RELIGION

Something to consider when Jeb Bush, the current governor of Florida and the president’s brother, runs for president against Hillary Clinton in 2008.  If the majority of Americans are Christians – and well, don’t they get to say how the government spends its money?  Majority rule and all that….  If the majority wants a Christian theocracy, and a ban on certain private sexual practice, and a tight ban some of what is broadcast in the media and committed to print, well, majority rules.

Live with it.  This will pass.  Easily.

Voters may be asked to remove Florida's church-state ban

S.V. Date, The Palm Beach Post (Florida), Thursday, December 16, 2004

TALLAHASSEE — Christian conservatives frustrated by court rulings that have found a school voucher program unconstitutional may have hit upon a possible solution: changing the constitution.

Sen. Daniel Webster, a former House speaker and now the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday he is exploring the possibility of a citizens initiative to repeal the 136-year-old wording that separates church and state in Florida.

… Ron Meyer, the lawyer who has so far successfully pushed the voucher lawsuit through trial and appellate courts, said he was not surprised by the effort and that he always assumed that religious conservatives would eventually try to change the constitution.

"It's disappointing," he said. "Florida has long abided by the separation of church and state. I really question whether the people of Florida will want to remove their constitutional protection from using their money, involuntarily, to support religious institutions."

Meyer cautioned potential supporters, though, that opening state money to religion meant opening it to all religions, including fringe groups.

"The religious right needs to be careful what they wish for," he said

I’m sure that this can be crafted so only true Christians get the money – not Buddhists and the like – and not cults, like that Cult of Mary, the Catholic Church.  If I remember my history of the South, the KKK wanted to get rid of the Jews and the Catholics.  Watch “Birth of a Nation” again.

We should have never had that war in he 1860’s.  You want out?  Fine.

Damned Judges

The federal government has charged fourteen people with playing a role in a smuggling operation that resulted in the deaths of nineteen illegal immigrants.  The immigrants died in the back of a tractor-trailer.  The heat and all.  But prosecutors are only seeking the death penalty against one defendant, Tyrone Williams, who happens to be an African American.

The story is here.  

And now Ashcroft has some homework –

During a hearing Friday, U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Tony Roberts to provide her a letter from U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft explaining his office's refusal to "disclose why you sought the death penalty on this guy, the only black guy, and not on the others." Gilmore said she would hold Roberts in contempt if she didn't get the letter Friday.

Need to follow up.  That’s next Friday I’d guess.

I’m sure there’s a reason.

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Conservative Logic

The Los Angeles Times reports on a California plan to help the medically uninsured - by passing a law requiring them to get insured - and quotes Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as saying that "it's unfair to so many people when you have people using the hospitals for emergency, and then creating a huge cost."

The concept of requiring all Californians to carry their own health insurance is gaining momentum in the Capitol, as some lawmakers and healthcare advocates see it as a politically viable way to deal with the state's 5.3 million uninsured.

With the November defeat of Proposition 72 halting efforts to require employers to provide healthcare coverage, the concept looks likely to be part of next year's legislative debate. But it faces huge hurdles over how to make it financially feasible for the poor and enforce it.

…  'We have too many people that are uninsured in this state,' Schwarzenegger said in October at the Panetta Institute in Monterey. 'We have to really address this once and for all, and figure out a way of how we do it, like with car insurance, where we make it law that people carry insurance and that they are really insured, because it's unfair to so many people when you have people using the hospitals for emergency, and then creating a huge cost.

Now for that legislation that requires the homeless to buy their own houses, or face arrest.  Problem solved.

This is a COOL state.

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Seasons Greetings

"And so during these holiday seasons, we thank our blessings. ... "

George Bush, Fort Belvoir, Va., Dec. 10, 2004