HEADS UP: An Important Point on this Terry Schiavo Issue

This may be coldly analytical, but it needs to be said.

In my blog today, I made the following observation:

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Say what you will about the GOP majority and their allies in the White House, and there is much to say, but one thing cannot be denied: These folks have mastered the art of distraction and implementation. Consider the last month or so. Bush and his congressional allies jumped up and started waving their arms and shouting, “Look over here! We’re going to privatize Social Security! Look, we’re gonna do it! Here it comes! You can’t stop us!” The Democrats and their activist allies got all gamed up to fight the SS privatization push, and effectively beat the idea to death.

Here’s the thing: I believe Bush and his crew knew their SS plan was DOA weeks ago, but kept pushing it to distract their opponents from a bunch of other stuff that got rammed through as if it were on greased skids. While everyone was running around shouting about Social Security, the boys in the back room managed to pass: a) A Bankruptcy Bill that was basically a huge kiss on the lips to credit card companies; b) A Gun Manufacturers Shield Law that bars anyone from suing gun manufacturers for liability in shootings; and c) The ANWR Drilling Fiasco Act. Smooth, sly, and very effective.

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To no small degree (and some of you who are passionate about this subject will be angered by my saying this, but it needs saying), this Schiavo congress thing is these fellows waving their arms and yelling, "Hey, look over here! Look here! Get outraged here! Get mobilized here! Nyah nyah nyah! Here!"

What they accomplish from this is to distract us from the MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH larger issue of the looming fight over the so-called 'Nuclear Option' regarding the filibuster. They don't want us to game up for that fight.

Here's the thing: You can maybe score some points on the Schiavo issue, but if you take the bait, you drain energy and resources from the filibuster fight.

And I say this here and now: If we lose that filibuster fight, issues like the Schiavo one will become completely moot, because the GOP will remake the courts for the next 30 years, and any and all choice-or-life discussions from euthanasia to abortion will be done and over with and finished.

Let them flog poor Ms. Schiavo, for whom my heart honestly bleeds. No one deserves to be a pawn in this kind of despicable game. But if we get geared up for that fight and let the ship sail on the filibuster issue, a lot of very bad things will happen in rapid succession.

They are yelling, "Hey, look over here! Look here! Get outraged here! Get mobilized here! Nyah nyah nyah! Here!" for a reason.

Don't take the bait. You can maybe help one Schiavo, or you can definitely help millions of them.

what are tehy trying to distact?

Also today is friday, what major news are tehy also trying to hide?

This is news dump fridday

minute at 90 mph.

And Will, you are, of course, spot on.

am passionate about. It can be lumped in with what McGwire said or didn't say...did or didn't do... But, anything that is legislated with regard to this woman impacts the rest of us as we attempt to live.

Like someone else said it is Friday and they had the steroid thing and this case. They spent lots of time and money on this for nothing (I believe) because they more then likely knew they would lose, but yet they still did their plan anyways for the pro-life people and to keep us from what they are really up to. The key is to finding out what. Were any democrats involved in this? I know they tried to make Boxer and Wyden out to not "care for life" on CNN earlier today.

re insurance companies that deny lifesaving procedures?

ellen fl

like who the hell cares...maybe you do, I dont. there are more important matters than who is taking what in baseball.

I would add TANG and Gannon to the list of distractions.

Gotta stop focusing on the minnows and keep our eyes on the sharks circling.

middle of the night when no one's watching, or giving congressmen an impossibly short amount of time to read a thousand page bill before having it come to a vote.

The republicans are always trying to distract people and then sneak their agenda through. Don't fall for it. Spread the word.

shit was appointed by the Felonious Five, we have been served up numerous distractions, designed to focus our attention away from their ramrodding their agenda down everyone's throats.
Scott Peterson is now yesterday's news (he should never have been more than a blip on the radar screen in the first place); the media can only flog the Martha story for so long; Wacko Jacko's trial will eventually end; so now Congress is getting involved in doing its share of distracting, what with the baseball/steroid flap, and now this.
The bankruptcy bill, the ANWR bill, all that should have been front and center.
Under the radar.
Fuckers.

be big because they have BOTH Shiavo and the steroid hearings going. Watch out folks we're in trouble.

on C-Span, the reporters were trying to get out of Douglas Feith, Undersecretary of Defense, whether a new document released truly does support the United States' right for preemptive action in war, only with other nations "when we can." This guy was somehow involved in Abu Ghraib.

