In a recent report released by the Pew Center on the States, America now has the largest prison population in its history, and the largest per capita incarceration rates worldwide. The steadily growing inmate population "is saddling cash-strapped states with soaring costs they can ill afford and failing to have a clear impact either on recidivism or overall crime," the report said. More »

The ongoing trials regarding the premeditated rape and murder of 14 year old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, and the murder of her parents and younger sister, has produced another verdict. Yesterday, Private Jesse Spielman was “convicted of conspiracy to rape and murder” and sentenced to 110 years in prison for his role in the crime. While Speilman did not take part in the murders or rape, he was instrumental in their planning and acted as a lookout while his fellow soldiers committed the crime mere feet ...More »

I currently have the gross misfortune of being an American living and working in Europe during the era of George W. Bush’s presidency, which makes me the object of ridicule, scorn, and sometimes even hatred. I am burdened with the extreme displeasure of having to explain an embarrassment of distinctively American contributions to global society… The Iraq War, creationism, Christian fundamentalism, abstinence education, capital punishment, big oil, abortion rights, the denial of global warming, imperialism, U.S. Attorney scandals, Abu Ghraib, horrendous corruption, rendition and torture, ...More »

There are over 2 million people presently incarcerated in the United States. Recidivism is high, as one out of every two prisoners released will eventually return to being behind bars. When you ask the average man on the street why this is he will most likely tell you it is because they are “bad" people, worthless, untrustworthy… but is this really true? There are two schools of thought regarding the treatment of prisoners… punishment and rehabilitation… Modern conservatism prefers to punish… to lock them up and ...More »

Updated: Robert Fisk's - A dictator created then destroyed by America is brilliant. Updated: According to a variety of news sources, the execution of former US ally, Suddam Hussein, has occurred. To say that the hanging of Saddam Hussein will be a positive for the Bush administration is only a given in so much that it will reaffirm the amnesia prevalent in American society. That another former US proxy gone awry and labeled an enemy of freedom will have succumbed to the irreproachable might of American show ...More »

Another new estimate of Iraqi deaths, another opportunity to point out the obvious. Is the murder of 50,000 people any less morally irreprehensible than the murder of 150,000 people? To whom is the murder of 50,000 innocent people justifiable, let alone 100,000, and are they the same people that have leaped from one justification to the next because those originally given for action against Iraq were false? The world is replete with despotic regimes. Were the United States to militarily attempt to remove all of them ...More »

Updated: Robert Fisk weighs in along the same lines. Found guilty of crimes against humanity with regards to the killing of 148 inhabitants of the primarily Shia town of Dujail in 1982 following an assassination attempt, Saddam Hussein is to be hung to death. This comes, of course, days before US mid-term elections, and to symbolize the sheer propaganda value of today’s verdict one need only quote the words of White House council Dan Bartlett… “Saddam Hussein was one of the most brutal dictators the world has ...More »