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/ October 5, 2005 06:24 AM |
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In a move that I think everyone can agree is common sense -- except for sex offenders with impotency -- Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill banning the state health care system from paying for Viagra for poor sex offenders. I still don't understand why taxpayers should end up paying for anyone's Viagra, but especially in the case of a sex offender. If anything, erectile dysfunction drugs should be outlawed to anyone with sex offender status.
In addition Schwarzenegger also signed bills allowing children to testify in court via closed circuit television, prohibiting parents from having custody of their children if the parent lives with a registered sex offender, blocking the state's Department of Mental Health from placing sexually violent patients near schools after release from treatment and allowing state and local officials to use global positioning systems to monitor parolees.
Washington Post
Federal support for subsidized Viagra was curtailed earlier this year when a New York state audit found nearly 200 sex offenders benefiting from the program.
Schwarzenegger then asked state agencies to stop prescribing the drugs to sex offenders and asked lawmakers to pass a bill that would outlaw the coverage.
Sounds good to me. Now about those illegal aliens getting Viagra and other prescriptions and health care on the taxpayers dime...
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Posted by Digger on October 5, 2005 06:24 AM (Permalink)
I disagree if anything the goverment should pay for more of illegal immigrants healthcare costs. Illegal immigrants are among the worst losers in taxpayer-spending distrubution. Contrary to popular ideas illegal immigrants don't largely don't recieve many benefits recieved by the poor not only because of bieng ineligible but also due to bieng afraid to pursue benifits due to thier illegal status. Frankly not giving them benifits has many bad consequences such as (denying access to public shools ensuring) their children are more likely to become part of a poor underclass, and in this case (healthcare) driving up medical costs due to emergency room visits. The problem is that besides sales taxes the ill. aliens mostly pay payroll taxes which go to the federal goverment (and of course this helps tax revenues greatly as they don't consume social security or medicare). The solution is for the fedaral goverment to refund some of that revenue to the states as they are the ones largely responsible for providing ill. aliens with benifits (I am not wholy sure of this point).
Posted by: rtaycher1987 on January 13, 2006 05:47 PM
I'm not going to let this comment go without the truth being told.
Contrary to popular ideas illegal immigrants don't largely don't recieve many benefits recieved by the poor not only because of bieng ineligible but also due to bieng afraid to pursue benifits due to thier illegal status
This is totally wrong. It is currently illegal in most states for welfare services to ask someones status in this country. On top of that, those with children born in the US automatically qualify. Then on top of that their children -- who aren't suppose to be here either -- get special services in schools for English as a second language, a program that is suppose to be for citizens and those here legally not for some freeloading illegal alien lawbreaker.
The problem is that besides sales taxes the ill. aliens mostly pay payroll taxes which go to the federal goverment
You're not paying payroll taxes when you work under the table -- and neither does the employer. Your naivete of the tax system pretty much discounts everything you say above regarding taxes.
Payroll taxes are only withheld when you actually fill out a W-4, which these illegal aliens don't do because they don't have a social security number because they're here illegally!. I bet you didn't know that on average an employer kicks in an additional 30% on top of what your paycheck is to the government as their form of payroll taxes did you?
When you get paid $10 bucks an hour your taxes are withheld, but the employer is actually paying $3-$4 dollars an hour to the government on your behalf as well. This is the reason employers hire illegal aliens. They can pay them $6 an hour and they don't have to pay the extra in payroll taxes because the employee isn't on the books. The illegal alien isn't going to say anything because they're getting near what they would get if taxes were taken out anyway and because they're illegal.
As far as your opinions on the health care system, they are bunk. Illegal aliens routinely use the emergency room for any ailment they have, whether it is their child having a cold or a skinned knee. Because they're not insured and can't pay and because, by law, emergency rooms have to service pretty much anyone, they're stealing hundreds of dollars per visit from tax payers and those with health insurance.
All of this on top of the fact that they're not even suppose to be here
Frankly not giving them benifits has many bad consequences such as (denying access to public shools ensuring) their children are more likely to become part of a poor underclass...
They're not suppose to be here and therefore we should not have to bear the burden to support them.
The solution is for the fedaral goverment to refund some of that revenue to the states as they are the ones largely responsible for providing ill. aliens with benifits (I am not wholy sure of this point).
You finally got one point right. The states bear the entire burden of illegal aliens. The federal government, under current law, is suppose to be keep them out though. Rather than allowing the problem to continue and subsidizing illegal aliens by reimbursing states for their costs the federal government should do their job and keep the illegal aliens out of here in the first place. They shouldn't give up as you suggest above.
Do a little more research on the true costs of illegal aliens. You can start in the immigration archives, where you can quickly find that it costs billions and billions just in California alone to deal with these friendly, freeloading lawbreakers from the south.
Posted by: Digger on January 13, 2006 11:33 PM
Posted by: Digger on January 13, 2006 11:48 PM
This is what we need now, enough coddling of these offenders. We need to protect our oved ones and stop giving offenders all the rights, Sex Offender Legislation “Wish List”
1- GPS and lifetime supervision/treatment Law The failure of today's solutions regarding sexual offenders is because we are stuck in the strategy of “public notification” rather than “controlling offenders”. The current model puts the burden on parents rather than offenders, and makes the wrong people work to prevent abuse. Remotely (GPS) knowing where an offender is at all times throughout his lifetime can help to prevent that offender from creating new cases of sexual abuse.
