“It’s a beautiful thing to see,” said Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew fame, who stars in a short film playing at the festival called “The Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke.” ‘’When you look at the success of Ice Cube and Will Smith, these are traditional hip-hop guys that are very successful in the movie business, so it’s a great thing and I’m happy for all the other guys who are here.”

Rapper-actor Ice-T made his directorial debut at Sundance with the documentary “Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap,” which features interviews with hip-hop artists such as Grandmaster Flash, Eminem, Mos Def, Run-DMC, KRS-One, Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube.

Ice-T said he made the movie to give viewers “a better understanding of what it takes and what we do.”

“I wanted to talk about the craft, not the cars, the money, the girls,” the 53-year-old entertainer said. “How do you write rhymes? Let’s go into the songwriting process. And everybody was really excited because they were like, ‘Nobody ever asks us that.’”

After interviewing his friends and colleagues on both coasts, Ice-T ended up with a four-hour film that he trimmed down to 106 minutes for festival consideration.

“Our only ambition was to make it to Sundance,” he said. “This is a festival about art, and this movie’s about art.”

Another film with a hip-hop focus is dramatic-competition contender “Filly Brown.” The film starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Edward James Olmos and newcomer Gina Rodriguez tells the story of a rising Hispanic hip-hop star and the challenges she faces on the way to fame.

“Hip-hop, the soul of hip-hop and the foundation of hip-hop is just staying true to who you are and your voice, and so I think it’s really nice that the Sundance films are reflecting that,” said Rodriguez, who raps on screen.

“We didn’t set out to make a hip-hop movie,” added co-director Youssef Delara. “We set out to tell the story of this young woman in music, and it’s just like hip-hop is so ingrained in our culture, and a lot of different types of culture, that you really can’t tell a youth story without some element of hip-hop.”

The Sundance Institute Film Music Program hosted a concert at the ASCAP Music Café featuring Ice-T, Chuck D of Public Enemy and rap pioneer Grandmaster Caz.

“Every year the films are so wonderful here and so diverse, and they keep adding new elements and experiences to the festival to keep it current and fresh,” said Loretta Munoz, producer of the ASCAP Music Café. “I’m very happy about ‘The Art of Rap’ and seeing how that goes forward.”

In addition to the films and official music programs, various corporate-sponsored locations held their own parties with big-name rap stars.

Common, a star and producer of “LUV,” a contender in the U.S. dramatic competition, celebrated the film by performing into the wee hours at the Express afterparty. Drake and Wiz Khalifa each took the stage at the Bing Bar, and Drake also hosted a gathering at Park City Live, where Ludacris headlined earlier in the week.

Lil Jon took to the turntables at the Skullcandy Compound above a massive disco ball and Kendrick Lamar inspired the crowd to sing along at Sugar nightclub on Main Street, where Nas is set to perform Friday.

“Hip-hop changed the world,” Ice-T said. “I’m amazed it took so long to get here.”

Formerly the East End Cafe, a historic hotspot for live concerts that shut its doors in 2010, Mojo Main now continues the tradition of hosting local and national hip-hop acts with tonight’s 4th annual Delaware Fresh Fest.

This year’s event features more than 14 homegrown hip-hop acts including Camden’s Big Noize, Inc., Delaware-based rap duo The 49ers and Detroit-native Phil Nash, who now calls the East Coast home. The show, founded by promoter KO The Knockout, will be emceed by WVUD radio personality D Harv with assistance from DJ Trubb and IncrEDible EDible on the turntables.

KO The Knockout talks about the history of Delaware Fresh Fest, as well as the importance supporting the local music scene.

Q: How did Fresh Fest get started?

A: Well, I started the event in June 2007. I just wanted to do an event where local artists could showcase their talent. Back in the day Run-D.M.C. had the original Fresh Fest, so I called it the Delaware Fresh Fest (laughs). I originally did them all in the summer, but I switched it to January because I wanted to start the new year off right.

Q: With more than 14 acts on the bill, how many are from the local area?

A: All of them are from the tri-state area. Most of them are from Delaware, but we also have Camden’s Big Noize Inc. They are our special guest this year. Also Phil Nash is originally from Detroit, but is now a Delaware resident.

Q: Did you always hold the event at the East End Café when it was open?

A: No, the first one was actually at Mojo 13 in Wilmington. Then the second and third were held at East End Café. It’s kind of funny because the owners of Mojo 13 bought the East End Café after it closed, so it kind of all worked out in the end.

Q: How did you get your start promoting events?

A: The first Fresh Fest was actually my first event. But I’m also a hip-hop artist as well. I’ve done shows in Philly and Jersey opening up for artist like Wu-Tang and Camp Lo. Doing shows is how I got my start doing events

Q: How important do you think it is to support the local music scene?

A: I definitely think it’s very important for everybody to support local talent because your home is where you get your start. Without the hometown fans you can’t get a feel of what people think of your music. It doesn’t matter where you perform, if you can’t come home and get support then it doesn’t feel right.

