The Voices

openleft.com — Enjoy your dithering over dining choices while you can, folks, because the day is coming when you may not have the luxury of choosing the lobster over the London broil. For those with a more populist palate, I've got some bad news, too; a future with no more fried clam strips or canned tuna, for you.

news.newamericamedia.org — On the eve of the Beijing Olympics, while Bush was preparing to express his "deep concerns" over China's human rights record, Chinese immigrant Hiu Lui Ng was dying in the custody of our great nation's own U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. For months, 33-year-old Mr. Ng had complained of excruciating back pain. Officials accused him of faking it.

truthdig.com — Sen. Lindsey Graham and the rest of John McCain's front-line surrogates know full well what messages they're sending about Barack Obama and race. On the off chance that they — or some of the white voters they're trying to reach — don't know text from subtext from context, here's a deconstruction.

news.newamericamedia.org — The House of Representative's vote to apologize for the horror of slavery was an easy call. It was also — like those passed in several states — mild, innocuous, and ultimately toothless. In truth that's all they were supposed to be. But the House resolution was still important. It was tacit acknowledgment of something that the slavery apology opponents vehemently deny and that is that slavery was not just the evil doings of greedy Southern planters.

motherjones.com — We're locking up 1 in every 100 American adults — and going bankrupt in the process. Are there alternatives to a total meltdown?

truthdig.com — If the long conservative era that began with Ronald Reagan's election is over, will the judges appointed during the right's ascendancy be able to block, frustrate and undermine the efforts of a new progressive majority? Is the Supreme Court, as two influential journalists describe it, 'the last hope of the conservative interests in the United States.'

alternet.org — How do today' youth — black youth in particular — choose their leaders? Hint: It's not by skin color or party affiliation.

progressive.org — Before heading out for summer recess, the Democratically controlled Congress is on the cusp of handing Bush two big victories — and the American people two big defeats.

thenation.com — While the nation pats itself on the back for finally offering up a serious black presidential candidate, racial inequality and what — if anything — to do about it, have not been part of the discussion. Yet race remains a fundamental divide in American society.