Friday, July 10, 2009
53rd Bank Failure of 2009 - A Small Wyoming Bank
Compared to last week when there were seven failures, it was quiet today with only one failure of a small bank. The failed bank was the Bank of Wyoming which was located in Thermopolis, a small town with a population of only just over 3,000. Not only is the town small, but the county is also small with a population of under 5,000.The FDIC was able to find a bank to assume all deposits of Bank of
JESSE THOMAS: [1993] Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order 1948-1958 [Document]Jesse Thomas recorded sporadically from the late 1920’s through the early 1990’s and despite his longevity didn’t achieve much in the way of success or recognition. In 1929, at 18, Thomas cut four excellent sides for Victor showing a prowess beyond his years. Three of the number are strongly indebted to Lonnie Johnson while the session highlight, “Blues Goose Blues”, is clearly inspired by Blind Blake. By the post-war era Thomas had developed a brilliant, highly individual style unlike anyone else. For proof just listen to Document’s “Jesse Thomas 1948-1958″ which collects 28 tracks the enterprising Thomas cut for nine different West Coast labels over the course of a decade (”Gold Mine Blues” cut in 1948 is not included for some reason).
The music ranges from solo down home numbers, rollicking band driven R&B and smoky after hours cuts. Thomas’ guitar playing is dazzling; by this time he had developed a harmonically sophisticated style, playing highly unpredictable, inventive guitar phrases in a manner that incorporated both down home and uptown styles. His guitar playing, while highly individual, still bears a Lonnie Johnson influence but also owes a debt to T-Bone Walker. Thomas developed his sound, as Chris Smith notes, “in part by transferring saxophone solos and his own piano playing to electric guitar.” Thomas’ singing is equally striking, a deep burnished voice that a times sounds like Robert Johnson.
The solo sides, featuring superb integration between guitar and vocal, find him at his best. High points include the catchy “Same Old Stuff”, “Mountain Key Blues” and “Zetter Blues.” All display fine songwriting and characteristic of many of his songs, he inserts long pauses between lyrics that enhance the dramatic effect, punctuated by short, unpredictable guitar runs. The remarkable “Double Due Love You” opens with a tongue twisting run of words that is sort of a vocal equlivalent to his knotty guitar phrases. On the laid back, conversational “Gonna Move to California”, a variation on the classic “Kansas City”, Thomas plays some deft acoustic guitar.
The small group recordings are generally successful backed by a combination of piano, bass drums and saxophone. “Melody in C” is a jazzy instrumental backed by unknown bass and piano that finds Thomas playing in very sophisticated style with a nod to T-Bone Walker. “Let’s Have Some Fun” is a rocking full band number with wailing tenor and baritone featuring some draw dropping electric guitar solos while the shuffling, irresistibly catchy “I Can’t Stay Here” benefits from the rippling piano work of Lloyd Glenn. Glenn pops up to good effect on all four of Thomas’ Swing Time numbers including the bouncy “It’s You I’m Thinking Of.” Backed by an unknown band and booting sax man, Thomas rocks on “Cool Kind Lover” from 1951 that is as close to rock & roll as he ever got. Another highlight is “Another Fool Like Me” a propulsive boogie number with Thomas just accompanied by a unknown but wailing harmonica blower.
Jesse Thomas died in 1995 and continued cutting material intermittently on his own Red River imprint, Ace and Delmark. However, he never quite matched the sheer brilliance of these late 40’s and 50’s sides. --- http://sundayblues.org/archives/36
Tracklisting
1.Same Old Stuff
2.D. Double Due Love You
3.Zetter Blues
4.Mountain Key Blues
5.Melody in C
6.You Are My Dreams
7.I Wonder Why
8.Another Friend Like Me
9.Guess I'll Walk Alone
10.Let's Have Some Fun
11.Gonna Write You A Letter
12.Meet Me Tonight Along The Avenue
13.Tomorrow I May Be Gone
14.Texas Blues
15.I Can't Stay Here
16.Xmas Celebration
17.Now's The Time
18.It's You I'm Thinking Of
19.It's You I'm Thinking Of
20.I Am So Blue
21.Long Time
22.Cool Kind Lover
23.When You Say I Love You
24.Jack Of Diamonds
25.Another Fool Like Me
26.Gonna Move to California
27.Take Some And Leave Some
28.Blow My Baby Back Home
..buy: Document Records
..Home-Page: n/a
..link (1): http://46f5b409.linkbucks.com
..link (2): http://f5f33bf9.linkbucks.com
..password: bluestown
================================================
An honorable man ...
... and I say that as someone who knew him only slightly: The Catholic WFB. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.)
Who to copy on the environment?
There is a dispute about global warming.
But, most people agree about the need to look after the environment.
Too many trees are being cut down, too much air is polluted and too many creatures are dying out.
A new report from the charity Oxfam says the world should copy Scotland in environmental policy.
One of Obama’s top advisers says the world must follow Scotland's lead in environmental policy.
Obama's climate adviser praises Scotland
Professor Diana Liverman, the Oxford scientist and presidential adviser, backs the Oxfam report that singles out Scotland as an example for the rest of the world to follow.
