What we've learned...

I bring this to you from Various Sources:

18 Things We Learned From the Schiavo case:

1. Jeb Bush, George W. Bush, and Tom Delay are all world renowned
neurologists.
2. 22 successive court battles that all ended in exactly the same way
means there is something wrong with the courts, not the Schindler's case.
3. Michael Schiavo is after money which is why he turned down 1 million
dollars and 10 million dollars to sign over guardianship.
4. Congress and the State Legislature of Florida has nothing better to do than pry into the private medical affairs of others.
5. Pulling life support is bad in Florida when authorized by the legal
next-of-kin, but pulling life support is good in Texas when you run out of money and the mother pleads not to pull the plug on her baby.
6. Medical diagnoses are best performed by watching highly edited
videotape made by Randall Terry rather than in person by trained physicians.
7. Minimum wage making nursing assistants are more qualified to diagnose a persistent vegetative state than experienced neurologists.
8. Cerebral spinal fluid is a magical potion that can mimic the entire functions of a missing cerebral cortex.
9. 15 years in the same persistent state is not really enough time to
make an accurate diagnosis.
10. A feeding tube that infuses yellow nutritional goop is not really
"life support".
11. Jesus was wrong when he said that a man and woman should leave their parents and cleave only to each other.
12. Marriage is the most sacred of all unions, except when it isn't.
13. Interfering in a family's private tragedy is a great reason to cut short a vacation, but getting a memo that warns a known terrorist is
determined to strike inside the US is cause to relax and finish up some R&R.
14. Pro-lifers are really compassionate people, which is why they are hoping that Michael Schiavo dies a horrible, painful death.
15. The Supreme Court of the United States and the State Supreme Court
of Florida mean "Maybe" when they are saying "No!".
16. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is a bleeding heart liberal.
17. 7 Supreme Court Justices were appointed by Republican Presidents, so it's obviously Clinton's fault.
18. A judge who makes rulings based on the law is obviously an atheist,
liberal, democratic activist even though he is a Conservative,
Republican, Southern Baptist.

Yep.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

What we've learned...

I bring this to you from Various Sources:

18 Things We Learned From the Schiavo case:

1. Jeb Bush, George W. Bush, and Tom Delay are all world renowned
neurologists.
2. 22 successive court battles that all ended in exactly the same way
means there is something wrong with the courts, not the Schindler's case.
3. Michael Schiavo is after money which is why he turned down 1 million
dollars and 10 million dollars to sign over guardianship.
4. Congress and the State Legislature of Florida has nothing better to do than pry into the private medical affairs of others.
5. Pulling life support is bad in Florida when authorized by the legal
next-of-kin, but pulling life support is good in Texas when you run out of money and the mother pleads not to pull the plug on her baby.
6. Medical diagnoses are best performed by watching highly edited
videotape made by Randall Terry rather than in person by trained physicians.
7. Minimum wage making nursing assistants are more qualified to diagnose a persistent vegetative state than experienced neurologists.
8. Cerebral spinal fluid is a magical potion that can mimic the entire functions of a missing cerebral cortex.
9. 15 years in the same persistent state is not really enough time to
make an accurate diagnosis.
10. A feeding tube that infuses yellow nutritional goop is not really
"life support".
11. Jesus was wrong when he said that a man and woman should leave their parents and cleave only to each other.
12. Marriage is the most sacred of all unions, except when it isn't.
13. Interfering in a family's private tragedy is a great reason to cut short a vacation, but getting a memo that warns a known terrorist is
determined to strike inside the US is cause to relax and finish up some R&R.
14. Pro-lifers are really compassionate people, which is why they are hoping that Michael Schiavo dies a horrible, painful death.
15. The Supreme Court of the United States and the State Supreme Court
of Florida mean "Maybe" when they are saying "No!".
16. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is a bleeding heart liberal.
17. 7 Supreme Court Justices were appointed by Republican Presidents, so it's obviously Clinton's fault.
18. A judge who makes rulings based on the law is obviously an atheist,
liberal, democratic activist even though he is a Conservative,
Republican, Southern Baptist.

Yep.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Bush still limiting entry to events to those who already agree with him...

I complained about this during the campaign, and my Republican friends kept insisting that the President of the United States has the right to limit campaign events to whomever he wishes.

Fine.

What about now?

From Dan Froomkin's column in the Washington Post:

Should Tax Dollars Fund Bush's Bubble?

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, February 8, 2005; 11:39 AM


A controversial president barnstorms through the country attending carefully controlled events where tickets are distributed by his own party, where no one disagrees with a word he says and no one puts him on the spot.

When this happened in the heat of the political season, the events and at least part of the president's travel costs were being paid for by his campaign. But now it's a post-election president spending tax dollars and ostensibly acting in the public interest.

Some of my readers think it's not appropriate.

"The president's dialogue with America on Social Security should be just that -- a dialogue, not a series of campaign events controlled by the local GOP bosses," writes John Deem of Huntersville, N.C.

"Obviously, these 'town hall' meetings, packed with W's most vocal supporters, and no dissenters allowed, are purely works of propaganda. Why is the American taxpayer paying for these 'town hall' meetings?" asks Tom Deaton.

President Bush developed the habit during the fall campaign of riding Air Force One from one protective bubble to another. That may not be everyone's idea of how to earn people's support, yet it's hard to argue with success.

But now the White House would appear to have established these bubble trips as standard operating procedure whenever the president wants to make his case to the American people.

One good test of whether this is appropriate might be to compare what Bush is doing with what other presidents have done when they decided to take their message on the road.

The Clinton Comparison


I'm no presidential historian -- and I welcome those of you who are to chip in with an e-mail -- but I do remember a bit about the last guy. And Bush himself invited comparison with President Clinton in his Jan. 26 press conference.

"I look forward to . . . traveling around the country discussing this issue -- similar to what President Clinton did," Bush said. "President Clinton highlighted the issue as an issue that needed to be addressed, and an issue that needed to be solved. He fully recognized, like I recognize, that it's going to require cooperation in the House and the Senate."

But Bush's approach couldn't be much more different than Clinton's. When Bush has one of his "conversations" on Social Security, it's with people prescreened to agree with him and he asks the rehearsed and leading questions. When Clinton had his "discussions" on Social Security, he intentionally brought opponents along with him, spoke before a mixed crowd, and let himself get grilled.

For instance, here's the transcript of an April 7, 1998 appearance by Clinton in Kansas City. He invited Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), among others, to join him.

And while the audience was laboriously prescreened, that was so that it would not be one-sided. Members were selected by a market research company to reflect the demographic and economic characteristics of the region.

By comparison, skim through the transcripts from Bush's two-day five-stop trip last week to Fargo, Great Falls, Mo., Omaha, Little Rock and Tampa.

Bush stays in the bubble because his aides figure that, just like during the campaign, events like these are an effective way of getting his message out without any downside risk. They work, they make nice sound bites and headlines, and nobody complains, at least not much.

As for the president himself, last fall's debates with Sen. John F. Kerry indicated that he doesn't much like it when people disagree with him. And one reason Bush is avoiding tough questions could be that he hasn't quite figured out how to answer them.

Consider this exchange at Friday's Tampa event, where a woman (whose question was somehow not transcribed by the White House) asked how the private accounts would fix "the red problem." She was referring to Bush's snazzy charts illustrating what he said was Social Security's "red ink."

Here's Bush's response, in its entirety:

"Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to what has been promised.

"Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.

"Okay, better? I'll keep working on it."

Keep in mind this is not an isolated event:

Run-out has become a runaround - The Denver Post

Letter from on of the Denver 3 posted on Daily Kos.

There are lots more...

Can anyone reasonably justify this practice???

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Bush still limiting entry to events to those who already agree with him...

I complained about this during the campaign, and my Republican friends kept insisting that the President of the United States has the right to limit campaign events to whomever he wishes.

Fine.

What about now?

From Dan Froomkin's column in the Washington Post:

Should Tax Dollars Fund Bush's Bubble?

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, February 8, 2005; 11:39 AM


A controversial president barnstorms through the country attending carefully controlled events where tickets are distributed by his own party, where no one disagrees with a word he says and no one puts him on the spot.

When this happened in the heat of the political season, the events and at least part of the president's travel costs were being paid for by his campaign. But now it's a post-election president spending tax dollars and ostensibly acting in the public interest.

Some of my readers think it's not appropriate.

"The president's dialogue with America on Social Security should be just that -- a dialogue, not a series of campaign events controlled by the local GOP bosses," writes John Deem of Huntersville, N.C.

"Obviously, these 'town hall' meetings, packed with W's most vocal supporters, and no dissenters allowed, are purely works of propaganda. Why is the American taxpayer paying for these 'town hall' meetings?" asks Tom Deaton.

President Bush developed the habit during the fall campaign of riding Air Force One from one protective bubble to another. That may not be everyone's idea of how to earn people's support, yet it's hard to argue with success.

But now the White House would appear to have established these bubble trips as standard operating procedure whenever the president wants to make his case to the American people.

One good test of whether this is appropriate might be to compare what Bush is doing with what other presidents have done when they decided to take their message on the road.

