Free Republic

"Good conservative Hispanic candidates?!?" Please, bite your tongue! We do NOT need more La Raza types in power (and ALL Hispanics are secretly in favor of La Raza, no matter what they say in public). "For the face, everything...for those outside the race, nothing."

No, thanks, America doesn't need this. Or haven't you read your copy of Pat Buchanan's book yet? :)

All O'reilly did is say that Terri was costing us money to keep her alive and that is bad for America! I can't listen to the nutcase anymore!

He's just a media-whore who'll bend any way the wind blows on any given situation. One minute he pretends to be conservative, the next he'll pretend to be centrist...the only thing he is consistently is a blowhard.

The Minutemen are simply undocumented Border Patrol Agents.

ROTFLMAO!! That'd make a fantastic bumper sticker, esp. in Arizona!

I'd like to crap on the ACLU, also known as the Anti Christian Liberal Union.

My friend in So-Cal, a conservative Republican, lost a lot of respect for Rush Limbaugh when he enlisted the help of the ACLU over that prescription-pills controversy. Admittedly, I don't know why Rush had anything to do with the ACLU, either, given that he could afford any number of excellent attorneys. I don't get it....

I think Zogby oversampled Democrats in the election -- or he used the "right method", but many more Republican voters turned out, than his model told him.

Actually, the numbers were pretty much consistent, because the fluctuations (for the most part) were taking place within the margin of error. Those who say "polls don't vote, people do" are always proven wrong. Kerry basically shot himself in the foot again and again, and that's why Bush began gaining momentum.

Getting back to the Terri Schiavo case, here's one part of that poll, which I found disturbing:

Elected officials should intervene to protect a disabled person's right to live if there is conflicting testimony concerning removing a feeding tube?

38% Agree

54% Disagree

Going by the results of this poll, then, people think it's OK to intervene on behalf of the civil rights of anyone...provided they're not disabled. In which case, let 'em rot....

Well, isn't that special!

"Interestingly, I have seen this pattern of mixed brain (cerebral) and spinal cord findings in a patient once before, a patient who was asphyxiated."

Oh...my...God. That evil, murdering...there's no word sufficient to describe that monster.

I believe you kaos. My Dad who is a Democrat feels the same way you do.

Thanks. My mom and aunt are Democrats, too, and they're horrified by all this. We've had PVS patients in our family -- *real* PVS patients, not brain-damaged people being labeled PVS. Let me tell you, none of those people were anywhere near as responsive as Terri.

Quite frankly, there were a lot of conservatives along the way who failed Terri. Judge Greer, by all accounts "conservative". Judge Birch. Congress and to a certain extent, Jeb Bush.

I agree. Judge Greer was enemy #1 of Terri Schiavo, and the other judges IMHO pretty much just backed him up to cover for him.

The problem is, are the Democrats who are outraged by this murder going to speak up?

This Democrat is. I'm furious that my Party has failed to fight for the basic human rights of a handicapped person.

Is Ralph Nader going to pursue this as passionately as protecting the environment?

I don't doubt that he is. Nader has always fought hard for what he believes in, even if it isn't "popular" at the time. Public opinion polls don't dictate his actions, thank God.

Is Jesse Jackson going to stick around the way he would if she were black?

I don't think we'll ever know, because the media's more concerned with his involvement with Michael Jackson. They'll always choose a freak show over real issues.

Are the disabled groups going to make this their cause celebre, or are they going to go back to persecuting small town bars that don't have handicapped parking?

As a mildly disabled person who has a handicapped parking permit (and sees fully able-bodied people illegally take up handicapped parking every day), I'd like to point out that attitudes about the latter are what create an environment for tragedies like Terri Schiavo's to happen. Disabled people are considered a nuisance, something that gets in the way of getting a good parking place...a "burden"...less than human. Once society strips you of your humanity, it's just one step from being a "burden" to being "disposable". Terri was the first to cross that barrier, and that's a dangerous precedent.

What's really bad is that, because of how so many people have sided in with Michael (all the better to justify removing Grandma's feeding tube when it becomes a pain in the neck to visit her in hospice), the handicapped rights advocates will face a difficult decision. Do they take up Terri's cause, and risk public opinion turning against ALL handicapped people? Or can they somehow turn public opinion, to make people realize what has been done? Which leads to....

