The Guardian UK: (h/t uglycasonova)

After police banned them from playing a political rally in Minnesota yesterday, Rage Against the Machine whipped out the loudspeaker and went a cappella.

The band's original plan was to play an impromptu gig at left-wing rally Ripple Effect. Sadly, the police had other ideas, leaving Zack de la Rocha to address some angry fans.

"Rage Against the Machine is a band that has never, ever advocated violence," he, er, rages. "We've always advocated a direct opposition to unjust wars like the one started by John McCain and the Republicans and Bush and all of them."

He continues: "Why the F@#% are these cops so afraid of us? Are they afraid of us?"

I showed this video to our C&L team and BillW could not say enough how much he loved it. It's terrible to me that the larger story of how the police have acted -- or have been directed to act -- has gone mostly unreported in the traditional media, becaue it really does exemplify the tenuous grasp on basic civil rights that most Republicans seem to possess.