The Clinton Comparison


I'm no presidential historian -- and I welcome those of you who are to chip in with an e-mail -- but I do remember a bit about the last guy. And Bush himself invited comparison with President Clinton in his Jan. 26 press conference.

"I look forward to . . . traveling around the country discussing this issue -- similar to what President Clinton did," Bush said. "President Clinton highlighted the issue as an issue that needed to be addressed, and an issue that needed to be solved. He fully recognized, like I recognize, that it's going to require cooperation in the House and the Senate."

But Bush's approach couldn't be much more different than Clinton's. When Bush has one of his "conversations" on Social Security, it's with people prescreened to agree with him and he asks the rehearsed and leading questions. When Clinton had his "discussions" on Social Security, he intentionally brought opponents along with him, spoke before a mixed crowd, and let himself get grilled.

For instance, here's the transcript of an April 7, 1998 appearance by Clinton in Kansas City. He invited Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), among others, to join him.

And while the audience was laboriously prescreened, that was so that it would not be one-sided. Members were selected by a market research company to reflect the demographic and economic characteristics of the region.

By comparison, skim through the transcripts from Bush's two-day five-stop trip last week to Fargo, Great Falls, Mo., Omaha, Little Rock and Tampa.

Bush stays in the bubble because his aides figure that, just like during the campaign, events like these are an effective way of getting his message out without any downside risk. They work, they make nice sound bites and headlines, and nobody complains, at least not much.

As for the president himself, last fall's debates with Sen. John F. Kerry indicated that he doesn't much like it when people disagree with him. And one reason Bush is avoiding tough questions could be that he hasn't quite figured out how to answer them.

Consider this exchange at Friday's Tampa event, where a woman (whose question was somehow not transcribed by the White House) asked how the private accounts would fix "the red problem." She was referring to Bush's snazzy charts illustrating what he said was Social Security's "red ink."

Here's Bush's response, in its entirety:

"Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to what has been promised.

"Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.

"Okay, better? I'll keep working on it."

Keep in mind this is not an isolated event:

Run-out has become a runaround - The Denver Post

Letter from on of the Denver 3 posted on Daily Kos.

There are lots more...

Can anyone reasonably justify this practice???

-The Oklahoma Hippy

I'm am 11 shades of speechless at the moment...

From the New York Times:

March 29, 2005
List of Schiavo Donors Will Be Sold by Direct-Marketing Firm
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and JOHN SCHWARTZ

WASHINGTON, March 28 - The parents of Terri Schiavo have authorized a conservative direct-mailing firm to sell a list of their financial supporters, making it likely that thousands of strangers moved by her plight will receive a steady stream of solicitations from anti-abortion and conservative groups.

"These compassionate pro-lifers donated toward Bob Schindler's legal battle to keep Terri's estranged husband from removing the feeding tube from Terri," says a description of the list on the Web site of the firm, Response Unlimited, which is asking $150 a month for 6,000 names and $500 a month for 4,000 e-mail addresses of people who responded last month to an e-mail plea from Ms. Schiavo's father. "These individuals are passionate about the way they value human life, adamantly oppose euthanasia and are pro-life in every sense of the word!"

Privacy experts said the sale of the list was legal and even predictable, if ghoulish.

"I think it's amusing," said Robert Gellman, a privacy and information policy consultant. "I think it's absolutely classic America. Everything is for sale in America, every type of personal information."

*********
SNIP
*********

The Schindlers have waged a lengthy legal battle against their son-in-law Michael Schiavo to prevent the removal of the feeding tube from their daughter, who doctors say is in a persistent vegetative state.

Mr. McCullough said he was present when Mr. Schindler agreed to the arrangement in a conversation with Phil Sheldon, the co-founder of a conservative online marketing organization, RightMarch.com, who acted as a broker for Response Unlimited.

"So the Schindlers do know the details," Mr. McCullough said on Monday. How much attention they paid to the matter is hard to assess, he added. "The Schindlers right now know that their daughter is starving to death, and if I ask about anything else, they say, 'I don't want to hear about it.' "

Direct mail and mass e-mailings are ubiquitous fund-raising tools of interest groups on the left as well as the right, and others in the direct-mail business defended the sale of lists like the roster of donors to the Schindlers as a useful way for potential donors to learn of causes that might appeal to them.

Pamela Hennessy, an unpaid spokeswoman for the Schindlers, said she was initially appalled when she learned of the list's existence.

"It is possibly the most distasteful thing I have ever seen," Ms. Hennessy said. "Everybody is making a buck off of her."

I am utterly disgusted. More on this when I am not sick to my stomach.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

I'm am 11 shades of speechless at the moment...

From the New York Times:

March 29, 2005
List of Schiavo Donors Will Be Sold by Direct-Marketing Firm
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and JOHN SCHWARTZ

WASHINGTON, March 28 - The parents of Terri Schiavo have authorized a conservative direct-mailing firm to sell a list of their financial supporters, making it likely that thousands of strangers moved by her plight will receive a steady stream of solicitations from anti-abortion and conservative groups.

"These compassionate pro-lifers donated toward Bob Schindler's legal battle to keep Terri's estranged husband from removing the feeding tube from Terri," says a description of the list on the Web site of the firm, Response Unlimited, which is asking $150 a month for 6,000 names and $500 a month for 4,000 e-mail addresses of people who responded last month to an e-mail plea from Ms. Schiavo's father. "These individuals are passionate about the way they value human life, adamantly oppose euthanasia and are pro-life in every sense of the word!"

Privacy experts said the sale of the list was legal and even predictable, if ghoulish.

"I think it's amusing," said Robert Gellman, a privacy and information policy consultant. "I think it's absolutely classic America. Everything is for sale in America, every type of personal information."

*********
SNIP
*********

The Schindlers have waged a lengthy legal battle against their son-in-law Michael Schiavo to prevent the removal of the feeding tube from their daughter, who doctors say is in a persistent vegetative state.

Mr. McCullough said he was present when Mr. Schindler agreed to the arrangement in a conversation with Phil Sheldon, the co-founder of a conservative online marketing organization, RightMarch.com, who acted as a broker for Response Unlimited.

"So the Schindlers do know the details," Mr. McCullough said on Monday. How much attention they paid to the matter is hard to assess, he added. "The Schindlers right now know that their daughter is starving to death, and if I ask about anything else, they say, 'I don't want to hear about it.' "

Direct mail and mass e-mailings are ubiquitous fund-raising tools of interest groups on the left as well as the right, and others in the direct-mail business defended the sale of lists like the roster of donors to the Schindlers as a useful way for potential donors to learn of causes that might appeal to them.

Pamela Hennessy, an unpaid spokeswoman for the Schindlers, said she was initially appalled when she learned of the list's existence.

"It is possibly the most distasteful thing I have ever seen," Ms. Hennessy said. "Everybody is making a buck off of her."

I am utterly disgusted. More on this when I am not sick to my stomach.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Tort Reform...

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Saturday, December 11, 1999:

Sen. Santorum's wife wins lawsuit

Saturday, December 11, 1999

By Jack Torry, Post-Gazette National Bureau

WASHINGTON -- A Virginia jury last night awarded the wife of Sen. Rick Santorum $350,000 in damages after she charged in a lawsuit that a Virginia chiropracter's negligence caused her permanent back pain.

Deliberating more then six hours after a four-day trial in which Santorum, R-Pa., testified, the Fairfax County Circuit Court jury unanimously ruled for Karen Santorum. She had sought $500,000 against Dr. David Dolberg of Virginia, because of pain from his 1996 treatment of her.

"Mrs. Santorum has been vindicated," said her Pittsburgh attorney Heather Heidelbaugh. "She was injured permanently through the actions of a chiropractor who acted negligently."

Was this one of those frivolous lawsuits? I bet the chiropracter thought so...

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Tort Reform...

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Saturday, December 11, 1999:

Sen. Santorum's wife wins lawsuit

Saturday, December 11, 1999

By Jack Torry, Post-Gazette National Bureau

WASHINGTON -- A Virginia jury last night awarded the wife of Sen. Rick Santorum $350,000 in damages after she charged in a lawsuit that a Virginia chiropracter's negligence caused her permanent back pain.

Deliberating more then six hours after a four-day trial in which Santorum, R-Pa., testified, the Fairfax County Circuit Court jury unanimously ruled for Karen Santorum. She had sought $500,000 against Dr. David Dolberg of Virginia, because of pain from his 1996 treatment of her.

"Mrs. Santorum has been vindicated," said her Pittsburgh attorney Heather Heidelbaugh. "She was injured permanently through the actions of a chiropractor who acted negligently."

Was this one of those frivolous lawsuits? I bet the chiropracter thought so...

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Some Sanity from William F. Buckley Jr...

William F. Buckley is the voice reason here. I, a progressive liberal, wants those on the right to look to Bill Buckley as the voice of reason... wow have things have changed in my lifetime...

From National Review Online:

The Great Quandary
Enough.


What was good was that the resources of the entire nation, so it seemed, could be aroused with only the end in mind of sparing — more accurately, prolonging — a single life. It was left only to mobilize the Seventh Fleet to level a thousand guns on the doctors engaged in removing the tubes from Terri Schiavo. Not since 6-year old Elian Gonzalez was ordered by the courts to return to Cuba, there to submit to a lifetime of servitude under Fidel Castro Inc., had there been such a mobilization of public sentiment.


