Posted on 05/28/2007 9:33:12 AM PDT by wagglebee
The Christian attorney who fought to keep Terry Schiavo alive says the three leading GOP presidential candidates don't understand the important disability issues involved in the widely publicized 2005 case.
During a recent Republican presidential debate in California, the candidates were asked whether Congress was right to intervene in the Terry Schiavo case by attempting to prevent the state of Florida from removing the disabled woman's feeding tube. The answers varied.
Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, said he thought it "was a mistake" for Congress to get involved and the matter should have been left at the state level. Senator John McCain said Congress "probably acted too hastily." And former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani called the case a "family dispute."
David Gibbs III of the Christian Law Association says the United States gives greater due process to convicted murderers than to innocent disabled people. The former attorney for Schiavo's parents argues that Congress did the right thing when it intervened to provide her those rights.
"Many of the candidates are following the political wind, if you will, instead of showing leadership and saying, 'You know what? That was good public policy back then. We need to stand up for the disabled. We need to stand up for the senior citizens,'" Gibbs says. "We need to have that compassion for vulnerable people as opposed to taking the mindset that those people that just don't matter," he notes.
It is disingenuous, the Christian attorney contends, for candidates to claim they are pro-life but not be willing to grant due process rights to the disabled. "If you're pro-life, you have to be pro-life at every step," he says.
"Please understand: our founding fathers understood that you don't have any liberty, our Constitution doesn't matter, if you don't protect the innocent life of the citizens," Gibbs explains. "That's why they talked about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- your free speech, your freedom of religion, your right to own a gun or [receive] due process of law," he says. "If the government can kill you, you have no true liberty."
When Rudy Giuliani visited Florida he initially said he was in favor of assisting Terry Schiavo but later backpedaled from those comments, Gibbs points out. And in the recent GOP presidential debate, he says, only Kansas Senator Sam Brownback and Congressman Duncan Hunter of California got the issue right when they were asked about the Schiavo case.
I was struck by SueBob's lawyerly point that Dr. Nelson's reference to the implant didn't belong in the autopsy report. It was like he was offering a legal argument. It was CYA. He was making excuses for the lack of an MRI -- unconvincingly. SueBob pointed out that this was defensive argument, not objective reporting... and wondered why he did it? It reduced his credibility. She came back to this point several times in her blogging.
Dr. Nelson further reduced his credibility by saying Terri's condition "was consistent with" PVS, which is meaningless or an illegitimate post-mortem finding. Her condition was just as "consistent with" higher states of consciousness. Nelson was stacking the deck. He did it much more flamboyantly by comparing Terri's brain weight to Karen Ann Quinlan's. That is grandstanding, not objectivity.
This may very well be another strangulation that he missed. He should put his skill at missing strangulations on his resume.
Probably not, but it will be easy to find in a book. It really doesn't matter for our discussion.
Bttt. I think this thread has unanswered questions and room to grow. Whatchya think?
This thread is a keeper! It is chock full of info, and largely thanks to those hapless trolls who unwittingly did good while trying to do bad all in the name of unintended consequences.
So long as they are kept on a leash, they can be handy and fun even if they nip anyone who comes too near, but do have some use.
The thread may become useful as a reference thread, and as it remains active, is likely to attract some more contention.
Wow, look how your thread developed!
;-)
We had a number of trolls who decided to euthanize themselves!
As the troll stood, gun pointing to his head, his wife pleaded, “Please do not kervorkian yourself.”
“Shut up,” he said, “You’re next!”
Romans 8:28:
"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."
I have a dear friend (indeed, a former or inactive Freeper) who argues that this is the most important verse in scripture. It certainly demands the closest contemplation and study.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Four shots Kevorked into my groin and I was off on the greatest adventure of my life."
(Now let's see if we have any Max Shulman fans around here :-) )
I was a fan of Max Shulman. Can we say Rally Round the Flag, Boys? It was one of my treasures of youth. His humor fit right in. But I confess, I can’t place your Bang.
My introduction to Shulman was "Barefoot Boy with Cheek." This book had an even better first line... think about it :-) ... sticking a pushpin into his alma mater: "St. Paul and Minneapolis extend from the Mississippi River like the legs on a pair of trousers. Where they join is the University of Minnesota."
In fact, the whole book was a spoof on the U. of Minnesota, with such characters as Asa Hearthrug (our hero), Lodestone la Toole, his hometown sweetheart who eats lard sandwiches, Yetta Samovar, the campus subversive, and Noblesse Oblige, a member of the Beta Thigh sorority. (Asa's fraternity, which he joined because he fell into their pit trap, was Alpha Cholera.) The stupid athlete was named Eino Flikkeninnen, or something along those lines. SO Minnesota.
Placemark and tagline practice
Bttt
Placemark.
Tagline practice. This one is by Fred Allen, but there isn’t room to attribute it.
A lyric by Billie Ray Cyrus
Goodbye, Godspeed and thank you for everything.
Sharing with others what really matters until the last bugle blew. Thank you, T'wit, for everything.
T'wit responded:
It is obvious you're still molesting a goat.
I was just reading back through this thread and came across one of T'wit's last posts.
I'm sure I had seen it last summer, but I couldn't help laughing when I read it again.
"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest."
-- Elie Wiesel
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