Burnt Orange Report

Pray for him to repent and give up his unethical ways, perhaps. That seems just (though perhaps not what that site meant).

Didn't think it deserved an extra post, but I wanted to counter the dig against those of us who want to see Terri Schiavo live.

Everyone talks about how great a guy Michael Schiavo is for fighting for his wife's dignity, etc. Thing is, Terri became brain damaged after her heart stopped beating in February of 1990. From February 1990 until early 1993, Michael Schiavo and Terri's parents were on the same page- he put her into various rehabilitation programs. He never mentioned her opposition to "life support" until AFTER she was awarded $1.65 million in damages meant for her treatment. There was never a Do Not Resuccitate order in her files until February 1993- 3 years after her accident.

So if she actually had indicated that she didn't want to be kept alive, why did Michael pursue various lawsuits to raise money for her treatment? Why didn't he push for her to be allowed to die in 1990? In fact, he pursued treatments and kept her on life support for three years and only changed his tone when a million and change was on the table. So either he was expressly violating her wishes for three years and then changed his mind, he had forgotten about it until 3 years later or he came up with the ruse to get at her money. Either way, he has been anything but consistent and those of you who celebrate him need to watch out.

The truth of the matter is that Terri Schiavo has had almost no therapy since the early nineties, and when she was getting it she was improving. She responds to stimulus and there is quite a bit of argument between various experts as to whether or not she is in a PVS. When we aren't sure, we should err on the side of life and we certainly must pursue therapy and treatment before we starve a woman to death.

On DeLay, he's a crook and a scumbag but even a broken clock is right twice a day. I detest having to look to Tom DeLay for leadership when Democrats are supposed to be the ones who fight for people who can't fight for themselves. If she were a murderer we would argue that there needs to be proof beyond a reasonable doubt before we took her life in what would be a relatively quick and painless way. As it stands, we are going to starve a woman to death without proving beyond a reasonable doubt that she is in fact a) PVS and b) that she wishes to die. It is despicable and someone has to do something. God bless the Democrats who fought for her cause such as Harry Reid.

One last thing (I have to throw in a dig at the GOP here), Schiavo was given that $1.65 million and her husband another $600,000 in a malpractice suit. The limited treatment she has received over the last 12 years came from that suit, money that tort-reforming Republicans would have witheld from her if they had their way. As it stands, they want to keep her alive but poor- Harry Reid and other good Democrats want her alive and protected.

Heh. This man is many things, but he does not act like any christian I've ever known.

Furthermore, there are an awful lot of allegations coming up about this man. To quote something made popular during the Clinton years, "Where there's smoke, there's fire."

Indeed. Clinton did alot of dubious things, thus some allegations were crap while others had some truth. Given the number of allegations against DeLay, I would suspect the same is true here too.

Have faith your sins will find you Rep. DeLay. Of which it would appear you have many.

The critical issue with Schiavo is not WHAT decision should be made, but WHO should make that decision.

Whatever ones feelings on the matter of euthanasia, these very difficult decisions about close family matters should best be made by those closest to the one involved. This is not Harry Reid nor Tom Delay nor anyone other than Tery Schiavo's family.

Within her family, ONE person ultimately has to be able to make a decision. Historically, and with a mountain of precedent, for married persons, the decision is vested in the spouse. Such decision making is part of what it means to get married - it is one of the bundle of rights & obligations that collectively form a marriage. When Terry's father "gave away" his daughter's hand for marriage, he "gave away" the right to make these decisions for her.

If Terry's husband made the opposite decision, it should be respected just as equally. He has made a decision, we who are not involved should not second guess it. We should reserve our life v. death decision-making for when such events, G-d forbid, happen to our own spouses, parents, children, etc.

Oh by the way, the ca. $2.5 million awarded to the Schiavos is VERY little when your consider the severity of injuries, the VERY expensive cost of medical support, and that much of that money went to finance the litigation (expert witnesses do not come cheap and the lawyers rightfully earned their fee too, ca. a third of it, for without the lawyers, the Schiavo's would have reeived nothing).

