More interesting facts about the New American Police State below the news synopsis... Twitter This Commentary In The News: Don't hold your breath or you'll need the Health Care bill Loooong before it's available... 564 amendments to the Health Care Bill are being heard in the Senate Finance committee right now... from the serious, like tort reform, to Utah senator Orrin Hatch's amendment attempting to exempt all states beginning with the letter "U". (That should be a breach of Senate ethics and decorum... but again, don't hold your breath.) The president has addressed the U.N. on global warming, now he's off to a trilateral meeting with the illegitimate (more on US involvement in Palestinian election tampering here: U.S. Funds Enter Fray In Palestinian Elections)president of the Palestinians Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel about Israel's refusal to limit the growth of settlements in the West Bank. Later this week to he's off to Pittsburgh for the G20 summit, and there'll be a welcoming committee:

Protesters make final G20 plans as Pittsburgh digs in Agence France-Presse September 20, 2009 Pittsburgh is beefing up security with thousands of extra police, as anti-globalization, anti-war, anti-government and anti-poverty activists descend on it for the G20 summit. Protesters say they plan to air their opposition to “the undemocratic way in which the G20 operates and the decisions the group makes, which affect the more than six billion inhabitants of this planet.” . . . The fear in the minds of residents, officials and security forces is that violent demonstrations such as those seen in 1999 in Seattle — where protesters and riot police faced off for days, disrupting a meeting of the World Trade Organization — will mar this week’s G20 summit. “I hope they’ll keep the protesters under control so Seattle doesn’t repeat itself,” said resident Nancy Provil. Ravenstahl has said protesters will be allowed to exercise their constitutional freedom of speech and assembly “within sight and sound” of the summit venue. It turns out this will be in a strictly delineated area outside of the downtown... [In Full]

President Obama has rejected the letters by seven former CIA directors in regard to the torturing of 'terror' detainees during interrogation but the DOJ did get 60 more days to figure out how and where to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (Meanwhile, AFP reports Mohammed refused to attend) and two other defendants for the 9/11 attacks. An interesting note on the efficacy of torture during interrogation from the Brisbane (Australia) Times:

Prolonged stress from the CIA's harsh interrogations could have impaired the memories of terrorism suspects, diminishing their ability to recall and provide the detailed information the spy agency sought, a new scientific paper says. The methods could even have caused the suspects to create - and believe - false memories, contends the paper, which scrutinises the techniques used by the CIA under the Bush administration through the lens of neurobiology. It suggests the methods are counterproductive, no matter how much suspects might eventually say. [In Full]

In other words, if this assumption is correct, the US government destroyed evidence and sabotaged their own case. Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya is back in the national capital Tegucigalpa, ensconced safely at the Brazilian embassy... Meanwhile the coup government has been denied visas to attend the UN General Assembly. Perhaps they'll fly Zelaya to the UN for the meeting. BBC with some words from a variety of Honduran citizens on the issue even as the US and European Union appeal to the Honduran population to remain calm. The leaking of the McChrystal report on the seriously deteriorating situation in Afghanistan appears to have been a double edged sword with the "right" chomping at the bit to send more troops and waste-more-land. There are other ideas on how to subdue a region which HAS NEVER been conquered (send more drones), but the majority of AMERICANS are siding with GET OUT! A record majority 58% of Americans now oppose the war in Afghanistan, while only 39% support the U.S. war. Only 23% of Democrats and only 39% independents support the war, while a majority 62% of Republicans support the war [Source] Now, about the rapidly growing US Prison-Industrial Complex: Folks... The last time I walked into a 'Jamba' Juice store, I picked up one of their job applications on the counter and noticed there was a question: "Are you in a program or on probation? It won't affect our decision but we'd like to know." These are jobs taken by High School and college students, and they expect that there are enough 18 year olds that have ALREADY been institutionalized to warrant the placement of that question on the front of the application, or for that matter on the application at all (especially the 'program' part which DOES NOT necessarily indicate a criminal act). So, If you need a job to weather the ongoing U.S. economic depression, and have the 'correct' socio-psychological profile, see: Private Police State: Domestic police operations in the US are becoming the newest business for private security companies ...and business is booming! Corrections Corporation of America Announces Fourth Quarter 2008 and Full-Year Financial Results
Marketwire

Fourth Quarter EPS of $0.32, Up 14.3%; Full-Year EPS of $1.20, Up 13.2%

February 10, 2009: 07:00 AM ET

Total revenues for the fourth quarter of 2008 increased 8.8%, primarily driven by a 5.2% increase in per diem rates combined with a 4.1% increase in inmate populations. Management revenue from federal customers increased 7.5% to $162.0 million generated during the fourth quarter of 2008 compared with $150.6 million generated during the prior year period. Management revenue from state customers increased 12.5% to $218.3 million during the fourth quarter of 2008 from $194.0 million for the same period in 2007. The growth in inmate populations was primarily attributable to increased inmate populations from the states of California and Idaho as well as from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE"). The growth in inmate populations was partially offset by declines in inmate populations from the states of Minnesota, New Mexico, Washington and Wyoming.

Total portfolio occupancy decreased to 92.9% during the fourth quarter of 2008 from 98.0% during the fourth quarter of 2007, primarily due to a 9.9% increase in the average number of available beds from the fourth quarter of 2007 as a result of placing approximately 10,000 new beds into service since the end of the third quarter of 2007. In Full @ Reuters (Here's their current financial status, First Quarter 2009) Also, see this post with a mapped comparison of poverty/prisoners-per-capita in the US. [February 29 2008] Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: The Prison-Industrial Complex In A Nutshell - Your Money, Your 'Stuff', Or Your Freedom... Your Choice -30-
Creative Commons Copyright Courtesy of Cabale News Service, KPIG Radio, and KVMR Radio. Listen to KPIG, Listen to KVMR Recorded & transcribed by The Buffalo Amongst Wolves @ Razed By Wolves

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