Our Military

Here's a must read story about how an operation goes way wrong.

What sticks out for me is the lack of soldiers needed for this convoy. It's a gruesome story, and a sad one at that, but really shines the light again on our lack of preparedness. It also explains why soldiers in North Carolina refused orders that believed were unsafe.

One of Halliburton's employees is also bringing suit against the company:

The families say their loved ones died in the service of their country. They wonder about the repercussions if a general sent soldiers without training, weapons, armor or adequate communications into a battle zone.

The family of driver Tony D. Johnson, 47, of Riverside, plans to file a lawsuit in state court Monday accusing Halliburton of negligence in his death. It is the first of several lawsuits expected in connection with the case.

Marjorie Bell Smith is the mother of Tim Bell, the Halliburton driver who is missing and presumed dead. Outside a modest brick home in a Mobile suburb one recent spring day, the azalea and dogwood were bursting into bloom. Inside, the family grieved. "We don't want medals," said Smith, 68. "We want the truth."

I wonder how long it will be before a Republican Senator introduces a bill preventing those employees from suing companies performing military duties?

Above the Law

Is how the Bush Klan likes to live:

State and local police nearly had a showdown on Thursday over Terri Schiavo. The incident almost occurred Thursday afternoon after a local judge issued a ruling preventing Florida Governor Jeb Bush and a state agency from taking Terri into protective custody.

According to a Miami Herald report, hours after Circuit Court Judge George Greer issued his custody ruling, a team of state agents were en route to Woodside Hospice to protect Terri and have her feeding tube reinserted.

Why would state police accept an order that's not legal?

Also, why is Jeb Bush so involved in Terri's case when he can't even raise his own daughter!?!?

Before I Forget

I went to the Black Crowes concert Tuesday night in New York City. The show was phenomenal. Initially I had no interest in going until I found out Marc Ford would be playing lead guitar. I'm glad I did because he was incredible, and the show was damn near perfect, at least for a BC show.

However, there was one problem, and it's called "The Hammerstein Ballroom." That place is the fucking worst!

For those who have never been to this crap venue, picture an old, beautiful theatre, with a large floor space, three back balconies, three side balconies, and a very high ceiling. At one time, when the side balconies hovered the stage, it was probably a great venue. Not anymore. Now the venue is too big, and there's really no good seats in the house, unless you are lucky enough to be in a side balcony, which is reserved for industry folk, and friends of the band. That's nice.

The stage at the Hammerstein is now set all the way back, essentially inside another building that was purchased to make the place bigger. They did this to expand the floor seating to 2,000. The place now holds 3,700 folks, without floor seats. It's all General Admission on the floor. 600 people fill each balcony. If you are lucky enough to be in the first two rows of those balconies it's not too bad, but if you're any further back you hear no bass. It blows.

The place wasn't designed for the stage to be so far away. If the stage was located where it was initially built I'm sure the sound under the balconies would be fine. Not the case.

What is the case is it seems every big band is playing there, and it sucks. I've now seen about 5 shows there, most recently the Pixies and Crowes. I'm just over 6 feet, and I can't see a thing on the floor, which means 80% of the people on the floor are in the same boat. Also, the floor is actually slanted downward with the stage being the highest point! In addition, try walking to get a drink, or to the bathroom during the show, and getting back. People actually form walls to not let you through. It's that crammed.

The Beacon Theatre holds 2,850 and has seats. The shows there are always good almost regardless of who's playing. Contrast that with the Hammerstein where a band has to be so good just for you to ignore the crap surroundings. Why can't bands just play the Beacon? Do you know how many people goto 2 or 3 nights when a band plays multiple gigs? I'd say a lot according to people I know who have done just that. It's not as if people won't see the show if a band plays the Beacon Theatre instead. Webster Hall only holds 1,500, which is a bit tight for a band like the Crowes, but the shows would be so off the charts if they played there. That is a great New York City venue. It's not as if a band like the Crowes isn't making cash off their $42.50 tickets.

The last thing, and most important, is the overall sound. Again, the Pixies and Crowes sounded good, but because of the extremely high ceiling, and the nature of the music, it's the loudest place I've ever seen a show. If they'd tone it down just a little it'd be so much more enjoyable. I'm not a big fan of having to stick wet cotton napkins in my ears, which I find myself doing only there, and in tiny places like Mercury Lounge or Pianos.

