Thursday, March 31, 2005

Terri is DEAD. May G-d Rest her Soul. My thoughts, prayers and heartache are with the Schindlers

I am so sorry we failed you...............G-d forgive us
She had no living will.

posted by AtlasShrugs.com at 3/31/2005 10:05:00 AM

Atlas' Psychological Map

Dashing off a few mental notes so you know what up with me
Dancing till 2 at Brunos has kicked my ass and so my brain is all over the place
First, let me apoligize to everyone that has wriitten me regarding all the ongoing trouble many are having accessing my blog. I do not know what the problem is. I have removed a great many pics and data from sidebar, (even my first Bloggy Award Right Wing Circle Jerk's Award of Merit) because Pookle told me i was hotlinking them (WTF?) annd that scrotums might show up on my site. Needless to say I am not (nor will I ever be cyperscrotum girl - so DO NOT EVEN THINK of trying to convince me otherwise)
Would LOVE to move my blog off blogspot (anti-semetic GOOGLE - *spit*) but I can't lose all my stuff, entries, comments, visitors (!)..........................so I am attacking the problem in my completely Rube Goldberg way. Please be patient I am sure its those Pali sympathizers at Google - JK (just kidding!) NOT!..............Wait to load and as obnoxious as it may be wait for the comment box.........your comments are the most interesting

Back to Business

First off for those Atlas Shrugged afficionados, you are aware that the objective of this blog is to bring truth and little known news to a world starving for undereported, un-agenda-ized (ha!) world news. News that at the end of the day will make the difference in the struggle between Radical Islam and Western Civilization. So there is a great deal of Middle Eastern Coverage -exposing the anti-semetic propaganda presented as truth -, coverage of the hijacking of our college, university and public school curriculums, the left's love affair with hating America, Krtocracy in America, Israel's survival etc.
I know I have been spending a great deal of space on Terri Schiavo (see previous posts on left sidebar) which may appear to be out of the sphere of "world affairs" . Well it is, it points to a much larger cultural divide, a fight between good and evil, right and wrong, (and no I am not in anyway religious), the krytocracy that has taken a stranglehold of America's governing, and MOST IMPORTANTLY THE JUDICIAL MURDER OF A DAUGHTER, SISTER, BELOVED BY HER FAMILY. Evil is a business of ones. Each one is like a boil, it must be lanced and drained. I will not equivocate on one evil being less or more than another. And who should die? How disabled does have to be to get starved to death? Because that is the slipperiest of slopes. I can not believe this happened in America and yet the more stuff I see, the more it becomes wildly clear that this goes on all the time. And so we needed to know, but Terri should not have died for it. Because at the end of the day with all the psuedo confetti being thrown at us, the bottom line is we killed this girl. And who are we to say who dies?
That we give death row convicts, child killers and the like more due process than this victim is utterly hideous. She is still alive, how about that? That is no accident. And the way the defination of PVS (persistant vegatative state) seems to consistently organically change, there can be no experts in this. The brain is indeed the FINAL FRONTIER.............no one knows, we have just scratched the surface..

And so I will continue to fight that fight and take on the world. Today I am chairing a Private Briefing with Omer Onhon Consul Gerneral, Republic of Turkey.............which should be interesting. I have been told ............no controversial questions OY! How about one? Like why is Mein Kamp the bestselling book in Turkey?................Whatever.
From there onto my Favorite Randite Hero - Daniel Pipes at New York University at 5 pm fighting the great fight to beat back and triumph over Radical Islam. I look forward to Pipes much the way Kirstie Ally looks forward to a deep fried twinkie.
Of course I will report back ALL, thanks guys. I really love you - no bs. Posts will be sporadic but juicy (jewcy?) as always.
And to Sherri (evvvvil conservative), down there of Florida, you are an angel. G-d love you

posted by AtlasShrugs.com at 3/31/2005 09:24:00 AM

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Terri is Just the Tip of an Ongoing Campaign of Murder of the Severely disabled

Wittingshire, the blog reports on the following crimes against humanity. Apparently Schiavo type murders are taking place on a daily basis. These stories are horrifying...........Click on Wittingshire's blog for all of it.

Schiavo Isn't the Only One

John West, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Director of the Center for Science and Culture. John says:

As part of a book project I've been working on, I've gone into the medical and legal literature of this area in depth, and I have been appalled at the flimsy evidence usually accepted by trial courts who make a determination of PVS [Persistent Vegetative State]. In virtually every major case I'm aware of, there were serious disagreements by doctors and nurses in the trial record, but the judges simply disregarded those disagreements. As long as one doctor, on whatever grounds, argued for a diagnosis of PVS, that was enough--no matter what evidence existed against the diagnosis.He then gives a long list of disturbing examples:


A court case from New York that occurred during the same time as the Cruzan litigation dramatized the possibility that some doctors were overstepping the medical evidence when advocating the removal of food and hydration.

Eighty-six year old stroke victim Carrie Coons was declared to be in a PVS by her doctors, who insisted that her condition was irreversible. Based on this medical testimony, the judge in the case ordered Coons' feeding tube removed. But before the order could be carried out, Carrie's roomate in the hospital pled with her to do something, "Come on, Carrie, you need to eat, or you're going to die." Nurses also tried to give Carrie another chance, and soon she was eating pudding, drinking juice-and talking. "I didn't realize anyone cared," she commented. The judge rescinded his earlier order, but was left wondering how medical experts who had been so sure of themselves could have been so completely wrong.

Other food-and-hydration cases have expanded the circle well beyond PVS patients to include those who are clearly conscious. In 1987 the daughter of 92-year-old Anna Hirth of California sought to have her mother's feeding tube removed over the objections of her mother's doctor. An Alzheimer's patient, the elderly Mrs. Hirth had suffered additional brain damage after a choking incident. Yet her doctor insisted that Mrs. Hirth was conscious, felt pain, tracked people with her eyes, and could even take in small amounts of fluid by mouth. Mrs. Hirth was eventually removed from the care of her doctor and transferred to another nursing facility, where she died just a few days later.

During the same year, Michigan resident Michael Martin received an incapacitating brain injury in a car-train accident. Although mentally disabled, he was not in a persistent vegetative state. He could "carry out some voluntary motor commands... recognize faces, and... communicate with other people through head nods." He was "conscious, alert, appears happy, plays card games, and loves country-western music." His post-accident IQ was apparently in "the range for someone mildly retarded."

As in the Schiavo case, it was Michael's spouse who sought to end his life by removing his feeding tube, but his mother and sister fought the effort in court. Unlike in the Schiavo case, however, Michael's spouse Mary openly acknowledged that her husband was "conscious, awake" and not in a PVS. But that did not seem to matter. She still regarded him as less than human. "He does nothing but smile," she complained at a conference in 1998. She added that patients like Michael "could be the organ donors who are so desperately needed." hat tip Judith, Hawks
Some of those situations are just evil. Begging for water and being ignored... It is blowing me away.. It slso shows that the judges to decide on death.

Also mara sent me a copy of a medical report on Terri Schiavo, from a neurologist who examined her for 5 hours. (Cranston, in comparison,
saw her for 45 minutes.) Check it out in NewMax.

