Second perhaps to those incarcerated either in penal institutions or the slave labor camps that supply our retail stores with cheap consumer crap, the United States of America under the GOP has claimed one of the more infamous titles:
Government of the world's largest prison population.

According to a DOJ just released report the U.S. now has a record 7 million people -- or one in every 32 American adults -- behind bars, on probation or on parole by the end of last year. Of those, 2,193,798 were in prison or jail, an increase of 2.7 percent over the previous year

THE COST PER YEAR: $25,000.00 - $30,000.00. Taking the more conservative figure of $25,000 (which represents both cost of providing security and/or parenthetically, that which reflects the level of inadequate care or uncivilized conditions,) that comes out to approximately $60 billion a year.

Headlines declare that a group of some 10-15 Christian evangelical anti-abortion activists oppose Sen. Barack Obama's appearance at an AIDS event being hosted by Christian evangelist Rick Warren. As my AOL blog colleague David Knowles pointed out this morning, the next headline captured the House GOP's parting shot at defining when a fetus becomes a human being, and thus at 20 weeks is a "pain-capable unborn child."

According to evangelical Christians, a human being comes into their God's governed existence when the spermatozoa of the male human penetrates the female human's egg. Accordingly two things then occur: fertilization and the beginning growth of the fetus and the simultaneous infusion by their God with a "soul" which is unique to each "fetus." Thus, the basis for their tenet that abortion, at no matter what period in gestation, is premeditated murder.

Despite two thousand years of practice however, the Christians have yet to prove their thesis scientifically. Much like the rest of their belief system judgements it is predicated upon two things:

I love to say, "I Told You So":

The New York Times reports this morning that the Corporate State's latest contrivance, the Jim Baker led "Iraq Study Group," invented to bail out big oil and save Bush's ass, will recommend that its new functionary in the Pentagon, Bob Gates, will oversee a strategic ploy that will leave an estimated 110,000 plus U.S. personnel in Iraq. Those figures reflect the arguable pull back of some 32,500 thousand troops, with an estimated 144,000 currently in Iraq. This does not include the recommended boost of some 20,000 troops to "insure" the strategic retreat.

The odd way in which the Times reports this story is more corporate spin - despite its reputation as the iconic leader of the "Liberal Media" The Times lead is pure "news speak:"

Iraq Panel to Recommend Pullback of Combat Troops

The bipartisan Iraq Study Group reached a consensus on Wednesday on a final report that will call for a gradual pullback of the 15 American combat brigades now in Iraq but stop short of setting a firm timetable for their withdrawal, according to people familiar with the panel's deliberations.

The report, unanimously approved by the 10-member panel, led by James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton, is to be delivered to President Bush next week.

The question is: will the American people buy this ad campaign for permanent U.S. occupation in the Middle East and/or will the newly elected Democrats let Bush-Cheney get away with it.

Odds are being taken. Place your bets.

Democrats. com has organized "Impeachment Day." Scheduled for December 10 (December 9 in New York City) the organization, which is an independent community of Democratic Party activists, has planned impeachment rallies and petition signing events in 26 cities.

Democrats.com launched Impeach For Change Mobilization, a nationwide grassroots mobilization for impeachment in Philadelphia near Independence Hall, where the Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787. Their goals include:

1. A grassroots petition drive to collect 1 million signatures at ImpeachForChange.org
2. Form Impeachment Committees in all 435 Congressional Districts to lobby every Member of Congress by: delivering books & videos on impeachment collecting petitions and handwritten letters in front of their District Offices meeting with every Member to discuss the issues that require impeachment

"Listen up, al-Maliki. If you don't snap to, get your ass in gear and behave like a good puppet, I am going to do to you what Kennedy and Johnson did to Diem. Or, rather, "allow" those other "democratic loving" forces to whack you. Get that?"

"Oops," Bush was heard saying this morning. "I didn't mean that to be a public disclosure. Umm..."

Easy to imagine it going something like that. So, this statement must cover the leak concerning Maliki's ability to rule, er, govern and his "no show" for Texas-style vittles tonight:

In an extraordinary move President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is taking his message of "common responsibility" directly to the American people, bypassing conventional protocol. Previously Ahmadinejad wrote a letter to President Bush asking for a dialogue. President Bush and his administration snubbed him.

