Close-up on juvenile justice

 By Jennifer Vanasco
News Office

Children who kill are called "super predators," "people with no conscience," "feral pre-social beings" -- and "adults."

William Ayers, author of A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court (Beacon Press, 1997), says "We should call a child a child. A 13-year-old who picks up a gun isn't suddenly an adult. We have to ask other questions: How did he get the gun? Where did it come from?"

Ayers, who spent a year observing the Cook County Temporary Juvenile Detention Center in Chicago, is one of four panelists who will speak on juvenile justice at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, in the C-Shop. The panel, which marks the 100th anniversary of the juvenile justice system in the United States, is part of the Community Service Center's monthly discussion series on issues affecting the city of Chicago. The event is free and open to the public.

Ayers will be joined by Sen. Barack Obama, Senior Lecturer in the Law School, who is working to combat legislation that would put more juvenile offenders into the adult system; Randolph Stone, Director of the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic; Alex Correa, a reformed juvenile offender who spent seven years in Cook County Temporary Detention Center; Frank Tobin, a former priest and teacher at the Detention Center who helped Correa; and Willy Baldwin, who grew up in public housing and is currently a teacher at the Detention Center.

The juvenile justice system was founded by Chicago reformer Jane Addams, who advocated the establishment of a separate court system for children which would act like a "kind and just parent" for children in crisis.

One hundred years later, the system is "overcrowded, under-funded, over-centralized and racist," Ayers said.

Michelle Obama, Associate Dean of Student Services and Director of the University Community Service Center, hopes bringing issues like this to campus will open a dialogue between members of the University community and the broader community.

 Thursdays Vice Presidential debate with moderator Gwen Ifill is nothing short of a complete fraud! Ms. Ifills new book extolling and glorifying Barak Obama is set to hit book stores on January 20, 2009 the day the next President is sworn into office. Ms. Ifill stands to profit immensely if Obama is elected!! There is no possible way that she can be considered an unbiased, impartial moderator for the Vice Presidential debate on Thursday and MUST recuse herself immediately from the debate and a new moderator must be chosen.

The Commission on Presidential Debates states;  “ The organization, … is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) corporation”… obviously this is NOT the case and if they allow this debate to go forward with Gwen Ifill as the moderator they should have their 501(c)(3) status immediately revoked!

Of course, the Commission on Presidential debates provides no way for the citizenry to contact them through their website. However, they do have sponsors, some of who are now foreign owned companies like Anheuser-Busch.

I will not name the book here so as not to give the greedy and self- centered Ms. Ifill any more publicity. You can contact her though and let her know how you feel about her shameful behavior at the website for her Washington Week program on PBS.

http://www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/feedback.html

It is up to us as citizens to stop this fraud now!

I’ll have more later…

Historic or not, Barak Obama's nomination at the Democratic National Convention will very likely go down as the most hollow victory in the history of American politics. Remember back in 2004 when asked about running on a national ticket Obama responded; "I'm a believer in knowing what your doing when applying for a job."

Obama's lack of experience and knowledge has been questioned as much by his own party members as it has been by his opponents. Even his running mate said that Obama is not ready.

So, why the hysteria over Obama? While our nation is still the greatest nation on earth and the greatest testament to free republics in the history of all mankind, it is a nation searching. A nation searching for the soul of it's inception. A nation searching for what was truly the core of its creation and the embodiment of it's purpose. No matter what your feelings and beliefs are concerning this nations founding, at it's nucleus was a desire to serve and worship freely the God that had created all things and to serve God in all its work, actions and deeds. That is the American Spirit! One of service and gratitude, service to our family, our brothers, our neighbors, our friends and most importantly to God. Worship as you will as long as it is in the spirit of His word and His commands, but don't forsake Him for the things of this world. Don't give into the failings of the human spirit. Pray and endure. It's not about Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, Pentecostal or any other denomination. It is about the truth! The truth of the Word, the Spirit, and of God. Sadly, we have slowly lost sight of these truths in this nation. What we have now is an ever increasing division between us and God. We abandoned Him in our schools where He was once prominent. We have abandoned Him in our communities, afraid to utter His name because someone might be offended by the name of God. We have abandoned Him in civil affairs, fearful to denounce sin and depravity because it does not promote harmony with the pagans in our midst. We have abandoned Him in our families where He was once the center of our family, the father of His children, the hope for every new day and the provider of our every need. We have abandoned Him as a people and as a nation, eager to accept idolatry and serve the masters of covetousness; envy, greed and hate.