Oh and also, JCRUE (thanks sweetie) sent me this on the Blind Judge Greer that decided Terri's fate.................Ben Stein's Article in the Spectator
To Be Absolutely Frank
Simply Terrifying
By Ben Stein
Published 3/25/2005 11:38:48 AM

Here is what makes me furious about the Terri Schiavo case, short and sweet.

The courts of the United States can find a right for the abortion industry to take a fully formed, totally healthy baby at nine months' term, out of his mother's womb and murder it by putting scissors through his brain and grinding them about.

They do this without one single word of support from any Congressional act of any kind ever.

They can find a right of savage murderers of innocent women who drown them for a lark to avoid the death penalty because they are old enough to drive and to kill but supposedly too young to be executed. Again, there is not one syllable in any Congressional act that sanctions this protection of the guilty.

But with the Congress and the President of the United States pleading for the life of a woman who is not brain dead, who responds to words and to touch, who is not on life support, whose parents beg for her to be kept alive, whose nurses give affidavits that she can be rehabilitated, with a specific law commanding the courts to review the case to keep this poor soul alive, the courts instead find no rights for her.

Please read it all.............this is cold blooded murder................apathy is a crime

posted by AtlasShrugs.com at 3/30/2005 06:37:00 PM

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Bill O'Reilly Makes John Kerry look Like an Amateur

Did anyone see the clownish intelllectual antics of O'Reilly tonight? He gives flip flop a bad name.

In the Factor talking points, O'Reilly says he agrees with Judge Greer's decision - the judge that rendered Michael Schiavo's hearsay rendition of a "living will" as a legal document (even though friends close to Terri said she would want no such thing, and of course we know the Schindler's family position). But still, His magnificence admonishes anyone that would deny those fighting for Terri ................ aw
So magnanimous Bill! Thanks

And yet............later on in the program he takes the ACLU on (no friend of mine, mind you) for promoting a culture of death in defending the "Terri's right to privacy [to die]". He is such a full of shitnik.

According to Bill, she was already "dead".....the brain dead argument. Whos the hell died and made him G-d to say her life is unworthy of living. Would Bill kill all severely disabled citizens? That is the very argument he is making.......


And to my girl Terri, I believe (and yes it is merely a belief) that Terri is holding on as long and hard as she is because she is dying to LIVE. TO LIVE! Otherwise, why not let go?

Asher sent me these interesting talking points:As for the "other side" on this issue, I think there are various factors which may motivate different people.

(1) A genuine concern for individual rights and the freedom to make one's own decisions. Exactly as you have said, we have a visceral horror of being deprived of our freedom to move and to act.
(2) Lack of information. This case has been around for years, but it's been on the back burner. Many people may feel they still need more time to form an opinion.
(3) Defensiveness about right-to-die issues. Some people may fear that Schiavo will be used by pro-life absolutists as evidence for the "slippery slope" argument. I would argue that this is exactly why right-to-die partisans should have advocated in favor of saving Terri - because this case is an example of everything that can go wrong, and if we can't get this one right, then the pro-life people will invoke the "slippery slope" theory AND THEY'LL BE RIGHT.
(4) Biases stemming from a perception of Schiavo as a "right-wing" cause. It's unfortunate, but - as all of us in this group know - it's still a factor for a lot of people. [Note: I do not exclude myself on this one! At first I came to the case with a similar bias. Live and learn.]
(5) Misogyny. Pure and simple. No one will admit to it, but it's there.
(6) Appetite for destruction. Peggy Noonan was right. If we didn't know it before, the last few years have taught us that there is an atavistic, nihilistic element on the Left (and elsewhere) that seeks only death and destruction. "You desire life, and we desire death." And I really do think that there are people out there - individuals and groups - who are "in love with death" and who will use causes like "death with dignity" to advance their own twisted desires. Remember Dr. Kevorkian? He sounded reasonable enough, at first. Jonestown, Aum Shinrikyo, Bo and Peep - more tragic examples. That's why, although I remain cautious, I don't discount speculation of a cult connection (in this case Dianetics) with Schiavo.

It should be obvious - but I'll spell it out anyway - that not all of these points apply to everyone. I believe our best strategy is to stand firm, continue making strong arguments, and trust that reasonable people will eventually come around. When decent, undecided people begin to take a look at some of the folks from groups (5) and (6) above, they may begin to give more weight to the positive arguments in favor of our side

posted by AtlasShrugs.com at 3/29/2005 08:56:00 PM

Nat Hentoff Gets Schiavo Right! Right to Live

Terri Schiavo: Judicial Murder

Her crime was being disabled, voiceless, and at the disposal of our media

by Nat Hentoff
March 29th, 2005 10:59 AM
For all the world to see, a 41-year-old woman, who has committed no crime, will die of dehydration and starvation in the longest public execution in American history.

She is not brain-dead or comatose, and breathes naturally on her own. Although brain-damaged, she is not in a persistent vegetative state, according to an increasing number of radiologists and neurologists.

Among many other violations of her due process rights, Terri Schiavo has never been allowed by the primary judge in her case—Florida Circuit Judge George Greer, whose conclusions have been robotically upheld by all the courts above him—to have her own lawyer represent her.

Greer has declared Terri Schiavo to be in a persistent vegetative state, but he has never gone to see her. His eyesight is very poor, but surely he could have visited her along with another member of his staff. Unlike people in a persistent vegetative state, Terri Schiavo is indeed responsive beyond mere reflexes.

While lawyers and judges have engaged in a minuet of death, the American Civil Liberties Union, which would be passionately criticizing state court decisions and demanding due process if Terri were a convict on death row, has shamefully served as co-counsel for her husband, Michael Schiavo, in his insistent desire to have her die.

Months ago, in discussing this case with ACLU executive director Anthony Romero, and later reading ACLU statements, I saw no sign that this bastion of the Bill of Rights has ever examined the facts concerning the egregious conflicts of interest of her husband and guardian Michael Schiavo, who has been living with another woman for years, with whom he has two children, and has violated a long list of his legal responsibilities as her guardian, some of them directly preventing her chances for improvement. Judge Greer has ignored all of them.

In February, Florida's Department of Children and Families presented Judge Greer with a 34-page document listing charges of neglect, abuse, and exploitation of Terri by her husband, with a request for 60 days to fully investigate the charges. Judge Greer, soon to remove Terri's feeding tube for the third time, rejected the 60-day extension. (The media have ignored these charges, and much of what follows in this article.)

Michael Schiavo, who says he loves and continues to be devoted to Terri, has provided no therapy or rehabilitation for his wife (the legal one) since 1993. He did have her tested for a time, but stopped all testing in 1993. He insists she once told him she didn't want to survive by artificial means, but he didn't mention her alleged wishes for years after her brain damage, while saying he would care for her for the rest of his life.

Terri Schiavo has never had an MRI or a PET scan, nor a thorough neurological examination. Republican Senate leader Bill Frist, a specialist in heart-lung transplant surgery, has, as The New York Times reported on March 23, "certified [in his practice] that patients were brain dead so that their organs could be transplanted." He is not just "playing doctor" on this case.

