Posted on 03/31/2005 2:27:31 PM PST by goldstategop
RUSH: Having now gotten their wish in having Terri Schiavo put to death by court order, the American left is now free to turn their attention to saving Scott Peterson (news) from the same fate, which will no doubt happen. Again greetings: 800-282-2882 is the number. Terri Schiavo passed away, 9:03 this morning at the hospice down in Pinellas Park, Florida. We're going to talk about that. We'll talk about the court decision, this majority opinion written from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal yesterday. This was incredible. It's arrogant. This judge, Mr. Birch, a Bush appointee, Bush 41 appointee, wrote an opinion yesterday. It's unbelievable. The judiciary is fighting back. This opinion lashed out at the president, lashed out at Congress, lashed out at the public, and basically ordered all other judges to stay away from this case. I have the ruling. We'll get to that in due course. (Limbaugh Legal Division: Judiciary Fights Back) Also, a great piece today from Judi McLeod, who's the editor of a newspaper in Toronto, the conflicts of interest that involve the Schiavo legal team and the sheriff and so forth and this hospice down in Pinellas Park. It's interesting because the mainstream press was all trying to find conflicts of interest on all the other sides of this issue, but when it comes to the Felos-Schiavo side of this they didn't seem to look very hard. Somebody has, and we'll pass that on to you as well. But first let's go to the audio sound bites. The president today, about 11:30, had this to say about the passing of Terri Schiavo.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Today millions of Americans are saddened by the death of Terri Schiavo. Laura and I extend or condolences to Terri Schiavo's families. I appreciate the example of grace and dignity they have displayed at a difficult time. I urge all those who honor Terri Schiavo to continue to work to build a culture of life where all Americans are welcomed and valued and protected, especially those who live at the mercy of others. The essence of civilization is that the strong have a duty to protect the weak. In cases where there are serious doubts and questions, the presumption should be in favor of life.
RUSH: Now, this is interesting. In addition to the substance of what the president said -- if you just bear with me until we get there -- the president in this statement takes a mild swipe back at this judge and the whole 11th Circuit, and I think the judiciary as well. It's very mild. You have to have read that opinion and heard some of the primary points that judge made in his opinion to understand this. The president's next sentence, by the way, talked about the president's most important responsibility is to protect the lives of the American people, and he went then into a discussion of this intelligence report, which we'll also discuss as the program unfolds today. Let's move on to more audio sound bites. Jeb Bush spoke to the press. We have two sound bites.
FLORIDA GOVERNOR JEB BUSH: It's heartbreaking, to be honest with you. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family, to all the people that wanted her to live, and to everybody. This was a very, very emotional couple of weeks. And I would hope that from this, that all of us can grow as people in terms of our appreciation for end of life issues.
RUSH: An unidentified reporter asked, "Governor Bush, do you feel like the debate and the time that's up here as taken emphasis away from this?"
GOVERNOR BUSH: This issue transcends politics and policy, and so, yes, it's taken -- deservedly so -- has taken attention away from other matters, but having said that, we've got time to deal with the policy initiatives of the leaders and the legislature and our agenda. So we'll continue to do our work.
REPORTER: Is this the toughest thing you've ever had to deal with, governor?
GOVERNOR BUSH: As governor? I had challenges in my personal life that have created the same emotional challenge, but as governor this has been the toughest.
RUSH: We move on now to one of the family priests that ministered to the Schindler family. This is the national director of Priests for Life, Father Frank Pavone, speaking to the press after the passing of Terri Schiavo.
PAVONE: Unfortunately just ten or so minutes before she died we were told that we had to leave the room because there would be an assessment of her condition and then a visitation by Michael. Bobby Schindler, her brother, said, "We want to be in the room when she dies." Michael Schiavo said, "No, you cannot," and so his heartless cruelty continues until this very last moment. At the same time, once she did pass away, we were called back into the room and at that point only the immediate family was able to go in to give her their final embraces. I stood at the doorway and offered the prayers of the church for those who have just died.
RUSH: Father Pavone wanted to add one more thing.
PAVONE: Let me just say one more thing, that this is not only a death with all the sadness that brings; this is a killing -- and for that we not only grieve that Terri has passed, but we grieve that our nation has allowed such an atrocity as this, and we pray that it will never happen again.
RUSH: Last night Scarborough Country, MSNBC. This gets hot and heavy. The guests included Catherine Crier of Court TV, Pat Buchanan and Peter Beinart, the editor of The New Republic. Buchanan says to Peter Beinart, "You know how she's dying? The way they died at Dachau, the way they died at Andersonville."
BEINART: That is an outrageous, outrageous statement.
BUCHANAN: It is not. They were starved to death and denied water.
BEINART: You know, it is outrageous for you to say --
BUCHANAN: Why do you want her dead so bad, Peter?
BEINART: She cannot feel the pain that we would feel in starvation, and compared to the Nazis, when this woman, when the court said this woman wanted to die, it's just outrageous. Outrageous.
CRIER: And Pat? How dare you, Pat? How dare you ask us how much we want this woman to die, because there is no one on the other side of this that wants her to die. If I could will her to get up, to --
BUCHANAN Well, why don't you give her some food and water?
RUSH: If you want her to live, why don't you get up and give her some food and water? You know, Buchanan is onto something here that I picked up on in the early stages of this two weeks ago. There did seem to be this unbridled enthusiasm for this woman to die. We know that there was. Catherine Crier is wrong about this. We know that there was an enthusiasm for this woman to die -- and we know why. There are several reasons. Among them, the left in this country is just frightened to death of the Christian right, and they blame the Christian right for all their electoral losses since 1994 and they want to stick it to the Christian right. Anything the Christian right can lose on, the left will be happy about, even if it takes the death of Terri Schiavo to upset the Christian right and cause the Christian right to experience a so-called loss on an issue. We also had a number of people protesting down there that were in fact anti-Bush, members of the Communist Youth League or some such thing, and they're out there eagerly hoping that Bush loses this because he was on the side of Terri Schiavo living.
