A couple weeks ago the US State Department released its annual report that pointed a finger at Russia, Burma and China for keeping too many people behind bars. China came right back at us with their own report, slamming the US for our "notorious" record and abuses in Iraq. But we don't even have to trust the Chinese report on how bad we are.
Right here in the US, a recent Pew Center study revealed that the US now has 2.3 million people behind bars, or one out of every 100 adults. Our rate of imprisonment is higher than that of Russia's, and 6-7 times higher than China, Germany or France. Sadly, most of the people behind bars are black, and are there on drug crimes. During 2007, the prison population rose by more than 25,000 inmates. One out of 15 black men is incarcerated, compared to one in 106 white men.
Now consider that The List of people that our federal government deems dangerous is now has more than 900,000 people on it, and expected to crest a million this summer.
America has 2.3 million in jail and 1 million on a list of governmental suspects. Maybe China should ban us from coming to the games.
Is that a sign of anything?