What broke the back of the Free Elian movement was a social convention: deferral to the wishes of the father. He wanted Elian home, and traveled to Florida to pick him up after an eristic judicial storm — which ended with the simple daybreak that the future of a child is to be decided by his parents.

In the case of Terri Schiavo, orderly thought would have led us to believe that her treatment was the next of kin's to decide. But human concern for Mrs. Schiavo interposed qualifiers: The husband had attached himself to another woman, by whom another family had begun. This suggested a diluted moral, though not legal, authority of the husband. Then the father and the mother of the stricken girl argued to keep her alive — to keep her pulse beating. Terri is not, repeat not, brain dead, though she is unable to communicate. Meanwhile the courts of Florida were guided, or seemed to be, by precedents which treated as relevant only the absence of a living will by Mrs. Schiavo, and the legal recognition of her husband as head of the family. The two considerations estopped any movement by the courts to assume authority, as though she belonged to them.

Those many who pleaded to continue the patient's life emphasized the theoretical possibility of a cure, or a rehabilitation of sorts. On this point her parents argued most tenaciously. They released, over the weekend, tapes made of their afflicted daughter, which could be interpreted as showing Terri to be responding to stimuli of various kinds.

But the world was looking at a woman whose immobilizing heart attack happened fifteen years ago. An anonymous doctor declared flatly that she had a flat EEG — electroencephalogram, the brain wave test.

But the political impulse was heartening, even if the hopes voiced were falsetto science. What caused the political commotion was the sense that we were presiding over an execution. Terri Schiavo remained "alive," until we stopped feeding her. Then she began a fall through a trapdoor descending toward death. She was being committed to a death of an agonizing kind, surely? One that began with the removal of the tubes, and would continue until starvation and dehydration brought on the end of the heartbeat.

Some years ago, in a forum on euthanasia, my guest was the Reverend Robert L. Barry, who had studied the subject extensively. Father Barry argued that the deprivation of food and water brings on physical pain whatever else the human condition.

Was the court system in Florida, then, acquiescing in death by pain for Mrs. Schiavo? A doctor consulted by one television analyst brushed aside the question, in language not readily transcribed by a layman. He seemed to be saying that Mrs. Schiavo would not suffer pain as the term is commonly understood.

But that question was not directly accosted by the judge, who said only that Terri's rights had not been abrogated. It was unseemly for critics to compare her end with that of victims of the Nazi regime. There was never a more industrious inquiry, than in the Schiavo case, into the matter of rights formal and inchoate. It is simply wrong, whatever is felt about the eventual abandonment of her by her husband, to use the killing language. She was kept alive for fifteen years, underwent a hundred medical ministrations, all of them in service of an abstraction, which was that she wanted to stay alive. There are laws against force-feeding, and no one will know whether, if she had had the means to convey her will in the matter, she too would have said, Enough.

The Republican party is not made of up conservatives... The fiscal policies of the party in it's current for are by and large diametrically opposed to those of the deficit hawks like Barry Goldwater.

The social side of the party has been taken over by the evangelical movement, who seem to insist apon placing their view of God over any institution of government.

The Republican claimed under Bill Clinton that the federal government had become tyranical... Bill and Hillary Clinton were called communists.

There was the outrage of Waco... "The federal government was trying to take away our guns," cried the right.

There was the assalt weapons ban... "They've come for our guns!"

There was the Health Care reform... "They want to socialize medicine! There are limits to what the governemnt can and should do," cried those on the right.

There was the intervention in Bosnia... "Wag the Dog, Wag the Dog! Don't you know we cannot be the world's policeman," cried those on the right.

Big government is fine to the new Republican Party, as long it is serving what they want it to serve.

There was the time when Clinton attempted to kill Osama Bin Laden... "Wag the Dog! Wag the Dog! He's trying to take attention away from his immorality... Monica Lewinski! Monika Lewinski!"

The Patriot Act... Who could imagine that those who cried tyrrany after Waco, would be so supportive of the patriot act?

Who thought that the party which we hear so often complain about the federal court's activism and their tyranny, would be so quick to grandstand in such a dispicable way, intervening in a single case by passing legislation to change the jurisdiction from state court to federal court, all the while doing nothing to actually protect the life of the person about whom they claim to be so concerned.

The Evangelical Christians in this country are the sword that is swung by the republicans when engaged in electoral combat. The politicians who wished to climb the political ladder and gain power and influence for themseleves have learned what they need to say to make sure evangelicals will get out to the ballot box.

Abortion is trumpet that is blown to make sure that Republican voters show to the polls, from the most local office all the way to the White House.

But, in reality, the Republican Party has been playing a game with the believers. What they fail to tell their voters in every campaign, is the truth on these issues.

Like for instance, when Harry Ried became Senate minority leader, the GOP put out a list of talking points about him that included the following:

Reid’s Mixed Messages On Abortion:

Reid: “[I] Clearly Oppose Abortion.” (NBC’s “Meet The Press,” 12/5/04)

“Sen. Harry M. Reid (D), A Poker-Faced Lawyer And Former Lieutenant Governor Of Nevada, Has Strong Feelings About The District Of Columbia. The City’s Abortion Policy Was Too Liberal, Says Reid, A Mormon, And Its Gay Rights Law Is Too Radical.” (Eric Pianin, “District Budget Squall May Signal Winds Of Change On Capitol Hill,” The Washington Post, 10/9/88)

“Reid Hasn’t Been Exactly Full-Throated In Opposition To Abortion. His Press Secretary, Tessa Hafen, Says He ‘Has Spoken Out’ Often, But She Cites Only His December 5 Appearance On Meet The Press.” (Fred Barnes, Op-Ed, “When Harry Met Roe,” The Weekly Standard, 12/27/04)

When Discussing Abortion, Reid Proudly Boasted Of His Relationship With Pro-Abortion Leader Barbara Boxer (D-CA). “Oddly, while talking about abortion, Reid said Senator Barbara Boxer of California is the closest thing he’s ever had to a sister. Boxer is passionately pro-abortion. I think the only fair verdict on Reid as a pro-life spokesman is that he isn’t one.” (Fred Barnes, Op-Ed, “When Harry Met Roe,” The Weekly Standard, 12/27/04)

Reid Proud Of Working Relationship With Former NARAL President Kate Michelman. “‘One of the calls I had today was from someone I care a great deal about, [former NARAL president] Kate Michelman,’ [Reid] said. ‘We worked well together and she is someone I have a great deal of affection for. Kate Michelman is not worried, so I don’t think anyone else should,’ he said.” (Mark Preston and Paul Kane, “Republicans Revel In Historic Gains,” Roll Call, 11/4/04)

Reid Voted Initially For A Substitute Bill That Would Have “Gutted” The Partial Birth Abortion Ban. (Fred Barnes, Op-Ed, “When Harry Met Roe,” The Weekly Standard, 12/27/04; S. 1692, CQ Vote #335: Motion Agreed To 61-38: R 50-3; D 10-35; I 1-0, 10/20/99, Reid Voted Nay; S. 3, CQ Vote #46: Approved 60-38: R 47-4; D 12-34; I 1-0, 3/12/03, Reid Voted Nay)

Reid Supported Legislation Watering Down The Laci Peterson Law. (H.R. 1997, CQ Vote #61: Rejected 49-50: R 4-47; D 44-3; I 1-0, 3/25/04, Reid Voted Yea)

Reid Voted To Overturn Reinstatement Of Mexico City Policy, Which Bars Funds From Being Given To Overseas Organizations That Perform Or Promote Abortions. (S. 925, CQ Vote #267: Rejected 43-53: R 42-9; D 1-43; I 0-1, 7/9/03, Reid Voted Nay)

“When Reid Ran For Democratic Leader, Neither NARAL Nor Planned Parenthood Voiced A Peep Of Opposition. And WeNews, An Online Publication For Women, Concluded Reid’s Ascension Wouldn’t Affect The Strong Pro-Abortion Position Of Senate Democrats.” (Fred Barnes, Op-Ed, “When Harry Met Roe,” The Weekly Standard, 12/27/04)

Reid Sponsored NARAL-Favored Legislation. “Prior to the March for Women’s Lives, U.S. Senator Harry Reid co-sponsored and introduced the ‘Putting Prevention First Act’ – bi-partisan legislation aimed at increasing federal spending on women’s health, family planning, and contraception.” (NARAL Website, www.prochoiceamerica.org , Accessed 1/24/05)


National Right To Life (NRLC) Legislative Director Douglas Johnson Highlighted Reid’s Pro-Choice Views. “The news media has labeled Reid as pro-life, but for years he has usually voted against the pro-life side on the most important votes … Indeed, in recent years Reid has played a key role in obstructing both pro-life legislation and judicial nominees, and I expect he will attempt to continue doing so.” (National Right To Life Committee, “Pro-Life Movement Faces Opportunities, Challenges In New Congress,” Press Release, 1/3/05)

There are only 2 possibilities for the Culture of Life they have been promising since Reagan ran in 1980:

Option 1:
Republican politicians simply do not have the power, the authority, or the mechanism to end abortion. They have been infering a promise they are simply unable to honor. Abortion is here to stay and any move to make it otherwise is futile..