I know the pro-lifers and other conservatives are going to stay on this. But who is going to cross the party lines?

If only more moderates and progressives would have the guts to cross that line, then mainstream America would realize that it's not just "fanatic right-wingers" who were trying to keep a brain-dead woman alive against her will. (And that's what people mistakenly believe, hence the public opinion poll results.) They base their opinions on sound bites they hear on the six o'clock news, and the fact that all the people speaking out on Terri's behalf (before Jesse Jackson and Ralph Nader, I mean) are on the far right. So people concluded, "These right-wingers want outsiders to make private decisions for us!" Of course, they didn't realize that this is precisely what was allowed to happen: Outsiders mandated that Terri's feeding tube be removed.

Because of their preconceived notions about Pat Robertson, et.al., people made snap judgements based on brief news stories. Instead, they should have been going to Terri's family's web site and reading the actual court documents and such for themselves.

What's really bad is that even news-junkie Democrats who might normally side with the cause of a profoundly handicapped woman are so blinded by the sight of people like Randall Terry, that they just have a knee-jerk reaction: "Randall Terry = bad". Beyond that point, rational thinking comes to an abrupt halt.

As far as politicians go, I do think that some Democrats should have crossed the party line, for that would have lent credibility to the Schindlers' cause -- making it a bipartisan effort, not just a right-wing effort. But then, that would require Democratic politicians to develop a spine, and we've all seen repeatedly that they're genetically incapable of doing so.

Then... you're the first one I've ever met, k. Still skeptical you're not a troll.

Nope, I'm not a troll, and I'm certainly not the only Democrat who's appalled by the Terri Schiavo debacle. It's just that the mainstream media has decided upon a pro-Michael spin, leaving little room for dissenting viewpoints.

On my news report they actually said (insert hysterical laughter here)

"The cause of death will not be known for two weeks"

(Pick me off the floor, now) I'd like to, but I'm too busy bending over the toilet, being sick....

The only way I could think of to make a statement and "say" anything about how disappointed I am in the Republican party and their complete lack of action was to call and have my name removed from their list. I am now officially listed as an Independant. Maybe if enough Dems and Republicans are disgusted enough to make a change it might wake them up.

I'm in the process of doing the same thing, registering as an Independent. The cowardice on the part of both parties was truly contemptible.

And it was lowlife, subhuman, liberal-progressive-demokkkRAT-commie-nazi-fascist garbage, hate-America, left-wing wacko filth, who did it. Conservatives were totally outgunned; we know who the enemy really is, now

In all fairness, there are a lot of us Democrats who are completely appalled by this...even though a lot of Democrats have also been taken in by Michael Schiavo's B.S. The judge who mandated this is, IIRC, a Conservative...even though a lot of Conservatives are outraged by his actions.

In other words, there are people on both sides of the aisle who are guilty, and that's why we need people on both sides of the aisle to fight together, toward making sure this never happens to anyone again.

Though I'm a lifelong, third-generation Democrat, I share your outrage at this horrific "imposed death" (to use the terminology of Ralph Nader, one of the few lefties who had the spine to take a stand on this issue). I used to frequent a lot of left-leaning forums, but I just can't take it anymore, because so many people are flaming those of us who see Michael Schiavo for the demon he is.

I can't stomach witnessing my fellow Democrats being so NON-Democratic. Sticking up for a man doing such horrible things to a disabled woman and her family is NOT Democratic. The patriarchal attitude that a man should be able to decide whether a woman lives or dies is NOT a feminist attitude.

And that's why this article inspired me to create an account here. These words ring so very true: "Where were the human rights organizations? Where were the women’s rights organizations?" I would add, where are the disabled people's rights organizations? Is Ralph Nader the only man among us, who cares about the rights of a profoundly disabled person?

Though I support a person's wishes IF they wish to die, I don't support death being enforced upon a patient. I believe that each American's right to make his/her own decisions should be protected, NOT put into the hands of a judge or a spouse who wishes to dispose of you.