2- Include all known offenders in the management plan-for life. It is wrong to include just those under supervision since the Meagan’s Law was written. People do not ever age out of this behavior so why an old is charge less important than a new charge. Sexual offences are the most under reported crimes (according to the FBI). The fact that a molester has not been arrested recently does not necessarily means he has not offended. In my opinion all offenders should be included in any plan, regardless of when their offense occurred. I believe some states have done this already.
3- Put all offenders , levels I, II or III on the website . I believe Florida does this. The leveling tool is very poor and pedophiles often end up with only a level I because they did not use force, and they superficially complied with treatment. The way the leveling system works pedophilic “groomers” who do not use force (and are the most busy of all offenders with hundreds of victims) are often not level III’s and therefore are able to have their offense relatively unknown. In New York for example offenders can lawyer up and reduce the “level” they get at their hearing. Molesters can assert they are “non violent”, “sober”, ect, and get the “points” reduced or get the judge to “override” the scale. Currently the public notification system is failing. All offenders of all levels should be on the website.
4- “Victim Shield Law”. As you know one of the few protections we offer rape victims is “Rape shield laws”, in order to at least try and prevent a rape victim’s sexual history from being put on trial rather than the rapist. In child sexual abuse cases there are no “Rape shield laws” to prevent the victim, or the victim’s family (often the mother) from being made the center of negative attention. In the past defense lawyers for rapists would portray rape victims as promiscuous, today child molester’s lawyers portray victims and victim’s mothers as manipulative, litigious, unreliable, angry, mentally ill, sociopathic, medicated, or undedicated. Because we as a society love to blame women, especially mothers, molesters have been able to harness the misogyny in our culture in order to escape responsibility for their offences. Like the old rape cases that would revolve around the victims sexual past, today molester cases revolve around a child or a mother’s real or fictional problems instead of the focus of attention being the sexual abuse committed by the offender. I do not know if there can ever be a “victim shield law” to prevent the victim/victim’s mother being put on trial rather than the molester, but I know it would help victims avoid being re-traumatized in the system and help society hold sexual offenders accountable. One of the things to always remember with offenders is they are control seekers, and will take any opportunity to attack rather than just defend. They feel entitled to their behavior and see being held accountable as an injustice they are being forced to suffer, and they have zero guilt in harming any number of people (even their children) in order to escape the consequences they deserve.
5- Plea deals down to “Endangering the welfare of a minor”. Despite the underlying behavior being the sexual abuse of children offenders are often given convictions that hide the nature of their behavior. When this happens offenders can get employment that gives them access to children, offenders are not on the State Sex Offender Registry. The other consequence to their being given non-sexual charges is that it cuts their supervision time in half. Misdemeanor sex offences carry 6 years probation supervision but “Endangering the welfare of a minor” carries only three. I feel the law should be changed so offenders cannot be given non-sexual abuse charges.
6- Make “Endangering the welfare of a minor” registerable , if the judge feels it was a sexually motivated crime. The registry is to narrow and limited as to what crimes can be registered. Laws be changed so “endangering the welfare of a minor” is registerable when the behavior or motivation was sexual.
7- “Standardized” conditions for those on sex offender probation. Right now offenders with good lawyers can get specific (or all) sex offender conditions removed from their sexual offender conditions of probation. This means that sexual offenders are on probation but are allowed to drink alcohol, work with children, have computers, go to bars, and do other things that will create a higher risk for the community. I feel there should be a “Statewide Sex Offender Conditions of Probation” that conditions cannot be removed from (but conditions can be added to suite the offenders issues).
8- Sexual Offender Contraband law- Strangely it is legal for sexual offenders off probation to own all kinds of things such as handcuffs, police lights, spy cameras, and software to make their internet behavior more anonymous.
9- Sex Offender use of technology law- When bank robbers use technology such as wearing body armor the penalties are increased, why are sex offender allowed to use any technology without added consequences. Offenders choose the internet because it allows greater access to children and greater anonymity. They should be punished for use of technology to harm a child. (technology such as Computers, digital cameras, webcams, ect)
10- “Secrecy Bind Law” The offender getting his victim to not report the crime he committed should be a separate crime that he suffers added consequences for. The pain that a victim suffers because the offender threatened, tricked, or manipulated the victim into silence should be seen as a separate and deserving of added consequences.
11- “Parental Alienation Syndrome” is a pseudo syndrome that is being used to get offenders off the hook by saying (incorrectly) that sexual abuse allegations come from a manipulative ex- playing head games with a child rather than because the child was actually molested. This “Parental Alienation Syndrome” is not a legitimate disorder, has not been subjected to peer review, has been ignored for 20 years by the APA, AMA, NASW, ECT because it is just a sophisticated way to say your wife is crazy and turned everyone against you. It is being pushed by hired guns such as Doctors, PhD’s, and lawyers to get their child molesting clients out of trouble. It is a favorite of the “Fathers Rights” groups who see men as victims of the Family Court system. By the way, these “Fathers rights” groups, “wrongly accused” groups, and “victims of allegations” groups are very organized and spend a good deal of time and energy networking and paying professionals. These angry, entitled molesters are organized and work hard, and I feel we need to work just as hard against them. My point is I feel we need some legislation to block this fake disorder from being used in court.
Posted by: Sex Offender Legislation “Wish List” on March 2, 2006 11:00 PM
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