During a speech on the Senate floor on March 17, Frist, speaking of Judge Greer's denial of a request for new testing and examinations of Terri, said reasonably, "I would think you would want a complete neurological exam" before determining she must die.

Frist added: "The attorneys for Terri's parents have submitted 33 affidavits from doctors and other medical professionals,all of whom say that Terri should be re-evaluated."

In death penalty cases, defense counsel for retarded and otherwise mentally disabled clients submit extensive medical tests. Ignoring the absence of complete neurological exams, supporters of the deadly decisions by Judge Greer and the trail of appellate jurists keep reminding us how extensive the litigation in this case has been—19 judges in six courts is the mantra. And more have been added. So too in many death penalty cases, but increasingly, close to execution, inmates have been saved by DNA.

As David Gibbs, the lawyer for Terri's parents, has pointed out, there has been a manifest need for a new federal, Fourteenth Amendment review of the case because Terri's death sentence has been based on seven years of "fatally flawed" state court findings—all based on the invincible neglect of elementary due process by Judge George Greer.

I will be returning to the legacy of Terri Schiavo in the weeks ahead because there will certainly be long-term reverberations from this case and its fracturing of the rule of law in the Florida courts and then the federal courts—as well as the disgracefully ignorant coverage of the case by the great majority of the media, including such pillars of the trade as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Miami Herald, and the Los Angeles Times as they copied each other's misinformation, like Terri Schiavo being "in a persistent vegetative state."

Do you know that nearly every major disability rights organization in the country has filed a legal brief in support of Terri's right to live?

But before I go back to other Liberty Beats—the CIA's torture renditions and the whitewashing of the landmark ACLU and Human Rights First's lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld for his accountability in the widespread abuse of detainees, including evidence of torture—I must correct the media and various "qualified experts" on how a person dies of dehydration if he or she is sentient, as Terri Schiavo demonstrably is.

On March 15's Nightline, in an appallingly one-sided, distorted account of the Schiavo case, Terri's husband, Michael—who'd like to marry the woman he's now living with—said that once Terri's feeding tube is removed at his insistent command, Terri "will drift off into a nice little sleep and eventually pass on and be with God."

As an atheist, I cannot speak to what he describes as his abandoned wife's ultimate destination, but I can tell how Wesley Smith (consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture)—whom I often consult on these bitterly controversial cases because of his carefully researched books and articles—describes death by dehydration.

In his book Forced Exit (Times Books), Wesley quotes neurologist William Burke: "A conscious person would feel it [dehydration] just as you and I would. . . . Their skin cracks, their tongue cracks, their lips crack. They may have nosebleeds because of the drying of the mucous membranes, and heaving and vomiting might ensue because of the drying out of the stomach lining.

"They feel the pangs of hunger and thirst. Imagine going one day without a glass of water! . . . It is an extremely agonizing death."

On March 23, outside the hospice where Terri Schiavo was growing steadily weaker, her mother, Mary, said to the courts and to anyone who would listen and maybe somehow save her daughter:

"Please stop this cruelty!"

While this cruelty was going on in the hospice, Michael Schiavo's serpentine lawyer, George Felos, said to one and all: "Terri is stable, peaceful, and calm. . . . She looked beautiful."

During the March 21 hearing before Federal Judge James D. Whittemore, who was soon to be another accomplice in the dehydration of Terri, the relentless Mr. Felos, anticipating the end of the deathwatch, said to the judge:

"Yes, life is sacred, but so is liberty, your honor, especially in this country."

It would be useless, but nonetheless, I would like to inform George Felos that, as Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas said: "The history of liberty is the history of due process"—fundamental fairness.

Contrary to what you've read and seen in most of the media, due process has been lethally absent in Terri Schiavo's long merciless journey through the American court system.

"As to legal concerns," writes William Anderson—a senior psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a lecturer at Harvard University—"a guardian may refuse any medical treatment, but drinking water is not such a procedure. It is not within the power of a guardian to withhold, and not in the power of a rational court to prohibit."

Ralph Nader agrees. In a statement on March 24, he and Wesley Smith (author of, among other books, Culture of Death: The Assault of Medical Ethics in America) said: "The court is imposing process over justice. After the first trial [before Judge Greer], much evidence has been produced that should allow for a new trial—which was the point of the hasty federal legislation.

Hat tip:Catherine

posted by AtlasShrugs.com at 3/29/2005 08:43:00 PM

Monday, March 28, 2005

Schiavo Tragedy: " Evolutionary Biology & Blood Thicker than Water, Children never Divorce their Parents, while Spouses Divorce Spouses all the Time"

For those of you on the fence or internally debating "rule of law" with "humanity and morality", I implore you to read Henniger's Piece in the Opinionjournal........everything that is right and wrong with this human tragedy is boiled down to its essential oils right here.
hat tip Catherine the Great

In Solomon's Absence
The Schiavo case made bad law and good politics.
BY DANIEL HENNINGER


If we lived amid the wisdom of Solomon, Terri Schiavo would be turned over to her loving parents and family. If it is their wish to live out their lives attending the constant needs of their damaged child, so be it. However, we live in an age bereft of the wisdom of Solomon, and so Terri Schiavo is likely to die. That the American legal system is incapable of common sense is very upsetting, but I don't see why it should be found surprising or shocking.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined yesterday to intervene in the Schiavo case. The original court decision, the basis and cause for all that we have witnessed the past several weeks, was rendered in February 2000 in Pinellas County Circuit Court by Judge George W. Greer.

It is true that Judge Greer has ruled against Terri Schiavo's parents, the Schindlers, many times. But by my count, in the five years from the original circuit court decision, the rulings against them include the following:

Florida's appeals court: eight times; the Florida Supreme Court: five times; U.S. federal courts: five times; the U.S. Supreme Court: three times.

This is a lot of judges. Some of the opinions are long discourses combing back through the details of the case. It is difficult for me to believe that these are all "liberal" judges intent on "killing" Terri Schiavo.

For the record, let us examine the basis for Judge Greer's original decision to withhold artificial life support.

Judge Greer decided to pursue what Terri's wishes were and said he was guided by a Florida Supreme Court case called Guardianship of Estelle M. Browning. It set three tests, one of which is that "the evidence of the patient's oral declaration is reliable."

"This is the issue before the court," Judge Greer wrote. "All of the other collateral issues [such as the beliefs of family concerning end-of-life decisions] truly are not relevant to the issue which the court must decide."

Judge Greer then cited testimony taken from Michael Schiavo's brother and sister-in-law, who said Terri had said, "I don't want to be kept alive on a machine" and several similar statements. Judge Greer said this "rises to the level of clear and convincing evidence to this court."

These are the trial court's findings of fact, and in our system all subsequent appeals courts give great deference to these original findings. Several lengthy appeals court rulings also cited Terri's "oral" declarations. This is the reason we are hearing so much now about living wills and the like.

