Justice Department secretly taps into AP reporters’ phone records
In a surprising declaration a short time ago, the Associated Press revealed that the Justice Department had obtained two months of phone records tied to numerous reporters and editors in various cities, in what the news organization is calling a “massive and unprecedented intrusion.”
The reason for the government’s actions, which the AP was alerted to in a letter Friday, are as of now unknown.
From the Associated Press’ story on the emerging scandal:
In all, the government seized those records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012. The exact number of journalists who used the phone lines during that period is unknown but more than 100 journalists work in the offices whose phone records were targeted on a wide array of stories about government and other matters.
AP’s President and CEO, Gary Pruitt, issued a strongly-worded letter to Attorney General Eric Holder:
We regard this action by the Department of Justice as a serious interference with AP’s constitutional rights to gather and report the news. While we evaluate our options we urgently request that you immediately return to the AP the telephone toll records that the Department subpoenaed and destroy all copies.Photo: Molly Riley / Associated Press
Reblogged from latimes with 127 notes / News Journalism Politics USA Associated Press
"Five things everyone should know about US incarceration"
1. The US incarcerates more people per capita than any other nation in the world: Approximately 1 in 100 adults or more than 2.2 million people are behind bars in the US, according to the Pew Center on the States. In addition, another 4.6 million (or a total of almost 7 million) people live under some form of correctional supervision.
Although the US is widely recognised as a “land of liberty”, it could also be described as a nation of prisons. It incarcerates more people per capita than any other nation. Its imprisonment rate (per capita) is almost 50 percent higher than Russia’s and 320 percent higher than China’s.
Within the western hemisphere, the US incarcerates five times as many people per capita as Canada and almost 2.5 times as many as Mexico.
2. Mass incarceration is not a result of higher crime rates: The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world not because it has higher crime rates, but because it imprisons more types of criminal offenders, including non-violent and drug offenders, and keeps them in prison longer.
With the exception of homicide, US crime rates are comparable to other European countries with much lower incarceration rates.
High incarceration rates are the result of “truth in sentencing”, “mandatory minimum” and “three strikes” laws which have limited judicial discretion in sentencing and parole release. As a result, sentences are now mainly determined by what the prosecutor decides to charge. And prosecutors routinely over-charge defendants in order to encourage plea agreements.
An egregious, but not unusual, recent example illustrates this point. In 2012, a Florida woman, who fired a “warning shot” in the direction of her physically abusive ex-husband (who was not hit by the bullet), was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The judge, as a result of mandatory sentencing legislation, was given no discretion in her sentencing. He sentenced her to 20 years in prison.
3. Mass incarceration disproportionately impacts US racial minorities: Mass incarceration has had a devastating effect on blacks and Hispanics in the US. African Americans are six times more likely to be incarcerated than a white person and non-white Latinos are almost three times more likely to be incarcerated, according to the Pew Center on the States.
Incarceration hits hardest at young black and Latino men without high school education. An astounding 11 percent of black men, aged between 20 and 34, are behind bars.
Much of the racial disparity is a result of the US’ war on drugs - started by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. By 1988, blacks were arrested on drug charges at five times the rate of whites.
By 1996, the rate of drug admissions to state prison for black men was 13 times greater than the rate for white men. This is despite the fact that African Americans use drugs at roughly the same rate as white Americans.
4. Mass incarceration is expensive: Imprisoning people is not cheap. The average cost of housing an inmate is approximately $20,000 to $30,000 per year. This price tag comes at the direct expense of public money that could be spent on public education, medical care and public assistance. And it is one reason why so many states face fiscal crises today.
To put this in perspective, the state of California spends 2.5 times more money housing and feeding its inmates than it does educating students. California is not alone: five states “spend more on corrections than higher education”, a 2008 Pew Center study revealed.
5. Mass incarceration disguises the US’ real unemployment rate and exacerbates inequality: The current unemployment rate in the US is high. And if we factored in all the people who are not looking for work because they are behind bars, it would be higher - especially among young black Americans and people without a high school diploma.