It is this division from God that has brought this nation to look at the nomination of Barak Obama as some sort of great advancement in our nation. If we examine it closely, we see through the facade and realize quickly that it's not Obama or anything to do with advancement. It is the acceptance of idolatry in the place of light and truth. It didn't have to be Obama. It could have been Michael Phelps, Bill Gates or Oprah. What people are looking for is someone who makes them feel good. Someone who excites them. Someone who fills a void that they have within themselves. Any in depth look into this "candidate" makes this truth painfully clear. Hillary Clinton probably said it best when she said what Senator Obama has to offer the nation is "a speech he gave in 2004".

As a nation we cannot continue to ask for God's blessing and abandon Him at every turn in our lives. We cannot expect Him to deliver righteous leaders when we ignore Him in the public square and in our private dwellings. We cannot continue to worship the idols of pagans and expect grace. Eventually, the whole will be infected with the cancers of fools and our nation will fall at the mighty hand of God and there will be no prayer that will restore it. Perhaps one of the most famous quotes of Thomas Jefferson is this; "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever." This from the man that manipulators and leftists today try to make you believe meant for God to be removed from all civil and national affairs. How can this be? It is impossible to reconcile the two thoughts. Yet, the lies take on lives of their own and continue to erode the soul of this nation.

Is it hopeless? No, but it is critical. It is critical and essential that we return to God as the source of our strength and the provider of our needs. It is critical that we place Him at the center of lives, our families, our communities and our nation. It is critical that we get upon our knees as a people and as a nation and ask for His continued forgiveness and thank Him for our abundance of blessings. It is critical that we recognize that all that we are and all that we have is His and aside from him we are nothing. It is critical that repentance and revival begin to lay the foundation for the restoration of the soul of this great nation lest we parish from our own iniquity at the hand of Almighty God.

Thank God today for all that you are good or bad, and all that you have little or much and ask him to lead you and this nation in the path of righteousness for His glory, and the truth will shine for it's self.

Expelled!

Expelled, by Ben Stein is a must see movie. No matter what side of the debate on the origins of man that you are on, this movie can be a real eye opener. Stein does a masterful job of pointing out the dangers of carrying the belief in a theory to an extreme. He explains how Adolf Hitler, convinced that Darwinian evolution could save humanity, became the most diabolical and evil murderer in the history of mankind. Hitler was determined to slectively breed the "master race" and his manifesto "Mein Kampf" was a doctrine built on his fundamental belief in Darwinian evolution.

There is entirely too much to absorb in just one sitting of this film. In the end we see that the very thing evolutionists fear, "religion", is exactly what they are engaged in. The problem with the atheist / evolutionist faith is that seeks to destroy all other faiths or beliefs in a power and an intelligence greater than ourselves.

Steins final conversation with one of todays leading advocates for the elimination of diety based faith and defacto leader of the Atheist religion ends with this so called intellectual admitting that its possible there just may be a design and a designer to all life here on earth.

John McCain accepted the endorsement of Rudy Giulliani tonight in front of the Reagan Library in California. Poor Ron must be spinning in his grave. Here at the educational site of one of the strongest conservatives to ever lead this nation, two of the most liberal, so called conservatives to ever call themselves conservatives, joined forces to drag this country further into a no win election for the American people.

The writing was on the wall as Rudy Giulliani touted "a more inclusive" Republican party that would "span the divide of Red States and Blue States". Then McCain went on to tell the crowd and the media that Rudy is his "right hand man". The not so subtle messages of this over blown display of mutual adulation is a total abandonment of conservative ideology for the personal benefit of two men. Clearly McCain has offered Giulliani a home in any McCain Whitehouse. It's likely this would be the Vice Presidents position or just about anything else Rudy would like. It's also clear that human life issues, illegal immigration and the sanctity of marriage are all negotiable items in this new "all inclusive" campaign of new world conservatives.
I'll never deny that John McCain is an American hero for his service and personal sacrifice to our country. However, if your going to ask me to believe that someone who strikes deals with Ted Kennedy over judicial nominees and has sought to limit the free speech of Christians is a conservative, then I would have to say your mad, simply mad.