The reporters seemed astounded but I haven't heard anything about it on the MSM.

There is so much terrible legislation they are sliding through while people look the other way.
:scared:

You always get to the heart of the matter.

Is that related to the above post at all?

other legislation that will have a major impact on us gets passed. It is the worst kind of sleight of hand trick.
HR 418 is one of those pieces that is getting slid through while most attention is focused the other way. It is halfway there (already throught the house and in the Senate Judiciary) and it is one nasty piece of work.

The distraction aspect of this is not to be denied, but there are other factors involved: they really do want to institute this so-called 'culture of life' because it fits hand and glove with the abortion issue; they want to appeal to and fire up their fundie base for the next election (you bet they'll run on this no matter how it turns out); and they want to set a precedent for the federal government to subvert state law when convenient. In short, it's about exercising and maintaining power. Such is politics.

Exactly, it is about control. Control of over each and every aspect of your life, and death.

They don't care if She lives or dies. They care about who says when she dies. Soylent Green anyone?

for all the coverage re Terri is because today is the day to start starving her, which was decided weeks ago.

The news coverage has nothing to do with the administrations diversion and should not be lumped into the jackson, peterson, steriods crap.

You're right, Will...it IS coldly analytical.

Collateral damage, eh?

it can't be denied that congressional leaders chose to exploit this to the hilt!

James Dobson was interviewed this evening and he was railing about the FL judge, managing to get in a dig about how terrible some judges are, etc. I can hear groundwork for a case being made for two items on the RW agenda: replacing "activist judges" with their nominees, mostly made possible by their "nuclear option" to destroy the filibuster. That's where your point comes in, Will.

It's also very interesting to see DeLay making his grandstand about doing the right thing. Mr. Ethics is rehabilitating his image, a great way to deflect attention away from his shady sleaziness.

They're getting lots of mileage out of this while - as you say, Will -the media a lots of the electorate are not paying attention to the major stuff that will adversely affect (if not RUIN) the lives of so many - and that includes us, too.

(Edited for grammatical atrocities)

The "gay marriage issue" certainly distracted voters from the realities of war during the run up to election 2004.

When the focus returned to coffins landing at Dover AFB, suddenly the "Ten Commandments" in state buildings came to the forefront.

It seems a matter of Rove Corp picking his own fights to avoid the ones in which he feels disadvantaged.

I believe that almost every domestic agenda--in this day and age of the ruling neocons--is a distraction.

The neocons are in power. They have entrenched themselves in the Middle East--as planned. Their grand design hinges on expanding their warmongering to other areas of the Middle East.

THAT'S ALL THAT THESE BASTARDS CARE ABOUT!!!

See anything, at all, about Social Security or baseball in the PNAC agenda? Are any domestic issues even mentioned in the PNAC agenda?

THEY COULD CARE LESS!!

I agree with Will. They have known for weeks that SocSec is a dead issue. It is a distraction.

They've put up enough distractions this week, to sink a ship. SocSec, Congressional hearings on baseball, and now this little PR stunt with Schiavo.

I wouldn't put it past them to be manufacturing OTHER NEWS (general mainstream media stories) in an effort to keep America preoccupied with junk.

The question is.......what on earth are they currently doing or planning for which they need such overwhelming and potent distractions???????

What IS going on?

...activate RW models for seeing the world -- social programs are immoral; people need to be responsible for their debts/accidents, and if they can't manage, they should be punished and shouldn't pass the buck to banks/gun manufacturers; in times of economic trouble, Republicans will get you gas by any means necessary, while Democrats would rather see trees get a break and consumers suffer the economic consequences; life is precious, so long as you haven't committed a sin, but if you've committed a since, your life is worthless, etc.

