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Cheer - The Daily Orange would like to extend a warm and long overdue cheer to stupidity. Yes, the ageless bane of mankind has just claimed its 37 billionth victim. A state Supreme Court judge demanded earlier this week to know what "idiot" it was that granted bail to a three-time convicted burglar who then went on to commit another 17 break-and-enter offenses in two months. Judge Dean Mildren asked, "Who is the idiot that did that?" in regards to what judge it was that actually granted the bail. It was then discovered that it was Mildren himself who granted the bail. The verdict is that Justice Mildren unfortunately forgot that he was responsible. Way to go, idiot.
A Newton County woman has lost her attempt to get the Missouri Supreme Court to strike down as unconstitutional two statutes governing how the state's child-welfare system operates.
The state's high court has upheld the Newton County Circuit Court's termination of the parental rights of Gloria Owens, 48, in November 2002 with respect to her two youngest daughters, now 13 and 11.
The Children's Services Division of Missouri's Department of Social Services, then known as the Division of Family Services, had removed the five youngest of Owens' nine children in September 1999, alleging that Owens had neglected to provide the care and support necessary for their well-being. More specifically, the state alleged that her trailer home on Jaguar Road was dirty, that some of the children had chronic head lice, and that they were not all properly immunized and enrolled in school.
The oldest of the five children, a daughter then 17, was returned to Owens' care almost immediately after the removal because the state lacked jurisdiction. But the other four were placed in foster care, and the state eventually terminated her parental rights with respect to the two youngest. The state said Owens had failed to schedule visits with her children or to provide support for them while they were in foster care, and that she had failed to take the steps necessary to obtain living conditions in which they might be reunited with her.
Owens appealed the termination to the Missouri Supreme Court last year, and oral arguments were heard in December. Her attorney, Sherrie Hansen of Pineville, argued that two Missouri laws - providing for removal of children from their homes if an "emergency" exists and for the initiation of termination proceedings if a child remains in foster care for 15 of the most recent 22 months - should be struck down as unconstitutional.
The high court unanimously rejected those arguments in an opinion handed down this week.
"We're pleased that the court determined that we acted in the best interest of the children," said Deb Hendricks, public-information coordinator for the Department of Social Services.
Oh such sickening sanctimony
Hendricks declined further comment on the case.
Owens could not be reached for comment. But Hansen said her client, who has not seen either of the two girls in question since February 2001, was extremely disappointed with the ruling. Hansen said she has not yet decided if she will file a motion for a rehearing before the state's high court or possibly seek redress in the U.S. Supreme Court.
In ruling that the state acted properly in terminating Owens' parental rights, the state court reiterated an opinion it handed down in January in an Audrain County case that also challenged the constitutionality of the "15-of-22 rule." The court held in both cases that no constitutional issue exists because the statute is not a legal ground for termination of parental rights but merely the trigger for the filing of a termination petition.
The court also declined to address Owens' challenge of the statute empowering social workers and juvenile officers to remove children when an "emergency" exists, a challenge that had some potential to alter substantially how Missouri's child-welfare system operates.
Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr. wrote in the opinion summary: "The mother voluntarily
consented to the court's jurisdiction over her children, voluntarily transferred their custody to the division and
never challenged the circumstances of their
removal. Accordingly, she cannot now challenge whether an 'emergency' existed to justify removal of the children under (the statute in question) and this court need not address such a challenge."
And there is the gospel we
preach 24/7/365. If you don't get your version of history ON THE RECORD,
you have no appealable issues.
Hansen said the effect of the opinion will be to allow the state's child-welfare system to continue operating in "too subjective" a manner, unnecessarily removing some children "at the whim of social workers and juvenile officers."
"The division and juvenile offices can continue defining 'emergency' to fit the
circumstances," Hansen said.
She said the consent to which the court referred was a document that was never brought out in court until the Missouri attorney general's office brought it up in oral arguments before the Supreme Court. The document was a consent to temporary custody of the children, and
Owens claims she did not understand it when she signed
it.
"Gloria was told if she signed, it would give DFS the right to get medical treatment for her children while they were in (the state's) care," Hansen said.
She said Owens did not realize the full legal effect of the consent she signed.
The high court used the consent to decline to consider various due-process claims Owens had made about the initiation of termination proceedings, including her claim that she had gone two years without a court hearing in the case.
Limbaugh wrote: "Regardless, although this Court in no way condones the failure to comply with the various statutes and regulations, such a failure does not deprive a court (the circuit court) of jurisdiction, nor is there any statutory consequence for failure to comply."
Hansen said the decision sends a clear warning to Missouri parents whose children have been removed from their
care.
"Don't sign anything," she said. "Get an attorney immediately.
And
help your attorney And request a hearing immediately."
On the news I see a story of Guards in California beating an inmate at a juvenile center ... Hitting one at least 28 times...... Local authorities say there is No proof (never mind the video tape on world news) there was a crime.. because the guards are claiming the 5th......
If THAT doesn't show the POWER these people have, I don't know what does
LINCOLN, Neb. – The doctor who led the fight to get the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down Nebraska's ban on a controversial abortion procedure testified Thursday that a similar federal law would affect nearly all abortions performed after the first trimester.
"There are at least 21 different procedures that it covers," Dr. LeRoy Carhart said during a court challenge of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, signed last year by President Bush. "There are terms in this act that I do not understand ... and that have many definitions."
The law, which has yet to be enforced, would bar a procedure that medical organizations refer to as "intact dilation and extraction" – or D&X.
During the procedure, generally performed in the second trimester, a fetus is partially delivered and its skull is punctured.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly 900,000 U.S. children were neglected or abused in 2002 and
1,400 died as a result (at
least HALF of which child deaths are in state custody), the U.S. Health and Human Services department reported on Thursday.
