willing to make privacy compromises to get the bill to the floor, but did not elaborate – at all – on what those were. And given the sleazy tactics of House permanent select intelligence committee member Mike Rogers in pretending he had the support of privacy groups when the House passed its version of the bill, it’s hard to take anything the intelligence committees say in the area of privacy on good faith.
Matt Taibbi on JP Morgan Chase $9bn post-fraud payoff
Oh looky, some more high-profile wrist-slaps for banksters from their loving friends in the appearance-of-regulation business:
Foreign exchange fines: banks handed £2bn in penalties for market rigging
The corruption of the world’s biggest currency dealers was laid bare on Wednesday when regulators imposed £2bn of fines on five major banks for rigging the £3.5tn-a-day foreign exchange markets.
Regulators said they had found a “free for all culture” rife on their trading floors which allowed the markets to be rigged for five years, from January 2008 to October 2013.
The much-anticipated record settlement with US and UK regulators did not include Barclays, which remains in discussions with other regulators.
Each of the fines imposed on Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Citibank, JP Morgan and UBS were records for the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), smashing the penalties imposed over the last two years for Libor rigging.
Obama Calls for Net Neutrality, But His Own Industry-Tied FCC Appointee Could Stand in the Way
Democrats face hefty to-do list in final weeks of Senate majority
The final weeks of Democratic control of the Senate will begin on Wednesday ahead of packed legislative agenda likely to range from funding military operations in Iraq and Syria, tackling the Ebola outbreak in west Africa and rewriting the laws that govern the National Security Agency.
But the most contentious issue Democrats need to deal with in the five weeks they have left in the majority is the list of more than 150 judicial and executive nominees that the White House is desperate to see approved. ...
Barack Obama’s administration has expressed deep frustration over the backlog in nominees and the outgoing Democratic majority leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, is under pressure to push through as many appointments as possible before the party relinquishes power. Among the nominees awaiting approval are 16 proposed federal district court judges, more than 30 ambassadors waiting to be posted to countries such as Vietnam and the Bahamas and a slew of mid-level administration appointees.
Republicans argue the most high-profile and important nominee – Loretta Lynch, the president’s choice to replace Eric Holder as attorney general – should be held back until they take control of the chamber in 2015.
As TPP Trade Talks Miss Third Deadline, Opponents Claim Momentum
For the third year in a row, government negotiators for 12 Pacific Rim countries have missed an internal deadline to reach agreement on a controversial U.S.-led trade deal.
And though negotiators for the accord, known as the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), say the process is nearing completion, critics of the deal are expressing optimism that both public opinion and political timing are increasingly against the deal.
“The reason the Obama administration keeps missing deadline after deadline, year after year, is that it’s pushing an extremely unpopular agenda that benefits a handful of big corporations at the expense of the economy, environment and public health in each TPP country and beyond,” Arthur Stamoulis, executive director of the Citizens Trade Campaign, an advocacy group that opposes the TPP, told IPS.
“People and parliaments across the Pacific Rim are starting to realise that the TPP would be bad news for their countries. That includes here in the U.S.”
Wealth of Households and Poverty of its People
Here's What New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio Did for a Troubled Sandy Relief Program
A program called Build it Back lies at the heart of the city's Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts. Established by former mayor Michael Bloomberg, the program reimburses homeowners for the cost of reconstructing damaged or completely destroyed homes.
The program has been criticized for its slow and sometimes inadequate response, but Mayor Bill de Blasio's has revamped the program and aid is beginning to flow to those in need. ...
At the end of last year Build it Back had not issued a single reimbursement check or funded a any construction starts. As of November, however, 789 construction starts were underway and 1,188 reimbursement checks had been issued. De Blasio has committed the city to funding 1,000 construction starts and sending 1,500 reimbursement checks by December 31.
"Build it Back will continue to expedite relief until every homeowner is served," said de Blasio.
Public officials and community activists welcome the progress under de Blasio's leadership and say the program's early failures could be attributed to its initially flawed design.
Schools, Parents Sue Pennsylvania Over 'Educational Caste System'
Six school districts, seven parents, and two statewide associations sued the commonwealth of Pennsylvania on Monday, claiming legislative leaders, state education officials, and the governor have failed to uphold the state's constitutional obligation to provide a system of public education that gives all children the resources they need to meet state-imposed academic standards and "participate meaningfully in the economic, civic, and social life of their communities."
According to the complaint (pdf), "state officials have adopted an irrational and inequitable school financing arrangement that drastically underfunds school districts across the Commonwealth and discriminates against children on the basis of the taxable property and household incomes in their districts."
As a result, the plaintiffs claim that hundreds of thousands of students throughout the state lack basic educational supports and services—functioning school libraries, up-to-date textbooks and curriculum materials, reasonable class sizes, guidance counselors, school nurses, vocational-ed and college prep classes, academic tutoring programs, and more.
Coming soon to a neighborhood near you!
The Evening Blues - Weekend Edition
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The Evening Greens
US and China strike deal on carbon cuts in push for global climate change pact
The United States and China have unveiled a secretly negotiated deal to reduce their greenhouse gas output, with China agreeing to cap emissions for the first time and the US committing to deep reductions by 2025.
