My fellow citizens:
I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often, the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebearers, and true to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: They will be met.
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the fainthearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor — who have carried us up the long, rugged path toward prosperity and freedom.
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.
For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.
Time and again, these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.
This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.
Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control — and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: Know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.
Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.
We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West: Know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment — a moment that will define a generation — it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.
For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.
Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world; duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
This is the source of our confidence — the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.
This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent Mall, and why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.
So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:
“Let it be told to the future world … that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive… that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger,came forth to meet [it].”
America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested, we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back, nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
Joe Duck 
Guess he didn’t have his teleprompter for his swearing in?
Roberts was there to keep him on track though…lol…one of the few remaining conservatives in DC. Funny how Obama voted against his confirmation but Roberts kept it professional and helped Obama through his first official stumbling mumble as president. Maybe we should keep a counter on how many times he does this during his term? Could be a sister site to the Biden gaff’s or when Biden tells his wife to be quiet.
I am sure somehow JCH will blame Bush for Obama’s stumbling
today though.
Few would doubt the power of Obama’s preacher-ish rhetoric and communication skills: like MLK, he represents along with the best (and wins the Toastmasters’–certainly over a mutterer like Buscho). He’s quite eloquent–talks a good game. So did Bill Clinton.
Anyway, the real powermonger of DC politics was on hand as well, along with Roberts and Stevens, the reps. from the black robe posse: Dame Feinstein. Shotcallah, as they say southside.
(2) But only with a teleprompter…that is well known about Obama…he frequently bumbles his speeches when he leaves teleprompter land…however when he is reciting the teleprompter he can certainly deliver a clear message written by his clever speech writers.
Whether one approves of Obama’s character or politics, or not, he went to victory vis a vis the American political process–he won both the popular vote, and electoral college. So, those conservatives who don’t approve (of his character, or his politics) should find fault with the process itself, shouldn’t they? Like the popular vote itself. Which is to say, sometime during say Eisenhower Admin. they might have questioned the wisdom of say the 15th and 19th Amendments…
That said, I agree that Obama’s spouting platitudes for the most part, and will probably turn out to be another corrupt “pedazo de mierda”, but at least he gets the words right, unlike Bush (who can forget those debates with Kerry when Bush could barely put together complete sentences). Besides, what are the odds that BO will make it through first year?? Maybe the bullet-proof plexiglas enclosed BOMobile…Or a somewhat moderate Prez Biden….
Glenn I’m pretty sure it was Roberts who messed it up –
Obama understandably didn’t know whether to repeat the *wrong* words that Roberts said or stick to the correct ones.
I’m more concerned about the fact that a single person, no matter how capable, cannot dig us out of the huge, deep hole we’ve taken years to dig ourselves into. The markets were hoping for more practical stuff in the speech. I think I’m sticking to my DOW under 7000 predictions.
(5)…LOL…Joe, Obama is the one that messed up. Not Roberts, in fact Roberts got him back on track. Think about it for a second…the most important thing he ever had to do and he can’t even get a rehearsed set of lines right.
The market spoke today very clearly. Largest drop in the DOW’s history for an inauguration day.
DOW 6,000 before we know it.
Obama’s only solution is to increase annual spending by trillions…yep that’s right trillions. Did you notice they only talk about how much the annual deficit is going to be (over $1 trillion) and they just happen to forget the actual spending amount!
(4) My point on the stumbling is that if Bush did it, it would be the headlines today…they should all be treated the same by the media…oh wait that would mean they would have to do their jobs as unbiased and objective reporters – that all went out the window when the Messiah decided to run.
America got what it paid for. More of the same but with a new flair – absolute and uncontrolled spending which will completely bankrupt this country. Think about how Russia slipped back militarily and their space efforts we are headed to the same place.
Glenn! Roberts missed the first line – here is the play by play from CSM:
Basically, it came down to the word “faithfully” and where it is mentioned during the oath.
Justice Roberts said, “”I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear [pause] that I will execute the Office of the President faithfully.”
The oath is supposed to read, “I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of the President.”
