February 2014 archive

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

February 10 is the 41st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 324 days remaining until the end of the year (325 in leap years).

On this day in 1937, Roberta Flack is born in Black Mountain, North Carolina, and was raised in Arlington, Virginia.

During her early teens, Flack so excelled at classical piano that Howard University awarded her a full music scholarship. She entered Howard University at the age of 15, making her one of the youngest students ever to enroll there. She eventually changed her major from piano to voice, and became an assistant conductor of the university choir. Her direction of a production of Aida received a standing ovation from the Howard University faculty. Flack is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority and was made an honorary member of Tau Beta Sigma by the Eta Delta Chapter at Howard University for her outstanding work in promoting music education.

Flack became the first African-American student teacher at an all-Caucasian school near Chevy Chase, Maryland. She graduated from Howard University at 19 and began graduate studies in music, but the sudden death of her father forced her to take a job teaching music and English for $2800 a year in Farmville, North Carolina.

Flack then taught school for some years in Washington, DC at Browne Junior High and Rabaut Junior High. She also taught private piano lessons out of her home on Euclid St. NW. During this period, her music career began to take shape on evenings and weekends in Washington, D.C. area night spots. At the Tivoli Club, she accompanied opera singers at the piano. During intermissions, she would sing blues, folk, and pop standards in a back room, accompanying herself on the piano. Later, she performed several nights a week at the 1520 Club, again providing her own piano accompaniment. Around this time, her voice teacher, Frederick “Wilkie” Wilkerson, told her that he saw a brighter future for her in pop music than in the classics. She modified her repertoire accordingly and her reputation spread. Subsequently, a Capitol Hill night club called Mr. Henry’s built a performance area especially for her.

When Flack did a benefit concert for the Inner City Ghetto Children’s Library Fund, Les McCann happened to be in the audience. He later said on the liner notes of what would be her first album “First Take” noted below, “Her voice touched, tapped, trapped, and kicked every emotion I’ve ever known. I laughed, cried, and screamed for more…she alone had the voice.” Very quickly, he arranged an audition for her with Atlantic Records, during which she played 42 songs in 3 hours for producer Joel Dorn. In November 1968, she recorded 39 song demos in less than 10 hours. Three months later, Atlantic reportedly recorded Roberta’s debut album, First Take, in a mere 10 hours. Flack later spoke of those studio sessions as a “very naive and beautiful approach…I was comfortable with the music because I had worked on all these songs for all the years I had worked at Mr. Henry’s.”

Flack’s version of “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” hit number seventy-six on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972.

Flack’s Atlantic recordings did not sell particularly well, until Clint Eastwood chose a song from First Take, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”, for the sound track of his directorial debut Play Misty for Me; it became the biggest hit of the year for 1972 – spending six consecutive weeks at #1 and earning Flack a million-selling gold disc. The First Take album also went to #1 and eventually sold 1.9 million copies in the United States. Eastwood, who paid $2,000 for the use of the song in the film, has remained an admirer and friend of Flack’s ever since. It was awarded the Grammy Award for Record Of The Year in 1973. In 1983, she recorded the end music to the Dirty Harry film Sudden Impact at Eastwood’s request.

Flack soon began recording regularly with Donny Hathaway, scoring hits such as the Grammy-winning “Where Is the Love” (1972) and later “The Closer I Get to You” (1978) – both million-selling gold singles. On her own, Flack scored her second #1 hit, “Killing Me Softly with His Song” written for Lori Lieberman in 1973. It was awarded both Record Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female at the 1974 Grammy Awards. Its parent album was Flack’s biggest-selling disc, eventually earning Double Platinum certification.

In 1999, a star with Flack’s name was placed on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. That same year, she gave a concert tour in South Africa, to which the final performance was attended by President Nelson Mandela.

In 2010, she appeared on the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, singing a duet of “Where Is The Love” with Maxwell.

Flack is also a spokesperson for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; her appearance in commercials for the ASPCA featured The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.

The news organization created by Pierre Omidyar, First Look went live this morning with its on-line magazine, The Intercept.

First Look’s The Intercept Launches with New NSA Revelations

Led by award-winning journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, and Jeremy Scahill, the initial focus will be on stories based on documents from Edward Snowden

February 10, 2014 01:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–First Look Media, the news organization created by Pierre Omidyar, today announced the launch of its first digital magazine, The Intercept. It is the first of what will eventually become a family of digital magazines published by First Look, covering topics from sports and entertainment to politics and business. The site is live at theintercept.org, and for the latest updates and news follow @the_intercept.

