The news of Terri Schiavo's death has been announced on television. I hope she has the peace in death she was denied at the end of her life.

This is about the Schiavo case. I've said the Schindlers and their spokespeople are repugnant because they have lied and misrepresented the circumstances surrounding Terri Schiavo's death. I should be clear. I'm not on anyone's side in this matter.  This is a personal family decision that should never be relegated to the status of circus. What is going on with Terri Schiavo is a full fledged, 3 ring, Barnum and Bailey extravaganza. It is being fed by the media, the Shindlers, Brother Paul O'Donnell, Rev Pat Mahoney, Dr James Dobson, Randall Terry, and of all people, Jesse Jackson

Here's my case:

Palm Sunday morning a spokesperson for the Schindler family appeared on the Fox Morning Show. He told a story about how Terri Schiavo had looked at her father and said, "I WAAAAAAAA. He said she became distracted by noise outside the room and couldn't complete her thought. He said what she was trying to say was, "I WAAAAAAAAnt to live." The interviewer questioned that. The interviewer asked how the family knew she wasn't trying to say, "I WAAAAAAAAnt to die." The spokesperson immediately changed the subject by saying what she was trying to say wasn't the point. The point, according to him, was that she spoke. Therefore, she's congnitive.

A week later, according to papers filed with the court, Terri Schiavo's attorney had this experience with Terri in which her attorney was shaking Terri telling her she had to say, "I want to live." According to the affidavit, Terri became agitated, started to cry, and she said, "I WAAAAAAA." Which got translated into, "I WAAAAAAAnt to live." This time no one thought to ask what if the very opposite was what Terri had in mind. This time the Schindlers and their Camp used this story repeatedly to "show" that Terri has expressed the desire to live.  In the sworn statement presented to the court, there was no mention of Terri's exclamation of Palm Sunday. There was no mention that this was the second time Terri "expressed" such a desire. That first incident has never been mentioned again. Why not? And isn't it odd that two such similar events occurred within a week of each other, and only the one with her lawyer gets wide spread attention. But the incident with her father is dropped.

Common sense prevails. Terri Schiavo has a flat EKG. There is no brain activity., She is not capable of cognitive thought. Her family has played tapes of Terri's "conversation". It's gutteral noise and that's all it is. It's consistent with what someone in Terri's condition would do. It is inconsistent with the definition of expressing one's wishes.

There's been another spin added to this circus, and it comes directly from the Schindlers. Terri Schiavo is not being murdered, she is not being starved to death. Her wishes as she told them to her husband are being carried out. Treatment has been refused according to her wishes. It seems to me if people are going to acknowledge that we can refuse treatment they ought to find out what that means. It means withholding of nutritition and hydration. It means nothing is done to prolong life. Now if the wingers want to call that starvation and murder, then the rest of us should also be made aware that this is normal procedure in hospices all over this country. Further, it is not the torturous punishment the Schindlers are depicting. To experience the pain and torture the Schindlers swear their daughter is going through, she would have to be cognitive. She is not.  She is going through what one who denies treatment experiences. If that's problematic for people so that they need to assign harsher language to the process, then perhaps they may not want to consider it for themselves. And it would be a blessing if the Schindlers would stop trying to scare people.

Another fact: The Schindlers say 30 doctors claim Terri Schiavo was misdiagnosed, 30 doctors who did not personally examine Terri Schiavo.

Fact: The Schindlers say Michael Schiavo is refusing to allow Terri Schiavo Communion. What they fail to mention is that it has been litigated exactly how many times Terri Schiavo may have Communion when she is at the end of her life. Last Rites have been included in the legal document stating what may and may not happen. The Schindlers know this. They also know that by trying to get a priest into Terri's room daily they are violating a court ordered agreement. They are deliberately twisting the facts to suit their purposes which seem to be to cast Michael Schiavo in the worst possible light. What kind of ogre denies his wife Holy Communion? What kind of repugnant exploitative parents use yet another ploy to push their own agenda?

That would be the same parents who sent Brother Paul O'Donnell to snidely promise no more media interviews because the Schindlers just couldn't bear it any longer. 5 Minutes later Bobby Schindler was with Rita Cosby. An hour later his sister was with Geraldo Rivera. 48 hours later Papa Schindler "broke his media silence". Now we can't shut any of them up. So much for no more interviews.