So it may be a thin line. There may not have been that many people eager for her to die, but there were that many people that were eager for the Christian right and Bush to lose. Of course, the outcome is the same: Terri Schiavo dies. They're asking to suspend quite a lot of reality by saying, "We didn't have any enthusiasm for her to die," but that was the end result of these rulings. That was the end result of what these courts decided. All of these courts decided, "This woman's gotta die and nobody can give her any sustenance whatsoever," and there were people that supported that, and they did so under the guise of supporting the rule of law or supporting federalism or not supporting federalism or what have you. But it is plain as day what happened here: The United States government ordered the starvation of an innocent citizen who was not dying.
"Starvation" is not an accurate description of the process of ceasing to pump chemicals into an uncomprehending and insensate physical body. It is an emotional term meant to rouse those suspending critical thinking. But this is standard fare from that side.
The 'chemicals' that were being pumped into Terri are commonly called food and water.
When was the last time you 'pumped' such chemicals into your own body?
Good grief. I've seen people say a lot of things to soothe their consciences so they can continue to take an immoral stand, but this is the wildest effort at conscience soothing I've seen so far.
Pumping chemicals.
Good grief.
Why would my conscience need soothing for saying the obvious?
There are thousands of Terri's across the land which are having such support ended without controversy. Their loved ones understand that it is better for all to do so unlike the Schindlers.
If anyone need examine their consciences it is the people who have used this as a political opportunity. Not those who refuse to buy into their hype and lunacy.
I just have to wonder when the angry left is going to wake up and realize that their positions are not main stream. The Democrats are sinking deeper and deeper into a world of self delusion, driven by contempt of conservative moral values and hatred for George W. Bush.
What makes you think that it is the Schindlers who are spreading falsehoods and propaganda? There was actually very little evidence that Terry ever expressed a wish to die, rather than live in a decreased capacity, other than the word of an adulterous, possibly abusive husband. Most of the posters on this board (and apparently the public at large) think that the angry left has just scored a victory at the expense of the life of a brain damaged woman. I hope that you are never faced with a judicial fiat ordering the death of a family member because they are brain damaged (not brain dead). Most people feel that it is not the place of the government to decide when a person is no longer of any value.
I am sorry for the long reply, but there is something else I would like to add to this. About two years ago, my husband was diagnosed with a bone tumor in his femur. Probably cancerous, they said. My husband is extremely athletic and had remarked on numerous occassions that he would not want to live as a cripple, but when faced with the possibility, the truth is, he didn't mean it. What he did mean was that he didn't want to be a cripple, but then no one does. It doesn't mean that they want to die.
The lies have been rampant and the most ridiculous and false has been that this inevitable death is the result of some sort of Death Culture which controls America. In actual FACT even the deaths of the most damaged and least viable of us only comes after agonizing medical or court decisions.
Our nation spends vast sums upon those who would have routinely died only a few years ago. Preemies received care costing hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. TS had thousands of hours of court hearings, hundreds of medical professionals working over her, and received millions of dollars in state funds for her care. Any charge of inhumanity or callousness is just a flat out lie. This was one of the most significant claims of the Schindler supporters.
Another outright lie is that this was an example of judicial tyranny and overreaching. Once again nothing could be further from the truth when what the Schindler supporters wanted was EXACTLY that overreaching routinely condemned in other cases by conservatives. There was NO misconduct on the judge's part, NO corruption of him and NO biased rulings.
His decisions were based upon the best medical evidence available and are unexceptional being clearly within the framework of the law. Yet this did nothing to prevent an torrent of accusations, lunatic conspiracy theories and more hatred than that directed at Saddam Hussein. A complete loss of perspective and decency.
These are only two of the most exgregious falsehoods routinely spread here. They make FR look like the home of screwballs if unchallenged.
I hope your husband fully recovers having lost my beloved wife to this horror I understand the feelings cancer can provoke. Best wishes to you.
Your facts are so convoluted that I am not going to bother to argue. The left is killing itself on this one. It's actually a rather amusing concept, euthanasia of a political party.
You didn't answer the question. When did you last pump chemicals into your body (i.e. ingest food and water)?
Thank you, my husband is fully recovered. It turned out to be a rare, non-cancerous bone tumor, a hematoma. The doctors had never seen one inside a bone before. He now has a metal bar in his leg, from his hip to his knee, but he is fine. Thank God.
I have never been hooked up and fed artifically so the question was purely rhetorical.
That is the standard admission of defeat.
No, it's just an admission that I figured out who I was arguing with. The circular logic is a dead give away.
These 'chemicals' you refer to were put into your body within the last couple of weeks or you'd be dead, just as Terri Schiavo is now dead.
She died of starvation, pure and simple. If you claim she did not, please provide proof of exactly what the base cause of her death was.
In order to evaluate "circular logic" one must understand logic.
The reflexes and autonomous processes which made up all that was left of Terri could have been maintained for years. But for what? Everything which makes a person a person i.e. their humaness was gone never to return.
Would YOU want to be maintained in such a state?
Yes. I would not ask anyone to commit murder.
In such a state you don't ASK anyone to do anything.
Would you want such a burden placed upon your family?
If it is too much for my family, they can always walk away. I'm more concerned about the burden put on their souls by asking them to commit murder.
No one committed "murder" here. You stating it doesn't make it so.
The judiciary can't be trusted to decide what is murder. After all, they think it is perfectly legal to shove scissors into the back of the skull of a partially born baby.
Ah, but there are those like you who seem to believe that anything the judiciary decides is perfectly okay.
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