Should incarcerated juveniles be allowed to attend the inaugural celebration? The possibility has some correctional officers at a California detention center in an uproar.
"This is a recession and there are kids running around L.A. without shoes," said an irate worker who asked for anonymity. "But they are flying criminals to Washington for the inauguration. It's ridiculous."
After the three were convicted of a home invasion in which an elderly woman was beaten, they were sent to the juvenile residential treatment camp known as Camp Afflerbaugh in LaVerne, Calif. Its Web site describes the camp as a facility that "provides intensive intervention." "The goal of the program is to reunify the minor and family, to reintegrate the minor into the community and to assist the minor in achieving a productive, crime free life," the Web site says.
The correctional officer I spoke with said fellow officers are disappointed that the Los Angeles probation department would even consider sending any of the juveniles to Washington.
"The juveniles committed a violent crime," the correctional officer said. "What we are doing is rewarding bad behavior."
Camp Afflerbaugh falls under the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles County Probation Department, the largest probation department in the world. A man who answered the phone at the camp on Friday referred me to the L.A. Detention Services Bureau, but not before denying that the inaugural plans were a done deal. Phone calls to the L.A. Detention Services Bureau on this matter were not returned by late Friday. But another employee with the facility claimed that on Thursday, the minors were taken to be measured for tuxedos and that a judge has approved the trip.
When it comes to rehabilitating juveniles, there are two schools of thought. Some of us believe that when minors commit crimes, they should be incarcerated and treated like adult criminals. Others are more compassionate, trusting that through counseling and education, a young criminal's crooked path can be straightened.
"The general idea of sending at-risk youth for them to have an opportunity to be part of this historic occasion of Obama's inaugural is, of course, a fantastic one," noted Susan Dvorak McMahon, an associate professor in DePaul University's Department of Psychology. "Often, they don't get these types of opportunities, and I think Barack Obama epitomizes a hope that you can have a different future." Because it is not clear how the juveniles were selected for the honor, McMahon was hesitant about commenting on this particular case. But she understood the frustration that some people might feel.
"I wouldn't necessarily want to reward kids who have committed a crime," she said. "But there are a lot of kids who are at risk who could benefit from this. There are lots of kids to choose from."
That's why the altruism of Earl Stafford, the founder of a very successful technology company in Virginia, is being talked about across the country. Stafford announced last Thursday that he plans to invite disadvantaged people including wounded soldiers to D.C. for the inauguration. He bought a $1 million inauguration ball package from the JW Marriott Hotel and plans to stage two balls a youth ball on Inauguration Day, as well as a "People's Inaugural Ball."
"There will be those who are distressed and underserved mingling with people who aren't so," Stafford told the Washington Post. "The needy will be our honored guests. That's who inspired us." The once-in-a-lifetime event to install Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States is expected to draw up to 5 million people from all over the world.
Officials at Camp Afflerbaugh may simply be trying to inspire three troubled juveniles. Still, there's no way to give these youngsters this incredible experience without sending the wrong message to their disadvantaged peers who have played by the rules.
#1
there's no way to give these youngsters this incredible experience without sending the wrong message to their disadvantaged peers who have played by the rules.
#2
You ever hear anyone brag about attending the inauguration of James Buchanan or Jimmy Carter? Or is this the gods way of introducing a bit a Greek Tragedy foreshadowing for the story to follow?
#4
They could have picked three exceptional teens that have distinguished themselves scholastically or in some other way that potentially benefits society.
But they didn't, they choose three hoods in jail that beat up an old woman in a home invasion. That DOES send a rather unambiguous message to young people.
#6
Ok as long as it's not my money. If some airhead millionaire wants to spend a bundle on some stupid symbolic gesture, so be it. It just leaves a little less for him to spend on trying to elect dangerous leftists.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
12/09/2008 13:16 Comments ||
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#7
In a perfect world, they would send groups of juvenile thugs from rival gangs who, tuxedos not withstanding, would continue their tribal rivalry live on network tv with traditional volleys of poorly aimed gunfire. It would be an inauguration to remember!