Randall Terry, Brother Paul O'Donnell, and Rev Pat Mahoney make up the Three Muskateers of repugnance. Those three men will stoop to any level of distortion in talking about Terri Schiavo's case. They have concocted a conspiracy which includes the police and the Hospice workers; this conspiracy revolves around killing Terri Schiavo. The police and the Hospice workers are likened to the German people who did nothing while their neighbors got carted away to death camps. The police are likened to Nazis who were "just doing their jobs" when they killed all those Jews. If this isn't repugnant, then what is it?

Fact: it has been reported by the media that since Sunday Terri Schiavo has not urinated. That's significant to her condition. According to her father and Randall Terry, not only has Terri urinated today, but she is still talking, still responding, still aware. This is not medically possible. And either a person urinates or they don't. They cannot manage both.The Schindler credibility is so tattered and torn, it only makes sense to believe anyone but them.

Fact: Video tapes of Terri Schiavo in her Hospice room are being offered for sale in order to raise money to pay the Schindler medical bills. How despicable does someone have to be to do something like this. Look to the Schindlers. They've also gone on record to agree with media ghouls who see no reason why Terri should not be photographed, if only for a few minutes, right now so we can see for ourselves what she looks like. You know, if it needs to be explained to someone why that notion goes beyond ghoulish, that is one hopeless moron.

This is just part of the information that pours like filth from the Schindler camp on a daily basis. Their camp refuses to acknowledge that all of this has been through the courts many times. Michael Schiavo has followed the rulings of the court.

And now, in a last ditch desperate attempt to finish their tantrum, here comes Jesse Jackson. Another liar joins the group. Jesse says he may be able to broker a deal with the Florida Senate to save Terri. I want to know why Jesse went for such a puny goal. Why stop with the Senate? Why not go straight to the top and broker a deal with God? I mean if we're going to do this, then let's not mess around. After all, how many chances does God get to be in on "deal brokering" when it pertains to human lives?

There's more examples, but this is enough.

I rest my case.

I've always been on the Winger side of political thought. I don't always wholeheartedly agree, but I don't believe I have a lemming mentality where politics is concerned. Still,  no matter what differences I've had with Conservatives, I still remain Conservative. I thought it was in the genes or something.

Until Terri Schiavo came along. I find everything about the Schindler position repugnant. I  mean, I don't just disagree with those people. I've come to loathe them as scheming liars.  Granted, there are personal issues attached to this situation for me, but my subjectivity notwithstanding, this issue goes beyond that. The Schindlers and their spokespeople have consistently lied about Schiavo's condition, her treatment, and her husband. The Media would have me think I should overlook these inconsistencies and exaggerations and lies because the Schindlers are a desperate, grieving family.  The media can swallow that explanation if they want to do it. I don't.  This has all become too calculated to dismiss it as simply grief getting in the way of reality.

So far the Schindlers have managed to usurp Easter. That offends me. They have interfered with children going to school. They have interfered with the operation of a Hospice - the one place where peace and dignity should not be violated for ANY patient or family member.  I find that distasteful and it makes me sick. There's been a report of a woman who was robbed of spending the last few minutes of her grandfather's life by his side because of the circus that is called Terri Schiavo Protesters. That's unforgivable.

There's more to it than the Schindler's behavior. There's having to listen to people for whom I have had respect talking like blithering morons. It's changing the way I perceive the wingers.

One of the most irritating characteristics about the fibbies for me is that they seem to latch onto an issue and assign their own interpretation of the facts. Sometimes this escalates to where they only become confused if confronted with facts.  When push comes to shove, they simply don't allow the facts to interfere with their "truth". 

Enter the Schiavo case Stage Right. 

I think I'm beginning to understand rabid dogs. Okay, well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I don't know when I have been so angry and obsessed with a topic as I am with Terri Schiavo's ordeal. I want to grab something and shake it very hard between my teeth.

After reading Jeckles, My Fearless Leader's take on this subject, I had to write on the subject again. Jeckles speculates that the wingers have hijacked Terri Schiavo's case to get at reversing Roe v Wade. At one time I would have scoffed at that notion. I'm not scoffing. He's got a point.

What is so frustrating and infuriating about this subject is that opposing sides are so repugnant once they kick it into high. And they've been running in high for more than a week now.

