Posted on 03/24/2006 2:33:29 PM PST by topher
Michael Schiavo Caught in Serious Distortion of Truth on NBC Interview
By John-Henry Westen
CLEARWATER, FLA., March 24, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Michael Schiavo, who ordered doctors to withhold food and water from his severely disabled wife Terri until she died, and his current wife Jodi were interviewed by NBC's Matt Lauer. Those exclusive interviews based on Schiavo's upcoming book "Terri: The Truth," are to be broadcast on "Dateline," Sunday, March 26 at 7 p.m.. Ironically, despite claiming to speak about 'the truth' concerning Terri, NBC's Lauer catches Schiavo in a serious distortion of truth as the interview begins.
In the interview, Michael responds to Lauer asking why he would not just divorce Terri - since he was already living with another woman with whom he had fathered children - leaving Terri with her own parents who were begging to be allowed to care for her. Michael answered, "When you sit in a courtroom and you hear her father say I'll cut her arms and her legs off, just to keep her alive, why would I want to put their daughter back in their care if he's gonna (sic) do that to her."
At this point Lauer interjects to say, "Let's make sure we understand that statement," with Schiavo trying to cut him off all the while, he adds, "I think the statement was, if she were to develop gangrene, and had to have limbs amputated, he would do that and okay that as long as he could still have her alive. That's a little different than the way you . . ." At this point Schiavo, who had been interrupting Lauer the whole way through his clarification interrupts definitively cutting off Lauer and changing the subject.
The interview is one sided, in that it presents only Michael's point of view and ends with Michael relating through his tears his last moments with Terri, going so far as to say, "She's up there praising me right now... and saying thank you."
Lauer notes that the book is not about honouring Terri, but about settling some scores. To which Schiavo responds, "Oh yes it does."
At another point in the interview, Lauer asks, "People have often asked. Michael why didn't you divorce Terri, you were living with Jodi." Schiavo replies, "Why do I have to divorce Terri? Terri wasn't like a football- an inanimate object you pass back and forth. She was my wife. You mean because your wife gets sick, do you give her back?"
Asked about his decision to remove Terri's feeding tube despite the pleas of Americans, groups from around the world and even the Vatican, Schiavo said, "Yeah, well I guess when it all boiled down, I couldn't understand why these people were so passionate about my life... People are allowed to die every day. Feeding tubes are removed every day."
Schiavo will appear live on "Today," Monday, March 27, and with Jodi on Tuesday, March 28.
To see a preview video excerpt of the interview go here and click on the 'launch' button;
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11943750/
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage: Terri Schiavo's Husband Re-Married in Catholic Church http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jan/06012306.html
Ten Year Old Arrested for Giving Food to Terri Schiavo Apologizes
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/aug/05083103.html
If you knew everything, you'd be mad at JEB too. and his other relatives. The books that are coming out later this year will fill you in. The big story is appalling.
Thanks for the ping. Michael's obsession with himself and the murder of his wife is repulsive to say the least. He is a very sick, heartless, cold and evil individual.
Accuser: Crist shielded lax personnel contractor
The former Convergys worker says the attorney general refused to investigate security breaches of employee data due to political ties.
By STEVE BOUSQUET, Times Staff Writer
Published March 25, 2006
TALLAHASSEE - A former Convergys Corp. employee who complained about the company's mishandling of state workers' personnel information lodged an ethics charge Friday against Attorney General Charlie Crist.
Sam McDowell told the Commission on Ethics that Crist refused to check out his complaints about lax security because of the attorney general's ties to Brian Ballard, a Convergys lobbyist and adviser to Crist's gubernatorial campaign.
"The Attorney General's Office is shielding Convergys. They're protecting them, and I feel that there is an ethical problem there," McDowell said in an interview. "A government office should not be used to protect private industry."
A spokeswoman for Crist called the accusation without merit and said that for more than a year, Crist's office has been monitoring a "contract dispute." Convergys declined to comment, saying it hadn't seen the complaint.
