Does anyone here know whatever happened to the Florida senate voting on this today?
Yesterday I heard Jesse Jackson was trying to convince 3 Democrats to vote for Terri.
What happened? I haven't seen anything on the news about this at all. Was Jesse Jackson in Florida again today?
This is so pitifully grievous for the Schindler family. :o(
Someone who was against it had to be the one to bring it up.
No one did.
I think we were 1 vote shy but just maybe we could have pulled it out. They talked about cock fighting chickens! Laughed and made bad jokes. Got a bit vulgar.
That told me all I needed to know. Jeb met with Jesse and he set Jesse straight on THE AGENDA. (group hug).
See you freeps tomorrow. FV
According to the senate bill's sponsor (Webster), despite Jesse Jackson's statements regarding "turning votes around," not one of the state senators who had previously voted against the bill (S 804) agreed that was true. Because the bill had been previously defeated twice (twice is important), it would have had to be brought to the floor through the Florida Senate rules related to "reconsideration" of bills, which meant three things (absent any agreed-upon suspension of those rules):
1) it had to be raised for reconsideration in either the same session (3/23/05) it was defeated the second time, or in the next scheduled session (yesterday), no later. It wasn't.
2) it had to be placed "on the desk" for reconsideration, officially, by a senator who had formerly voted in opposition to the bill. No senator did that.
3) it would have had to "pass" by a 2/3 margin on the vote, which means (if all senators were present for the vote), by 27-13, not the simple majority that was the hype pushed by Jesse Jackson and Randall Terry.
If you listen to the broadcast of the Florida State Senate sessions, you don't have to get much past the beginning of the session to know if a bill which must be raised on "reconsideration" will be discussed. Just after the session opening ceremonies, the senate president goes through a standard list of questions, which include things like, "Are there any messages from the Governor?" and "Are there any messages from the House?" to which the ordinary replies are, "None on the desk, Mr. President." One of those early questions is, "Are there any matters brought for reconsideration?" When Senate President Lee asked that question at yesterday morning's session, had anyone been planning to bring up the previously-defeated bill for consideration, it would have been made clear at that point. The answer was, "None on the desk, Mr. President." As soon as that answer was received (well before the high school honors, Cesar Chavez, and fighting chickens were brought up), it became absolutely clear that there would be no "Terri's bill" considered yesterday, unless (and it's a longshot "unless") an extemporaneous motion had been made (and passed) to suspend the rules, later in the session, allowing it to be brought for reconsideration. Considering that the process (motion for reconsideration by one previous "naysayer") for bringing up the bill for reconsideration is a great deal easier than the process of suspending the rules--that was a very slim possibility.
Now that's probably far, far more information about the inner-workings of the Florida Senate that you (or anyone else) ever wanted to know. But knowing it saved me what appears to have been 2 or 3 hours of time spent in frustration, listening to talk about fighting chickens.
What's shameful, in my opinion, is that Jesse Jackson and Randall Terry (both of whom could have, and should have, known better) spent so much time babbling Tuesday about "only needing two senators to switch their votes to pass the bill that will save Terri," and suggesting (falsely) that they had gotten commitments from ANYONE to do so. It was the more horrid cruelty of completely false hope to Terri's parents, of making them believe that either Jesse Jackson or Randall Terry has that sort of influence, and that it would only require a few votes to save their child--and then putting Mary Schindler out in front of the media to beg the legislature for a couple of votes, when what was needed was closer to 10 than 2. Jackson and Terry manipulated and used Mary in the cruelest possible way--not surprising, considering the two men involved, but unjustifiable and, for me, unforgiveable.