Posted on 04/02/2005 10:11:31 AM PST by pickrell
In a perfect storm of exposure, several pieces of evidence are hitting the kitchen table at the same time. One is the report of an unimpeachable panel assigned to the task, that the Bush Administration and it's advisors did not, in spite of the unrelenting and hysterical chants of the liberals, conspire to pressure intelligence officials to lie about, or inflate, the "evidence" of weapons of mass destruction.
Unfortunately this conspiracy had become the last remaining hope of the liberals to emerge unscathed from their lockstep obstruction of U.S. response to attack on our home soil. Those liberals will never again be able to look in the eyes of persons who have fought to offer at least the chance to the Middle East to avoid war of biblical proportions, and to the rest of the world to avoid being swept up in that religious warfare.
Those who watched their neighbor's house burn down, did nothing under the theory that "the wind is blowing the flames away from my house for now... so why should I care?". Those who then realized with horror the changing wind, and realized that only those who risked their lives extinguishing the burning house so saved the rest of the neighborhood, are forever doomed to either accept how wrong they were, or permanently deny that the fire even existed.
The report of the panel instead found that we were "...ill prepared to penetrate adversarial nations..." and that "...these are their deepest secrets, and unlocking them must be our highest priority."
To understand why we were so unprepared is rendered easier by watching one of the "penetration agents" of the Clinton Administration recently explaining in front of the cameras, (no doubt as part of a plea agreement in order to avoid felony jail time), exactly how he stole and destroyed classified documents from our national archives. It is astonishing in it's impact, and the full court press news embargo that will likely be attempted.
For eight years in the 1990's, the Clinton Administration passionately chose to implement a policy of intimidation of those who would represent a threat to.. Bill Clinton. For eight years in the 1990's, the Clinton Administration focused on a policy of assigning penetration agents to ferret out, steal, and destroy evidence which could expose... Bill Clinton.
Distractions from this holy task, such as acts of war against our embassies, ships and personnel, were not allowed to divert the "most ethical administration in history" from dealing with the true enemies of the State- those women claiming to be raped and misused by the "commander in chief". Minor side issues, such as the plundering of national security secrets, under the stewardship of Hazel O'Leary, (arguably the most incompetent and monomaniacal energy secretary ever misassigned to a task), were not allowed to leach precious effort from the Jihad against travel office personnel, and any other civil servants who stood in the way of Hillary rewarding her friends, and punishing her enemies.
This was an administration which knew how to focus. It knew what result it wanted in each case, and was not about to be impeded by the "evidence". How like their supporters to ascribe this same motive, which drives their actions, to the actions of their opposition.
Every check that is written, however, will sooner or later have to be cashed. The price of this astonishing self-absorption... was a very large hole in Manhattan, and thousands of dead there, and in the Pentagon and on an obscure field in Pennsylvania.
But the price is worse yet. A significant percentage of the population voted to return him to office for the second four years. This "check" still looms.
A characteristic of human nature is either to defend one's past actions in direct proportion to the severity of the consequences or benefits issuing from those actions, or else to simply refuse to revisit those actions, and the reasoning behind them. Ever.
When we as a nation watched certain California Congresswomen denounce the CIA in the early 1990's as a craven cabal of drug pushers and violators of the rights of leftists to bomb South American power plants, we responded with a shrug. The Cold War was over, and like the fate of soldiers everywhere... once we figured that we didn't need them any longer, we paid scant attention as the Left began the dismemberment of our few human intelligence assets, and our combat-ready divisions.
The Left carefully watched the national reaction to these opening gambits, and gleefully concluded that the time was ripe to remove the "testosterone" from our military and our intelligence services.
The calculated destruction of morale and frustration of purpose of our first line defenders may have been even more punishing than the actual defunding of those forces.
No one joins the military or the intelligence services for the money. Only a child or a Democratic Senator would believe that. The reason that our country possesses the most competent and professional service personnel on the planet is that by our good fortune, we have always found men who would put the welfare of other Americans before their own. They have trained and equipped themselves to bring violence to the enemies of our nation; to spare that violence from the streets of New Jersey and California.
