When Rick Santorum made his statement that opening the door to sodomy in Texas would lead to gay marriage protection in the rest of the country, and then where would we go next, every single liberal was rushing to their blogs to journal the great logical fallacy of Rick Santorum using a slippery slope argument.

In fact, liberals love to dismiss arguments that even remotely resemble a slippery slope.

But man, they sure are dragging the oil out and lubing up the slopes this weekend.

Every single argument I’ve heard against saving Terri’s life boils down to “What’s next?” and then some complete leap and bullshit concern over what could happen if this is allowed to stand.

Amazing how the slopes aren’t as slippery when they’re holding the oil can.

Choose life.

We have protections for alleged criminals that guarantee a speedy trial.

We have organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that fight for every person that makes his way into a jail and may face the death penalty or torture.

We have an amendment guaranteeing due process, and another guaranteeing one to be free of cruel and unusual punishment.

We even have laws, in approximately 28 out of 50 states that say starving a dog is illegal.

Yet for all these supposed protections, Terry sits in a hospital bed while being starved while John Malvo, Scott Peterson, and numerous other convicted criminals sit on death row or in jail getting 3 squares, a weight room, library, cable television, and time outside for recreation, and in some cases conjugal visits.

So while Terri sits in a bed dying, a judge drags his feet.

You can write it down as of right now. Everyone involved will be dragging their feet from here on out, hoping that Terri Schiavo dies before they have to commit to a decision.

Choose life.

If you’re committed to posting once a day about Terri’s plight, I urge you to join Blogsforterri.com. Whatever resolution comes from the hearing today, I’m sure there’s going to be a long list of repercussions, so be prepared.

Even if it ends today, it isn’t over today.

Choose Life

Court Hearing For Terri Schiavo Scheduled For 3:00 PM ET :: News :: BlogsforTerri
- via email

There is a hearing scheduled in court today at 3:00 PM ET before Honorable Judge James D Whittemore in Tampa today for a restraining order to be placed on Judge Greer, Michael Schiavo and the Hospice of Florida Suncoast for denying Terri food and water.

Choose Life

The parents of Terri Schiavo asked a judge to reinsert the brain-damaged woman’s feeding tube Monday, following an extraordinary, daylong political fight that consumed both chambers of Congress and prompted the president to rush back to the White House.

An attorney for her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, arrived at federal district court in Tampa and filed a request for an emergency injunction to keep their daughter fed.

Source: AP via Yahoo

Choose life.

The list of Nays from this morning’s vote:

Baldwin
Berkley
Bishop (NY)
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Butterfield
Capuano
Cardin
Carnahan
Carson
Castle
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Conyers
Davis (FL)
Dent
Dicks
Doyle
Evans
Frank (MA)
Gutierrez
Hastings (FL)
Holt
Hoyer
Israel
Kaptur
Kennedy (RI)
Larson (CT)
Levin
Lewis (GA)
Matsui
McDermott
McKinney
Miller (NC)
Moran (VA)
Murtha
Nadler
Olver
Pallone
Pascrell
Payne
Price (NC)
Reichert
Rothman
Schiff
Schwartz (PA)
Scott (VA)
Shays
Spratt
Strickland
Thompson (MS)
Van Hollen
Visclosky
Wasserman Schultz
Watt
Weiner
Wexler
Wu

My favorite name on that list? Jim McDermott, who wanted protection and leniency for Saddam Hussein. Yet another example of how we care more about murderers and dictators than we do about innocent people.

Via Thomas.

Choose life.

“When a person’s intentions regarding whether to receive lifesaving treatment are unclear, the responsibility of a compassionate nation is to affirm that person’s right to life,” said House Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. “In our deeds and public actions, we must build a culture of life that welcomes and defends all human life.”

That really is it in a nutshell. It doesn’t get any clearer.

Now, it’s good to see the Democrats are once again fans of States Rights:

Many Democrats who opposed the bill said the congressional vote placed lawmakers in the middle of issues best left to state courts and family members.

“Today, congressional leaders are trying to appoint Congress as a judge and jury,” said Rep. Jim Davis (news, bio, voting record), D-Fla. “If we do not draw the line in the sand today, there is no limit to what democratic principles this Congress will ignore or what liberties they may trample on next.”

Slippery slope, anyone?

Source: Yahoo

Choose life.

Today the Senate and the House spoke clearly. Or at least some of them did.

They chose life.

I’ve never been prouder to be a Republican. I almost cried when they read that the measure was passed.

We aren’t out of the woods yet, but there’s a path now, and we’re finally on it.

Michael Schiavo is either a liar or an idiot.

All along he’s said that Terri didn’t want to be kept alive by artificial means. He’s been fighting for this for umpteen years.

Witness, knowing this, a snippet of an interview with Larry King on Friday:

KING: Have you had any contact with the family today? This is a sad day all the way around, Michael. We know of your dispute.