It was fun to watch Kate Hudson get high, smoke cigs, and drink wine while every hot chick in the place stared at her to see how to be cool. At the same time, all the guys were putting on display how to not be cool by staring at all the girls who were staring at Kate.

Cheers to the Crowes for sounding so good, and to Marc Ford for coming back so strong.

Nice Call

Let the good times roll:

The United States was reported today to have agreed to sell Pakistan F-16 fighter planes in a major policy shift that was meant to reward Pakistan for its help in combating terrorism but was also certain to deeply antagonize Pakistan's longtime adversary India.

The State Department is expected to announce the decision in news conference today. But well in advance of the session, several news organizations were reporting that President Bush had personally telephoned Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from his ranch in Crawford, Tex., and that Mr. Singh had voiced “great disappointment,” according to a spokesman.

I'm sure this is really going to pay dividends in the long run.

I assume they are receiving these planes because of the great job they've done fighting terror. For example, allowing AQ Khan to walk after he helped terrorist nations in their quests to build nuclear weapons. Or, the great job they've done in finding Osama bin Laden, who in all likelihood is in their country.

I mean, India, the world's largest democracy, should be satisfied their rival is receiving over 20 fighter jets. I'm sure none will ever be used to attack our allies.

I'm sure when Don Rumsfeld was in Iraq in 1985, looking the other way as Saddam gassed the Kurds and Iranians, the longterm consequences were a major concern.

Shots Fired, Again...

Big Chief White Man:

MINNEAPOLIS, March 24 -- Native Americans across the country -- including tribal leaders, academics and rank-and-file tribe members -- voiced anger and frustration Thursday that President Bush has responded to the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history with silence.

Three days after 16-year-old Jeff Weise killed nine members of his Red Lake tribe before taking his own life, grief-stricken American Indians complained that the White House has offered little in the way of sympathy for the tribe situated in the uppermost region of Minnesota.

"From all over the world we are getting letters of condolence, the Red Cross has come, but the so-called Great White Father in Washington hasn't said or done a thing," said Clyde Bellecourt, a Chippewa Indian who is the founder and national director of the American Indian Movement here. "When people's children are murdered and others are in the hospital hanging on to life, he should be the first one to offer his condolences. . . . If this was a white community, I don't think he'd have any problem doing that."

You mean white, and Christian...

Bring It, Bitch

Bitch:

Gov. Jeb Bush's last-minute intervention in the case of Terri Schiavo, even after the president had ended his own effort to keep her alive, may have so far failed in a legal sense, but it has cemented the religious and social conservative credentials of a man whose political pedigree is huge and whose political future remains a subject of intense speculation.

I welcome you, your cross, your bible, your handgun, and your lies in 2008, you fake bitch.

Apparently

Bob and Mary Schindler couldn't get Terri on their list...

Nice Policy

It's called "Ghosting."

Senior defense officials have described the CIA practice of hiding unregistered detainees at Abu Ghraib prison as ad hoc and unauthorized, but a review of Army documents shows that the agency's "ghosting" program was systematic and known to three senior intelligence officials in Iraq.

Army and Pentagon investigations have acknowledged a limited amount of ghosting, but more than a dozen documents and investigative statements obtained by The Washington Post show that unregistered CIA detainees were brought to Abu Ghraib several times a week in late 2003, and that they were hidden in a special row of cells. Military police soldiers came up with a rough system to keep track of such detainees with single-digit identification numbers, while others were dropped off unnamed, unannounced and unaccounted for.

The documents show that the highest-ranking general in Iraq at the time acknowledged that his top intelligence officer was aware the CIA was using Abu Ghraib's cells, a policy the general abruptly stopped when questions arose...

According to statements investigators took from soldiers and officers who worked at the prison, a stream of ghost detainees began arriving in September 2003, after military intelligence officers and the CIA came to an arrangement that kept the International Committee of the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations from knowing the detainees existed.

I thought I knew the Story of the Ghost...

I lied

Had to do one more.

Don't eff with Jersey!

I'm So Confused

Who to give credit to? Reagan? Bush? No, Reagan...Bush, Reagan, Bush...

President Askar Akayev fled Kyrgyzstan on Thursday after protesters stormed his headquarters, seized control of state television and rampaged through government offices, throwing computers and air conditioners out of windows.