In the last few weeks, the Republicans have been pounding home their conservative models for seeing the world, regardless of whether they've won or lost on the policy changes.

Democrats don't need to ignore them, but they do need to start activating some progressive models for looking at the world. If they don't start doing that, they aren't going to win any of these battles, much less the battle over the filibuster.

Agreed. Although I also agree that it doesn't hurt that they're taking up all the media coverage, while much more horrid things are going on at the hand's of this administration.

"Vote to make our country strong again; receive deindustrialization." (Per Thomas Frank, in "What's the Matter With Kansas.") It's the Republican M.O.

**Nothing** the GOP does should be taken at face value.

like the protestors against Gore in 2000. Not all of them..some may be sincerely whipped up into a frenzy worried about her life, but it wouldn't surprise me if there were "paid instigators."

Agree with what you say, and feel sorry that this woman has been made a spectacle of by the constant showing of her in her distress on Television like she's part of a freak show. It's awful.

But, we've got to keep our eye on what they are doing behind the scenes while they distract us.

they are a group from The Cause USA.out of maryland and total bush and GOP supports.they make this their cause..............



also check them out in our newpaper...

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/03/18/Tampabay/Support_of_life_draws.shtml

because the RWingers can set up organizations faster than we can post here on DU. :puke:

Thanks for the link!

just like the gay marriage issue was to divert attention from the real issues.

I hope we don't fall for it.

Avoiding the trap with gay marriage wasn't so much that Democrats should have ignored the issue, as it was to provide an alternative framework, whether it expressly (or ideally) implicitly covers the territory the RW is trying to cover with their models for addressing gay marriage, etc.

the distraction is working. The entire front page of GD is almost all threads about Schiavo. Was kind of annoyed with it when I logged in this morning...

but the issue of how much power does the Congress have to override courts, doctors, etc. to interfere in your private life.

I didn't pay much attention to the case until Repub politicians got invloved.

This issue of "life" also encompasses the abortion issue.

I see this entire issue of Congress versus our freedoms to be more important than any other.

I think we sometimes look at issues from the cynical and complicated point of view when the reality is plain and simple.

That said-- it would not suprise me if the chaos caused by Schiavo's case were not turned to advantage.

But I don't believe it was done by design.

It's easy to paint republicans as hard-hearted asses, but my experience is that the vast majority of them DO beleive in protecting innocent life at any cost. Call them naive in this regard, if you will, but their compassion is often real-- with no political strings attached.

I know many will scoff and flame me-- but it is important to understand your opposition. Just as republicans believe, for instance, that many environmentalists don't give a rat's-ass about the environment, but rather want to cripple the US economy and deal a blow to big-business.

Same thing.

The two parties CONTINUALLY fail to understand and underestimate the motives of the other.

And on edit-- As far as I'm concerned there should be no involvement from Congress on this issue.

I'm not trying to flame you, but how can you say that, when they support and promote illegal wars, in which probably hundreds of thousands of innocent lives are lost? And we're talking healthy, already born, innocent lives. I cannot understand, under what scenario, they really believe in protecting innocent lives. It seems to me that they are doing far more to ensure innocent lives are lost. I just can't see the logic.

but can't afford to pay the premiums with their walmart jobs. When they do get care it is at the emergency room with no follow up at their family doctor because they can't afford to pay insurance so they don't have one. If these folks really cared about life they would be ashamed that the many working people cannot get minimum preventative basic health care. Caring about life means caring for life.

This guy is a fucking low-life - trying to take political shots on this issue - where has this fucking ass-wipe been for the last seven years during the long legal battle in this case. This mother fucker (Delay) has got to be kicked out on the street on his fucking lying weasel ass

It's what's going on. They couldn't have another terrorist attack or anything else big like that since it would've been too obvious. How perfect was this? Getting people away from what they're really doing behind the curtains and gaining some points with the pro-life people.
Karl Rove has done it again. Maybe that's why they called up Karen Hughes? Doesn't she live in Florida still?

tactic, a few weeks ago?

