Killing for the culture of life
It’s starting.
The American Taliban have increasingly been advocating and threatening violence over Terri Schiavo’s imminent demise.
A man was arrested after trying to steal a weapon from a gun shop so he could "take some action and rescue Terri Schiavo," authorities said.
Michael W. Mitchell, of Rockford, Ill., entered Randall's Firearms Inc. in Seminole just before 6 p.m. Thursday with a box cutter and tried to steal a gun, said Marianne Pasha, a spokeswoman for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
Mitchell, 50, told deputies he wanted to "take some action and rescue Terri Schiavo" after he visited the Pinellas Park hospice where she lives, Pasha said.
It’s actually quite amazing that more serious attempts have not come to light, but that could be explained by the fact that everyone is so busy fleecing the flock that they simply don’t have the time to kill any judges today.
Do it for the children
So, someone keeps calling the Florida Department of Children and Families “Abuse Hotline” to report that Terri Schiavo is being mistreated. It seems awfully convenient that this keeps happening every time that Jeb! wants an excuse to intervene again, but that’s beside the point.
I’m wondering why no one has called 1-800-96ABUSE and reported that the Keys children are being mistreated by their parents.
About a dozen people, including some children, submitted to arrest after making the symbolic gesture of carrying water toward the hospice.
'Jesus said, `Whatever you do to the least of men, you do for me,' '' said Josie Keys, 14. ``I'm a little nervous, but I think this is what God wants me to do.''
Also arrested were her brothers Cameron, 12, and Gabriel, 10.
10 years old, and daddy thinks it’s just fine to instruct the kid to practice civil disobedience in order to be arrested?
For those who missed it, that number’s 1-800-96ABUSE, and the DCF is required by statute to investigate any and all credible claims.
The Florida Abuse Hotline will accept a report when:
1. There is reasonable cause to suspect that a child (less than 18 years old)
2. who can be located in Florida, or is temporarily out of the state but expected to return in the immediate future,
3. has been harmed or is believed to be threatened with harm
4. from a person responsible for the care of the child.
I would think that most reasonable people would tend to agree that making an informed decision to have a 10 year old and his siblings arrested is abuse.
Call 1-800-96ABUSE and ask the DCF to investigate the Chris Keys family of Burnet, Texas, visiting Pinnellas Park, Florida, for parental child abuse for causing their children to be arrested and processed for criminal behavior.
Protect the children, and piss off the base.
Benito Bush
Via Lambert at corrente, a Washington Post article with some revealing details on the use of strong-arm tactics that I speculated about on Wednesday.
Law enforcement officers and an attorney for Morton Plant Hospital, where Schiavo's tube was to be reinserted, told Felos and his legal team that the governor's office had notified them that agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement were preparing to take custody of Schiavo and drive her to the hospital. Those phone calls prompted Felos to ask Greer to issue the order that was handed down late Wednesday afternoon blocking the state from taking custody and authorizing "each and every" sheriff's deputy in the state to stop any attempt to remove Schiavo from the hospice.
Can the made for TV movie with "Everybody Loves Raymond" co-star Patricia Heaton playing Terri and Mel Gibson as a tough but tender FDLE agent be far behind?
A parade of supportive celebrities have phoned the Schindlers, Tammaro said. His sister or her husband have spoken with Mel Gibson, Pat Boone and "Everybody Loves Raymond" co-star Patricia Heaton.
All kidding aside, we were very close to a wingnut wet dream - an armed showdown between state and county law enforcement. More from a Thursday story in The Miami Herald.
Late Wednesday, Greer issued a temporary injunction prohibiting such an act, and he reinforced that order today, taking a sideswipe at the governor.
''The Court ruled that the executive and judicial branches of government are separate but equal and that the executive branch is not superior in the area of judicial matters,'' Greer wrote.
......Late in the day (Wednesday), Pinellas Circuit Judge George Greer issued the emergency injunction, saying it appeared state action was ``imminent.''
