News opinion 2008-07-24 Andanh.com

Pedophiles should be leery of Kentucky Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:47:51 -0500
Message to pedophiles: Come to Kentucky to meet underage boys or girls you have talked to on the Internet, and you will go to prison for a long time. Those who attempt to prey on children deserve no less and we are glad that Kentucky is leading the nation in giving these pedophiles long sentences. A lot of this is due to strict laws on the books in Kentucky and the help of Perverted Justice, which works with “Dateline NBC: To Catch a Predator.” Here’s how it works. Members from Perverted Justice pretend to be young teenagers while corresponding online with men who describe sex acts they would like to perform with them; the members then arrange for the men to meet them at the child’s home. When they arrive, they are met briefly by a young looking male or female, then let in on the sting. “Dateline” host Chris Hansen then interrogates them a bit, and when they leave the house they are arrested by local law enforcement. Between 2006 and 2007, 28 men were arrested in Kentucky during three Internet stings set up by Perverted Justice. Thirteen were arrested in a sting in Campbell County in Northern Kentucky and they received some of the strongest sentences in the country. Convictions there sent three men to prison for five years, one for nine years and one for 10 years. Some cases are still pending, but prosecutors say they will soon be sent to prison for a minimum of about four years. It is important to note that not one case in our state was dismissed. This sends a strong message that those who live in Kentucky or travel across state lines to meet these young girls or boys will be dealt with in the harshest manner permissible under the law. We do take issue with the lenient sentences that were given to eight people who were arrested in a sting in Jefferson County - they all received probation. Jefferson County officials say they still made progress because the men pleaded guilty to felonies and had to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives. Does this mean that they won’t try to meet an underage person online again? Probably not. Jefferson County should realize that they put eight very dangerous people back on the streets, and that is shameful. Perhaps in the future, prosecutors in that county will realize the seriousness of these offenses and send these people away for long prison sentences. Warren County, which also held a sting operation with Perverted Justice, should be proud for sending these pedophiles away for a long time. Of the seven arrested, two were sentenced to seven years in prison. Five cases are pending, but four have agreed to plead guilty and accept seven-year prison sentences. We commend Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Cohron for his effort to obtain tough sentences for these individuals. It is a real shame that in other states such as Ohio and Texas, pedophiles snared by the sting were given probation or six-month sentences. That is not sufficient deterrent. Those who want to harm children and take away their innocence deserve long prison sentences, and we are glad that Kentucky has for the most part sent a strong message that those who attempt this act will pay a high price.

