Posted on 09/05/2006 4:45:45 AM PDT by 8mmMauser
Boston, MA (LifeNews.com) -- Haleigh Poutre was the victim of child abuse and was nearly killed via euthanasia when Massachusetts officials gave up on her after she entered a coma. Now Poutre, once termed "brain dead" by doctors, continues to improve and is speaking a few words, her grandmother says.
Sandra Sudyka, the girl's biological grandmother, is no longer allowed to visit her granddaughter and now says she is ready to speak to the media about Poutre's condition.
She told The Republican newspaper that she last saw Poutre on July 18 but indicated she was "doing well."
"She was bright-eyed and smiling. She is always responsive to us," Sudyka explained.
Department of Social Services had asked Sudyka not to talk with reporters about Haleigh, but since they will no longer allow her and Haleigh's biological mother, Allison Avrett, to visit the 12 year-old, she said she's going to talk to the media.
"I decided since they broke the deal, I am going to talk. People should know how well she is doing," Sudyka told the newspaper.
"They don't want people to know how she is doing after they wanted to pull the plug," Sudyka said.
DSS spokeswoman Denise Monteiro declined an interview with The Republican but said that the visiting privileges have been suspended, not terminated.
Haleigh first began speaking in June, her grandmother told the newspaper.
"I was saying to her 'I love you,' and she was trying to say 'love' and it came out as a vibration...'ove,'" Sudyka said.
Sudyka, who is working with an attorney to adopt the girl, said she has said hello, responds to comments and questions, speaks nonverbally and is able to write her name. Haleigh can't walk and is confined to a wheelchair.
Avrett, Poutre's biological mother, lost custody of her daughter after physically abusing her. Poutre was put into a foster home where her adoptive parents also abused her. Her adopted mother committed suicide after abusing Poutre so much she had to be hospitalized.
DSS took Poutre into custody and when she appeared to slip into a coma, the agency asked the state Supreme Court for permission to take her life. That's when Poutre began responding.
Poutre has been receiving physical, speech and occupational therapy since January 26 at Franciscan Hospital for Children in Brighton.
Gov. Mitt Romney appointed a commission to look into how the state failed to properly handle the girl's case.
I agree with Linn on no amnesty for illegal aliens but that's about it. Max Linn has known Crist for 25 years in St. Pete. I don't care for any of them. I want Adam Putnam to run for governor in four years. I can wait.
I'm living in Georgia now, but I grew up in Florida.
I can't decide whether it's trendy make-up in VOGUE or a new addition to Mr. Rushmore.
At another point in the debate, Crist said he and Davis agreed that politicians shouldn't have interfered in the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case. When moderator Chris Matthews, of MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews," asked Crist if he spoke out when Congress become involved in the case, he said, "Yes I did."
"No he didn't," Davis shot back. "Charlie refused to take a position."
8mm
Today, on the eve of the Catholic Holy Day, All Saints Day, the goblins, ghouls, witches and bioethickists will dance and prance. They will steal candy from little kids, TP the neighbors' houses and kill all the innocents they can. We just know the goblins Felos, Greer, Mikey, and the rest of the coven will be out in force.
I know you all have the coveted pics saved somewhere of Mikey and Felos eyeless and soul-less. Alas, I can only find one pic of Dethnell and don't have the library of fine pics you all have, and my only contribution to the Ghoul Gallery of Halloween is swiped from an offended websource. If I post that, I will get the dreaded theft notice appearing in its stead.
Wagglebee's pic of Stalin is the best for Mikey I have seen, but can we imagine Stalin wearing a Mikey mask on Halloween? That would really have scared the Bolshevics.
Why was Strayhorn's poll so different?
The other three polls worked on the historically accurate assumption the Republican base vote is about 43 percent. The Strayhorn poll says that 43 percent is too high; that five percent of Republicans are fed up and will vote independent. She thinks this year the base vote will be down to 38 percent.
She may be right. With a backdrop of Iraq to Terry Schiavo, national polling suggests that conservative Republicans are holding fast but moderates seem to be looking for a change.
Plethora of polls leading up to election day
8mm
On Election Day, our country will make critical decisions about the types of leaders we will have for years to come. If you have not been doing so, it is time to begin looking more carefully at the candidates who will be running. There are races for the US House of Representatives and the US Senate. There are also races at the state and local level, such as state legislatures and governors.
Another voter guide to see how candidates stand in your state (includes pro-life issue)
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Republican Bill McCollum said Democrat Skip Campbell was a liar who misrepresented his positions on the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case during a contentious debate Monday between the attorney general candidates.
Campbell has been criticizing McCollum for saying he would have supported Gov. Jeb Bush's efforts to intervene in the case of the brain-damaged woman, who died last year after her feeding tube was removed in a legal battle that reached Congress and the White House.