The move is may have been prompted by speculation that the Bush administration is planning a "pre-emptive" strike against Iran, which I have pointed out previously to be nuclear in nature. What is also extraordinary is that he also addresses the newly elected Congress of the United States.

So what does President Ahmadinejad have to say? Below I have chosen what I believe to be some key passages. For full disclosure and context, please check out the full text of the letter.

What is a "Baghdad Moment?" Similar to a "Saigon Moment," when you see the continuing Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld "stay until victory" incompetence lead to the evacuation of the "last U.S. soldier standing" climbing aboard a helicopter and getting outta Dodge, a metaphor suitable only because "bring'em in dead or alive" George cowboyed us into Iraq in the first place.

Times Online reported, "State-run Iraqiya television has broadcast repeatedly an inflammatory meeting in Sadr City, where Shia government officials and citizens accused Sunni neighborhoods of supporting terrorists. In turn al-Zawra, the banned Sunni television channel, aired footage of Sunni insurgents blowing up U.S. humvees and tanks. "We are waiting for the final chapter, for your Saigon moment," a rebel commander bragged in a taunt to US President Bush.

Reuters reported early Monday that Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki's motorcade was stoned in Sadr City on Sunday by fellow Shiites -- The Times of London suggested time was running out for al-Maliki, around whom rumors of a U.S.-backed coup have swirled in the past:

According to ABC News, "The Justice Department's inspector general has informed the Judiciary and Intelligence committees of both the House and Senate that he will begin a review of the controversial NSA Terrorist Surveillance Program.

"In a letter to the committees, Inspector General Glenn Fine wrote that the review would be to examine the Justice Department's "controls and use of information related to the program and the department's compliance with legal requirements governing the program."

The sound of Gonzales "tapping" is not of phones. It's his patent leathered feet preparing to get off the sinking rat ship that is the Bush-Cheney torpedoed war vessel. It is also a sign that the agency is trying to get out ahead of the coming investigations that are being planned by Speaker of the House-designate Pelosi.

"I served. I flew fighters and enjoyed it, and provided a service to our country. In those days we had what was called "air defense command," and it was a part of the air defense command system."

During the now-famous February 8, 2004 Oval Office interview with President and Commander In Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces George Bush Tim Russert asked Bush a series of questions about his service in the Texas Air National Guard:

Russert: Mr. President, this campaign is fully engaged. The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terence McAuliffe, said this last week: "I look forward to that debate when John Kerry, a war hero with a chest full of medals, is standing next to George Bush, a man who was AWOL in the Alabama National Guard. He didn't show up when he should have showed up..."

President Bush: Yeah.

In the September 15th issue of The Week, New York Editor Tom Vinciguerra captured the horror found after the attacks at the 9/11 Ground Zero.

Just hours after Sept. 11, Jeffrey Endean of the Morris County, N.J., Sheriff's Office plunged himself into the nightmare of ground zero. Endean rushed to the still-burning ruins, volunteering to search for survivors and counsel emergency workers. He worked there for two months on nights and weekends, without ever wearing a mask. "The EPA said the air was safe," he said. "That was all the talk-it was just dust." Today, Endean's lungs, larynx, and vocal cords are all scarred from a cocktail of atmospheric toxins-dioxin, lead, asbestos, and pulverized glass. His asthma is so bad that he awakens most mornings gasping for breath. Thanks to a weakened immune system, he has rheumatoid arthritis and can barely turn a wrench.

Endean is one of thousands of uncounted casualties of 9/11. A new study by Mount Sinai Medical Center has found that about 70 percent of ground zero workers have serious respiratory problems caused or worsened by inhaling the poisoned air at the site. Even as they worked in the dust and the fumes, many had concerns about what they were breathing. But the Environmental Protection Agency blithely insisted that the air was fine. If people didn't return to downtown Manhattan, of course, Wall Street would remain closed, and the economic damage would be severe. So Wall Street reopened, and the apocalyptic mound of smoldering debris that was once the World Trade Center was quickly cleared. But a small army of selfless laborers are now paying the price with their health; some have died. The government let them down-just as surely as it did when it ignored warnings that Muslim men with foreign citizenships were learning how to fly commercial jets.

