Prison Population is Staggering

Here is a post from Talk Left,

Report: 1 of Every 138 U.S. Residents in Jail

A new government report shows our prison population is soaring.

• 1 of every 138 U.S. residents are in jail

• The prison population grew by 900 inmates per week between 2003 and 2004.

• 8,000 more prisoners were admitted to federal prisons than were released

• 2.1 million people are housed in our prisons and jails.

8 counties had double digit increases, the largest being Clark County, Nevada; Fulton County, Georgia; and Orange County, California, all of which were up by 20 percent.

More details here. The full report is here (pdf).

America. Prison Nation.

Posted Sunday :: April 24, 2005| Inmates and Prisons

2.1 million people! That is astronomical! Of course, California's prison population has never been the same since Three Strikes, but still, I am pretty shocked. Here is another statistic,

In 2004, 61 percent of prison and jail inmates were of racial or ethnic minorities, the government said. An estimated 12.6 percent of all black men in their late 20s were in jails or prisons, as were 3.6 percent of Hispanic men and 1.7 percent of white men in that age group, the report said.

That is an extremely disproportionate amount of minorities, but it isn't terribly surprising- as race and crime has always been a hot issue.

Full Article at the Guardian.

The Right Always Cracks Me Up

Here is a good example from the OCRegister Blog,

Someone on the Register's Online Community asked what we thought the proper level of taxation should be. My reply:

"My preferred tax level is: 0 %. I belive all taxation should be voluntary, or based on fees for services. If you don't want it, you shouldn't have to pay for it. And the federal and state governments could raise money by selling their immense land holdings, a major revenue source in the 19th Century.Let's always remember what taxation means, in essence: An IRS agent comes to your house and puts a gun in your face, saying, "Pay or I shoot." If you resist, he shoots."
Posted by John Seiler - jseiler@ocregister.com at 11:30 AM

Talabani Says No to Saddam Execution

I bet that Bush is loving this,

Iraq's new president, Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani said that he opposed the idea of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein being sentenced to death.

"I am among the lawyers who signed an international petition against the death penalty in the world and it would be problem for me if Iraqi courts issued death sentences," he told Asharq Al Awsat newspaper.

In the U.S., something like that would take major courage and resolve for a leader to do. However, Iraq has certainly seen more than its fair share of death and deserves something better than institutionalized murder - something I hope that much of the public will agree with. Plus there is no reason to give Hussein the possibility of martyrdom, especially after his cowardly caprture showed his true colors. Hopefully the U.S. will not put any pressure on Talabani to set Iraq down a path of brutality and barbarism.

Full Article at Gulf Daily News.

Poor Kerry

You know, I kind of want him to go away, so we can move on.

Many voters in last year's election were denied access to the polls through trickery and intimidation, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts told a voters' group on Sunday.

"Last year, too many people were denied their right to vote; too many who tried to vote were intimidated," Mr. Kerry said at an event sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts.

I don't disagree with what he said, as many people were indeed targets of voter suppression and that is absolutely terrible. But, this guy should let it go, otherwise, he is just going to sound like a really sore loser. And lets face it, we didn't lose just because of voter suppression. We lost for a number of reasons, many of which can be blamed on Kerry himself - a promising candidate that could not get the momentum he needed.

Full Article at NYTimes.

Auto Politica

The New York Times has a very curious article about cars and their owner's political identities. Here is an excerpt,

Among their findings: buyers of American cars tend to be Republican - except, for some reason, those who buy Pontiacs, who tend to be Democrats. Foreign-brand compact cars are usually bought by Democrats - but not Mini Coopers, which are bought by almost equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans. And Volvos may not actually represent quite what you think.

And this I found to be quite revealing,

The survey also found that minivans skewed blue, just as Chely Wright surmised in her song. At first glance, this might seem odd, because Republican car buyers tended to have more children - 3.5 on average, versus 1.7 for the Democratic buyers. Explaining this apparent contradiction offers a look into the increasing exactitude marketers seem to be applying to the question of who drives what.

"You might think with all the kids, they'd want the practicality of a minivan," said Art Spinella, the president of CNW. But practicality was not the Republican customer's highest priority, as Mr. Spinella's company discovered by tracking the customers throughout the buying process.

"There is a certain resistance that male new-car buyers have to minivans even in a household with two or three kids," Mr. Spinella explained. "For the most part, red-state households are more male-dominated when it comes to decision-making for a vehicle. In blue states, it's more of a joint decision-making process." Because the Democratic women get more of a say in the decision, their families end up with more minivans than S.U.V.'s.

How very interesting indeed. I am sure that there are plenty of people that defy these trends, but I know that I will be paying a little bit more attention to what cars people drive... And what is up with Democrats and Pontiacs?

Full Article at NYTimes.