This doesn't make it any easier to accept the trial court's decision. Depriving the Schindlers of the chance to minister to their child on the notion that she blurted this "oral will" to her in-laws is absurd and repellant (surely many Democrats railing against the Republican Congress's anti-federal intervention would at least agree that Terri belongs with her willing parents). But "wrong" decisions occur constantly. Judges go home every night disagreeing with the decisions of juries, which the judge may believe has found the guilty innocent or wrongly sent the innocent to prison. The standard for setting aside these wrong decisions is very, very high.

As to Michael Schiavo's status as guardian, it was not unassailable, but nor was it obviously insupportable. Michael Schiavo is entitled to the sweeping claims for his wife's desires he has been making from every TV screen, but the most morally reprehensible act in this whole drama has been his refusal to simply turn Terri over to her poor mother, whose connection to her child-like daughter is more authentic and earned than anything that existed between Terri and Michael Schiavo.

Many conservatives have brought Terri Schiavo's case into the battle against a too-activist judiciary. They should reconsider. Most judges hate getting these close-call medical cases. Expecting the courts to do the "right thing" in every such case is hopeless. The more likely result of pressing these cases into a courtroom of any political persuasion is an impossible tangle of bad, useless precedents.

Democrats, and others, have accused Republicans and President Bush of playing politics with the Schiavo case. Let's hope so. Unlike most, this is a necessary politics that ought to draw the whole country into the argument.


In 25 years, the baby boomers will be on the cusp of 85, becoming what a physician friend has called "history's healthiest generation of Alzheimer's patients." As the tsunami of red ink collapses the struts beneath the tar-paper shacks of Medicare and Social Security (which the Congressional elders say isn't broken) the "scarce resource" argument will re-emerge, with soothing persuasiveness, for triaging the most ill among us, very old or very young.

The outpouring of support to give Terri Schiavo back to her parents may prove quixotic, but it ensures that these future questions of who lives and who dies won't be decided by the professional class alone in conferences and courtrooms. It will be done in full view, where it belongs.
Mr. Henninger is deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page. His column appears Fridays in the Journal and on OpinionJournal.com.

posted by AtlasShrugs.com at 3/28/2005 11:57:00 PM

And the Nuclear Band Plays on..........Ratcheting up the Stakes

Consider this.......happening as we speak; (Neuwirth) China just signed a seventy-billion-dollar deal to buy Iranian oil and Russia is proceeding to supply Iran with nuclear fuel to start up their 'peaceful reactor', despite urgings by the Bush administration to refrain from doing so. There are also reports that Iran was having difficulty processing uranium to weapons-grade concentration and may be opting to simply purchase it from cash-strapped North Korea. Yet, even suggesting a serious economic embargo at this time might be asking too much of our so-called allies, because it could raise the high price of oil still further and damage Western economies. Ultimately, they may even be prepared to live with a nuclear-armed Iran while retreating into their own world of denial and engaging in business-as-usual with Iran's mullahs, offering endless rationalizations.

These unfolding events are serious, scary. And gets scarier still. The United States faces daunting choices. Unilateral military action to disarm Iran would entail great difficulty and high risk. We would be limited to air strikes against many dispersed and highly protected sites. A ground invasion is unlikely because our all-volunteer army is already deployed in Iraq, and Iran is strong on the ground. Iran's military has substantial firepower and could react fiercely if attacked, including missile strikes on US bases in the region. They could also attack Israel, which by now has no reason to heed any more US urgings about 'showing restraint' while their people are being blown up. An Israeli response could be massive, which could generate widespread Muslim rage against America. Having waited far too long to confront Iran, we are now virtually without allies while facing a powerful enemy who cannot be knocked out in a quick air strike, and who is totally ruthless.

Another daunting scenario is that Israel might be compelled to preempt to avoid facing nuclear annihilation. That would embarrass us with the Muslims, who would naturally blame America for anything done by Israel. George Bush and Bill Clinton both ignored long-standing and repeated Israeli warnings about Iran's nuclear weapons program and its public threats to exterminate Israel. But our government did express concern over Israel's possible preemptive action to neutralize the Iranian threat and how that would complicate our relations with the Arabs.

Another unspoken consideration may also be guiding US thinking. In World War II, we fought a schizophrenic war against Nazi Germany. On the one hand we fought the Germans fiercely and also aided our allies and various victims of the Nazis as well - but with one glaring exception. The US carefully avoided any action that would interfere with the extermination of European Jewry. For example, we bombed German rail lines, but never those leading directly to the death camps, even when asked to do so. Even then, were we pandering to the Arabs, who supported the Nazis and who opposed any help for the Jews?

In 1981, US intelligence had to know that Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor at Osiraq was nearing completion and intended to provide nuclear weapons to attack Israel. And yet, the US allowed France to build that reactor, perhaps assuming that if Israel were the only target then 'we could live with that'. Also note the very harsh response of the US administration against Israel following its air strike on Osiraq. Instead of deserved congratulations, there was a suspension of American support as punishment and Vice President Bush was reported to have demanded that we bomb the Israeli air base that launched the strike. Yet, even Iraq's neighboring Arab countries felt relieved and safer after the Israeli action.

Today, the US and even the Europeans rightly fear a nuclear Iran under the extremist mullahs. But given the Jewish experience of World War II and of seeing the West allow Saddam Hussein to seek nuclear weapons - not once, but twice - we can now pose an 'ugly' question, however hypothetical. If the West could be assured that only Israel, and not the US or Europe, would be threatened by a nuclear Iran, would that then be acceptable? History suggests that the 'ugly' answer is probably "yes". But the problem now is that, unlike during World War II, those 'troublesome' Jews may refuse to die quietly for our convenience. Israel may realize that the US is an unreliable ally and decide to preempt. In a worst case scenario they can deliver a massive nuclear punch of their own with huge consequences. It seems that our problem is more to hold Israel back than to disarm Iran.

posted by AtlasShrugs.com at 3/28/2005 04:55:00 PM

From the "THIS IS WHY I HAVE NO FRIENDS" Dept.

With Friends like these....................

The crowd booed the U.S. national anthem and a spattering of fans
chanted "Osama! Osama!" before play started, and shortly after
Lewis' goal.
This in The New York Post

DC over at the Hawks put it best, Between this, and President Vincente Fox's government's "creating a playbook(& DVD) for illegal invaders to the U.S., the Mrs. and I have had it with the parasites to the South."
"Just remember this article before you go booking your nextMexican Vacation, or order that next Corona/Tecate, or eyeballthose Mexican veggies @ Food Emporium/D'Agostino."

posted by AtlasShrugs.com at 3/28/2005 12:36:00 PM

THEY ARE GIVING TERRI MORPHINE FOR PAIN!

If it's such a beautiful death why are they giving Terri morphine? If she is a "vegetard", how could she drink the wine from the reluctant communion that Michael finally relented to giving her after public outcry.

The family members are STRIP SEARCHED before they can see Terri. STRIP SEARCHED and for a girl that "wanted to die" (hearsay!) she sure is fighting for her life.