''DCF is hereby restrained from taking possession of Theresa Marie Schiavo or removing her from Hospice Woodside facility, administering nutrition or hydration artificially or otherwise interfering with this court's final judgement,'' Greer said.
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The Blackshirts were organized by Benito Mussolini due to his disgust with the corruption and apathy of the liberal and later socialist Italian government. Originally envisioned as reformers, their methods became harsher as Mussolini's power grew, and they used violence, intimidation, and murder against Mussolini's opponents. One of their distinctive techniques was force-feeding......
And, in the spirit of fascist minded thugs everywhere, expect to see some attempts at violent revenge against judges, media, politicians, and maybe you and I starting any time now.
Jeb! touts Miracle Cure Prayer Rug for Schiavo
Continuing to prey on Terri Schiavo, Jeb! got together with a doctor and just made some shit up about her yesterday. Remember: the important parts of her brain are gone, replaced by spinal fluid, and, unlike lizard tails, brains don�t just grow back. The SP Times has the text of Jeb�s speechifying.
"This afternoon, the Department of Children and Families has filed a renewed motion to intervene in Terry Schiavo's guardianship case. As you know, about three weeks ago, there was a call to the hotline and an investigation began at that time, and new information has come to light after a review of Terri Schiavo's medical records by members of the Adult Protective Services Team, which includes a very renowned neurologist by the name of Dr. William Cheshire, who is a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville.
"The neurologist's review indicates that Terri may have been misdiagnosed, and it is more likely that she is in a state of minimal consciousness rather than in a persistent vegetative state.
Dr. WIlliam Cheshire is a special doctor - he don�t cotton to all that modern and scientific medical junk, because medical science is simply not as awesome as God.
The doctor who believes Terri Schiavo probably is not in a persistent vegetative state is a Jacksonville neurologist who recently caused a stir in the science community over his opposition to stem cell research.
Dr. William P. Cheshire Jr., 44, picked by the state to help assess Schiavo's condition, is an assistant professor of neurology at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville.
A married father of four children, Cheshire has a master's degree in bioethics and has established himself as an antiabortion, Christian critic of modern medical science.
Will someone please nominate Dr. Cheshire for a Nobel Prize - he feels just a little left out.
"Although Terri did not demonstrate during our 90-minute visit compelling evidence of verbalization, conscious awareness or volitional behavior," he wrote, "yet the visitor has the distinct sense of the presence of a living human being who seems at some level to be aware of some things around her."
Mr. Bush called Dr. Cheshire a "renowned neurologist," but he is not widely known in the neurology or bioethics fields. Asked about him, Dr. Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, replied, "Who?"
Dr. Cheshire, who graduated from Princeton and earned a medical degree at West Virginia University, did not return calls to the Mayo Clinic seeking comment. The clinic said in a statement that his work on the Schiavo case was not related to his work at the clinic and that the state had invited his opinion. "He observed the patient at her bedside and conducted an extensive review of her medical history but did not conduct an examination," the statement said.
Dr. Caplan said that was not good enough. "There is just no excuse for going in and making any pronouncement about the state that Terri Schiavo is in unless you're going to go in and do some form of technologically mediated scanning that would overturn what's on the record already," he said.
Dr. Ronald Cranford, a neurologist and medical ethicist at the University of Minnesota Medical School who has examined Ms. Schiavo on behalf of the Florida courts and declared her to be irredeemably brain-damaged, said, "I have no idea who this Cheshire is," and added: "He has to be bogus, a pro-life fanatic. You'll not find any credible neurologist or neurosurgeon to get involved at this point and say she's not vegetative."
He said there was no doubt that Ms. Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state. "Her CAT scan shows massive shrinkage of the brain," he said. "Her EEG is flat - flat. There's no electrical activity coming from her brain."
Related: The Amazing Miracle Prayer Rug
Daddy Jeb!
Let’s not forget that Jeb! has a history of cynically using powerless women who are caught up in the grip of personal tragedy in order to advance his extremist agenda.