Although there has been an improvement in the situation over the previous decade, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson said in a statement, "The abuse of children remains a national tragedy that demands our commitment and action."
Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona announced he would create a working group to focus attention on the problem and find ways to tackle it.
Statistics gathered by the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System showed child protective service agencies received
2.6 million reports of possible maltreatment in 2002. Of these,
896,000 were substantiated(which
is definitely NOT the same thing as "proven") and most involved
neglect.
The problem isn't REAL
abuse. The problem is the new DEFINITIONS to pull more parents into the
meat grinder.
HHS said the rate of child neglect and abuse allegations
in 2002 was about 20 percent lower than the rate in 1993, when maltreatment
allegations peaked at an estimated 15.3 out of every 1,000 children. The rate is now 12.3 out of every 1,000 children.
Carmona said it was appropriate for public health officials to become involved in child abuse and neglect.
"While child maltreatment has traditionally been thought of as a criminal justice
issue, (Oh really?
OK, CRIMINALIZE it so everybody gets out of the unconstitutional Civil/Criminal
gray area) it is also very much a public health issue," Carmona said in a statement.
You bet it's a public health
issue. Being falsely accused of child abuse and the ensuing Legal
Abuse is destroying people's lives, their health, and reducing them to
poverty, just trying to prove a negative- that nothing happened.
"The wrenching mental and physical health effects of child maltreatment continue for that child
long after he or she is placed in a safe
environment. Of course,
the long term effects of being kidnapped and put in foster carceration has
nothing to do with it. And the frequency with which alleged
child maltreatment occurs in our society compels us to be aggressive in developing ways to stop it."
Oh-oh. Sounds like an
ill-conceived and ignorant "War on Child Abuse" on the way.
Notice, the rate is 20% lower and Carmona wants to put it on the front
burner. CARMONA- If you want to "stop it", chop the definition
of abuse back to ABUSE, and get rid of these bogus neglect and threat of harm
categories. Criminalize FALSE REPORTING. By the way, spanking needs
to be clearly legalized if you have any interest in saving America from future
generations of useless, spoiled rotten, selfish brats.
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there a need for a men's rights movement in the United States?" The
possible answers are "No. Men still enjoy a privileged position" and
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The current vote is 70% to 30% in favor of a men's movement.
Congratulations to frequent His Side guest
Jeff Leving on being appointed by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to head the
state's newly created Council on Responsible Fatherhood. To learn more, go to DadsRights.com.
There will be no His Side with Glenn Sacks
this week (April 4) because of a one-time preemption due to our station's
coverage of the NCAA Basketball tournament. His
Side will return April 11.
Press
Release
American Family Rights Association
Democracy Club
California Black Republican Woman's Council FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Candlelight
Vigil to be held Saturday, April 3, 2004 from 6 PM to 7PM
The
Candlelight Vigil will take place at Leimert
Park in Los Angeles, California Saturday April 3
to lament the state of the Judiciary organized and hosted by The Democracy
Council, The California Black Republican Women's Council, in association with
American Family Rights Association.
JACKSON, Miss., March 31 — The start of Child Abuse Prevention Month on Thursday will be especially grim in Hancock County, where child welfare advocates have long gotten used to making do with less.
Counselors at the Family First Resources Center, which was set to open this week on the Gulf Coast and teach parenting skills to those at risk of losing their children, are instead packing up their office, a result of a sudden cutback by the state.
In explaining the closing of 34 child abuse prevention centers across the state, officials at the Mississippi Department of Human Services blamed the previous administration for allocating $20 million it never had.
"It's always been a struggle but this has been a real blow to us," said Bridget Logan, executive director of the Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse, in Gulfport.
The cuts could not have come at a worse moment for children's advocates in Mississippi, which critics say has one of the most flawed and poorly financed child welfare systems in the nation. To compound the growing sense of crisis, state and federal investigators announced last week that they had begun an investigation into whether $89 million in child abuse financing was misspent, including accusations that some of the money was used for vacations and expensive cars.
Buffeted by a $150 million deficit, the state will stop child care assistance payments to 100 families this month.
In an effort to force improvements, Children's Rights, an advocacy group in New York, filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court on Tuesday accusing the state of turning its back on vulnerable children by ignoring all but the most egregious complaints or leaving neglected children in the homes of people whom caseworkers have identified as unfit. Faced with a lack of qualified foster families, hundreds of children languish in group homes or shelters, sometimes for years.
In a similar lawsuit last year, Children's Rights forced New Jersey to overhaul its child welfare system.
"Terrible things are happening to children in Mississippi, and the state isn't doing anything about it," said Marcia Robinson Lowry, the group's executive director. "In New Jersey, children were taken into care and treated barely. In Mississippi, they're not even taking kids into custody."
In recent years, the group has filed lawsuits in six other states that have led to court-ordered overhauls.
....The decline, child advocates say, can be tied to a steep drop in social workers, many of whom quit in frustration. "We can't recruit anyone to come here because there's such negative
feelings about D.H.S.," said Laurie Johnson, executive director of Casas Mississippi, which works with children in the court system.
It isn't "feelings". It is
the unconstitutional and criminal way CPS operates.
....Wayne Drinkwater, a Jackson lawyer who is co-counsel in the Children's Rights lawsuit, said the deficiencies were longstanding and systemic.
"This has gone on so long that it's hopeless to expect the state to ever cure the problems on its own," Mr. Drinkwater said. "Part of the problem may be financial, but it's more than that. It's about priorities and abused and neglected children don't have a lobbyist. They have no political influence in the Legislature."
That's why child abuse
should be CRIMINALIZED and the entire process handled CONSTITUTIONALLY.
This entire fascist model is leading to destruction.
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