- Terri Schiavo's husband is set to inflict what her grieving relatives charge is the final insult: insisting that her body be cremated against their religious wishes — and then buried in his own family's plot. I believe this man does not want an autopsy for fear of what might be discovered. What might havehappened that rendered her brain damaged?
Terri Schiavo is
STILL fighting for her life -- which itself is proof that
it is NOT her wish to die, as her estranged "husband" keeps
claiming.

But time is definitely running out. Terri has been starving
to death for nine days now. Except for one drop of communion
wine that she was allowed on her thickened tongue today, she
has had NO food or water for nine days. As you can imagine,
as her brother Bobby described her today, she looks like
someone in a Nazi concentration camp. She's suffering -- but
her family reports that she still smiles when she sees her
mother come into the room, and she still tries to speak in
a cracked whisper.

Terri's life is STILL worth saving. And we still have hope
she can be saved -- but again, we need YOUR help to make it
work.

There's TWO FRONTS we're attacking on now -- once again, the
state and federal levels. But this time, we have a REAL
CHANCE to break through the "roadblocks" that the enemies
of life have been putting up in front of us.

Please take just a couple of minutes to make a crucial
difference in saving Terri's life.

TAKE ACTION: Here are the two areas we need you to take
action in NOW:

1) Governor Jeb Bush has made several statements the last few
days, claiming that he doesn't have the constitutional or
statutory authority to take Terri in to protective custody.

But as we've mentioned before, we *personally* told his people
FACE TO FACE that he DOES have that authority: we had a
meeting on March 23 between folks from RightMarch.com (William
Greene and our attorney, Larry Klayman) and Governor Bush's
chief counsel (his top lawyer on staff). Then we had a meeting
on March 24 between our folks (this time, Larry Klayman AND
Ambassador Alan Keyes) and Gov. Bush's Chief of Staff. Both
times, we presented information on why the Governor DOES have
the authority RIGHT NOW under Florida Law and the Florida
constitution to take Terri into protective custody NOW, and
save her life.

But Gov. Bush failed to take action. Why? We believe that his
staff -- the political cronies that he has surrounded himself
with -- have NOT given him the documents we provided. They
just smirked and gave us political platitudes, acting like
they were doing US some big favor by granting us five minutes
of their valuable time. Then they walked off, apparently
tossing Dr. Keyes' well-researched documents into the trash
when they got back to their spacious corner offices.

These people are more interested in protecting their political
careers than saving Terri's life. So it's time for US to turn
up the heat on them, and DEMAND that they deliver the documents
that Gov. Bush NEEDS -- so he can save Terri Schiavo.
Ambassador Keyes and Larry Klayman are STILL willing to meet
with the Governor, or to have a conference call to explain
his authority, and his DUTY.

We need EVERYONE READING THIS MESSAGE to call Governor Bush's
lead counsel and chief of staff RIGHT AWAY, and tell them to
do one simple thing:

"SHOW GOVERNOR BUSH THE DOCUMENTS FROM ALAN KEYES AND
LARRY KLAYMAN -- TELL HIM TO EXERCISE HIS CONSTITUTIONAL
AUTHORITY, AND TAKE TERRI SCHIAVO INTO PROTECTIVE
CUSTODY RIGHT AWAY."

Call, fax or e-mail now:

Raquel Rodriguez, General Counsel
850-488-3494 (office)
850-488-9810 (fax)
raquel.rodriguez@myflorida.com

William Large, Deputy Chief of Staff
850-488-5603 (office)
850-922-4292 (fax)
william.large@myflorida.com

Also contact Gov. Bush and ask him to read the documents:

Governor Jeb Bush
850-488-4441 (office)
850-487-0801 (fax)
http://capwiz.com/sicminc/mail/?id=9483&type=GV&state=FL

(If you get busy signals, or full mailboxes, or unanswered
fax machines, please know that these ARE the correct numbers
and addresses. Just keep trying, if you can.)

You can click below to read -- AND USE -- Alan Keyes'
documentation that explains to Gov. Jeb Bush that he has the
legal authority to save Terri Schiavo... the SAME document
that we delivered to Gov. Bush's staff:

http://www.rightmarch.com/media/JudicialReview.doc


2) On Monday, we'll be sending several representatives up to
Washington, D.C., to confront House Speaker Dennis Hastert and
Congressman Tom DeLay, asking them to explain why they have
not enforced the subpoenas issued by Congress to Terri Schiavo.
Our people will also urge Congress to find Florida Probate
Judge George Greer in contempt for deliberately IGNORING Terri
Schiavo's subpoena.

Call, fax or e-mail Reps. Hastert and DeLay now, urging them
to enforce the Congressional subpoenas and to hold Judge Greer
in contempt -- and to therefore order the re-insertion of Terri
Schiavo's feeding tube... and ask President Bush to order the
Department of Justice to move in to save Terri:

Representative J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL)
202-225-2976 (office)
202-225-0697 (fax)
http://capwiz.com/sicminc/mail/?id=227&type=CO&state=IL

Representative Tom DeLay (R-TX)
202-225-5951 (office)
202-225-5241 (fax)
http://capwiz.com/sicminc/mail/?id=576&type=CO&state=TX

President George W. Bush
202-456-1414 (White House)
202-456-2461 (fax)
http://capwiz.com/sicminc/mail/?id=20004&type=PR

As long as Terri has breath in her body, IT'S NOT TOO LATE to
save her from starving to death. Her family hasn't given up
hope... so NEITHER SHOULD WE.

NOTE: It's been very expensive for us to engage in the activism
in Florida this week. We reserved hotel rooms; we rented meeting
halls for rallies and activist/lobbying training sessions; we
rented buses to bring people from Pinellas Park to Tallahassee
and back again; we flew legal experts like Alan Keyes and Larry
Klayman in to meet with Governor Bush's people; we're flying
Larry Klayman up to D.C. to meet with Congress and conduct
multiple press conferences; we've spent funds on tons of media
and press releases... the list goes on and on.

posted by AtlasShrugs.com at 3/28/2005 08:49:00 AM

Catherine's Perspective on "Severe Handicap"

I read this entry from Catherine of Liberal Hawks and I think it shines a line into the little spoken corners of reality that people retreat from and choose not to deal with. And then.................and then there's Terri and the fallacy crashes and burns and the blinders are ripped off our face/
I don't know what Terri feels or wants, or how conscious she may (or may
not) be.

My best guess, based mostly on two lines of research that are either brand
new (the research on minimally conscious states) or somewhat, but not
directly, related to Terri¹s situation (the research on quadriplegics and
emotional well-being) is that she¹s not suffering horribly in her current
state, and may be in a positive frame of mind when she is conscious or
minimally conscious.

I don't think I¹m being as clear as I could be if I spent more time writing
these posts.

What I'm trying to say is that I do feel horrified at the thought of living
as a handicapped person.

I feel so horrified at the thought of living as a severely handicapped
person that I have actually had to wonder whether, if somebody told me ŒI
can make you autistic for one day so you'll know what your children's lives
are like, I would do it.

I'm afraid I wouldn't. I live with two autistic kids, I just wrote a book
with an autistic adult, and I think I'm too afraid of how hard and
frightening it might be to have autism that I would not agree to be autistic
for even one day.

