redstateupdate.net

number 29 11.13.05

crowd control

United States Leads World in Production of Prisoners

With over 2.268 million total prisoners,
the United States is the world leader in
incarceration, according to a report by
the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The
figure, an all time high for total
incarcerated population, was up over 2
percent from the previous record. The
US also leads the world in rate of
incarceration, at 724 per 100,000
inhabitants, followed by Russia with a
rate of 638 per 100,000. The British
Home Office reports that 62.5 percent
of all countries worldwide have
incarceration rates below 150 per
100,000.

The figures for total prisoners included

1,421,911 in federal and state
facilities,15,757 in territorial prisons, and
713,990in local jails. Approximately
120,000 further prisoners are held in
other facilities such as juvenile detention
centers, Bureau of Immigration jails, and
military prisons. The total federal prison
population, which has more than
doubled in the last decade, now exceeds
federal prison capacity by more than 40
percent.

In terms of total incarcerated population
the United States' closest competitor is
China, with approximately 1.75 million
prisoners. But China's total population is
almost four times that of the US. The

British government estimates that
the United States has more than 25
percent of all prisoners held in the
world.

The US incarceration rate of 724 per
100,000 is also a record high. After
Russia at 688 per 100,000 the other
world leaders were Belarus (534),
Khazakstan (522), Turkmenistan
(489), and Belize (459). The United
States has led the world in total
incarceration and rate of
incarceration for more than 20 years,
despite crime statistics trending
consistently lower from 1995 to
2001. its all true

interpreting the constitution

crowd control

spread of the red

one nation, under surveillance

fun d' mental

in bed with the red

red state rebate

verbatim

in bed with the red

spread of the red

Not Enough Cronies: FEMA Hires Firm Involved in Abu Ghraib Torture Scandal

US Patients Choose
Mexico for
Doctor Visits

The Federal emergency Management
Agency is reported to have recently
awarded to contracts to a defense
contractor that is the subject of a federal
lawsuit involving participation in the Abu
Ghraib prison torture scandal.

FEMA has hired the company , Titan
Corporation, to assist in providing
housing for relief workers in the Gulf
region and to provide the agency with a
specialized mobile emergency response
vehicle. The contracts together are
worth over half a million dollars.

Titan Corporation was hired as a
sub-contractor by the Defence
Department to translate for American

military and CIA interrogators in
detention centers in Iraq. Titan is
charged in 2 federal lawsuits, filed last
year by the Center for Constitutional
Rights among other groups, with
mismanagement and complicity for its
role in the torture which took place
at Abu Ghraib.

FEMA officials were aware of Titan's
participation in what many have
described as torture in Abu Ghraib,
but felt comfortable with its awarding
the two contracts to the embattled
firm. FEMA spokes persons told USA
Today that the contract awards to
Titan "didn't raise any flags" because
the company has not yet been

officially barred from doing business
with the government.

Titan is reported to be the nation's
ninth largest military contractor with
revenues exceeding $900 million in
2004. Titan's contracts with the
Pentagon have nearly tripled since
the 200 terror attacks. Titan is also
the subject of several other federal
investigations relating to corruption
and mismanagement. Last year, a
federal inspectors review concluded
that Titan was over-paid $229
million by the Defense Department
for a contract to counsel grieving
military families its all true

Tens of thousands of families from
southern California are regularly
driving south of the border to
Mexico to receive health care
treatment as part of a new insurance
product being offered by California
insurance companies.

Companies such as Blue Shield of
California offer the option for their
customers to choose to see
physicians in Mexico instead of th US
and save 40 to 50 percent off of
medical procedures and doctor visits.

California became the only state to
regulate insurance programs that
require border crossing for health
care in the year 2000. The California
Department of Managed Health Care
is the state regulatory body that has
oversight of cross-border HMO
insurance plans, More than one
hundred thousand agricultural
workers in California are offered
cross border health plans from
groups such as the Western Growers
Association and an estimated 700
non-agricultural businesses currently
offer the plans.