Youre right their goal is to strip the filibuster, leaving us basically completely powerless.

Your insight will hopefully keep some of our ilk focused where they need to be.

Like you said, the distractions are to drain energy and resources from the filibuster fight. What are they doing behind closed doors?

Republicans that they should do something about this, or else their base is going to get ticked off at them.




http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110006442

PEGGY NOONAN

'Don't Kick It'
If Terri Schiavo is killed, Republicans will pay a political price.

Friday, March 18, 2005 1:37 p.m. EST

It appears we've reached the pivotal moment in the Terri Schiavo case, and it also appears our politicians, our senators and congressmen, might benefit from some observations.

In America today all big stories have three dimensions: a legal angle, a public-relations angle and a political angle. In the Schiavo case some of our politicians seem not to be fully appreciating the second and third. This is odd.

Here's both a political and a public-relations reality: The Republican Party controls the Senate, the House and the White House. The Republicans are in charge. They have the power. If they can't save this woman's life, they will face a reckoning from a sizable portion of their own base. And they will of course deserve it.

(more)

because "life is full of miracles" just like those christian dolphins that carried little Elian Gonzales to shore in Florida. :crazy:

Death Culture Stands With Her Hubby
Michael Morley - Medina, Ohio

A beautiful essay, ma'am, and oh so right. However, there is one point on which I must disagree. Michael Schiavo is not all alone. The whole Culture of Death stands with him, because it sees Terri Schiavo as an analog of the fetus, and if there is one thing that the Culture of Death cannot abide, it is the notion that a fetus should be protected by law.

Read some of the discussion threads at Democratic Underground and Daily Kos--the commitment these people have to the destruction of innocent life is truly creepy.

I'm rooting for Congress to get involved in this and pass something giving this woman a federal right to health care. If she gets it, so does everybody else.

I feel awful for her and her family. But the very day this thing becomes national news, we allow a state to remove life support to an infant over the objections of the mother, and there's not a word. An infant, whose condition might have been detected had the mother had health care, and who might have wanted an abortion. But oh no, we couldn't let her make that decision, but we can let a judge overrule her after the child is born.

They are psychotic. The whole lot of them.

But we do have to keep our eye on what's important and the judges and the filibuster is most important.

It boggles my mind, however, that anyone can tolerate how these assholes are "USING" this poor woman in such a politically gross way!!!

I find it infuriating that anyone, let alone so goshdamn many politicos, would use this woman to play god with another person's life in such a way. The whole thing is just,...SICK!

Worse, I turn off the media and come here to find the same disgusting obsession, thread after thread after thread.

Meanwhile, people are being blown up all over Iraq. Delay is still managing to stomp all over mother justice. The neoCONs have insulted the world by imposing Bolton and Wolfowitz on the international scene. The tax cuts to the wealthy elite have been extended. Greenspan is spinning, spinning, spinning away. Plans to wage war on Iran are still in the works. Horrific legislation is being attached to omnibus bills and/or being slipped through.

Hell, war is being waged on our secular, democratic country.

I mean, damn!!! DAMN!!!

MOREOVER, information pertaining to outright FRAUD and ABUSE OF POWER by our government is being drowned in the sea of obsessive-compulsive disordered "news"!!!

Is it any wonder the world is exploding with human dissent/opposition and protest?

Gawd,...my head is exploding!!! :nuke:

Sunday is Palm Sunday. Depending on Mrs. Schiavo's condition, there is a chance she could die within the Christian Holy Week or even on Easter Sunday.

The cynic in me says that these "right-to-life" folks realize this and the hue and cry that will result should this come to pass will be unbelievable. They are going to use the Schiavo case as a fundraising tool for years. Mark my words.

,...but calculating as hell.

Of course, we know that the politicos are USING this situation in the most cold and calculating way beneficial to their power-mongering agenda.