AG race: McCollum says Campbell's lying about Schiavo involvement
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All of this becomes all the more potent when integrated with the core issues of the conservative civic religion: anti-abortion, regulation of biotechnology, control of marriage, and controls on immigration, issues in which some Republicans and Democrats actually differ. Bush saw fit to veto one bill in six years—stem cell research—and to interrupt his vacation to prevent a merciful death for the brain-dead Terry Schiavo. Beyond that, he has never met a government program he did not like.
In the end, a repudiation of these policies cannot occur by rewarding the Bush conservatives with an election victory. This has not worked for the past six years, and it will not work now. To "crush the left" in this election will not hurt the leftists any further—for their collapse is philosophical, not political, and thus far deeper than any election. But a conservative victory now will confirm the present leadership of the Republican Party, and strengthen their hold on it.
Why I Will Not Vote for Any Republican
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First, and most amazingly to me, the internal events at a small educational institution for the deaf have become a major media event. When I was a small boy with two deaf parents growing up in the Bronx in the 1950’s, I never imagined that the issue of deafness and the problems at a deaf university would ever end up on the front page of The New York Times. But the fact is that deafness and disability in general have gone from a marginal and marginalized experience to one that is central to the fabric of this country. Whether we are arguing about Terri Schiavo’s right to live, the fate of prenatal genetic screening, or sign language at Gallaudet, we are still, in effect, saying that disability and deafness are front and center in our sense of what it means to be human. Whereas in the past to be disabled or deaf was to be abnormal or somewhat inhuman, now we are beginning to define our humanity in a dialogue with our disability.
8mm
Now, spending is out of control. Rather than rolling back government, we have a new $1.2 trillion Medicare prescription drug benefit, and nondefense discretionary spending is growing twice as fast as it had in the Clinton administration. Meanwhile, Social Security is collapsing while rogue nations are going nuclear and the Middle East is more combustible than ever. Yet Republican lawmakers have taken up such issues as flag burning, Terri Schiavo and same-sex marriage.
They're fooling only themselves.
Chasing cheap points, losing sight of principles and big ideas
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This year isn't as good for the GOP. Two years of crossing public opinion on issues from Terry Schiavo to prosecution of the war in Iraq has left the GOP vulnerable, Merrill said.
"This is a very tough year to be a Republican," Merrill said.
Pima voters may tip balance of U.S. Senate
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Something I note is the attempts to factor in Terri as an act of trivia for those who sought to save her, as if such an act were so unimportant it was beneath consideration.
But in their efforts to trivialize, they aggrandize the Legacy of Terri.
The Republicans in charge have had a chance to push their agenda, with a Republican president and a Republican House and Senate, but there is little to show for it. There was so much time wasted on symbolic issues such as flag burning and visiting Terri Schiavo - while citizens here at home still lack affordable health care, soldiers are dying in Iraq, jobs are shipped overseas, seniors are struggling to make ends meet, stem-cell research funding is thwarted, and women's right to choose is threatened.
Letters | Fitzpatrick lacking in momentum
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Trivial or not, it reappears in this most crucial battle.
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But Mr. Santorum’s own personality and political style have also played a role, political strategists and analysts say. Over the past two years, he aggressively intervened in the right-to-die case of Terri Schiavo and jumped into debates on flashpoint issues like the Roman Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal and same-sex marriage. Along with his staunchly conservative voting record, that took a toll, reflected in what polls show as his continued difficulty among moderate suburbanites outside Philadelphia.
A G.O.P. Leader and Star Struggles for Traction
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Mr. Lieberman — a Democrat who lost to anti-war upstart Ned Lamont in the primary and is now running as an Independent — has taken more conservative positions than Mr. Bloomberg, a Republican, on a number of issues, including death penalty and the Terri Schiavo case, which drew national attention last year.
Mayor Travels to Connecticut To Spread Maverick Message
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I did not watch the debate, and would sooner have taken a rhinoceros dancing than watch it, but I'm going to guess that Crist won the debate with this comment. Davis shot himself in the foot by saying he'd roll back Jeb Bush's tax cuts. Those people called taxpayers? They're also called voters.
The AP writer gave that comment excellent positioning. Hmm.
"Now You Know" -- a Terri-friendly blog site gets exceptionally expressive in her last days...
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- An organization that is supposed to monitor international human rights abuses is instead furthering its pro-abortion agenda and has issued comments responding to a new report condemning various states in the U.S. for their pro-life laws that place sensible limits on abortion.
Human Rights Watch condemned the laws in some states that it sways is infringing on the so-called right to an abortion.
Human Rights Watchdog Group Criticizes United States on Abortion (They oppose abortion restrictions)
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Because liberals play "Make Believe" and jigger the figures to get the ones they want. Here they simply changed one assumption and voila! -- they got the numbers they assumed! It is amazing.
I have a better rule. Never trust any poll, any pollster, or any "reporter" who reports polls as is they meant something.
That link was to a painful read, indeed, bringing back all the horror of that time. Poor blogger expressed our sentiments powerfully.
I am surprised the mask makers have not made horror masks for the kiddies based on this cluster of *beep*.
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