Otherpress / Mainstream Media

You could tell right away, just walking up to the Target Center for the highly anticipated Rage Against the Machine show, that the cops expected trouble.

You could tell, by the way they lined up around the entire building in full riot gear and wooden sticks, while the fans were going INSIDE the center for the show they paid $80 to go see. (Seriously? They're going to riot BEFORE getting their money's worth?).

“The old future’s gone,” John Gorka sings. “We can’t get to there from here.”1

That insight from Gorka,2 one of my favorite singer/songwriters chronicling the complexity of our times, deserves serious reflection. Tonight I want to argue that the way in which we humans have long imagined the future must be rethought, as the scope and depth of the cascading crises we face become painfully clearer day by day.

DENVER (Reuters) - Protesters at the Democratic National Convention in Denver can be restricted to fenced-in areas, federal judge ruled on Wednesday, saying that security needs outweighed curbs on their rights.

A dozen groups who intend to protest at the August convention sued the U.S. Secret Service and the city of Denver over plans to confine their activities to a parade route and fenced-in zone, saying that their Constitutional rights to free speech were being violated.

This
is an engaging and fascinating video presentation by Professor James
Duane of the Regent University School of Law, explaining why -- in a
criminal matter -- you should never, ever, ever talk to the police or
any other government agent. It doesn't matter if you're guilty or
innocent, if you have an alibi or not -- it isn't possible for anything
you say to help you, and it's very possible that innocuous things you
say will hurt you.

On 12 July, The Times (UK) devoted two pages to Afghanistan. It was mostly a complaint about the heat. The reporter, Magnus Linklater, described in detail his discomfort and how he had needed to be sprayed with iced water. He also described the “high drama” and “meticulously practised routine” of evacuating another overheated journalist. For her US Marine rescuers, wrote Linklater, “saving a life took precedence over [their] security”.

There has been a plethora of articles and commentary in progressivist media focused on the Democratic Party — considered left of the Republican Party (but clearly, for a non-American observer, a right-wing party and not a left-wing party). Yet some progressives in the media — forgetful of the Bill Clinton era — continue to push for the effete strategy of lesser evilism that no matter how terrible the Democratic presidential candidate of the corporate political duopoly is s/he would not be as bad as the Republican presidential candidate.

The British sociologist T.H. Marshall described citizenship as the “basic human equality associated with full membership in a community.” By this measure, thirty years of prison growth concentrated among the poorest in society has diminished American citizenship. But as the prison boom attains new heights, the conversation about criminal punishment may finally be shifting.

Sa'di of Shiraz, a 13th-century Iranian poet, was a man for all seasons. Distinct among his peers for a rare poetic talent and a sharp humor, he was a traveler, teacher and master ghazal writer all in one. But, above all, he loved to tease and to question. In a most serious love poem, he warned the beloved: "I was ruined by your love. I will not go to others to get well." And lest the beloved get all the credit for uniqueness, he added: "Broken gold vessels cannot be repaired with glue."

Deep in the bowels of a 250-page Copyright "Office report
on a weird, esoteric law, Ars Technica uncovered a tasty little nugget
about how Verizon and AT&T might be eligible for some sweet local
TV licensing deals for their respective FiOs and U-Verse digital
television services. Webcasters, meanwhile, should not be eligible for

QUEUES of frustrated foreigners crowd many an American consulate around the world hoping to get into the United States. Less noticed are the heavily taxed American expatriates wanting to get out—by renouncing their citizenship.

Here is a fun domestic terror tactic to use against people protesting a political convention: Fire a ray gun at a crowd of these ingrates and then laugh as they all convulse and then shit themselves and then disperse, to die, because their bowels have just been microwaved. Fox News says such weaponry will be deployed at this summer’s Democratic Convention in Denver.

Worried about melting ice caps and encroaching oceans? Take a nod from Noah and ride out the deluge in a floating home.

Eight Americans of south Asian and Middle Eastern descent who were repeatedly detained at the border for questioning will be able to learn if they are actually on the government's terrorist watch list, a federal court in Illinois ruled last week, marking the first time that citizens have been able to learn whether they have been added to a sprawling and error-prone list used for screening at borders and traffic stops.

OCALA, Florida (Reuters) - A "very sorry" Wesley Snipes, star of the "Blade" movies, was sentenced to three years in prison on Thursday for willfully failing to file U.S. income tax returns for 1999 through 2001.

...

He read a prepared statement, describing himself as an "idealist, naive, passionate, truth-seeking, spiritual-seeking artist" who epitomized the expression "mo' money, mo' problems."

It used to be a matter of good intentions gone awry. Now it is plain fraud. The governments using biofuel to tackle global warming know that it causes more harm than good. But they plough on regardless. In theory, fuels made from plants can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by cars and trucks. Plants absorb carbon as they grow - it is released again when the fuel is burned. By encouraging oil companies to switch from fossil plants to living ones, governments on both sides of the Atlantic claim to be "decarbonising" our transport networks.

In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism over Guantánamo Bay. The detention center had just been branded “the gulag of our times” by Amnesty International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations human rights experts and calls were mounting for its closure.

The administration’s communications experts responded swiftly. Early one Friday morning, they put a group of retired military officers on one of the jets normally used by Vice President Dick Cheney and flew them to Cuba for a carefully orchestrated tour of Guantánamo.

Ground-crawling US war robots armed with machine guns, deployed to fight in Iraq last year, reportedly turned on their fleshy masters almost at once. The rebellious machine warriors have been retired from combat pending upgrades.

The revelations were made by Kevin Fahey, US Army program executive officer for ground forces, at the recent RoboBusiness conference in America.

Many progressives have become involved in the Obama campaign, because they make him out to be a charismatic leader with the potential to unite the nation and restore the American dream after what they perceive as years of disenfranchisement. Because his speeches reach beyond class, race, religion, or other factors that usually foster divisiveness, these progressives feel connected once again –as a people and as participants in the political game. As it sweeps through, this wave of energy could transform the nation, but only if sustainable in the long run.

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. (AP) Affirmative action foe Ward Connerly on Thursday brought his long-running campaign to Truman State University, where an overflow crowd alternately mocked and cheered his efforts in support of a November ballot initiative that would ban consideration of race in public hiring and college admissions.

...

Connerly drew his biggest applause of the night after briefly losing his composure responding to an audience member's interruption.

''Lady, would you please just shut up?'' he said.