TERRI SCHINDLER SCHIAVO JANUARY 2005 Dailies: News Digest, Restating the Obvious & Thank Yous...

The Terri Schindler Schiavo Daily Threads are created month to month as we watch local and national news regarding Terri and her family.

Since Terri's supporters are in every time zone, you may see something FIRST. Please share news with us that you don't see here already. Now, why would you want to do that? Terri's Daily Thread for September/October of 2004 was viewed over 15,000 times. Terri's November Daily Thread was viewed over 6,000 times. December's thread is over 3,000 views.

More and more good folks are finding out about Terri and that judicial tyranny would take her life, but for lots and lots of prayer and non-stop lobbying of relatives, friends, clergy, our leaders, the media, a passerby, a cashier - ANYONE who you feel comfortable chatting with.

Folks always want to know how can this be in America or on earth for that matter? Unfortunately, this is really happening to an innocent woman who just celebrated her 41st birthday. She's not the only one but she's the one with devoted parents and siblings who knows what's in Terri's heart. Terri has a strong will to live. That's apparent. It's been 14 years.

Besides, feeding tubes have been around practically since the Civil War. They are not high tech devices. Terri is "not hooked up to machines". Her feeding tube is the diameter of a piece of spaghetti.

Talkin' about Terri is the best way to lobby for her. It is a salespitch to save her life and subsequently, many lives. If you've never sold anything in your life, START NOW. START WITH TERRI.

See Terri's flash movies if you need more information. You can see for yourself that's she's interactive and follows the doctor's instructions.

NOTE: Terri's December Dailies are noted as a source above. There are lots of important links at the very top of that thread. If you missed Terri's Celebration of Life, you can click on it from there.

Is this what you are looking for?

Link to monster thread post #5381:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/971896/posts?page=5381#5381

Excerpt:

The DCF should be brought to bear for the decision of Regional Attorney Frank Nagatani's statement that DCF would not get involved as long as the case is in court. Why was MY 3 hour phone complaint to DCF hotline in November 2001 for abuses, neglect and criminal exploitation of Terri Schiavo, followed by a 60 day interactive APS investigation with investigator Mitch Turner, including my supplying of a 5 inch ring binder crammed with 100s of pages of supportive public documents and several supplementals at request of investigator, that resulted in a report being filed and been recognized in open court by Judge Greer to exist, stamped UNFOUNDED with RECOMMENDATIONS. In a phone conversation with me, two days after the investigation report was filed with his superiors, Mitch Turner said to me in response to my disbelief, "I know David. I have said too much now. Keep up the fight, David."

DCF filed a Motion to Quash any testimony by subpoenaed investigator Mitch Turner. In a guardianship hearing, in which testimony was sought of the investigator regarding proceedings questioning the guardians "plan of care" to restore Terri's capacity per statute FS744.3215(c.), always known to be death, based on investigator Turner's findings, a tactical manuever by Guardianship Attorney Deborah Bushnell dodged all by pulling the late and disapproved guardian plan, thus putting guardian in contempt but never charged, and resulted in no ruling on the still outstanding Motion to Quash. To this day there have been 7 extensions for filing of the 2001 guardian plan [no plan] approved by Judge Greer.

After an audience with then Chairwoman of the DCF Oversight Commission, Legislator Sandra Murman, in which she immediately saw the crimes and expressed that she would look deep into why my massively supported complaint was marked "unfounded" BUT was also marked 'with recommendations'. How can there be nothing here and at the same time BE acknowledge by IT's needing attention in the form of a list of ACTION items? Cover up!

I was told 2 weeks after that meeting that Murman and staff would not be able to talk about anything with me, or to give progress reports, if such a thing even existed, due to a confidentiality agreement that Legislator Murman was asked to sign related to my inquiry. More cover-up.

Please bring full pressure on the DCF to "do their jobs and constitutionally sworn duties" to insure that EVERY aspect of the Legislatures intention as in Florida Statute Title XXX Social Welfare, Chapter 415 Adult Protective Services, s.415.101 paragraphs (1) and (2) which make by CLEAR and CONVINCING language the intent and mission by all means of the Adult Protective Services Act.

Incidentally, Frank Nagatani, DCF Regional Attorney is listed in Judge Greer's 1998 campaign expenditures as a recipient of a campaign contribution partial refund but is not listed anywhere in the counties and states election records or reports by his campaign as being a contributor.