Mistake not, though- that dedication can wither away if the nation long enough casts a blind eye to their dedication. When we permit the most outrageous slanders to be broadcast round the world against these men, we can and should expect that even if they stay, on the hopes that things may eventually change, that their performance will unavoidably suffer.
When we further slapped them in the face with huge and real funding cuts, to reinforce that they have somehow by their service "dishonored or soiled the nation", as we certainly allowed the Clinton Administration and it's Leftist congresspersons to do during the 1990's, it would be the height of stupidity to be surprised that a price would be paid later.
Many people had warned that the antiseptic ideas of bombing the Balkans from 20,000 feet would confirm to the world how terrified we had become of ever taking a casualty; at the same time as we pointedly chose to refrain from bombing at all, in those cases where actual acts of war were perpetrated against us! Our enemies digested this "evidence" and made their plans.
And as all of the evidence of the consequences of the election which put the Clintons back in 1996 piles up, a certain hardening has occurred in the country.
We are split between those persons who by their philosphy of life automatically review their prior actions and resolve to learn from this ongoing history... and those persons who now will simply close their eyes, deny and ignore.
The difference between the conservative philosophy and the liberal philosophy has never been more starkly apparent. Where we may uneasily fret over actions we took in good faith, and which may later be found to have been based, at least partly, on bad information, they on the other hand will categorically deny that yesterday even happened, if it turns against them.
This liberal neurosis has been remarked upon before, but no one knows to what extremes it may eventually be taken. Mind control is infinitely easier if the subject of the mind control is eager, nay- even fervent, to be controlled and told what to think on any given day.
Only the evidence, if protected from the Sandy Bergers of the world, will be there to settle the disputes. The mainstream media may ignore, deny or twist the meaning of the evidence, but at least the total embargo they once controlled is no longer extant.
Now we as conservatives only have the problem of not falling into the poisonous mindset of that part of our citizenry who refuse to examine the evidence, or even recognize that it exists.
It will do us no good to call each other names, and impugn our worth as individual conservatives, as the evidence slowly emerges in the Terri Schiavo affair.
Either the autopsy will reveal that Terri's brain was so devastated that 80 percent is found to be the "shattered goo" so prominently offered as the reason to strip from her her right to life... or it won't.
Honest contenders have argued either side.. but have based their views on what evidence they assigned credibility to. What other option is there in life? We all try to find the most reliable sources for the judgements we are forced to make every day. When we inevitably find that certain sources have mislead us, our wrath becomes palpable. That is a strength, not a weakness.
To label those who disagreed, based on what "evidence" was available to the time, as proof of trying to "lie or embellish the truth", as the Bush Administration had been accused of in the Iraq affair, is to seize the right to make moral judgements about persons who honestly had faith in what evidence they based their opinions and decisions on.
Far more important for us, after what evidence may come to light has done so, will be to examine why this person was adjudged by the courts to be in a permanent vegetative state. Was it done through the best efforts of what technology exists short of autopsy, or does the evidence rather show a clear imperative to "find the results desired" by bias on the part of the courts.
It will be more important for us all to honestly look at the evidence, and try to ascribe honorable motives to each other as we do to ourselves, than to begin to justify... or deny.
Even autopsy evidence is subject to interpretation, but it will afford a bit more light on the subject.
No one will probably ever be able to prove or disprove the motives of Michael Schaivo. We still hear today arguments about Alger Hiss, after 60 years, in spite of recent new evidence which came to light due to the fall of the Soviet Union.
What may be more important than justifying why we felt so passionately about whatever side we were on in this tragedy, will be to attempt to construct mechanisms that more perfectly protect the rights of the helpless. We will always be at the mercy of contradictory "spin" and "truth" as provided by those proponents passionately involved in their cause. Misstatements of fact are unavoidable from persons who accept what is "known" and elect to act upon it. It is the natural tendency of both sides to de-emphasise in their minds those "facts" which can muddy the waters, and those "facts" which more clearly demonstrate the rightness of our cause.
