cracks in the veneer
An interesting(ly sickening) article about how widespread mistreatment of prisoners is in the American penal system. (Yeah, I know it's probably a lot worse in many other places, but we've got a vested interest in marketing our 'Good Guy' image, which directly conflicts with reality just about everytime someone provides a glimpse behind closed doors).
Human rights advocates and inmates have long alleged that physical and sexual abuse of prisoners is a big problem, but interestingly enough in the fallout from this Iraq prison thing those 'humanist' voices have been joined in their observation by corrections officials, who repeat the allegations but then add "so what?"
No surprises there... under Bush the "compassionate conservative" "smaller federal government" assclown Texas jails reached a new historic low, to the point that it required federal intervention. And it is just fitting that this administration set a like-minded sociopath direct the Iraqi prisons.
Point, point, come on Michael, what's the fucking point? Still the same rant, I guess, still the same observation that the forcefulness with which we assert our alignment with the side of Freedom and Justice and Truth is inversely proportional to the degree those ideals inform our actions - it's like mass cultural hypnosis, and it's working very well... Bush has fine-tuned it into an art form, not even trying to disguise it anymore, he says one thing and then publicly does another, and if anyone dares to point out the inconsistency he just denies it exists. Just think how much more efficient our government is, now that they no longer need to develop elaborate cover stories to hide their machinations... just slap a flag on anything, and the people will buy it.
Human rights advocates and inmates have long alleged that physical and sexual abuse of prisoners is a big problem, but interestingly enough in the fallout from this Iraq prison thing those 'humanist' voices have been joined in their observation by corrections officials, who repeat the allegations but then add "so what?"
The corrections experts say that some of the worst abuses have occurred in Texas, whose prisons were under a federal consent decree during much of the time President Bush was governor because of crowding and violence by guards against inmates. Judge William Wayne Justice of Federal District Court imposed the decree after finding that guards were allowing inmate gang leaders to buy and sell other inmates as slaves for sex.
The experts also point out that the man who directed the reopening of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq last year and trained the guards there resigned under pressure as director of the Utah Department of Corrections in 1997 after an inmate died while shackled to a restraining chair for 16 hours. The inmate, who suffered from schizophrenia, was kept naked the whole time.
No surprises there... under Bush the "compassionate conservative" "smaller federal government" assclown Texas jails reached a new historic low, to the point that it required federal intervention. And it is just fitting that this administration set a like-minded sociopath direct the Iraqi prisons.
Point, point, come on Michael, what's the fucking point? Still the same rant, I guess, still the same observation that the forcefulness with which we assert our alignment with the side of Freedom and Justice and Truth is inversely proportional to the degree those ideals inform our actions - it's like mass cultural hypnosis, and it's working very well... Bush has fine-tuned it into an art form, not even trying to disguise it anymore, he says one thing and then publicly does another, and if anyone dares to point out the inconsistency he just denies it exists. Just think how much more efficient our government is, now that they no longer need to develop elaborate cover stories to hide their machinations... just slap a flag on anything, and the people will buy it.
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