Cross border health plans are
growing by thousands of households
each year as the cost of basic health
care in the US continues to
skyrocket. The average premium for
an employer based family health plan
in America is $9979, representing
nearly the entire salary of a minimum
wage worker in the US. its all true

redstat

fun d' mental

Texans Vow to Safeguard Marriage
By Limiting the Number of Married Couples

Texas voters approved a
constitutional ban on same-sex
marriages in last weeks by-election.
Texas becomes the 19th state where
voters have determined that
same-sex partners cannot officially
conform their relationships in the
eyes of the law, live together as
married couples,or take advantage
of tax, health care and property
rights which are accorded to
heterosexual married partners in the
state.

The amendment to the Texas
constitution defines marriage as "the
union of one man and one woman"
and constitutionally bars the state's
legislature from "creating or
recognizing any legal status identical
or similar to marriage" in the future.

The controversial Proposition 2 was
supported by Texas Governor Rick Perry
and fundalmentalist churches throughout
the state. Texas Attorney General Greg
Abbott provided tapes "messages" to
proponents of the proposition which
stated his belief that proposition 2 would
not threaten to "nullify" traditional
marriages. Also demonstrating in favor
of the marriage ban was a group of Ku
Klux Klansmen who protested in the
state's capital.

Turnout in last week's election was light,
11 percent with just over half of the
state's ballots counted. Texas joins such
states as Arizona, Kentucky and
Mississippi in its rejection of same-sex
marriage rights for its citizens.
its all true

Sports

News

Muslim Fans Miss Second Half Of
Football Game

IRS Data Proves
Another Axiom

Five Muslim American football fans were
detained by private security guards and
New Jersey State troopers, and then
held and questioned by the FBI at an
NFL regular season game in September.
The detentions took place in the third
quarter of the New York Giants- New
Orleans Saints game on September 19th
at the New Jersey Meadowlands stadium,
but only recently became public when
two of the fans, who were all released
without charge, held a news conference
to highlight the issue of racial profiling. In
a separate incident at the same game,
four other fans were similarly detained
and interviewed about their ethnic
background and religious beliefs. All of
the fans involved described being
surrounded at their seats by numerous
security personnel and state police
officers and escorted to offices where
they were questioned by FBI agents.

In a statement, the FBI confirmed the
detentions but denied they were the
result of racial profiling, describing the
incidents as "routine precautionary law
enforcement." The detentions were
apparently spurred by reports from
other fans who witnessed the Muslim
fans praying before the game. Officials

with the New Jersey Sports and
Exposition Authority which operates the
Meadowlands strongly denied racially
profiling their customers.

After being questioned and released, the
detained fans were not allowed to
return to their seats, but were instead
assigned new seats in another part of the
stadium. Some left, frustrated by the
experience, but others remained,
watching the end of the game while
security guards stood by, and then being
escorted to their vehicles by police.
Both groups of detained fans report
being harassed by neighboring spectators
when they were originally approached by
security. Some wanted to return to their
seats to show those fans that they had
been released without charge, but htey
were denied this opportunity by the FBI
agents who interrogated them.

The four fans in the second group of
detainees were not Muslim and were in
fact, all Christians. Among the nine fans
that were questioned were a lawyer and
a law student, although there have been
as yet no lawsuits filed as a result of the
detentions. The Giants defeated the
Saints, 27-10. its all true

A review of recently published
Internal Revenue data shows that the
incomes of wealthy Americans rose
and the incomes of poorer
Americans fell slightly. Moreover,
the Center for Budget and Priorities
analysis of 2004 IRS figures, the most
recent year available, found that
incomes for the highest earners in
the top one percent income bracket
not only increased, but rose 8.5
percent.

The Center noted that the IRS data
are consistent with a trend in overall
wealth disparity in the US.

Congressional Budget Office figures
from the time period between 1979
and 2002 show that after tax
incomes of the top one percent of
the population more than doubled.
Incomes for those in the poorest
fifth of wage earners rose only 5
percent.

The Center points out that though
the wages of America's richest one
percent are down slightly from their
heights in 2000, "income is
extraordinarily concentrated today."
its all true

redstateupdate.net

verbatim number 5.5

"Our nation is
somewhat sad,
but we're angry…

…There's a
certain level of
blood lust, but we
won't let it drive
our reaction.
We're steady,
clear-eyed and
patient...

...but pretty soon
we'll have to start
displaying scalps."
to B Woodward circa 2002