CANYON LAKE, Texas — A family tragedy unfolding in a Texas hospital during the fall of 1988 was a private ordeal -- without judges, emergency sessions of Congress or the raging debate outside Terri Schiavo's Florida hospice.
The patient then was a 65-year-old drilling contractor, badly injured in a freak accident at his home. Among the family standing vigil at Brooke Army Medical Center was a grieving junior congressman -- U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
The poll shows approximately 63 percent of likely voters in Florida disapproved of the intervention last week by Congress and the president.
...
The poll surveyed 600 likely voters by phone in Florida. The margin of error is plus or minus four percentage points. Among Republicans polled, 56 percent say they disapproved of the intervention while 41 percent approved. Among Democrats and independents, 67 percent and 68 percent disapproved respectively.
One inevitable consequence of recession, especially one which accompanied an interest rate spike which made meeting mortgage payments difficult (either because you're unemployed or because you took Uncle Alan's advice and got an ARM), would be that large numbers of people would dip into their 401(K) plans. They'd pay their taxes, pay the 10% penalty, and drain the accounts.
On a positive note, however, this could cause the stock market to crash so much that price earnings ratios would fall to levels low enough that the future growth predictions by privatizers would be plausible!
Let me just add that the montery and fiscal policies under the Bush administration have encouraged asset accumulation and physical investment rather than job creation. And, now we're in a position where, as Roach argues, appropriate Fed policy is a fast increase of interest rates. But, due to the crappy post-recession jobs recovery, asset bubble led inflation means that Greenspan will have to hike interest rates in the middle of a fairly weak labor market.
I'd heard a lot about Wolfowitz of Arabia's girlfriend, but I too don't remember hearing anything about, you know, his wife.
It's a rather strange thing, really, which parts of our personal lives our media consider to be okay to print, and which parts they don't. In Wolfofwitz's cases frequently details about his girlfriend have been deemed acceptable, but not details about his wife.
She also refused to confirm her marital status - reports of his appointment repeatedly describe Wolfowitz as divorced but The Mail on Sunday has been unable to find any records. Asked if she is separated or divorced, Clare replied: "That's my business."
On the claim that she wrote a letter to Bush, she said: "That's very interesting but not something I can tell you about."
A friend of Wolfowitz insisted last night that he had not been unfaithful: "Paul and Clare have been separated since 2001. It is my understanding they are now legally separated."
"I advocate the use of force to rescue Terri Schiavo from being starved to death. I further advocate the killing of anyone who interferes with such rescue." -- Hal Turner. Second Quote of the Day:
"Web Site Updates Temporarily offline. I am traveling to do something important." --Hal Turner.
Now that I've been up for awhile I can confirm what my initial sense was - that CNN has completely ignored the story about the "possible showdown" between local police and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. It's a bizarre thing really, as it follows the narrative to the logical end. Crazies demand Jeb Bush "do something" and Bush getes his people ready to do just that - though, apparently, saner heads prevail. The unwillingness of the media to confront this story, which is the logical conclusion of having Jeb Bush try to substitute his authority for that of a judge, a storyline that the media have been desperately pushing all week, is to me an unwillingness of them to confront their own role in encouraging this. The orders of Bush and the orders of a judge are only as good as peoples' willingness to obey them, or the ability and desire of law enforcement agents to enforce them.
Two authorities, two law enforcement agencies -- what do they think would happen?
At some point my email address got lumped onto one of the various mass email lists for media out there, so occasionally I get an eruption of massive wingnuttery in my inbox.
The latest bit is that "Terri said she wanted to live!" based on her parents' lawyer's contention that she "tried to express a will to live" based on that tape of awful groaning they had...
oy...
and, the story of Jeb sending his thug squad in should be getting more play, and, generally, shame on CNN for putting the shitty in "shitty news channel."
Gov. Bush Cancels Appearance at Good Friday Service for Fear of Facing Schiavo Supporters
To: National Desk
Contact: Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition [phone number removed]
TALLAHASSEE, Fl., March 25 /Christian Wire Service/ -- Governor Jeb Bush was scheduled to attend and participate in an outdoor Good Friday service at 12:30 pm, at Florida State University. According to event organizers, the Governor canceled at the last minute.
As part of this event Jeb Bush would have publicly read from a printed program that includes the following text entitled the Fifth Station of the Cross; "Lord Jesus, sometimes I don't want to do what is right or to help someone in need, but you want me to respond positively to the needs of others in my life. Help me to say 'yes' and be willing to give heroic assistance to all who are in need."
"It is clear that Governor Bush canceled his scheduled participation in this Stations of the Cross service out of fear and guilt of seeing supporters of Terri Schiavo pleading for her life. Our prayer for Governor Bush is the same prayer he would have prayed publicly on this Good Friday, had he kept his scheduled appointment.
By now all sensible people understand that the long run rate of productivity growth assumed by the Social Security trustees - 1.6% - is completely incompatible with the belief that the stock market returns will be at historical rates. One of those assumptions has to be incorrect - either long run productivity growth is assumed to be to low, stock market returns too high, or some combination.
Today DeLong informs us that the methodology the trustees used to arrive at their anemic 1.6% long run productivity growth letters was only put into place last year. And, if previously methodology had been used, the long run rate of productivity growth would be 1.9%, substantially lengthening the solvency of the trust fund.
Videotape of Terri Schiavo blinking at her parents has inspired donations from people around the country to the foundation set up to help pay for the family's legal battle. But many other groups are soliciting donations in her name as well, some for a much broader agenda.