Q: More than 14 acts sounds like a lot of work. How did you manage to book everyone?

A: The tri-state area has so many artists, so it wasn’t hard finding people to perform. There’s so much talent right here. Most of the work comes with just promoting the event. People are hungry for good music, so there won’t be a problem getting people there.

Q: Is there anything else you want our readers to know about Delaware Fresh Fest 4?

A new white paper presented to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence carves out an ‘evolving mission’ for Homeland Security that moves away from fighting terrorism and towards growing a vast domestic intelligence apparatus that would expand integration with local/state agencies and private-public partnerships already underway via regional fusion centers.

Crafted by the Aspen Institute Homeland Security Group, co-chaired by former DHS chief Michael Chertoff and composed of a who’s who of national security figures, the report outlines a total mission creep, as the title “Homeland Security and Intelligence: Next Steps in Evolving the Mission” implies.

Significantly, it puts on paper and into the Congressional record a proposed transition from outwardly dealing with the threats posed by terrorism towards intelligence gathering “focused on more specific homeward-focused areas.” That is, the homegrown, domestic threats we’ve heard so much about from Big Sis already.

In short, it confirms the intentions of key insiders– including former NSA/CIA head Michael Hayden, former Rep. Jane Harmon, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, 9/11 Commissioners Philip Zelikow and Richard Ben-Viniste, former National Security Advisor Samuel Berger and others– to flesh out a plan we have already seen developing from an outside perspective– namely, to build a domestic Stasi-like force to takeover, monitor and control the population.

Moreover, the media has reported on this changed mission– towards the full spectrum domination of the people under a patently-fascist framework– with the same calm as the weekly weather forecast.

LOCALIZED INTELLIGENCE: HIRING POLICE & BOWING TO PRIVATE INTERESTS

Achieving this new aim includes co-opting local law enforcement and other regional agencies.

“As the threat grows more localized,” the report reads, “the federal government’s need to train, and even staff, local agencies, such as major city police departments, will grow.”

That’s right, the feds want to oversee the hiring of your local police.

Fusion Centers, now spread across the nation, have already infected police agencies and local governments with a federalization takeover mentality. A Dec. 2010 Aspen Homeland Security Group report, quoting the Superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department, recommends that “every mayor and governor of a major city in the country should have to attend a DHS-sponsored emergency management course where various scenarios – like hurricanes, levy breaks, and explosions – are exercised.”

But directing local police departments, mayors and governors is only the beginning. Indeed, the Aspen group envisions the ‘foundation for a separate DHS intelligence mission’ by building upon ‘decentralized’ partnerships with the private sector as well.

The bloated umbrella agency aims to lean on its ties with the hospitality (hotel), security and transportation industries, among others, as well. Already, Homeland Security conducts background checks on many security guards working with ‘critical infrastructure,’ and clearly, it aims to expand the use of quasi-government groups like InfraGard and other private snitch networks. Ultimately, all employment would be subject to federal background checks and security clearances.

Private interests should even shape Homeland Security priorities, according to the report: “different private sectors in the United States, from the hospitality industry to transportation, should drive requirements for DHS.”

ABANDONING THE FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM

As unbelievable as it sounds, DHS says other agencies can handle the all-encompassing threat of terrorism that was used to justify the super-agency’s own existence and powers.

Abandoning specific focus on tracking terrorist cells and organizations, DHS instead plans to shift into broad coverage of border protection, integrating travel data, cyber defense, critical infrastructure protection and other areas.

“There are enough agencies pursuing the terrorist adversary to allow DHS to build a new analytic foundation that emphasizes data, analytic questions, and customer groups that are not the focus for other agencies,” the report states.

And funding should be cut from terrorism-focused areas:

“Analysis that helps private-sector partners better understand how to mitigate threats to infrastructure, for example, should win more resourcing than a focus on all-source analysis of general threats, such as work on assessing the perpetrators of attacks. Conversely, all-source analysis of terrorist groups and general terrorist trends should remain the domain of other intelligence agencies.”

Instead, the “national security experts” who’ve brought us naked body scanners, checkpoints on highways, streets, airports, bus & train stations, and who have projected the homegrown terror threat into the theaters of private hotels, shopping malls and sports stadiums, are again expanding the bureaucratic growth of tyranny by infiltrating areas traditionally spared from federal intrusion.

A promotional article at the Homeland Security News Wire blog highlights the shift: “With a slew of intelligence agencies with similar missions safeguarding the United States, the report posits that DHS should avoid competing with other agencies and overlapping responsibilities, instead focusing on its areas of core strengths – analysis and the dissemination of critical intelligence to local law enforcement agency, the private sector, and critical infrastructure operators.”

“THE NEW, GROWING WORLD OF HOMELAND SECURITY INTELLIGENCE”

Further the Aspen report recommends “an entirely new enterprise,” stating that “DHS might consider the development of a homeland security training institute.” It hails the security-complex workforce that has been fostered by Homeland Security in the decade since 9/11, now seeking to influence and train its future recruits as well.