On the one hand, it's not enough for the wingers to insist that life is precious and Terri Schiavo should live no matter what.  They have to throw in parallels between the crucifixion of Jesus and make statements about Schiavo taking on the appearance of an Auschwitz victim. You've gotta be some kind of desperate for a point marker to make that kind of argument.

Then there's the fibbies. I was surprised at first to find myself agreeing with Barney Frank and Debbie Wasserman Schultz.  But then along came the self appointed spokesperson for the Liberals on Talk Radio, and the liberal argument went right into appalling.

Al Franken was with Joe Scarborough when he not only suggested that wingers want to kill innocent people, but he also launched into an attack on George Bush for wanting to kill black babies. As a matter of fact, Al Franken got specific -- or as specific as Franken ever gets because he has very little grasp of any facts; he just makes it up as he goes along, but he begins with a germ of truth, so he thinks that's good enough. He said that because George W Bush signed the Futility Bill into law in Tesas in 1999, this means George Bush deliberately kills black babies.

Now it just so happens that I know about this case, and I posted an entry about it HERE. Al Franken is a despicable liar for many reasons, but in this case he took the case of a 6 month old baby with a list of incurable medical problems, and he twisted it into a) a racial issue, which it was not, and b) another indictment of George Bush because Franken hates Bush. And Franken spews this garbage on public radio waves on a daily basis.  Al Franken makes me want to wash.

One thing is becoming clearer and clearer in the Terri Schiavo case. No one involved in it has much credibility left. 

What is astounding is that this case has taken on the characteristics of a global death watch. In Italy, Terri Schiavo and The Pope are front page newspaper stories. I wonder if the crazy Americans are going to be accused of killing again, only this time the spin will be that we kill our own.

I think it is appalling how, simply for the high shock and repugnance factor scores, the words "kill" and "murder" are being so casually dropped. No one is scoring nearly as high as they believe they should be using those words. Very quietly, but also determindly, polls show The American People do not believe that feeding tube should be reinserted. So much for the raucus and tacky catch phrases.

The worst of the rhetoric to me has been the connection Right To Lifers are trying to draw between Terri Schiavo and Jesus Christ. It's Easter Week, and the wingers are not missing the opportunity to draw comparisons between the crucifixion of Jesus and what they term the murder of Terry Schiavo.  There's so much wrong with that verbal wander off into the absurd, I wouldn't begin to know how to adequately address it.

No one's death should become this kind of circus. Since the Federal Supreme Court has declined to hear the Schiavo case again, barring some kind of medical miracle or miracle intervention, Terri Schiavo will soon die. I hope her soul finds the peace in death her family refused to allow her at the end of her life.

At the moment I stand a very good chance of winning the Shitty Blog of the Month Club contest for March. This should not happen. I'm not worthy. Really. I'm not. I'm just a cheerleader, I'm not one of the main string. There's two other members of SBC that are way shittier than me, and they really do deserve to win the March title as well as that atrocious button. And I can say without a doubt that the button is atrocious because I made it. So please, PUHLEEZE  go vote in the SBC poll for anyone but me.

Go here Shitty Blog Club and vote. Please!

And I thank you for your support.... or is that lack of support? Whatever, please vote but NOT for me!

*You may have to scroll down the page... the poll is on the left*

What I really wanted to do was write a blistering rant about how Michael Jackson is getting away with manipulating the judicial system. His ridiculous see-through theatrics are wearing very thin, and I'm just hearing about it on the news. So how  are the judge and jury putting up with his nonsense? Beats me. I'd be ready to rescind his bail and toss his sorry multi-colored ass in jail for the duration of the trial if not eternity.

Michael Jackson has made a name for himself not only as a performer, but also as someone who has been flipping the bird at the world whenever and wherever he chooses. He has been straining credibility to the limit, only this time he finally got caught in a real-live grown up world. If anyone else ran around proclaiming to be Peter Pan and nuzzling children on his lap in public, that person would have, at the very least, got thrown in the loony bin. Instead, Jackson comes up with some gibberish about never having had a childhood and never wanting to grow up. Incredibly, that gets him off the hook for any and all outrageous behavior.

I don't know whether Wacko Jacko did what he's accused of doing or not. I don't believe this case against him is based on race or envy or someone's get-rich-quick scheme. He either did it or he didn't, and in my realistic corner of the world when smoke becomes a rip roaring blaze, you got yourself a fire. Jackson has been playing in flames since before he made his Pepsi commercial.