The Intercept will initially focus on new reporting involving the disclosures made to Greenwald and Poitras by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Their previous work for a host of publications worldwide has sparked a global conversation on the extent of government surveillance and the value of a free press.

The decision to launch The Intercept now was driven by the team’s sense of urgency and responsibility to continue and expand their reporting on the NSA story. The site’s first news article, by Greenwald and Scahill, raises troubling new questions about the NSA’s methods of identifying targets for lethal drone strikes.

“Glenn, Laura, and Jeremy are relentless in their pursuit of a story and rigorous in finding the truth,” said Omidyar. “We share a belief in the fundamental importance of a free and independent press on keeping a democracy vital and strong. In all of our reporting, at The Intercept and beyond, we will be anchored by that vision and hold ourselves to the highest journalistic standards. First Look journalists have editorial independence and support and are encouraged to pursue the transformative and engaging stories of our time, no matter the subject.”

While the initial focus of The Intercept will be based on documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, over time the reporting will expand to a wide range of issues involving government and corporate accountability.

“Today’s launch is just the beginning,” said Greenwald. “Our day one story is significant and we have more coming. Laura, Jeremy, and I recognize the responsibility in front of us, and are thrilled to be embarking on this exciting and important journey.”

In addition to the return of Greenwald’s regular column, The Intercept will offer ongoing commentary and analysis, publication of relevant primary source documents, robust digital storytelling, and guest authors who are experts in their fields.

First Look Media will launch a flagship site and additional digital magazines later this year.

And of course, the first two stories are extraordinary.

New Photos of the NSA and Other Top Intelligence Agencies Revealed for First Time

By Trevor Paglen

Over the past eight months, classified documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden have exposed scores of secret government surveillance programs. Yet there is little visual material among the blizzard of code names, PowerPoint slides, court rulings and spreadsheets that have emerged from the National Security Agency’s files.

The scarcity of images is not surprising. A surveillance apparatus doesn’t really “look” like anything. A satellite built by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) reveals nothing of its function except to the best-trained eyes. The NSA’s pervasive domestic effort to collect telephone metadata also lacks easy visual representation; in the Snowden archive, it appears as a four-page classified order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Since June 2013, article after article about the NSA has been illustrated with a single image supplied by the agency, a photograph of its Fort Meade headquarters that appears to date from the 1970s.

The photographs below – which are being published for the first time – show three of the largest agencies in the U.S. intelligence community. The scale of their operations was hidden from the public until August 2013, when their classified budget requests were revealed in documents provided by Snowden. Three months later, I rented a helicopter and shot nighttime images of the NSA’s headquarters. I did the same with the NRO, which designs, builds and operates America’s spy satellites, and with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), which maps and analyzes imagery, connecting geographic information to other surveillance data. The Central Intelligence Agency – the largest member of the intelligence community – denied repeated requests for permission to take aerial photos of its headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

This is an absolute must read.

The NSA’s Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program

By Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald

The National Security Agency is using complex analysis of electronic surveillance, rather than human intelligence, as the primary method to locate targets for lethal drone strikes – an unreliable tactic that results in the deaths of innocent or unidentified people.

According to a former drone operator for the military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) who also worked with the NSA, the agency often identifies targets based on controversial metadata analysis and cell-phone tracking technologies. Rather than confirming a target’s identity with operatives or informants on the ground, the CIA or the U.S. military then orders a strike based on the activity and location of the mobile phone a person is believed to be using.

The drone operator, who agreed to discuss the top-secret programs on the condition of anonymity, was a member of JSOC’s High Value Targeting task force, which is charged with identifying, capturing or killing terrorist suspects in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

His account is bolstered by top-secret NSA documents previously provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. It is also supported by a former drone sensor operator with the U.S. Air Force, Brandon Bryant, who has become an outspoken critic of the lethal operations in which he was directly involved in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen.

In one tactic, the NSA “geolocates” the SIM card or handset of a suspected terrorist’s mobile phone, enabling the CIA and U.S. military to conduct night raids and drone strikes to kill or capture the individual in possession of the device.

