I've always felt that programming is a subject independant of the language that implements it. Perhaps teaching C++ and Java in tandem helps the student see this better. Personally, I wouldn't recomment C++ as a first language; I feel it's relatively high complexity distracts the student from the more important principles they should be learning.
Javascript is an interesting suggestion, but I've always found that it's rather difficult to debug, myself. I haven't found a Javascript debugger that's as good as the ones I find in popular IDEs, such as Eclipse, and I haven't seen an interactive interpretor for Javascript that's as good as the one in Python.
I'd go with Python myself, but that's my answer for everything