These people just don't understand the value of a dollar.

Wrong

I'll try to make this the last of the Schiavo posts, but it may be hard.

Richard Cohen asks where the Democrats were when it came to Schiavo. He then goes on at length to talk about the Republicans who were against this law, and how they had it right.

Where are the Democrats?!?!? Congressman Barney Frank was leading the charge on the House Floor, while Nancy Pelosi was overseas, DOING HER JOB!

Essentially, this was not a debate between the two parties, but rather a debate between the Republicans themselves. Who will control their party? What will the core beliefs be? Who leads who? Is it the right-wing fundamentalists helping the selfish money folks, or the other way around?

If Republicans have government control like this for an extended period of time we will see the rise of third party candidates, splitting their party. The core beliefs of the two groups are too far apart.

I think not being involved in this debate was the best thing Dems could do for too many reasons.

There's a Crisis!!!

Were you aware?

The two independent trustees overseeing Social Security and Medicare broke with the Bush administration's trustees yesterday, saying Medicare's financial problems far exceed Social Security's and are in urgent need of attention.

Republican Thomas R. Saving and Democrat John L. Palmer said Social Security's condition has changed little since they joined the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees in 2000. But in the trustees' report released yesterday, they wrote that Medicare's prospects have "deteriorated dramatically" with rising medical costs and the addition in 2003 of a prescription drug benefit.

"The financial outlook for Social Security has improved marginally since 2000," wrote Saving and Palmer. "In sharp contrast, Medicare's financial outlook has deteriorated dramatically over the past five years and is now much worse that Social Security's."

The three trustees from the Bush Cabinet -- Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt and Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao -- chose to emphasize Social Security's problems almost exclusively at the report's release.

Didn't Bush just pass a new Medicare Bill last year that was going to fix the problems? I mean, with a bill like that we can only keep our fingers crossed for his Social Security fixes.

Here's conservative commentator Bruce Bartlett:

The government would have to put aside $11.1 trillion today to finance Social Security's promised benefits indefinitely, the trustees reported. But just the new Medicare prescription drug benefit included in the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act has an unfunded liability of $18.2 trillion projected out infinitely.

"The problem is, they've got the cart before the horse," Bartlett said of the Bush administration. "They've made Medicare vastly worse, and now they're saying to be responsible, we have to take on Social Security. It's utterly illogical."

What's Next

Now that this has happened:

The Supreme Court today turned down a request by Terri Schiavo's parents for an emergency order to restore the Florida woman's feeding tube.

I await the moment when conservatives turn to their most beloved organization, the UN, and request the Terri Schiavo Special Tribunal!

Help Me Out Here

What don't I get?

Information obtained from a detainee at Guantanamo Bay is said to confirm that Osama bin Laden was at Tora Bora. Apparently, this detainee, who has been allied with bin Laden since the Soviet/Afghan War (and US), has come clean. So John Kerry was right when he told Bush he blew a chance at capturing bin Laden. Bush's response was pretty much, "we don't know for sure" which I guess means we should do very little.

Of course, contrast this with the Iraq War's basic claim of weapons, where he also didn't know for sure, but had no problem sending in 120,000 troops, accompanied by the "Shock and Awe" campaign that costed billions.

Anyway, point being, what the hell are we doing with these people at Guantanamo? What kind of information could they possibly give us now? Do you not think Al Qaeda has reinvented itself 10 times since the capture of these people? Are we now in the business of holding POWs for life? Don't we wave flags in this country telling us how wrong that is? What information can these detainees possibly be providing us now?

All I can figure is they are still grilling these people, and towing the line on torture, in order to get old, useless, information, but information they can use to justify their treatment of these people. In other words, for all the torture memos and mistakes, proving a guy like this detainee knew, and helped bin Laden, is just a way for the morons to prove they did the right thing. There are those who believe these detainees will go back to the battlefield and fight, which may be true, but this brings us back to them being POWs in a war Bush claims is never ending.

I can't think of another reason. Can you?

It's Funny Cause It's True

Karl the Killer:

As we enter another Easter Season, it's become all too obvious that if Christ returns, those who hate in his name will slime him, then kill him.

Christ was a long-haired peace activist who would have been sickened to his soul by the war in Iraq. "Blessed are the peacemakers" Jesus said in his defining Sermon on the Mount. "Turn the other cheek...Love thy neighbor."

