Okay, you probably knew that getting arrested in Chicago—or anyplace, and just about any large city in particular—is not likely to benefit you, or for that matter unless you are a rapist or serial killer or the like, society as a whole or anybody who doesn’t make a living from the incarceration-industrial complex.

But did you know the Cook County Jail is a biological weapons production facility? Close enough as might as well be anyhow:

Cook County Jail — a hot spot for the bacteria, known as MRSA — appears to be contributing to the infectious menace, as hundreds of inmates cycle in and out of the facility daily.

WTF is MRSA, you inquire?

MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, a potentially virulent bacteria that doesn’t respond to several antibiotics used to treat common staph infections.

People struck by the bug frequently develop painful skin boils or abscesses and, in rare circumstances, deadly pneumonias, blood infections and other life-threatening conditions.

You could take steps to protect yourself by abandoning that life of crime  Read more 

YABL used to be one of our favorite acronyms here. “Yet Another Bush Lie!” our headlines would proclaim again and again until, really, it became redundant. “Bush Opens Mouth” we might as well have said. But this particular topic seemed to call for a YABL revival as it is particularly blatant.

For graphic starters, take a look at this lovely Map of Routes of CIA Torture Transports. A larger version can be found here at Le Monde, and even non-Francophiles will have no trouble understanding the breakdown of which flights were by the big C-130 and which by the little Gulfstream. It’s nice to have various vehicles handy for different uses, don’t you think?

But the particular lie in question comes from this story which only a couple of papers appear to have picked up. Those who watched the recent PBS/Bill Moyers story about Pressure on the Press will understand why.

The announcement that Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi was transferred to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility from CIA custody raises worrying questions about how long he has been detained by the CIA, where he was held, what kind of treatment he endured, and whether other prisoners still remain in CIA detention. The CIA has previously detained numerous detainees for months and even years. [snip]

Now here comes the lie:

On September 6, 2006, President George W. Bush publicly revealed the existence of the CIA’s secret detention and interrogation program. Although he stated that, as of that moment, there were no prisoners in CIA custody, he did not promise that the program was closing permanently.

Horseshit. He knew it wasn’t closed even as he was speaking. But to continue…  Read more 

Thank the Goddess. There is little scarier to me than ex-cons with a mission and taxpayer dollars supporting them:

The day after a federal court struck down a taxpayer-supported evangelical Christian program in an Iowa prison, Mark Earley, president of Prison Fellowship, issued a press statement. He was not pleased.

“The courts took God out of America’s schools, now they are on the path to take God out of America’s prisons,” Earley groused.

Earley’s analysis of judicial decisions dealing with religion and public schools was widely off the mark, but he had good reason to be upset about the recent ruling on public funds for inmate indoctrination. His organization, Prison Fellowship Ministries, founded by ex-Watergate felon Charles Colson, has been sponsoring the Iowa program for three years. If the ruling stands up on appeal, not only will Earley’s group have to shut down the program, it will be required to repay the state of Iowa more than $1.5 million in public support it has received during that time.  Read more