A recent research by Becky Petit reveals:
“Employment-population rates adjusted to include inmates suggest that only 26 percent of young black, male dropouts were employed in 2008, while over 37 percent were in prison or jail. Over half of the joblessness of young, black, and male dropouts is linked to incarceration.”
Incarceration also negatively impacts former prisoner’s ability to earn a decent living. Several studies suggest that there are at least six million “ex-prisoners” living within society and when they look for a job, they are 50 percent less likely to be hired than job seekers without a criminal record.
Former prisoners are paid less than those who have not been to prison. In addition, incarceration of a parent reduces a child’s prospects for economic mobility.
Reblogged from knowledgeequalsblackpower with 1,774 notes / USA Politics Crime Prison News
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. The 39-year-old civil rights leader had gone to Memphis to lead a march in support of striking sanitation workers.
The legendary orator gave his final speech on April 3 at the Bishop Charles Mason Temple Church of God. Toward the end, King seemed to be foretelling his death.
He acknowledged there were threats against his life, but said they didn’t matter, “because I’ve been to the mountaintop.”
“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life,” he said. “Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land.
“I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land! So I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!” The United States was stunned by King’s murder.
Blacks rioted in several cities, and then-president Lyndon Johnson went on national television to plead for calm.
The Vancouver Sun dispatched Wayne MacDonald of the paper’s Washington bureau to Memphis. “Just 24 hours ago, the city’s 100,000 Negroes were in a boisterous, jovial mood as they planned a major march for next Monday to be led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King,” MacDonald reported. “Today, the city is grief-stricken, angry, bitter and infuriated.”
The Sun’s Denny Boyd covered King’s funeral in Atlanta.
“Behind me, an elderly Negro woman tried to comfort her weary grandchild,” Boyd wrote. “She was telling the small boy with the polished ebony face about the civil rights work of Dr. King and the boy asked, ‘But why did they kill him?’ The woman said, ‘Because Jesus always picks the prettiest flowers to have in heaven.’ ” One hundred and fifty thousand mourners walked behind King’s casket in his funeral procession, many singing the civil rights anthem We Shall Overcome.
One hundred and twenty million people watched the funeral on television.
Reblogged from thevancouversun with 277 notes / History Civil Rights Martin Luther King Jr. USA
At which week are abortions banned in your state? Click here for the full interactive from The Washington Post: http://propub.ca/11h0tPa
If you look at it just from a legal standpoint there is nothing to argue. You can argue from a moral standpoint. You can say, ‘morally, I don’t like the idea of gay marriage’ because your church teaches you a certain thing. That’s fine. And we’re not asking anybody, or forcing churches to perform ceremonies. We’re not asking anybody to go outside of their religious beliefs. But marriage is not a religious right. It is a civil right. That is provided by the government. A church does not have a right to marry someone—except that it is given the right by the government. The government issues marriage licenses. The government decides who gets married and who doesn’t.
Rob Reiner on the legality of gay marriage
(via C-SPAN)
Reblogged from brooklynmutt with 4,107 notes / Gay Rights Gay Marriage Politics USA
Ten years ago this week, the United States invaded Iraq. These two stories by James Fallows are essential to understanding the consequences of that decision.
The Fifty-First State? (Nov. 2002): Months before the invasion began, Fallows warned of the difficult responsibilities America would face as an occupying power. Was the U.S. prepared for a long-term relationship?
Bush’s Lost Year (Oct. 2004): “As a political matter, whether the United States is now safer or more vulnerable is of course ferociously controversial. That the war was necessary—and beneficial—is the Bush Administration’s central claim. That it was not is the central claim of its critics. But among national-security professionals there is surprisingly little controversy. Except for those in government and in the opinion industries whose job it is to defend the Administration’s record, they tend to see America’s response to 9/11 as a catastrophe.”
Reblogged from theatlantic with 203 notes / USA Politics Iraq History George W. Bush
It turns out there’s a video of this CPAC event where a white attendee, complaining white southern males are racially oppressed, said slaves should have been grateful they were given food and shelter.
