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