Also, Judge Greer did not qualify to be on the 1998 ballot because he did not "qualify" in the statutorily prescribed 5 day period. Nor did he file his FS876.05 Oath to the laws and constitution according to it's nonexistence according to the records of where it should have been filed. Pursuant to FS876.05 (2) he has never qualified to receive compensation by his employer. Further, the county is required on behalf of the People to judicially seek the recovery of all the statutorially prohibited compensation he has already mistakenly, even criminally, received.

The county will be PUBLICLY encouraged to seek recovery of unauthorized wages that this unauthorized, unqualified, and tresspassing Judge has been receiving and actions to facilitate his immediate resignation and delisting him from the payroll records and his disqualification from and prohibition from non-entitled employment related benefits resulting from his unauthorized employment. This would figure to be upwards of $600,000 based on reverse calculation of the 4 percent campaign fee he paid of the expected wages of the elected positon sought.

It's obvious that Judge Greer is but one of the many players in a game that has jeopardized and harmed the life of one of this state's citizens and should be stripped of ever being a Judge, Attorney or any other position of Public Trust -- as the law provides the Governor the authority to do. Not just a level 4 verbal and public reprimanded.

End Excerpt --

****

From: Patricia75633@aol.com
Date sent: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 13:10:06 EST

On this day, when all the world is watching what America is saying
and doing, whether they are our friends or foes, I, like everyone
else, hear and see, but am not listening, and no longer want to
understand.

How can the things that are being said on TV at this moment, have any
meaning, when there are people like Terri, whom so many are begging
for mercy to be shown on this lady, to let her live, against the
wishes of the corrupt? What do words in any language mean, when
there is no one to listen, no one who cares, because for the moment
it doesn't concern them or affect their lives.

Even International organizations are turning a deaf ear to the plea
to spare Terri's life. Foreign countries called us selfish and
uncaring? That description fortunately does not befit everyone in
America. Since 1996, I have fought a fight that I consider one of
the most important issues in my life upon this earth.
NOBODY LISTENED.........

In 1996 my brother, A.W. Edwards and his family, and my sister
Virginia Speer, and her family, decided to order (unbeknownst to me
until it was too late) my Mother's doctor, hospital staff, and then
the nursing home staff, to no longer give my Mother, Mrs. Delia
Edwards, any food, water, medicine, or oxygen. In other words, to
let her die. This was done for their monetary gain, and so they no
longer had to be burdened with my Mom.

I was not allowed to bring her to Texas to live. My Mom
lasted 8 (eight) days and nights, before she died a horrific death.
Every since, I have looked and searched for ways to have them
prosecuted for Torture/Murder.

What meaning is there for the words for what the soldier at Abu
Graib(sp) is going to spend most of the rest of his life in prison
for "TORTURE", WHEN MY FAMILY TORTURED MY MOM TO DEATH????????????

Where is the meaning for the word "TORTURE" for what Terri and Hank have already been put through? Hank, the Veteran, and my Mom, Mrs. Delia Edwards, WERE TORTURED TO "DEATH.

The sad thing is, here in the U.S. the people committing this evil
crime are protected. NO ONE protected that soldier for doing what he
was told to do. No one is hearing or listening, or caring.

People talk out of the both sides of their mouth, for whatever their wants and needs can be attained, by doing so. We live in America.... supposedly the land of the free and the home of the brave, WHERE ARE THE FREE AND THE BRAVE?

I don't believe FREEDOM is alive anymore. I believe FREEDOM
has died with the GOOD, and the GOOD that are dying now, here and on
foreign soil.

I believe FREEDOM has and is dying at the hands of
corruption instituted by greed and selfishness.

WHAT HAPPENED TO BRAVERY??
I believe it is with every G.I. that wears a uniform, no
matter where they are. I believe it is in the heart of the majority
of those who protect us with their services and lives.

I believe IT SETS QUIETLY IN THE HEART AND MIND OF ALL OF US.
I do not know what it takes to stir bravery to awaken in our hearts to
preserve the freedom our ancesters wanted so much for us to have.

If the life of an innocent lady doesn't mean anything to anyone, then
we don't need to pretend that lives around the world do. That is
talking out of both corners of our mouths at the same time.

Wake up folks!!

Slap yourselves up side your head!! Get up off the couch, and out
from in front of the SquawkBox!!

Make this be the DAY IN YOUR LIFE THAT MATTERS!!

WAKE UP THE BRAVERY SITTING IN THAT FAR CORNER OF YOUR
HEART!!

DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF TO HELP TERRI AND STOP
EUTHANASIA OF ANY FORM, ALL OVER THE WORLD!!