The former JSOC drone operator is adamant that the technology has been responsible for taking out terrorists and networks of people facilitating improvised explosive device attacks against U.S. forces in Afghanistan. But he also states that innocent people have “absolutely” been killed as a result of the NSA’s increasing reliance on the surveillance tactic.

Congratulations and best wishes on the the new endeavor!

h/t to bobswern at Daily Kos for the first heads up.

I saw this news back in early January (Columbus Ledger-Enquirer 8 Jan 2014):

A high speed rail line between Columbus and Atlanta would cost between $1.3-$3.9 billion over the next 20 years to build, but once up and running would more than pay for its operations and maintenance, a consultant said today.

It could also have a huge economic impact, according to Kirsten Berry, project manager consulting firm HNTB Corp., which performed the $350,000 study of the economic feasibility study of high speed rail between Columbus and Atlanta. The study was funded with a $300,000 Georgia Department of Transportation grant and the rest in private donations, according to city Director of Planning Rick Jones.

Now, the actual feasibility study itself has not been released, although the overview presentation to the Columbus GA stakeholders has been released, and I was going to wait until that feasibility study was available to talk about this on the Sunday Train. But then this happened:

Atlanta (CNN) — Empty streets, shuttered storefronts and abandoned vehicles littering the side of the road. That was the scene across much of metropolitan Atlanta on Wednesday as people hunkered down to wait out the aftermath of a snow and ice storm that brought the nation’s ninth-largest metropolitan area to a screeching halt.

… and given the severe state of auto-dependency in the greater Atlanta area, I concluded that the state of plans for HSR in Georgia merits a closer look.

So Team USA goes 2 for 2 in Phineas and Ferb edge-of-insanity, kiss-your-butt-goodbye, gravity’s-a-stone-cold-sucker nightmare rail skate track obstacle course of doom and Russia schools in Team Figure Skating.

There’s a message in there somewhere but I’m not quite sure what it is.

This is a call to violence.  Not in the ordinary sense. Instead in the sense that I want you to go out and tell people that they should support a violent policy.  What is that policy specifically?  I want the police to start pulling over and if necessary arresting people who are speeding.  You might think this isn’t a call to violence, you might think that this is simply a call for more police enforcement, but that obscures the real issue of what violence is.

18-month-old Marius, a perfectly healthy Giraffe, was put down by a stick gun by the manager(s) of the Copenhagen Zoo, ostensibly to prevent inbreeding,  despite campaigns and protests by various Animal Rights activist groups, and other people who wanted the giraffe saved, and there were other zoos in other countries who’d offered to take Marius.  

The Copenhagen Zoo, however, stuck by their decision and put Marius the 18 month old giraffe down, anyhow.  They then cut the giraffe open and then fed his meat to the lions nearby.  There was a big audience, with many young, small children there, too.  

Imho, that was a total disgrace.  The Copenhagen Zoo could’ve sterilized the giraffe in some way or other, or, at least accepted an offer from one of the zoos elsewhere who’d offered to take him.  

Has the world really gone mad, or is it my imagination?  What do you all think?

Heres the link to the awful story:  Read it and weep…or gnash your teeth.

http://www.theguardian.com/wor…

A ban on a lethal injection drug has state officials thinking outside of the box for new ways to put people in a box

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

February 9 is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 325 days remaining until the end of the year (326 in leap years).

On this day in 1950, Joseph Raymond McCarthy, a relatively obscure Republican senator from Wisconsin, accuses State Department of being infiltrated by communists. McCarthy announces during a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, that he has in his hand a list of 205 communists who have infiltrated the U.S. State Department. The unsubstantiated declaration, which was little more than a publicity stunt, suddenly thrust Senator McCarthy into the national spotlight.

Asked to reveal the names on the list, the reckless and opportunistic senator named officials he determined guilty by association, such as Owen Lattimore, an expert on Chinese culture and affairs who had advised the State Department. McCarthy described Lattimore as the “top Russian spy” in America.

These and other equally shocking accusations prompted the Senate to form a special committee, headed by Senator Millard Tydings of Maryland, to investigate the matter. The committee found little to substantiate McCarthy’s charges, but McCarthy nevertheless touched a nerve in the American public, and during the next two years he made increasingly sensational charges, even attacking President Harry S. Truman’s respected former secretary of state, George C. Marshall.