McCain and Iraq Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:46:52 -0500
“Senator Obama didn’t support the surge, wanted to pull out, said that it would fail. I supported it when it was the toughest thing to do. I believe that my record on national security and keeping this country safe is there. And the American people will examine our records, and I will win.” That’s John McCain explaining why he’ll win. He’s wrong. He’s leading a loud chorus of conservatives and Republicans desperate to make the surge the defining issue of the campaign. In an editorial for the conservative Weekly Standard, Fred Kagan (the primary intellectual author of the surge strategy) wrote: “It would be hard to design a better test for the job of commander in chief than the real-life test senators John McCain and Barack Obama have undergone in the last two years.” It’s understandable why so many Republicans see the surge as an ideal political battleground. Outside foreign policy, McCain’s standing with the GOP base is shaky. The party doesn’t have many policy wins to brag about. And Obama doesn’t have much of a record to attack. Also, many hawks - often called neoconservatives - see the surge as vindication that they were right about the feasibility of the Iraq invasion from the beginning. It was President Bush’s bungling that was wrong, they say, not the war itself. Whatever the merits of all that, there’s a problem. As political analysis, it’s nonsense. Yes, McCain heroically pushed for the surge when the war was at its most unpopular point. Even more impressive, he favored a change in strategy back when the war was popular. Within months of the invasion, McCain was calling for more troops and the head of then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Later, when the Iraqi civil war erupted, al-Qaida in Iraq metastasized and Iran mounted a clandestine surge of its own, McCain doubled down; he argued that we couldn’t afford to lose and proposed a revised counterinsurgency strategy for victory. That was the same month that Obama introduced the “Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007.” That’s great stuff for McCain’s biographers. But the catch-22 is that the more the surge succeeds, the more advantageous it is for Obama. Voters don’t care about the surge; they care about the war. Americans want it to be over - and in a way they can be proud of. Richard Nixon didn’t win in 1968 by second-guessing LBJ about the mess in Vietnam; he ran on getting us out with honor. McCain is great when talking about honor, but the getting-us-out part is where he gets tongue-tied. Obama, meanwhile, talks about leaving Iraq as though Americans don’t care about honor. That may have worked in the early primaries, but it won’t in the general election. Americans don’t like to lose wars. Politically, the surge is a bit like the Supreme Court’s recent decision affirming the constitutional right to own a gun. Obama’s position on gun rights, a miasma of murky equivocation, would hurt him if gun control were a big issue this year. It isn’t, thanks to the high court’s ruling. That’s a huge boon. The surge has done likewise with the war. If it were going worse, McCain’s Churchillian rhetoric would match reality better. But with sectarian violence nearly gone, al-Qaida in Iraq almost totally routed and even Sadrist militias seemingly neutralized, the stakes of withdrawal seem low enough for Americans to feel comfortable voting for Obama. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s support for an American troop drawdown pushes the perceived stakes even lower. Recall that Bill Clinton, with his dovish record and roster of “character issues,” would never have been elected if the Soviet Union hadn’t collapsed in 1991. With the Cold War over, the successful Reagan surge (and Bush pere’s cleanup efforts) made rolling the dice on Clinton tolerable. The McCain surge (and Bush fils’ success at averting another 9/11) produces the same effect for Obama. A silver lining for McCain is that Obama’s arrogance and sense of indebtedness to his party’s antiwar base have elicited a series of credibility-damaging zigzags on Iraq. Obama would do better to promise peace with honor as soon as possible, then quickly move on to economy talk. The subsequent bleating from the bug-out lefties would be useful testament to Obama’s rumored centrism. Although the economy will dominate this election, McCain can still press his advantage on foreign policy. But not with I-told-you-sos. Re-arguing the surge is almost as counterproductive as re-arguing the war itself. Elections are about the future. McCain doesn’t need to explain why he’d be a better commander in chief. Voters already acknowledge his superior judgment on foreign policy by huge margins. He needs to explain why, going forward, we’ll need that judgment.

All eyes on U of L Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:03:00 EST
University of Louisville President Jim Ramsey has taken several steps toward bolstering public confidence -- first by promising an independent audit of the way his institution monitors grants.

A blow against evil Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:03:00 EST
The civil wars and ethnic cleansing that marked the breakup of Yugoslavia evoked a frightening flashback to a Europe that most people hoped had been interred decades earlier in the ashes of the Nazi regime.

'Baffled' by praise Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:04:00 EST
In light of the ongoing federal grant investigation at the University of Louisville, I am again baffled by former Rep. Anne Northup's recent statement about former dean Robert Felner -- that he "did a good job at U of L."

Readers' voices on U.S. health care system Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:10:00 EST
I want to thank The Courier-Journal for beginning the series on the health care crisis in our country.

The media's biggest bias Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:11:00 EST
A respected group of media researchers has found that Barack Obama gets a lot more coverage than John McCain. I didn't need a think tank to tell me that. After all, Madonna gets more coverage than McCain does, too, even when she doesn't want it -- although it is hard to imagine when she wouldn't.

Book details slavery by another name Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:11:00 EST
He was walking one evening from the train depot in Goodwater, Ala., when a white man appeared in the road. "N -- -- ," he demanded, "have you got any money?" The white man, Robert Franklin, was a constable. He claimed Davis owed him. This was news to Davis.

Handicapping the veepstakes Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:12:00 EST
In this corner, we have Stormin' Mormon Mitt Romney. In the other, we have Brain-Buster Bobby Jindal.

Summer civility and the promise of more to come Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:12:00 EST
New York in July, hot and breezy, the smell of pizza and coffee in the air, and on the subway one is surrounded by women in light summer dresses, the bare shoulders of elegant young urban women whose shoulders tell you they never toted barges or lifted bales, never laid eyes on a barge or a bale except for someone barging into their office and giving them a baleful look.