M. SCHIAVO: I’ve had no contact with them.

KING: No contact at all?

M. SCHIAVO: No.

KING: Do you understand how they feel?

M. SCHIAVO: Yes, I do. But this is not about them, it’s about Terri. And I’ve also said that in court. We didn’t know what Terri wanted, but this is what we want…

KING: You’re not — it didn’t cost you anything. This is not something where you’re looking to save money?

M. SCHIAVO: No. There’s no money involved. We need to move on from that question. That question has been asked me 50 million times. There is no money!

What we want?

We who?

And after all these years, you’re now saying you don’t know what Terri wanted?!

This is the man everyone seems to be entrusting Terri’s decision-making with. Could someone drag one of those stupid judges out of his bed for five minutes and show him this transcript and ask the judge to have Schiavo reconcile his perpetual fight based on what he knew versus his comment about not knowing?

Keep that in mind the next time you want to preach to me about a husband making decisions for his wife.

(Thanks to Slobokan for the heads up)

Choose life.

Let’s not mince words.

We know Terri Schiavo responds to visual stimulus. We have video of her tracking a balloon around the room.

We know she’s aware of who’s in the room with her because we have video of her smiling at her mom when she visited.

Now we know that as late as Friday, Terri Schiavo was trying to communicate with her dad who was in the room with her. We know this because now we have audio of it. (Careful with the audio, the levels are all over the place)

Let’s review what a persistent vegitative state is:

(a) The absence of voluntary action or cognitive behavior of ANY kind.
(b) An inability to communicate or interact purposefully with the environment.

How much more proof do you need that neither of those conditions apply to Terri?

Choose life.

If Terri Schiavo had a Living Will, the decision on what should happen to her and whether or not her treatment should be stopped would be a simple one. Unfortunately, since Terri did not have either a Power of Attorney or a Living Will, it left who determines her condition up in the air. Is it her husband who’s already shacking up? Is it her mom and dad who want to protect their daughter?

While Michael Schiavo is making all the decisions and the court is just rubberstamping them, the Schindler family, Terri’s parents, are fighting for a say in the life and death of their daughter.

You can prevent such a thing from happening if you are in an accident or incapactitated with two documents, both of which are easily created using online services (or a lawyer if your situation is more complicated).

The first document is a Living Will, otherwise known as an Advance Heatlh Care Directive. According to legacywriter.com, one of the leading online will preparation services, a Living Will is the following:

A Living Will (also known as an Advanced Health Care Directive) is a document that lets you decide whether you would like to be kept on artificial life support if you are ever permanently unconscious or otherwise dying and unable to speak for yourself. For example, if medical treatment would only prolong your death, you may specify that treatment be halted.

In Terri’s case, the largest debate is whether or not she would “want to live like that,” a bone of contention between her family and her “husband.” A Living Will clearly states the patient’s wishes and would eliminate any legal wrangling, as you would make this decision long before anything actually happened.

A second document, known as a Power of Attorney, allows someone to make legal decisions for you:

A Power of Attorney is a document that gives someone you trust the legal authority to act for you in the financial matters that you choose. For instance, if you are away on a long vacation or if you become mentally unable, you may need a power of attorney in place so that someone can take care of your financial matters.

As an example, in this case, if Terri had a power of attorney on file delegating authority to Michael, and owned the house, Michael could sell the house as her delegate (Note, that this is not a current battle in the courts, I’m only using hypotheticals).

Both of these documents are extremely important, as evidenced by the struggle in Flordia to keep Terri alive. In order to save your family from the burden of making uninformed decisions about your health, please either check out an online service like Legacy Writer or speak with your attorney. No one should have to debate your wishes in court if you’re unable to.

Yahoo! News - Schiavo Kin Wants Feeding Tube Reinserted

“Tom DeLay should be ashamed of himself,” Michael Schiavo told CNN. “He’s sitting up there, making comments and bashing people. He has one side of the case. … This is his cause. He’s found a cause to hide behind, to lighten the load of his other problems.”

One side of the story?

This coming from a guy who barred the woman’s family from the hospice she was staying in, refused physical therapy and an MRI when she was first hospitalized, sent her to a hospital different than the one that was recommended for treatment. The video of her responding to her parents, giggling and smiling was barred from court as prejudicial.

How many sides of the story did the court hear?

A cause to hide behind?

How many people know that almost immediately after Terri Schiavo collapsed in her home, Michael was shacking up with someone else? And how many people know that he already has a child with that other woman? And how many people know that $357,000 of Terri’s treatment and care fund has been used by Michael Schiavo to pay for his lawyer and fight to end her life?

The court only got one side of the story, as is the public. This isn’t just a “right-to-die” case, this is about a husband whose actions thus far have indicated that he’s very much interested in ending his wife’s life, contrary to the myriad of family members who have spoken to the contrary.