ARE YOU LISTENING??????????

Patricia75633@aol.com

Please DON'T allow another innocent life to be tortured and starved to death!
Please HELP to prevent a loving family from having to endure the same
painful memories you hear in Patricia when she was
forced to watch her Mother starved to death.

Save Terri!

SPEAK OUT!

Tell him NO MORE!
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
Contacting the White House
https://sawho14.eop.gov/PERSdata/intro.htm

Fight4Terri @aol.com
www.fight4terri.blogspot.com
Visit Terri's site: www.terrisfight.org

"We make a Living by what we do,
but we make a LIFE by what we give"

~Winston Churchill~

LIFE AND DEATH TUG OF WAR
Terri Schiavo's case at Supreme Court
Justices meeting today to decide whether to take it

Posted: January 21, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

by Sarah Foster
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

The U.S. Supreme Court meets today behind closed doors to discuss whether to take up the case of Terri Schiavo, the brain-disabled Florida woman whose right to live is at the center of an ongoing euthanasia battle in the Florida courts.

In a 27-page brief filed early last month, attorneys for Gov. Jeb Bush asked the nation’s nine top justices to review and eventually reverse the Florida Supreme Court's Sept. 23 ruling that struck down "Terri’s Law" as unconstitutional, arguing that the lower courts had denied the governor’s and Schiavo's federally protected rights to due process and equal protection.

The attorneys contend the governor was never allowed a "day in court" to defend his 11th-hour rescue of Schiavo from death by court-ordered starvation 15 months ago or the law the Legislature had passed authorizing his actions.

"[The state court's ruling] fails to allow for the governor and the legislature to afford protections that they deem necessary to provide for wards in this situation," said Ken Connor, Bush's lead attorney, during a teleconference held minutes before the papers were filed Dec. 1.

The emergency statute passed by the legislature Oct. 21, 2003, gave the governor authority to order the reinsertion of the incapacitated woman's feeding tube that had been removed six days earlier in compliance with a court order obtained by her estranged husband Michael Schiavo, who is also her legal guardian.

Michael Schiavo, represented by "right-to-die" advocate George Felos, challenged the constitutionality of the law and the governor's action, naming Bush as a defendant. The American Civil Liberties Union weighed in as co-plaintiff.

On Sept. 23, 2004, capping a series of lower court rulings all in Schiavo's favor, the Florida high court ruled the law to be an "impermissible violation" of the separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.

"It is without question an invasion of the authority of the judicial branch for the Legislature to pass a law that allows the executive branch to interfere with the final judicial determination in a case," wrote Chief Justice Barbara Pariente for the court.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, pundits at four Florida law schools agree and predict the nation's high court will turn down the request to review the state court's decision because – in their view – there are no federal issues involved.

"To put it crudely, it's none of the U.S. Supreme Court's business," said Bruce Winick, of the University of Miami School of Law. "The Florida Supreme Court is the final arbiter of what the Florida Constitution means and they have spoken."

Proceedings "tainted"?

But what if a "final judicial determination" is the result of "tainted" court proceedings and rulings by which Terri Schiavo was denied her federally protected constitutional rights to due process and equal protection under the law, as Bush's legal team contends?

And what if the governor, who used his official powers to save the life of an incapacitated woman and has been personally sued for doing so, is denied an opportunity to defend his actions in court?

"[The] separation-of-powers principle does not trump the rights that litigants have under the 14th Amendment," Connor explained during the teleconference. "Because of the manner in which these principles were misapplied in this case, the effect is to do just that to trump both the governor's rights and Terri Schiavo's rights [to due process] under the 14th Amendment."

Co-counsel, Robert Destro, a professor of law at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., who argued the matter before the Florida Supreme Court, participated at the teleconference, describing the litigation as a "fair-trial case."

The question is "whether or not Terri, and the governor on her behalf, got a fair trial in the guardianship case," Destro explained. "Unfortunately, the only people in Florida who don't get a fair trial are people who are involved in [proceedings called] 'substituted judgment' cases, where people are guessing about what it is the disabled person would want to do."

Connor added: "We maintain that Terri Schiavo did not receive the benefit of a fair trial because the judge [George Greer] failed to follow the Florida law in appointing a guardian for her during the time the decision was made with regard to whether or not the tube was going to be withdrawn."

Connor was referring to the weeklong hearing in January 2000, at which Terri's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, challenged their son-in-law's plans to starve their daughter to death. Presiding over the hearing and the on-going appeal process was Probate Court Judge George Greer, who assumed the role of Terri's guardian ad litem [guardian for the litigation] as well as adjudicator.