Jeb! calls in DCF goons to snatch Schiavo
UPDATE: DCF attempt blocked by Judge Greer. (end of update)
The Florida Senate was unable to pass the “Terri’s Law II” bill today. As mentioned earlier, Republicans are unable to come to a consensus on this issue, and it appears that many of the original “Republican 9" stood firm in their opposition.
So the Senate has told Jeb! that enough is enough, but Jeb! aint done yet: once again, he is bringing in the Florida Department of Children and Families to do an end run around the courts.
DCF has a hotline which anyone can use to make abuse allegations. Once the allegations are received, DCF must act on them. DCF claims to have received “new” allegations of abuse in the Schiavo case, and is using this as an excuse to seize Terri Schaivo and transport her to a hospital.
The soap opera has not completely played out yet, but Michael Schiavo’s attorney has filed a request with the court to block any action by DCF. It’s unclear what will happen if US Marshalls show up in order to prevent DCF and Florida Department of Law Enforcement goons from snatching Terri Schiavo from her death bed, but a showdown could be imminent.
DCF considers removing Schiavo from hospice by force
State officials say they are considering removing Terri Schiavo from the hospice, by force if necessary, despite numerous court orders upholding the removal of the artificial nutrition tube that has kept her alive for 15 years.
Lucy Hadi, secretary of the Department of Children and Families, said Wednesday morning that her staff is relying on a state law that gives the department the authority to intervene on behalf of a vulnerable adult who is "suffering from abuse or neglect that presents a risk of death or serious physical injury."
Hadi said that DCF would have to file a petition in order to remove Schiavo, but "it doesn't mean that we'd have to have judicial approval in advance of taking the action if we believed it met the threshold for doing it."
But elder law and guardianship experts say such DCF is misinterpreting the law.
"My belief is that this would be a misuse of the statute," said Scott Solkoff, a Boynton Beach attorney and chairman of the elder law division of the Florida Bar. "What the state is doing is they're using yet another legal strategy that may or may not have grounds to attack what they believe to be a mistake from the judicial branch."
Solkoff said he was unsure if such an intervention would hold up in court. Under the law, the department must petition the court for an order authorizing emergency protective services for the adult within 24 hours of removing the adult, and a hearing must be held within four days of any intervention.
"Going under Chapter 415 is no different than the Congress subpoenaing Terri Schiavo. It's a silly maneuver designed to accomplish a political purpose."
The law says emergency medical treatment can be given to the vulnerable adult as long as "such treatment does not violate a known health care advance directive prepared by the vulnerable adult."
Schiavo did not have such a ruling, and Hadi said seven years of court rulings backing Schiavo's husband, Michael, in his contention that she did not wish to be kept alive artificially would not stop DCF from taking action.
"We're not compelled to look at prior judicial proceedings," Hadi said. "What we're compelled to look at is the presenting circumstance and any allegation of abuse and neglect that we've received. So we have to deal with those and fulfill our statutory responsibility, notwithstanding anything else that may have gone on before."
Florida Senate rejects bill to keep Terri Schiavo alive
Shortly after the state Senate defeated a bill aimed at keeping Terri Schiavo alive, a state judge issued an emergency order to keep the Department of Children & Families from taking any action that would reconnect the woman's feeding tube.
George Felos, the attorney for Michael Schiavo, asked Pinellas Circuit Judge George Greer to issue the order Wednesday while the judge considers a request from DCF and Gov. Bush to take custody of Terri Schiavo.
The request from DCF and the governor cited new allegations of neglect and challenges Schiavo's diagnosis as being in a persistent vegetative state, based on the opinion of a neurologist working for the state.
Obviously, these new claims of abuse are about as valid as the Nobel nomination of the great quack Dr. William Hammesfahr - he was nominated for a non-existent “Nobel Peace Prize in Medicine” by a person who is not eligible to nominate anyone. Kinda like you nominating me for the “Nobel Peace Prize in Blogging” so that I could put my “Nobel Nomination” on my resume.