Such hippie-radical ideals are the "Christian" right wing's worst nightmare. The GOP would never tolerate an upstart like Jesus gathering a following in the face of their corporate-fundamentalist crusade. These are self-proclaimed Christians who love power but would despise the actual Christ, just as they love a Zionist Israel but believe actual Jews are doomed to Hell.

Very Interesting

Could be the beginnning of a hundred things:

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 22 - Ordinary Iraqis rarely strike back at the insurgents who terrorize their country. But just before noon today, a carpenter named Dhia saw a troop of masked gunmen with grenades coming towards his shop and decided he had had enough.

As the gunmen emerged from their cars, Dhia and his young relatives shouldered their own AK-47's and opened fire, police and witnesses said. In the fierce gun battle that followed, three of the insurgents were killed, and the rest fled just after the police arrived. Two of Dhia's young nephews and a bystander were injured, the police said.

"We attacked them before they attacked us," Dhia, 35, his face still contorted with rage and excitement, said in a brief exchange at his shop a few hours after the battle. He did not give his last name. "We killed three of those who call themselves the mujahedeen. I am waiting for the rest of them to come and we will show them."

It was the first time that private citizens are known to have retaliated successfully against insurgents. There have been anecdotal reports of residents shooting at attackers after a bombing or assassination. But the gun battle today erupted in full view of half a dozen witnesses, including a Justice Ministry official who lives nearby.

Coincidence?

Or God's whacked out sense of humor?

On the day the conservatives try to keep Terri Schiavo breathing, a kid in Minnesota kills 9 people in a random act of gun violence.

I'm sure they'll make a lot of noise about this.

Conservative response:

It's a tragedy, of course, but if we take the guns away from the innocent people there won't be anyone to stop violent offenders like this kid!

The Bush Doctor

It's all about Terri:

WASHINGTON - The federal law that President Bush signed early Monday in an effort to prolong Terri Schiavo's life appears to contradict a right-to-die law that he signed as Texas governor, prompting cries of hypocrisy from congressional Democrats and some bioethicists.

In 1999, then-Gov. Bush signed the Advance Directives Act, which lets a patient's surrogate make life-ending decisions on his or her behalf. The measure also allows Texas hospitals to disconnect patients from life-sustaining systems if a physician, in consultation with a hospital bioethics committee, concludes that the patient's condition is hopeless.

Bioethicists familiar with the Texas law said Monday that if the Schiavo case had occurred in Texas, her husband would be the legal decision-maker and, because he and her doctors agreed that she had no hope of recovery, her feeding tube would be disconnected.

You'll notice people who voted for Bush probably aren't bringing this issue up, at least not to your face, for they're embarrassed too.

Oh, oh, but wait, the White House's Chief Press Liar weighed in:

Bush's apparent shift on right-to-die decisions wasn't lost on Democrats. During heated debate on the Schiavo case, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., accused Bush of hypocrisy.

"It appears that President Bush felt, as governor, that there was a point which, when doctors felt there was no further hope for the patient, that it is appropriate for an end-of-life decision to be made, even over the objection of family members," Wasserman Schultz said. "There is an obvious conflict here between the president's feelings on this matter now as compared to when he was governor of Texas."

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan termed Wasserman Schultz's remarks "uninformed accusations" and denied that there was any conflict in Bush's positions on the two laws.

"The legislation he signed (early Monday) is consistent with his views," McClellan said. "The (1999) legislation he signed into law actually provided new protections for patients ... prior to the passage of the '99 legislation that he signed, there were no protections."

Wasserman Schultz stuck by her remarks when told of McClellan's comments.

"It's a fact in black and white," she said. "It's a direct conflict on the position he has in the Schiavo case."

I actually agree: Bush is consistent. He consistently lies.

Thumb Up His Ass

This guy, when will someone pull his plug!

U.S. District Judge James Whittemore has defied Congress by not staying Terri Schiavo's starvation execution for the time it takes him to hold a full hearing on her case, a leading Republican senator said Tuesday.

"You have judicial tyranny here," Santorum told WABC Radio in New York. "Congress passed a law that said that you had to look at this case. He simply thumbed his nose at Congress."

Sorta like when you thumbed your nose at the Constitution by passing this law?

