( – promoted by SFBrianCL)

We can all agree that sexual predators are bad and that we need to protect children from them.  Assemblyman Mark Leno is working to do that.  His Democratic bill AB 50 has universal support from Democrats and passed the Assembly with 49 yes votes.  However, he had to strip funding provisions because he could not achieve the 2/3 majority required to pass funding measures.  He plans on restoring them after the trip to the Senate:

Leno said he intends to restore the $23 million appropriation once the bill reaches the Senate – $15 million to create local Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Teams and $8 million to add 500 Global Positioning System devices for tracking high-risk sex offenders.(Sac Bee 1/27/06)

The real craziness is on the flip…

The key provisions:

Key provisions in AB 50 include:

* Prohibiting registered sex offenders from school grounds.

* Adding continual sexual abuse of a child to a list of offenses eligible for a life sentence on a first offense.

* Requiring a sentence of life with the possibility of parole for kidnapping with intent to commit various sex offenses.

* Allowing a person who possesses more than 100 items of child pornography to be charged with a felony. Leno said he plans to lower the threshold to 25.(Sac Bee 1/27/06)

But the key part isn’t what’s in the bill, but rather what isn’t in the bill.  The Republicans dropped their support for the bill after deciding  that it wasn’t strong enough.  All but one Republican, Tim Leslie of Placer County, abstained from the vote.  Apparently, they want it their way, or no way.  They would rather leave the loopholes to the law gaping than repair them.  In other words, they would rather pay politics than actually protect our children.

But that’s not even the craziness that I referenced in the title.  That honor belongs to the Republicans who are spreading fear. The SF Bay Times has an article which highlights some of that craziness:

“This is bull—-,” shouted Assembly speaker Fabian Núñez (D-Los Angeles) as he approached Assemblyman Todd Spitzer last week, waving a copy of a commentary in which the Orange County Republican had characterized Leno as “anti-public safety” “pro-criminal” and accused Leno of protecting child molesters and abusers – the Sacramento Bee’s Jim Sanders reported on Monday.
***
Republican bloggers and radio pundits have, for months, been hammering away at Leno. “What I’m talking about is evil, pure evil,” opined Karen Hanretty communications director for the California Republican Party “Mr. Leno is a danger to society…”
***
Lesbian legislator Jackie Goldberg said she was targeted by Rep. Sharon  Runner, a Palmdale Republican, in one of many attacks. On a recent radio show she said that Goldberg, who raised her child from birth, “was not a real mother,” Goldberg said.

Vaguely anti-gay? “Not vaguely, honey,” Goldberg said. “It’s more than that. Of course I’m a parent. But I don’t count.”
***
At that point the Republican minority accused Leno and his committee of being “soft on crime” and “putting the rights of career criminals over those of law-abiding citizens, especially children,” Orange County Republican Assemblyman Spitzer wrote.

Pretty sickening all around.