I don't actually feel that I have more insight into the nature of a disabled
person's consciousness than other people do (though I probably have more
insight into autism specifically; that's true).

What I feel is that I have a pretty sharp awareness of the negative feelings
being expressed in this public debate towards people with severe handicaps.
AND I DON'T EXEMPT MYSELF FROM THIS. It is horribly, horribly upsetting to
think about severe handicaps; it is horribly upsetting to see a person with
severe handicaps; and it is horribly upsetting to think about one day having
a severe handicap oneself.

This emotion, which I share, translates directly into a very widespread
feeling that death is preferable to life with a severe handicap. And not
just preferable for me, but preferable for others. (If you look at polling
on this question, a huge majority of people say they would rather be dead
than be severely disabled.)

It¹s this link I¹d like to break. Ideally, I would like our country to react
to the sight of Terri Schiavo as warmly as possible; I would like people to
look at her and not have, as their first thought, Œshe would be better off
dead.¹

I would like to see our country reach a consensus‹recover a consensus,
actually‹that we err on the side of life.

This does not mean that I would support laws that everyone has to have all
the intrusive medical care a physician can give him, come what may. Families
should be free to make their own decisions, and draw their own lines.

But I hope to see the starting point for such decisions be that all life has
equal moral worth and value. That should be our core belief, as a culture.
Because I do believe we are on a slippery slope, and I do believe‹and can
give evidence to support my belief‹that we have already tumbled quite a long
ways down it.


Now I have a question.

Here's John Derbyshire, at The Corner:


"I think it is cruel to let this woman linger on in her degraded and
hopeless condition."

And this:

"The life Terri Schiavo has is not worth living."


To me, those are pretty close to fighting words.

At a minimum I need to know John Derbyshire's views of the severely disabled
children I saw at the school for the multiply handicapped in the Valley.

Are their lives worth living?

I need to hear a yes on that one.

Here is Ramesh Ponnoru's reaction to Derbyshire:

RE: ABSOLUTISM [Ramesh Ponnuru]
Derbyshire comes out and says it: "The life Terri Schiavo has is not worth
living. I wouldn't want to live it, and I wouldn't want anyone I care about
to live it. For once, I believe, the courts have got it right. For pity's
sake, let this poor woman die." Let her die? She has no terminal illness.
She is being killed by the denial of food and water. On Derbyshire's logic,
there is no reason why we shouldn't--and every reason why we should--make
things easier on Terri and ourselves by immediately giving her a lethal
injection. It would be quicker, more efficient, and possibly less painful
for her.
Posted at 02:59 PM


What about this?

It would be radically more humane to kill Terri Schiavo the way hospices
euthanize people, by giving them an overdose of morphine. These deaths are
very quick and painless.

And since I keep mentioning dogs, let me add that many, many people
euthanize their dogs, and these deaths never, ever involve starving and
dehydrating the animal for days and weeks. The animal is given an injection,
and they are dead within seconds. Three years ago I held our dog Jazzy while
he died.

If the issue is Terri Schiavo's suffering, if that is what we as a culture
are truly concerned with, why are we putting her through 2 weeks of
starvation and dehydration?

posted by AtlasShrugs.com at 3/28/2005 08:39:00 AM

Thank God Condi is Running Things: ISRAEL IS OUR FRIEND

Rice: ‘Israel is Our Friend’
10:18 Mar 27, '05 / 16 Adar 5765

(IsraelNN.com) US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said there is no question regarding US opinion on major Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. Speaking to Israel Radio, Rice said she is sorry that people have tried to create confusion, but there was an agreement between the two countries on April 14th of last year regarding major Israeli population centers in Judea and Samaria – that they will continue to exist.

She said Israel and America are on the same page:
Rice Says Washington Recognizes Israel’s Right to Communities in Judea, Samaria
10:04 Mar 27, '05 / 16 Adar 5765

(IsraelNN.com) US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice says Washington’s position on Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria is clear. In an interview with Israel Radio, Rice said Israel and the US agreed on April 14th last year that final status negotiations with the Arabs must take into account demographic realities on the ground, which include major Israeli population centers.

“The American view is that while we will not prejudice the outcome of final status negotiations… the existing major Israeli population centers will have to be taken into account in any final status negotiations,” Rice said.

posted by AtlasShrugs.com at 3/28/2005 08:33:00 AM

Why are the Palis Smuggling in Strella Missiles

Call me cynical but there is more to the "PEACE" (ha!) process than meets the eye.............
Once again Israel continues to negotiate a war that has not been won. Yes yes lets keep rewarding the Palis, Hams, and Hizbollah for terror and wanton murder...................and while we are at it let the pleas of a Terri Schiavo's family go unheard and murder and innocent woman
G-d I am depressed
Mofaz Tells Cabinet: Strella Missiles Smuggled Into Gaza
 Defense/Security

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told a Cabinet meeting early Sunday that it was
likely that the Palestinians have successfully smuggled Strella missiles into
Gaza.
Strella missiles have the ability to shoot down aircraft from a distance of two
miles, using a sensing device that detects the heat given off by a jet plane. A
Strella missile fired by Muslim terrorists narrowly missed shooting down an El Al civilian flight over Kenya in 2002.

Defining the recent weapons smuggling as “crossing a red line”, Mofaz said, “We have passed messages on to the [Palestinian] Authority so they can get their hands on the Strellas.”

He said the PA still has not complied with Israel’s demands regarding the
missiles, however. As a result, he said he has “ordered preparations for handing over the city of Kalkilya [to PA control], but not to transfer” the city just yet. Kalkilya, located in the Sharon area, is just a few miles from Israel’s
most populous region.

posted by AtlasShrugs.com at 3/28/2005 08:25:00 AM

Saturday, March 26, 2005

The Slippery Slope of Judicial Murder

HAT TIP DR NANCY G

The Nancy Cruzan case was exactly the same. It was Governor John Ashcroft, Solicitor General Ken Starr and Operation Rescue (Randall Terry's group) fighting the parents to keep her alive. Obviously "persistent vegetative state" has come to include the severely disabled, quite different from when I trained. No wonder a British study showed over 40% showed the diagnosis to be wrong within 5 years. It's because they throw everyone in there.

Who was Nancy Cruzan? Who is Christine Busalacchi?
Where is the Church?

"…[O]nce euthanasia is permitted in principle, the denial of food and water will undoubtedly be replaced by quicker and more aesthetic means."

Nancy Cruzan died of dehydration by court order on December 26, 1990, following 12 days without food or water. She was 33 years old. Nancy was severely disabled as a result of a car injury in 1983. She was not dying. Following her accident she ate mashed potatoes, bananas, eggs and link sausage.

Cruzan's care wasn't "exceptional"

A gastrostomy tube was implanted, even though Nancy could chew and swallow, in order to make her long term care easier. When the decision was made to remove the tube, no one attempted to assess her ability to swallow. Spoon feeding in her case was judged to be "morally repugnant" and "totally inconsistent" with what was wanted, according t a doctor who evaluated her.

