Redstate

Posted at 5:44pm on Jun. 25, 2008 Gov. Bobby Jindal Signs Bill to Chemically Castrate Sex Offenders

Not Even Slightly Veiled Translation: Hey SCOTUS, Suck It

By Ben Domenech

On the heels of today's SCOTUS decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana barring the death penalty for sex offenders, Gov. Bobby Jindal released a statement calling the ruling an "affront to the people of Louisiana" - and what's more, vowing to do whatever possible to amend the state’s laws in order to maintain the death penalty for child rape.

But that's not all he did.

Today, Gov. Jindal signed the "Sex Offender Chemical Castration Bill," authorizing the castration of convicted sex offenders. They get a choice: physical or chemical. Oh, and they don't just get castrated and leave - they still have to serve out their sentence.

More below the fold:

Posted in Bobby Jindal | Breaking News | Crime | Death Penalty | Louisiana | scotus — Comments (51)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:05pm on Dec. 21, 2007 Schwarzenegger Considering Release of 12% of California's Prison Population

Good thing we're getting free health care for the future victims of those 22,000 criminals

By Neil Stevens

After California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger fought Republicans for months over their pesky demands that we cut spending to prevent a disastrous budget deficit, it turns out that gee, we're facing a disastrous budget deficit after all! The conservatives were right.

So how does the Governor want to go about saving some money that we can't afford to spend? He's weighing the early release of 22,000 of the state's 172,000 prison inmates in order to save a few hundred million dollars we would spend keeping society safer.

Read on...

Posted in Arnold Schwarzenegger | Budget | California | Crime | girly man | Policy | Republicans | Spending — Comments (12)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 3:46am on Nov. 11, 2007 Don Hugo

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

All we need now is a big shindig for his daughter's wedding and a semi-articulate thug hoping that Hugo Chavez's first grandchild is a masculine child and the imitation will be complete and convincing. Except that Don Corleone was a whole lot more classy than this:

While President Hugo Chavez has been molding Venezuela into his personal socialist vision, other transformations -- less visible but equally profound -- have taken hold in the country.

Venezuela has become a major hub for international crime syndicates. What attracts them is not the local market; what they really love are the excellent conditions Venezuela offers to anyone in charge of managing a global criminal network.

A nation at the crossroads of South America, the Caribbean, North America and Europe, Venezuela's location is ideal. Borders? Long, scantly populated and porous. Financial system? Large and with easy-to-evade governmental controls. Telecommunications, ports and airports? The best that oil money can buy. U.S. influence? Nil. Corrupt politicians, cops, judges and military officers? Absolutely: Transparency International ranked Venezuela a shameful 162 out of 179 counties on its corruption perception index. Chavez's demonstrated interest in confronting criminal networks during his eight years in power? Not much.

While this situation has so far been rather invisible to the rest of the world, it is patently clear to those in charge of fighting transnational crime. Anti-trafficking officials in Europe, the United States, Asia and other Latin American countries are paying unprecedented attention to Venezuela. These officials are not particularly interested in Venezuelan politics or in Chavez's policies. All they care about is that the tentacles of these global criminal networks are spreading from Venezuela into their countries with enormous power and at great speed.

The numbers speak volumes: About 75 tons of cocaine left Venezuela in 2003; it is estimated that 276 tons will leave the country this year. Before, the main destination was the United States; now, Europe is increasingly the target. Italy and Spain are two new important and lucrative end-user markets, and earning in euros is undeniably better than getting paid in dollars these days.

A senior Dutch police officer told me that he and his European colleagues are spending more time in Caracas than in Bogota, Colombia, and that the heads of many of the major criminal cartels now operate with impunity, and effectiveness, from Venezuela. The cartel bosses aren't exclusively Colombians -- there are Asians (especially Chinese) and Europeans too. Caracas' most posh neighborhoods are home to important kingpins from around the world, including some from Belarus, a country that Chavez notably has visited several times.

This is what Naomi Campbell and Sean Penn celebrated? Charming. Pity the Venezuelan people in your spare moments. They must suffer not only the incompetence of a dictator but also the indifference of the superstar set.

Posted in Crime | Foreign Affairs | Hugo Chavez — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »