Bush signs Terris Law

Just announced on CNN, Signed at 1:11am. Now OFFCIALY in hand of Federal Courts.

He'll be worthless tomorrow.

Just like every day.

to sign this thing.

"Mr. President, on way back to bed, could you please step into the Oval Office for a moment? And please remember to wash your hands, there might be some souvenir pens to pass out."

"Oh, yes, of course, you can bring "Fluffy..."

Probably not.
"Just sign here Mr.President..."
Fucker. GODDAMMIT.

He usually retires to bed by 9:00 PM.

:eyes:

I guess he doesn't have a problem with "Activist Judges" anymore?...He is probably making calls to some of his own.

In other news, you are powerless if your doctor removes the wrong body part.

I am so sick of these nutcases.

she got a large malpractice award as I understand it and medicaid is paying too.

Yet these same asshats want to cap malpractice awards and cut medicaid funding!

I wonder if that is mentioned in her very own law

I read a decision by Judge Greer a bit ago and he refers to Medicare paying for some of the treatments that her parents want and some other treatments. So she's getting social security, if she's getting Medicare. And Mr. Culture-of-life has all of it screwed up.

<snip>

Medicaid pays for Schiavo's medication, and Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., provides her care for free, the lawyers say.

<snip>

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/03/21/MNGPVBSH331.DTL

I think the bill needs to be like given a final once over and all I heard several people say it would take an hour before Bush got it and now....29 minutes...crap...

the responsibility of paying her medical expenses? or was $$$$ even mentioned? Wait.....don't tell me....let me guess.....yellow rogue is going to have all the bills sent 2 the whitehouse....Did I guess right?

The responsibility of paying everyone's medical expenses.

Fair is fair.

accomplish if they really worked? But It is better they don't if this is the kind of thing they do!

fucking asshole

"He cut his vacation short and RUSHED back to Washington to sign this important bill"

He didn't sign shit, he just stamped it with his paw print.

This is going to be a three ring circus all week long.

which applies only to.....er, Terri.


To paraphrase a great movie, the bullshit in DC is stacked so high right now you need wings to stay above it.

but could be no where to be found when our nation was attacked!

our nation was attacked
the first POW's were taken in his war
the first soldiers were killed in his war
any soldiers funeral because of his war
Baby Sun was killed by the law he signed; against his mother's wishes
the tsunami
and any other emergency of any importance anywhere
Now if only anyone would start pointing all the above out in the so called media.

pen?"

They're his people after all!

just what they have unintentionally undone by their swift and hasty polical pandering passing of this law? What else has just made it's way in front of Fed judges using this as a precedent?

And if the Fed judge agrees with the state judge, how long are we going to hear the shrill screams of "activist judges" ?

When I'm old(er) and decrepit, being kept alive by the hum of machinery, I want Congress to make ME a law that says I'M special and cannot be terminated just because I will die without my tube.

I mean, it's all about "equal protection under the law," innit?

unconstitutional immediately and thrown out. The tube will not go back in.

Anything other than that outcome means every last person in this country who ever had a civil case not go their way needs to start petitioning Congress for a law to get a second chance.

They gave an animated corpse special rights, but wn't feed people wo can think and feel.

the Politicians who have been complaisant with this Regime in eroding OUR Protections and Rights under OUR Constitution.

to pull the plug against the wishes of families versus BUSH'S "Terri" law.

Sure sounds like it to me. People contest property wills everyday. So what's to keep a relative now from contesting a properly documented end-of-life directive? This is a bad law in so many ways I can't begin to count.

And Jack Cafferty, jerk that he can be at times, made an excellent point this morning on CNN: Everybody flies back to Washington for this case -- vactions get interrupted, etc. But, everybody sat on his ass after the 9/11 Commission report came out, and did nothing until the public outcry became too loud. Where's the priority?

I also don't remember Bush and Congress being so outraged last week when a Texas hospital allowed an infant to die against his mother's wishes, either.

This blatant, shameless (im)moral grandstanding to the "culture of life" base on the part of Bush and the Republican Party sickens me. If they truly cared even a WHIT for the Schindlers and Shiavo I could perhaps stomach it a little. But these poor people are only means to an end for Bush and the right wing.