Look out! He’s coming right for us!
Get the kids their guns and beer. It’s soon gonna be open season in Florida.
Florida could wind up back in the Wild West, with people shooting first and asking questions later under a proposal that could pass the Senate today, critics of the bill warned.
Backed by the National Rifle Association, the proposed bill also would have let Jay Levin, the suburban Boca Raton accountant who shot and killed a teenager playing a door-knocking prank, walk away without being prosecuted.
Under the proposal, people aren't required to retreat — back down or run away — if they are in fear that a person would attack or commit a forcible felony on them in any place a person "has the right to be." Potential victims can "meet force with force," even if it results in death, and not face criminal charges or civil lawsuits.
Supporters of the legislation speak mainly about what they call the Castle Doctrine aspect of the bill — the right to protect one's home with deadly force. Similar laws letting people use deadly force if people break into their home are on the books in other states, including Oklahoma and Colorado, where it's dubbed the "Make My Day" law.
But critics in Florida point out that the proposal also extends the right to shoot in self-defense beyond a person's front door — onto the porch, into their vehicle, and out on the street.
If approved, the legislation could have a drastic effect on how crimes claimed to have been committed in self-defense, or in defense of others, are handled. There would be no arrests, no jail and no charges, according to the bill.
......Sen. Steve Geller, D-Hallandale Beach, pointed out on the Senate floor Tuesday that the bill goes well beyond protecting a person in his home.
"We never said... that the street is your castle," he said in suggesting that the Senate scrap the part of the bill that would not require people to avoid confrontations.
"I don't think you ought to be able to kill people that are walking toward you on the street because of this subjective belief that you're worried that they may get in a fight with you," Geller said.
Sen. Durrell Peaden, R-Crestview, the bill's main sponsor and drafter, said: "I appreciate your legalese and I appreciate your expertise, but this goes to the heart of the bill: You should not have to retreat in order to save your life."
Geller's attempt was defeated by a voice vote.
Republicans eating their own
Latest news: Appeals court backs tube removal
Nine GOP Senators who voted against the a state law designed to interfere with Terri Schiavo’s stated wish to die are facing a backlash from their base.
Security has increased at the Capitol to deal with protesters.
"I had a bunch of them in my office last week and they were very loud and wouldn't leave," said Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville, who wrote the state's death with dignity law and leads the bloc of Republican senators who don't want it changed.
King has had a Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent posted outside his door since the Senate vote on the Schiavo matter.
An FDLE employee using his state e-mail account sent a message to legislators urging them to keep Schiavo alive. Scott Granger later said he regretted using his state computer to do it. FDLE is looking into the matter, according to a spokesman.
The protests appear to have backfired, strengthening the resolve of the so-called Republican Nine. Few senators appear to be wavering, according to Republican and Democratic leaders.
......
Besides King, the Republican 9 are Sens. Dennis Jones of Treasure Island; Nancy Argenziano of Dunnellon; JD Alexander of Frostproof; Michael Bennett of Bradenton; Lisa Carlton of Sarasota; Paula Dockery of Lakeland; Evelyn Lynn of Ormond Beach, and Burt Saunders of Naples.After lunch, Alexander stepped away from a committee table momentarily only to be surrounded by a trio of people, including a man identifying himself as Dr. William Hammesfahr, a Clearwater neurologist who examined Schiavo for her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, and testified that Schiavo tried to follow simple commands and that her eyes fixed on her family. A judge called him "a self-promoter" in a court order.
Alexander told the group he had read some of the court documents.
"But they're full of misinformation," Hammesfahr said. "I've got the videotape. Can I show it to you?"
Alexander shook his head and said he wasn't interested. As he pushed his way into a senators-only side room, Hammesfahr tried to follow. "You can't come in here," Alexander said.
......For days, Argenziano's voice mailbox has been clogged with angry messages.