Passion for a cause, as Barry Goldwater pointed out so presciently, is "no vice", and anything written here should not be misunderstood as an indictment of the efforts of those who fervently did their best on behalf of which side they stood. And recriminations must follow matters of life and death where collisions of conscience and philosophy have occurred.
But even if we do unavoidably beat each other up a bit over the outcome... it is in my humble view far more preferable than the alternative.
If we turn away from and pointedly ignore whatever evidence may emerge, because it goes against what side we stood on, we will be inching along that road to joining our self-blinded liberal neighbors. Because we have had amply demonstrated in the past just exactly how much attention they will pay to "evidence"... if it goes against them, and indicates that an unjustified killing has occurred.
Those persons who argued about the preeminence of the Right to Life must try to understand and at least accept the honorable motives of those well-reasoned arguments against further weakening the right of States to decide those cases where "issues and powers not specifically allotted to the Federal Government are thereby reserved to the States, and to the people".
Throwing out the baby with the bath can occur when there is insufficient time to have a full and faithful discussion of intense and far-reaching issues. And when it comes to the rights of any State to reserve the right to prevent the abortion of it's citizens, ( a highly related issue ), we must accept that the passionate arguments made by the other side, in the teeth of Freerepublic majority opinion about Terri Schiavo were necessary to hear on this forum, whatever side the reader falls on.
Good men tried their best to divine a way through this mess with too little time to do so. The outcome will not diminish this forum, but rather emphasizes the critical need to keep alive this method to talk to each other, rather than past each other. It certainly won't happen in the New York Times.
And if the evidence shows that the courts acted properly, that fact must be accepted. It is one thing to feel no shame in a fervent attempt to err on the side of life. For once it is taken, the later "evidence" cannot restore it. It is yet another to deny the evidence completely and forever castigate those who saw the evidence differently from us. To do so would weaken our resolve to improve gathering and verification of evidence, while at the same time removing cause-serving "embellishment" from national debates.
That would add tragedy on top of tragedy.
Two comments.
1. I lost a $20 bet (for me that's a lot of money) because I thought clintoons would never be re-elected since I mistakenly thought the American people had awaken for a deep, drug-induced sleep and started smelling the manure being shoveled at them.
2. Terry Schiavo's autopsy won't be worth a tinker's damn if there aren't independent observers to ensure the ME, and there should be an independent ME, doesn't get paid under the table by Mikey & his atty. As noted, Mikey plans to cremate the one piece of evidence, like he planned and executed the only witness to his crime, and scatter the one piece of evidence to the 4 winds in another state so that no one can gather the evidence for later tests as new technology becomes available.
For eight years in the 1990's, the Clinton Administration passionately chose to implement a policy of intimidation of those who would represent a threat to.. Bill Clinton. For eight years in the 1990's, the Clinton Administration focused on a policy of assigning penetration agents to ferret out, steal, and destroy evidence which could expose... Bill Clinton.
======
Right on -- just review some history:
http://www.hench.net/BillsKills.htm
Too bad we can't interview Vince Foster and Ron Brown, just for openers...
A Wee bit wordy,perhaps,but nonetheless,worth reading. :^)
I missed that part of the Constitution -- the part that says that anyone with less than 20% non-goo brain is not a person. That any person with only 1/5th left may be slaughtered at will.
Why did I miss it? Because it is NOT there.
Terri was murdered. The first duty of any law between men is to stop such murders of innocents.
"Those persons who argued about the preeminence of the Right to Life must try to understand and at least accept the honorable motives of those well-reasoned arguments against further weakening the right of States to decide those cases where 'issues and powers not specifically allotted to the Federal Government are thereby reserved to the States, and to the people'."
Whether it observes the niceties of "federalism" or whatever, government isn't worth a damn if it doesn't protect the life of the innocent.
Government is actually evil if it is used as the tool to murder the innocent.
Very thoughtful and well done analysis. I think the Schiavo case may transcend merely matters of evidence. There are large questions about who we are as a nation, and who we want to be.
Should hydration and nutrition be considered artificial life support?
Absent written directives, should hearsay testimony be sufficient to determine life or death wishes?
Should the State have absolute authority to order the death of a citizen without a de novo Federal appeal, as would be afforded someone convicted of a capital crime?