Wheeling speech

McCarthy experienced a meteoric rise in national profile on February 9, 1950, when he gave a Lincoln Day speech to the Republican Women’s Club of Wheeling, West Virginia. His words in the speech are a matter of some debate, as no audio recording was saved. However, it is generally agreed that he produced a piece of paper that he claimed contained a list of known Communists working for the State Department. McCarthy is usually quoted to have said: “The State Department is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205-a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.”

There is some dispute about whether or not McCarthy actually gave the number of people on the list as being “205” or “57”. In a later telegram to President Truman, and when entering the speech into the Congressional Record, he used the number 57. The origin of the number 205 can be traced: In later debates on the Senate floor, McCarthy referred to a 1946 letter that then-Secretary of State James Byrnes sent to Congressman Adolph J. Sabath. In that letter, Byrnes said State Department security investigations had resulted in “recommendation against permanent employment” for 284 persons, and that 79 of these had been removed from their jobs; this left 205 still on the State Department’s payroll. In fact, by the time of McCarthy’s speech only about 65 of the employees mentioned in the Byrnes letter were still with the State Department, and all of these had undergone further security checks.

At the time of McCarthy’s speech, communism was a growing concern in the United States. This concern was exacerbated by the actions of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe, the fall of China to the communists, the Soviets’ development of the atomic bomb the year before, and by the contemporary controversy surrounding Alger Hiss and the confession of Soviet spy Klaus Fuchs. With this background and due to the sensational nature of McCarthy’s charge against the State Department, the Wheeling speech soon attracted a flood of press interest in McCarthy.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

The Sunday Talking Heads:

Up with Steve Kornacki: Preempted for Winter Olympic coverage.

This Week with George Stephanopolis: The guest on Sunday’s “This Week” is House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), discussing security at the Sochi Winter Olympics.

The roundtable guests are Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK); Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MI); CNN “Crossfire” co-host S.E. Cupp; former Obama White House senior adviser and ABC News contributor David Plouffe; and ABC News senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny.

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Mr. Schieffer’s guests are CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips from Sochi; Rep. Peter King (R-NY); Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL); and Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH).

His panel guests are: Michele Norris of NPR; Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic; and Mark Mazzetti of The New York Times; as well as CBS News State Department correspondent Margaret Brennan and CBS News political director John Dickerson.

Meet the Press with David Gregory: The guests on MTP are  U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul; Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH).

The roundtable guests are NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell; New York Times Columnist David Brooks; Washington Post Columnist E.J. Dionne; Chief Executive Officer for Heritage Action for America Mike Needham; and Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Mona Sutphen.

Also. authors Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes in their first interview about their new book “HRC” and the political rebirth of Hillary Clinton.

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Ms. Crowley’s guests are Janet Napolitano, head of the U.S. delegation to Russia and former Secretary of Homeland Security;  former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte; diplomat Nicholas Burns; and Russian expert Dimitri Simes.

Her panel guests are  CNN Contributors Cornell Belcher; Ana Navarro; and A.B. Stoddard, Associate Editor for The Hill.

WYFP? is our community’s Saturday evening gathering to talk about our problems, empathize with one another, and share advice, pootie pictures, favorite adult beverages, and anything else that we think might help. Everyone and all sorts of troubles are welcome. May we find peace and healing here. Won’t you please share the joy of WYFP by recommending?

My number one problem?  I never beg for recommends.

The older I get the less I care what people think of me therefore the older I get the more I enjoy life.

My number 2 beef?

Since I got out of the show running business this place has gone to crap.

How much for the little girl?

Mostly I habit here out of sentiment and it gets my dander up when I see sockpuppet trolls take over long standing franchises because of the ennui engendered by the failure of what passes for Administration on this site.

Since the solution is always more free speech here is some more free speech by someone who is not a sockpuppet troll.

Recommend or not I’ll keep this up until people come to their senses.  Your opinion of me matters… not at all.

The patient shows a response to the traumatizing event involved fear, horror or a sense of helplessness). In both scenarios, Holden was unable to step in and help both of the young victims. Holden had no control over his brother’s disease and could not have done anything to stop James Castle’s suicide. His inability to interfere has evoked feelings of helplessness. His desire to assist people similar to the victims is expressed through his desire to be the “catcher int he rye”. Holden confesses to his sister, Phoebe, “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around -nobody big, I mean - except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do,I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them…”. Holden feels that if he is “the catcher” he can save people from the victimization diseases and bullies put on weaker individuals. It frustrates Holden to know that he cannot defend others. Specifically, he wants to protect the young and innocent, which is who he was before the traumatic events occurred in his life.

