I also just read this article... It is a good article...

Good job Rew! You are very brave!!!!

(:?)

FreetoBreathe,

It is not so much about bravery, but more about getting the truth out. Some people might not want to believe the truth, but here it is with maps, graphs, statistics, and links.

The cause of many of these problems were not cause by the mother and dad who take their children down to the corner church to worship God. The families who worship God do not play into this.

The problem exists with the conservatives----usually Republicans----who happen to be the ultra right wing politicians.

The problem is with the Jim Bakkers, Jimmy Swaggarts, Pat Robertsons, and the king of them all-----Jerry Falwell, who is now deceased. The point of the article was that the radical Christians immersed themselves in politics about the time of the Reagan administration to put this country on the wrong road. These leaders of the radical evangelicals played a prominent role in the "tough on crime" attitude which led to many of these sex offender laws.

Just look at the statistics and arguments the guy makes.

I am apolitical and if it was the Democratic party that was mostly responsible for this mess, I would have posted that too. If it was the liberals or progressives that helped put our criminal justice system on life support, I would have acknowledged that fact.

I am just a guy trying to support everyone who is affected. I certainly have no axe to grind in all this. I just want solutions, not excuses.

This has NOTHING to do with religion, but everything to do with facts.

I don't see how anyone with any common sense can read that article, look at all the research, follow all the links and not come to the conclusion that the conservative Republicans have played a prominent role in the plight of our country and especially of the criminal justice system.

Some might deny it or that these groups were responsible, but they need to look at the cold facts and pull their heads out of the sand. If we are ever to make any progress, we need to be aware of who is causing the problem and quit voting for these politicians.

We as registrants have a voice and it is very unwise to keep voting the same people in that continue and continue to pass these laws.

We need to stop voting against our own self-interests.

Just my two cents.

rewdiazepam

Rew... My Dad would dispute the facts no matter what. I tell him all the time that you can find any fact that you want to believe on the internet if you look long enough. He constantly tells me how good a product is based on the reviews he reads even though over 1/2 of them are written by people who are paid to write them.

The coming of the internet has good things and bad things and most people can't separate the two. And we certainly have not kept up with the technology! 20 years ago we didn't know as much information as what's available today.

But the facts in the article are hard to deny. The civil war never ended nor has racism. I learned a long time ago what topics to avoid in conversation.Most of the people I know are transplants from up north. Not to say that I haven't found any southern friends because I have. Just not so many.

The republican party is melting. Have you ever seen an election with 20 people from one party running? Not very unified. There just aren't enough fat, rich folks left to make a coalition but there are still a few rich enough to steal our vote. Citizens United MUST be repealed. It turned our electoral process back into a money game. People running for president should have a level playing ground paid for by the public, not by a few billionaires...

FreetoBreathe,

You said, "Rew... My Dad would dispute the facts no matter what. I tell him all the time that you can find any fact that you want to believe on the internet if you look long enough."

I agree, but look at the map. The Bible Belt states are "red" states controlled by the Republican party, which is conservative politically and a big supporter of the evangelical Christian movement.

The red states have a higher incarceration rate, are "tougher on crime", are generally pro-death penalty, and have much harsher sex offender laws than the blue, democratic states.

Is this just some kind of coincidence? I say no.

These statistics that are very difficult to dispute.

rewdiazepam

Religion has been used over many millenia to control the masses... It is the most effective way to get a group of people to agree and turn against another group of people ruthlessly.

There have been more wars fought since the beginning of man that were exclusively about religion and one belief system against another. The fact that our politicians (both parties, I am an equal opportunity condemner) are using this long time tried and true method of getting what they want from the people, it shouldn't be a surprise.

I never associate any political party as 'friendlier' or 'less oppressive' than another. Wisconsin has proven all those stereotypes to be false.... Yes Truth in sentencing was brought by Tommy Thompson, who was a republican... Then Doyle, a democrat was in there for years and created a slew of SO laws bringing them very close to compliance with the AWA although not enough. Walker has done no one any favors even though Doyle was running the whole state in to the ground too. There are no 'good' politicians, because by the time they reach anywhere with any power they have been corrupted by the players in the political game, this applies to all political parties...

