Photo, above: In March 2009, Roberto Martinez-Medina was detained and arrested for not having a driver's license or proof of legal status. Immediately after his arrest, Medina was sent to CCA's (Corrections Corporation of America) Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia. Less than a month later Roberto Martinez-Medina was dead. During his detainment at Stewart Detention Center--the largest private prison in the country--Medina complained of a pre-existing heart ailment, but was denied medical care over several shifts. There is no medical service available at the detention center, and the nearest hospital is at least an hour away. The main reason for this lack of basic care: CCA had cut medical care costs and other basic needs to increase their quarterly and yearly profit. Bryan Holcomb, an ex-CCA quality assurance manager, spoke exclusively to Cuéntame's Immigrant for Sale producers to expose the negligent operations at Stewart Detention Center. Holcomb assures that this malpractice is common at the facility due to ongoing cuts to basic services. From contaminated drinking water to chemical agents being used to quell detainee complaints, Holcomb says CCA has gone to great lengths to cover up its insufficient care and mistreatment of detainees.  Cuéntame's latest exposé highlights precisely what is wrong with America's penitentiary system and immigrant detention centers. The continued persecution of undocumented immigrants has created a multibillion-dollar operation--private prisons with a single profit motive: the incarceration of immigrants.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Friday 905P Eastern Time: .  John Avlon, CNN, The Daily Beast, and Newsweek International, in re: Deadlines Artists, Scandals, Tragedies, Triumphs, on the Connecticut tragedy, on columnists as the way to deal with tragedies

Friday 920P Eastern Time:  . John Avlon, continued

Friday 935P Eastern Time: . Milton Valencia, Boston Globe, in re: Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the mystery of a nontransparent system where immigrants and visa violators and criminals disappear.

..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..

Privately-owned prisons abuse prisoners, flout the Constitution

The story of the unaccountable US court in Georgia:     http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/12/11/secret-courts-confused-and-i...

Most judges’ full decisions are never even written down. The secrecy conceals the inner workings of a controversial court system that renders life-altering decisions with little opportunity for public review once the hearing is over. Each year, immigration judges order some 160,000 people to leave the country, including more than 10,500 who asked for asylum because they said their home country was dangerous.   The 58 US immigration courts are overburdened and understaffed, carrying caseloads several times larger than regular courts and run by about 250 judges who have burnout rates that rival prison wardens, one study showed, partly because they make so much less money and have far less job security than other federal judges. Half of the immigrants before the court have no lawyer to help them navigate the maze of immigration law, and the justice they receive depends heavily on who hears their case: for instance, some judges grant nearly all requests for asylum, while others deny each one, according to data collected by Syracuse University. Yet the judges’ words are usually final: Immigrants appeal fewer than one deportation decision in 10.

..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..

Friday 950P Eastern Time:  .Milton Valencia continues: the private ICE prison in Georgia, where people are held indefinitely

Friday 1005P (705P Pacific Time):  . Michael Vlahos, Naval War College, in re: domestic tragedy in Connecticut; international tragedy of predation in East China Sea, the provocations of the China PLA Navy against Japan.   Will China attack? What is China’s aim?

Friday 1020P (720P Pacific Time):  Michael Vlahos, continued:  is there a sneak attack coming with China launching on Japan?

Friday 1035P (735P Pacific Time):  Eric Trager, Washington Institute, in re: Troubles in Cairo, the referendum within hours, the Morsi gambit to bull through a constitution.  Is Morsi turning to Teheran and Beijing as allies? The poverty ripping Egypt.

Friday 1050P (750P Pacific Time):  . Raymond Stock, biographer of the Nobelist litterateur Naguib Mahfousz, in re: the present crisis in Egypt - what would Mahfouz say?  Mahfouz opposed the Moslem Brothers, challenged them as reckless.

 

WWII photo taken after the Liberation of Paris on August 25, 1944. The picture shows the Champs Elysees in France with crowds of French patriots lining up to view Allied tanks and half tracks passing through the Arc du Triomphe.  PHOTOGRAPHER / CREDIT: Jack Downey DATE: August 25, 1944.

Friday 1105P (805P Pacific Time):  The Blood of Free Men: The Liberation of Paris, 1944 by Michael Neiberg; 1 of 4

Dallas Morning News      “[A] compelling, well-researched narrative…. The story of how Paris ultimately was saved is complex and inspiring and richly told by Neiberg.”

Roanoke Times        “The liberation of Paris was an important symbolic event during the end game in World War II. Author Michael Neiberg’s account of that liberation, The Blood of Free Men, explores the importance of Paris to the French and Americans, not the strategic value that other sites would have during World War II, but the emotional connection most Allied combatants felt toward the City of Light.”

Maclean’s        “Historian Neiberg takes a new look at the liberation of Paris and how it narrowly escaped devastation…. [An] impressive cast of real-life characters populates this retelling of Paris’s deliverance, ranging from future world leaders Dwight Eisenhower and Charles de Gaulle to writers Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre to the brave rank and file of the French Resistance. And yet the most fascinating and controversial figure remains German Gen. Dietrich von Choltitz, the man who left Paris unburnt.”

Andrew Roberts, author of The Storm of War
       “‘Paris will be transformed into a heap of rubble,’ ordered Adolf Hitler in August 1944. The heroic story of how that crime against civilization was prevented is grippingly told in this diligently-researched and extremely well-written book. You can almost hear the bullets ricocheting across the boulevards.”

Jeremy Black, author of The Politics of World War Two       "With this fascinating book, Michael Neiberg, one of America’s leading historians of World War One, turns to consider 1944.  He brings a wealth of expertise as a scholar of French history, and offers a well-written and exciting treatment.”

German officers captured by French soldiers during the liberation of Paris. Hotel «Majestic», favored by the Wehrmacht during the occupation.

Friday 1120P (820P Pacific Time):  The Blood of Free Men: The Liberation of Paris, 1944 by Michael Neiberg; 2 of 4

Friday 1135P (835P Pacific Time):  The Blood of Free Men: The Liberation of Paris, 1944 by Michael Neiberg; 3 of 4

Friday 1150P (850P Pacific Time):  The Blood of Free Men: The Liberation of Paris, 1944 by Michael Neiberg; 4 of 4

Friday/Sat 1205A (905 Pacific Time):  Peter Berkowitz, Hoover, in re: Conservatism and political moderation – what's the way forward for conservatives?  Opposing big government?  Opposing the sexual revolution?

Friday/Sat  1220A (920 Pacific Time): Joshua Green, Bloomberg Businessweek, in re: the Connecticut tragedy dominates this weekend, but the national struggle of the fiscal cliff returns soon, with the GOP and the Democrats battling for the nation’s favor.

Friday/Sat  1235A (935P Pacific Time):  Bret Stephens, WSJ, in re: the withdrawal of Rice from State, the candidacies of John Kerry and Chuck Hegel, the troubles ahead for the nomination process

Friday/Sat  1250A  (950P Pacific Time): Exeunt. Ben Zimmer, Boston Globe, in re: Word of the Year contest. In the running: superstorm, red line, fiscal cliff, and more (Gangnam Style), and you can participate at #woty12 on Twitter. 

Music

9 Hour: Eastern Promises

10 Hour: Hurt Locker; Burn After Reading.

11 Hour: The Grey.

midnight hour: Michael Clayton; Anonymous.

 

..  ..  ..