Connor said Michael Schiavo "acknowledged and recognized" he had conflicts of interests that made make him unsuitable to serve as Terri's guardian: He stood to gain financially from her death, and was living with another woman whom he planned to marry once his wife was dead.

Greer recognized these conflicts, ruling that neither Schiavo nor the Schindlers were in a position to represent her interests. But rather than appoint a guardian ad litem, he assumed that role himself, in apparent contradiction of a state statute.

"Florida law prohibits a trial judge from serving as a guardian," Connor declared. "You can't wind up being both an advocate for one of the litigants and an adjudicator of the rights of the litigant and in fact that's exactly what happened here.

"When the Florida Legislature looked at that and recognized that the law had not been followed and that the procedure as it played out was inherently in their judgment unfair, they sought to take corrective action by requiring the appointment of a guardian ad litem under the circumstances that were present in this case and under other cases that would be similarly situated.

"The effect of the Florida Supreme Court's ruling is to say that there's not even a basis for Terri Schiavo or her representative, in this case Governor Bush, to contest the fairness or lack thereof of the underlying proceeding."

In their brief, Connor and Destro stress the ramifications of the case for persons in similar straits.

"It has taken our nation many years to make good on its commitment to equal justice for persons with profound cognitive disabilities," they write. "Unless the State of Florida retains the power to protect the rights of its most vulnerable citizens to due process and equal protection of the laws, the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantees will apply only to those who are capable of defending them on their own."

Felos slammed the petition as a "frivolous" delaying tactic.

"The governor's argument for federal review is so weak, it's really hard not to say it's frivolous," he told the Orlando Sentinel. "He's using every procedural step he can to try to keep Mrs. Schiavo's rights from being carried out."

The entire case hinges on what Terri herself wants. Schiavo insists he is simply carrying out his wife's wishes, claiming that everything he orders, including removal of her feeding tube, is done in accordance with her wishes and any interference is a violation of her privacy.

Felos had 30 days to answer, but on December 24 he filed a statement waiving his right to respond.

Each year, the nation's high court selects about 80 cases from several thousand that are submitted for consideration.

The court has three options, Destro told WorldNetDaily. It can agree to consider the case, it can refuse or it can order Felos to submit a brief in answer to the governor's.

A decision is expected by Monday.

Questionable circumstances

As WND has reported, Terri Schiavo suffered major brain injury in 1990 when she collapsed under questionable circumstances in the St. Petersburg apartment where she lived with her husband. For reasons never satisfactorily explained, oxygen to her brain was cut off for several minutes, leaving her severely disabled, unable to talk and dependent on a feeding tube for food and hydration at the age of 26.

Whether she still requires a feeding tube is one of many unanswered questions. Schiavo adamantly refuses to allow a "swallowing test" to determine if she could be spoon fed.

Terri left no written instructions detailing what she would want if she were ever incapacitated, and is unable to communicate whether she would prefer being fed through a feeding tube or starved to death. But since 1998 Schiavo has insisted that his wife, whom he refuses to divorce, told him before her collapse that she would never want to live "by artificial means."

During the trial in Jan. 2000, Schiavo persuaded probate Judge Greer that Terri is in a "persistent vegetative state," or PVS, one of several physical conditions which in Florida law allows a feeding tube to be removed from a non-terminally ill person who has not left a written directive. A neurologist testified that Terri is essentially unconscious – not comatose or brain-dead, but not really conscious. He said there no therapy is available to help her.

Florida law also allows simple oral statements, recalled by friends and family members years after they're allegedly made, to be accepted as "clear and convincing" evidence of a person's wishes. Drawing upon his own recollections, bolstered by a couple of similar statements by a brother and a sister-in-law, Schiavo convinced Greer that his account of Terri's wishes was accurate.

Greer accepted as valid all evidence presented by Schiavo and his witnesses – from recollections about her end-of-life wishes to opinions about her chances for improvement, and in Feb. 2000 ordered her feeding tube disconnected.

Terri's parents and her siblings dispute Schiavo's contentions. They say Terri is alert, has a strong will to live, and could be significantly rehabilitated with agressive therapy. More than a dozen physicians, therapists and speech pathologists have stepped forward to state agreement with the parents.

Court documents and other information are posted on the Schindler family website.

Links to all "Terri briefs" regarding the governor's defense of Terri's Law are on the Florida Supreme Court website, public information.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42485

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