I have never claimed to be a Domestic Diva. I like to cook, but when it comes to house cleaning and laundry, I'll do it because I must. As far as I'm concerned, though, house cleaning ranks right above toe nail clipping and right below sticking pins in my eyes. There are far too many things that are more interesting to do than clean the house.

And THEN I found out about Swiffers! I've become a dusting fool because I love Swiffering!  I stand at the ready with my little Swiffer tool in my hand just waiting for dust to settle so I can Swiffer it away. And the thing is, Swiffers do exactly what their ad says they'll do. Swipe a couple times with the Swiffer, and *poof*... no more dust. And no dirty cleaning rags. Just a nice little box with more Swiffers and my handy dandy Swiffer handle.

Now I need to live in place that has linoleum floors so I can get a Swiffer wet jet or whatever that floor Swiffer thingie is called.  I may start a blog so I can write about the wonders of swiffering.  I know, this is nuts. What can I say? Swiffers are my life.

begin tacky<
I know this is tacky. I KNOW it is. And it's mostly directed to news junkies who, like me, watch or listen to cable news during most waking hours.

How many death watches will the media broadcast back to back?  MSNBC is broadcasting live from the Vatican. Chris Jansing is babbling non-stop on the off chance that the pope will die at any moment.

I've noticed two things so far:

1. the pope does not have a camp.
2. Like Terri Schiavo, the pope does have a legacy even though no one seems too sure yet what exactly that is.

The new phrase for knocking on death's door is: Serenely Resting.

The new term for having a catheter that caused a urinary tract infection is: common to people to are frequently hospitalized.

/end of tacky, with no promise that it won't return later.>

Okay, folks, I'm begging. I am still leading in the shittiest blog for March poll at Shitty Blogs Club. I promise you, I'm not worthy of this award. It should go to someone whose done far more to earn it than I have. Someone who will display that shitty button proudly. C'mon, don't make me put that button on my site. The bitch woman blogger who told me my layout made her so sick she couldn't read anything I wrote will shit a brick. We can't have that.

So, PLEASE!!!!! Go to Shitty Blogs Club and vote in the SB of the Month poll.  Vote for anyone but me. PLEASE!!! This is an honor I just don't deserve. And it IS an honor. Bestow it on someone far more deserving than me.

There's virtual chcolate cake with peanut butter icing for everyone who votes. Trust me - my chocolate cake with peanut butter icing is to die for.

VOTE! Save me from that button!

BTW, I wanted to cross post this at JS, but once again, I couldn't get into my account to do it. So much for the GOOD service kicking in on April 1. I believe that was an April Fool's Joke. Well, I may be shitty, but I'm no April Fool.

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?