The word "evil" has been used twice today in the Corner to describe Blago's crimes. I'm not really disputing the use of the word. But that's not really the word that comes to my mind. Evil is too dark, too serious, too smart for what we're talking about. I agree with Kathryn that there's something almost wholesome or nostalgic about Blogo's criminal misdeeds. He wasn't found opening an umbrella in parts of his anatomy for money on the internet, or giving cash to terrorists who were going to have Santas wear suicide-padding at department stores around the country. He didn't check interns for a hernia without permission or spy for the Norks. He's just a crook. A good, old-fashioned, crook. I know I'm supposed to be outraged, and in a certain sense I am. If he's guilty of all that's alleged, I hope they throw him in the stoney lonesome until the Chicago Cubs win the World Series or 2025, whichever comes second. But in another sense, this is just plain enjoyable. It's like when you watch "Cops" and the idiot burglar tries to hide beside a tree in the dark, even though he's wearing light-up sneakers. It's like when Dan Rather dares the world to prove he's a clueless ass-clown. It's just good stuff. There's no tragedy here. No wasted potential. No undeserving victims. No profound and complicated symbolic issues (I somewhat doubt the Serbian-American lobby is going to cry racism). This is the sort of criminality we want the Feds to find, particularly in Chicago. Everyone gets what they deserve at least so far and all of the guilty parties are all the more deserving of punishment because they don't quite understand what the big deal is. I love it.
More please.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/09/2008 17:09 ||
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Just the header here - read the whole thing. Ben Shaipro calls a spade a spade.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/09/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Western civilization isnt at war with terrorism any more than it is at war with grenades.
Western civilization is at war with militant Islam, which dominates Muslim communities all over the world. Militant Islam isn't a tiny minority of otherwise goodhearted Muslims. Its a dominant strain of evil that runs rampant in a population of well over 1 billion.
There are plenty of Islamists who are happy in their misery, believing that their suffering is part and parcel of a correct religious system. Those people direct their anger outward, targeting unbelievers.
They hate us because we are infidels. They kill us because we refuse to surrender to them.
Stop telling us that Islam is a religion of peace. If it is, prove it through action.
The simple fact is that tolerating the intolerate has proven itself intolerable.
Time after time after time, these radical islamists prove beyond any doubt that they have absolutely no interest in joining the modern world, let alone participating in it. In fact, they have negative interest in the sense that they want to turn the clock back on modernity, tolerance, and personal freedom.
It is starting to become clear, even for those who insist on viewing things through fuzzy lenses, that anyone who attempts to rationalize the behavior of these barbarians is part of the problem (Deepak Chopra, et al).
The KSM Fives announced desire for martyrdom instantly caused the collective sphincter constriction in handwringers and thoughtful chin-strokers alike. Immediately, some cautioned that killing these sub-humans would only facilitate their visions of virgins. Others have commented that the United States is ill prepared for the jihadi propaganda that may follow their unhindered demise. Whether a more just sentence is that their end days are spent rotting in a Super-Max cell or with a rope around their neck is a separate debate. Regardless of the US actions (Or in spite of), its their death-cult that will confirm or deny their martyr status. Keep in mind, many of the Mooselimbs open questions regarding Yassir Arafats istishaad have been blunted by the blood poison by assassin theory.
#6
I think that evangilism has a place among the the Moslem masses. Many of them can turn their backs on the radical hate if given a chance. As it is now those who don't want to live the hate mantra have few choices.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
12/09/2008 13:23 Comments ||
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#1
I have a great place for him to start. Use the South Korean model. Always strapped for cash, they put their emphasis on two things: small arms and training.
The Obama budget cuts are going to eviscerate our conventional forces. The economy may not give any other choice. This means if we want to project force, it will mean less technology and more personnel.
The days of standing off and slapping a country like Iraq with cruise missiles and air power will just be too expensive. This shifts the balance towards more land forces, and yes, higher casualties.