I've been wondering and waiting to see at what point someone was going to make Michael Jackson grow up and take responsibility for himself. I thought this trial was going to be the place where he couldn't get away with more childish and self-indulgent maneuvers. And then he danced on the roof of his limo. And he was late for his court appearance. And then he was late again. He had a back injury. He couldn't walk. It was an old injury that put him into excrutiating pain. Funny, when he leaped up onto the roof of that limo his back looked fine. Must have been an off day for the excrutiating pain. And no matter what level of pain he suffered, he always managed to wave to his fans. Funny how pain doesn't interfere with waving and answering reporters' shouted questions. And THEN he was late for court again.

Okay. THIS time, I stupidly thought, they've got him. It doesn't matter how many doctors in scrubs he drags with him or how many tears he sheds in court, he's manipulating this whole trial. Someone has got to stop him and make him be a grown up. Hah! Goes to show what I know.

But then I got to thinking about the old give 'em enough rope to hang themselves tenet, and it occurred to  me that maybe it's best to let this stupid clown have his way until he self-destructs. Given how things have been going so far, it is pretty likely that, given enough time, self-destruction is inevitable. And patience IS a virtue.... or so they tell me.

One of the members of the Jackson Camp (my one big goal in life is to have a Punditz Camp) appeared on a talk show and said that this trial is really difficult for Michael. He's simply not accustomed to getting up every day and having to be at a certain place at a certain time. He's accustomed to doing what he wants. And he sure doesn't want to do this.

The answer is, to my way of thinking, to revoke his bail and put him in jail. There's no better way to make sure he'll be on time for the trial than that. And maybe that's what the judge told the attorneys behind those closed doors. Maybe this WAS Jacko's LAST CHANCE. I'll believe it when I see it, but as Judy Tenuda always says, "It could happen."  I just hope the court system survives Michael Jackson intact and with some dignity.

Now I've got to go see how one goes about getting a Camp. I like the sound of that Punditz Camp thing. Anyone want to be in it?

In 1997, the Texas Legislature enacted what was known as The Futility Law. This Bill stated that a hospital or health care facility could withhold respirators or feeding tubes or extraordinary means to aid survival of a patient for whom there was no hope. Then Governor, George W Bush, with strong support from Right to Life groups, vetoed the Bill.

In 1999, the Texas Legislature once again passed a Futility Bill, only this time a provision was written into it stating that if a hospital or health care facility wanted to terminate their care of a patient, there would be a 10 day grace period during which time the family of the patient would be able to find another facility willing to take their family member.  This Bill had the support of both Right to Life groups and Governor George W Bush, so it became Texas law.

Last week the life of Sun Hudson was terminated under the Texas Futility Law. Sun Hudson was a 6 month old baby born with insurmountable health problems. He could not breathe on his own and was being kept alive with a respirator. There was no hope that Sun would ever be able to survive were he disconnected from machines and that, in fact, his condition would only deteriorate as he grew older. Doctors wanted to end Sun's life. His mother, convinced that Sun was improving, objected and filed a petition with the Texas court to keep Sun alive. Her petition was denied. Her 10 days ran out, and the hospital turned off Sun's respirator. He died a few minutes later.

Sun Hudson did receive national media attention, and parallels were drawn between his case and that of Terri Schiavo. Depending upon one's point of view those parallels may or may not be valid. What does connect the two cases is George W Bush.

I have been appalled by the Republican Party for becoming involved in the Terri Schiavo case. I have followed the Congressional involvement through the weekend, and I was disgusted by Bill Frist and Tom DeLay leading the charge to involve the US Congress in something that is none of their federal business. Everything about Terri Schiavo's case is repugnant to me. This should be a private decision made by her guardian. Instead it has become a political opportunity for Republicans to "secure their base."

Except from what I'm hearing and seeing in the media, the Republican plan seems to be backfiring. Poll after poll indicates that TAP do not believe Congress should have interfered in this case, nor do they believe that Schiavo's feeding tube should be re-inserted. If the polls are indeed indicative of public opinion, and we all know about skewed polls, then the Republicans are not getting the support they anticipated.