Just the Beginning

After the election I was optimistic about one thing: Conservatives would have to show their true colors, and it would be detrimental in the long run.

I see that happening now.

Time and time again I heard about how Bush received the most votes ever. John Kerry received the second most, and there's a chance he had even more. The country had already experienced a rightward shift in personality, but there wasn't enough faith in John Kerry's ability to run the country. Even with the victory there haven't been many positive developments for the President at home, and abroad. With that said, many people who gave him the vote were hoping he'd do better, somehow. Ask yourself, is it better?

With cases like Terri Schiavo taking over the news Bush will show some of his true colors, and I don't believe the moderates and the somewhat skeptical are going to embrace this type of conservativism. Just look at the polls about the Schiavo case from today, and then think about the stance Republicans have taken. Go one step further and take a listen to the media conservatives. It's really over the top, and out of the mainstream.

Tom Delay, Republican Majority Leader who is in hot water over legal issues, is attempting to be the point man in all of this with the hope Americans will forget about his other glaring problems. This guy is so out of touch with many Republicans and fiscal/hawkish conservatives it's scary, and he's stepping up to the podium. Fine by me. Not exactly the compassionate face Republicans were hoping would lead the way until the midterm elections.

It's incredible to hear Republicans speak about "compassion" and the "sanctity of life" while they pull funds for government programs created to help the neediest children in this country. Then they stake out some high ground they can only get to by being hypocritical, fervently anti-choice, anti-privacy, and on some levels, anti-family. It's not what they're looking for.

I listened to radio personalities tonight speak about Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, and "liberals" in Congress who are part of a "culture of death" amongst other things. One guy even brought up the Holocaust as defense (he does this all the time). It was the scariest, nastiest kind of radio, filled with venom and hate. The problem is, almost 70% of the country is not on their side, and they're going to the mat over this!

If you consider Bush's cuts to Medicaid, The Childrens' Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the Farm Bill (which I agree with), and think about his proposals to cut more taxes for the much better off, it's not going to be so easy for these folks to maintain their facade.

Whichever way this case goes, and however it ends up, it's largely irrelevant to me. I'm bothered that a man is being called a liar by religious groups, and it's creating divisions nationally. But at the end of the day I don't know her, him, or her parents, so I can't grieve anymore for them than I do for the thousands of others that are sick, poor, hungry, ailing, and dying. At least she's being cared for.

It sucks most for her because who in their right mind, if they could think, would ever want to be in her position? If I couldn't leave my room for the rest of my life, totally healthy, I wouldn't want to live! But Republicans have found themselves a living, breathing, human prop they can use, that can't represent herself. It's like the ultimate in Republican props!

Too bad we know what she'd say if she could, and 70% of the nation hears her loud and clear.

Tick, tick, tick, tick...the long run will arrive.

Good Timing

"Iranian Leader Says He's Ready to Battle to Death" - Lucky for this Ayatollah the Republicans are in power because if we attack him, and cause brain damage, or he's near death, they'll do everything in their power to save his life.

They are a compassionate bunch.

Tom Delie

The Republican leader:

"She talks and she laughs and she expresses likes and discomforts," he said Sunday evening. "It won't take a miracle to help Terri Schiavo. It will only take the medical care and therapy that patients require."

Which means for the last 15 years she just hasn't been cared for, of course.

I keep hearing people say should die naturally. If left alone, she would!

The SPTimes also made this point:

But analysts and critics say the Schiavo case has provided the perfect chance for DeLay, who has been facing questions about his ethical conduct, to work on his image and divert attention from more troublesome matters. It's also an opportunity to woo social conservatives who will be key to ensuring the Republicans maintain their hold on Congress in next year's elections.

Bush's Bill

This is what he signed as Governor:

§ 166.039. PROCEDURE WHEN PERSON HAS NOT EXECUTED OR
ISSUED A DIRECTIVE AND IS INCOMPETENT OR INCAPABLE OF
COMMUNICATION. (a) If an adult qualified patient has not
executed or issued a directive and is incompetent or otherwise
mentally or physically incapable of communication, the attending
physician and the patient's legal guardian or an agent under a
medical power of attorney may make a treatment decision that may
include a decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining
treatment from the patient.

The War on Stupidity

When do we begin that fight?

In an effort to increase pressure on North Korea, the Bush administration told its Asian allies in briefings earlier this year that Pyongyang had exported nuclear material to Libya, when the shipment in fact went first to Pakistan, the Washington Post reported Sunday.