In past I have suggested that it is time for the US to set up an American Foreign Legion, garrisoned offshore, and modeled after the French Foreign Legion. Highly trained light infantry from around the world, that is far less expensive than using our own forces, and can be sent to places we don't want to send our people.
#4
We should be modest about what military force can accomplish and what technology can accomplish. The advances in precision, sensor, information, and satellite technologies have led to extraordinary gains in what the U.S. military can do. The Taliban were dispatched within three months; Saddam's regime was toppled in three weeks. A button can be pushed in Nevada, and seconds later a pickup truck will explode in Mosul. A bomb dropped from the sky can destroy a targeted house while leaving the one next to it intact.
But no one should ever neglect the psychological, cultural, political, and human dimensions of warfare. War is inevitably tragic, inefficient, and uncertain, and it is important to be skeptical of systems analyses, computer models, game theories, or doctrines that suggest otherwise. We should look askance at idealistic, triumphalist, or ethnocentric notions of future conflict that aspire to transcend the immutable principles and ugly realities of war, that imagine it is possible to cow, shock, or awe an enemy into submission, instead of tracking enemies down hilltop by hilltop, house by house, block by bloody block. As General William Tecumseh Sherman said, "Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster."
I'm glad Obama is keeping Gates on--sounds like he really gets it. As much as I love the thought of running a war from an armchair in Nevada, with the ease of a video game, we cannot forget the vulnerabilities of electronics and computers. We may have to fight "blind" and "deaf". And the day of lavish earmarks are over.
#5
I seriously doubt that the days of lavish earmarks are over, I'd hazard a guess that it will be business as usual in DC. But you're right about the modern concept of warfare vis-a-vis the average person. They want quick and easy, and put it on CNN so they can watch. If it takes longer than Gulf War 1 its too long to captivate the attention of the average American.
Hardly. It's just starting or as they say 'you ain't seen nothing yet'. The servicemembers will be starved of funding for basics, training, and maintenance while the politicians micro manage even more funding to their 'defense industry' front clientele who in turn will kindly dump more money into their reelection campaign funds. Its the Murtha way. It thrives. And the crooks keep getting reelected.
AS an open, diverse and at times chaotic democracy, India has long been a target for terrorism. From the assassination of Mohandas Gandhi in 1948 to the recent attacks in Mumbai, it has faced attempts to change its national character by force. None has yet succeeded. Despite its manifest social failings, India remains the developing worlds most successful experiment in free, plural, large-scale political collaboration.
The Mumbai attacks were transformative, because in them, unlike previous outrages in India, the rich were caught: not only Western visitors in the nations magnificent financial capital but also Indian bankers, business owners and socialites. This had symbolic power, as the terrorists knew it would.
However, I recently saw a televised forum in which members of the public vented their fury against Indias politicians for their failure to act, and it soon became apparent the victims were poor as well as rich. One survivor, Shameem Khan instantly identifiable by his name and his embroidered cap as a Muslim told how six members of his extended family had been shot dead. Still in shock, he said: A calamity has fallen on my house. What shall I do? His neighbors had helped pay for the funeral. Like most of Indias 150 million Muslims, Mr. Khan is staunchly patriotic. The citys Muslim Council refused to let the terrorists be buried in its graveyards.
When these well-planned attacks unfolded, it was clear to anyone with experience of India that they were not homegrown, and almost certainly originated from Pakistan. Yet the reaction of the worlds news media was to rely on the outmoded idea of Pakistan-India hyphenation as if a thriving and prosperous democracy of over a billion people must be compared only to an imploded state that is having to be bailed out by the I.M.F. Was Pakistan to blame, asked many pundits, or was India at fault because of its treatment of minority groups?
The terrorists themselves offered little explanation, and made no clear demands. Yet even as the siege continued, commentators were making chilling deductions on their behalf: their actions were because of American foreign policy, or Afghanistan, or the harassment of Indian Muslims. Personal moral responsibility was removed from the players in the atrocity. When officials said that the killers came from the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, it was taken as proof that Indias misdeeds in the Kashmir Valley were the cause.
