Schiavo case vs millions of people, healthy, alive, with no health care

and cannot receive it or afford it.

Meanwhile, we have someone clearly in a permanent vegetative state that will die unless continually fed by a feeding tube.

Tell me what the other Americans who are very much alive and currently have no health care, who have to pay their bills and their taxes feel

about seeing someone who for all intents and purposes is not living, but is being used, exploited, fought over not for any truth or justice, but as a prop and/or distraction and is one more lie of hundreds being fed to Americans to chew on while they destroy our Democracy?

Just one more distraction from all the other lies.

From the lies of Iraq War, the lies of 9-11, the lies of election fraud, the environment, assaults on women and others who are not white, wealthy and priveleged. I could continue with many more lies that remain ever present under the surface, however are stil being overlooked and covered up by yet more lies.

This issue is not about Terri Schiavo. The more you obsess on it and get caught up in the drama, the more you, and I and anyone else who continues to indulge in such a farce are part of the problem.

We must keep reminding ourselves and each other to return to the issues that are of immediate priority and that matter most in the long run. We let them win every single time we take the bait at the end of the hook.

Here is a quote by a Bush aide that pretty clearly explains the Neocons agenda and tactics.

"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality-judiciously, as you will,
we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out.

We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

Americans in general, would be well advised to heed that quote before needlessly indulging in the mindless fighting and reacting to the circus of Terri Schiavo.

The people promoting this issue have no interest in the truth, or common decency but in shoving their beliefs down everyone else's throats and distracting Americans to yet another irrelevant situation that has no core element of truth to it.

We need to get back to the truth. And fight for it's presence in every situation.

I feel that were I in a similar situation, I would be dead about 15 years ago. No money, no hoopla, no problem.

I am being ignored to death. I don't have the money to pay for the tests that would confirm my disability, so I'm stuck.

I suppose I'll live as long as my money does, and I will not go quietly.

can't afford health insurance and make too much to receive a supplement from the county. Self diagnosing all the time, which adds further stress which inhibits health to begin with.

and my husband is ill with a couple of serious conditions. Like Bush would care.

in six months , would release a REPORT. hmmmm.

should have challenged theft on Nov 3, not studied it all for six months, after bush back in office for sure.

your OP quote is accurate .

and now I'm 'winging it'. I've heard in places like S.F. there are 'free clinics' for the public in dire straits...and now in CA AB 1627 recently requires hospitals to print their fees for services (ostensibly so the public can 'shop' around, so to speak).

Just trying to stay above water. Good article I saw in Businessweek last July "The Benefits Trap" shows that globalization is driving force behind companies dropping healthcare and pension benefits from multinational corporations ... so, they claim, in order to better compete (with their affiliates) in the third world.

Actually it is to line the corporate bottomline for Wall Street 'hit the numbers' and to line the CEO and corp officers pay packages.

an otherwise relatively responsible nation.

Im sorry to hear your news and sorry that anyone has to go without even the basic forms of healthcare these days.

I cannot believe how selfish and frankly, stupid so many of our leaders and wealthiest one percent of our nation have become. Apparently they lack the intelligence to see this will effect all of us in the not so long run.

It is not 'either/or'. Health care is a human right, regardless.

Where are their rights you so righteously declare?

You must have misunderstood what I wrote. I support universal health care.

we can afford universal health

fed reserve table L5 has the fact on wealth. bottom line

www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/current/accessible/l5.htm

bookmark that page.

NOTE Trillion, not billion. Same ballpark as the fed budget, trillions.

Thanks for your posts, and you are right on about the election reform too***

We could provide universal healthcare NOW with the money we spend cutting and pasting together our horribly expensive and inefficient system.

So next stroke or heartattack, and I die.

I have already had 1 of the former, and 2 of the latter.
Like Bush** gives a squat.

the millions who don't know where their next meal is coming from who would kill (sorry) for a feeding tube.

ellen fl

have once again inflicted on Americans at large.

Shameless, heartless cowards.

as they did during Hillary's failed attempt at healthcare reform. But DUers and progressives must get the word out about the OVERHEAD and ADMINISTRATIVE redundancies of the current FAILED FREEMARKET SYSTEM.

Economies of scale accompanied by a program to weed out corruption would make single payer viable. I see nothing wrong with the Canadian system or any in Europe that do the same thing. A true media report fairly showing what those systems are like would be a great public service. Too bad corporate media and corporate healthcare are in 'cahoots' to prevent that from happening.

But not able to afford anything else because of costs:(

Washington. Suppose MSM would cover it? After all, they're following the 50 Schiavo protesters around D.C.

returning from Iraq with Traumatic Brain Injury whose research funds were CUT TO -0- by the *dauphin who charged the American taxpayer $30,000 an HOUR to fly into D.C. for an ILLEGAL (X Amendment) Bill of Attainder for a BRAIN-DEAD woman in his brother's feifdom. :eyes:

due to preventable issues such as hunger and basic medicine.

gotta wonder how many would have been saved from just the last two weeks of expensive whoredom and grandstanding that's plagued our courts, media, and congress over this one case.

But utilitarian arguments are invalid unless they support conservative claims right? Then again I suppose that deontological arguments are only valid if they support conservative claims as well...at least in BFEE's world.

I lost a beloved uncle early last year.

Because he was a retired Naval officer he was entitled to a huge amount of medical care at public expense. He had a brain tumor, a glioblastoma, that was at the time of diagnosis considered only marginally treatable. Part of it was involving one of his optic nerves and other critical areas of the brain.

At that point his cognitive function was clearly impaired. His oldest son, who is a medical doctor and should have known better, took charge and insisted that every possible heroic measure be taken to keep him alive.

To make a long story short, he died less than one year after his diagnosis, suffering through surgery and chemotherapy, at the expense to the taxpayers of about half a million dollars and medical resources that could have been better spent helping other people. He never recovered any cognitive function, rather continued to spiral downward until he finally died in his sleep. Net result was a few extra months of far from good quality life.

Pretty much everyone except the oldest son insists that my uncle, had he been in full possession of his faculties, would have declined surgery. The family is not religious at all. It was just a matter of not wanting to let go.

People need to make their intentions known in writing in advance. That reduces but will not eliminate the potential for disputes and needless suffering.

No doubt letting go of loved ones is often harder for us than it is for them. Yet, the quality of life is what counts for anyone. Not the quantity of years in existence.

I hope through discussion about the Schiavo incident, there will be perception shifts and some honest looking at holding on to people, and even beloved pets, when they are gone and/or are not here with us anymore.

Thank you again for such an honest, insightful post.