If this is correct, then the GOP is simply manipulating the religious beliefs of an entire section of our population. The Republican party is making people believe that with enough hope and enough rallies, then the horror of abortion will be erradicated. This if this scenario is true, than the abortion debate is merely a willful distraction for the masses. Religion is the opiate of the people indeed.

Option 2:
The Republican Party is more than capabale of legislating an end to abortion, but do not have an interest in doing so.

Why would they risk the loss of the singular issue that has made so many people loyal Republicans. Do you think that the voters are republicans because they favor an economic model that favors the rich? Do you think it's because they believe in cuts to Medicade and Medicare? Do you think its because they believe interests of Big Oil, the Pharmacutical industry, the Insurance Companies, and Wall Street should all come before abortion?

The only legislation of any signifigance in the last 25 years related to abortion was the ban on so called "Partial Birth Abortion." They managed to ban a procedure that is almost never performed anyway. That's the way to go after it guys!

The Republican Party would not end abortion if they could, because they need the issue to drive people of faith to the polls.

What is it that people of faith are getting in return for maintaing a Republican majority in the House and Senate over the last 12 years? What have they recieved for ensurinng 8 years of a Bush presidency?

They have seen themselves losing their health care. They have seen themselves have to pay over 2 dollars for a gallon of gas. They have seen the cost of medication skyrocket. They have seen the largest expansion of government ever. They have seen the largest deficits ever. They have seen the economy get harder for the working poor and easier for the ultra wealthy.

But don't fret, guys. They will get around to abortion someday.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Some Sanity from William F. Buckley Jr...

William F. Buckley is the voice reason here. I, a progressive liberal, wants those on the right to look to Bill Buckley as the voice of reason... wow have things have changed in my lifetime...

From National Review Online:

The Great Quandary
Enough.


What was good was that the resources of the entire nation, so it seemed, could be aroused with only the end in mind of sparing — more accurately, prolonging — a single life. It was left only to mobilize the Seventh Fleet to level a thousand guns on the doctors engaged in removing the tubes from Terri Schiavo. Not since 6-year old Elian Gonzalez was ordered by the courts to return to Cuba, there to submit to a lifetime of servitude under Fidel Castro Inc., had there been such a mobilization of public sentiment.


What broke the back of the Free Elian movement was a social convention: deferral to the wishes of the father. He wanted Elian home, and traveled to Florida to pick him up after an eristic judicial storm — which ended with the simple daybreak that the future of a child is to be decided by his parents.

In the case of Terri Schiavo, orderly thought would have led us to believe that her treatment was the next of kin's to decide. But human concern for Mrs. Schiavo interposed qualifiers: The husband had attached himself to another woman, by whom another family had begun. This suggested a diluted moral, though not legal, authority of the husband. Then the father and the mother of the stricken girl argued to keep her alive — to keep her pulse beating. Terri is not, repeat not, brain dead, though she is unable to communicate. Meanwhile the courts of Florida were guided, or seemed to be, by precedents which treated as relevant only the absence of a living will by Mrs. Schiavo, and the legal recognition of her husband as head of the family. The two considerations estopped any movement by the courts to assume authority, as though she belonged to them.

Those many who pleaded to continue the patient's life emphasized the theoretical possibility of a cure, or a rehabilitation of sorts. On this point her parents argued most tenaciously. They released, over the weekend, tapes made of their afflicted daughter, which could be interpreted as showing Terri to be responding to stimuli of various kinds.

But the world was looking at a woman whose immobilizing heart attack happened fifteen years ago. An anonymous doctor declared flatly that she had a flat EEG — electroencephalogram, the brain wave test.

But the political impulse was heartening, even if the hopes voiced were falsetto science. What caused the political commotion was the sense that we were presiding over an execution. Terri Schiavo remained "alive," until we stopped feeding her. Then she began a fall through a trapdoor descending toward death. She was being committed to a death of an agonizing kind, surely? One that began with the removal of the tubes, and would continue until starvation and dehydration brought on the end of the heartbeat.

Some years ago, in a forum on euthanasia, my guest was the Reverend Robert L. Barry, who had studied the subject extensively. Father Barry argued that the deprivation of food and water brings on physical pain whatever else the human condition.

Was the court system in Florida, then, acquiescing in death by pain for Mrs. Schiavo? A doctor consulted by one television analyst brushed aside the question, in language not readily transcribed by a layman. He seemed to be saying that Mrs. Schiavo would not suffer pain as the term is commonly understood.

But that question was not directly accosted by the judge, who said only that Terri's rights had not been abrogated. It was unseemly for critics to compare her end with that of victims of the Nazi regime. There was never a more industrious inquiry, than in the Schiavo case, into the matter of rights formal and inchoate. It is simply wrong, whatever is felt about the eventual abandonment of her by her husband, to use the killing language. She was kept alive for fifteen years, underwent a hundred medical ministrations, all of them in service of an abstraction, which was that she wanted to stay alive. There are laws against force-feeding, and no one will know whether, if she had had the means to convey her will in the matter, she too would have said, Enough.

The Republican party is not made of up conservatives... The fiscal policies of the party in it's current for are by and large diametrically opposed to those of the deficit hawks like Barry Goldwater.

The social side of the party has been taken over by the evangelical movement, who seem to insist apon placing their view of God over any institution of government.

The Republican claimed under Bill Clinton that the federal government had become tyranical... Bill and Hillary Clinton were called communists.

There was the outrage of Waco... "The federal government was trying to take away our guns," cried the right.

There was the assalt weapons ban... "They've come for our guns!"

There was the Health Care reform... "They want to socialize medicine! There are limits to what the governemnt can and should do," cried those on the right.

There was the intervention in Bosnia... "Wag the Dog, Wag the Dog! Don't you know we cannot be the world's policeman," cried those on the right.

Big government is fine to the new Republican Party, as long it is serving what they want it to serve.

There was the time when Clinton attempted to kill Osama Bin Laden... "Wag the Dog! Wag the Dog! He's trying to take attention away from his immorality... Monica Lewinski! Monika Lewinski!"

The Patriot Act... Who could imagine that those who cried tyrrany after Waco, would be so supportive of the patriot act?

Who thought that the party which we hear so often complain about the federal court's activism and their tyranny, would be so quick to grandstand in such a dispicable way, intervening in a single case by passing legislation to change the jurisdiction from state court to federal court, all the while doing nothing to actually protect the life of the person about whom they claim to be so concerned.

The Evangelical Christians in this country are the sword that is swung by the republicans when engaged in electoral combat. The politicians who wished to climb the political ladder and gain power and influence for themseleves have learned what they need to say to make sure evangelicals will get out to the ballot box.

Abortion is trumpet that is blown to make sure that Republican voters show to the polls, from the most local office all the way to the White House.

But, in reality, the Republican Party has been playing a game with the believers. What they fail to tell their voters in every campaign, is the truth on these issues.

Like for instance, when Harry Ried became Senate minority leader, the GOP put out a list of talking points about him that included the following:

Reid’s Mixed Messages On Abortion:

Reid: “[I] Clearly Oppose Abortion.” (NBC’s “Meet The Press,” 12/5/04)

“Sen. Harry M. Reid (D), A Poker-Faced Lawyer And Former Lieutenant Governor Of Nevada, Has Strong Feelings About The District Of Columbia. The City’s Abortion Policy Was Too Liberal, Says Reid, A Mormon, And Its Gay Rights Law Is Too Radical.” (Eric Pianin, “District Budget Squall May Signal Winds Of Change On Capitol Hill,” The Washington Post, 10/9/88)

“Reid Hasn’t Been Exactly Full-Throated In Opposition To Abortion. His Press Secretary, Tessa Hafen, Says He ‘Has Spoken Out’ Often, But She Cites Only His December 5 Appearance On Meet The Press.” (Fred Barnes, Op-Ed, “When Harry Met Roe,” The Weekly Standard, 12/27/04)

When Discussing Abortion, Reid Proudly Boasted Of His Relationship With Pro-Abortion Leader Barbara Boxer (D-CA). “Oddly, while talking about abortion, Reid said Senator Barbara Boxer of California is the closest thing he’s ever had to a sister. Boxer is passionately pro-abortion. I think the only fair verdict on Reid as a pro-life spokesman is that he isn’t one.” (Fred Barnes, Op-Ed, “When Harry Met Roe,” The Weekly Standard, 12/27/04)

Reid Proud Of Working Relationship With Former NARAL President Kate Michelman. “‘One of the calls I had today was from someone I care a great deal about, [former NARAL president] Kate Michelman,’ [Reid] said. ‘We worked well together and she is someone I have a great deal of affection for. Kate Michelman is not worried, so I don’t think anyone else should,’ he said.” (Mark Preston and Paul Kane, “Republicans Revel In Historic Gains,” Roll Call, 11/4/04)

Reid Voted Initially For A Substitute Bill That Would Have “Gutted” The Partial Birth Abortion Ban. (Fred Barnes, Op-Ed, “When Harry Met Roe,” The Weekly Standard, 12/27/04; S. 1692, CQ Vote #335: Motion Agreed To 61-38: R 50-3; D 10-35; I 1-0, 10/20/99, Reid Voted Nay; S. 3, CQ Vote #46: Approved 60-38: R 47-4; D 12-34; I 1-0, 3/12/03, Reid Voted Nay)