Louisville Housing Dept.. Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:01:00 EST

Readers' views Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:51 EDT

Going green good for businessin Bluegrass

The recent carbon footprint story, while shedding light on the Lexington area's negative standing, serves as a wake-up call.

Making the Bluegrass green is an opportunity to bring all of us together to make our regional community a healthier place for all, including our visitors.

Economic development, attracting and keeping residents, tourism development and regional planning impact carbon footprints. Conservation, preservation and greening should be put at the top of everyone's agenda.

Fears about 2nd Bush term have come to pass Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:51 EDT

John Ed Pearce, Kentucky's Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, was a Herald-Leader columnist from 1990 until his death in 2006. Since he was an outspoken critic of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq, his columns often aroused the ire of readers. But to those of us who admired his wit, wisdom and eloquence, he had no equal.

Pearce, a Navy officer during World War II, understood the brutal nature of war. In a scathing indictment of it, Pearce included the grisly details to remind readers that horror and heartbreak are the bitter fruits of all wars, even when wars are .sanitized. by carefully selected embedded journalists.

Shortly before the 2004 presidential election, I e-mailed Pearce to express my appreciation for his work and share my concerns about the war and the coming election. He replied quickly, thanked me for writing and remarked that most of his e-mails were .the other kind.. I have never forgotten the last five words of that e-mail.

Referring to the election, he mentioned the possibility of President Bush winning another four-year term. If that should happen, he said, .I fear for our country..

Don't punish exploited kids Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:14 EDT

This editorial appeared in The New York Times.

Of the approximately 1.5 million children who will run away from home this year, tens of thousands will spend time working for sexual predators and selling their bodies on the streets.

According to one federal estimate, the average age of a child first used as a prostitute is between 11 and 14, but victims as young as 9 are not uncommon. Many of the sexually exploited runaways have been neglected or abandoned by families that will never report them as missing.

Blame officials for CentrePointe Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:51 EDT

Throughout the months since CentrePointe was sprung fully fledged on the community in March, many people have assailed The Webb Companies' secretive and inflexible approach.

While we give no pass to Dudley and Woodford Webb, they are private developers whose final fealty will always be to their own self-interest. We can expect nothing more.

More troubling is the array of public officials who looked the other way when the community's interests were potentially at odds with the Webbs': Mayor Jim Newberry; Harold Tate, president of the Downtown Development Authority; and the staff and members of the Courthouse Area Design Review Board.

Repeatedly, the individuals and institutions created to protect and invigorate our small, historic downtown failed to uphold their trust.

Unjust blows from Patriot Act Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:09 EDT

Twice now in the last four months, Lexington has seen victims of terror punished by a post-9/11 law that was supposed to protect us from terror.

In the first case, Transylvania University student Lino Nakwa faces deportation to his native Sudan, where he would be in danger of being killed, because he was kidnapped as a 12-year-old and held in a terrorist group's training camp.

Under the U.S.A. Patriot Act, that involuntary association was enough to exclude him from remaining in this country, despite an exemplary record and even though his younger siblings are here.

After a letter-writing campaign and intervention by Kentucky elected officials, Nakwa's case is awaiting review by homeland security chief Michael Chertoff.

Beshear deaf to listening tour's sour notes Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:09 EDT

FRANKFORT . Gov. Steve Beshear has gone tone-deaf in a big way about his 13-stop listening tour of the state (after which he hopes to hear that his lowly approval ratings have risen).

At a time when state services are being slashed and state workers face the prospect of potential layoffs, blowing thousands of tax dollars to fly key administration personnel to various stops on the tour creates a public-perception disaster for him.

At a time of high fuel costs, flying those aides around wastes even more tax dollars than usual.

And at a time when he and state lawmakers are stepping on one another's toes trying to position themselves as the greenest politician in Kentucky, particularly in regard to energy conservation, sucking up the extra fuel that flying requires makes him look like a hypocrite of the first order.

$ Wrecking ball $ Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:05 EDT

Direct Kick: Time to name SL baseball field after G.J. Smith

A Canuck in Kantuck: ‘Cause I’m a woman, W-O-M-A-N

Musings: Mosquitos and songs and cell phones, oh my!

Chinese Dir