Schiavo Lays Bare all the Republican Hypocrisies

I took up political blogging about 6 months ago as a therapeutic exercise to control the anger and Loss I felt at the end of the last election. And while I tend to write 1000+ word missive everyday about all the sins of our current administration, I haven't been able to write about this case. Mostly because of the utter inchoate rage I feel every time I hear more about what narrow-minded hypocritical zealots are putting her husband and poor dead Terry through.

Terry is dead. Not mostly dead, not almost dead VERY dead. She has not awakened in ten years and she's not going to. I almost think the husband is going to have to call John Cleese as at witness to properly describe how deceased she is. I wish I could be funny about this but in reality its a abomination what it being done to this woman. Worse yet, it lays bare all the hypocrisies of these appalling Republicans who dare to claim they are motivated by "moral values"

Imagine for one second the parents are right. That Terry is somehow conscious and aware, just unable to move so much as a single muscle consciously. I don't know about anyone else but that to me is perhaps the worst, most horrible thing I could imagine. My personal version of hell is very close to that. Let me go on record as saying, that If ever anyone even suspected I was in that state, I would consider it an act of kindness to put a .45 to my temple and pull the trigger repeatedly. If your are true friend, use hollow points and be sure to destroy the brain stem as well.

Terry's parents remind me of a couple my sister the NICU nurse encountered a few years ago. This couple had an Anacephalic baby ( which in English means that the baby was born without a brain...she had a brainstem but no cerebrum or cerebellum, her skull was flat, without any bulge at all, making her condition perfectly obvious to anyone that looked. Nonetheless the parents insisted she be put on machines to help her breathe, and so was kept alive. Every day they tell the nursing staff that they think today is the day she might wake up, and that they think they've noticed she's getting better. They hold birthday parties and bring Christmas presents, "knowing" she appreciates them. That body, without a brain, has stayed in the hospital now going on 20 years. It will never wake up because it can't and never could. But the parents insist and the law is such that she can;t be unhooked without their consent. So the horror story continues.

Are the Republicans being hypocritical? you damn betcha. let me count the ways:

1) the Republicans while claiming to operate from moral concern for this poor woman have nonetheless created a strategy memo talking about how to use the issue to try to wedge Sen Bill Nelson (D-Fla) from his seat, which rhetoric aside, strikes me as the Real Reason they are doing this

2) Destroying the "sanctity of Marriage": not precisely sure what this phrase has ever meant, but the Republicans sure on big on defending it. Except apparently when they aren't like when they want to subject a spousal decision on care to a veto by the family of the person. This is particularly chilling when you consider that while you voluntarily pick your spouse, presumably because they share your values and beliefs. You have no say in who your family is, and can often have a vastly different world view

3) So much for states rights: The Republicans wave the banner of "states rights" (which looks suspiciously like the old Stars and Bars) to try to destroy every progressive federal policy on the environment, worker safety, diability law etc. Now suddenly they want to overrule a state supreme court on a matter of State law, and without precedent or justification give the case over to a federal Judge

4) These same assholes who suddenly vaunt the time honored tradition of Federal Habeas Corpus review of state court decisions are the same people who effectively annihilated the right for death sentence appeals from state court, and are routinely ignoring federal judges who demand that the Gitmo Detainees and Jose Padillia be given Habeas rights to be either charged or released

5) interesting isn;t it that these people who claim a firm commitment to fostering a "Culture of Life" are also greasing the skids of the Death penalty machinery, endorsing the use of torture, supporting a war with a bogus justification, etc etc

of course there's more, but Like I said I get incoherent when I think too hard about this....

WE have got to get our country back and soon.....or we may not recognize it when we do