It was sheer horror for us to know what was going on in that room but imagine how Terri felt. NEVER FORGET. NEVER AGAIN.
Posted on 04/03/2005 5:19:05 PM PDT by floriduh voter
King target of Schiavo partisans
Powerful senator is being attacked by for blocking a bill that could have helped her; he's mounts re-election bid.
By J. TAYLOR RUSHING, Capital Bureau Chief
TALLAHASSEE -- Jim King has a 19-year record of solid fiscal conservatism in Tallahassee and a resume that includes the presidency of the Florida Senate.
He easily won the only three contested elections he's ever had and was most recently re-elected with 66 percent of the vote.
But King is worried about re-election in 2006, and he may have good reason. Jacksonville's most senior state senator is the only one of nine Republicans who is up for re-election after voting against a state law last month that may have saved Terri Schiavo's life.
King also is the subject of an online petition drive that asks Gov. Jeb Bush and the state Republican Party to suspend him, permanently remove him from office and bar him from representing the party -- all because of his Schiavo vote.
Only a year ago, signs along major highways in Jacksonville hailed King for pushing through a state law change while Senate president that won millions in state money for local schools.
"And this year, members of my own party are screaming for my head," he said. "It's living proof that politics is a contact sport."
It is uncomfortable but familiar ground for King, who already created a political crisis in 2003 by butting heads with Bush during debate over medical malpractice lawsuit limits. King led a Senate that took fire for refusing to support any lawsuit cap below $500,000, with the resulting stalemate dividing Republicans and causing a string of special legislative sessions.
This year, King and eight other Republican senators joined 12 Democrats in blocking a bill passed by the Florida House and supported by Bush that was aimed at re-inserting Schiavo's feeding tube. Because legal appeals by the brain-damaged woman's parents kept failing, activists who wanted to save Schiavo used state and national media attention to paint the opposing senators as her only hope. The 21 senators stood firm against the law, Schiavo died on March 31, and activists threatened political retribution.
The governor downplayed such talk, distinguishing King's "vote of conscience" from a consistent record of anti-Republicanism.
"I'm very respectful of the thought that went into the decision," Bush said. "I disagreed with it. ... But all the threats and all that normally subside after a while, and that's what's going to happen here. I don't think Sen. King or others have to worry about that unless they consistently vote against Republican principles, and I wouldn't put this in that category."
Others do. Florida Baptist Witness Editor Jim Smith, who lives in King's district and whose Jacksonville-based newspaper circulates 46,000 copies weekly, said King has been on the wrong side of several issues, including the Schiavo vote.
"No doubt Jim King is formidable and the idea that he could be defeated is quite a difficult prospect," Smith said. "But a lot of people were concerned about how this was handled. I respect him for believing as he does, but I also believe the citizens of his district should be considering how he voted."
King is already mobilizing his re-election bid. He has enlisted former Jacksonville Mayor John Delaney, now president of the University of North Florida, to help lead the campaign, as well as former Chamber of Commerce Chairman Jim McCollum, now an executive at BellSouth. No opponents have emerged yet.
Delaney said he disagreed with King's Schiavo and medical malpractice votes, but said King has done far more for Northeast Florida.
"He's just had two particularly controversial votes that got wrapped around him," Delaney said. "Some of the anger out there is because he's a deal-maker and a compromiser, but these were two things he couldn't bend on. Both were votes of conviction, so I don't think the Schiavo thing is going to hurt him because he has personal reasons. And he knew the case, too. He read deposition transcripts of the witnesses."
King has explained his Schiavo vote as his way of protecting any changes to Florida's Death With Dignity Act, which he wrote as a state representative in the 1980s after the death of his parents.
"The bottom line is that some people didn't like my position, but there's a whole lot of other people who believe I did the right thing," King said. "There's no question the district is conservative and folks in my party are upset with my stances. But I have letters that say, 'Thank you very much for the voice of reason.' I ran as a social moderate and I will continue to be a social moderate.
"Things have been so skewered to one side lately, but there is a silent majority that feels I've done a good job and I've been straightforward. Those people who feel I've represented them well will be energized to take a stand for me." from www.worldnetdaily.com - front page
FV SAYS: Jim King's ready to defend his senate seat. JACKSONVILLE, can't you find somebody better to run against him? If Jim King is ousted, he can take his dreadful ideas, laws, amendments, lobbyists and cronies with him and don't let the door hit them on the way out. Fv
>>>OKAY, SO WHO'S GOING TO RUN AGAINST JIM KING?
I nominate Floriduh Voter.
I know! It's something that's been heavy on my heart too. If we were salt and light God meant us to be would we have ever gotten to such a low point in our nation?
"I'm very respectful of the thought that went into the decision," Bush said. "I disagreed with it. ... But all the threats and all that normally subside after a while, and that's what's going to happen here.
Don't bet on it Jeb, I have made myself a personal daily task, to remind you we haven't forgotten. Stick around and see how long my memory lasts. Look at Terri's threads, see how many have posted here for years. You gambled and lost, Jeb.
Spin all you want, Terri was murdered by judicial fiat and it happened on Jeb Bush's watch and it is part of his legacy. He turned the ambulance around.
SHAME ON HIS HANDLERS.
