Gov't., funded Sesame Street created a new series of videos claiming "P" is for Prison
A new series of videos created by the folks on Sesame Street is a propaganda program designed to help children accept the fact that daddy is in jail. It’s OK kiddies, it’s almost inevitable given that 3 percent of the American population is currently under some type of correctional supervision. Just write him a letter and you’ll feel fine.
In the first video, “What is Incarceration,” young Alex, whose father has been incarcerated, is told that laws are “grown-up rules” and if someone breaks the rules they have to go to prison or jail.
In the second video, “Alex’s Big Feelings,” Alex explains that sometimes he’s OK, but other times he gets angry. “I get really upset but I just miss him so much. I just hurts inside. Sometimes I feel like I just want to pound on a pillow and scream as loud as I can.”
Sophia, the adult human who’s schooling Alex on the acceptability of having a father who’s broken the ‘grown-up’ rules and been incarcerated, explains to Alex that it’s OK to feel angry or confused because that’s exactly how she felt when her father was incarcerated.
“When my dad was incarcerated I was really confused about all the different feelings I was having. So I talked to my mom about it. She let me know that it was OK to have lots of big feelings, and that I could always talk to her and talking made me feel better.”
According to Sophia, all you have to do is talk about your feelings, draw a few pictures, write letters to your dad, and toddle off to visit him in jail every now and then and everything will be all rainbows and lollipops.
“I like to draw so sometimes I drew pictures of the way I was feeling. That helped, too. It also helped to keep in touch with my dad. My mom would help me write letters to him. We’d send him photos and we’d visit him whenever we could. And sometimes we even got a letter back from my dad. It made me feel good to know that he was OK and that he was thinking of me, and even though we had to be apart I knew mom was here for me to help me feel better.”
So why the need for a government subsidy for a street full of already uber-rich puppets? Because the creators of Sesame Street are doing the government’s work so they deserve a piece of the government pie.
The Sesame Street incarceration videos are designed to desensitize Americans of all ages and help us to feel comfortable with the idea that prison is an inevitability for most. But the fact is, prison is Big Business these days and we need to keep the machine well-oiled.
http://www.infowars.com/sesame-street-says-p-is-for-prison-and-thats-ok/
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2013/06/sesame-street-prison-parents
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2340364/Sesame-Street-teach-kids-cope-Mommy-Daddy-goes-prison.html
America Bar Association report: Defining the problem of over criminalization and over federalization
http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/113th/06142013/Shepherd%2006142013.pdf
DOJ spent over $58 million on "junkets"
“In FY2012 DOJ spent more than $58 million on conferences,” the letter reads in part. “Such spending should be significantly reduced.”
Coburn included a 28-page spreadsheet of those 2012 conferences that cost more than $100,000.
“For example, DOJ’s conferences last year included nearly $500,000 for 30 DOJ employees to attend a conference in Indonesia, nearly $200,000 for just four DOJ employees to attend a seminar in Senegal, and more than $100,000 on a summit in Northern Mariana Islands that did not include a single DOJ attendee,” he wrote.
Coburn said the conference spending has continued into 2013, citing the Drug Enforcement Agency’s annual meeting in Moscow last week. The cost of the trip has not yet been revealed, but Coburn requested a detailed breakdown of staff attendees, airfare, lodging and per diem expenses, as well as other details.
Last year’s DEA conference in Indonesia cost more than $500,000.
DOJ spokeswoman Adora Andy Jenkins told The Hill in a statement that the agency “strives for cost-effective government and has implemented strict controls on conference spending and travel.”
The DOJ said it is reviewing Coburn’s letter and will respond accordingly, but defended the conferences he cites as important to national security and law enforcement training. Among the topics covered at the conventions are advanced counterintelligence techniques, weapons of mass destruction preparedness and response, human remains recovery, money laundering detection and prevention, and crime scene evidence photography.
In addition, the DOJ said conference spending had been reduced by more than $26 million since 2010.
The letter was sent on the same day that a Washington Post report revealed the U.S. government will spend an estimated $60 million to $100 million on an array of security and travel provisions for an Obama family trip to Africa later this month.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/305553-coburn-questions-holder-on-doj-junket-spending-in-indonesia-senegal