Cool
How did the president-elect react?
Well, he followed Roberts’s lead for a few words before seeming to realize that Roberts botched it. Ever cool, the president-elect stopped and nodded as if to say, “try again.”
The justice gave it another shot. Obama voiced whatever he could to get Roberts back on track and the ceremony concluded.
Thanks Joe; i also thought it was an Obama gaff till i replayed a Youtube clip just now. This little event provides yet another opportunity to understand the kind of reality-distortion often suffered by people trapped in a state of denial!
(7) Joe what about the very beginning? There were multiple places where it seemed Obama was off his game. Why take one point and ignore the rest?
Then look at the mistakes in his speech. 44 Americans have taken the oath he said…no…43 Americans have taken the oath. Maybe now as president he will get to all 57 states.
He refers to us as Citizens, not Americans…next he will be using Comrade. But seriously you have to be disappointed with his speech – how can that be possible? He should have had the best speech in the history. He had an opportunity to really start of right and yet he didn’t deliver.
Look at the reaction of the markets this isn’t denial this is just being aware that the expectations set by the good folks of the USA are not going to be anywhere near met. Obama sold us a bill of goods and what is being delivered is not what was promised. At the end of the day EVERYONE will end up disappointed by this president. Hopefully we want have more terrorists attacks within our country.
(8) This has nothing to do with denial…lol…it has to do with the election of the least experienced person in the history of our country when we need experience more than ever before. Obama has no real successful experience, his real experiences resulted in failures and granted we learn more from our failures than successes but it would have been nice to have someone elected who has a lot of successes behind them as well. He is no different than any other bought and paid for politician.
It’s ironic how the bleeding left will lend a blind eye to their own. Just look at the campaign financing for this election – we know there was foreign influence in Obama’s campaign and probably many 10’s of millions of dollars but we will never know because Obama refuses to release the info. So much for transparency. Look at the confirmation process of his cabinet picks…certainly with ANY other president these confirmations would not have passed with the baggage some of the picks have.
Some Americans have this unrealistic optimism and hope that Obama is going to somehow magically fix all of our problems. It is my perspective that he is only going to make things a lot worse – everyday I wake up and pray that I am wrong about this – but this hog wild spending by both Bush and Obama is going to bite us really hard. This “Rodney King” approach to our enemies is going to be a dismal failure – it has ALWAYS worked that way. You must confront your enemies with extreme prejudice and offer no quarter whatsoever.
He just asked for the suspension of Gitmo trials, etc. Just like Clinton pardoned past terrorist and Obama is friends with past terrorists. Why do liberals think we can play “Rodney King” with people that hate us to the core and will do anything to destroy us? They are not interested in our ways…I can see the headlines now as the mastermind of 9/11 is allowed to walk. Guilty as hell and free as a bird, only in America.
The fact is we have no had a serious threat within our nation since 9/11 and hundreds of attempts have been thwarted. How many more Americans does it take to be innocently killed before we wake up and realize that confronting an enemy that leverages our freedoms against us is going to take a different approach and they should not be offered ANY of the freedoms and rights that Americans enjoy.
Obama’s willingness to court religious fundamentalists–whether Rick Warrens, or saudi Imams–should remain a cause for concern. His reaching out to “muslim brothers” unsettles a bit–if God can be called into question, then, a fortiori, Allah (or JHVH) should be called into question as well.
His Gitmo act seems a bit rash: for one, foreign POWs do not have the same rights citizens do (ie habeas corpus). Obviously Gitmo had problems, but there exists a great deal of evidence against a Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
glenn – you are an idiot.
Sorry to rain on Obama’s Kool-Aid party but this column from Dick Morris today on The Hill pretty much sums it up. What we can expect from an Obama presidency.
I truly don’t think people in this country realize what these changes mean. It will take many decades for us to recover from these out-of-control ideas and spending plans.
