The U.S. has 5% of the world's population but one quarter of the world's prisoners.  1 in every 100 adult Americans is locked up. We incarcerate more people than China. (source: New York Times)

Debtors' prisons make an American comeback.

The Criminalization of Bad Mothers.

The militarization of the U.S. police.

While funding for public schools is drastically cut, police departments are receiving large grants to stockpile high-tech combat gear. Des Moines, Iowa, now has two $180,000 bomb robots.  Fargo, North Dakota and its county received $8 million, even though it's one of the safest areas in the country. This despite the fact that the crime rate has been dropping since the 1990s. (source: ProPublica and The Center for Investigative Reporting)

Nonviolent protestors exercising their First Amendment rights are confronted by military vehicles, pepper spray, tear gas, sonic weapons and rubber bullets. (source: The Guardian)

source: Think Progress

Somehow I don't think this is what the Founding Fathers had in mind.

I am not going to apologize for the lack of blogging these days, since my posts would consist of more rants about right-wing politicians and their idiot followers. You should thank me.

If you need to read something, read the brilliant rant by economist Joseph E Stiglitz,  here.

I don't read Daily Kos too often any more, but this comment in a diary about Wisconsin is too good not to pass on:

  It is two issues (31+ / 0-)

but people who should know better and still vote for Republicans should be held accountable.  I know plenty of people who fit DM's description to a tee.
I want to scream (but instead choose to ridicule) all those people I know who realize the Dems are "for the little guy" and still vote against them.
I am thinking of seniors who think that because they have a Million in marketable securities that their interest align more with the Koch brothers.  They don't want to think of themselves as "the little people" and that government is all about how over-taxed they are.   They really are morons.  Once the Republicans take away their Medicare and they need to actually shell out for their stents or spend a month in an ICU they are going to feel real poor pretty quick, Schwab account or not.
Same for those who think they are the rich and pay too much in taxes because they make 100k or 200k or 300k a year.  That is chicken scratch to the Koch brothers and if is far, far too little to make you bullet proof from what life could sling at you.  A little savings in taxes won't mean a thing if you or one of your kids have a pre-existing condition, die due to tainted food or medicine or an unsafe vehicle,  an uninspected airplane, a bad bridge, unmaintained gas pipelines dating from the last century.  These morons fail to realize that they are one illness, one bad diagnosis, one insured flood, away from financial ruin but for a government safety net.
Ooh, "I will pay less in taxes!" they think.  They never both to calculate the real cost of those decisions. They are bascially exchanging Manhattan for a few shiny glass beads.  And I have even more contempt for the Not Joe the Not Plumbers of the World, who truly are the little guy but through delusion and hubris function only in their fantasy world where they are horrified at how much tax they are going to have to pay when they win the lottery.  Better take some action against that now!
I know well off seniors on Medicare railing against socialized medicine and "Obamacare" and afraid of any changes at all because they heard through the grapevine that there are no knee replacements in Canada for anyone over 55 (a proven GOP based lie).  They could care less if their own kids and grandkids can get coverage AT ALL as long as the possibility of more or less free knee replacement for them stays on the table.  And then when they vote these Republicans in and they repeal Medicare, these same folks will be the whiners.  They will use the GOP refrain  that "no one could have forseen".
It is all forseeable.  Perfectly predictable.
Republicans think Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and Medicare is socialism.  Their end game is to abolish both Medicare and Social Security.
Republicans think clean air and clean water belong to no one (rather than everyone) are there for the taking.  If someone is spewing cancer causing chemicals into your water supply - that is your problem.
Republicans think corporations should be able to sell products that are dangerous and foods that are unsafe and if you have a problem with that, don't buy it.  That way the "invisible hand of the market" will magically force companies to offer safe products and food and will counteract the irresistable force that says "I need to sell the least safe and functional product I can get away with." And to aid you in making your decision as part of the "market."Republicans don't want the corporations to have to disclose anything about how the product is made or what is in it.  If you want that information - get it for yourself.  Of course, if the company wants to give you safety information - maybe it gives them a competive edge, well Republicans don't want that either.  That is why they have made it illegal for small beef companies to test their cattle for mad cow disease and trumpet their good results.  They can't have thta because it might make big campaign donors who don't do the same look bad.
And even though Republicans claim the "market" can work in part by punishing bad actors through lawsuits, they don't want anyone to actually be able to sue - because that is bad for business.  (Unless of course Robert Bork trips in which case the firtst thing he does is sue.)
Though they claim they are interested in freedom, they remain obsessed with how other people choose to (or choose not to) worship, what they do in their bedrooms,  what they discuss with their doctors, what medical treatments they receive (poor Terri Shiavo).  Republicans want to probibit, ban and outlaw anything with which they don't agree.
The Republicans are perfectly clear about all of these things.  And many others.
Otherwise smart people voting against their own economic and civic interests out of short term greed need to be held accountable for their stupidity.  They really do.

Newt Gingrich: Believes marriage is between one man and a series of ever younger women. Wife #1 born ~ 1936, divorced when in her mid-40s...Wife #2 born ~1947, divorced when in her mid-40s...Wife #3 born ~1966.

by trillian on Thu Mar 10, 2011 at 09:30:01 AM EST

Just for the record: my grandfather was a fireman, my dad was a union man, my husband was a teacher, and in my 20s, I was a negotiator for my union (SEIU). Some history here.

It's not only Wisconsin, it's Indiana, Idaho, Michigan, and Ohio as well. 

Labor Day Parade, Buffalo, NY, 1900.

A Bit of Late Winter Pessimism.

Embarrassed Republicans Admit They've Been Thinking of Eisenhower Whole Time They've Been Praising Reagan:

The misplaced adulation of Reagan has reportedly affected more than just Republican rhetoric, and seems to have had an impact on policy. Former president George W. Bush told reporters he "honestly thought" everyone wanted him to follow in Reagan's footsteps, which led him to emulate the 40th president's out-of-control deficit spending, fealty to the super-rich, and illegal wars.

Thanks for the laughs, Onion.

In other news: simple charts explain how 90% of Americans get almost nothing. (Hint: it's "class warfare" when working people want a fair wage and health insurance. via Wonkette.)

Notice the correct spelling and grammar on the signs (huffpost via google).

And I didn't even mention the Koch brothers (via fresh air).

Tonic.

Ronald Reagan has become "He Who Must Not Be Named" at our dinner table because my kids have heard me disparage him so often. Things have been even rougher lately due to all the RR-worship going on by the Republicans. Thanks to a link from the terrific Self-Styled Siren, I had the pleasure of reading this little antidote from James Wolcott.

 

collage by Grete Stern, 1949.