How much worse can it get? Well, if your a true conservative, the answer is much. If your content with this watered down anything goes political philosophy or if your one of many fools who say; "I don't mix my Church and my politics" then you won't mind giving up our nation to secularists with secular world views that will bring about persecution and suffering for God fearing people of faith who just wanted to raise their children in an America that many of us still remember. "A Better America", as Mike Huckabee has said. An America where human life is valued, God is feared and worshipped, an America where men served their God and their families, wives served their husbands, and children once honored them both and an American where we once knew and trusted our neighbors.

There was a time when we thought these things were worth protecting and defending. I still think they are...What about you?

I have just read perhaps one of the most disappointing emails of my life. The email entitled “Pro-family leaders endorse Mitt Romney for Florida Presidential Preference primary”. No, perhaps ‘disappointing’ is too soft… anguished might be a better word.

Anguished that “pro-family, Christian brothers and sisters” that I and many other Floridians have looked to for inspiration and leadership could so carelessly, and so easily let down their State, their brothers and sisters in faith and their own causes over one poll of 754 likely voters. Not only have they let all of these constituencies down, not only have they forsaken their own convictions at the wisp of a breeze from an often faulty and significantly flawed statistical tool but, they may have burned a bridge to their own goals that will be near impossible to rebuild. It would have been better to abstain.

Making matters worse is the fact that some of the facts they cited were incorrect as well. “Mitt Romney is clearly the most conservative candidate among the top three competitive candidates (Giuliani, McCain, Romney) appearing on the Florida Presidential Preference ballot in Florida.” This statement is absurd and incorrect from the word “Mitt”. Though Romney is leading in delegates coming into Florida, Mike Huckabee is in second right behind him. Guiliani has been out of the race since Iowa, and the top three are Romney, Huckabee and McCain coming into Florida next Tuesday. Mitt Romney a conservative?!?! This guy has flip flopped on more issues (some of them very important to these endorsers) than Bill Clinton has had girl friends! Mitt Romney speaks with a forked tongue and will do so as President if he is elected. Anyone that has not seen through this campaign by now has either been sleeping or simply allows the media to dictate their moods.
 

Oh, this saddens me. While I am so anguished over this display of weakness and submission to world views and noise, by these prominent pro-family leaders, I must confess my own weaknesses. I liked Huckabee from the very beginning and I should have got behind him right away. However, the negative stories on Huckabee started almost immediately and since I was not that familiar with him yet I thought… well, maybe I should investigate further, maybe I should take a closer look. Now, it seems I may have waited too long. While, I have been strongly supporting Huckabee recently and still do, I fear it may be too little, too late.  

I am encouraged though by the number of people I have talked to all over Florida who have said they are either going to vote for Huckabee or they already have voted for him. Mike Huckabee will come in second here Florida. There has always been a quiet groundswell of support for him here. Yet, Huckabee could have easily won Florida with some backing from these same “leaders” if they were not so easily led astray. All I can do now though is pray for Dennis Baxley, David Caton, Carole Griffin and Anthony Verdugo that this ‘error in faith’ won’t cost them more than just disappointment and frustration from their supporters. All I can do is pray that the causes they have nurtured won’t die on the vine from weeds and disease.

 

Rudy Guliani is staking his hopes for the Presidency on the State of Florida. We have heard this over and over again. Well Rudy, go home!

Floridians are a funny bunch but they are not stupid. Rudy (anything but a conservative) Guliani is not going to make it here in Florida. This will likely be another last place run for Rudy who should try and save some face and pull out of the race before Florida's primary.

Although, you never know...when I attended the Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee meeting back in September of '07 they were eagerly rallying around Guliani. After the meeting was over I casually asked the Committee Chairman if anyone had considered Huckabee. He scoffed at me and condescendingly added "he doesn't stand a chance." Ooops! I guess someone forgot to tell Huckabee because now he is the front runner coming into Florida. Well, this isn't the first time I found the Pinellas Republicans to be sadly out of touch. The Democrats in Pinellas have had most of their candidates locally and nationally getting great exposure on their website since last June. To this date the Pinellas Republicans don't even have a working website. I think this says as much about their leadership as it does their wisdom in making candidate choices. Even the Republican Club of Greater Largo ( a much smaller Republican club) is better run than the Pinellas County Club. At least they have a working website.

No matter what happens on 29 January in Florida the Republican candidates can count on very little help from Republicans in the 4th largest county in the State. The other thing they can count on is Rudy will go home.