Reid Supported Legislation Watering Down The Laci Peterson Law. (H.R. 1997, CQ Vote #61: Rejected 49-50: R 4-47; D 44-3; I 1-0, 3/25/04, Reid Voted Yea)

Reid Voted To Overturn Reinstatement Of Mexico City Policy, Which Bars Funds From Being Given To Overseas Organizations That Perform Or Promote Abortions. (S. 925, CQ Vote #267: Rejected 43-53: R 42-9; D 1-43; I 0-1, 7/9/03, Reid Voted Nay)

“When Reid Ran For Democratic Leader, Neither NARAL Nor Planned Parenthood Voiced A Peep Of Opposition. And WeNews, An Online Publication For Women, Concluded Reid’s Ascension Wouldn’t Affect The Strong Pro-Abortion Position Of Senate Democrats.” (Fred Barnes, Op-Ed, “When Harry Met Roe,” The Weekly Standard, 12/27/04)

Reid Sponsored NARAL-Favored Legislation. “Prior to the March for Women’s Lives, U.S. Senator Harry Reid co-sponsored and introduced the ‘Putting Prevention First Act’ – bi-partisan legislation aimed at increasing federal spending on women’s health, family planning, and contraception.” (NARAL Website, www.prochoiceamerica.org , Accessed 1/24/05)


National Right To Life (NRLC) Legislative Director Douglas Johnson Highlighted Reid’s Pro-Choice Views. “The news media has labeled Reid as pro-life, but for years he has usually voted against the pro-life side on the most important votes … Indeed, in recent years Reid has played a key role in obstructing both pro-life legislation and judicial nominees, and I expect he will attempt to continue doing so.” (National Right To Life Committee, “Pro-Life Movement Faces Opportunities, Challenges In New Congress,” Press Release, 1/3/05)

There are only 2 possibilities for the Culture of Life they have been promising since Reagan ran in 1980:

Option 1:
Republican politicians simply do not have the power, the authority, or the mechanism to end abortion. They have been infering a promise they are simply unable to honor. Abortion is here to stay and any move to make it otherwise is futile..

If this is correct, then the GOP is simply manipulating the religious beliefs of an entire section of our population. The Republican party is making people believe that with enough hope and enough rallies, then the horror of abortion will be erradicated. This if this scenario is true, than the abortion debate is merely a willful distraction for the masses. Religion is the opiate of the people indeed.

Option 2:
The Republican Party is more than capabale of legislating an end to abortion, but do not have an interest in doing so.

Why would they risk the loss of the singular issue that has made so many people loyal Republicans. Do you think that the voters are republicans because they favor an economic model that favors the rich? Do you think it's because they believe in cuts to Medicade and Medicare? Do you think its because they believe interests of Big Oil, the Pharmacutical industry, the Insurance Companies, and Wall Street should all come before abortion?

The only legislation of any signifigance in the last 25 years related to abortion was the ban on so called "Partial Birth Abortion." They managed to ban a procedure that is almost never performed anyway. That's the way to go after it guys!

The Republican Party would not end abortion if they could, because they need the issue to drive people of faith to the polls.

What is it that people of faith are getting in return for maintaing a Republican majority in the House and Senate over the last 12 years? What have they recieved for ensurinng 8 years of a Bush presidency?

They have seen themselves losing their health care. They have seen themselves have to pay over 2 dollars for a gallon of gas. They have seen the cost of medication skyrocket. They have seen the largest expansion of government ever. They have seen the largest deficits ever. They have seen the economy get harder for the working poor and easier for the ultra wealthy.

But don't fret, guys. They will get around to abortion someday.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

More Payola...

OK, so technically this man isn't paid for the news stories, but the appearance of impropriety is completely unacceptable.

From HeraldTribune.com:

TV reporter earned money from state

By CHRIS DAVIS and MATTHEW DOIG



chris.davis@heraldtribune.com
matthew.doig@heraldtribune.com

At the same time one of Florida's most visible television reporters brought the news to viewers around the state, he earned hundreds of thousands of dollars on the side from the government agencies he covered.

Mike Vasilinda, a 30-year veteran of the Tallahassee press corps, does public relations work and provides film editing services to more than a dozen state agencies.

His Tallahassee company, Mike Vasilinda Productions Inc., has earned more than $100,000 over the past four years through contracts with Gov. Jeb Bush's office, the Secretary of State, the Department of Education and other government entities that are routinely part of Vasilinda's stories.

Vasilinda also was paid to work on campaign ads for at least one politician and to create a promotional movie for Leon County. One of his biggest state contracts was a 1996 deal that paid nearly $900,000 to air the weekly drawing for the Florida Lottery.

Meanwhile, the freelance reporter's stories continued to air on CNN and most Florida NBC stations, including WFLA-Channel 8 in Tampa.

Read the rest here.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

More Payola...

OK, so technically this man isn't paid for the news stories, but the appearance of impropriety is completely unacceptable.

From HeraldTribune.com:

TV reporter earned money from state

By CHRIS DAVIS and MATTHEW DOIG



chris.davis@heraldtribune.com
matthew.doig@heraldtribune.com

At the same time one of Florida's most visible television reporters brought the news to viewers around the state, he earned hundreds of thousands of dollars on the side from the government agencies he covered.

Mike Vasilinda, a 30-year veteran of the Tallahassee press corps, does public relations work and provides film editing services to more than a dozen state agencies.

His Tallahassee company, Mike Vasilinda Productions Inc., has earned more than $100,000 over the past four years through contracts with Gov. Jeb Bush's office, the Secretary of State, the Department of Education and other government entities that are routinely part of Vasilinda's stories.

Vasilinda also was paid to work on campaign ads for at least one politician and to create a promotional movie for Leon County. One of his biggest state contracts was a 1996 deal that paid nearly $900,000 to air the weekly drawing for the Florida Lottery.

Meanwhile, the freelance reporter's stories continued to air on CNN and most Florida NBC stations, including WFLA-Channel 8 in Tampa.

Read the rest here.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Another from Newsweek...

Sentiments on hypocrisy from Jonathan Alter.

Take a Look In the Mirror
The pols confused law with theology and allowed tabloidism to trump privacy.

By Jonathan Alter
Senior Editor and Columnist
Newsweek


April 4 issue - When he was governor of Texas, George W. Bush presided over 152 executions, more than took place in the rest of the country combined. In at least a few of these cases, reasonable doubts about the guilt of the condemned were raised. But Bush cut his personal review time for each case from a half hour to a mere 15 minutes (most other governors spend many hours reviewing each capital case to assure themselves that there's no doubt of guilt). His explanation was that he trusted the courts to sort through the life-and-death complexities. That's right: the courts.

I bring up that story because it's just one of several ironies that have arisen in connection with the Terri Schiavo saga, in which the president said that the government "ought to err on the side of life." Fine, but whose life? The inmate who might not be guilty? The poor people across the country denied organ transplants (and thus life) because Medicaid—increasingly under the Bush budget knife—won't cover them? The poor people across the world starving to death because we won't go along with Tony Blair when it comes to addressing global poverty?

Or how about Sun Hudson? On March 14, Sun, a 6-month-old baby with a fatal form of dwarfism, was allowed to die in a Texas hospital over his mother Wanda's objections. Under a 1999 law signed by Bush, who was then governor, cost-conscious hospitals are empowered to decide when care is "futile." The Hudson case is the first time ever that a court has allowed bean counters to override the wishes of parents. "They gave up in six months," Wanda Hudson told the Houston Chronicle. "They made a terrible mistake." Wanda apparently was not "cable ready," as they say in the television world, and she failed to get Randall Terry and the radical anti-abortionists on her side. Tom DeLay never called.

Could there be—perish the thought—politics at work here? Knowing that they cannot deliver on a gay-rights amendment or abortion ban, Karl Rove & Co. settled on bonding to the base with the Schiavo case. The beauty part, as Ross Perot used to say, was that they could be cynical and sincere at the same time, even if it meant twisting themselves into ideological pretzels. The same conservatives who have spent the last generation attacking "judicial activism" and federal intrusion in state jurisdictions were suddenly advocating what they had so long abhorred.

They argue they had a moral duty to intervene. If Terri had been on a respirator, like Sun Hudson, there would have been no issue, they claim. But a feeding tube is different. Says who? Says the pope, for one. Of course the pope also says that the war in Iraq is wrong, the death penalty is wrong and the West has been too stingy in sharing its wealth. So never mind the pope.


In a complex world, consistency is usually asking too much. (Seeing Democrats talk about "states' rights" last week was also a little rich.) But if you're going to accuse Michael Schiavo and the judiciary of murder (right-wing blogs and talk radio) or commit virtual malpractice by "examining" a patient long distance via outdated and heavily edited video (Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist) or advocate breaking the law by sending in state troopers to reattach the feeding tube (Pat Buchanan and William Bennett), you'd better be willing to look in the mirror.

As a father myself, I can sympathize with Terri's frenzied parents. There must be nothing harder in the world than watching a child die. And I still don't understand why Michael Schiavo didn't turn over custody and get a divorce. He says he's trying to carry out his wife's wishes and at the same time preserve her dignity. But the endless litigation and public spectacle have hardly achieved that goal.