These misdeeds are real, as are Indias other social and political failings (I recently met a Kashmiri man whose father and sister had died at the hands of the Indian security forces). But there is no sane reason to think Lashkar-e-Taiba would shut down if the situation in Kashmir improved. Its literature is much concerned with establishing a caliphate in Central Asia, and murdering those who insult the Prophet. Its leader, Hafiz Saeed, who lives on a large estate outside Lahore bought with Saudi Money, goes about his business with minimal interference from the Pakistani government.
Lashkar-e-Taiba is part of the International Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders (the Qaeda franchise). Mr. Saeeds hatreds are catholic his bugbears include Hindus, Shiites and women who wear bikinis. He regards democracy as a Jewish and Christian import from Europe, and considers suicide attacks to be in accordance with Islam. He has a wider strategy: At this time our contest is Kashmir. Lets see when the time comes. Our struggle with the Jews is always there. As he told his followers in Karachi at a rally in 2000: There cant be any peace while India remains intact. Cut them, cut them cut them so much that they kneel before you and ask for mercy. In short, he has an explicit political desire to create a state of war between the religious communities in India and beyond, and bring on the endgame.
Like other exponents of Islamist extremism, he has a view of the world that does not tolerate doubt or ambiguity: his opponents are guilty, and must be killed. I have met other radicals like Mr. Saeed, men who live in a dimension of absolute certainty and have contempt for the moral relativism of those who seek to excuse them. To achieve their ends, it is necessary to indoctrinate boys in the hatred of Hindus, Americans and Jews, and dispatch them on suicide missions. It is unlikely that any of the militants who were sent from Karachi to Mumbai young men from poor rural backgrounds whose families were paid for their sacrifice had ever met a Jew before they tortured and killed Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, who was several months pregnant, at the Mumbai Jewish center.
Americas so-called war on terror has been, in many respects, a catastrophe. In Pakistan, it has been chronically mishandled, leading to the radicalization of areas in the north that were previously peaceful. Yet links between the military, the intelligence services and the jihadis have remained intact: Lashkar-e-Taiba is merely one of a number of extremist organizations that continues to function.
The prime solution to the present crisis is to force the closing of terrorist training outfits in Pakistan, and apply the law to those who organize and finance operations like the Mumbai massacres. Hafiz Saeed and other suspects should be sent to India to stand trial. The remark by Pakistans president, Asif Ali Zardari (a man whose history of shady business dealing makes him demonstrably unfit for high, or even low, office), that he did not think the terrorists came from Pakistan would be funny if it were not tragic.
The United States gives around $1 billion a year in military aid to Islamabad; that is leverage. It does the people of Pakistan no favors for Washington to allow their leaders to continue with the strategy of perpetual diversion, asking India to be patient while denying the true nature of the immediate terrorist threat. I received this e-mail message recently from a friend in Karachi: Nowhere can get more depressing than Pakistan these days barring some African failed states and Afghanistan.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/09/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
"he [Head of LeT who shelters safely in Paki with Saudi funding] has an explicit political desire to create a state of war between the religious communities in India and beyond, and bring on the endgame.
Like other exponents of Islamist extremism, he has a view of the world that does not tolerate doubt or ambiguity: his opponents are guilty, and must be killed."
This guy gets it. Why do our state department and the idiots in the dominant leftist media never seem to learn?
While Pakistan awaits evidence from India so it can prove that it has the capacity to move against non-state actors threatening its writ and allegedly attacking other states in the region, another incident questioning its capacity to control events has taken place. An army of some 300 gunmen official account puts the number on 30 blasted their way into two transport terminals on Peshawars Ring Road on Sunday and torched more than 160 vehicles destined for US-led NATO troops in Afghanistan.
A dominant view in Pakistan, expressed by former military officers in the media, is that Pakistan should block NATO supply convoys going through Pakistan. This volte face has come after a drone attack in Bannu. The experts on TV channels began demanding action after abandoning the earlier caution aroused by Pakistans economic downturn and the money the US pays for the passage of approximately 800 trucks a day.