The Bush administration claim was a significant new charge, the first allegation that North Korea was helping to create a new nuclear weapons state.

But that is not what U.S. intelligence reported, according to two officials with detailed knowledge of the transaction, the Post reported.

North Korea, according to the intelligence, had supplied uranium hexafluoride -- which can be enriched to weapons-grade uranium -- to Pakistan. It was Pakistan, a key U.S. ally with its own nuclear arsenal, that sold the material to Libya. The U.S. government had no evidence, the U.S. officials said, that North Korea knew of the second transaction, according to the Post.

Actually, conservatives already did start that war, but it's against their own constituents.

One for the Photo Album

I can't believe I didn't see this:

Just before his helicopter lifted off, Frist and aides took snapshots of each other near a pile of tsunami debris.

"Get some devastation in the back," Frist told a photographer.

Woulda been a wasted trip without that photo...

I Heart Hypocrites

Absurd America:

The bill is written specifically to grant Terri Schiavo's parents, Mary and Bob Schindler, the standing to have a federal court review state court actions in the case.

But the only question for a federal court probably would be whether Terri Schiavo has been deprived of her constitutional right to due process, says Charles Fried, a law professor at Harvard University who was solicitor general during the Reagan administration.

"The bill itself does not create any new substantive rights," Fried says. "What they gain is delay and publicity, and a terrible, disgraceful interference in what is a personal tragedy."

That's basically it.

Republicans and Democrats arrive in Washington D.C. for separate reasons. Republicans are there to breakdown the three branches of government for political gain, and Democrats there to point out how absurd these people are to create a law for one person and change US Law in the process. There's nothing more to it.

I am sure most rationale Republicans, those who believe in "states' rights", agree about how absurd this issue really is. I predict more Republicans on the fence will move further left because of the conservatives, and this case.

Terri Schiavo did not choose her parents, but she did choose her husband. It would be so easy for him to give her up to them and her siblings, and let them take care of her (if you can even call it that). However, he has chosen to represent her wishes which is CLEARLY the more difficult act. She chose him, for he is the next of kin. He decides. A verbal contract is a contract in US Law. A marriage license is a contract. Republicans who vote for this bill are accusing the dynamic Terri Schiavo of having married a liar. Isn't that special?

If you cannot point to a federal claim you cannot bring a case to Federal Court. This case has been decided by the court in Florida, end of story. No, no, but we're the hypocrites, and we'll say and do anything to push our absurd beliefs.

Conservatives don't care if she lives or dies, but only if they get their vote recorded for political purposes. They are using this woman, and her family too. The party of the shameless.

I would suggest going to CSPAN and watching the House debate.

After the Democrats made the case over and over that this was a violation of federal law, and a case for one person, Republicans responded with nothing but pointless babble. House Majority Leader Tom Delay wrapped it up by mentioning the "dryness" of her mouth from being starved of fluids. THE DRYENESS! She can't feel anything, you jackass! This is their argument, over, and over, and over. They are trying to convince Americans that if you allow her to die she won't be able to plant daisies in the yard next year.

The best part about this, or worst, is Tom Delay has been the man out front the whole time, as well as Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Leader Bill Frist. Delay, of course, is looking for conservative support because of all his legal troubles. He wants to be viewed as a compassionate man fighting for the right to live. Truth is, he's shoe scum on a good day, and he's using the Schiavo/Schindler families more than anyone. The other two, well they are just wearing their conservative credentials proudly. Shameless.

It's official, the law just passed! 12:42 AM, Monday, March 21. Unbelievable.

Democrats like Mel Watt from North Carolina stepped to the podium and responded to comments by white, male, conservatives about "compassion." These people have the audacity to get up their and discuss the "most vulnerable" among us, and a "culture of life" while time after time they cut funding for the most vulnerable, as they did just last week when it came to Medicaid. Unbelievable. Shameless.

Congressman Watt asked how much it was costing Congress just to hear this case, and how the millions of dollars it would cost could actually be feeding the "most vulnerable" among us, as kids starve across this country right now.

These people don't care, for they are scum. Chances are they never even read the doctors' report, as admitted by Congressman Roy Blunt. Doctors chosen by both families, and one by the court, agreed about her condition. Doctors within Congress, and hired by conservatives, have seen PHOTOS and VIDEO, and disagree! Go figure?!?!