The right wing should be ashamed of the way it has treated this man, who spent the first seven years after Terri's collapse doing everything imaginable to save her—even training as a nurse. For instance, Fox and CNN gave air time and credibility to one Carla Iyer, who accused Michael of shouting "When is the bitch going to die?" and claimed hospital authorities doctored her nursing charts—preposterous charges with no substantiation.

When this excruciating circus leaves town, the only sensible conclusion is a morally and constitutionally nuanced one. It should be possible to argue both that Terri Schiavo's case didn't belong in court—and that the courts are the only place to resolve such wrenching disputes when families cannot. That custody laws should contain a little more flexibility where the wishes of the patient are unclear—and that the president and Congress did real damage to their own principles by sticking their nose in this mess. They replaced reason with emotion, confused law with theology and allowed politics and tabloidism to trump the privacy this agonizing family tragedy deserved.

© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.

The link to the article is here.

I posted the whole article, because I couldn't find one piece to show you without butchering it. Hopefully Newsweek will be willing to overlook my small infringement.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Another from Newsweek...

Sentiments on hypocrisy from Jonathan Alter.

Take a Look In the Mirror
The pols confused law with theology and allowed tabloidism to trump privacy.

By Jonathan Alter
Senior Editor and Columnist
Newsweek


April 4 issue - When he was governor of Texas, George W. Bush presided over 152 executions, more than took place in the rest of the country combined. In at least a few of these cases, reasonable doubts about the guilt of the condemned were raised. But Bush cut his personal review time for each case from a half hour to a mere 15 minutes (most other governors spend many hours reviewing each capital case to assure themselves that there's no doubt of guilt). His explanation was that he trusted the courts to sort through the life-and-death complexities. That's right: the courts.

I bring up that story because it's just one of several ironies that have arisen in connection with the Terri Schiavo saga, in which the president said that the government "ought to err on the side of life." Fine, but whose life? The inmate who might not be guilty? The poor people across the country denied organ transplants (and thus life) because Medicaid—increasingly under the Bush budget knife—won't cover them? The poor people across the world starving to death because we won't go along with Tony Blair when it comes to addressing global poverty?

Or how about Sun Hudson? On March 14, Sun, a 6-month-old baby with a fatal form of dwarfism, was allowed to die in a Texas hospital over his mother Wanda's objections. Under a 1999 law signed by Bush, who was then governor, cost-conscious hospitals are empowered to decide when care is "futile." The Hudson case is the first time ever that a court has allowed bean counters to override the wishes of parents. "They gave up in six months," Wanda Hudson told the Houston Chronicle. "They made a terrible mistake." Wanda apparently was not "cable ready," as they say in the television world, and she failed to get Randall Terry and the radical anti-abortionists on her side. Tom DeLay never called.

Could there be—perish the thought—politics at work here? Knowing that they cannot deliver on a gay-rights amendment or abortion ban, Karl Rove & Co. settled on bonding to the base with the Schiavo case. The beauty part, as Ross Perot used to say, was that they could be cynical and sincere at the same time, even if it meant twisting themselves into ideological pretzels. The same conservatives who have spent the last generation attacking "judicial activism" and federal intrusion in state jurisdictions were suddenly advocating what they had so long abhorred.

They argue they had a moral duty to intervene. If Terri had been on a respirator, like Sun Hudson, there would have been no issue, they claim. But a feeding tube is different. Says who? Says the pope, for one. Of course the pope also says that the war in Iraq is wrong, the death penalty is wrong and the West has been too stingy in sharing its wealth. So never mind the pope.


In a complex world, consistency is usually asking too much. (Seeing Democrats talk about "states' rights" last week was also a little rich.) But if you're going to accuse Michael Schiavo and the judiciary of murder (right-wing blogs and talk radio) or commit virtual malpractice by "examining" a patient long distance via outdated and heavily edited video (Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist) or advocate breaking the law by sending in state troopers to reattach the feeding tube (Pat Buchanan and William Bennett), you'd better be willing to look in the mirror.

As a father myself, I can sympathize with Terri's frenzied parents. There must be nothing harder in the world than watching a child die. And I still don't understand why Michael Schiavo didn't turn over custody and get a divorce. He says he's trying to carry out his wife's wishes and at the same time preserve her dignity. But the endless litigation and public spectacle have hardly achieved that goal.

The right wing should be ashamed of the way it has treated this man, who spent the first seven years after Terri's collapse doing everything imaginable to save her—even training as a nurse. For instance, Fox and CNN gave air time and credibility to one Carla Iyer, who accused Michael of shouting "When is the bitch going to die?" and claimed hospital authorities doctored her nursing charts—preposterous charges with no substantiation.

When this excruciating circus leaves town, the only sensible conclusion is a morally and constitutionally nuanced one. It should be possible to argue both that Terri Schiavo's case didn't belong in court—and that the courts are the only place to resolve such wrenching disputes when families cannot. That custody laws should contain a little more flexibility where the wishes of the patient are unclear—and that the president and Congress did real damage to their own principles by sticking their nose in this mess. They replaced reason with emotion, confused law with theology and allowed politics and tabloidism to trump the privacy this agonizing family tragedy deserved.

© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.

The link to the article is here.

I posted the whole article, because I couldn't find one piece to show you without butchering it. Hopefully Newsweek will be willing to overlook my small infringement.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

EJ Dionne makes an excellent point...

From today's Washington Post:

How has Terri Schiavo's care been financed? The available information suggests that some of the money came from one of those much-derided medical malpractice lawsuits and that the drugs she needs have been paid for by Medicaid.

The irony has not been lost on Democrats. Just a few days after most Republicans in both houses of Congress had supported cuts in federal funding of Medicaid, here they were erring "on the side of life" in a single case. The same issue has come up here in Florida, where Gov. Jeb Bush, a strong supporter of keeping Schiavo alive, has been proposing cuts in Medicaid spending.

Republicans cry foul when any link is made between the Schiavo question and the Medicaid question. "The fact that they're tying a life issue to the budget process shows just how disconnected Democrats are to reality," harrumphed Dan Allen, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

Forgive me, Mr. Allen, I know you're just doing your job, but what's disconnected from reality is refusing to accept the idea that health care is about life issues and money issues.

People who lack access to health care because they can't afford insurance often die earlier than they have to -- with absolutely no national publicity and with no members of Congress rising up at midnight to pass bills on their behalf. What is the point of standing up for life in an individual case but not confronting the cost of choosing life for all who are threatened within the health care system or by their lack of access to it?

Read the whole thing here.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

EJ Dionne makes an excellent point...

From today's Washington Post:

How has Terri Schiavo's care been financed? The available information suggests that some of the money came from one of those much-derided medical malpractice lawsuits and that the drugs she needs have been paid for by Medicaid.

The irony has not been lost on Democrats. Just a few days after most Republicans in both houses of Congress had supported cuts in federal funding of Medicaid, here they were erring "on the side of life" in a single case. The same issue has come up here in Florida, where Gov. Jeb Bush, a strong supporter of keeping Schiavo alive, has been proposing cuts in Medicaid spending.

Republicans cry foul when any link is made between the Schiavo question and the Medicaid question. "The fact that they're tying a life issue to the budget process shows just how disconnected Democrats are to reality," harrumphed Dan Allen, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

Forgive me, Mr. Allen, I know you're just doing your job, but what's disconnected from reality is refusing to accept the idea that health care is about life issues and money issues.

People who lack access to health care because they can't afford insurance often die earlier than they have to -- with absolutely no national publicity and with no members of Congress rising up at midnight to pass bills on their behalf. What is the point of standing up for life in an individual case but not confronting the cost of choosing life for all who are threatened within the health care system or by their lack of access to it?

Read the whole thing here.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

The other consequences of the circus outside of Terri Schiavo's hospice...

From the Associated Press:

By JILL BARTON, Associated Press Writer

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - Jennifer Johnson, barefoot and in her pajamas, ran to her grandfather's bedside once a hospice worker said his death was moments away. She got there — one minute too late. Johnson said the chaos outside the hospice where Terri Schiavo is dying kept her from saying goodbye.


When Johnson arrived, a police officer demanded identification; she had none. And after a hospice employee cleared her, another officer halted her for a search with a metal detector.


The delays lasted three to four minutes — the last of her grandfather's life.


"It's a terrible, extra obstacle to put in front of a family. ... Everything is about Schiavo," Johnson said. "It's all about her and in my family's case, it cost us dearly."


Woodside Hospice has 70 patients besides Schiavo, whose parents are desperately trying to have her feeding tube reconnected. Dozens of protesters have arrived from across the nation since the tube was removed March 18, and at least 15 have been arrested, prompting a police barricade around the facility and unprecedented security.


Family members visiting patients must pass through a police checkpoint to park, then show identification outside the door before another security screening inside. They also must walk by scores of signs decrying Schiavo's "crucifixion," "torture," and "starvation," plus navigate around hordes of media who have been camped outside.

See the rest here.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

The other consequences of the circus outside of Terri Schiavo's hospice...

