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.
Heartfelt outrage is fine. But save it for something that matters. Nothing could have been done for this woman that wasn't done, no matter what the Lies claim. Every life cannot be extended forever. How many millions can be spent for such vanities? Where will this money come from?
Forced feeding for any but those temporarily affected by disease or injury is not a viable option. This one was carried on at least a decade too long.
Those of us who have had to face such decisions recognize that there comes a time when showing true love means allowing the beloved to depart. Yet we are attacked as the essence of evil or as one raved above "human excrement."
She was not dying of anything, she was suffering from severe disabilities. Why don't you think of others and stop postponing your death right now; stop eating and drinking, before you become a burden on society and any "taxpayer is bled white to pay." It's only a matter of time you know.
But such sentimental and fanatic attachment to a body is idolatrous to me and indicative of a irrational fear of death resulting from a civilization which devalues the spiritual and elevates the physical at every chance.
That is exactly what you are doing. What you want to see is the elimination of all suffering, which Our Lord never promised to us while we were on earth, He promised a cross. What you deny is redemptive suffering, that suffering can have value. That is the traditional teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, look it up and learn something a little deeper than hokey humanistic quasi spirituality. Oh and Terri was Catholic by the way.
Forced feeding is not a long term medical option and is only appropriate when there are viable people recieving it.
Viable people? Viable means capable of living, which Terri was doing all along until they stopped her from having food or water. You try going without food or water and we'll see how viable you are.
Those of us who have had to allow their loved ones to go realize the selfish nature of dragging their deaths out.
Let them go? They didn't let her go, they caused her to die by dehydration. Those of us who have consciences realize the selfish nature of Michael Shiavo causing the death of his seriously disabled wife because he had already moved on with his life, having children by another woman and was tired of having to deal with taking care of Terri, who his lawyer would lovingly refer to as a "house plant" in court.
No I will NOT be next. I would never allow myself to be treated like Terri was no human wants to have to be kept in such a state. But my sons know that when the doctor tells them the high brain is gone and I am lying helpless and incapable of any conscious action then their role is to help me meet my maker.
Why would I want to have dozens of people serving me and cost my fellow Americans hundreds of thousand or millions of dollars a year when I would never be Me again? I am selfish but not THAT selfish.
Who, or what is "feeding" you, ace?
A quick glance at your posting history indicates that the first three letters of your screen name is probably true, but the last six depict an oxyMORON.
That is an outright total LIE.
"Forced feeding is not a long term medical option and is only appropriate when there are viable people recieving it."
You claim to be conservative, yet who would you have decide who is viable or not?
I would propose that there is one key difference. These people, unlike the Nazi's, believe that they have good motives, which is even more insidious. Satan rarely presents evil as it really is, for few would choose it, however many choose it when they see it as an alternative "good".
There was no "life" there merely a few automous functions. Terri's life was destroyed when her brain was destroyed. She was gone. It is remarkable to find so many here thinking that a few bodily functions make life rather than the remnants of life. How much should we spent each year "preserving" such "life" millions per patient, billions? How many should suffer from having their medical resources diverted to maintaining these functions? We could spent all our medical dollars keeping a few thousand of these cases alive almost indefinitely. Is that what you want?
It is a LIE that this was "murder" and it is a LIE that this was state-sanctioned. Most of what you believe about this is a lie or irrelevent. This was a typical medical process for hopeless cases and occurs hundreds or thousands of times a day. It was only unusual because the Schindlers could not accept the fact that her daughter was gone.
Have you people lost ALL perspective?
Then you will be attacked for "blaming the victim" should the initiation of this tragedy be examined. These people have gone beyond decency and reason. Hatred is a strong motivator here.
Ah there we go, the bottom line. Decide who lives and dies by cost benefit analysis.
I think the correct number of disabled that are "like her" (like she was) -- right now, is about 24,000 - according to Robert Schuller who was a guest on Fox's O'Reilly last night.
By the way - what are moral relativists like you doing trolling on a forum which is dedicated to upholding and defending the Constitution, anyhow?
Are you moral relativists merely ignorant of the fact that the Framers only put the Constitution in place to guard ABSOLUTE truth, and that it is a meaningless document, otherwise?
Get with the program, or go over to DU where your vacuous opinions will be appreciated.
You are wrong on this issue. The government forced death by starvation upon this woman and you make economic arguments in support of it? You should be ashamed of yourself. "A righteous man regards the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel". Proverbs 12:10. The wicked claim they are being merciful, but the are only being cruel.
Then you will be attacked for "blaming the victim" should the initiation of this tragedy be examined. These people have gone beyond decency and reason. Hatred is a strong motivator here.
When the time comes for me to go I pray that I do so that I do not become a burden on my family or society. There'll be no selfish theatrics from my family on that account.
No quite the contrary I am against the unnecessary prolonging of a death. When people have no chance to recover they should not be force fed. This is in no way trying to eliminate ALL suffering merely unnecessary suffering.
That was not living. That was hell. What could be worse than being trapped in a useless body with a useless brain?
Terri died years ago even if her body was force fed to preserve a semblence of life.
Doctors do it every day. Families do it every day. In most cases such as this one these are not even difficult decisions.
Geez death existed before the murderous Michael Schiavo.
You think these things can be ignored? "But Daddy I WANT IT."
If I thought you understood the meaning of the term I might get annoyed.
See #51. There are plenty of moral relativists here.
Either they are trolls, or they are misinformed and ignorant of the fact the the Constitution is only in place to guard objective, ABSOLUTE moral truth.
The moral relativist, Hillary Clinton, knows exactly what it guards, which is why she is so intent on fooling people into believing that it is a "living document" which can be fundamentally changed with the fluctuating mores of society.
Of course once the moral relativists (whose subjective ethics are based only on the "situation") can get the Constitution out of their way, dictators have clear sailing to replace God as the source of our rights.
The financial considerations are not even at the top of the reasons I support the judge's decision not even close.
But the truth doesn't matter to your side as is easily seen by what is believed by it. Attack with misinformation, disinformation, insults and outright falsehoods rather than face it.
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