Malcolm Fleming, Oxfam's Scottish campaigns manager, said: "Scotland is already leading the world ... with targets guided by science rather than political expediency."
The Oxfam report states 375m people will likely be affected by climate-related disasters by 2015, and that 200m people may need to migrate each year by 2050 because of hunger, environmental degradation and loss of land.
Scotland is expected to provide around 25% of Europe's ALTERNATIVE energy.
Scotland's SNP government is OPPOSED to nuclear energy.
~~
The Karatara Project
From the The Karatara Project website "...Handouts and charity are NOT the solution for poverty and other problems in Africa - that’s been proven over and over.What Africa really needs is education and enterprise that transforms communities so that they believe in themselves and thrive through trade; not merely survive from aid. This project is all about teaching smart, ‘green’ sustainable wealth
"We believe that anyone suspected of war crimes should be thoroughly investigated"
Earlier I noted the recent story on the Bush Administration's cover up of war crimes by an Afghani warlord, and the creation of Afghani mass graves. (You may recall that George W. Bush was particularly incensed by Saddam Hussein's mass graves, and saw them as a justification for having gone to war, but apparently he was less upset by mass graves created by American allies. (Oh, wait, Saddam Hussein was our ally in the 1980s. . . .)
I should note that the Obama Administration is now faced with the urgent question whether to investigate what the Bush Administration sought to cover up. Risen reports that Obama Administration officials have opposed General Dostrum's reappointment and are considering finally looking into the killings:
I fully agree, But the last time I checked, torture was also a war crime, and a violation of American domestic law as well. Does this mean that the Obama Administration will now consent to a Truth Commission on U.S. violations of domestic and international law? If we are finally going to investigate war crimes by our allies, why not American officials suspected of committing war crimes as well?
I should note that the Obama Administration is now faced with the urgent question whether to investigate what the Bush Administration sought to cover up. Risen reports that Obama Administration officials have opposed General Dostrum's reappointment and are considering finally looking into the killings:
A senior State Department official said that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Richard C. Holbrooke, the special representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan, have told Mr. Karzai of their objections to reinstalling General Dostum. The American officials have also pressed his sponsors in Turkey to delay his return to Afghanistan while talks continue with Mr. Karzai over the general’s role, said an official briefed on the matter. Asked about looking into the prisoner deaths, the official said, “We believe that anyone suspected of war crimes should be thoroughly investigated.” (emphasis added)
I fully agree, But the last time I checked, torture was also a war crime, and a violation of American domestic law as well. Does this mean that the Obama Administration will now consent to a Truth Commission on U.S. violations of domestic and international law? If we are finally going to investigate war crimes by our allies, why not American officials suspected of committing war crimes as well?
My, my ...
... Occasional Paper #1: Rudolph Delson Reviews the Official GED Practice Test.
In case you miss the PDF link, here it is.
In case you miss the PDF link, here it is.
Bush Administration Covered Up War Crimes By Afghani Allies
James Risen's story in today's New York Times reveals that "[a]fter a mass killing of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Taliban prisoners of war by the forces of an American-backed warlord during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, Bush administration officials repeatedly discouraged efforts to investigate the episode." While the United States was rounding up people in Afghanistan, some perfectly innocent, and holding them in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, it refused to prosecute known war crimes by its allies.
The details of the killings are gruesome:
For more details about the killings visit this website run by Physicians for Human Rights.
American officials had been reluctant to pursue an investigation — sought by officials from the F.B.I., the State Department, the Red Cross and human rights groups — because the warlord, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, was on the payroll of the C.I.A. and his militia worked closely with United States Special Forces in 2001, several officials said. They said the United States also worried about undermining the American-supported government of President Hamid Karzai, in which General Dostum had served as a defense official.
The details of the killings are gruesome:
Survivors and witnesses told The New York Times and Newsweek in 2002 that, over a three-day period, Taliban prisoners were stuffed into closed metal shipping containers and given no food or water; many suffocated while being trucked to the prison. Other prisoners were killed when guards shot into the containers. The bodies were said to have been buried in a mass grave in Dasht-i-Laili, a stretch of desert just outside Shibarghan.
A recently declassified 2002 State Department intelligence report states that one source, whose identity is redacted, concluded that about 1,500 Taliban prisoners died. Estimates from other witnesses or human rights groups range from several hundred to several thousand. The report also said that several Afghan witnesses were later tortured or killed.
For more details about the killings visit this website run by Physicians for Human Rights.
What Republican Senator had his hand on David Brooks's inner thigh through an entire dinner?
Brooks is talking on MSNBC — video at the link — and says:
You know, all three of us spend a lot of time covering politicians and I don’t know about you guys, but in my view, they’re all emotional freaks of one sort or another. They’re guaranteed to invade your personal space, touch you. I sat next to a Republican senator once at dinner and he had his hand on my inner thigh the whole time. I was like, ehh, get me out of here....What!? Perhaps the Republican Senator just periodically patted him on the thigh and technically the fingers extended into the inner part. The fact that Brooks put up with it, to me, indicates that was all it was. Why would he just think I was like, ehh, get me out of here. What stopped him from leaving? Or are we seriously to think some Senator had Brooks in an intimate grip all night and Brooks did nothing but think about how he didn't like it?