Excerpts:
2009-2010 will rank with 1913-14, 1933-36, 1964-65 and 1981-82 as years that will permanently change our government, politics and lives. Just as the stars were aligned for Wilson, Roosevelt, Johnson and Reagan, they are aligned for Obama. Simply put, we enter his administration as free-enterprise, market-dominated, laissez-faire America. We will shortly become like Germany, France, the United Kingdom, or Sweden — a socialist democracy in which the government dominates the economy, determines private-sector priorities and offers a vastly expanded range of services to many more people at much higher taxes.
But his New Deal measures only succeeded in lowering the unemployment rate from 23 percent in 1933, when he took office, to 13 percent in the summer of 1937. It never went lower. And his policies of over-regulation generated such business uncertainty that they triggered a second-term recession. Unemployment in 1938 rose to 17 percent and, in 1940, on the verge of the war-driven recovery, stood at 15 percent. (These data and the real story of Hoover’s and Roosevelt’s missteps, uncolored by ideology, are available in The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes, copyright 2007.)
But it is not his spending that will transform our political system, it is his tax and welfare policies. In the name of short-term stimulus, he will give every American family (who makes less than $200,000) a welfare check of $1,000 euphemistically called a refundable tax credit. And he will so sharply cut taxes on the middle class and the poor that the number of Americans who pay no federal income tax will rise from the current one-third of all households to more than half. In the process, he will create a permanent electoral majority that does not pay taxes, but counts on ever-expanding welfare checks from the government. The dependency on the dole, formerly limited in pre-Clinton days to 14 million women and children on Aid to Families with Dependent Children, will now grow to a clear majority of the American population.
Obama will begin the process by limiting executive compensation. Then he will urge restructuring and lowering of home mortgages in danger of default (as the feds have already done with Citibank).
And Obama will move to change permanently the partisan balance in America. He will move quickly to legalize all those who have been in America for five years, albeit illegally, and to smooth their paths to citizenship and voting. He will weaken border controls in an attempt to hike the Latino vote as high as he can in order to make red states like Texas into blue states like California. By the time he is finished, Latinos and African-Americans will cast a combined 30 percent of the vote.
And he will enact the check-off card system for determining labor union representation, repealing the secret ballot in union elections. The result will be to raise the proportion of the labor force in unions up to the high teens from the current level of about 12 percent.
You can read the rest here:
http://thehill.com/dick-morris/the-obama-presidency–here-comes-socialism-2009-01-20.html
Obama is just more of the same just now with a much bigger price tag. Look at Chuck Schumer’s defense of Geithner…
http://finkelblog.com/index.php/2009/01/22/schumers-geithner-defense-hey-hes-not-as-bad-as-madoff/
He’s not as bad as the people he is going to oversee so he will be ok?…seriously WTH kind of logic is this?
This is another prime example of the warped thought process the liberals in congress have. The bar is always lowered to let in their corrupt friends.
This and the Holder confirmation are travesties!
Obama could do worse than lower, or at least cap executive salaries, or even tap into the income AND assets of the very wealthy (say millionaires+), as a means to paying off the deficit, or bailout for that matter. Restoring the estate taxes slashed by Bush, and higher capital gains rates are other possibilities. (That would be a prudent course of action in CA as well, but Baron Von Schwarzenegger like made promises to the aristos of CA).
Interventionism offers a middle ground between laissez-faire monarchism or outright socialism: and really, the GOP’s scorched-earth econ. policies (helped by the likes of demopublicans like Clinton) have riled up the natives.
You are correct that Obama will probably further empower trade unions and implement some bureaucratic leftist policies: the conservatives’ ineptness, and greed have resulted in that backlash (symbolized by BO’s victory itself).
I’m with Obama on exec compensation: Clawbacks, clawbacks! Although I won’t make the case that it’ll matter much in economic terms to take back scandalous bonuses that came from insiders helping insiders on wall street while they left shareholders high and dry. This would not apply to everybody but the calls to use my taxes to fund lavish bonuses for inept execs is outrageous. If we have learned anything in this fiasco we have learned (again – this is clear from studies) that exec performance is not strongly correlated with compensation. I think that is a mythology that is kept alive because it benefits those on the CEO / Board merry go rounds. Also, anything Larry Kudlow believes should bring a lot of skepticism – he’s almost a capitalistic nut case.