McDowell slapped a similar complaint Friday against George LeMieux, Crist's former chief of staff who manages Crist's campaign for governor. Neither ethics complaint cited a specific provision in state ethics laws.
The state is seeking to fine Convergys $5-million after one of its former subcontractors, GDXdata of Denver, shipped personnel information on as many as 110,000 state workers to India, Barbados and possibly China for processing. McDowell's accusations are another sign that the $350-million Convergys contract is a potential headache for Crist, whose bid for governor is based partly on a claim that he is a champion of consumers. Last year, Crist's office declined to join in a lawsuit filed by two former GDXdata employees who said the mishandling of workers' information might have resulted in widespread identity theft.
McDowell, 32, a Tallahassee native and former Air Force sergeant, said he was forced to resign his job on Convergys' People First contract last year. He said in an affidavit that he watched Convergys employees access confidential information on high-level state employees, including Gov. Jeb Bush, Crist, and Crist's Republican primary opponent, Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher.
McDowell's attorney, Steve Andrews, supports Gallagher and donated $500 to Gallagher's campaign for governor in June 2005, campaign records show. But the lawyer said McDowell's complaint is about lax security and identity theft - not politics.
"It is not a political thing," Andrews said.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents rank-and-file state employees, issued a statement Friday saying it was satisfied with Crist's actions in the Convergys case.
MORE NEWS ON CRIST'S ETHICS PROBLEM:
GOVERNOR'S RACE Ethics complaint filed against Crist, top aide
A complaint alleges that Attorney General Charlie Crist should have investigated a corporation with links to his campaign for governor.
BY MARC CAPUTO
A whistle-blower accused Attorney General Charlie Crist and a top aide of ''misconduct'' for failing to investigate a troubled -- but deep-pocketed -- personnel company tied to Crist's campaign for governor.
Crist's office and aide George LeMieux said the ethics complaint filed Friday by Sam McDowell, former employee of the company Convergys, were ``without merit.''
Convergys, which won a $350 million contract to centralize and computerize the state's massive personnel system, was rapped for having lax security and auditing functions in a Department of Management Services investigation McDowell prompted in a whistle-blower complaint last year.
STOLEN IDENTITIES
McDowell said Crist should have investigated the firm, considering a former Convergys employee is now serving four years in prison for stealing state worker identities and money. Convergys also is being sued by five state workers who say their identities have been stolen.
Their lawyer is McDowell's and is connected to Crist's Republican campaign rival, Tom Gallagher. In a separate but related case, the company is fighting a proposed $5 million state fine for its connection to a subcontractor that may have allowed the confidential information of up to 108,000 state employees to be accessed by labor in India, Barbados and China.
Convergys said in written statement it was ''misled'' by subcontractor GDX, which also denies wrongdoing, and shouldn't have to pay.
It is fighting the state-worker lawsuits as well. State and company officials point out that no identities have been reported stolen in the GDX false-claims case filed by two company whistle-blowers.
Crist's office declined to investigate that case, saying it is a ``contract dispute.''
Those whistle-blowers and their attorneys said in an article published Thursday in The Miami Herald that Crist's office barely spoke with them before declining the case.
''It sounds like my case,'' McDowell said. ``All of this has happened and Charlie Crist has not investigated. It's unbelievable.''
McDowell's complaint mentions the ''relationship'' between Convergys lobbyist Brian Ballard and Crist's governor's campaign, for which Ballard is an advisor.
Ballard said that Crist stands for and against his clients, depending on the issue. He said Crist this week publicly opposed an effort by one of Ballard's pharmaceutical clients to win favorable legislation during the 60-day lawmaking session that ends May 5.
For its part, Convergys said in a written statement that the results of the original investigation launched by McDowell ''do not support the allegations'' he's now making about its connection to Crist.
McDowell's ethics complaint faces a number of challenges, said ethics-law attorney Mark Herron.
He's not connected to the case but represents hundreds of clients before the ethics commission.
To make the charges stick, Herron said, McDowell will have to show that Crist had a ''clear legal duty to have acted'' and that Crist corruptly failed to act for the direct benefit of Convergys.