I’m not telling you, I’m not telling you. But so, a lot of them spend so much time needing people’s love and yet they are shooting upwards their whole life, they’re not that great in normal human relationships. And so, they’re like freaks, they don’t know how to, they’re lonely. They reach out....
The recession is slowing household formation
The Washington Post points out the effect the recession is having on household formation:
The number of people setting up their own households has fallen to some of the lowest levels in a generation, a trend that threatens to prolong the recession.
Many people, young and old, who in more promising times would be out on their own, are finding themselves ... stuck at square one. ...
The recession has wreaked havoc on all sorts of life plans. Tumbling stock prices have cut retirements short. Layoffs have forced middle-aged children to move in with mom. Falling home prices prompt unhappy couples to rethink divorce. The larger consequence of all these discrete decisions is that Americans are forming fewer households, which in turn helps prolong the downturn.
Government data suggest that the recession has helped push down household formation. ...
Household formation rates could keep falling, said Richard Moody, chief economist for Forward Capital, a real estate investment and research company, because of the strong correlation between job loss and household formation. With unemployment not expected to peak until next year, "a lot of that isn't reflected yet" in the data, he said.
Something I missed ...
... "Forgotten Book Friday".
As readers of this blog know, I was often in my wilder years a most indiscreet fellow. So I am better acquainted with opiates than most people. For that reason, I have long thought the connection between Coleridge's poetry and his drug use was far more tenuous than staid scholars imagine. Nobody writes anything of worth while high. You may get some thoughts and images that can prove of use later if you have the presence of mind and the energy to note them down. But it is unlikely that anyone zonked on opiates would ever think to exert himself sufficiently to write down much of anything.
Bush Administration Strangled Investigations of Mass Murder in Afghanistan
The New York Times reports today that on at least three separate occasions, members of the Bush administration foiled attempts to investigate a mass killing, and dumping of thousands of bodies in a mass grave, that happened in Afghanistan in 2001.
The warlord responsible for the murders—which number up to two thousand and happened when Taliban fighters taken prisoner by the Northern Alliance were packed into shipping containers for a trip across Afghanistan, in which they suffocated and died—is Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum.
Dostum, in addition to being a powerful warlord, was on the payroll of the CIA in 2001, when these killings—both by suffocation and gunfire—and subsequent dumping of the bodies at a mass grave occurred.
This mass killing isn't itself the biggest news; the New York Times reported on it in 2002.
What is news is that various arms of the United States government attempted to launch investigations into the incident, which were stifled by the administration:
American officials had been reluctant to pursue an investigation — sought by officials from the F.B.I., the State Department, the Red Cross and human rights groups — because the warlord, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, was on the payroll of the C.I.A. and his militia worked closely with United States Special Forces in 2001, several officials said. They said the United States also worried about undermining the American-supported government of President Hamid Karzai, in which General Dostum has served as a defense official.Physicians for Human Rights, which has a press release here, has been trying to launch an investigation of this horrifying atrocity for years:
Physicians for Human Rights went to investigate inhumane conditions at a prison in northern Afghanistan, but what we found was much worse,” stated Susannah Sirkin, PHR Deputy Director. Our researchers documented an apparent mass grave site with reportedly thousands of bodies of captured prisoners who were suffocated to death in trucks. That was 2002; seven years later, we still seek answers about what exactly happened and who was involved.Where is this General Dostum now? Why, he's serving in a government post, as military chief of staff to President Hamid Karzai. Who, again, is supposed to be an American ally. As I understand it, Dostum has been re-appointed to his government post, but has not yet returned to Afghanistan from exile in Turkey. According to the NYT article, State Dept. officials have been "quietly tried to thwart General Dostum’s reappointment."
Not only was Dostum on the CIA payroll at the time this atrocity occurred, the forces under his control were operating jointly with American forces. In all likelihood, there were many American witnesses to what happened. But did the government fully investigate this angle?
Pentagon spokesmen have said that the United States Central Command conducted an “informal inquiry,” questioning Special Forces personnel members who worked with General Dostum if they knew of a mass-killing by his forces. When they said they did not, the inquiry went no further.Sounds like a very thorough investigation. Meanwhile, it appears that the grave site has been tampered with and perhaps even moved. The grave site has not been exhumed and, apart from 3 autopsies done by Physicians for Human Rights under UN auspices, there has been no investigation permitted.
This happened under our watch, as a direct result of the invasion we launched and the forces we backed with military and financial support. But every time someone wanted to investigate, it was always "ooh, that's tricky...I dunno." Until it magically went away.
So far, the response from the Obama administration seems non-committal. State Department officials "suggested that the administration might not be hostile to an inquiry."
That's not good enough. Justice for the thousands of people suffocated and killed in shipping containers partially on our dime, by forces led by people we paid, isn't too much to ask.
Sign the Petition to Attorney General Eric Holder here.
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