While blame needs to be put squarely on that other wannabe hero, George W. Bush, the Ground Zero guy in charge and poster boy 9/11 hero, presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, was the primary official responsible for the health and safety of New Yorkers. It was Giuliani that minimized the health risks of the area and rushed to reopen Wall Street (read: U.S. Corporate State Financial headquarters) area. Giuliani broadcast, "the air quality is safe and acceptable," in the first month after the attack.

Over the last few days I have heard the terms "cat fight," "personal spat" and "Democratic Honeymoon" used to describe a possible political decision by Speaker of the House designate Nancy Pelosi to pass over Rep. Jane Harman as head of the House Intelligence Committee. Setting the obvious oxymoron for a moment, these characterizations stink of sexism. Big surprise from conservative pundits like Tucker Carlson.

Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, appeared on Meet the Press last February saying she wished she'd could have been smarter during her private briefings on Bush's illegal wiretaps. Then host Russert asked her if she regretted not raising reservations to the wiretaps, Harman said, "... remember we go into those briefings alone, we have no ability to consult staff, we have no ability to consult constitutional experts."

If Harman needs a constitutional consultant to prove it was illegal to wiretap personal phones without a warrant she is either incompetent mentally, or an agent of the White House.

Dennis Prager's article at Townhall.com reported the following:

"Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, has announced that he will not take his oath of office on the Bible, but on the bible of Islam, the Koran. He should not be allowed to do so -- not because of any American hostility to the Koran, but because the act undermines American civilization."

That report apparently set off a wave of news reports that led to a deluge of race baiting, anti-Islamic emails and phone calls to Ellison's campaign headquarters, according to campaign manager Dave Colling.

Colling told me in our interview that the Congressperson elect "will follow the long standing custom and raise his hand to swear allegiance as is given from the Constitution." According to Colling the use of any book has not been the custom and thus, the Congressperson will NOT be using a book for his oath.

Two of Sunday morning's "news" talk shows, Meet The Press and CBS's Face The Nation featured a combination of senators, congresspersons and military experts. The main focus was the U.S. war in Iraq and the Middle East.

Absolutely NOTHING said was new. We've heard variations of "we must stay in Iraq until... the Iraqis standup, the government is stable, the country is safe for democracy, until they get the message that we won't be staying forever." This fatal, blithering rationale for war has gone on for the three years that Bush-Cheney and the U.S. Congress have laid siege to that nation in a war of invasion and occupation.

I tried to evaluate what was the common denominator of this apparent disparate group of mealy-mouthed politicians and paid "experts." I tried to find the key to their total lack of a solution beneficial to both to the American and Iraqi people. Then it came to me: the one overpowering reality is that "they" all said "we," and "they" were all "palefaces." Of the five on Meet the Press they were all white males over forty. Rep. Duncan Hunter and Ike Skelton of the House Armed Services Committee, and retired Gens. Wayne Downing and Barry McCaffrey.

You have the leadership position to fulfill the demand of the American people that you end Bush's reign of terror. First, The Terror that he is inflicting on our troops by keeping them in the midst of what is a CIVIL WAR. Do you understand that?

Read this NYTimes headline: Bombings Kill 144 in Baghdad Slum; Siege at Ministry

The bombings followed a siege by Sunni Arab insurgents against the Shiite-run Health Ministry in the capital's deadliest sectarian attack since the American-led invasion.

And this one from the AP: Scores Killed in Attacks in Baghdad Slum - Shiites Strike Back After More Than 160 People Die

Sunni Muslim insurgents blew up five car bombs and fired mortars into Baghdad's largest Shiite district Thursday, killing at least 161 people and wounding 257 in a dramatic attack that sent the U.S. ambassador racing to meet with Iraqi leaders in an effort to contain the growing sectarian war.

The American corporate media can continue playing the Bush-Cheney tune of "growing sectarian war." Who would expect less from these corporate shills. But this not a sectarian war or struggle. Not insurgence against the U.S. Nor tribal feud. This is civil war ... think 1860 in the U.S. These are two opposing ideological sects fighting for control of a nation.