"One person told me they hoped I died from cancer, another said my family members should rot in hell," Argenziano said. "They are the most awful, venomous, un-Christian things you have ever heard."
But Argenziano said she won't change her position and had harsh words for Gov. Jeb Bush, whom she accused of inciting ill will against the Republican Nine.
"I feel like my political party has been hijacked," Argenziano said.
The NYT has more (via Eschaton)
"My party is demonstrating that they are for states' rights unless they don't like what states are doing," said Representative Christopher Shays of Connecticut, one of five House Republicans who voted against the bill. "This couldn't be a more classic case of a state responsibility."
"This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy," Mr. Shays said. "There are going to be repercussions from this vote. There are a number of people who feel that the government is getting involved in their personal lives in a way that scares them."
I admire these politicians for taking a strong stand against loud, rude and bullying opposition, but really, what did they expect when they climbed in bed with the religious right? As Molly Ivans would point out, you gotta dance with them what brung you, and The American Taliban, the Talibornagain, will not be satisfied until the constitution is in tatters, replaced by a theocracy in which religious law trumps all.
The Muslim fundamentalists use a provision of Islamic law called "bringing to account" (hisba). As Al-Ahram weekly notes, "Hisba signifies a case filed by an individual on behalf of society when the plaintiff feels that great harm has been done to religion." Hisba is a medieval idea that had all be lapsed when the fundamentalists brought it back in the 1970s and 1980s.
In this practice, any individual can use the courts to intervene in the private lives of others. Among the more famous cases of such interference is that of Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid in Egypt. A respected modern scholar of Koranic studies, Abu Zaid argued that, contrary to medieval interpretations of Islamic law, women and men should receive equal inheritance shares. (Medieval Islamic law granted women only half the inheritance shares of their brothers). Abu Zaid was accused of sacrilege. Then the allegation of sacrilege was used as a basis on which the fundamentalists sought to have the courts forcibly divorce him from his wife.
Abu Zaid's wife loved her husband. She did not want to be divorced. But the fundamentalists went before the court and said, she is a Muslim, and he is an infidel, and no Muslim woman may be married to an infidel. They represented their efforts as being on behalf of the Islamic religion, which had an interest in seeing to it that heretics like Abu Zaid could not remain married to a Muslim woman. In 1995 the hisba court actually found against them. They fled to Europe, and ultimately settled in Holland.
......One of the most objectionable features of this fundamentalist tactic is that persons without standing can interfere in private affairs. Perfect strangers can file a case about your marriage, because they represent themselves as defending a public interest (the upholding of religion and morality).
Terri Schiavo's husband is her legal guardian. Her parents have not succeeded in challenging this status of his. As long as he is the guardian, the decision on removing the feeding tubes is between him and their physicians. Her parents have not succeeded in having this responsibility moved from him to them. Even under legislation George W. Bush signed in 1999 while governor of Texas, the spouse and the physician can make this decision.
......But the most frightening thing about the entire affair is that public figures like congressmen inserted themselves into the case in order to uphold religious strictures.
......In other words, the United States Congress acted in part on behalf of the Roman Catholic church. Both of these public bodies interfered in the private affairs of the Schiavos, just as the fundamentalist Egyptian, Nabih El-Wahsh, tried to interfere in the marriage of Nawal El Saadawi.
......Republican Hisba will have the same effect in the United States that it does in the Middle East. It will reduce the rights of the individual in favor of the rights of religious and political elites to control individuals. Ayatollah Delay isn't different from his counterparts in Iran.
More on the Terri Schiavo circus.
Appeals court backs tube removal
Appeals Court Refuses to Order Schiavo's Feeding Reinstated
A federal appeals court refused early Wednesday to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, denying an emergency request by the severely brain-damaged woman's parents to keep her alive.
In its 2-1 ruling, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals said the woman's parents ``failed to demonstrate a substantial case on the merits of any of their claims.''
