Howie Luvzus

Compassionate Conservatism in action! Bush chooses to put insurance companies and tobacco companies ahead of poor children. Why am I not surprised? This in from Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration said Saturday that senior advisers would recommend the president veto Senate legislation that would substantially increase funds for children’s health insurance.

The legislation calls for a 61-cent increase in the federal excise tax on a pack of cigarettes. The revenue would be used to subsidize health insurance for children and some adults with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford insurance on their own. Members of the Senate Finance Committee brokered a bipartisan agreement Friday that would add $35 billion to the program over the next five years. The Bush administration had instead recommend $5 billion.

There’s been quite a bit of outrage about Eddie Jordan lately. Seems one of the biggest murder cases since Katrina has been bungled. The day after he dropped the charges against the man accused of last summer’s quintuple murder because the key witness couldn’t be found, NOPD promptly located the witness within hours of their finding out about Jordan’s dilemma.

To top this off, last night every TV news outlet showed lawyers pointing out that Jordan’s negative comments about the witness compromised the case by shedding doubt on her integrity. A District Attorney who calls a key witness a liar on television is either trying to get the murderer off the hook or a complete idiot. I don’t know which one, but my question is this: Why all of a sudden is Jordan not good enough to be our DA?

Nobody (almost nobody) got pissed and asked for his resignation when he was found guilty of racial discrimination by a federal jury. I don’t remember a city council member asking for his resignation then. If someone is found guilty of hiring and firing folks based on race, why would you think he would do a good job?

If he hires prosecutors based on race, why do you think his office can do a good job? This isn’t a new development. We’re just seeing the consequences of looking the other way AGAIN when someone breaks the law or is incompetent or both.

Why should we be asking for a boycott of New Orleans? Not because of Eddie Jordan. It’s because we don’t care enough to demand that those who serve us do so with dignity, honesty, and integrity.

According to a Times-Picayune article today, Ray Nagin’s fund-raising dinner in Kansas City last night had some interesting donors:

Black & Veatch, BNIM, Walton Construction, AM Consultants, Astra Communications, Crawford Architects, DuBois Consultants, E&K Retail Inc., Garry & Associates, KC Consulting, Kingston Environmental, Rutherford & Associates and the Zimmer Companies.

Seems these folks have a lot to gain from Nagin! They’re either getting a piece of the pie or will be.

For some reason I can’t imbed YouTube videos in my site.

Please take a look at this 20/20 story about a young girl in Oklahoma who is being harrassed by students and teachers because she doesn’t believe in God.

God forgive us who fail to stand up for those who are abused by narrow-minded jerks who think they are Christians.

Update: View the “Christian” reaction to a Hindu chaplain at the Senate. See why folks hate “Christians”?

Wow! The following story from Kansas:

As stabbing victim LaShanda Calloway lay bleeding on the floor of a convenience store at 25th North and Hillside, no fewer than five store patrons stepped over her to complete purchases — and at least one took cell phone pictures of her — before bothering to call 911, police said.

Police have been told that some of those photos landed on the Internet.

“It’s on the video,” said Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams. “She laid on the floor while people continued to do their shopping. They’re taking photographs. That’s our frustration. They didn’t call immediately. If people would have been calling us, who knows what the outcome might have been.”

Calloway, who was stabbed after an altercation June 23, eventually died at a hospital from her injuries.

A witness questioned last week whether a policy that prevents fire crews from entering potentially violent situations until police have secured the site contributed to Calloway’s death. He said he and others frantically waved to firefighters to come and help, but they didn’t move in until a Highway Patrol cruiser entered the parking lot.

Yet Calloway lost approximately two precious minutes while patrons strangely ignored her, according to Wichita police spokesman Gordon Bassham.

“This is one of the most disgusting examples of disregard for life I’ve ever seen,” Bassham said of the video. “It is a very, very tragic video to watch. It was revolting to see this lack of humanity.”

The video showed the 27-year-old Calloway struggling to her feet and collapsing three times without anyone helping her.

Worse, one woman who stepped over Calloway four times while shopping eventually paused to snap a photo of her with a cell phone.

And now, police are trying to track down photos of a dying Calloway that someone told them had been posted on the Internet.

“This is just appalling,” Williams said. “I could continue shopping and not render aid and then take time out to take a picture? That’s crazy. What happened to our respect for life?”

They sang My Country, ‘Tis of Thee in my church this past Sunday. There were other patriotic songs as well. As one who identifies with the Radical Reformers, I’m really not too excited about doing anything other than focusing on worship during my worship time. Go figure.

Am I thankful for the freedoms I have in this country? Yes.

Am I grateful to those who have sacrificed to make my freedom possible? Very much so.

But, as I heard the congregation sing “sweet land of liberty” ( I had excused myself during the patriotic singing, I know. I’m a jerk.) I could only think of one thing…

A picture of Jesus hanging in the Slidell City Court House. Yep, the ACLU wants the picture removed. You can read all the hateful comments at the NOLA.COM website if you wish. It seems that some folks are so adamant about having a picture of Jesus in their courthouse that they are downright Un-Christian about it!

Here’s a brief example:

Screw all them aclu liberal a__holes! Don’t give into such bull! Hold your ground, let em sue! Who the hell are they anyway! Lets round all those card carrying bafoons up and send them to Iraq where they can become the latest statistics……………..

Nothing better to do, well lets give them card carrying liberals something to do……………………………….

Unamerican all of them. Kill em all and let the good Lord sort em out is what real God fearing southerners say……………….

How can that be? How can folks that are so pro-Jesus be so mean? Maybe they don’t believe in the ideals of America or of Jesus. Jesus never forced his views on anyone. He told us we should love our enemies and turn the other cheek. He said that if someone demanded your coat, offer them your shirt too! He said this just before he said do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

I really don’t want to go into a public building, paid for by my tax dollars, and see a picture of Mohammed, Buddha, or Ganesha. Why should it be OK for Jesus to be there?

If we are the land of the free, why do some of us (who are supposed to love our neighbors) insist on imposing our faith traditions on others in a public building. If my faith tradition is doing such a crappy job of telling others about Jesus, why should we rely on a government entity to do so? In fact, isn’t using our government to promote Jesus a bit like Bill Clinton being a spokesman for a cigar company? Something’s just not right about that is it?

For me, being a good Christian and a good American means standing up for the rights of ALL. Not just for Christians. If Christians have the right to hang their paintings up, the Muslims, Hindus, Jews and all other faith traditions have the right to as well.