From the Associated Press:

By JILL BARTON, Associated Press Writer

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - Jennifer Johnson, barefoot and in her pajamas, ran to her grandfather's bedside once a hospice worker said his death was moments away. She got there — one minute too late. Johnson said the chaos outside the hospice where Terri Schiavo is dying kept her from saying goodbye.


When Johnson arrived, a police officer demanded identification; she had none. And after a hospice employee cleared her, another officer halted her for a search with a metal detector.


The delays lasted three to four minutes — the last of her grandfather's life.


"It's a terrible, extra obstacle to put in front of a family. ... Everything is about Schiavo," Johnson said. "It's all about her and in my family's case, it cost us dearly."


Woodside Hospice has 70 patients besides Schiavo, whose parents are desperately trying to have her feeding tube reconnected. Dozens of protesters have arrived from across the nation since the tube was removed March 18, and at least 15 have been arrested, prompting a police barricade around the facility and unprecedented security.


Family members visiting patients must pass through a police checkpoint to park, then show identification outside the door before another security screening inside. They also must walk by scores of signs decrying Schiavo's "crucifixion," "torture," and "starvation," plus navigate around hordes of media who have been camped outside.

See the rest here.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

And now, for something completely different... HAL TURNER!!!

From my new personal favorite nutjob, Hal Turner:

NOTICE OF REBELLION AND INSURRECTION TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES; AND DEMAND TO ENFORCE THE LAW

TO: George Walker Bush, President of the United States:

The City of Pinellas Park, Florida in the persons of its Police Department, the County of Pinellas, Florida in the persons of its Sheriff's Department and Judiciary of Florida in the person of Circuit Court Judge George Greer are all in criminal violation of Title 18, United States Code, Part One, Chapter 115, Sub-Section 2328

This violation is ongoing as follows:

The United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, duly constituted under The Constitution of the United States and acting in accordance with federal law, have issued Subpoenas COMMANDING the appearance of Theresa Marie Schiavo at congressional hearings.

Interference with or causing harm to a Witness who is summoned to appear before Congress is unlawful.

The Pinellas Park Police Department, The Pinellas County Sheriff's Department and Florida Circuit Court Judge George Greer have been and continue to deliberately interfere with the ability of Theresa Marie Schiavo and others to answer the Subpoenas lawfully issued by Congress. This deliberate interference by sovereign entities of a state government is actual, direct rebellion and insurrection against the authority of the United States in violation of 18 USC 2328 as cited above.

So brazen are those in rebellion, that they refused to allow the elected and sovereign Governor of the State of Florida to intervene in the matter, by threatening a physical "showdown" between local police and Florida State Law Enforcement Agents!

Mr. President, you are authorized under Title 10 United States Code, Sub-Title "E", Part Two, Chapter 1211, Sub-Section 12406 (2) to call into service the National Guard in sufficient numbers to quell this rebellion or insurrection, enforce the Subpoenas lawfully issued by the United States Congress, and take into custody, the aforementioned Police, Sheriff's and Judge by any force necessary.

As a citizen of the United States, I respectfully DEMAND the President of the United States enforce the law immediately by deploying troops with orders to use whatever force is necessary to quell or destroy the rebellious entities named above, capture or kill those in rebellion and/or save the life of Theresa Marie Schiavo, a Witness under subpoena by the United States Congress, who is presently being starved to death by the aforementioned rebellious criminals.

Sworn this 26 th Day of March, 2005

Harold C. Turner

Those on the right who continue to fan the flames of outrage in this siutation, in spite of the fact that there really isn't anything at this point that can be done, need to be very careful. I am afraid this is going to turn into something really violent, and it would only take a motivated few to bring it to that.

I beg everyone, be careful.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

And now, for something completely different... HAL TURNER!!!

From my new personal favorite nutjob, Hal Turner:

NOTICE OF REBELLION AND INSURRECTION TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES; AND DEMAND TO ENFORCE THE LAW

TO: George Walker Bush, President of the United States:

The City of Pinellas Park, Florida in the persons of its Police Department, the County of Pinellas, Florida in the persons of its Sheriff's Department and Judiciary of Florida in the person of Circuit Court Judge George Greer are all in criminal violation of Title 18, United States Code, Part One, Chapter 115, Sub-Section 2328

This violation is ongoing as follows:

The United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, duly constituted under The Constitution of the United States and acting in accordance with federal law, have issued Subpoenas COMMANDING the appearance of Theresa Marie Schiavo at congressional hearings.

Interference with or causing harm to a Witness who is summoned to appear before Congress is unlawful.

The Pinellas Park Police Department, The Pinellas County Sheriff's Department and Florida Circuit Court Judge George Greer have been and continue to deliberately interfere with the ability of Theresa Marie Schiavo and others to answer the Subpoenas lawfully issued by Congress. This deliberate interference by sovereign entities of a state government is actual, direct rebellion and insurrection against the authority of the United States in violation of 18 USC 2328 as cited above.

So brazen are those in rebellion, that they refused to allow the elected and sovereign Governor of the State of Florida to intervene in the matter, by threatening a physical "showdown" between local police and Florida State Law Enforcement Agents!

Mr. President, you are authorized under Title 10 United States Code, Sub-Title "E", Part Two, Chapter 1211, Sub-Section 12406 (2) to call into service the National Guard in sufficient numbers to quell this rebellion or insurrection, enforce the Subpoenas lawfully issued by the United States Congress, and take into custody, the aforementioned Police, Sheriff's and Judge by any force necessary.

As a citizen of the United States, I respectfully DEMAND the President of the United States enforce the law immediately by deploying troops with orders to use whatever force is necessary to quell or destroy the rebellious entities named above, capture or kill those in rebellion and/or save the life of Theresa Marie Schiavo, a Witness under subpoena by the United States Congress, who is presently being starved to death by the aforementioned rebellious criminals.

Sworn this 26 th Day of March, 2005

Harold C. Turner

Those on the right who continue to fan the flames of outrage in this siutation, in spite of the fact that there really isn't anything at this point that can be done, need to be very careful. I am afraid this is going to turn into something really violent, and it would only take a motivated few to bring it to that.

I beg everyone, be careful.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

I get mail...

I just found this in my email...

From: the Logic Monkey [mailto:noreply-comment@blogger.com]
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2005 3:05 PM
To: thehippy@oklahomahippy.com
Subject: [Phish Fan in Jeezus Land] 3/25/2005 03:04:30 PM

Phish fan? Ah, how much pot have you consumed then, assfuck?

Look, I don't need scripture from a heretic- fuck you.

Oh, and don't pretend to "care" about how the Republicans are using me. Bullshit. If I, Geroge W. am the Republicans really are so evil- pick up a gun and kill us. If we really are Nazis- fight us. Use violence or shut the fuck up.

--
Posted by the Logic Monkey to Phish Fan in Jeezus Land at 3/25/2005 03:04:30 PM

Ok, technicaly, it's a post, but I found it in my email.

I guess he's promoting that "Culture of Life" thing I have heard so much about.

These are the people who so desperatly want to save Terri Schiavo...

One More Time!

Use violence or shut the fuck up.

It's about LIFE!!!

Pay attention people, this is how a coward speaks. Violence apparently is the way to go in this man's version of "A Culture of Life."


-The Oklahoma Hippy

I get mail...

I just found this in my email...

From: the Logic Monkey [mailto:noreply-comment@blogger.com]
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2005 3:05 PM
To: thehippy@oklahomahippy.com
Subject: [Phish Fan in Jeezus Land] 3/25/2005 03:04:30 PM

Phish fan? Ah, how much pot have you consumed then, assfuck?

Look, I don't need scripture from a heretic- fuck you.

Oh, and don't pretend to "care" about how the Republicans are using me. Bullshit. If I, Geroge W. am the Republicans really are so evil- pick up a gun and kill us. If we really are Nazis- fight us. Use violence or shut the fuck up.

--
Posted by the Logic Monkey to Phish Fan in Jeezus Land at 3/25/2005 03:04:30 PM

Ok, technicaly, it's a post, but I found it in my email.

I guess he's promoting that "Culture of Life" thing I have heard so much about.

These are the people who so desperatly want to save Terri Schiavo...

One More Time!

Use violence or shut the fuck up.

It's about LIFE!!!

Pay attention people, this is how a coward speaks. Violence apparently is the way to go in this man's version of "A Culture of Life."


-The Oklahoma Hippy

Quiz time...

Which of these people is using this situation for fund rasining purposes?




Answer: It's Randall Terry!

From his webiste:

Thank you so much for your desire to help restore to Randall Terry what the enemies of life "stole." Your gift will help Randall rebuild his life and public ministry. Any gift you give is not in any danger of being seized by Randall's political enemies. Those lawsuits and judgments are over, and the fund you are giving to is safe from seizure.

To make a contribution to "restore what the enemy took," please make your check payable to the Terry Family Trust, and send it to:



The Terry Family Trust
PO Box 131568
Houston, TX 77219-1568


And remember - tell your friends what happened to Randall Terry and invite them to view this web site and to give a gift to restore what the enemy took. And please... ask your pastor to visit this site and to consider a special gift from your church to show support to Randall and his family. (The Terry Family Trust is not a charitable corporation. Gifts are not tax-deductible.)

