Archive - Mar 22, 2008 - topic

Date
Type
Protesters' signs in California against a group home for sex offenders
The Associated Press

Most people don't want sex offenders living next door. But where should they go?

Featured Topic | Posted 22 weeks 5 days ago

What should we do with sex offenders?

Most Americans react to sex crimes with revulsion. And understandibly so. But once a sex offender has completed his sentence, then what? The people of Wilmer, Texas are confronting that dilemma, but with a twist: A registered sex offender arrested in a police sting for trying to arrange sex with a 15-year-old girl on the Internet is running for mayor of the Dallas, Texas suburb.

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Ben likes: Confine or track them

George Runner/Los Angeles Times

Distancing sex offenders 2,000 feet from schools, parks and other places where children gather is another contemporary idea, and one that California voters have embraced. Parents simply don't want sex offenders living across the street from schools and parks.

Again, a few cities have cried foul, claiming that it is nearly impossible to find housing with the distancing restriction and thus homelessness among sex offenders is sure to occur in abundance. But so far, the claims have been based on guesswork, not actual incidents of homelessness. Densely populated San Francisco County may be the exception. But I have always said if there is a bona fide problem with housing, then I would support revisiting the distancing for that county -- maybe adjust the distance to meet San Francisco's needs.

In the meantime, let's give Jessica's Law time to work. In doing so, we will heed the will of the people who believe in this law. 

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Joel likes: Rehabilitate them

New York Times

Of all the places that sexual predators could end up after prison, the worst is out of sight, away from the scrutiny and treatment that could prevent them from committing new crimes. But communities around the country are taking that risk, with zoning laws that banish pedophiles to the literal edges of society.

The problem with residency restrictions is that they fulfill an emotional need but not a rational one. It’s in everyone’s interest for registered sex offenders to lead stable lives, near the watchful eyes of family and law enforcement and regular psychiatric treatment. Exile by zoning threatens to create just the opposite phenomenon — a subpopulation of unhinged nomads off their meds with no fixed address and no one keeping tabs on them.

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Iraq
The Associated Press

Over there.

Featured Topic | Posted 22 weeks 6 days ago

Can Democrats compete on national security?

Remember Michael Dukakis' ride in the tank? That was 20 years ago, but the image endures -- a symbol of Democrats' continuing problems convincing the public that they can be as tough as the Republicans on national security. Will that change in a year when dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq remains high?

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Ben likes: Democrats are still weak on security

Karl Rove/Wall Street Journal

Elections are rarely decided over just one issue; to win, candidates don't need to have a majority of Americans agreeing with them on every big issue. But when it comes to choosing a president, Americans take seriously the candidates' views and experience on national security. Voters instinctively understand a president's principal constitutional responsibility is protecting the country.

 

The Democrats have two candidates with less national security experience and fewer credentials than the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain. And they are compounding these difficulties with positions on Iraq and terrorist surveillance that are shared by a shrinking minority of Americans.

 

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Joel likes: How to talk foreign policy

Matt Yglesias/The American Prospect

One ideal way to illustrate the difference would be to point out that the Republican approach leads to huge disasters like Iraq, whereas the alternative doesn't. Not anything so high-flying (and, frankly, puny-sounding) as a denunciation of "the politics of fear," but something concrete like, "it seems to me that pulling troops out of Afghanistan so that Osama bin Laden could escape and the Taliban could regroup near the Pakistani border was probably a mistake. Nor was it a good idea to waste hundreds of billions of dollars on a war of choice that wound up speeding nuclear proliferation in North Korea and Iran. Unlike Sen. McCain, I didn't support those moves."

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