Nancy could hear and see; smiled at amusing stories; cried at times when visitors left; sometimes tried to form words; experienced pain. She required no care except food and fluids, personal hygiene and repositioning to prevent bedsores. She could have been cared for at home.*

Busalacchi's "vegetative state"

Christine Busalacchi is 20 years old. She was severely brain-injured in a car accident in 1987 and currently resides in the Missouri Rehabilitation Center, the same center that cared for Nancy Cruzan. Her condition is described as "persistent vegetative state." Christine can speak simple words, mover her hands and legs on request, form emotional attachments, smile, and interact with people in her room. She is not dying. She is not on life-support machines. She is not receiving any extraordinary care. Her father is seeking her transfer to Minnesota for the purpose of removing her feeding tube.*

There is significant opposition to withdrawal of food and water

These cases and others like them, are stirring debate in our nation. Courts all the way to the Supreme Court are involved. There seems to be growing support for withdrawal of food and water. But no everyone agrees. Richard John Neuhaus, in The Religion and Society Report, May 1988, mentioned a statement expressing an alternative perspective, called "Feeding and Hydrating the Permanently Unconscious and Other Vulnerable Persons." Among the signatories was now-deceased Princeton theologian Paul Ramsey.

"Withdrawing food and water is a form of euthanasia," says Neuhaus. "It is usually a prolonged and ugly way of killing someone. Therefore, once euthanasia is permitted in principle, the denial of food and water will undoubtedly be replaced by quicker and more aesthetic means."






posted by AtlasShrugs.com at 3/26/2005 06:59:00 PM

"I WANT TO LIVE"

posted by AtlasShrugs.com at 3/26/2005 01:18:00 PM

PWR: Pamela's Weekend Recap: Judicial Murder "Rule of Law AKA JUST FOLLOWING ORDERS!"

It's that time again, opening a vein at the end of the week. The whole of my week has been Terri Schiavo. There is no way I cannot speak to her impending death by the state. So much has been said, so much hearsay from both sides -even Michael Schiavo's contention that Terri said she would want to die is hearsay......................my thoughts, Atlas
.

Terri is dying, most likely Easter weekend. Inasmuch as the Left portrayed this as a legal issue, I assure you it is a moral issue. This is MURDER plain and simple. What does this say about us as a people when a mother is pleading and crying on national airwaves not to murder her daughter and we do it anyway.


Today I am ashamed to be an American.

And now we see just how far the perversion and absolute power the Krytocracy holds in America. IF THIS IS NOT A CALL TO ALL AMERICANS TO GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND CHANGE THE SYSTEM THEN THERE IS NO HOPE FOR US.

Imagine, the President of the United States, the House , the Senate, Governor Bush............the great powers in America could not stop the murder of one RIGHT TO DIE Advocate Judge.Michael Schiavo's Doctor, Lawyer and CLINTON FEDERAL APPOINTED Judge Whittemore are all RIGHT TO DIE ADVOCATES.

15 years of litigation, yes. Same judge YES!Unfuckingbelievable...yet another glaring conflict of interest everybody's comfortable with? The spotlight should be on the right to die advocates: Cranford, Felos and Greer (doctor, lawyer and judge!) Read the whole piece in WND (click)

"We are appalled that the Florida courts have not removed Mr. Schiavo as Terri’s guardian," says Nancy Pfotenhauer, president of the Independent Women’s Forum. "There is an inherent conflict between the interests of Mr. Schiavo, his live-in girlfriend, his children with this woman, and the needs of his wife. Given this conflict of interest, it shocks the conscience that Mr. Schiavo still controls whether Terri lives or dies."

"All organizations that claim to speak for women should be outraged at this injustice. Effectively, Terri is being sentenced to an early grave because her husband would prefer her death to a divorce," Pfotenhauer continued.
Michael Schiavo once tried to kill his wife Terri with insulin shots, according to a former caregiver for the brain-injured Florida woman.
The estranged husband -- who is living with another woman with whom he has two children -- "wants her to die; he doesn't want the truth to be known," said Carla Sauer Iyer in an interview this morning on the Fox News Channel program "Fox and Friends."
WorldNetDaily reported the registered nurse's testimony in 2003 when it was presented in a 24-page complaint filed in a federal lawsuit alleging Michael Schiavo had forbidden medical professionals to provide his wife with any therapy or rehabilitation and had attempted to hasten her death while she was a patient at the Pinellas Park, Fla., hospice she has lived in since 2000.

What we are seeing here is the old fashioned law being applied to the contemporary idea of "starter marriages", multiple marriages, and the breakdown of the American family. MARRIAGE AS AN ABSOLUTE -Bottom line is when these laws were written, marriage was a more sacred institution and husbands and wives, by and large, stayed together for life.

According to Terri's best friends (two of which were on Linda Vesta's daily show yesterday), Terri was most unhappy in the marriage. She was planning to leave, Michael was a control freak that monitored Terri's every move. She had to come straight home from work everyday. Michael would go ballistic (!) iF Terri was ever late. He would even check the odometer on the car to check for mileage to see if Terri went anywhere other than she was suppsoed to go. Invariably she and her friends would never take Terri's car, for fear of enraging Michael Schiavo. Insofar as the alleged abuse, her friend said she saw a good many black and blue marks but never thought anything of it so I will not speculate further. Yes this is all heresay but it speaks to a much larger break in the infrastructure of American Society. The continuous chipping away at the solemnity and sanctity of marriage by the left(Bill "I did not have sex with that woman" Clinton, same sex marriage, illegitimate children, single parent households, remember how Dan Quale was excoriated for suggesting that Murphy Brown was "celebrating" fatherless parenthood?, the sad results of the continuing culture war) have brought us to this disastrous fork in the road.
That being said, the bottom line is Michael Schiavo SHOULD NOT BE MAKING THIS DECISION. He does not have Terri's best interest at heart, not for one second. The marriage was broken. Terri was leaving this control freak and taking an apartment with her friend. Therein lies the problem. This man would not be Terri's husband had this happened one or two years later. Today, multiple marriages are commonplace, so the ramifications of implicit spousal authority are spectacular and terrifying as this case so painfully shows. This being the law of the land (the sanctity and purity of marriage), the courts have no choice. Truth be told, I would not want my husband making this decision.

In cases such as these where there is no living will and there are opposing family members, we must come down on the side of life. Most people things it's a horrible existance. Who died and made them G-d? I for one WOULD WANT TO LIVE. No one loves me enough to fight for me like that, what a love! That LOVE IS IN ITSELF something to live for. to me living in the bed sounds like heaven, how about that?


Look I don't want to sound preachy or high handed and I had read everything on this case and everybody thinks they have cornered the morality issue here. I think not. This is easy. This is murder. I am not in the least bit interested if Terri will "wake up" someday. Irrelevant! Who are we to judge the quality of her life or the measure of a mother's love? I do not believe for one second that Terri's mother would want to see her daughter lead a tortured life. She loves her, wants desperately to take care of here. Ma Schiavo said yesterday "She is my life".

If you've seen Terri's face when her mother is kissing her there's not much more proof you need. Such a love...............

