The Rant

OK The bullshit that the right wing talking heads are pulling out to keep the grandstanding alive is really over the top. Larry Klayman --- the guy that tried to be the private attorney general to impeach/embarrass of former president, is now advocating that Jeb Bush send in state troopers to take custody of Terri Schiavo..... Does he really believe the judical system is a conspiracy and should be disregarded. Michael (Weiner) Savage ---- puts on the nurse to claim Michael Schiavo caused Terri Schiavo's brain injury with a VonBulow like injection of insulin. Savage suggests this is like the Nazis killing handicaped babies. Joe Scarborough --- puts on "fair and balanced" list of guests, but clearly states that he wants her life saved. He denies that feeding tubes, surgically inserted into someone's stomach through her navel is not "life support". He argues that the 18 other judges that have supported Judge Greer, don't look at the factual record, but mere...

I know the article below is long and if you read Chapt 166 of the Texas Health and Safety Code its just so much legalese. However, George Bush signed this 1999 law. Why then, is he now saying the rights of the patient trump the findings of the surrogate (the husband), the doctors who testified in the Florida proceedings, and the Florida courts. This article points out that the hospital could have cut off life support without going to court, over the objection of the parent. March 16, 2005 Life-Support Stopped for 6-Month-Old in Houston Yesterday Sun Hudson, the nearly 6-month-old at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, diagnosed and slowly dying with a rare form of dwarfism (thanatophoric dysplasia), was taken off the ventilator that was keeping him alive. A Houston court authorized the hospital's action, and Sun died shortly thereafter. Today's Houston Chronicle and Dallas Morning News have most of the details. Both papers report that this is the first time in the Un...

Bob: I have been an estate planning attorney for 30 years. I have recommended "living wills" - health care directives to every estate planning client that comes in to my office. I can only remember 1 instance where someone didn't sign a "pull the plug" order. The overwhelming number of clients do not want to be kept alive in the sort of condition that Schiavo is in ---- FOR 15 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't think the exception should swallow the rule. Both of my parents could have been kept alive weeks or months beyond their actual date of death. They both told my brothers and I what they wanted....Terminate all care except hydration and pain management. They died with dignity. This circus created by the right to life lobby is ridiculously cruel to both the patient, her husband, and ultimately her parents and family. Certainly in California, and I imagine in Florida, the conservator of the person has the right to make these ultimate decisions with court supervisi...

How many think this is the worst sort of political grandstanding in which Ms. Shiavo's fate is totally irrelevant to the Republican party. This woman has been unable to do anything for herself for 15 years. The matter has been litigated up and down the Florida courts. Does Tom DeLay really give a damn other than to try a create a wedge issue for the midterm election in which Florida Senator Nelson will have to take a position.