(15) The whole white collar crimes issue…they should make the punishment commensurate with the depth of the crime.
For example Maddow he would represent the worst or depth of a crime like this. Al Gore would be running a close 2nd. 🙂
As long as they don’t affect private companies I don’t see this making much of a change. Clever exec’s will create shell corporations, etc to move their large sums of money around.
We really just need REAL accountability when someone rips someone else off like these guy have. Hard to really do while we still have congressman who don’t pay taxes and rip people off as well and they get away with it. Kind of tough to expect the non-gov sector to be held to a standard that many of the enforcers can’t even hold.
The fact that a penny of taxpayer money went to any of these companies is outrageous. It was the wrong move push for by Bush and Paulson and now Obama has added a turbo charger to this mess.
Imagine you paying someone a ton of money to finish a house for you once you found out they squandered most of it on themselves and didn’t get your house finished? I don’t think anyone in their right mind would do that…but for some reason our gov’t thinks it is a great idea…have ALL the same people that got us into this mess somehow have good solids ethics arrive in some form of immaculate contraption and save the day…its just silly I tell you.
Appears that tomorrow history will prove Glenn correct.
This is absolutely unbelievable.
The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is completing would raise the government’s commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9.7 trillion, enough to pay off more than 90 percent of the nation’s home mortgages.
Seriously anyone believes that our government is even capable of spending 1% of this money wisely is smoking crack!
Our country has been hijacked by an irresponsible two party system that is going to absolutely destroy our existence.
They might as well just give everyone in America a free home!
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aGq2B3XeGKok
An Arizona man who has waged a 10-year campaign to stop a flood of illegal immigrants from crossing his property is being sued by 16 Mexican nationals who accuse him of conspiring to violate their civil rights when he stopped them at gunpoint on his ranch on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Roger Barnett, 64, began rounding up illegal immigrants in 1998 and turning them over to the U.S. Border Patrol, he said, after they destroyed his property, killed his calves and broke into his home.
His Cross Rail Ranch near Douglas, Ariz., is known by federal and county law enforcement authorities as “the avenue of choice” for immigrants seeking to enter the United States illegally.
Trial continues Monday in the federal lawsuit, which seeks $32 million in actual and punitive damages for civil rights violations, the infliction of emotional distress and other crimes. Also named are Mr. Barnett’s wife, Barbara, his brother, Donald, and Larry Dever, sheriff in Cochise County, Ariz., where the Barnetts live. The civil trial is expected to continue until Friday.
This is another example of the pure insanity that the raging liberal left wants to see. It is beyond comprehension that a group of illegal aliens is allowed to sue someone trying to protect their land, family and uphold the law. This is exactly the type of thing we will continue to see with the liberal left judges that will be appointed by Obama.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/09/16-illegals-sue-arizona-rancher/
“This is another example of the pure insanity that the raging liberal left wants to see. …”
The Judge was appointed by a Republican, so this must be something the raging right wanted.
(20) JCH the fact that a case could even brought forth onto the docket is the problem. The case was assigned to the judge…the judge has to preside. It’s a shame it just isn’t tossed or do you agree with the illegal aliens and that their civil rights were violated? Come on commie answer it?
Here is another great example of our wonderous legal system working FOR illegal aliens. Screw the taxpaying, law abiding legal citizens of our country. So the simple question…wth wasn’t he deported immediately? This isn’t a very difficult decision or choice…send the scumbag to his own country – it’s their problem not ours. Why is this stuff so difficult for the raging left loons?
A high-risk, 18-year-old sex offender in North Carolina may soon be a free man — because he is an illegal immigrant and the state has determined it cannot pay to put him in a treatment facility.
The Guatemalan man, identified only as “D.G,” was convicted of raping his 5-year-old handicapped cousin when he was 15. Despite recommendations by criminal psychologists that he be sent to a sex-offender treatment program, he wound up in a youth detention center instead.
But D.G. can stay in the center only until his 19th birthday — and with that day approaching, what happens next is anyone’s guess.