Amazing that, any American could ever feel as comfortable as these elected "representatives" to use human tragedy in such opportunistic, self-serving ways.

:puke:

Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice, and SEVERAL other members of this administration have committed impeachable acts by the thousands and the Dem's are running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to figure out a way to get around the iron-fisted control they have over our government in order to remove the lot of them from power.

I can't figure how they are going to do it, but our Constitution is quite clear on a whole lot of things the group of bad seeds has done. They are ALL impeachable! I suspect all this disinformation is an attempt to cover up the fact that a whole lot of people in DC are trying to figure out a way to get this done and several members of the Republican party are on board but they need to have an opportunity to "look good" in order to save the party, before the impeachment articles can be "publicized."

Wishful thinking? Maybe, but it's beginning to look more and more to me like there is a movement to get this thing done BEFORE he bombs Iran or Syria! I think they all realize that Putin will NOT back down if this administration attempts to pull another WMD scam on the world! I think they also realize that Putin isn't alone in his hatred of this administration and may even be working on his OWN coalition of the willing!

So far, I've got obstruction of justice, bribery, participation in prostitution, misuse of government agencies, misuse of campaign funds, perjury and many others that I can't think of at the moment because I am too tired and need a nap!

One other thing I might mention here is the fact that while our founding fathers were writing our Constitution, King George III's minister (prime-minister, like Tony Blair) was in the process of being impeached for "high crimes." The nature of THOSE crimes was EXACTLY what the GannonGate issue has now brought to the forefront. The Madison Statement within our Constitution was SPECIFICALLY concerned with the crime of "immoral behavior." The Madison Statement basically says NO PROOF is required to impeach a high ranking government official for those types of crimes. The crime that led Warren Hastings to be up on impeachment charges was running brothels in Bengal which was considered "immoral" and an impeachable crime. GannonGate has the potential to bite ALL of those involved in the ass and far more attention needs to be paid to the scandal than we are currently paying. If the media can break this story at the opportune moment it can definitely be used against this administration along with the specific type of torture abuse witnessed at Abu Girab and other prisons. That type of torture is also "immoral" and a few of our leaders have been attempting to bring both of these "immoral" crimes to the forefront.

Too many people only see that word in relation to sexual activity or things related to sex - like same sex marriage and abortion. And that's about IT. It's becoming more clear that they like it that way, because it doesn't encompass their laundry list of greed, hypocrisy, graft, mendacity, criminalities, theft, etc. ad infinitum. If people ever broadened the definitions of morality/immorality, MAYBE it would be more possible for them to question these "leaders" who are taking us all down the toilet.

Too many people have allowed themselves to see the world their way. We can't let them get away with defining "moral" and "immoral" in their shallow and narrow terms.

However, the SPECIFIC definition of "immoral" our founding fathers were getting at was EXACTLY the "immoral" behavior of prostitution/solicitation of such and the offering up of such to government officials. Thereby "offending the moral standards of British statesmen." Gannongate has the potential to impeach everyone involved without "proof". Our laws were SPECIFICALLY written with sexual immorality in mind. It was a big issue to them at the time.

Since they voted on a VERY partisan level NOT to investigate this this week, I wonder if Conyers has a way to get around that vote? Can government sources investigate on the sly? I am sooooooo incredibly frustrated that this issue is consistently buried EVERY time it comes up!

fuck Mr.bush and his minions. Fire up the country around 1 woman and ignore the rest of the world. Thanks Will.

A few Dem Senators could have voted it out. But if they cut a deal, if they are willing to sacrifice Terry's civil liberties, will they stick up for anyones' rights?

If what Michaels Shayvo's lawyer said is true, I am really ticked!

This isn't the first I've heard that this happened, but what was the deal?

At least our fair Senator Wyden stood firm.

He seemed pretty sincere about it, so I tend to believe him. He was naming names - "Hillary, Leahy, etc".