The report verifies previous information suggesting that DHS wants to comb the American homeland with private security contractors, trained and overseen by Homeland Security– a giant army of enforcers and snitches, brainwashed by propaganda scaremongering about terrorism, who could respond to crime as a whole with an atmosphere of universal preemptive suspicion that targets anyone who appears out of place.

“Working with state/local/private sector partners to draw their intelligence capabilities into a national picture” is a stated aim of this redirection of Homeland Security’s core mission. Installing and training individual members of these partner groups- from local police departments to the eyes and ears it would tap in the security, transportation and infrastructure industries- would facilitate the kind of over-arching homeland security infrastructure the document aims to construct over society.

DOMESTIC EXTREMISM: TARGETING AMERICAN SOCIETY

Doing so would put greater emphasis on the kind of politically-slanted domestic profiling (read: “intelligence product“) that has already drawn criticism and forced the agency to disavow one of its own reports, which targeted ‘right-wing extremism’:

The numerous federal and other officials familiar with the matter Homeland Security Today interviewed frankly said the April 7, 2009 DHS report that generated so much outrage, Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment, was the most “poorly constructed” analytical “product in DHS history,” and that numerous reports dealing with rightwing extremists have in fact been produced by DHS since it disavowed that one report.

The Department of Homeland Security was sold to public on a wave of fear in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, under the promise of keeping America safe from terrorism. Instead, the Homeland Stasi agency is solidifying its role as a secret police over the United States. Not only have local police agencies been instructed that non-violent protesters, returning veterans and supporters of third party candidates are potential domestic terrorists, but Federal Protective Service (FPS) agents- dispatched with Homeland Security oversight- have been caught arresting photographers and spying on dissenters (in this case during an Occupy Wall Street protest in Portland).

Recent Homeland Security-related documents have already revealed that the American people have been designated as an enemy under emergency plans and that the feds are contracting and activating FEMA relocation centers for use during a crisis or catastrophe.

MISSION CREEP: HANDING OVER UNACCOUNTABLE POWER

Sadly, this warped mission creep is nothing new to the United States’ intelligence agencies.

Former President Harry Truman lamented the CIA’s extreme power grab some 16 years after he signed the bill ushering it– and the entire national security infrastructure– into existence. One month after the JFK assassination in 1963, he stated:

“For some time I have been disturbed by the way the CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the government… I never had any thought that when I set up the CIA that it would be injected into peacetime cloak and dagger operations.”

Behind the scenes, it was former CIA director Allen Dulles, along with a number of fellow travelers, who crafted the CIA’s transformation under a limited, intelligence gathering mandate into the unaccountable monster it became. During a decade as head of the CIA, Dulles utilized the Jackson-Correa white paper he helped write to usher in black ops and other operational aspects never intended to be, from assassinations, to coups, to revolutions, and more (see Col. Fletcher Prouty’s The Secret Team). Suddenly, the CIA was operating from the shadows, a virtual government-within-government, with no clear path towards reigning in its power.

Will the already-controversial Department of Homeland Security be allowed, too, to creep so far into our lives that we can never look back?

Now, before we go on, put yourself in the position of DotCom's neighbors or reporters covering this story. Ask yourself this: Why wouldn't there be a tank?

DotCom is the 6-foot-7, 300-pound former street racer and convicted felon who is relatively new to the area and known for driving around in exotic automobiles. The 38-year-old referred to himself as "God" and "Dr. Evil" and lived in a massive $24 million mansion. Only a week earlier, more than 70 police officers had stormed the home by helicopter to arrest him on charges of operating a massive Internet piracy empire.

Police hauled away millions in cash and had to remove DotCom from a specially designed safe room, where they discovered he owned specially designed semi-automatic shotguns.

After all this, what's too far-fetched? Who would blink if DotCom had built a secret underground lair beneath a volcano, or equipped his cars with ejection seats or defended his house with a tank?

That's the kind of thing criminal masterminds do in the movies, and for many years that's the image that DotCom went out of his way to construct for himself.

Nonetheless, the tank was a fake--albeit a good one. What people saw on DotCom's lawn was an inflatable, life-size balloon made to look like a Soviet-era T-72 Russian battle tank, reported the New Zealand Herald. A party was held for one of DotCom's children and an inflatable castle was also at the home but set up in the back, according to Komoroske.

The tank balloon looked real enough to fool a host of neighbors and some journalists. Inflatable tank models were used in battle to deceive foes.

What I'd like to know was, while the other inflatable toys were stationed in the back of the home, how come the tank was left in the front? One has to wonder if DotCom, who was born Kim Schmitz, is still having fun at the expense of his neighbors and the media.

He remains in police custody until an extradition hearing is held. The United States wants to bring DotCom and three associates, two of which have been released on bail, back here to stand trial.

Odds are this story is going to play out over a long period and won't be boring.