…

The patient’s thought content revealed evidence of delusions, paranoia, and suicidal/homicidal ideation. There was no evidence of perceptual disorder. His level of personal insight appeared unreliable. Social judgment appeared harsh, as evidenced by polite yet bitter interactions with staff and a struggle to form a relationship with other patients and by uncooperative efforts to achieve treatment goals required for discharge.The patient was admitted due to symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PSTD).The purpose of the current evaluation is to screen for signs of PSTD and clarify the nature of underlying stress disorder. After speaking with the patient and observing his verbal, behavioral,and symbolic actions, several symptoms have made this diagnosis possible. Caulfield is experiencing flashbacks, poor relationships,self-destructive behavior, hopelessness about the future, trouble sleeping, memory problems, trouble concentrating, and efforts to avoid thinking or talking about the traumatic event. He appears emotionally numb, irritable, angry, shameful,guilty, easily startled or frightened, and dissatisfied with activities he once enjoyed. A thorough analysis has taken place that has proven that Holden Caulfield meets the criteria to be diagnosed with this condition.

…

Holden confesses to his sister, Phoebe, “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do,I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them…”. Holden feels that if he is “the catcher” he can save people from the victimization diseases and bullies put on weaker individuals. It frustrates Holden to know that he cannot defend others. Specifically, he wants to protect the young and innocent, which is who he was before the traumatic events occurred in his life. Holden tells the readers, “I hate fist fights. I don’t mind getting hit so much- although I’m not crazy about it, naturally-but what scares me the most in a fist fight is the guy’s face. I can’t stand looking at the other guy’s face, is my trouble”. The “yellowness” Holden refers to is his fear to fight back against the people he feels are responsible for harming weaker individuals. He wants to stand up against the bullies and defend others, and it  upsets him that he is afraid to.

…

People with similar profiles tend to “try to avoid situations or things that remind them of the traumatic event or feel a sense of emotional numbness”. In fact, when Mr. Spencer questions Holden’s reasons for leaving Elkton Hills, Holden responds by saying, “‘Why? Oh, well it’s a long story, dire. I mean its pretty complicated.’ I didn’t feel like going in to the whole thing with him. He wouldn’t have understood it anyway. It wasn’t up his alley at all”. After speculating the patient itis evident that the reason he is avoiding the conversation is because he does not want to speak about James Castle’s death. He admits to trying to clear his mind from death during a time that he is exhibiting depression too. Holden says, “Then what I did, I went down near the lagoon and I sort of skipped the quarters and nickel across it, where it wasn’t frozen. I don’t know why I did it, but I did it. I guess I thought it’d take my mind off getting pneumonia and dying. It didn’t though”. The patient it currently low on money and at a very high stress level. Therefore, the illness is returning and he is thinking of the tragic deaths. In order to relieve his mind of the painful memories, he copes unhealthily by furthering his money problem, drinking alcohol, and remaining at a cold desolate pond. Holden’s struggle to sleep and concentrate are more signals of a mental disease. After a long day, and feelings of restlessness all night, Holden says, “I stayed in the bathroom for about an hour taking a bath and all. Then I got back in bed. It took me quite a while to get to sleep- I wasn’t even tired-but I finally I did… I didn’t sleep too long”. In addition, when lying in bed, Holden states,”Anyway, when I was in bed, I couldn’t pray worth a damn. Every time I got started, I kept picturing old Sunny calling me a crumb-bum”. During the period of life Holden has spoken about during his analyzable sessions, his stories have missing peaces and change pace a lot due to his lack of focus.

…

For over a month, the symptoms are causing significant amounts of distress in the patient’s life and are interfering with his ability to go about his normal daily tasks. Thus, treatment is necessary. The patients actions confirm that he is currently dealing with a mental illness called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I will prescribe the patient an antidepressant to relieve symptoms of depression, stress, and anxiety. The medication will also improve sleep problems and concentration. In addition I am recommending exposure therapy to assist the patient in gaining control of his emotions when reminded of the damaging situation. In addition, individual therapy will help the patient understand his feelings and learn how to think more positively. The medication and psychotherapy will allow the patient to learn proper ways to cope and regain control of his life.

You may suppose I don’t care about your problems, but I really do.  I have achieved all my goals and am above mojo whoring.

What’s your beef?