I am now hoping that when my time comes, it comes quickly and painlessly. I don't want my propped-up corpse ending up in front of a federal judge.

Nothing in this act shall affect the rights of any person under the Patient Self-Determination Act of 1990 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c109:2:./temp/~c1090PWwMP::

But the Florida judicial system has reaffirmed countless times that Terri's wishes (ie Self-Determination) were that no artificial means were to be used. This is a fact that only the courts can decide.

A good judge will throw this new law out as not only being unconstitutional, but not even applicable.

L-

so I can do a search for info? Thanks

but this is a good place to start.

http://www.chron.com/

including a story about this baby and a pic of him and his mother.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3294267#

...... and conrgess spends the night on this? good thing they're not burning the midnight oil for the economy, iraq, health care, the environment, etc....

that Bush gets the opportunity to play god.

Too bad the sanctity of life doesn't apply to Iraqi civilians.

I hate repugs!

The way I see this is that, while this law is applicable to Terri,it could be used as a precedent to strike down any one's DNR declaration and Living Will provisions.

like they did with the bogus 2000 selection. It won't be applicable to anyone else at any other time.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/03/21/feeding_tube_case_heads_to_us_court/

Feeding tube case heads to US court
Congress votes to let judge decide; Bush endorses bill

By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | March 21, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Congress early today voted to grant a federal court the power to review the case of Terri Schiavo, clearing the way for the brain-damaged Florida woman to have the feeding tube that has kept her alive replaced.

The House, meeting in an extraordinary overnight session that began on Palm Sunday, voted 203 to 58 at about 12:35 a.m. to empower a federal judge to rule on Schiavo's case. The vote followed by several hours a voice vote that approved the bill in the Senate, and President Bush flew back to Washington from his Texas ranch yesterday specifically so he could immediately sign the bill.

The moves, backed by House and Senate Republican leaders, appear likely to extend the lengthy political and legal saga involving Schiavo, who has been incapacitated for 15 years. Lawyers in Florida were poised to rush to court as soon as Bush's approval was finalized to ask a judge to order the feeding tube that was removed Friday to be reinserted, ensuring that Schiavo will be alive to have her case reviewed.

''The Florida courts are enforcing a merciless directive to deprive Theresa Marie Schiavo of her right to life," said House Judiciary Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., a Wisconsin Republican. ''No right is more sacred than the right to life."

Just three senators, all Republicans, were present for the Senate vote. But the House vote was delayed by nearly 12 hours by Democrats who objected to the measure being taken up without debate, and several Democrats continued to argue against the action on the House floor.....

The tube will not be reinserted. Count on it.

who will prevail, but rather Terris' evident wishes and common sense, both things having been lost sight of in the Repug's 'Perfect Storm' of indignation and hubris.

....But the case also has broader implications for long-running debates about euthanasia and abortion, with Republicans characterizing their support for her case as a ''right-to-life" issue. A one-page, unsigned memo circulated among Senate Republicans over the weekend characterized it as a ''a great political issue" that has the potential to energize the party's ''pro-life base."

Publicly, Republicans sought to distance themselves from such sentiments yesterday, saying they were acting only to help a defenseless woman.

''I have never seen the memo, I did not authorize the memo, and I condemn the content of the memo," said Senate majority leader Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee. ''The interest in this case by myself -- and the many members of the Senate on both sides of the aisle -- is to assure that Mrs. Schiavo has another chance at life."...

did not care about this issue so they voted unanimously wwith
the Republicans..

Snyder says Dems were afraid the Right to Lifers would go after them in 2006. I say Right to Lifers are going after DEms anyway. They in
their absolutist thinking see Dems as Liberal and Liberal as evil.
Rolling over only makes Dems look weak IMO.

If they did not vote unaminosly with the Republicans --they better get on TV making correctionsIMO

Or the rest of us will...their choice.

It's official: The right-to-lifers now rule this country if they can so intimidate the opposition party in this manner. Make no mistake: abortion is next on the list. If the Dems so easily cave on this, the RTLers will stomp all over them in getting Roe litigated out of existence.