D.G.’s attorney, Ann Petersen, said the case didn’t always seem so complicated.
“When he was originally adjudicated in 2005, the trial judge took into account all of the expert psychological examinations and his background and determined that there was a program that was well suited for him through a private agency,” Petersen told FOXNews.com.
“He was sent off in September and doing great in the program until the county decided they didn’t want to pay for it.”
In February of 2006, a motion for review was filed stating that “funds were no longer available” for D.G.’s placement. A notice from the local mental health agency, Foothills Area Program, soon followed, saying the $128,000-a-year services being provided to him would be terminated effective March 31, 2006.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,490026,00.html
More classic illegal alien BS…
Wait until you listen to this…
It’s amazing that more innocent Americans are killed annually by illegal aliens than our troops in combat in Iraq each year…
Don’t you think it is time we take our country back? All we are asking for is people to obey our laws and be a productive member of society. Is that too much to ask?
“In March, U.S. District Judge John Roll rejected a motion by Mr. Barnett to have the charges dropped, ruling there was sufficient evidence to allow the matter to be presented to a jury….”
All he had to do was dismiss it. He didn’t. Your bitch is with him. No wimpy liberal was there twisting the big tough Republican’s arm behind his back.
“Don’t you think it is time we take our country back? …”
Uh, we just did that.
(25) So an illegal alien claims he had the right to hunt on the land owned by the state…that would mean he would need a hunting license/permit from the state of AZ.
Second he claims he is dysfunctional since the incident and he is afraid of guns…ironically somehow he has been on several hunting trips since the incident.
So JCH you support the right of an illegal alien to pursue a frivolous lawsuit against a law abiding citizen? The only thing that should have happened here is that Morales should have been deported – PERIOD.
And so you have the facts straight JCH this case is being propelled forth by a civil rights group…Morales is just another pawn of the raging left scumbag lawyer scene. They of course want to portray this as racially motivated vigilantism. That is the fact…it is a liberal group that is to blame.
You sound like Geraldo now…the fact they are an illegal alien should be enough to deport them.
They are costing good working Americans billions of dollars in unnecessary expense. It is absurd that anyone rational would think having illegal aliens leaching off our system is a good thing. Next you will say…well who would cut our lawns, etc…geez…get off your butt and do your lawn yourself or hire a neighborhood kid who deserves the right and privilege to be here.
It’s funny the raging liberal left always needs a victim for their cause otherwise they know they would never get anyone to listen to their ideals of fantasy and Rodney King land. Funny thing about these so called victims though…they have become the prey of the raging left…so who are the real scumbags in this equation?
Geesh JCH…you really don’t want to get to bottom of things do you…
During his opening remarks to the jury, Kelliher said only one member of the Morales party had a valid license to hunt on Oct. 30, 2004. He noted that the date marked the first day of hunting season, and that Roger Barnett has a long-established history of not allowing hunters to use his land without written permission.
Furthermore, Kelliher said Arturo Morales had had a previous encounter with Roger Barnett in which he was cited by a sheriff’s deputy for hunting on Barnett’s property. Therefore, the attorney said, Morales knew well before the 2004 confrontation that Barnett restricted hunting on his ranch.
All I’ve told you is that the judge was appointed by a Republican, which means he’s unlikely to be a liberal, and that the judge could have approved the property owner’s motion.
From there you ricochet around like a brainless bullet.
(29) JCH you never answered the question. Do you support that Morales should be allowed to pursue this case even though he is an illegal and should have been deported long ago?
(29) Of course the Morales case was thrown out of court. All the illegals do is waste millions of taxpayer monies…time to send them all back.
Horatiox people still will not let the COLB thing go. Over 250k have signed a petition to get Obama’s birth records released. Now we have military personnel refusing to follow his orders…aye yi yi…
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=81550
(17) OldOrygun, You have to love the additional $400 billion the Pelosi/Reid disaster is asking for…aye yi yi…when will they stop? It is going to take a major world war to pull us out of this fiasco…these guys are spending even more than I thought they would…LOL