Except there is one little item that few media outlets are reporting. George W Bush has been consistent in his behavior on this issue. Other Republicans may have suspect motives, but where the Right to Life issue is involved, Bush has consistently supported his position to err on the side of life. In the Schiavo case what he's doing is giving a little more time for the Schiavo case to be resolved differently.

I don't agree with George W Bush in this case. I think the state of Florida gave sufficient time to the Schiavo case and made its decision. The Federal Government has no business interfering with that. But where George Bush is concerned, once again, a single fact remains clear. What you see is what you get. Many Republicans can be accused of hypocrisy because of this case, but George Bush is not one of those Republicans.

That doesn't change my mind about Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. But it does boost further my opinion of President Bush. He is consistent.

I just heard President Bush give another of his rousing Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! speeches on television. I don't know who he is speaking to this time; all I know is that the message never changes. I'm beginning to cringe every single time I hear the word freedom. It's becoming over-exposed.

What surprised me was that I also couldn't stand to look at President Bush. I haven't had that problem before. But listening to him talk about freedom when in the early hours of this morning he signed a bill whose intent is to keep a helpless woman prisoner for God only knows how long inside her useless cell of a body made me want to throw up. This is the hypocrisy my Liberal friends have been telling me about for years, and I never saw it this clearly for myself.

I've been a conservative most of my adult life. I find myself naturally siding with the conservative side of political issues; I don't have to be talked into that point of view, and I can defend it believing that there are good points to be made. But not this time.

The Terri Schiavo case has no business becoming a political football. If the House and Senate insist upon tossing around a hot potato or a spitball, let them stick with steroids in baseball. Just leave Terri Schiavo alone. Her case has been decided, and just because consevatives don't like the outcome of her case doesn't make it less legal or wrong.

No matter how many times Tom DeLay fires off the charges of the cratz wanting to "kill Terri", and no matter how many times Bill Frist lends his cardiology medical expertise to a neurological medical problem, the bottom line remains that what they want to do is condemn Terri Schiavo to an indeterminate time trapped inside a useless body. She will not get better.

What infuriates me more than anything else is how casually Frist and DeLay and others like them declare that the only thing Terri Schiavo can't do is feed herself. That's an outright, bold faced lie. Terri Schiavo can do absolutely nothing for herself. If she wanted to roll over in bed, and her cognitive responses have been shown to preclude even that, she cannot. She cannot comb her hair, brush her teeth, wash her face, take a bath, wipe her own behind, talk, sing, speak, and the list goes on and on. Doctors who have examined her say her cerebral cortex is gone. When that happens, there's just no 'there' there.

Those who claim to know so much about Terri without ever having spent so much as 30 seconds in the same room with her show their ignorance about more than simply Terri herself. They show their stupidity about her overall condition and about the death process.

Try going without food and water for more than 48 hours. A fully cognitive person will find that very difficult and will not be cheerful. So how could it be, according to reports from Terri's mother, that when Mom went to see Terr after Terri had been nutritionally and hydration deprived (gotta love those euphemisms), Terri was just the same as she always is. Very happy to see her mother. Very aware. Very wanting to live. Her family even tried to pass off the notion that at one point Terri managed to say, " I waaaaaaaaaaaaah", but wouldn't you just know it, someone came along and interrupted her before she could finish saying "I waaaaaaaaaaaaaaahnt to live." Those people either have no shame or have lost their own intelligence. They are now tape recording Terri's gutteral shrieks and playing them for television stations to use as "exclusive" Terri quotes.

Terri Schiavo is not cognizant. Her case has been reviewed in the Florida courts for 8 years with 19 judges. The US Supreme Court has refused to hear this case. It has been decided. Except conservatives with an agenda of their own don't want to accept that. And to further their agenda they will sentence a helpless woman to a useless life she has stated she never wanted.

I used to be proud to be conservative, and at some point I may feel that way again. But not today. 

Sean Hannity interviewed Ahnuld for a segment on Hannity and Whoeverthatguyisnoonepaysanyattentionto. I tried to watch, I really did. It made my head hurt. It was the kind of exchange that puts a person in mind of beating one's head against a brick wall. It feels very good to stop.

Someone needs to instruct Ahnuld to slow down the speech pattern. Listening to his whirling dervish response to any question on topics from steroid use to homeland security is just too stressful. It's a non-stop barrage of words that after a while cease to have any meaning. There's no "there" there; there's just a rapid-fire string of gibberish.