The pledges in an agreement struck between President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jingping, provide an important boost to international efforts to reach a global deal on reducing emissions beyond 2020 at a United Nations meeting in Paris next year.
China, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, has agreed to cap its output by 2030 or earlier if possible. Previously China had only ever pledged to reduce the rapid rate of growth in its emissions. Now it has also promised to increase its use of energy from zero-emission sources to 20% by 2030.
The United States has pledged to cut its emissions to 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025.
The European Union has already endorsed a binding 40% greenhouse gas emissions reduction target by 2030.
Obama Reaches Climate Deal with China — and GOP Congress May Not Be Able to Stop It
US/China Emission Targets Should 'Be Floor, Not Ceiling' of Climate Action
Agreement announced in Beijing is a positive sign, say campaigners, but not nearly enough to curb threat that world's two largest polluters pose to the planet
After months of secret negotiations, a surprise joint announcement by U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jingping revealed the world's two largest contributors to global warming have made a non-binding agreement to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions over the next fifteen years and stated their hope that such pledges will spur other nations to follow suit ahead of next year's international climate talks in Paris.
Though termed a "historic agreement" by President Obama and a "game changer" by others who noted the importance of the two economic giants putting forward these commitments, other green campaigners warned against giving the non-binding and amorphous agreement more credit than it deserves.
As Ben Adler points out at Grist:
You might notice a lot of wiggle room in that language. There’s more. The White House release refers to these goals as statements of “intent.” They don’t promise or even “agree” to hit these targets, they merely “intend” to.
In reaction to the announcement, executive director of 350.org May Boeve said:
It’s no coincidence that after the biggest climate mobilization in history, world leaders are stepping up their ambition on climate action. This announcement is a sign that President Obama is taking his climate legacy seriously and is willing to stand up to big polluters. But the real proof will be in the pudding. There’s no way approving the Keystone XL pipeline and additional fossil fuel development is compatible with this pathway. President Obama needs to build on this announcement and continue to take on climate deniers in the oil industry and Congress to ensure a clean future.
(Hat tip Don midwest) This is an interesting review of the new movie "Interstellar," this part of the review jumped out at me:
Interstellar: magnificent film, insane fantasy
The civilisational collapse at the start of the film is intercut with interviews featuring veterans of the dustbowl of the 1930s. Their worn faces prefigure the themes of ageing and loss. But they also remind us inadvertently of a world of political agency. Great follies were committed, but big, brave things were done to put them right: think of the New Deal and the Civilian Conservation Corps. That world is almost as different from our own as the planets visited by Interstellar’s astronauts. ...
Earlier this year, the economist Andrew Lilico argued in the Telegraph that we cannot afford to prevent escalating climate change, so instead we must learn to live with it. He was challenged on Twitter to explain how people in the tropics might adapt to a world in which four degrees of global warming had taken place. He replied: “I imagine tropics adapt to 4C world by being wastelands with few folk living in them. Why’s that not an option?”
Re-reading Lilico’s article in the light of this comment, I realised that it hinged on the word “we”. When the headline maintained that “We have failed to prevent global warming, so we must adapt to it”, the “we” referred in these instances to different people. We who live in the rich world can brook no taxation to encourage green energy, or regulation to discourage the consumption of fossil fuels. We cannot adapt even to an extra penny of taxation. But the other “we”, which turns out to mean “they” – the people of the tropics – can and must adapt to the loss of their homes, their land and their lives, as entire regions become wastelands. Why is that not an option?
Texas Regulator Says She Won't Honor Town's Fracking Ban
A Texas regulator declared last week she will not honor a fracking ban passed in the midterm elections by the town of Denton, in the north of the state.
Christi Craddick, Chairwoman of the Texas Railroad Commission, which is charged with regulating the oil and gas industries in the state, told the Dallas Morning News on November 6, "It’s my job to give permits, not Denton’s... We’re going to continue permitting up there because that’s my job." The chairwoman is the daughter of Republican state representative and former House speaker Tom Craddick.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Britain Calls For Human Rights — Then Embraces a Bahraini Torture Suspect
Immigration shouldn't just be a way to score political points or enrich corporations
What Happens When Freshman Lawmaker Misses a Memo from the Israel Lobby
Hat tip dharmafarmer:
Bush Family and Its Inner Circle Play Central Role in Lawsuits Against Denton, Texas Fracking Ban
A Little Night Music
Detroit Junior - Boogie Blues
Detroit Jr. - Money Crazy
Detroit Jr. - Hot Pants Baby
Detroit Junior - Cool Water Blues
Detroit Junior - Call My Job
Detroit Junior - I Got Money
Detroit Junior - Somebody to Shack
Detroit Junior & Group- Too Poor
Detroit Junior - You mean everything
Detroit Junior - All Through With Love
Lucille Spann w/Detroit Junior (pno)- Meat Ration Blues
Detroit Jr. - Young Blood
Detroit Junior - Money tree
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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