PANDERING TO THE RIGHT: The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, both the appellate and full court, refused to order Terri Schiavo'd feeding tube be reinserted today, and the religious right is going ape shit. And of course, the Brothers Bush (Dubya and Jebediah) are still pandering to their base. Jebediah held a press conference today saying he would allow Florida DFACS to take custody of Terri, despite the courts saying she deserves the right to die. The next stop is the Supreme Court, which has three times declined to hear the case. If Jebediah takes "custody" of Schiavo, he should be arrested and impeached. The majority of Americans believe Schiavo should be allowed to die, but the radical Christians who seem to have the loudest voice (esp. over on Fox News) just won't let it go. It's all part of a larger movement. If they can prevent Schiavo from dying, pole-vaulting over jurispudence, next they will topple Roe v. Wade and turn this country into a police state.
Here's what the press around the country is saying. Notice many of these are from the south:
* "The Bush administration and the current Congressional leadership like to wax eloquent about states' rights. But they dropped those principles in their rush to stampede over the Florida courts and Legislature...It may be a formula for short-term political success, but it is no way to preserve and protect a great republic" (New York Times, 3/22).
* "What has happened here is that the GOP, famously the party favoring limited government intervention into people's personal lives, has inserted the federal government squarely in the middle of an incredibly personal medical issue. And they've done it all in the name of making sure that some of their core voters stay with them" (Athens Banner-Herald, 3/22).
* "Terri Schiavo has the right to die ... Congress and President Bush should be ashamed for prolonging the suffering and trying to legislate what is clearly the authority of the courts to adjudicate" (Atlanta Journal Constitution, 3/22).
* "Coming at a time when crucial health care services are being slashed, it is particularly upsetting to see this kind of expensive grandstanding on the part of congressional Republicans over one high-profile case. This is not compassion: This is cold-blooded political calculation" (Charleston Gazette, 3/22).
* "One by one, the bedrock conservative convictions of the national Republican Party are giving way...yielding to the demands of a raucous religious right that has become the Republicans' most reliable electoral base" (Trenton Times, 3/22).
* "Washington's empathy for Schiavo centers on vying for political points, not merely concern for one family's personal, medical plight. That makes this unwise intervention by elected officials even more distasteful" (Philadelphia Inquirer, 3/22).
Here's what the press around the country is saying. Notice many of these are from the south:
* "The Bush administration and the current Congressional leadership like to wax eloquent about states' rights. But they dropped those principles in their rush to stampede over the Florida courts and Legislature...It may be a formula for short-term political success, but it is no way to preserve and protect a great republic" (New York Times, 3/22).
* "What has happened here is that the GOP, famously the party favoring limited government intervention into people's personal lives, has inserted the federal government squarely in the middle of an incredibly personal medical issue. And they've done it all in the name of making sure that some of their core voters stay with them" (Athens Banner-Herald, 3/22).
* "Terri Schiavo has the right to die ... Congress and President Bush should be ashamed for prolonging the suffering and trying to legislate what is clearly the authority of the courts to adjudicate" (Atlanta Journal Constitution, 3/22).
* "Coming at a time when crucial health care services are being slashed, it is particularly upsetting to see this kind of expensive grandstanding on the part of congressional Republicans over one high-profile case. This is not compassion: This is cold-blooded political calculation" (Charleston Gazette, 3/22).
* "One by one, the bedrock conservative convictions of the national Republican Party are giving way...yielding to the demands of a raucous religious right that has become the Republicans' most reliable electoral base" (Trenton Times, 3/22).
* "Washington's empathy for Schiavo centers on vying for political points, not merely concern for one family's personal, medical plight. That makes this unwise intervention by elected officials even more distasteful" (Philadelphia Inquirer, 3/22).
Comments
Unfortunately, isolated altruism is scarce in humanity - and that goes for the witch-hunting/quasi-religious Left as well as the religious Right.
Many times, a little bit of kindness and genuine concern goes a long way WHILE profiting panderers, etc., but often the pander part eclipses or literally outweighs the kindness/concern part.
I think this situation has degenerated into a political circus. And so-called liberals are just as rabid and hyped out as the so-called conservatives.
Plus, on a public level, it seems that the political spectrum position is less important and evident. Folks who find the case dubious want to make sure before Terri is starved to death, and folks who are convinced that Mike is truly carrying out his wife's unstated/unproven wishes for HER want Terri's plug to stay unplugged so she can starve to death as she wished.
The political clouds above only poison the true motives/concerns of those below.
Bottom line in general: both "sides" deal in crap. And many so-called "liberals" are some of the most INTOLERANT, spiteful, self-righteous, condemning people I've even met.
This is why I don't ally myself with a single party or side. I'm a mixture, according to my particular convictions/worldview.
-D.
1. Terri will be dead soon and fickle Americans will move on to the next distraction.
2. The sudden states' rights angle by the left will be a foot in the mouth when other folks start pointing to historical last resorts to battle local injustice - like black rights and homosexual marriage, etc. In other words: biased, bought,or too-big-for-their-britches judges sometimes need slapped down or overidden.
3. This case is horrible on all counts, especially when a poker-faced, seemingly unmoved and calculating and selfish man is the single (conflict-of-interest) "witness" for Terri's alleged wish. Gives a sick feeling.
4. We must remember that arrows mustn't be shot back and forth over this, since the basic point is the tragic obscurity and a family's publically chronicled devastation.
-D.