This is important for two reasons. First, when you deduct lawyers & expert fees, I am sure the money that the Schiavos got for treatment was more like $850,000, which would EASILY be "eaten up" in just a few years of treatment. So, when one considers the figures, one cannot credibly claim that Mr. Schiavo's motive is mere greed and to "steal" his wife's money. The second point is that California has caps on damages in med mal cases, which is probably the main reason why the Schiavos were so grossly undercompensated. How ironic that this victim of Republican-led tort-reform becomes a poster-child, not for undoing the evils of tort-reform, but of the right wing's "right to life" movement, which is little more than a ruse to get working class people to vote Republican, so that the Republicans can have the numbers to enact policies that further harm working class people, such as tort-reform. Also, how ironic, that some good Democrats, e.g. Harry Reid & his supppoters on this issue, fall for the trap, hook, line & sinker.

Dobbs, do you actually think out your posts yourself, or do you just copy and paste them from emails sent to you by your pro-forced medical care, anti-freedom, anti-marriage overlords?

You're no Democrat. You have no respect for personal liberty, no respect for freedom, no respect for the medical community, no respect for anything but your own bullshit religious imperatives. It's pretty embarrassing that this, one of the few progressive blogs in and about Texas, features so prominently a right-wing Republican in a donkey suit.

Much has been made that Terri Schiavo's husband is a greedy bastard who has met another woman and had kids with HER...and that's why he wants Terri to die. I beg to differ. For those 3 years when Michael and the parents were on the same page, there was still hope in their lives that she could recover. After three years with so little improvement, it probably became obvious that Terri was not going to recover and would stay in her current state for the rest of her life. Before this, there was no reason to put an DNR order or to mention Terri's wishes to die. There was still hope in the minds of everyone that maybe she could recover. But those hopes died, and that is when her wishes came into effect.

As for the money, Michael has been offered much more (I read $3M somewhere) to divorce Terri and let her parents take over. He has refused this and other offers to go away. So what if he moved on? He knew his wife was gone in every important aspect. The things that made Terri a vital person were gone. The only thing left was a shell. I think he refused to divorce her and fought for her right to die is to honor her wishes. I can think of no other reason a man would put himself through the ringer like this and be maligned nationally for a "payout" of less than $50,000 which is all that is left of the malpractice award.

Thank God the federal judge had the sense to end this nonsense. I just wonder what Delay, Bush, and company will do now. I sense a special law that makes taking Terri off life support a federal crime. I hope I'm wrong though.

Andrew, a lot of us have a problem with your latest posts, and it's not for the beliefs. It's because you have been taking right wing talking points hook line and sinker and regurgitating them unabridged.

The Right wing scum lie as often as we breath.

Here are the lies:

* He's in it for the money. There's none left, and he has spent nothing on himself.

* She responds. She doesn't. The brain is not damaged, it's gone, at least the cerebral cortex.

* Abuse: No evidence AT ALL.

* Murder: No evidence AT ALL.

* Heart failure being rare in a 26 year old: False. It's common from electrolyte imbalances with eating disorders, and she had Bulimia Nervosa.

* Medical Doctors have said that there is a realistic chance for recovery: False. They have gotten "experts", largely bought and paid for by the right wing, to diagnose on the basis of 4 minutes of video taken from a 4 hour tape. What's more, the leading doctor (Hammesfahr) is a quack, who falsely claimed a nobel prize nomination, been sanctioned by the Florida board of medicine, and is prominently featured on quackwatch.org

What is clear is that the Shindlers HATE Michael Schiavo, not because they disagree on treatment, but because they have lied and said, or implied, or whispered loudly, that he is a wife abuser and a murderer.

Let's make this clear, when you see the assertions of the wingers, you have to confirm every word, including the "and" and the "the".

That you are refusing to do so, and that with evidence of the lie you continue to spew, makes you either a liar, or a stooge of the liars.

It turns out that the Shindlers demanded "their cut" of the settlement.

Settlement came down two weeks before they stopped speaking to each other by about two weeks.

Read your latest post Andrew.

I think that I might have been hard on you above.

It just irks me when people believe that any RW talking points are true without checking EVERYTHING.

It's how they seized the conversation in the US.

Amazing how everyone has comments about things they don't really know or have not taken the time to check on.

So because Terry can no longer perform as a wife after 3 years of "No improvement" he should be allowed to take her life, is that the new basis for euthansia now ?

Is it not ironic that the Pope now has to have a feeding tube. So since he can't speak to us from his window any longer and perform his "duty" there, should we remove his tube and let him die also ?

This country that was founded on Christian beliefs, which is another thing everyone is forgetting, is losing its soul. And if you take the time to look deep in your hearts (if you still have one) you would see it. Democrat or Republican....