Don't wish for the lesser of two evils... Vote them all out and start something new... All freshmen all the time... :)

Rew... I agree with you. You don't know my Dad. I cannot absolutely discuss any politics with him without an argument. So that's taboo!

I agree Rew. I used to be a staunch Republican. I would have never thought about voting for anyone but a Republican.

After going through this crap, I've seen that it's the Republican Party that pushes a lot of theses policies. I am now an Independent. If I see myself as part of any party - it would be the Libertarian Party.

Dems are more willing to have a dialogue about reforms than Repubs, at least that had been my observation.

Being willing to talk about it and doing something about it are 2 very different things in my opinion. This has to do with politics of getting re-elected. Once those positions to "represent the people" became a career rather than a service to their communities is when they just stopped caring about their communities.

Neither party has done us any favors. I know in WI the worst SO laws were passed by a Dem controlled state. I don't remember exactly but I don't think that the US houses were GOP controlled either when the AWA was passed.

Just because it would appear that Dems are more receptive, they are just performing the politician dance with anyone that comes to them. Remember their whole schtick is to be for the 'common citizen', for the minorities, etc. But their actions have spoken and I have yet to be convinced that any party will ever be really on our side unless there is something in it for them. Now the rate of SOs in this country only make the numbers of voting family members grow. This is a motivating factor for the politicians of this world. If they need the votes of the family and friends of SOs, we would have 'real' power over them. Unfortunately we don't use it either. Be it out of fear, out of not agreeing on a candidate, or because we are all human and we are not going to agree all the time. Either way we do have the power as citizens of this country we just don't use it effectively and we have been slowly trained over several generations to not care enough to do anything about it.

Neither political party has been good for sex offenders. Each party is so scared to be seen as coddling sex offenders that both parties have hurt us.

The conservatives might have introduced more sex offender legislation, but the democrats have no backbone, so they just go along.

I think we should not be concentrating so much on the political parties per se, but whether a party is liberal---progressive---or conservative. Our group has a much greater chance for some relief with the progressives than the conservatives---and Republicans are conservatives.

But the conservative party has indeed been the party of "tough on crime" throughout the last few decades. All you have to do is look at their voting record. The tough on crime aspect is part of their political platform.

But I have to be fair-----The ill-fated War on Drugs has Joe Biden's fingerprints all over it. He pushed for the mandatory minimums and several other aspects which filled our prisons with low level offenders. Also, Joe was a co-author of the Adam Walsh Act.

In my home state----and many in the Bible Belt----the Republican conservatives are as deadly as a bucket of rattlesnakes on offenders, the middle class, women's rights, etc.

The Republicans also fought gay marriage tooth and nail---to a much greater extent than the Democrats. I am for gay marriage, not because I am gay ha ha, but because I am a huge proponent of equal rights for all our citizens, even the right to marry. We are the last group of people who EVER needs to be against a group to be treated equally.

And if you read the article and see that the "red" states, the Republican conservative states----who have supported the evangelical Christians over the years---are the states that are at the top of the list in all the bad categories and at the bottom of the list in all the good categories, it is hard to deny the bad effect they have had on their citizens.

rewdiazepam

I agree with both of you. CA is a blue state, and it has one of the harshest SO laws (right up there with the Bible Belt states).

I don't like to label people at all... cause no one agrees on everything... so saying one is conservative or progressive seems so finite.

Possibly as lines of thought but as groups to label people with, not so much.

Because while I am an advocate for the SO, I am also a staunch supporter of the 2nd amendment and our right to keep and bear arms... the two 'groups' that support each of those ideas don't agree on either of them.

Which is why I thought the article was worth posting, because it showed all of the states, the correlations between how different groups of folks vote no matter how it affects them long term. Those most affected by the laws appear to also be those that are easily motivated when the right tactics are used. Much of that being how they practice religion and now integrated in to their daily lives it is.

Democrat or Republican, Liberal or Conservative, it is the extreme religious faction of this country that has put our criminal justice system on life support.

They have a habit of deciding what is right or wrong for the rest of us and imposing their morality on everyone.

You can easily see the effect that evangelical extreme religion has had on the states. Nobody can deny that.

rewdiazepam

That's what I am getting at Rew. Religion has been used to control longer than there has been any political parties.. and it has been effective in most of those cases for a time... Think of all the crusades, dark ages and things that have gone on in human history that just repeat themselves in different eras.