It's really so embarrassing to be an American sometimes because of the conservatives running this country.

Digby

Those of us:

Tom DeLay of Texas says:

"Mrs. Schiavo's life is not slipping away - it is being violently wrenched from her body in an act of medical terrorism," DeLay said. "Mr. Schiavo's attorney's characterization of the premeditated starvation and dehydration of a helpless woman as 'her dying process' is as disturbing as it is unacceptable. What is happening to her is not compassion - it is homicide. She doesn't need to die, and as long as Terri Schiavo can breathe and her supporters can pray, we will not rest."


By now most people who read liberal blogs are aware that George W. Bush signed a law in Texas that expressly gave hospitals the right to remove life support if the patient could not pay and there was no hope of revival, regardless of the patient's family's wishes. It is called the Texas Futile Care Law. Under this law, a baby was removed from life support against his mother's wishes in Texas just this week. A 68 year old man was given a temporary reprieve by the Texas courts just yesterday.

Those of us who read liberal blogs are also aware that Republicans have voted en masse to pull the plug (no pun intended) on medicaid funding that pays for the kind of care that someone like Terry Schiavo and many others who are not so severely brain damaged need all across this country.

Those of us who read liberal blogs also understand that that the tort reform that is being contemplated by the Republican congress would preclude malpractice claims like that which has paid for Terry Schiavo's care thus far.

Those of us who read liberal blogs are aware that the bankruptcy bill will make it even more difficult for families who suffer a catastrophic illness like Terry Schiavo's because they will not be able to declare chapter 7 bankruptcy and get a fresh start when the gargantuan medical bills become overwhelming.

And those of us who read liberal blogs also know that this grandstanding by the congress is a purely political move designed to appease the religious right and that the legal maneuverings being employed would be anathema to any true small government conservative.

Those who don't read liberal blogs, on the other hand, are seeing a spectacle on television in which the news anchors repeatedly say that the congress is "stepping in to save Terry Schiavo" mimicking the unctuous words of Tom Delay as they grovel and leer at the family and nod sympathetically at the sanctimonious phonies who are using this issue for their political gain.

This is why we cannot trust the mainstream media. Most people get their news from television. And television is presenting this issue as a round the clock one dimensional soap opera pitting the "family", the congress and the church against this woman's husband and the judicial system that upheld Terry Schiavo's right and explicit request that she be allowed to die if extraordinary means were required to keep her alive. The ghoulish infotainment industry is making a killing by acceding once again to trumped up right wing sensationalism.

This issue gets to the essence of the culture war. Shall the state be allowed to interfere in the most delicate, complicated personal matters of life, death and health because a particular religious constituency holds that their belief system should override each individual's right to make these personal decisions for him or herself. And it isn't the allegedly statist/communist/socialist left that is agitating for the government to tell Americans how they must live and how they must die.

One of the things that we need to help America understand is that there is a big difference between the way the two parties perceive the role of government in its citizens personal lives. Democrats want the government to collect money from all its citizens in order to deliver services to the people. The Republicans want the government to collect money from working people in order to dictate individual citizen's personal decisions. You tell me which is the bigger intrusion into the average American's liberty?

Part 2?

Comedy:

March 20, 2005 -- NORTH PLATTE, Neb. — Mobster-turned-chef Henry Hill, who inspired the movie "Goodfellas," has been charged with felony drug possession.

Police said Hill's luggage was searched on Aug. 15 at the North Platte Regional Airport and methamphetamine and cocaine were found. On Friday, Lincoln County Judge Kent Florum sent him to district court on a felony charge of drug possession.

Modern Love

I really love this shit.

Right?

CSM:

"Congress's overreaching flies in the face of our entire system of checks and balances, trashes the partial sovereignty of the states, and flouts the protections our laws afford state adjudication from drive-by attacks by those disaffected with the results," says Laurence Tribe, a Harvard University law professor.

Wrong:

Senate leader Bill Frist, a surgeon, said that "From a medical standpoint, I wanted to know a little bit more about the case itself," so he reviewed the 2001 tapes on which the case was based. "Scores of neurologists have come forward and said that it doesn't look like she is in a persistent vegetative state," he said last week.

I love a doctor who uses the 'eye test.'