Posted on 03/27/2005 9:54:11 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
The sad case of Terri Schiavo has raised passions not seen since five years ago. Then another bitterly divided family argued in Florida courts over someone who couldn't speak on his own behalf: Elian Gonzalez.
In both cases, those who were unhappy with the courts' decisions strained to assert the federal government's power to produce a different outcome. The difference is that in Mrs. Schiavo's case, Congress backed off after passing a bill that merely asked a federal court to hear the case from scratch, something that U.S. District Judge James Whittemore declined to do. By contrast, those who wanted the federal government to intervene in Elian Gonzalez's case went all the way, supporting a predawn armed federal raid on the morning before Easter to seize the 6-year-old boy despite a federal appeals court's refusal to order his surrender.
Both cases were marked with hypocrisy and political posturing galore. Both times some conservative Republicans talked about issuing subpoenas to compel the person at the center of the case to appear before Congress; they swiftly backed down when public opinion failed to support their stunt. Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, argued that by opposing Elian's return to his father in communist Cuba, conservatives were abandoning the principle that "the state should not supersede the parents' wishes." In the case of Terri Schiavo, many conservatives who normally support spousal rights decided that Michael Schiavo's decision to abandon his marital vows while at the same time refusing to divorce his wife rendered him unfit to override the wishes of his wife's parents to have her cared for.
But liberals have gotten off easy for some of the somersaulting arguments they have made on behalf of judicial independence and states' rights to justify their position that Terri Schiavo should not be saved.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
of course. free speech only if you agree with them. If you don't agree with the liberals then you must be a bigot and an extremist.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
--Yeats
Go ahead ask many members on FR now they think Jeb and the POTUS are Pilate! Amazing.
I heard John Fund on Drudge tonight making the points here in this article--
He lays out a pretty good case against both the Congress for letting her down, and the Courts for not following the law that the Congress passed and the President signed last week---
Even now, the rats are in contented bliss aboard their garbage barge.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
So you want Bush to step up to the plate and be Elian Clinton?
No thanks.
There has always existed two distinct ideologies within our cultural boarders. Two passions, each so clearly framed, and both sides so absolutely convinced of the simple unlabored, appropriateness of their own beliefs. Each side incapable, or unwilling to understand the shortsighted intransigence the other.
Thus, we have another fracture in the body of our culture, and once again it will claim another innocent victim..
Of course I understand this because I have already chosen my dog in this fight, and cannot honestly see any merit in the other side's argument..
SO SAD
I'm afraid Jeb may have signed legislation in 1999 that made the starvation of Terri Schiavo possible. Do a search on "Biography of George Greer" and you'll find a thread from Friday night that covers this subject. If that article is accurate, Jeb made a rookie mistake in '99 that has come back to haunt him and GWB in the form of this horrible national disgrace in Florida. Jeb may have the IQ but not the judgement needed for higher office. W has both.
He signed a law that said an unfaithful husband should make decisions on his (common law X-wife)?
In Elian's case, it was Life in America or Life in Cuba.
Sadly, it ended with Elian alive in Cuba.
In Terri's case, it is Life against Death.
Criminally, it's ending in Death--By County Probate Judge.
Please go to post #5 of that thread for a formatted verison with paragraphs.
And here is the person that posted that thread
mercyme
Since Mar 25, 2005
FR and been taken over by liberals ever since the case blew up.
look at post 17
Yeah, that thread will have to be verified for factual accuracy. On a first read, it sounds a little exagerrated in the way the writer states that the hospice operators were given a blank check to write their own regulations. But you still have to wonder how and when this law was passed to allow starvation and dehydration of a disabled person. Was it during Jeb's administraiton or not? Maybe that's always been the law down there. This thread is somewhat suspicious. It doesn't read like a liberal screed that's full of obvious false statements, but it will have to be verified by other writers.
Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them.
--Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833
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