``There is no denying the absolute tragedy that has befallen Mrs. Schiavo,'' the ruling read. ``We all have our own family, our own loved ones, and our own children. However, we are called upon to make a collective, objective decision concerning a question of law.''
Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, vowed another appeal Wednesday.
``The Schindlers will be filing an appropriate appeal to save their daughter's life,'' said Rex Sparklin, an attorney with the law firm representing the parents.
The Schindlers said Tuesday that their daughter was ``fading quickly'' and might die at any moment. The feeding tube was disconnected on Friday, and doctors have said that Terri Schiavo, 41, could survive one to two weeks without water and nutrients.
A man who answered Bob Schindler's cellular phone declined comment Wednesday.
The Schindlers have been locked for years in a battle with Schiavo's husband over whether her feeding tube should be disconnected. State courts have sided with Michael Schiavo, who insists his wife told him she would never want to be kept alive artificially.
The decision came less than 24 hours after U.S. District Judge James Whittemore of Tampa rejected the parents' request to have the tube reinserted, saying they had not established a ``substantial likelihood of success'' if a new trial were held on their claim that Terri's religious and due process rights have been violated.
Even before the parents' appeal was filed with the 11th Circuit, Michael Schiavo urged the court not to grant an emergency request to restore nutrition.
``That would be a horrific intrusion upon Mrs. Schiavo's personal liberty,'' said the filing by his attorney, George Felos. He filed a response to the Schindlers' appeal and said he would go to the U.S. Supreme Court if the tube were ordered reconnected.
Demonstrators who gathered outside Terri Schiavo's hospice decried the decision early Wednesday.
``This is a clear cut case of judicial tyranny. All the judges who have ruled against Terri are tyrants, and we fully expected this decision,'' said Tammy Melton, 37, a high school teacher from Monterey, Tenn.
Hmmm...
I wonder if judges throughout the country realize that they must now be whores for the right wing or they will be slandered for being unpardonably biased any time they rule against the interests of radical Republicans? Do they know that any judgment that differs from Randall Terry's or Tom DeLay's is no longer attributable to a difference in legal opinion but is instead considered a reflection of their dishonesty and corruption? Perhaps many of them don't mind being a rubber stamp for Grover Norquist and Jerry Falwell. It certainly makes the job easier.
Federal Judge rules for Terri
Update: I mispoke when I said “activist judges” - what I meant was ”Judicial Tyranny.” It’s okay - I’ve fixed it. (end of update)
The tube stays out, at least for now.
Judge James D. Whittemore of Federal District Court said Ms. Schiavo's case had been "exhaustively litigated" and that the 41-year-old woman's parents had not established a "substantial likelihood of success" at trial on the merits of their arguments.
Calls for Whittemore’s impeachment amid cries of “activist judges” ”Judicial Tyranny.” are sure to follow, because the right wing nutcases feel that any decision with which they disagree is criminal.
As the parents, financially backed and egged on by the religious right, appeal, an inconsistency is noted.
Though the families of many vegetative patients - male and female - have faced life-or-death decisions over the years, the plights of injured young women are more likely to engage the public and attract right-to-life advocates, says Steven Miles, a professor for the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota.
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Quinlan, Cruzan, Schiavo: Right-to-lifers fight to “save” young white women, even against the wishes of their families and the women themselves - Florida courts have repeatedly found that Terri Schiavo would not have wanted to be kept alive in a vegetative state.
Yet there is no outrage, no call to picket or to impeach judges involved in the death of Baby Sun, who was allowed to die despite the objections of his mother. Using a Texas law signed by then governor George Bush, a law designed to save hospitals money, a law that protects the profits of corporations over the rights of families, Baby Sun’s hospital fought for and won the right to remove his life support.
 It’s costing us money |
Based on the words and actions of these religious zealots of the American Taliban, one must conclude that it’s okay to let brown people die, especially if they’re poor or from another country, because God only really cares about the white folks.
 Doesn’t matter if they live or die |