Thank you for your contribution. God bless you.

Media Matters has a great piece explaing who Randall Terry is.

As CNN noted on March 4, 1998, Terry was named in a lawsuit -- seeking to "force anti-abortion leaders to pay for damages caused in clinic attacks" -- which was filed by the National Organization for Women (NOW) under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, and Terry settled with NOW out of court. The New York Times reported on November 8, 1998, that Terry "filed for bankruptcy last week in an effort to avoid paying massive debts owed to women's groups and abortion clinics that have sued him." As the Los Angeles Times reported on February 28, Terry's use of bankruptcy law to avoid paying for the judgments against him helped prompt Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) to propose an amendment to the bankruptcy bill recently passed by Congress that "specifically would prevent abortion opponents from using the bankruptcy code to escape paying court fines," although it was not included in the final version of the bill. Versions of that amendment appeared in earlier versions of the bankruptcy bill, which stalled action on it in 2002 and 2003 when "a core of House Republicans balked" at the provision, the Los Angeles Times noted.

According to a June 14, 2003, report by the conservative World Magazine (no longer available online, but reprinted on the right-wing bulletin board Free Republic), Terry solicited donations by declaring on his website that "The purveyors of abortion on demand have stripped Randall Terry of everything he owned," but failed to disclose that the money would be used to pay for his new $432,000 house. The report noted Terry's defense: "Terry told World that he wanted a home where his family will be safe and where 'we could entertain people of stature, people of importance. I have a lot of important people that come through my home. And I will have more important people come through my home.' " World noted that the same month he paid the deposit on his new home, a court ruled that Terry, who divorced his first wife and has remarried, "was not paying a fair share of child support." In an article on his website, Terry denounced the World report as "journalistic trash, a 'hit piece' of malice and misinformation."

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Quiz time...

Which of these people is using this situation for fund rasining purposes?




Answer: It's Randall Terry!

From his webiste:

Thank you so much for your desire to help restore to Randall Terry what the enemies of life "stole." Your gift will help Randall rebuild his life and public ministry. Any gift you give is not in any danger of being seized by Randall's political enemies. Those lawsuits and judgments are over, and the fund you are giving to is safe from seizure.

To make a contribution to "restore what the enemy took," please make your check payable to the Terry Family Trust, and send it to:



The Terry Family Trust
PO Box 131568
Houston, TX 77219-1568


And remember - tell your friends what happened to Randall Terry and invite them to view this web site and to give a gift to restore what the enemy took. And please... ask your pastor to visit this site and to consider a special gift from your church to show support to Randall and his family. (The Terry Family Trust is not a charitable corporation. Gifts are not tax-deductible.)

Thank you for your contribution. God bless you.

Media Matters has a great piece explaing who Randall Terry is.

As CNN noted on March 4, 1998, Terry was named in a lawsuit -- seeking to "force anti-abortion leaders to pay for damages caused in clinic attacks" -- which was filed by the National Organization for Women (NOW) under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, and Terry settled with NOW out of court. The New York Times reported on November 8, 1998, that Terry "filed for bankruptcy last week in an effort to avoid paying massive debts owed to women's groups and abortion clinics that have sued him." As the Los Angeles Times reported on February 28, Terry's use of bankruptcy law to avoid paying for the judgments against him helped prompt Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) to propose an amendment to the bankruptcy bill recently passed by Congress that "specifically would prevent abortion opponents from using the bankruptcy code to escape paying court fines," although it was not included in the final version of the bill. Versions of that amendment appeared in earlier versions of the bankruptcy bill, which stalled action on it in 2002 and 2003 when "a core of House Republicans balked" at the provision, the Los Angeles Times noted.

According to a June 14, 2003, report by the conservative World Magazine (no longer available online, but reprinted on the right-wing bulletin board Free Republic), Terry solicited donations by declaring on his website that "The purveyors of abortion on demand have stripped Randall Terry of everything he owned," but failed to disclose that the money would be used to pay for his new $432,000 house. The report noted Terry's defense: "Terry told World that he wanted a home where his family will be safe and where 'we could entertain people of stature, people of importance. I have a lot of important people that come through my home. And I will have more important people come through my home.' " World noted that the same month he paid the deposit on his new home, a court ruled that Terry, who divorced his first wife and has remarried, "was not paying a fair share of child support." In an article on his website, Terry denounced the World report as "journalistic trash, a 'hit piece' of malice and misinformation."

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Greed an Arrogance is ripping the conservatives apart..

I don't know if the Republican Party understand how much damage their arrogance and greed has caused to the party, at least in the short term.

Jeb Bush is currently the one on the fire:

Gov. Bush Cancels Appearance at Good Friday Service for Fear of Facing Schiavo Supporters
To: National Desk

Contact: Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, 202-547-1735, 540-538-4741 cell

TALLAHASSEE, Fl., March 25 /Christian Wire Service/ -- Governor Jeb Bush was scheduled to attend and participate in an outdoor Good Friday service at 12:30 pm, at Florida State University. According to event organizers, the Governor canceled at the last minute.

As part of this event Jeb Bush would have publicly read from a printed program that includes the following text entitled the Fifth Station of the Cross; "Lord Jesus, sometimes I don't want to do what is right or to help someone in need, but you want me to respond positively to the needs of others in my life. Help me to say 'yes' and be willing to give heroic assistance to all who are in need."

"It is clear that Governor Bush canceled his scheduled participation in this Stations of the Cross service out of fear and guilt of seeing supporters of Terri Schiavo pleading for her life. Our prayer for Governor Bush is the same prayer he would have prayed publicly on this Good Friday, had he kept his scheduled appointment.

This is going to be painful for the right for the next little bit...

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Greed an Arrogance is ripping the conservatives apart..

I don't know if the Republican Party understand how much damage their arrogance and greed has caused to the party, at least in the short term.

Jeb Bush is currently the one on the fire:

Gov. Bush Cancels Appearance at Good Friday Service for Fear of Facing Schiavo Supporters
To: National Desk

Contact: Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, 202-547-1735, 540-538-4741 cell

TALLAHASSEE, Fl., March 25 /Christian Wire Service/ -- Governor Jeb Bush was scheduled to attend and participate in an outdoor Good Friday service at 12:30 pm, at Florida State University. According to event organizers, the Governor canceled at the last minute.

As part of this event Jeb Bush would have publicly read from a printed program that includes the following text entitled the Fifth Station of the Cross; "Lord Jesus, sometimes I don't want to do what is right or to help someone in need, but you want me to respond positively to the needs of others in my life. Help me to say 'yes' and be willing to give heroic assistance to all who are in need."

"It is clear that Governor Bush canceled his scheduled participation in this Stations of the Cross service out of fear and guilt of seeing supporters of Terri Schiavo pleading for her life. Our prayer for Governor Bush is the same prayer he would have prayed publicly on this Good Friday, had he kept his scheduled appointment.

This is going to be painful for the right for the next little bit...

-The Oklahoma Hippy

And then there is this...

Mother questions U.S. policy forbidding photos of caskets
By Rebecca Carr

Palm Beach Post-Cox News Service

Thursday, March 24, 2005

WASHINGTON — A single red rose in hand, Karen Meredith leans over her son's simple white stone marker at Arlington National Cemetery.

It's her first visit since she buried 1st Lt. Kenneth Michael Ballard, a fourth generation soldier, last fall.

Still fresh is her anger. Anger at the way the Pentagon refused her sole wish when her son was killed by a sniper last May to photograph his casket returning from Iraq.

Meredith wanted to capture the way fellow soldiers respectfully draped the American flag across the casket and the way an honor guard watched over him as he was unloaded from a cargo plane.

But the Pentagon firmly said "no." It was against regulations and would violate the privacy of family members of other slain soldiers.

"It's dishonorable and disrespectful to the families," Meredith said. "They say it's for privacy, but it's really because they don't want the country to see how many people are coming back in caskets."

That's exactly right. The Republicans believe in a culture of life as long as their is political advantage.

So this Good Friday, I condemn the administrations for refusing to allow America to see the lives given in this war.

The full story can be found here.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

And then there is this...

Mother questions U.S. policy forbidding photos of caskets
By Rebecca Carr

Palm Beach Post-Cox News Service

Thursday, March 24, 2005

WASHINGTON — A single red rose in hand, Karen Meredith leans over her son's simple white stone marker at Arlington National Cemetery.

It's her first visit since she buried 1st Lt. Kenneth Michael Ballard, a fourth generation soldier, last fall.

Still fresh is her anger. Anger at the way the Pentagon refused her sole wish when her son was killed by a sniper last May to photograph his casket returning from Iraq.

Meredith wanted to capture the way fellow soldiers respectfully draped the American flag across the casket and the way an honor guard watched over him as he was unloaded from a cargo plane.

But the Pentagon firmly said "no." It was against regulations and would violate the privacy of family members of other slain soldiers.

"It's dishonorable and disrespectful to the families," Meredith said. "They say it's for privacy, but it's really because they don't want the country to see how many people are coming back in caskets."

That's exactly right. The Republicans believe in a culture of life as long as their is political advantage.

So this Good Friday, I condemn the administrations for refusing to allow America to see the lives given in this war.

The full story can be found here.

-The Oklahoma Hippy