I accept the nomination but if elected, will not serve. FV
Well, we'll just vote for ya anyway!
With that statement, I am more angry with Jeb than ever before. How dare he assume this is just something to be swept under the rug and that people's anger will melt away. This man is a charlatan and is not worthy to hold office. I'm so angry!
so sorry his poll numbers are down, I DID ALL I COULD DO!
LOL
If elected and you don't serve, you will be no different than all the politicins in Florida, you might better rethink that.
I'm angry too, so angry I have held off writing to the Fl legislature, if I said what I think, I'd wind up in jail.
CHECK OUT THIS MEDICARE LINK. Of course laws were broken to hold Terri at Hospice Woodside, THE ENTIRE WORLD KNOWS THAT.
http://dying.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=dying&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.medicarerights.org%2Fmaincontentitimhleaflet.html
Good grief. Amazing, I could go out and brake the law right now and likely get arrested and in big trouble, but a Hospice in Florida has done it over and over yet no one cares and does anything about it!
Monday, March 21, 2005
By: Juan Paxety
It's been said that State Senator Jim King's ego is as large as his girth. Now he says he's doing God's work in his moves to kill Terri Schiavo. From the St. Petersburg Times:
"I believe that there is a heaven and that's where Terri Schiavo is going to go, and that's a trip that's long overdue," said Sen. Jim King, the Jacksonville Republican who authored the state's death with dignity law after watching his parents suffer drawn-out deaths from cancer.
"Had God not wanted what happened today to happen, He would have intervened," King said Friday after the Senate failed to pass legislation aimed at preventing Schiavo's feeding tube from being removed by a judge's order. King fails to understand the basic difference between Terri Schiavo and his parents - they were dying - Terri is not. She is not on life support. She is not receiving pain medication. She is simply being fed - or was until Friday.
Peggy Noonan wrote that Republicans will have hell to pay if they let Terri Schiavo die. In Florida, the Republicans gained control of the legislature only about a decade ago. With the failure of King and other Republican senators to take any action, we may see Noonan's fears realized in the state senate next year.
In fact, it's already begun. There is an online petition for Governor Bush to suspend King from his senate position.
FV SAYS: This is short but presents that Jim King doesn't get it. His parents were at terminal and Terri was in good health on MARCH 17, 2005, barring the need for rehab and a better environment. HERS WAS A STATE SPONSORED MURDER. Peggy Noonan is right imo. They've misunderstimated how serious we take MURDER by JUDGE.
If you wanted Terri to live, then you are an insurgent. Call them when you calm down and tell them the facts of the matter. IT WAS MURDER BY JUDGE and that's illegal.
LURKERS, PLEASE CALL YOUR US CONGRESSMAN OR IF YOU ARE FROM FLORIDA, PLS CALL YOUR FLORIDA SENATORS AND REPS. WE WANT GEORGE GREER TO BE IMPEACHED. He's in contempt of congress and he bungled Terri's case on purpose so that she WOULD BE A MURDER VICTIM BY STARVATION AND DEHYDRATION.
Judge Whittemore of Fed. Crt in Tampa is a piece of work too. Complain about him to the Feds while you are at it.
PLS CHECK YOUR PHONE BOOKS FOR THEIR NUMBERS OR GOOGLE FOR YOUR LEADERS.
It was sheer horror for us to know what was going on in that room but imagine how Terri felt. NEVER FORGET. NEVER AGAIN.
MILARKY!!!!!!!!!!!!! His numbers are down because he DIDN'T DO WHAT HE WAS SUPPOSED TO!!!!!!!!!!!!! same with the Prez!!!!!!!!sigh.
If anyone sees the actual poll, please post it.
Posted on Wed, Apr. 13, 2005
Floridians disapprove of Schiavo case handling, poll says
BY MARC CAPUTO
mcaputo@herald.com
With the nation's highest court as the only exception, Florida voters disapproved of the way the governor, his presidential brother, the state Legislature, Congress, the courts and the news media handled the Terri Schiavo case, according to a poll released today.
The biggest loser: The news media, by a 71-23 margin, according to Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University's survey of 1,044 Florida registered voters. The error margin is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
On the other end of the spectrum was the U.S. Supreme Court. Fifty percent of people supported the court, compared to 44 percent who didn't. On the whole, the courts fared better than the legislative and executive branches of government. Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said the more involved an entity was in the Schiavo case, the more likely it was to be viewed unfavorably.
Congress and the Florida Legislature, both of which had passed legislation aimed at keeping Schiavo alive, also got bad marks from the voters. Only the Supreme Court, which resolutely refused to get involved in the case, won a bare majority support in Florida, Richards said.
However, low marks are not a death kiss: Despite their involvement, President Bush and Gov. Jeb Bush received favorable ratings for their overall job performance.
None of us here will ever forget, and we must do all we can to make sure it doesn't keep happening. There are many Terris out there that we don't even know about.
Thankfully, Grandma Mae was saved from dehydration/starvation.
I think I heard Sean say that he was going to have Mae's family on his tv show tonight, if anyone wants to listen for it.
I'm wondering how many of us contacted Sean about Grandma Mae last week. I received a return e-mail from James Grisham (Sean's assistant) saying that he was talking with Mae's family.
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