The Terri Schiavo situation should be of significant concern to all of us,
both liberals and conservatives. While we may be amused by the circus act
going on in Congress, the implications of this activity is frightening.
The Congress of the United States is attempting to take control over the
circumstances of one particular family. They are trying to take control
over the decisions being made by one family member with regard to another.
They are trying to take away from state courts the power to make decisions
for citizens of that state. The same people who tell us that government
is too big and too intrusive are intruding directly into the affairs of a
man and his wife. The same people who tell us that decisons should be made
by people at the local level are proposing to have the Federal government
take over. Whether or not you agree with the decisons of the Florida
courts, whether or not you agree with the conduct of Mrs. Schiavo's husband,
you should be alarmed nevertheless by the intervention of the U.S. Congress
in the minute affairs of one person.

What has brought this about? Only one thing: the religious right. And we
should all be concerned about that because if the religious right can get
the U.S. Congress into emergency session to ensure that one person in the
entire country is kept on a feeding tube, what are the implications for the
future? Is there any reason to believe that the next step won't be to
attempt to prevent one particular woman from getting an abortion, or one
particular man from getting a vasectomy? It sounds ridiculous, but
haven't we already reached the ridiculous in the Schiavo case? Is there any
reason to believe that the religious right will not go looking for other
such situations in which to seek and obtain Congressional intervention?

What is exposed here is the real danger to our democracy. It is not
foreign terrorism. It is the religious right in this country which
believes that the Bible takes precedence over any other law, including the
Constitution, and which they interpret in ways that support only their
extreme views. No doubt, many in the extreme right would probably be glad
to throw out the Constitution and replace it with the Bible. Who needs a
constitution when you have The Ten Commandments?

Think about it.

Paul

suggest something deeper afoot.

Apparently what the house wanted to pass would have been broader than the Shciavo case - having an immediate impact on cases across the country.

The senate wanted (and did) to make it a "private bill" to Schaivo only - to avoid that scenario. Apparently the house republicans DID NOT WANT a "private bill".

This explains to me why the senate pushed fast, and why some dems seemed to have gone a long - as in a way to prevent a broad bill becoming law with little substantive debate - fuelled by the public sympathy for this single case.

It is interesting - per your point - that initially the House Repubs did not want to go this route. They were ready (or at least the leadership was ready - and pushing the rest, again with the cover of the emotions per this single case) to push the agenda for the religious right - and subvert traditional power (individuals, families, courts) with likely reprecussions for those with living wills.

I think I also read that in Wisconsin there was a bill being introduced in their statehouse to override living wills.

When you wipe away the sideshow of the political moves of the past few days - there is something much deeper lying beneath it.

Given those implications - and though it prolongs the situation of Ms. Shiavo - I am glad that it appears that if something was going to go through - that the senate power play for a "private bill" is what won. For the other to go through should require a national conversation - and I do not think that the rr and the repubs would win.

I can see a pregnant teen contemplating an abortion. Congress swoops in, fearing that the constitutional rights of the fetus are not being protected. case takes a while to litigate. Viola! Another child in the world, without health care, daycare, headstart...oh, but that's not our problem says Congress...on to the next "life saving" issue....

Funny thing is that the some jerk offs that want a constitutional amendment against gay marriage supported this bill. Apparently the deep solemn bonds of marriage between a man and a woman only apply when Bill Frist and his cronies DECIDE that it does?

I can't add a thing. Your post echos my thoughts exactly.

"In cases like this one, where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws, and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life."


Im sure this applies to people given the death penalty, right?

Has anyone heard what their next move will be? A federal law? Will Republicans craft it specifically to this case or will it affect all people with brain dead relatives who wish to remove their feeding tubes?

The drama is so high now, what happens if Jeb has to surround that hospice with the National Guard to keep the pro-lifers at bay the next time her feeding tube gets removed? This is a high profile crusade now for them. I'm starting to worry that they will ultimately get what they want by any means necessary. I used to be of the opinion that this was a classic case of the Republicans winning with fundies by losing. The longer this goes on, I'm not so sure that will happen without them paying a major political price among non-fundies. It's possible that the Republicans who are trying to ride this tiger may end up being sorry when it bites them in the ass big time. They are in cahoots with some real nutcases now in a high profile case. They have shown so little respect for the laws of Florida in this case, how will they distance themselves from any of their more unhinged cohorts in the pro-life movement who decide to take the law into their own hands?