Two other small tangential points, I never hear boo from the "right to die" activists concerning Sunny Von Bulow. This woman is as brain dead as a doornail, no noise, no opening the eyes, nothing! But that's ok and if you going to ask me 'who is to pay for Terri'? I will tell you right now DON'T GO THERE. The healthcare system is so corrupt and twisted by the political strong arming of special interest groups, it's enough to make you sick. Every illegal alien and their mother, cousin, brother, sister crosses our borders for free medical care. Don't believe me, look at all those Texas hospitals near the Mexican border, they are drowning in caring for the illegals. And everyone outside this country knows to come here on a tourist visa and get free medical everything from flu shots to open heart surgery (we all have witnessed these abuses). So if my tax money is going to pay for anything let it be Terri and if you dont like it....CHANGE THE SYSTEM.
The same murdering judge REJECTED THEIR LAST APPEAL BASED on the lawyer's testimony that Terri attempted to speak last friday and say I....................whaaaaaaaaa and then screamed out in frustration.And then there is the alleged political corruption in the Schiavo case. Criminal probes reportedly shut down despite investigators' concerns..................
in todays WND when Terri Schiavo enters what are thought to be her last hours of life, allegations of political corruption and obstruction of justice on the part of state officials raise questions as to whether the brain-injured woman's court-ordered death by starvation might serve to cover up crimes committed against her.

Criminal probes launched by two Florida agencies looking into allegations the incapacitated woman was abused, neglected and exploited were shut down, despite investigators' concerns.

>President Bush issued a statement saying that "in cases like this one, where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws, and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life."

G-d bless you President Bush, for trying to do the right thing and save her life as opposed to
"rule of law" aka 'JUST FOLLOWING ORDERS'.you took a great political hit for all the right reasons....TO SAVE A LIFE

Terri Schiavo: Cognitively Able

The following transcript was posted on Free Republic on 01/21/2004 7:08:56 PM PST by FL_engineer

From "Terri Big Eyes" video available at http://www.terrisfight.org

Terri starts out apparently asleep. A doctor wakes her to start his tests.

Doctor: Terri. Open your eyes up...

Terri: (Startled at hearing her name. She starts moving her mouth and fluttering her eyes, like a person who is just waking up)

Doctor: Open your eyes, Terri open your eyes

Terri: (slowly at first, Terri struggles to open her eyes, then turns toward the doctor, and opens her eyes a normal amount)

Doctor: There you go, good.

Terri: (then, either to show off (?) or wanting to perform well, she leans further forward toward the doctor, looks straight at him and opens her eyes as WIDE AS SHE CAN. Note the WRINKLES ACROSS HER FOREHEAD caused by her also RAISING HER EYEBROWS as high as possible )

Doctor: [now obviously impressed] GOOD!! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB YOUNG LADY! Good Job. (Thanks to Melissa S. for alerting me to the pictures and commentary posted by FL engineer.)

Lisa's notes: Terri has been referred to as being cognitively disabled, and this is true. She suffered brain damage when something happened that caused the flow of oxygen to her brain to be cut off for a period of time. Since medical records rule out heart attack, cardiac arrest and potassium imbalance, it is likely that her oxygen supply was cut off when her neck was injured to the point of extreme rigidity.

Due to the fact that Terri has been illegally denied rehabilitation for over ten years, she is still cognitively and physically disabled.

Contrary to what you may have been led to believe, Terri definitely did not collapse due to a heart attack or cardiac arrest and she did not have a potassium imbalance. Dr. Hammesfahr and Robert Schindler (Terri's father) cleared up this damage-control-for-Michael-Schiavo rumor during an interview with Sean Hannity:

HAMMESFAHR: But the medical record clearly shows that there has never been a heart attack. Potassium causes damage by causing heart attacks, so we know the potassium is not an issue.

SCHINDLER: That comes from the evidence that there's medical evidence that she had a neck injury. And as the doctor said, she had no heart attack. And her ribs and parts of her body suffered fractures.

(Quotes source: Foul Play in Terri Schiavo Case?)

Dr. Hammesfahr revealed in an interview with Ron Panzer that Terri never had a heart attack or cardiac arrest:

Dr. Hammesfahr revealed that not only has Terri NEVER had a heart attack as widely reported in the major media, she also NEVER even had a cardiac arrest (her heart never stopped)! [she had arhythmias of the heart but not a "stopped heart."]

(Quote source: Ron Panzer's notes: Interview with Dr. Hammesfahr)

Terri was found face down with an extremely rigid neck. Her neck injuries indicate that she was strangled:

Dr. William Hammesfahr, Nobel prize nominee and neurologist, testified that Terri's neck injuries are consistent with only one type of injury: that of strangulation.

(Quote source: State-Funded Agency to Probe Claim of Spousal Abuse in Terri Schiavo Case)

The heart attack, cardiac arrest, and potassium imbalance rumors are meant to steer you away from the fact that Terri had a serious neck injury (indicative of strangulation) which is documented in her medical records.

A cognitively disabled person is below average in intellectual function. He or she often has difficulty reasoning, solving problems, and understanding and using language.

Cognitive means

Pertaining to the mental process of thought, including perception, reasoning, intuition and memory.

(Quote source: hyperdictionary.com)

To be cognitively disabled does not mean that a person has no mental process of thought and cannot perceive things, or reason, or remember anything at all. It means that these abilities are below average in the cognitively disabled person.

Terri Schindler Schiavo's responses to the doctor's instructions reveal that she is conscious and cognitive. Without therapy her cognition is below average, but she is cognitive. She does perceive and reason. She is intuitive and she has memory. Terri made a monumental effort to demonstrate her cognitive ability in response to the doctor's directions. She did this by purposely exaggerating her responses to make it clear to the doctor that she definitely understood his directions!

This action required perception, reasoning and intuition. At the time this video was taken, Terri was keenly aware that Michael and his accomplices were saying that she was practically dead already and working to achieve that end. Terri knew she needed to demonstrate that she was capable of processing information and carrying out instructions. And she achieved her goal.

If Terri had been receiving therapyjust like anyone else who has suffered a serious injuryshe would not be demonstrating her cognition by opening her eyes and leaning forward and opening them wider for emphasis. Instead, she would be opening her mouth and revealing the circumstances preceding her sudden collapse. Michael's refusal to prevent her from having any therapy serves to prevent such a disclosure.

Thus Terri languishes in a state of solitary confinement with no stimulation while Florida laws have broken daily for ten years to (1) keep her in a state of disability and (2) keep Michael from a criminal investigation.

Florida law clearly calls for Terri to be given rehabilitative therapy and for Michael to lose his guardianship status and be investigated. Governor Bush has the duty and the authority to see to it that the laws of the state of Florida are faithfully executed.

Please contact Governor Jeb Bush right away and urge him to require that Terri be given therapy (which has always been her legal right), to remove Michael as guardian, and order an investigation into the circumstances of her collapse.

Jeb.Bush@MyFlorida.com

Gary and Lisa Ruby

posted by AtlasShrugs.com at 3/26/2005 11:20:00 AM