Your Tuesday Morning Roar! Mass Incarceration: 21 Amazing Facts About America’s Obsession With PrisonZero Hedge has some great facts up regarding the insanity that is the U.S. prison system, in which prisons are run for profit in many cases with the prison industrial complex becoming one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the nation. For a read that will most definitely get your rage up, my article on the prison industrial complex and on prisons suing states over prisons not being filled to capacity can be found here. Now, a couple stats from Zerohedge.com to whet your whistle.

#5 Overall, the United States has the  largest prison population and the  highest incarceration rate in the entire world. #6 Approximately one out of every four prisoners on the entire planet  are in U.S. prisons, but the United States only accounts for about five percent of the total global population. #7 The state of Maryland (total population 5.9 million) has  more people in prison than Iraq (total population 31.9 million). #8 The state of Ohio (total population 11.6 million) has  more people in prison than Pakistan (total population 192.1 million). #9 Incredibly,  41 percent of all young people in America have been arrested by the time they turn 23. #10 Between 1990 and 2009 the number of Americans in private prisons increased by about  1600 percent. #11 At this point, private prison companies operate  more than 50 percent of all “youth correctional facilities” in this nation.

Check out the full list and amaze your friends at your next cocktail mixer.Obama Admin's Crackdown on Journalist Sources/Leakers Damaging Constitutional Protections The Star Telegram has an article up about the difficulties journalists are having not only in reporting the actual goings on of the White House and our government (that whole freedom of the press thing) but also in convincing any sources to actually speak with them. Since the Obama administration has come down in a harsh and aggressive manner against any who would dare speak to the press despite the broken - that's not strong enough...obliterated - promise of the most "open administration ever," journalists have to do logistical backflips to convince sources to speak.

The feeling of being under inescapable scrutiny is damaging the country’s core values of freedom of the press and the right to counsel, protected by the U.S. Constitution and international human rights law, the report says.“Even if having more of this information in the government’s hands makes us safer, we want to know what we are trading for that safety,” Sinha said.The growing feeling of uncertainty is tied to an increase in leak prosecutions as well as the government’s implementation of programs such as Insider Threat, which aims to discourage federal officials from sharing information with anyone outside the government.Journalists who cover national security feel forced to come up with complicated schemes to communicate with their sources and one another, fearing that all email is being read, phone calls are being tracked and transactions are being monitored. Some reporters rely on advanced encryption software, which can often hide the content of the conversation but not the identities of those involved.