Matt Taibbi writes: If you’ve ever been arrested on a drug charge, if you’ve ever spent even a day in jail for having a stem of marijuana in your pocket or “drug paraphernalia” in your gym bag, Assistant Attorney General and longtime Bill Clinton pal Lanny Breuer has a message for you: Bite me. Breuer [...]

Mumia Abu-Jamal tells Chris Hedges: When I first got out in the yard and I heard groups of men talking about how Sarah was going to marry Jim or how Frank had betrayed Susan, I thought, Damn, these cats all know each other and their families. That’s odd. But after a few minutes I realized [...]

Glenn Greenwald writes: [W]hat was most striking to me as I traced the recent history of this phenomenon is how explicit it has become. Obviously, those with money and power always enjoyed substantial advantages in the US justice system, but lip service was at least always paid to the core precept of the rule of [...]

From Mr. Fish…

Roldo Bartimole writes: The Bonnie and Clyde ending to two nondescript misdemeanors by the Cleveland police and their 137 bullets is just a reminder of how bad things are in Cleveland. It’s shameful. What was it a rabbit chase? What really does it say to Cleveland citizens – especially to black Cleveland citizens? What it [...]

From The Associated Press: Older teens and adults with attention deficit disorder are much less likely to commit a crime while on ADHD medication, a provocative study from Sweden found. It also showed in dramatic fashion how much more prone people with ADHD are to break the law – four to seven times more likely [...]

7:55 P.M. Interior Minister Eli Yishai on Israel’s operation in Gaza: “The goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages. Only then will Israel be calm for forty years.” We know how this worked in Vietnam. Why do we think there is a difference anywhere else in the world?

Via my Facebook self: A principled man whom I admire posted this link with the note that “#21 makes me :’( .” I replied: Good morning, If only our own media published photos of the innocents injured, maimed and murdered by our own Hellfire missiles launched from our own Predator drones at first responders treating [...]

Glenn Greenwald writes: A central premise of US media coverage of the Israeli attack on Gaza – beyond the claim that Israel is justifiably “defending itself” – is that this is some endless conflict between two foreign entitles, and Americans can simply sit by helplessly and lament the tragedy of it all. The reality is [...]

[Update @ 1304: Supreme Court won't block early voting in Ohio.] In his piece written for Slate, Richard Hansen writes that: Ohio’s cutback of early voting could have a negative effect at the polls and was done for no good reason. Indeed, the Ohio legislature probably eliminated the last weekend of early voting for purely [...]

No, I haven’t started watching political ads, but this critique by David Dayen (via Glenn Greenwald) is important because it highlights yet another reason that, while I’ll agree that four more years of Barack Hussein Obama in the White House would be better than four years of Willard Mitt Romney, the difference between the two [...]

Conor Friedersdorf writes: My recent article, “Why I Refuse to Vote for Barack Obama,” is one of dozens I’ve written in the last several years criticizing President Obama for violating civil liberties, expanding executive power, and waging a secretive drone war that presumes all unidentified males killed are “militants.” Why did it receive more attention, [...]

Via What’s Up: WHAT: How To Start A Revolution WHERE: Northwest Akron Branch Library,1720 Shatto Ave., Akron WHEN: Monday, 1 October, 6:30 p.m. WHO: Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee How To Start A Revolution is predominately concerned with Gene Sharp’s book, From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation, the 198 non-violent “weapons” [...]

0525: Is religion good for anything?

Glenn Greenwald writes: In the hierarchy of evil, consigning someone who has been convicted of nothing to a cage year after year after year, until they die, is high up on the list. And in that regard, this latest episode demonstrates not only the ongoing travesty of the US’s war on terror policies, but also [...]

From The New York Post: Among the many falsehoods pushed at last week’s Democratic Convention is that this is the party of the people, unafraid to hold Corporate America responsible for its many ills. Judging by the records of the last two Democratic administrations, just the opposite appears to be true. Certainly, President Obama and, [...]

Tim Russo writes: President Obama is going to be re-elected, that much is now apparent. For this to be a true victory, though, the coattails need to be made longer every single chance we get, so that the Republican Party is utterly decimated at every electoral level across the country. It’s sitting there for the [...]