Maybe they are trying to deal on the "nucular option" or something.

i admit i get caught up in these distractions, and i wonder why they are wasting SO much energy on something SO irrelevant or small. i am not saying a life is not valuable, but in proportion to other things going on, the distractions are small. i forget to keep it in perspective, but that is exactly what they want!!

They have all the finesse of smoke alarm salesmen whose pitch is, "In case of fire, which of your children will you save?"

Using our values to distract us.

B@stards. Well, we just have to remember how capacious we are.

When will the sheeple wake up and realized they've been Punk'd?!?!

I knew they were using her as a football. They do not give a rip about anyone's welfare, and if people were a bit more awake, they would realize this. Lots of people are taken off life supports every day. But it suits all the drama addicted people to rant and rave about this.

can leave a person with a clearer vision of things. Like so many manufactured stories these days, it's purpose is only to distract. No more Peterson case? Well find another outrage, dammit!

That's exactly what those weasels are doing. They couldn't give a shit less about Ms. Schiavo...she and her parents are pawns in the RW political game. They need to know we are onto their sinister little games. They have done this so often, it really has become obvious. We need to stay focused on the Filibuster and closing down the Senate, if need be.

That's the cold, hard truth!

Give me a break!

Glad I made it to your post, because it was the FIRST thing I thought of when this hit the fan.

Now the MSM will fill the waves with Schiavo, and hardly a word will be mentioned about the 2+ year Iraq mess.

looks like it's up to us to pressure our congressional leaders to do the right thing. Some of these things went through by like 1 or 2 votes. sneaky bastards

Of distractions. Thinking as a freeper we got Baseball for the Menfolk and Schavio fer da wimmins.

It's not just us doing it, (being distracted) it's also the DNC (giving them the benefit of doubt, because otherwise they're in on it).

-Hoot

thing and the steroid bs was to distract us from the ss 'fix'. i totally agree tho' that we need to keep our eye on the prize because the repugs are sleight-of-hand masters.

ellen fl

good rant, btw.

"Hey, look over here! Look here! Get outraged here! Get mobilized here! Nyah nyah nyah! Here!" I get weary waiting for that day, but i hope, before it's too late, it will come. Will, I'm glad you pointed it out.

and so VERY, VERY true!

They are forever throwing distractions at us! That's why they can;t be trusted for a second because there's always another reason for everything they do and say!

I've been thinking about this a lot, and I just haven't been able to connect the dots.
I'm always thinking big picture, as opposed to getting granular.

I've been wondering for months now..."what the hell are these guys thinking?"

Every time I see some stupid poll that says "80% of Americans are against the privatization of Social Security" or "72% think the government should not involve itself in the Schiavo case" I'm thinking if so many people are against this, why do these idiots continue to forge straight ahead into what appears to be a brick wall?

Now, thanks to your succinctly written conclusion, I understand why.

It's a smoke screen. It's a sham.

And sadly, most Americans are so stupid and superficial that they allow themselves to get wrapped around the axle on stuff like this.
The MSM is a open sewage pipe, spilling hour after hour of pretend outrage and the average American just eats it up.

I asked some people in my office yesterday if they knew what the "nuclear option" was, and they all thought it had to do with Iran or North Korea.
When I attempted to explain it to them, I could see that they couldn't grasp what I was trying to tell them.

This is BIG trouble.
We are going to wake up one day and it's going to be over for all of us if we aren't careful.

Will, this was an excellent piece that you laid out for us. Great work as usual my friend.

SIGH...I WANT MY FREAKIN' COUNTRY BACK!

Big kick for this one.
This needs to stay on the radar.

bill.No one had a clue what I was talking about.They are very skillful at their game of diversion.I feel outrage fatigue,even as spring approaches.

Their wedge issues are just like the magician's lovely, scantily clad and gyrating assistant. The crowd watches the sideshow and misses all the trickery.