The Taliban attack destroyed a convoy near Peshawar even as there were warnings from South Waziristan that the Taliban would undertake such an operation. The truck terminal was not given any reinforced security despite claims by the government to the contrary, and the attackers were given a free run. At the minimum this proves to the world that the Pakistan army is incapable of if not unwilling to putting down such elements and keeping its side of the commitment made to the US on NATO supplies. The supplies overland from Pakistan beget Islamabad the funds for mobilisation against the terrorists.
Pakistan is also haunted by the accusations made by India with regard to the origin of the one terrorist caught in Mumbai. The question is not whether the Indians are right or wrong. What is important, in real terms, is whether the world believes India or Pakistan. Pakistan denies that Ajmal Amir Kasab lived in a village named Faridkot in the Okara district of Punjab. Pakistani TV channels have gone to the village and shown people swearing that no Ajmal Amir Kasab or his named parents ever lived there, creating grounds for another media battle over who is telling the truth.
But a Pakistani journalist working for Londons Observer has collected evidence which claims to corroborate Indias allegation: the report is based on an electoral roll for Faridkot, which falls under union council number 5, tehsil (area) Dipalpur, district Okara with a list of 478 registered voters, showing a Muhammad Amir (father), Noor Elahi (mother) living in Faridkot. The parents identity card numbers too were discovered. This report is going to make Pakistans spirited defence irrelevant. The world is going to believe the Indian version. And that is where trouble is going to come from.
There is some cleaning up going on too but it might be too late and offset by the denials about Faridkot. The army has removed a Lashkar-e-Tayba training camp in Azad Kashmir, on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad. The question is: why now? Accusations were flying thick about this camp for a long time. Informed Pakistanis knew that the camp was there, although camouflaged somewhat by the stratagem of allowing the outfit to take the role of a rescuer of people after the 2005 earthquake in Azad Kashmir, despite some problems that the outfit had with foreign NGOs working there and their female members.
The removal of the camp or its takeover after pushing the Lashkar out of there is a precaution against the possibility of Indian precision strikes against them. Similarly, the old Lashkar headquarters in Muridke near Lahore has been opened and shown to journalists to establish that no terrorist activities could have been planned there. India has denied that it is planning to use the military option; rationally speaking the military option is unlikely to redound to anyones advantage. Yet, passions and internal political pressures can do much damage and the Indian government is under pressure right now.
We hope that the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) yesterday took a cool-headed view of the situation. Realism rather than rage should hold sway despite an environment of Armageddon created by the electronic media first in India and then, in retaliation, in Pakistan. The army must step back and let the civilian government handle the situation without vocal, domestically targeted, diplomacy. This is no time to create unity of the people in favour of rash action. Pakistan has to make a special effort to prove that it is in control of the situation. The two sides must regain the ground lost because of the Mumbai attack.
It is time to measure Pakistans capacity to withstand the prospect of a multi-pronged conflict raging both within and without. No country in the world can afford to succumb to passion when its economic and political moorings have been snapped. Wisdom recommends that Pakistan take a sober view of the situation and act with flexibility rather than Quixotic bravado. This is also the advice that the Pakistani media should take to heart, and begin to show caution in place of challenge
Posted by: john frum ||
12/09/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
What is important, in real terms, is whether the world believes India or Pakistan.
Oh-oh. I think I know which way that one's gonna go...
#2
WORLD MIL FORUM [paraph]> JAMESTOWN.ORG REPORT: [unconfirmed]OSAMA BIN LADEN HAS NAMED ABDUL HAQ TURKISTANI AS LEADER OF AL-QAEDA'S CHINA BRANCH IN XIANJIANG [Uighurs], WITH APPROVAL ALSO FROM TURKIC ISLAMIC PARTY. IMPROVED SINO-LATIN AMERICA TIES WID AQ AND RADICAL ISLAM STRESSED.
Osama is believed to be in personal charge of up to 250 Chinese Militants under auspice of AL-QAEDA???