GOP RIVAL BENEFITS
But even if the ethics case is dismissed, the allegations are already benefiting one man: Tom Gallagher, whose strategists have long planned to portray Crist -- the front-runner in money and most polls -- as a do-nothing.
Democrats this week attacked the attorney general for seeming to change his position opposing abortion and for failing to investigate the GDX case, saying it made little sense because the attorney general can't help ''bloviating'' about how he's opposed to identity theft.
But Crist's office said ''no one has done more to fight identity theft than'' him.
``This office has been monitoring and investigating the Convergys/GDX issues for over one year.
``This case is not a false claim but is a contract dispute.''
FREEPERS, REMEMBER MARK HERRON WAS THE DEMOCRAT ATTORNEY WHO STARTED THE RECOUNT WARS FOR AL GORE HERE IN FLORIDA. Is he a Crist operative now? Avoid Charlie Crist like the plague. Support Tom Gallagher for Governor.
Re: Terri:
FLORIDA AG CHARLIE CRIST'S OFFICE TOLD CALLERS THAT THEY DIDN'T HANDLE CIVIL RIGHTS CASES AND HE WOULD NOT PROTECT TERRI'S CIVIL RIGHTS. HE WANTS TO BE GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA. HE'S A GREER SYCOPHANT and a MAJOR RINO. (FV tie-in to thread)
Can you comprehend that there was no rule of law? What happened to erring on the side of life? Why was Terri murdered by a WHOLE BUNCH OF REPUBLICANS?
Terri's death was a first rate example of judicial despotism by a judge with a 2/3 reversal rate and the federal judge in Tampa, a Clinton appointee.
Jeb didn't use his executive authority. It's in Florida's Constitution and he refused to lead. As a result, Terri was brutally killed.
Tom Delay was right.
See 123.
The rule of law at the time was the spouse was 100% responsible for making all decisions.
If you read the Schiavo archives at www.northcountrygazette.org, you can read all about the Catholic church where the wedding was held. The wedding violated some church doctrine but they let it slide because Mikey is da man, don't you know. (sarcasm tag). He's slime walking.
It was exactly like Adolph Hitler used to do. Bring them in the front door and they never come out alive.
A guardian who is an adulterer is supposed to be terminated. That's just one violation of the law. There are pages of violations leading up to Terri's murder.
I guess that about sums up how Crist will handle things as governor, if he's elected. He's a panderer first, then a do-nothinger second. I wouldn't expect anything to improve in Florida under his direction.
With all due respect, your opinion of MIchaels's stewardship holds no legal weight. And clearly, multiple courts agreed with me.
It was exactly like Adolph Hitler used to do.
Godwin's Law.
Judge Greer is a CRIMINAL. www.judgegeorgegreer.com
How many courts was that who ruled on Michael's stewardship of Terri?
I could fill 51 volumes with legal reasons why blue is superior to red.
You guys are just as bad as the Lefty moonbats. You want to pick and choose which laws and legal judgments are OK. The difference is you want it to be the same as your personal judgment.
You don't support law and order, just anarchy weighted in your direction.
Am I incorrect in recalling that Terri's parents sued for custody? And then people wanted her to be made a ward of the court?
It is possible -- it was a long time ago.
www.judgegeorgegreer.com
Are you part of the death care system? Florida's a great place to set up shop.
I do recall I called "Godwin's law."
But thanks for playing.
www.myflorida.com takes anybody to the Florida Statutes. MANY LAWS WERE BROKEN before the final assault on Terri.
The more I read and learn about Michael Schiavo the more I would classify him as a psychopath.
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I imagine I haven't done as much research as you have, but I was wondering, why would anyone act that way. Your hypothesis that he is a psychopath makes a lot of sense.
I feel sorry for his new wife and kids.
It won't be long before Michael has another affair. What will Jodi think of him then?
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Doesn't matter, I'm sure at that time, she'll [conveniently] be in a vegetative state, or worse...
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