But he immediately flew to DC to 'save' a person in a 'persistent vegetative state'. Good God Almighty. Licking the ass of the right wing christians that got the idiot elected.

This guy always finds news ways to reach new lows.

she'll say about the fact her husband has a totally separate life, with children and some lady his shacked up with for years? Do you suppose he'll then go back to Terri and live with her and pay child support to his other illegitimate family? Why hasn't anyone pointed out about Michaels broken wedding vows? HELLO...he said, "until death do us part and better or worse!" Why does he get to walk away from this all? I think the story is does marriage only count if it's convenient to the husband? Who has rights over Terri? Would Terri, if she had all her faculties and suddenly springs back to life, want to have Michael back in a marriage? It's all so stupid. Let the parents have her, test her until she can't be tested anymore, and then once that's determined, then find a humane rapid way to let her go. With all this technology and the ability to put someone to death quickly, then why not mercy death?

They've stated already that they will go to any means to keep what's left of her out of the ground -- they would amputate her limbs, authorize organ transplants, anything.

These are not rational people. They are Juana la Loca, the Spanish queen who carted her dead husband's body all around the country waiting for him to wake up. Eventually, people couldn't stand the stench of rot.

Her parents do not care about "her," they care only about themselves. I've had friends and relatives who have had to make decisions like the one facing Terri's parents, and as heart-wrenching as it is, everyone has accepted that "life" is finite but its end can be murky.

Someone on another thread said, "Well, why don't they try to feed her and if she's able to eat, they can take her home and feed her." I mean, duh, if she could eat, she wouldn't be on a feeding tube! Let's get real, folks.

This is not about whether or not the fleshly shell that once was Terri Schiavo can ever be reinhabited by a human entity. It's about whether or not we allow the everyday personal and private decisions of individuals to be waived in favor of the micromanaging and "moral" oversight of the government.

This is, of course, the road to overturning Roe. The "right to life" phrase used so often in referring to Terri is telling, and it's not even subtle. Any woman who is contemplating an abortion now has to wonder if she will be subjected to opposition from anyone who says that zygote, blastula, embryo, or fetus has "a right to life."

Do not expect anyone on the right to protest the deaths of convicted (even if wrongly so) criminals; people like them are considered to have given up their "right" to life when they commited crimes. (This is the argument I get to listen to every time my uber-Catholic, pro-death penalty acquaintances bait me with this topic.) The "right to life" only covers the "innocent," not the guilty.

Wow, that would be a miracle. It would change everything. But, lets worry about that if it happens.

The White House Press Gaggle notes and link from the White House web-site. Also Drudge Report covered the story, more specifically on the comments about Bush signing the Schiavo Bill.

From Drudge Report (sorry):



From the White House web-site:

not that I would fault him for that...I do fault him for not simply staying the fuck awake so he could actually pay attention to what he was doing! shrub was on vacation for crissake! It's not like he wasn't rested or anything! sheesh.

LOL

Excuse my language, but this really takes the cake.

Was he wearing...
Oh those press rascals, kind of warms the cockels of your heart, I guess laughter is the best medicine.

in his pajamas.:silly:

That's so fucking charming.

It makes it so much harder to despise the man now that he's been made to seem so human and adorable. All together now, at the notion of our Fearless Leader in his pajamas:

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwgag...............

Asswipe can't stay awake long enough to listen to the debate or pay attention to what's being said about the situation. A real hands-on motherfucker, ain't he?

Whether or not you think that Terri should live or die everyone should be against congress stepping in. What the heck is the point of the Judiciary system if a bunch of activist letter writers can just get congress to step in? This endangers any case that might be deemed morally "unsound" in the eyes of the left or the right. We all know this would not have happened under a Democratic government, so what now individual court cases can take sudden sharp turns depending on who's in office?

Susan Davis!

:toast:

She abstained as did several others from my area, including conservative Republican Duncan Hunter.

The only person qualified to make the life or death decision on the behalf of Terri Schiavo is her husband.

I guess marriage is sacrosanct unless you happen to disagree with a tough decision someone makes on the behalf of a spouse who is unable to communicate his or her wishes.

:eyes: