Hopefully, Terri Schiavo and her family and the rest of us will soon be able to have some relief from the media circus that has been going on over this tragic episode.
Reports today say some diehards are still at it trying to deliver water to the brain damaged woman even as the family asks them to go away.
"PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - Terri Schiavo was given last rites and Easter communion — a drop of wine, but no bread — as protesters hoping to get the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube reinserted pledged to take their fight to the president.
Extra police officers blocked the road in front of Schiavo's hospice. Pinellas County school officials said the elementary school next to the hospice would not open Monday. The 600 students were to be sent elsewhere.
"We are Terri's voice. Right now, Terri is fighting for her life," the Rev. Patrick Mahoney angrily shouted Sunday, his face reddening. He pledged to protest outside the White House on Monday."
Yeah, yeah, Mr. Mahoney. I know your sister and she thinks you're way over the top. It's cold and rainy today in D.C., so enjoy it. W is probably still on vacation anyway and he wants to get as far away from this fiasco as possiblle, so what's the point?
Of course, for once in his presidency Bush rushed back to D.C. to sign the Schiavo emergancy bill. He's all about defending life.
That's why it took him 5 days to even mention the Redlake shootings. After all, they're just crazy drunk injuns, right?
No tsunami or memos titled "Bin Laden determined to attck in U.S." could get W to cut vacation short, but when it comes to pandering to a small minority of lunitics, he's right there.
I hear alot of these religeous nut-jobs don't believe in polls and the national media downplayed the lopsided results on this issue: they had to convince their viewers there was a controversy to justify all the feverish breathless reporting going on and on, but let's review.
Survey says!
CBS:
"An overwhelming 82 percent of the public believes the Congress and President should stay out of the matter. There is widespread cynicism about Congress' motives for getting involved: 74 percent say Congress intervened to advance a political agenda, not because they cared what happened to Terri Schiavo.
Public approval of Congress has suffered as a result; at 34 percent, it is the lowest it has been since 1997, dropping from 41 percent last month. Now at 43 percent, President Bush’s approval rating is also lower than it was a month ago."
ABC: (Which they didn't report in thier news coverage on T.V.)
"March 21, 2005 -- Americans broadly and strongly disapprove of federal intervention in the Terri Schiavo case, with sizable majorities saying Congress is overstepping its bounds for political gain.
That legislative action is distinctly unpopular: Not only do 60 percent oppose it, more — 70 percent — call it inappropriate for Congress to get involved in this way.
And by a lopsided 67 percent-19 percent, most think the elected officials trying to keep Schiavo alive are doing so more for political advantage than out of concern for her or for the principles involved."
And 68% of those identifying themselves as born-again evangelical christians strongly disapproved of the president and congress interfering in this matter.
Right now, there are alot of pissed of moderate republicans in congress. Christopher Shays (R. Conn.) said, "This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy." Amen to that.
The democrats in the senate and in the house should be ashamed of themselves. What a bunch of spineless wimps!
But Ton DeLay is no wimp. I hope the 47 democrats that voted for the bill are proud of thier very moral bedfellow.
Here's what DeLay had to say on the subject of Terri Schiavo at a Family Research Council meeting, first revealed by :Americans United for the Separation of Church and State:
"This is exactly the issue that’s going on in America. That attacks against the conservative movement, against me, [It's all about him!] and against many others. The point is, it’s, the other side has figured out how to win and defeat the conservative movement. [If only that were true!]
And that is to go after people, personally charge them with frivolous charges, and link that up with all these do-gooder organizations funded by George Soros, and then, and then get the national media on their side.
That whole syndicate that they have going on right now is for one purpose and one purpose only and that’s to destroy the conservative movement."
[Transcript of full rant.]
Perhaps Mr. DeLay should heed his older and wiser colleague in the Senate,
"Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, the sole Republican to oppose the Schiavo bill in a voice vote in the Senate, said:
"This senator has learned from many years you've got to separate your own emotions from the duty to support the Constitution of this country. These are fundamental principles of federalism."
"It looks as if it's a wholly Republican exercise," Mr. Warner said, "but in the ranks of the Republican Party, there is not a unanimous view that Congress should be taking this step."
Perhaps DeLay let his emotions get the better of him because he had a similar experience to the Schiavos and Schindlers back in 1988 involving his father:
LA Times:
"...DeLay is among the strongest advocates of keeping the woman, who doctors say has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years, connected to her feeding tube. DeLay has denounced Schiavo's husband, as well as judges, for committing what he calls "an act of barbarism" in removing the tube.
In 1988, however, there was no such fiery rhetoric as the congressman quietly joined the sad family consensus to let his father die.
"There was no point to even really talking about it," Maxine DeLay, the congressman's 81-year-old widowed mother, recalled in an interview last week. "There was no way [Charles] wanted to live like that. Tom knew — we all knew — his father wouldn't have wanted to live that way."
Doctors advised that he would "basically be a vegetable," said the congressman's aunt, JoAnne DeLay.
When his father's kidneys failed, the DeLay family decided against connecting him to a dialysis machine. "Extraordinary measures to prolong life were not initiated," said his medical report, citing "agreement with the family's wishes." His bedside chart carried the instruction: "Do not resuscitate."
One thing you can say about Tom DeLay, as a hypocrite, he's consistant.
Posted by bushmeister0
at 9:57 AM EST
