Posted on 11/02/2006 5:23:50 AM PST by 8mmMauser
Republican gubernatorial front-runner Charlie Crist says he was perfectly clear in opposing governmental intervention in the Terri Schiavo case.
He spoke out loudly.
And he was silent.
Loudly silent.
The day after limping through a tough nationally televised debate, the Republican attorney general wanted to talk about his plans to slash taxes. Instead reporters questioned him about his debate assertion that, Yes, I did speak out against Congress trying to force the reinsertion of the severely brain-damaged womans feeding tube in 2005.
Crist did not publicly express his opposition to the Schiavo intervention until April 2006, more than a year after the Pinellas womans death. But he maintained on Tuesday that he forcefully expressed his opposition from the start.
I spoke loudly, Crist said in Tallahassee. I think its important that when issues like that come up and you believe that government is the appropriate place for it that you act that out, and you walk the walk, and dont just talk the talk.
The attorney general noted that his office by not going to court and pushing the agenda on that issue, that was speaking out louder than anybody else did in Florida.
This is one of many issues from insurance reform to abortion and civil unions where Crist has been accused of ambiguity or trying please all sides.
Contrary to his comments Tuesday, during the Republican gubernatorial primary in August he stressed to the weekly newspaper of the Florida Baptist Convention that his office helped the governors office with legal work to keep Schiavo alive, even though he personally had qualms.
I dont remember that, but Ill check on it and see, Crist said when asked about that interview with the Florida Baptist Witness.
Gov. Jeb Bush came to his would-be successors defense. He spoke out to me, Bush told reporters. Crist, however, said he never directly talked to Bush.
There are few issues in the political realm so black and white as the Terri Schiavo case. People either supported the state and federal government intervening to keep her alive or they didnt.
But Crist is the second statewide candidate recently to face questions about how he acted during the Schiavo end-of-life controversies that erupted in 2003 in the Legislature and in 2005 in both the Legislature and Congress.
Democratic Attorney General candidate Walter Skip Campbell, a state senator from Broward County, has been on the defensive this week for having voted to keep Schiavo alive and later criticizing the governmental intervention. Crists involvement in the Schiavo case may be the only common ground between the Schindler family, Terri
Schiavos parents and siblings who fought to keep her alive, and her husband, Michael Schiavo, who insisted his wife did not want to be kept alive in a persistent vegetative state. Both sides have criticized Crist.
When he said in that debate that hes going to be a leader, my heart dropped. Hes not a leader, hes a follower, Michael Schiavo said Tuesday. If he really wanted to stand up he would have said, 'No, this is wrong. The government should stay out of this. ... Charlie Crist did not say a word, he was nowhere to be found. Hes a coward.
Terri Schiavos father, Bob Schindler, wrote an essay in August accusing Crist of snubbing the familys pleas for him to help their efforts. Florida Atty. Gen. Charlie Crist let my daughter die. He had it within his authority to save her life, but he turned a blind eye to her suffering, Schindler wrote.
The Florida Democratic Party issued a release saying Crist lied about his role in the Schiavo case, but at a brief campaign stop at Arco-Iris restaurant in Tampa on Tuesday, Davis would only say that Crist misrepresented his position.
I was up fighting George Bush and the entire United States Congress, both political parties, and Charlie Crist was unwilling to take a position, Davis said.
Davis, trailing in polls and campaign money, is hoping his debate performance Monday night will cut Crists advantages. No statewide viewership numbers were available Tuesday, but in the Tampa Bay area about 152,000 households tuned in a ratings jump for that time slot on WFLA and that doesnt include those who watched on MSNBC.
- Tallahassee bureau chief Steve Bousquet and staff writer Alex Leary contributed to this report. Adam C. Smith can be reached at asmith@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8241.\
The last line got me.
Let me add my prayers for you and your mom. Your friends may be far from Florida, but we are with you in spirit.
I downloaded it for further listening.
I guess I'll have to do one myself. No time at the moment, but how's "Sing for us, Michael" for the song title? Or, "If I did it, I'd hear a thud!"
Even O.J. didn't plan on killing his wife for 12 years.
That would be an interesting project for us to tackle - for improvement - I think. We all could run our ideas through BB and see what she could put together.
Thanks, t'wit.
The Judge may have been Mark Shames. There were several judges before greer. I can't recall who the GAL was at the time.
It was totalitarian. Nice people were being yelled at by the cops to get off the sidewalk and the wouldn't talk to people who had questions. It went like this: "GET OFF THE SIDEWALK, NOW!"
http://www.fight4terri.com/main/
The words of your song are poignant and true.
I had this in my personal files:
Michael Schiavo Appointed Terris Guardian
On June 18, 1990, after a conducted investigation declaring Terri incapacitated, a hearing was held in a St. Petersburg courtroom appointing Michael Schiavo as Terris legal guardian.