"Help Save Terri Schiavo's Life!" says the Web site of the Traditional Values Coalition, a Christian conservative group best known for its campaigns against gay rights. Next to a link to the Web site of her parents' foundation is a pitch to "become an active supporter of the Traditional Values Coalition by pledging a monthly gift."
"What this issue has done is it has galvanized people the way nothing could have done in an off-election year," said Rev. Lou Sheldon, the founder of the group, acknowledging that the case of Ms. Schiavo, a severely brain-damaged Florida woman, had moved many to open up their checkbooks. "That is what I see as the blessing that dear Terri's life is offering to the conservative Christian movement in America."
Reminds me of a song: Stop wasting my time You know what I want You know what I need Or maybe you don't Do I have to come right Flat out and tell you everything?
Fox News had John Edwards (the guy who talks to the dead, not the former senator) come on to give his expert opinion on the Schiavo case (as seen on the Daily Show).
Alabama bill would outlaw gay people from adopting, though how they'd determine your level of gayness is unclear. Maybe for men they'll show you pictures of Ken Mehlman and see if your little soldier snaps to attention.
Just to burnish my reputation as a bomb thrower, I think Jeb Bush should give serious thought to storming the Bastille.
By that I mean he should think about telling his cops to go over to Terri Schiavo's (search) hospice, go inside, put her on a gurney and load her into an ambulance. They could take her to a hospital, revive her, and reattach her feeding tube. It wouldn't save Terri exactly; she'd still be in the same rotten shape she was in before they disconnected the feeding tube.
But the point is, the temple of the law is so sacrosanct that an occasional chief executive cannot flaunt it once in a while, sort of drop his drawers on the courthouse steps and moon the judges, as a way to protest the complete disregard courts and judges have shown here, in this case, for facts outside the law.
Yes, someone needs to lock the "eat your vegetables caucus" and the "pain caucus" in the basement for a couple of years.
I'm all for responsible lawmakers doing responsible things, but when Hillarycare went down the Republicans didn't say "okay, let's do something responsible now" - they kept beating it even after it was dead and then won a bunch of seats.
There's no chance of doing anything genuinely decent with social security as long as the people who want to kill it are in power. The minority may be able to stop social security, but they can't pass their fantasy social security plan.
Besides, while Tim Russert may pat you on the head if you cut benefits, the voters sure as hell won't.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist attacked Sen. John Edwards on Tuesday over a comment the Democratic vice presidential candidate made regarding actor Christopher Reeve.
Edwards said Reeve, who died Sunday, "was a powerful voice for the need to do stem cell research and change the lives of people like him.
"If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve will get up out of that wheelchair and walk again," Edwards said.
Frist, a Republican from Tennessee, called Edwards' remark "crass" and "shameful," and said it gave false hope that new treatments were imminent.
...
Frist, who was a heart surgeon before coming to the Senate, responded Tuesday in a conference call with reporters arranged by the Bush-Cheney campaign.
"I find it opportunistic to use the death of someone like Christopher Reeve -- I think it is shameful -- in order to mislead the American people," Frist said. "We should be offering people hope, but neither physicians, scientists, public servants or trial lawyers like John Edwards should be offering hype.
"It is cruel to people who have disabilities and chronic diseases, and, on top of that, it's dishonest. It's giving false hope to people, and I can tell you as a physician who's treated scores of thousands of patients that you don't give them false hope."
We only have to go to the opening paragraphs of FLORIDA TODAY's Tuesday editorial "An outrageous act" about Congress's involvement in the Terri Schiavo case to see that even basic assertions of fact are at best disputable.
It states that Terri is in "a persistent vegetative state for 15 years since her heart attack" and "medical evidence showed Terri has no chance of recovery."
Did the editors interview registered nurse Carla Iyer, who personally treated Terri for a year and a half?
She said in a sworn court affidavit that Terri "was alert and oriented. Terri spoke on a regular basis saying things like 'mommy' and 'help me" and 'hi' when I came into her room."
Iyer says Terri would sit up in the nurse's station from time to time and laugh at stories they told. She felt pain and would indicate so. Carla fed her by mouth and not by tube. Does this sound like a woman in persistent vegetative state for the past 15 years?
Hardly.
Or are the editors aware of Dr. William Hammesfahr, Nobel Prize nominee neurologist, who examined Terri for 10 hours and said, "Terri does not require a feeding tube to be fed" and that "with proper therapy she would be able to regain some speech and mobility."
This is a story about a woman neglected proper care and therapy by those now wishing to see her expire. It's a story about disguising a right-to-kill edict in right-to-die clothes.
I only pray that our judicial system won't continue to be party to it.
CBS/AP) Congressional leaders have insisted their only motivation in getting involved in the Terri Schiavo case was saving a life. But Americans aren’t buying that argument, a CBS News poll finds.
Just 13 percent of those polled think Congress intervened in the case out of concern for Schiavo, while 74 percent think it was all about politics. Of those polled, 66 percent said the tube should not be inserted compared to 27 percent who want it restored. The issue has generated strong feelings, with 78 percent of those polled -- wheter for either side of the issue -- saying they have strong feelings.
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.
...
Democrats tried to block the legislation from coming to a vote on the floor of Congress, and some accused the Republicans of acting out of political motives.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said "Congressional leaders have no business substituting their judgment for that of multiple state courts that have extensively considered the issues in this intensely personal family matter."
"This rush to exploit a personal tragedy is not fair to those involved and will not create good policy," she said.
And Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said, "If you don't want a decision to be made politically, why in the world do you ask 535 politicians to make it?"
The AP article which drove all of the coverage of Social Security today was really horrible for reasons described here and here. It also contained a major factual error.
.jpg)