To quote the 'Great One' Jackie Gleason, "And away we go".
I tried to stay out of this, I really did, but....
Let's start off right here.
DailyKos...."US current events from a liberal perspective". It's on their website. Hardly unbiased.
Raw story, also self described as liberal/progressive.
Floating Sheep? And they have the nerve to call conservatives and Christians hateful? Hell, according to them, I'm a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klowns because I am simply conservative and, though right now, Agnostic(NOT ATHEIST) Christian.
Rew, according to you and some others on here, if you are an SO or family of an SO, you HAVE to be a liberal.
The re authorization of the AWA was co-sponsored by Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-FL, who is also the DNC Chairman. It was passed UNANIMOUSLY! Meaning both sides.
2006, AWA . Dem co sponsors,
Dennis Moore-D-KS.
Earl Pomeroy-D-ND.
Leonard Boswell-D-IA.
Robert Cramer-D-AL.(One of those nasty southern people)
Ben Chandler-D-KY.(Another one of them).
The AWA passed UNANIMOUSLY.

The southern states have a higher incarceration rate? Probably, I won't argue that.
Let us talk about the Dem controlled states.
IL. specifically Chicago(By no means the only city in IL). Strictest gun laws in the Country yet has one of the highest gun violence rates, mostly Black on Black.
Detroit, same thing and one of the most poverty stricken cities in the Country.
Baltimore, Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Los Angeles,, San Francisco, Oakland. Hell, I could spend all night on just this. Liberalism is like a cancer, every place they get control it fails. HELL, the Chinese had Warships in our waters(Bejing also confirmed it) in Alaska when Obozo was there. WTF? Iraq may have been wrong, I won't argue that.(Astan on the other hand can be debated) BUT, we were committed. By pulling out too early? Well we can see what is now happening, you know, like Obozo said, ISIS is just the "JV Team".
"We have a better chance with 'Progressives' than Conservatives"? Seriously? Neither give a shit about you or anyone else but themselves. Refer to above.
Here are the Dems main talking point right now.
Race issues. Racial divides had been getting better until the Divider in Chief. When a White Cop kills a Black suspect, all hell is raised, never mind that most of the time the suspect pulled a gun or assaulted the cop. Where is the Lib press and Al "The Race Baiter" Sharpton when the White Cop is Assasinated by a Black suspect while putting gas in his car?
Anyone who knows me will tell you that i am far from racist. I take a man for who he is, not what he is, so that lie about conservatives being racist is, well, a lie. Here's a bit of VERIFIABLE history. it was the SOUTHERN DEMOCRAT CHRISTIANS who were the Slave owners, including Jeff Davis. The KKK was started by DEMOCRATS and it's first leader was fmr Confederate General and Slave Trader Nathan Bedford Forrest, a DEMOCRAT.

Income equality? So, I work my ass off(My last paycheck I had 35 hrs overtime) so I can give my money to those that won't? I have no problem with those that CAN'T work(Not fakers). My niece is severely handicapped and will never be able to work, but why the hell should i pay for 'Obozo phones".(I know some who have them, and brag that they don't have to pay).
Don't know about you, but I've never been hired by a 'Pauper'.

War against women? Really? Carlie Fiorina, fmr CEO of HP and good contender for the GOP Nomination? Madeline Albright? Condie Rice? Brunhilde Clinton? All fmr Secretaries of State? How about Loretta Lynch, USAG. Sonya Sotomayor, R.G Ginsberg, Elena Kagen? All current SCOTUS Justices(All also Dems). Brunhilda Clinton charges 225,000 per speech. Yep, You're right, her income is definetley un equal to mine.

For the record, i have a gay Uncle and even some gay friends. That is their business, they know I don't approve of it, but they respect my feelings as i do theirs. However, I am against gay marriage. I have no problem with Civil Unions, but not marriage. My Uncle has been with his partner for almost 20 yrs and he is not sure about marriage, as in traditional.

I have a lot more to say, but it is getting late, but I will leave y'all with this question.
Is pushing the Gay agenda in my face any different than a Christian pushing their beliefs in your face? Hmm?