The St. Petersburg court files state that Terris parents were notified by mail of these events, including the hearing, and had no objections to Michael Schiavo being appointed Terris guardian.
Terris parents emphatically state that they did not know of the investigation concluding that Terri was incapacitated, or the subsequent court hearing and were never notified.
Additionally, there is no evidence of any documentation in Terri's legal case files verifying that Terris parents supported Michael Schiavo's guardianship appointment, other than a reference that Terri's parents were in agreement.
In is important to note, during this 1990 time frame, Terris parents were in daily contact with Michael Schiavo, and nothing was ever mentioned regarding these court proceedings by Michael Schiavo or his attorney.
The entire legal Guardianship transaction was handled by attorney Daniel Grieco.
This information has been archived in the courts microfiche files, but was only recently discovered, in June 2004, by Terris family.
http://www.zimp.org/stuff/02-michael_schiavo_appointed_terri.htm
..................
Dear friends and patient advocates,
As you know from the previous HPA newsletter emails, the public needs
your help! You are much more informed than the general public and you
know what type of problems may arise in SOME hospices.
Hope Hospice in Southwestern Florida has applied to become licensed as a
funeral home service provider, as well as providing its regular hospice
services.
See:
http://www.bonitanews.com/news/2006/nov/15/hope_hospice_plans_offer_funeral_se
rvices/?print=1
and
http://www.bonitanews.com/news/2006/nov/18/editorial_hospice_services/?opinion
This application is deeply troubling, to those who are concerned about
patient rights, for numerous reasons, as I have already written. The
conflict of interests and the potential for covering up crimes including
medical killings is huge. A huge gap in protections for the public
would open up, allowing for complete destruction of any evidence of
wrongdoing and preventing any meaningful oversight of the industry.
I have just learned that we should also send a copy of our letter or
emails about the issue of hospices becoming licensed as funeral homes to
Mr. Tom Gallagher. A short note in your own words is all that is needed.
Mr. Gallagher has the power (as the State of Florida's Chief Financial
Officer) to independently grant or deny a hospice's application for
licensure as a funeral home. He will be reviewing this issue this
coming Friday, so please send your email to him as soon as possible, and
ask others you know to do so as well!
He can be contacted at:
By email:
Tom.Gallagher@fldfs.com
or
cfo@fldfs.com
or by U.S. mail:
Tom Gallagher, Chief Financial Officer
State of Florida
Department of Financial Services
200 East Gaines Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0300
(850) 413-3100
Those of you who have already sent a letter or email to Diana Evans,
Director of the Division of Funeral, Cemetery & Consumer Services at:
Diana.Evans@fldfs.com
should send a copy of what you sent to Mr. Gallagher as well so he has
time to review your comments.
You can also post your comment online (so the public can learn about the
issues) at Bonita News in Florida:
http://www.bonitanews.com/news/2006/nov/18/editorial_hospice_services/?opinion
Thanks so much for your help!
If people contemplate and really see the sanctity of life, their
"quality of life" arguments fall away and they will understand that we
are here to care for each other, not to kill each other. Caring, and not
convenience, is the sign of a civilized and just society!
Ron Panzer
for Hospice Patients Alliance
http://www.hospicepatients.org
8mm
# The Bush Justice Department took no political advantage of Berger's fix. Just the opposite. Justice announced the punishment in the year's greatest media vacuum the afternoon on which Terri Schiavo died and the day before the pope did.
# On that same afternoon, acting on a four-week old tip from Scarpa, the FBI uncovered an explosives cache underneath Terry Nichols' former home in Herington, Kan.
8mm
Recent history indicates, however, that much of the so-called liberal stereotype could fit neatly into a description of contemporary conservatism. The only difference being the conservatives' view of tax cuts as the sole mechanism by which problems are solved. And while conservatives do not throw other people's money at "deadbeats," they certainly throw it at people who are already economically stimulated.
Moreover, conservatives do it in the most fiscally irresponsible manner possible by borrowing so that our children and grandchildren will have to pay the debt. As for their belief in federalism, one need only review Bush v. Gore and the Terri Schiavo matter to understand that too is at best selective.
One would think that possessing such luminaries as John Kennedy,Hubert Humphrey, Paul Wellstone, Reinhold Niebuhr, Martin Luther King, Jr., along with Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt, the term liberal would garner a bit more pride than it does.
What This Government Needs is a Few Good Liberals
8mm
I wonder if they ever will? Until they do, we are left with the impression that all progressives are enthusiastic wife killers.
It occurs to one that future Johnny Cochranes will not have to scratch hard to find the kind of jury that let wife-killer O.J. Simpson get away with it. The jury pool for letting murderers walk is much bigger than we expected. You could practically use a list of registered Democrats. Or a list of reporters. Or Puffington Host pundits.
The folks would be wondering if the doctor was in the funeral business to cover up mistakes and to have access to human organs.
Problem is they are always searching for glove in the wrong places.
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