And I agree with several other people upthread that these bastards are trying to equate the Schiavo case with abortion to keep their rethug people all pumped up so they ignore all the other HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS that * & Co are pulling here and in Iraq. It's disgusting! :puke: I have no idea what other tricks * & Co have up their sleeves but we must keep our eyes and ears on alert! Gotta say that it really helps to not have cable and to not watch the network news..because no doubt they are sensationalizing the hell out of this story...glad that I don't have to watch it! :eyes:

nt

I know the Dems intend to stay firm..

if this is recieving any attention at all in the foreign press? And if so, what is the take on it?

This is a case upon which well meaning people on both sides can have reasonable opinions. What is truly sad is that the only person who cannot have an opinion on this case is Terri Schaivo herself. The whole arguement centers around the unproveable--what would Terri have wanted.

The Republicans and the Right to Life crowd are politicizing a private tragedy. They are using this to throw a bone to the Religious Right--who they intend to screw massively in coming months. And they are using this case to distract the opposition and the public from the fact that they too are getting screwed royally. It is masterful manipulation of people's emotions.

My mother died last month and I had to make some of the same decisions. Fortunately she had signed a living will so that I had something concrete to work with so that her wishes could be respected--still it is agonizing to try and interpret your loved one's thoughts on what constitutes extroadinary medical care and what does not.

I made these decisions with medical input from her doctors, the nurses who were caring for her and family and friends. I would not have wanted some politician--any politician with an agenda to have stuck his nose in this painful process.

The Democrats should decry Republican attempts to politicize a family's private tragedy, express their private opinions perhaps, but refuse to take any part in this charade.

I sympathize with the hard choices you had to make about your mother. None of us want to be faced with these decisions, but modern medicine makes the prospect increasingly common. Tough calls have to be made. People are disconnected from respirators and feeding tubes are removed every day in America without controversy. But in these cases, the family and caregivers have typically reached agreement that the time has come.

The question posed by the Schaivo case is how to resolve bitter disagreement among the family (and others close to the situation). The husband has wanted her dead from the start. The parents, supported by several of her former caregivers and others who have interacted with Terri, think she should not be killed. Ugly situation.

I've not been online much in recent weeks (new job and more restrictive internet rules, so I'm not around at all during the day), so please excuse me if the Baby Jane Doe comparison has already been talked to death. That was a landmark euthanasia case 25 years ago, and it got highly politicized, largely along pro-life/pro-choice lines (despite the fact that the baby was already born).

Anyhow, what has too often been left out of the Baby Jane Doe discussion is any reflection over HOW the case got started. On the left, it turned into a big bash-Reagan issue -- you know, that evil R.R. sending his minions out to Bloomington, Indiana to prevent a grieving family from medically executing a disabled baby girl -- but that's miles down the road.

The human face of the case was much closer to home. What happened, in fact, is that a nurse at the hospital objected to killing a Downs Syndrome baby. (The baby had a couple of other problems too, but those could and would have been routinely treated absent the Downs Syndrome. Downs was the killing issue.) The nurse, supported by various family, friends, and coworkers, walked into the county attorney's office saying that the hospital was wrongfully killing an infant, and things escalated from there.

Now, one can sympathize with the birth parents, who had several other children, feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of dealing for the rest of their lives with a disabled child. But does that give them a license to kill? What added a special edge to the situation is that, after Baby Jane Doe's case was publicized, many people rallied to her cause and offered to pay for her medical care and/or to adopt her.

So the final question became: how to you justify killing a disabled person despite the fact that responsible parties are willing to assume the burden of her care? When there is disagreement among interested and knowledgable parties, I would err on the side of life. Up to a point.

I hate to reduce such cases to a cash nexus, but at some point -- years in a coma are a good example -- that may become necessary. Sooner or later, whoever is paying the bills should have something to say about it too. I've not paid enough attention to the Schaivo case to know if Terri's parents (or outside groups) are willing to foot the bill, or if they assume Medicaid is going to pay forever on. If the latter, I suppose it is Jeb Bush's and the Florida legislature's decision to make.

What if a gay man was in a coma in CA where his life partner provides for his care, but his homophobic parent in AK decides he should be relocated and have no more contact with the sinner she hates?