This is about a man whose wife is alive and responsive in a hospital bed and who is actively fighting to have her starved to death, yet all we hear is the sterilized news version of the story filled with lies and misconceptions, and half-truths. Terri is painted as a hopeless vegetable, and Michael is painted as the long suffering husband desperately trying to carry out his wife’s wishes.

Every once in awhile a story leaks about the shady kind of stuff that Michael is up to and the questionable decisions he has made in the past, but let’s not kid ourselves about which side of the story is not being heard.

Choose life.

As a reminder, Insignificant Thoughts is on strike until Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube is restored and the torture of a living breathing human being stops. No more posting about anything but the Terri Schiavo story until it is resolved one way or the other.

If you would like to join the strike, download the graphic and leave a comment here so you can be properly linked.

Thank you,
Vincent M. Ferrari

Blogs Joining The Strike:

Slobokan’s Site o’ Schtuff
Insignificant Thoughts
Seeking Sanity
Common Sense Runs Wild
What Attitude Problem
The “Dutch Princess” Revealed…

Congress Announces Deal in Schiavo Case
48 minutes ago Politics - U. S. Congress
By SIOBHAN McDONOUGH, Associated Press Writer

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - Congressional leaders said Saturday they reached a compromise that would call on federal courts to decide Terri Schiavo’s fate, as emotions swelled outside the hospice where the brain-damaged woman spent her second day without a feeding tube.

Four protesters were arrested after they symbolically tried to smuggle bread and water to Schiavo, and her mother pleaded for the 41-year-old woman’s life.

“We laugh together, we cry together, we smile together, we talk together,” Mary Schindler told reporters as supporters maintained a vigil outside the hospice where her daughter is cared for. “Please, please, please save my little girl.”

Congressional leaders announced a compromise that would allow the brain-damaged woman’s case to be reviewed by federal courts that could restore her feeding tube. The legislation may be considered as early as Sunday, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said.

“We should investigate every avenue before we take the life of a living human being,” said DeLay, R-Texas. “That’s the very least we can do for her.”

The measure would effectively take Schiavo’s fate out of Florida state courts, where judges ordered the feeding tube removed on Friday, and allow Schiavo’s parents to take their case to a federal judge. DeLay said that would likely mean restoration of the feeding tube “for as long as this appeal endures.”

There is hope, after all.

Choose life.

Choose life.

In case you don’t know the whole story, you can find the complete timeline of the Terri Schiavo story here.

Make note of how many treatments, therapies, and such were refused by her “husband.”

Also make note of how the “husband” treated Terri’s blood family.

Then, after reading that timeline, come back here and tell me there isn’t something wrong with this story.

Choose life.

Just remember…

This is torture:

Putting an Iraqi on a box with a hood on his head when he’s in no actual danger to extract information is torture. Leaving Terri Schiavo without food or water until she dies is not.

If you don’t think we have some amazingly distorted priorities in this country, you’re just lost, and hopelessly so.

Choose life.

According to Terrisfight.org, Michael Schiavo’s attorney has received more money than anyone else from a fund that was supposed to pay for Terri’s care that only has $50,000 left in it?

Choose life.

MYTH: This is just a family battle over money.
FACT: In 1992, Terri was awarded nearly one million dollars by a malpractice jury and an out-of-court malpractice settlement which was designated for future medical expenses. Of these funds, less than $50,000 remains today. The financial records revealing how Terri’s medical fund money is managed are SEALED from inspection. Court records, however, show that Judge Greer has approved the spending down of Terri’s medical fund on Schiavo’s attorney’s fees - though it was expressly awarded to Terri for her medical care. Schiavo’s primary attorney, George Felos, has received upwards of $400,000 dollars since Schiavo hired him. This same attorney, at the expense of Terri’s medical fund, publicly likened Terri to a “houseplant” and has used Terri’s case on national television to promote his newly published book.

Choose life.

[Terri] Schiavo, 41, could linger one to two weeks, provided no one intercedes and gets the tube reinserted — something that has happened twice before.

Outside the hospice, the Rev. Patrick Mahoney (search ) of the Christian Defense Coalition said activists planned to try to enter the hospice Saturday morning “to try to give Terri a cup of water.”

But Schiavo’s husband said removing the tube was what Terri wanted. He was at her side shortly after the tube was removed at mid-afternoon.

“It felt like some peace was happening for Terri,” Michael Schiavo told NBC’s “Today” on Saturday. “And I felt like she was finally going to get what she wants, and be at peace and be with the Lord.”

There’s some piece happening here, alright. The peace that Michael knows that he’ll never have to get a divorce and can finally marry his new girlfriend who he had a kid with immediately after the accident.

I’ll bet it’s a really peaceful day for Mikey.

Choose life.