#4
As for the NATO trucks, vee IRAQ the Islamists are prob trying to indir induce effective mil confrontation wid the presntly less potent,less competent PAKI ARMY forces while limiting US-NATO to key cities = urban areas. The US, etc. will have to temporarily rely on AIRPOWER FOR LIFT, RECCE [UV's] AND CLOSE SUPPORT, TO WHICH THE MILITANTS HAVE PLENTY OF MAN-PORTABLE SAMS + RPGS???
IOW, PAKI = POST-MUMBAI INDIA > MILITANTS MAY ATTEMPT TO SPREAD WAR/JIHAD AS FOR CONTROL OF THE COUNTRYSIDE = AREAS OUTSIDE OF MAIN CITIES-TOWNS??? ALso, as per the US FINANCIAL CRISIS + CONTROVERSIAL BAILOUT OF DETROIT "BIG 3" [read - new US Military AFVS/IFVS production = new USGovt $$$ hyper-deficit spending of scarce monies it doesn't have]???
#4
This joker says "world government" like it's a good thing, yet concedes that International governance tends to be effective, only when it is anti-democratic. Lord save us from "One World wankers".
FWIW, Obama likes to think of himself as Lincoln. He should ponder "government of the people, by the people, for the people".
#6
Unless it is set up as a Republic, with each nation having checks and balances against each other with hard written rules for freedom, a world government is nothing more than world tyranny.
#7
The European Union is a model of global governance? Obama's has a taste of ideas for the UN from Strobe Talbott, Susan Rice, and John Podesta? Me thinks it is about time for another Boston Tea Party on steroids to protest this crap in no uncertain terms. The best bailout plan would be using taspayer money to buy them all one-way tickets to Europe and rescind their citizenship for treasonous ideas.
#13
ION OWG-NWO, WORLD AFFAIRS BOARD > CENTRAL AMERICAN LEADERS AGREE ON COMMON CURRENCY, PASSPORT SYSTEM. State(s) and Regional Integration-Organiz as a "justified/valid" Nation-Region survival strategy as per the US-GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS.
Al Qaeda's great moment for propaganda has arrived, just as I predicted it would when I wrote about this in June. The Guantanamo trials will provide leading figures in the 9/11 massacre their "moment" to deliver a blow to America's psyche, image and legal system.
As predicted, almost to the letter in my analysis in June, the men charged with plotting the September 11 attacks have declared their readiness to make confessions. According to Associated Press the military judge assigned to their war crimes trial at Guantanamo Bay read aloud a letter in which the five co-defendants said they request an immediate hearing session "to announce our confessions." The AP report added that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (aka KSM) has already told interrogators he was the mastermind of the attacks. "Now he's telling the judge that he and the others want to make confessions at the trial." The judge at the pre-trial hearing, Army Col. Stephen Henley, is asking each defendant if they are prepared to enter a plea. Three have agreed to do so.
So, is there an Al Qaeda plan being put into motion on the inside? Most likely there is as our knowledge of Al Qaeda training instructions has shown. -Both the government and media of the United States are ill-prepared for this type of jihadi propaganda warfare. Seven years after the beginning of the so-called "War on Terror," the enemy's ideology, strategies and methods still haven't been officially identified. It is like using a Word War I mind set to fight World War II terror strategies.
Here is what the jihadists, both on the inside and the outside of the Guantanamo detention center are planning for:
#1
He's right on this point, the ruling class will give away our jobs, our rights, our national sovereignty, even our very lives for profit. It begs the question of how much money is enough to satiate them?
#2
bigjim, it's not about profit, it's about power; profit is just how they keep score. And there is no amount of profit or power sufficient to curb ultimate competitors.
#3
There is an ad on that page that says President-elect Barack Obama's IQ is 125. If I recall correctly, that puts him in the merely bright range, 130+ being required to be considered moderately gifted. Hopefully he won't indulge himself while in office by writing bad French poetry, like a rumoured-to-be-a-man retire politician similarly lauded for his genius.
/sorry for going off-topic, but I seem to be feeling catty. I'll go read the article now.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Should incarcerated juveniles be allowed to attend the inaugural celebration? The possibility has some correctional officers at a California detention center in an uproar.