Right on!!! Murder is murder is murder is murder!!! NO ONE is entitled to kill someone just because they can't do everything that someone else can, or because they are unpleasant to look at or be around.
This girl was functioning and she was MURDERED!!! The Judges, the police, the ghoulish lawyer and all others who played roles in the act - yes, even the Hospice workers - are all guilty of wanton murder.
I greatly appreciate your seconding of that -- today we are a nation where no one who wishes to live is safe. At any moment we may have (G-d forbid) an accident or a sickness that strikes us down into nest of muderers -- murderes who can get away with it under what is now the "law".
Suspicious evidence has been there right from the start; It's simply been ignored.
World Net Daily reports:
"Another component of the Schindlers' contention of Schiavo's conflict of interest as Terri's guardian is medical evidence suggesting Terri may have been the victim of physical abuse. The report of a total-body bone scan done on Terri Schiavo while she was in a rehabilitation facility in March 1991 – 13 months after her collapse – describes what are known as "hot spots" suggestive of multiple fractures in her ribs, first lumbar vertebra, several thoracic vertebrae, both sacroiliac joints, and both knees and ankles, all deemed "presumably traumatic." The report states, "the patient has a history of trauma" and "the presumption is that the other multiple areas of abnormal activity ["hot spots"] also relate to previous trauma." It speculates an alternative explanation to trauma would be "neoplastic bone disease."
George W. Greer is derelict in not pursuing the possibility
that Michael Schiavo was responsible for the original 1990
injury. And, while the WND report is purely circumstantial evidence, as I recall, that's all it took to convict Timothy McVeigh.
The x-rays do provide a motive for why he might want to deny her rehabilitive care and for his decision to cremate the body. While she may never have regained the ability to speak, there are other ways to communicate.
Just like Sandi Burger, Michael appears to be destroying everything that could provide the clues as to what really happened to Terri. And, he has had the right help from George W. Greer of the Florida 6th circuit court. The fact that his attorney was instrumental in revising a Florida law that permits only one medical opinion before determining that someone 'wants' to die ssems more than a coincidence to me.
An autopsy will NOT reveal very much, even if Terri's brain is "80% goo" as I would concede it may be.
Only a PET scan could have shown the degree of brain activity, and where it was occurring - whether Terri had "higher brain functions" or not. Persons with even less than 75% brain remaining have been walking around just fine - the remainder of the brain simply compensated for the missing part.
It is too late to do a PET scan --- something that was denied Terri by her "husband" and Judge Greer.
Good points. And if these reports can be verifed, and taken out of the realm of "reports", and into the realm of "evidence", then a lot of people are going to have a lot to answer for. Perhaps several in courts of law.
I worry most that reports are heard and then later "contradicted" with no way left to make life-dependent decisions upon them. A price also needs to be attached to those reports which turn out to be bogus... so that more reliance can be laid upon the remaining reports which turn out to be accurate, but which suffer a dilution of impact based upon earlier, debunked reports.
It is easier to try to do the right thing, if you can be sure that what you have heard is true. At least it is for me...
If I seem clinical and detached about the fate of this woman, it is because many, many deaths contnue to occur in the ongoing cultural battle, and while I grieve for this woman, I will also grieve for many other little victims yet unborn, who may be impacted by this and other law. Many folks have enumerated the large questions posed by this "judicial determination that she wanted to die," as well as many other issues of State versus Federal powers of intervention.
A good example of another thing I didn't know, and I suspect a few others didn't also. The question needs to be pressed then as to what prevented such a scan being conducted. As to other's comments that even if no higher brain function was present, that no justification could be found for what was done- I respect your opinion but disagree. I don't think everyone one this forum will agree to any particular thing. Too many diverse viewpoints. But I appreciate that you enumerated yours, and made the points with conviction and clarity.
Michael Schiavo, due to conflict of interest, should have never been allowed to be her guardian after he abandoned her.
Beyond that, Greer should never have ordered her feeding tube removed along with no food or drink through her mouth.
They murdered her, and we all stood by. Will the cover up continue?
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